Pacific Fighters

[Uesugi Kenshin]

What do you guys think about Pacific Fighters?

Myself I love it, but the bane of my existence is tail gunners! When flying my state of the art latest model Zero half the time they get a lucky shot and hit my non-selfsealing fuel tanks and I start burning. Than in the Japanese warrior spirit I keep on their tail as long as I can unloading all my guns and once I cannot keep hitting them I eject.
Try the Otsu, last plane on list or so. Its canons make big explosions on the ground and can take the tail right of a PBN with only a few rounds.

[Beirut]

I'm a hardcore IL2-FB-PF player. Just love it. ~:cheers:

But you can't hang on a bomber's six, ya gotta Boom & Zoom. Get a few thousand feet directly above them, roll inverted and tear straight through them in a near vertical dive. Just watch your speed, don't go too fast or you'll lose all manueverability. Once under the horde, use all that lovely energy to climb right back up and do it all over again.

Perfect this technique and bombers are almost helpless. Like fish in a barrel. Just stay off their six or you're dead every time. Altitude - altitude - altitude. You can easily keep 150-200 KPH advantage over the bombers Booming and Zooming. Play it horizontal and you lose half the speed advantage and you're in line with all their guns.

Mind you, the Japanese planes have very little armour. You need to use all your agility and speed to survive.

[ichi]

I don't have PF, but I am experimenting with Forgotten Battles (I have the Aces Expansion).

Right now I've figured out several planes (all singles) and have also gotten good at ground attack and killing bombers, but dogfighting (with the AI) is still quite difficult.

I'd really appreciate a good lead on a forum that helps with tips and tactics - most of the sites that I've found aren't that helpful - but I think the Org has spoiled me.

Anyway, IL2 is quite good. Maddeningly frustrating, but in a good way.

ichi :bow:

[Beirut]

http://www.pacific-fighters.com/en/home.php

This is the main PF site. Some pretty good people and tons of info. Also, an excellent tech-help forum.

You should try PF. The carrier action is dy-no-mite!

[ichi]

Thanks B

I had a hard time finding IL2 and am still looking for PF, but it seems that I need to get it

ichi :bow:

[Uesugi Kenshin]

My tactic for taking anything on in the Quick Mission Builder is a very recent development. Get a couple hundred meters above them when you are going head to head and wait for them to pass you. Take off all the throttle and turn to get on their tail. You should end up right above them and a bit behind. Then hit full throttle or so to keep up with them and regain energy and unload all of your guns straight into their rear. I have done this to a Recce, Betty, PBN and a Zero. Every time I believe I was in a fairly maneuverable fighter so it may not work with a less agile Wildcat or other early war US planes.

[The Marcher Lord]

Still haven't bought PF as I was never interested in the Pacific war. Still flying FB + AEP and loving it. I got the Battles over Europe add-on pack and still have loads of P-38 missions to complete. The only things that might tempt me to get PF in the future are the turret positions in the bombers and the Beaufighter, or when Ian Boys Kurland and Murmansk maps are added in a future patch.

[Beirut]

Ah, my Welsh friend, do not deny yourself the pleasures of PF.

Even if you disregard the Pacific scenario of the game completely, you can still have those lovely carriers off Normandy, in the Crimea and outside Leningrad. Makes for endless mission possibilities. And the new battleships have great broadside graphic effects. There are also landing craft in PF you can use in Normandy. All the makings are there for a glorious set of D-Day missions.

The new planes are a hoot as well. The Beaufighter is fast and good fun to fly. The A-20 is a riot and it, along with the B-25, carry parafrag bombs. Great for low level strikes. And there are quite a few new fighters and attack planes as well. Oh, and there's napalm too. Can't forget the napalm! :yes:

New ground objects have been added like bunkers with machine guns that fire, new tanks and AA (with soldiers working them, very cool), but best of all, in the PF patches that come out, there are now several kinds of runway and city lights that can be placed. This makes night missions fantastic! great looking scenery. And there are several kinds of ground fires (as in burning fires) and smoke plumes that can be used to make excellent scenery. Now you can come in for a night landing on a lit runway while the hangars and fuel tanks are burning furiously. it's a five star improvement.

