So, now that Rise of Flight is on Steam...

[Nefaro]

I can't believe I mixed up ailerons and elevators...  >:( Clearly I've been away from flight sims for waaaaaaay too long.

Nef, I have a theory that for twitchy aircraft it's better not to focus on the enemy, i.e. don't keep your head locked on the enemy plane, but mostly watch where you're flying with occasional head movements (via controls or IR or whatever) to check what the enemy is doing.

Like in real life: first, fly the plane. When you're good enough at that you'll naturally feel comfortable not looking where you're going (but extrapolating from where you're looking at), then keep track of the enemy with occasional lookbacks to your flight path. (Reversing the original idea.)

But in any case, don't lock on an enemy unless he's in the direction you're trying to fly. If you're trying to fly left to do a maneuver to eat up some space/speed as part of an S-curve to bring your enemy in front of you or otherwise break his tailing, don't track your enemy right or behind you, look ahead with occasional checks. But if your enemy is to the left and you're trying to catch up by flying to the left, then track the enemy if you've learned the plane's quirks enough to avoid problems doing so.

That's what I've currently been doing, out of necessity.   I wouldn't mind at all, but I lose sight of the enemy aircraft more often than I'd like.  Especially if I'm doing something such as a displacement roll - up, out, over, and back in.  Luckily the little red arrows still point out the general direction he's in while you're looking forward.  That still doesn't help you see where he's doing, which is quite handy.

I've thought about using the Padlock anyway, despite having TrackIR, just so I can quickly snap my view on him and then back to the TrackIR.  I tend to have problems looking towards my rear while doing anything more than lazy flat turns, with TrackIR, just because my head is partially turned while I'm trying to work the joystick all over and it gets to be a bit disorienting while trying to juggle so much without any sense of motion that you would normally rely on.   

There are some possible issues with combining Padlock and TrackIR.  For one, I'm not sure how well Padlock will behave while my TrackIR is running, if it does at all.  It should be fine, since it's technically locked in place on the target but it could also cause issues when I turn it back off - maybe just some disorientation from switching back to head movement controls.  The other is that I'm not even sure if it's a toggle, or if I have to hit a different view key to turn it back over to normal view.  Both should be fine, as long as Padlock works while TIR is on.  Best of both worlds!  Yet more tweaking in hopes I can get it just how we wantss it.   

[JasonPratt]

I don't remember having such problems keeping track of enemies back when I was playing Red Baron (1) on my first PC.

[Nefaro]

Does anyone know if there's a regularly populated ROF multi-player server that doesn't run with fuel mixture and manual radiator controls on?

Was thinking of getting ROF all mapped out and relearned in order to do some multi-player.  Probably not as big of a deal if I put the time into mapping & learning it, but I'd rather concentrate on the rest.  Realistic flight models and all that jazz are what I want.. just not having to jockey an extra lever or two while flying, since I'd have to use the keyboard for them.  As if I need yet more key & joystick remapping.  Such engine management is ZzzzZ anyway, so I normally turn it off. 

Is there such an MP server?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yes. 

New Wings: Novice Battlegrounds.

[Dolan50]

I spent 3 hours downloading the demo and then found out I needed a joystick to play the game. Bummer!

Not a big flight sim fan but did like what it looked like for the WW1 aerial combat and was hoping it was more arcade like War Thunder.  Maybe one day I'll break down and purchase a joystick when I have some real time to invest in learning to fly planes.

[Tuna]

Does anyone know if there's a regularly populated ROF multi-player server that doesn't run with fuel mixture and manual radiator controls on?

Was thinking of getting ROF all mapped out and relearned in order to do some multi-player.  Probably not as big of a deal if I put the time into mapping & learning it, but I'd rather concentrate on the rest.  Realistic flight models and all that jazz are what I want.. just not having to jockey an extra lever or two while flying, since I'd have to use the keyboard for them.  As if I need yet more key & joystick remapping.  Such engine management is ZzzzZ anyway, so I normally turn it off. 

Is there such an MP server?

IF a plane has a radiator, you can probably just safely open it all the way and you'd be safe for the flight... Though in a long dive you're supposed to close it.. though if we're on a long dive, we're usually dying anyways...

Mixture just go to the top and drop it a notch or two... if you go way up, then you can gradually drop it more, listen to the sound of the engine..

But they are both not something you really need to 'worry' about during a fight, as long as the Radiator is open  ;).

One thing I do like on the add ons is the thermometers you can be reassured when you see you're not in the red...

