[s1rrah]

You guys have been Officially(tm) recognized via a new addition to my now world famous Insomnia Series(tm) video trend on YouTube. Yes, there among the surf videos, local Houston live music shoots and lots of driving videos ... the FS2_Open crew is represented. This is no small thing.

 

Seriously, and just in regards to gaming in general? I've been playing Borderlands2 a lot lately cause the visual designer in me adores the art and the co-op is also pretty damn fun, also Dragon Age (both "origins" and part 2, I *so* love those games), Skyrim as well (mostly for the modding scene and the visuals cause I think the game is kind of lame in so far as RPG's go) ... but BY FAR!, the most fun I've had lately is playing Freespace 2 (with all the FS2_open bells and whistles!) ... humble little 1999 space sim packs a serious replay factor and it's garnering far more game time than todays latest and greatest, at least on *MY* rig.

I'm not skilled as a pilot in FS2. I crack under pressure and have a hard time with all the keys and commands. I'm not even half way through the main FS2 story missions and I'm getting my ass beat down. But man is it fun ...

Anyway ... here's the video I made. It's quite short. But eventful!

(is there a way to post vids in-line, here?)

Enjoy!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B34OKHx-SCo&feature=plcp

 

[QuantumDelta]

Our YT channels are statistically scarily similar ;D
You do have a lot to learn about the mechanics of the game, but it's very rewarding to do so ;x

So very envious of your rig right now, since mine is starting to struggle with ...certain mods!

I encourage you to do more ;D

[s1rrah]

You do have a lot to learn about the mechanics of the game

Thank god. Somebody who knows that I don't know ...


 

[QuantumDelta]

Couple of very quick tips if you want them, if not I'll shut up;
Don't put the same gun in two different primary banks (for example Kayser/Prom S is the best 'dogfighting' gun combination you can get).
Don't 'link' (double fire) the myrms primary banks (you lose DPS).
If you're playing on the easy difficulties you don't need as much energy in your primaries (press 'delete' on your keyboard where the 6 keys are next to the return key).
Don't use match speed / auto match speed - it'll teach you to control your speed manually, which will encourage you 'naturally' into better dogfighting skills (you will eventually find yourself left on max-top-speed all the time, using afterburner / brake to manage your speed).
9/10  you can get by just using the H key on the easier difficulties, but don't forget about the target in reticle key (Y).
Also.. generally speaking, if you're fighting a capital ship of some description + bombers / fighters, kill the little ones first, they often do more damage than the big ship unless it's firing beam cannons at your capital ships, and even if it is, you're better off just shooting that beam cannon off then shooting the little ships (it's not shown in this video but I am guessing you are/were already doing this because of the way it's cut).

From what might be visible here :x

[Rodo]

Not bad, I'll request you to do Bearbaiting once you get there in the campaign.

[s1rrah]

Couple of very quick tips if you want them, if not I'll shut up;

Thanks for the tips.

[s1rrah]

So very envious of your rig right now, since mine is starting to struggle with ...certain mods!

RE: rig ... I just built my main machine back in Feb of 2012. I upgraded from a Q6700/8800GT rig that was definitely growing long in the tooth for certain modern gaming releases. Pretty big difference since the Sandy chips are such overclocking beasts.

I couldn't play full 2560x1440 with all mediaVPS bling enabled until I got my 4GB 670 card ... the 2GB 580 it replaced would get this strange OpenGL error until I turned off certain more taxing visual options. Couldnt be more pleased with the 670 4GB card, though ... pretty beastly. 130+ fps in FS2/MediaVPS with VSYNC off ... but I tend to run with VSYNC on, anyway as I abhore tearing ... so it's capped at 60fps which is fine.

Building a fast machine is  pretty affordable right now. Even with the new Ivy chips out, I'd still lean towards Sandybridge CPUs as they run a hell of a lot cooler and as mentioned, overclock like crazy (5ghz all day on my 2700K). 

Here's some shots of the build if your interested. Whole thing set me back about 2000 bucks or so, give or take. 2 x Velociraptor drives in RAID 0 were sort of spendy, as was the 4GB GTX670 ... but the base system wasn't too expensive.

Here's some pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150633237029068.417942.564194067&type=3

Best.

[QuantumDelta]

That's not a build, that's a monster.
All that WC makes me nervous, but very jealous too ;D
Amusingly, we have the same PSU and Keyboard..
My build is a i7 920 / 5870HD, the bottleneck is the CPU, but a meaningful upgrade would mean more or less replacing everything 'cept the PSU I guess... it is not yet time.

The CPU was OCd to 4ghz, but I've since had to slowly reduce it over the course of a few years to stop BSODs... With a keyboard like that, you shouldn't be using the mouse to turn

[s1rrah]

That's not a build, that's a monster.
All that WC makes me nervous, but very jealous too ;D
Amusingly, we have the same PSU and Keyboard..
My build is a i7 920 / 5870HD, the bottleneck is the CPU, but a meaningful upgrade would mean more or less replacing everything 'cept the PSU I guess... it is not yet time.

The CPU was OCd to 4ghz, but I've since had to slowly reduce it over the course of a few years to stop BSODs... With a keyboard like that, you shouldn't be using the mouse to turn

The water cooling is just cheapo closed loops..they work pretty decent once modded a bit. Going to invest in a custom loop once I decide to deal with the maintenance issues in regards to such; the closed loops are just so easy to throw in. That Antec cooler is actually a CPU cooler that I hacked on to the GTX670 card; it does a bang up job of cooling that card...in game load temps very rarely break 50C...which is pretty amazing.