You have to get PF even if you never use the Pacific maps (Hawaii though is wonderfully detailed. Very nice!) Just think or PF as a huge add-on for FB-ACE with new planes, boats and ground objects, and a host of graphics improvements. And it all can be used with the Russian and European maps.

No kidding. You won't regret it!

[The Marcher Lord]

Hmmmmm - thats a good pitch for PF there Beirut. I may just be tempted, particularly as it is quite cheap at couple of online shops I have visited - maybe next month ~:)

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Also try shooting up the first plane on the runway. The next plane will try flying and get its gear chewed up and crash. Next one does the same thing but crashes into the previous aircraft and explodes. Rinse and repeat!

[Beirut]

Ah yes, and now with PF you can crater runways. Very nice indeed.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Night missions are hard in quick mission builder though, always end up trying to take out AA and spotlights but I inevitably hit something.

BTW do you know if you can sink a Battleship in quick mission build? If so how much does it take?

I have to start dabbling in the full one.....

[Beirut]

I don't think there are any battleships in the QMB. I think you need the FMB for them.

Try using the F-4U with the Tiny-Tim rockets. Good stuff. Fire from medium altitude, while descending, along the long axis of the ship for best hit chance. At least practicing is fun.

Also, try skip bombing into the sides. Put a one or two second delay on your bombs, fly veeeery close to the water, about fifty feet altitude, and about one or two hundred feet or so away from the side of the battleship, release bombs. They'll skip across the water like a stone, penetrate the side of the ship, and explode a second later when you're clear. Try is with the F-4U with 1x2000lb and 2x1000lb bombs. Release them all in one quick shot, pull up and hit F6 (maybe F7) for a target view of what you did and what's about to happen. ~:smoking:

Set up a friendly battleship for practice runs.

The FMB is worth the effort and time. And with the new lights and fires you can build excellent night scenery! One guy even put lights on a static carrier for night landings. But placing lights in 3D mode and raising their height level for proper placement can be very time consuming and frustrating. Just placing them on normal runways takes seconds.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

PF is worth it for the Beaufighter alone.

I'm hoping that the 3rd party Mosquito and Tempest will be released soon...along with the Spit XIV. You can't have enough Spits!

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Try QMB Guadacanal airbase attack, there is a battleship off to your right.

I like Tiny Tims but the problem is you can run into them! If you jerk your plane around a bit when firing them you will hit the rocket and blow up, this has ended my life prematurely many a time.....

[Spino]

I think I actually felt my nipples get hard when I started a career campaign in the IJN and took off from the Akagi in a Zero for the attack on Pearl. Seeing all those Zeros warming up on Akagi's flight deck does something to a man... ~:eek: ~D

[Beirut]

Yes it certainly does do something to a man.

Makes him want to pay them a visit with a few buddies. ~:smoking:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/horsesass/PF.jpg

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Myself I prefer the Zeros to the Corsairs, and I would have picked Napalm and rockets instead but that is just me. Great Pic!

I started a campaign as a Japanese Navy pilot and have made 5 kills, but I have been shot down almost every mission. Once my engine was on the fritz and kept shutting off, but I still managed to bag two Wildcats! Silly Americans and their unmanueverable fighters!

[ichi]

I think I actually felt my nipples get hard. . .

Whoa!!

[Mount Suribachi]

Is this an expansion pack for IL-2?

[Beirut]

Yes and no. You can install it as a stand alone sim or do a joint installation right on top of IL2-FB-ACE. Most people do the joint installation.

When you have IL2-FB+ACE+PF you have the absolute grand enchilada of flight sims. Nothing else comes close to the variety of this monster sim. The whole thing together is close to 3 Gigs.

Bombing runs over frozen Leningrad. Anti-tank missions in Kursk. Air cover for D-Day landings in Normandy. Anti-shipping in the Crimea. Carrier attacks in the Marrianas. B-29 escort over Japan. Pearl Harbor and Midway scenarios. Troop supply and train attacks in France. Night fighter defence over Berlin. V1 rocket interception (with the ability to tip the V1 off balance with your wingtips!). There's no limit to the missions you can fly.

All this with new planes (B-24, B-29, Beaufighter, A-20, etc,etc.), carriers, battleships, destroyers, tanks, dozens of new ground objects, highly detailed Pacific maps, better graphic effects, placeable fire, smoke, runway lights and city lights... it goes on and on.

