BF1943: Plane tips

[Orz]

I note that there's a somewhat-prevalent 1943 community here, and some frustration with aircraft. I don't claim to be a whiz, but I'm usually at the top of the rounds I play when I stick to aircraft, so I must be doing something right. Here are some pointers I've picked up from a fair amount of time in the cockpit:


Rule 1, and this cannot be overstated, is always use cockpit view. Never use chase plane view. Yes, you lose some peripheral vision, but the extra 'zoom' you gain is by far the most important factor. The cowling is huge, but after a while, you will not notice it.


Constantly be pressing 'down' on the D-pad to look behind you. This is a critical way of seeing not only if an enemy fighter is behind you, but giving you situational awareness for your next pass. You should be climbing, with your plane rolled close to 90 degrees. This will allow a greater field of view of the ground, without your wings blocking as much.


When turning, jam the rudder in the direction of the turn, while countering it with aileron in the opposite direction. You will turn vastly faster, especially at >50% throttle.


It is nearly impossible to stall these aircraft. You can cut off an enemy's turn and strafe them with obscenely low-speed maneuvering.


When strafing ground troops, be slightly higher than the terrain you are aiming at. With minimal throttle, you can crawl level-nosed across the sky at a snail's pace, giving you ample time to line up shots and pick off troops. You have more time than you think to jam the throttle and avoid a crash.


Bombs are extremely tough to master. An enemy soldier can be inside the explosion special effect and be unscathed. Try flying level at a consistent altitude, dropping bombs, and seeing where they land with reverse chase view. Measure where on the propeller (in cockpit view) your target was when you dropped the bombs. Use that as your guide to bracket your adjustments. The key is flying at a consistent altitude, as using full throttle and level flight guarantees those will be constants.


Avoid the enemy carrier. It seems like easy pickings for free kills, but it's just wrong. That, and the twin AA can rightfully blast you out of the sky.


Speaking of AA, it is obscenely deadly. If you've taken 2 hits, and don't know from where, you're probably going to take a couple more and be killed. Diving is your only chance. Head for the earth, and try to get below the depression of their guns, or behind some obstacle. Go back to your carrier/base, fly at a snail's pace over the runway to repair. Get far away from the AA, line it up, and open fire at just beyond their range. You can take them out if you keep level enough.


Your guns are supremely powerful and can destroy any vehicle but a tank. They are especially devastating against troop transport boats. Don't let their .50 cals intimidate you, unless a pair or more boats are in tight formation. In the opening minute, sinking a transport can tip the early game in your favour, and give you many kills. The other fighters will probably try to attack you head-on, just fly past them, line up the enemy transport, take one out, then pull away to deal with the fighters.


Your worst threats are persistent AA, followed by talented fighter opposition. Your greatest asset is the gross incompetence of 99% of fighter pilots leading to the ground forces pretty much ignoring you until you've racked up big kills. Once they start fearing you and manning AA more, you've given your ground forces that many fewer opponents to deal with as they're splitting their attention.


Happy flying!

[n00bIEwaN007]

You are dead on with all of this. My biggest problem in flying, especially in Coral Sea, is the crowding and 'stealing of kills'. These usually go hand in hand with somebody being bumped by your own team and getting hit with a 'suicide -10'. That really pisses me off since I have taken the time to learn to fly the plane, line up my shots and take my time. The best advice I heard over the mic's was someone saying slow and low is the key. I tried it. My kills went up. Other than that, loving the game. Never played 1942 or any of the BF series online but this is now my gateway...gotta have more more more.

Thanks for the tips, I'll be using them. Hope to see you there.

n00bIEwaN007

[pwnophobia]

cool! Thanks for the tips.

When turning, jam the rudder in the direction of the turn, while countering it with aileron in the opposite direction. You will turn vastly faster, especially at >50% throttle.

I couldn't even figure out how to turn left or right in the airplane granted I was only in it for a few seconds before being shot down. If I want to take a left am I holding the left stick left and the right stick right?