Speaking of FS2 and controllers ... you mention the K90 keyboard ... (best keyboard I've had, hands down...the cherry mech keys make a world of difference).

For FS2, I use the keyboard and a dated but much loved CH Flightstick Pro. As my video clearly demonstrates, I've yet to get serious about FS2 as a game...mastering the controls and what not. I intend to do this once I have more time to game as, currently, it's only a novel luxury since I only have about an hour or less a day to do it (any game for that matter); and, that's just not much time to go at any game, really.

Do you have any experience with more fancy controller setups? Like the Saitek X52 Pro or other throttle/stick combos like that?

What do the majority of the really good FS2 pilots use?

[General Battuta]

What do the majority of the really good FS2 pilots use?

Anything. Back in the day the top three multiplayer pilots all had different control setups - one used joystick, one used keyboard/mouse, one used keyboard only. keyboard only fo lyfe

[s1rrah]

What do the majority of the really good FS2 pilots use?

Anything. Back in the day the top three multiplayer pilots all had different control setups - one used joystick, one used keyboard/mouse, one used keyboard only. keyboard only fo lyfe

I'm real curious about the keyboard only option. I generally do best with as few devices in front of me as possible, although I've always liked the feel of the CH sticks with flight sims.

In fact, I had no clue folks used just a keyboard at all .. which makes it doubly intriguing as a control option. Just didn't occur to me that the arrow keys (or whatever) would be effective as main directional (X/Y) movement controllers. Interesting ...

In a keyboard only config, what keys do you use for turning along the X and Y axis'? I mean, the main turning up/down left/right that a joystick would typically control?

[Dragon]

Numpad keys are assigned to this by default. I suppose they're the ones most people use.

[General Battuta]

What do the majority of the really good FS2 pilots use?

Anything. Back in the day the top three multiplayer pilots all had different control setups - one used joystick, one used keyboard/mouse, one used keyboard only. keyboard only fo lyfe

I'm real curious about the keyboard only option. I generally do best with as few devices in front of me as possible, although I've always liked the feel of the CH sticks with flight sims.

In fact, I had no clue folks used just a keyboard at all .. which makes it doubly intriguing as a control option. Just didn't occur to me that the arrow keys (or whatever) would be effective as main directional (X/Y) movement controllers. Interesting ...

In a keyboard only config, what keys do you use for turning along the X and Y axis'? I mean, the main turning up/down left/right that a joystick would typically control?

Yeah, numpad. You lose a bit of accuracy compared to a mouse, but you can turn much faster and with a lot less fatigue. Keyboard is the best control method for maneuvering, mouse the best for aiming, and joystick a happy medium.

[QuantumDelta]

What Battuta said, really, it should be noted that while (by default) the keyboard is the best turner, the joystick with correct set up and modifications can match it (the only joy I know that can do this 100% for sure, is the microsoft sidewinder pro, but I assume modern ones of high enough quality can too), a joystick user with high enough reaction speeds and the right muscles in tune / muscle memory in place can also match a mouse user for accuracy.
I've only met one pilot who can do both, though.

Keyboard only is how I fly, and you need a keyboard like ours to do it properly, it needs to be able to handle 3 number pad buttons + z / tab + ctrl + space + potentially other keys simultaneously.
The control systems are reasonably balanced against each other, though I much prefer the more manoeuvrable school of thought that comes with the keyboard.

[Mongoose]

I can see the keyboard being great for broad, sweeping motions, but one thing that's always given me pause at its overall effectiveness and/or suitability as a controller is the pure binary nature of its inputs.  Unless you have some sort of super-awesome pressure-sensitive rig (which I doubt FS2's current input code could handle anyway), your keypresses are pure on/off, so fine motion would presumably require a great deal of finessing the individual keys.  I'm sure it's completely possible to adapt to that system, but I don't think it's something I'd be comfortable with personally.

[QuantumDelta]

It does. Most of my shots are either snap shots(predicting when to fire in my turning arc as well as whatever the opponent is doing), or carefully measured shots in which several directional keys have been pressed to achieve what a joystick or mouse user could do with marginally less effort.

It still requires less overall muscle energy, but unless you have quick fingers and good judgement it's difficult to make work properly.
The snap shot is actually an extremely useful skill in this game however, especially against humans or the higher AI settings, because it lets you be both defensive and offensive at the same time. It does require a fair bit of concentration though..

[Mongoose]

I will give you that your fine aiming via keyboard is probably far more efficient than mine with my current joystick.  Whatever the Cyborg Evo's general merits are, it doesn't exactly handle fine motion near the axis very well, at least not with FS2's input curve.  I've long since had to get used to overshooting my target all the time.

[QuantumDelta]

Yea.. I have a cyborg evo.. they're not that great for FS :<
The best you can do with a joystick is kill the deadzone (completely, software and hardware if you can), and max the sense, and learn to fly it like that... way too much work for me ;\

[Klaustrophobia]

I find maxing the sensitivity to make the overshoot problems way worse on the quick-turning fighters.  Part of the problem is probably the fact I use an X45 with no spring mod.  This thing is a beast that requires some strong-arming and has quite a wide range of motion.  My cyborg 3d gold worked wonderfully though, apart from it being too loose in the center and requiring a higher deadzone setting to prevent drift.  And I kinda got the feeling that I was never getting the full turn rate at the stick's limits, but I couldn't ever prove that.  Still, I was an order of magnitude better at gun fighting with that.

[QuantumDelta]

If you're not max sense you wont match a keyboards turn, same as if you have a deadzone, using a joystick properly is quite intense ;x