Can Steam Players go on the same servers as non Steam?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Only thing I usually have problems with exceeding engine RPMs and burning out the motor. 

[Tuna]

Only thing I usually have problems with exceeding engine RPMs and burning out the motor.

Yeah same here, that is something you have to pay attention to!

[Toonces]

Just a pro-tip for fuel and radiator:

For the radiator, check 6 and look at your smoke.  If there is a ton of white smoke coming out, you need to adjust up or down. 

For mixture, I think you go full rich low, and lean up high.  But if you just pick something in the middle you're probably doing ok.

Don't sweat it too much. 

[Nefaro]

Just a pro-tip for fuel and radiator:

For the radiator, check 6 and look at your smoke.  If there is a ton of white smoke coming out, you need to adjust up or down. 

For mixture, I think you go full rich low, and lean up high.  But if you just pick something in the middle you're probably doing ok.

Don't sweat it too much.

Yeah, you wanna go richer at lower altitudes since there is more oxygen down low (so it doesn't need as much mixed in) and leaner at higher altitudes.  The devil is probably in the fine adjustments though.

Not sure about the details of manual radiator handling other than making sure you don't let the temperature get too high.  I think that if it gets low, however, your engine isn't being as efficient.  Haven't heard the smoke suggestion before.. interesting.

My problem with doing this stuff is that I can be OCD about such things, so it will drive me absolutely nuts.  If I enable these options, I will constantly obsess about it.  Then it will get frustrating because I can't ever "get it just right" at any one moment and the adjustments will never feel fine enough for my tastes.  I'm not too worried about learning it (although having to tweak yet more bindings & such is never welcome) but would like to save myself the obsession, at least until everything else is second nature.

Yes. 

New Wings: Novice Battlegrounds.

Thanks SDR!  Sounds like a good place to start.

I've not played ROF since last year, especially since getting sucked into the WOFF single-player campaign.  But I would like to start being shot at by human opponents on occasion.  So I'll have to get all my settings & hardware set up on my newer computer and get back up to speed.  Good to know I can probably get into it faster with this recommendation.

[TacticalWargames]

As a single player simmer I'd take WOFF any day. ROF is the best choice for those who want to multi play though.

[Nefaro]

As a single player simmer I'd take WOFF any day. ROF is the best choice for those who want to multi play though.

Absolutely.

I'll probably have a hard time just firing up ROF, to get reacquainted, because I so enjoy the single-player campaign in WOFF.  But if I plan to do some multi-player flying, I'll have to do it sometime.

Was actually just installing the latest DX9 and News mod for WOFF so I'll probably be sucked into that for awhile again.

[Father Ted]

Yes. 

New Wings: Novice Battlegrounds.

I would however say that the only servers with  reasonable numbers are Flying Circus and NW: Wargrounds (or Syndicate).  As others have pointed out, the mixture/radiator thing is pretty straightforward, so it's worth giving it a go if you want to fly on populated servers.

[Nefaro]

Played with Mixture and Radiator controls on this evening.  Mixture wasn't a big deal thus far, especially since you don't often end up flying at high altitudes in ROF.  I just turned it down a few notches after start-up and only needed a very minor adjustment once when I did get a little extra altitude, and that was only to squeeze a slight bit of extra RPMs out. 

As for using the radiator, I dunno yet.  I mostly only flew allied planes tonight, and I didn't notice any radiator controls with them.  So I just made sure I used the command for opening the radiator before I started up and left it.  I did fly an Albatros D.III but also didn't notice the lever move when I opened it so *shrug*.  The auto mixture and auto radiator stuff was turned off in the mission settings so I dunno what was up with the radiator lever not working on that one.

[Grim.Reaper]

For those pilots out there looking to expand their content...received this in email today....50% sale.

Dear Pilots,
A big anniversary for Rise of Flight is getting closer and closer as we're about to celebrate 5 years since the day our project was released on the global market. That's quite an achievement for our plucky little WWI sim!

The fun of flying wing-to-wing and with our unique WWI atmosphere is still there! The anniversary day is May 7th, but we are going to start the celebration a little early. So we're launching a big 50% sale for all of the ROF store content. As always it's a great opportunity to get the planes and modifications you want most and to invite your fellow flight sim lovers to join the game's universe while it's so affordable.

The sale will last for 14 days (from April 25th till May 8th) and will cover both riseofflight.com and Steam.

Check out the SALE prices now and join the BIG anniversary sale in Rise of Flight.
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