And there is at least one more patch coming out that might, just might have a Mosquito in it. :balloon2: ~D We can only hope.

And they're in the process of making a Battle of Britain sim to be released late this year perhaps. They're playing with the graphic designs of the planes to keep them highly detailed but with low polygon counts. This will allow for massive air battles with, I heard, over a hundred planes in the air at once. Something that right now would kill anything except a extreme top end computer. Sounds great!

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Unfortunately I have FB and Pacific Fighters, I really should get Ace.....


Oh well it is still a great game.

[Nelson]

PF is outstanding as all of Oleg's sims have been. The cream of the crop.

Now he needs to do WWI. Real dogfighting! :grin:

[Red Harvest]

Did they ever fix the AI gunners? There was a lot to like about IL2/FB, but those 800 to 1000 meter laser cannon shots into the canopy--the first round golden BB--really turned me off to the game. Flying against novice bomber pilots was far tougher than flying against expert level fighters. Oh sure, I could "game the game" to kill them, using their laser cannon accuracy againt them, but it never felt right.

I also figured Pacific fighters would be more reflective of real aircraft balance than IL2/FB since it was not about Russian aircraft. I was a bit taxed by the errors in favor of VVS mounts on one hand, and to the detriment of Luftwaffe mounts on the other. The classic for me will always be the lack of any over the nose view in the 190. It was wrong "to be sure."

[Beirut]

The enemy gunners still shoot annoyingly well. And it can be frustrating at times. But staying off a bomber's six can cure this. Boom & zoom and you can take bombers down very well. A bit OT, but you can also chose whether you want planes to have parachutes or not. This can really help when you're hitting bomber formations and you don't want fifty or sixty parachutes on the screen eating up the FPS. Good idea.

The ship AA can be tuned now. The accuracy is still there (I think a patch turned it down a hair), but you can slow down the rate of fire by 1 to 100 times for each ship in the mission editor. Can't remember if this works for ground AAA.

[Red Harvest]

It wasn't just 6 shots. I remember making slicing attacks at very high speed in the russian rocket and getting PK'ed just as soon as I came into the firing arc of the gunner on egress. This was about 500 km/hr relative velocity at an oblique elevated angle. I remember repeating it 3 times to see if it was just bum luck.

The problem is the way lead is computed. It is 100% accurate on the lead with the first bullet as long as you hold the heading, regardless of closure or angle. The burst trails off after that, staying focused at the same point as bullet #1 if memory serves (no real scatter.) Now if you change velocity, or you turn, the lead is 100% wrong. That is how you take care of the VVS wonder weapon on your 6 (that has higher turn rate and is also faster.) Just keep a constant turn rate and watch him narrowly miss your tail. The AI will empty its whole magazine missing every single round. It is cheesy, but it works for AI fighters.

Against AI bombers I found I could maintain 600 meters and watch for muzzle flash, rolling about to maintain a steady miss by the AI until it expended its ammo. Then I would move in for an easy kill. This was mostly necessary fling the 109 F's vs. Pe-2/3's.

Incidentally, this is why Oleg had to turn off the closure targeting by gunners in frontal attacks. The bombers would be nearly invincible otherwise. He did similar things to the fighter AI, so that only the ace and veteran AI would go for the head on shot.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I think the bomber gunners are somewhat less accurate but they still get some amazing shots.

The only problem I have with IL-2 is when I broke Mach 1 with the Russian rocket and hit the ground but somehow flipped about and landed safely on my skis. Realistically the rocket was unable to break mach 1 due to air build up in front of the wings, it even crashed once due to this killing the main test pilot.

[The Marcher Lord]

Just got PF yesterday and cannot understand why I put this purchase off so long. Great to have the carriers, the beaufighter and a variety of turret gun positions at last. I also got hold of uberdemons free UQMG utility, which is like the QMB on steroids, and have been having a blast, literally, taking out some of those kamikaze types diving on my carrier. Another Maddox masterpiece - thanks to Beirut for pointing out the error of my ways in not buying this one sooner.....

[Beirut]

Well I'm delighted if I helped point you in the direction of some good flying. ~:cheers:

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.