[Orz]

You are dead on with all of this. My biggest problem in flying, especially in Coral Sea, is the crowding and 'stealing of kills'. These usually go hand in hand with somebody being bumped by your own team and getting hit with a 'suicide -10'. That really pisses me off since I have taken the time to learn to fly the plane, line up my shots and take my time. The best advice I heard over the mic's was someone saying slow and low is the key. I tried it. My kills went up. Other than that, loving the game. Never played 1942 or any of the BF series online but this is now my gateway...gotta have more more more.

Thanks for the tips, I'll be using them. Hope to see you there.


Speed and altitude are situational. You climb so fast that being low when going into a dogfight isn't a death sentence like in other games. Being low also may help evade AA.

You're given a little 'grace' with collisions. If you collide with an enemy, it may only be fatal to one of you, and it seems not necessarily the one with the most health. It almost seems that trying to take evasive action is factored in, and if you try to avoid a collision you may survive it with little to no damage while the other guy explodes. If you survive, whether it's because an enemy exploded or an ally hit you, you are momentarily invincible to colliding with terrain. I've been bumped into mountains, into the carrier island, and even thrown so far into the ocean the whole map turns black, and somehow made it out alive.

[Orz]

I couldn't even figure out how to turn left or right in the airplane granted I was only in it for a few seconds before being shot down. If I want to take a left am I holding the left stick left and the right stick right?

There are a couple of methods to achieve a turn. Your left stick controls your rudder (left - right on the left stick) while your right stick controls ailerons (rolling) and elevator (pitching the nose up or down). The most stable, but slowest method to turn is to fly level and use the rudder. This is great for lining up precision shots, not so great for fast dogfight turns.

For faster turns, you want to roll your aircraft in the direction you want to turn. This is 'banking'. The steeper the bank, the faster you will turn when you apply up on the elevator. You don't need to worry about stalling in this game, so you can tilt 90 degrees and tilt the nose up to turn as fast as you want.

With practice, you can turn and alter your altitude at the same time. Try using different combinations of banking, raising the nose, and rudder. Turning with the rudder while banking and applying aileron in the opposite direction seems to be the fastest turning method I've uncovered, but experiment!

[Thanatosis]

With your tips I've become a 300% better pilot.

I've also found that if you let go of forcing yourself to fly right-side up constantly you can make much more effect moves and sometimes confuse pursuers. I spent about 30 minutes practicing flying in different awkward positions and can boast full effectiveness even while flying completely upside down.



A tip of my own: Don't ever bother taking out the planes on the carriers. There is zero point and even if you damage it the plane will regenerate its health while it taxis down the planks before take off. I can't believe the entire enemy squadron just flew around our carriers trying to prevent us from taking off and not defending the capture point. Needless to say, they lost.

[Shela Monster]

I found inverting the Y axis made flying much easier for me.
After playing other flying games for years, I couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time.

Fixed that little issue last night! :p

~Shela Monster

[Orz]

A tip of my own: Don't ever bother taking out the planes on the carriers. There is zero point and even if you damage it the plane will regenerate its health while it taxis down the planks before take off. I can't believe the entire enemy squadron just flew around our carriers trying to prevent us from taking off and not defending the capture point. Needless to say, they lost.

Happy to help!

If you have a friend in a game with carriers (especially the Iwo Jima map) you can team up to be a nightmare to enemy fighters. One of you mans a plane, while the other stations themselves in an AA turret on the carrier. Every time a fighter looks at you, make like semi-easy prey fleeing in the general direction of the carrier. Your friend can blast him out of the sky without hardly breaking a sweat as he lines you up.

It works so well, so often, that I've had pub gamers I hadn't even spoken to providing me cover spontaneously through entire matches, because I led so many kills to them. They get kills, and I get a largely plane-free sky for long stretches of time.

[Nachokoolaid]

I found inverting the Y axis made flying much easier for me.
After playing other flying games for years, I couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time.

Fixed that little issue last night! :p

~Shela Monster

How do you invert it? I couldn't figure it out without invert my controls for my troop on the ground as well, and that sucks.

[Orz]

How do you invert it? I couldn't figure it out without invert my controls for my troop on the ground as well, and that sucks.

Help & Options -> Controls -> Vertical Fly -> Invert Axis

'Vertical Look' on the same screen will change the Y-axis for the rest of the game mechanics.

[IveGotThatWiperFluid]

Nice post. Anyone who is having difficulty should take those tips to heart.

I've done my fair share of "kill stealing" on Coral Sea, but I figure that if I have time to get into position and gun down an enemy that they're already following and shooting at, then the kill is mine and they should be happy for the assist. Everyone gets more kills and dies less the faster your team shoots down enemy planes. Additionally, the longer you play the "slowly follow behind the enemy circling and shooting" game the more likely another enemy will drop in and kill you. Seriously: "kill stealing" is good for the whole team.

I must say that the most infuriating thing about the game is getting bumped by a teammate and having your view go all crazy until it shows you headed face-first into a mountain or the ground. I've never bumped into a friendly that I could see on my screen so I'm not sure how this happens so often.

While strafing the enemy carriers will usually get you killed, if you can kill people trying to take off you've not only forced them to respawn again but also the plane (which can take a long time), and you've maybe taken another enemy out of the game by forcing them to use the AA guns instead of taking objectives or taking a plane. If they don't see you coming you can usually get in a pass or two before anyone jumps into an AA gun.

[Second Century]

I note that there's a somewhat-prevalent 1943 community here, and some frustration with aircraft. I don't claim to be a whiz, but I'm usually at the top of the rounds I play when I stick to aircraft, so I must be doing something right.

How do you parachute out of a plane? Every time I bail -- even over the ocean -- I end up dying. :(

[pwnophobia]

How do you parachute out of a plane? Every time I bail -- even over the ocean -- I end up dying. :(

B to jump out. X to open the parachute and then hold A to glide to down.

[Second Century]

Why drive to the next flag pole when you can fly? ;)

Thanks for the tip!

[Thanatosis]

Why drive to the next flag pole when you can fly? ;)

Thanks for the tip!Because you assholes that jack the planes at the start of the match to only bail out once you are over a sweet spot are fucking retarded. Let someone who will use them for what they meant and stick to riding bitch in someone else's jeep.

[Second Century]

Because you assholes that jack the planes at the start of the match to only bail out once you are over a sweet spot are fucking retarded. Let someone who will use them for what they meant and stick to riding bitch in someone else's jeep.

You and I have two different motives. I play to be entertained (I know, it's retarded!) and you play to win. Fortunately, arcade games like this one are amicable to both styles of play. ;)

[djwunder]

B to jump out. X to open the parachute and then hold A to glide to down.

Not sure where you got this information from or how you're doing it. When I bail out (pressing B), I press A while falling to open my parachute. I usually just press it twice by instinct to ensure that my parachute opens. :P

[pwnophobia]

Not sure where you got this information from or how you're doing it. When I bail out (pressing B), I press A while falling to open my parachute. I usually just press it twice by instinct to ensure that my parachute opens. :P

I thought about my post the other day after playing a realizing that X was never needed. I'm not going to point blame (daedalus) but someone told me that is how he did it :p

[Thanatosis]

I thought about my post the other day after playing a realizing that X was never needed. I'm not going to point blame (daedalus) but someone told me that is how he did it :pIt is X on the PS3... and instead of B it's O. Heh.

[djwunder]

It is X on the PS3... and instead of B it's O. Heh.

Obviously Pwnophobia plays too many video games then if he's confusing/melding a Playstation controller and an Xbox controller. ;)

[pwnophobia]

Obviously Pwnophobia plays too many video games then if he's confusing/melding a Playstation controller and an Xbox controller. ;)

I don't play enough video games :( Do you know how hard it is to report about video games all day and then go home and not be able to play?!

[djwunder]

I don't play enough video games :( Do you know how hard it is to report about video games all day and then go home and not be able to play?!

Unfortunately not. The closest I can say is that I was a writer for EQVault back in the days of the Vault Network. Ah I miss those days sometimes, however limited they may be. :P

My advice to you: Play more video games, THEN report about them. If that doesn't work, let me know and we'll come up with another plan. ;)