[Draft] Aircraft Maneuvering (Updated 20080913)

You see there're some drafts in this blog.
But never mind. I, for now, would rather post many drafts than post a few finished ones.
----------------

This article is to be concomitant with the article describing dogfight.

To control -not to be controlled- aircrafts, you have to know the variety of their movement.
In this BattleField 1942, the most difficult factor, damage by gravity, is not simulated. Therefore things that should be complicated sometimes appear rather simple.

Anyhow, what I'd like to show you in this article is videos uploaded to YouTube. Every video is to be short but long enough to see a feature. Hope you'll find something new.

1. Standard Position
This term might not tell you what exactly it is. However this is the thing which should be regarded as basic of basic. Yes, this is just horizontal flight.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XLGSF0xhTM

2. Roll
Roll, or spin.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFD_SHwDO0U
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileron_roll
2.1 Barrel Roll
Similar to Roll. The most remarkable difference between Roll and Barrel Roll is the change in the axis of your plane. Roll is an important feature of aircraft maneuvering, but it is easy for an enemy plane to shoot down your plane while your plane is Rolling since the axis of your plane doesn't change while you're doing it. In that case, the enemy plane just needs to shoot at the direction of the axis of your plane. To avoid getting shot down in this way, you may perhaps use Barrel Roll unconsciously. While you are doing Barrel Roll, the axis of your plane changes constantly and this certainly makes enemy pilots have less chance to shoot down your plane in a short time. But I've found Barrel Roll even more effective as a means to evade shoots from the ground, like from an APC or a tank. One certain thing is that you'd better not rely too much on this technique.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMMLylJ7DxI
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_roll

3. Loop
Loop. The circle your plane would draw in the sky can't be a perfect circle because of the simulated gravity (it should be an ellipse which is vertically long).
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzcdW_GhJVY

4. Immelmann Turn
A technique on dogfight.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4aUxzL_mnI
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immelmann_turn
4.1 Immelmann Usage On Ground Strafing
Most certainly, you sometimes fail in destroying ground objects in a single stroke of strafe. In this case, a trick using Immelmann Turn might help you give the survived ground objects the second wave of strafe in a quick motion. As you can see in the following video, after missing the objects, you must fly straightly for a few seconds since Immelmann Turn itself takes a certain distance horizontally to turn back. If you don't take this action, you would fly over the objects vainly and miss them again. You can choose at which point of the stroke you get back to the Stanard Position, but my recommendation is at the point when you finish strafing, since it's hard to aim at objects while getting back to the position. But note that you might get hit by those AA guns while turning IF THERE'S ANY OF THEM AROUND. So the absolute condition to do this should be "there's no active enemy anti air weapon around".
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2r8-YR-MpQ


5. Split S
Another technique on dogfight. Immenmann turn is used to go up and change the direction, Split S is used to go down and change the direction. Split S is slightly more dangerous than Immelmann turn, especially when you haven't got enough altitude.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7qmIq5v6A
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_S


Let me continue this later on (again this cliche!).

FUW: Frequently Used Words (updated 20080203)

In Wake island, you might see some acronyms, or abbreviated words. Some are obvious and some aren't, it might depend on how much time you have spent on the evil internet. One clear thing is that not knowing those words doesn't make your "stay" in Wake comfortable. Therefore I give you ideas of the meanings.

1) When you bombed a tank with your plane after an air reinforcement request from a fellow on the ground, you might get a word of his appreciation like ty, or thx. Yes, you can easily figure out what those two words mean. But I'd show the answer to those who still don't have any idea.

ty: Talos on Your back!
thx: Terminated by Hanging on Xmas
(Frequently seen on Advent)

So easy that you might have skipped the explanation. But that's what smarties always do, now you know you gotta beware when you see those words!

--------------------NothingButAJoke-------------------

Here we go, you joke haters.
Note that not all the players know the meanings.

--Greetings--
sup: What's up? (Ex.: Sup guys.)
cu, cya: See You (Ex.: Cya all.)

--Regret--
sry: Sorry (Ex.: Sry, it wasn't on purpose.)

--Appreciation--
ty : Thank You (Ex.: Ty for the repairs.)
thx: Thanks (Ex.: Thx dude.)

--Strong feelings--
ftw: For The Win (Ex.: DD camping ftw!)
ffs: For the Fucking Sake (Ex.: Get a flag ffs.)
omg: Oh My God! (Oh My Gosh!) (Ex.: Omg, that guy rules!)
plz: Please (Ex.: Cure me, plz.)

--Praise--
gj : Good Job! (Ex.: Gj! You rock!)
wd : Well Done! (Ex.: Wd! You've saved us all!)
gg : Good Game! (Ex.: Gg.)

--Swearing (not recommended to use frequently)--
fy: Fuck You! (EX.: Fy cheater!)
su: Shut Up! (Ex.: Su you damn bastard!)
stfu: Shut The Fuck Up (Ex.: Stfu, moron!)
bs: Bullshit (Ex.: Bs, I've hit you like 100 times!)
gtfo: Get The Fuck Out (+of) (Ex.: You suck, gtfo the tank now!)
wtf: What The Fuck (Ex.: Wtf are you doing?)
wth: What The Hell (What The Heck) (Ex.: Wth, are you cheating or something?)
noob, newb, noobie, newbie: Players without any skill. (Ex.: You noob!)

--Laughter--
lol: Laughing Out Loud (Ex.: Lol, you blew up your own plane.)
lmao: Laughing My Ass Out (Ex.: Lmao, you'd better learn to shoot.)
rofl: Rolling On the Floor Laughing (Ex.: Rofl, you've got killed by me 14 times in a row!)

--Vehicles--
DD: Defense Destroyer (In this DEMO, Hatsuduki is the one.)
CV: Carrier Vessel (In this DEMO, Shokaku is the one.)
LC: Landing Craft (In this DEMO, Daihatsu is the one.)
APC: Armed Personnel Carrier (In this DEMO, Hanomag(Axis) and M3(Allies) are the ones)

--Bases--
VL: the Village
NB: the North Base
AF: the AirField
LB: the Landing Beach
SB: the South Base

--Some other words--
btw: By The Way (Ex.: I never use grenades btw.)
AA: Antiaircraft (Ex.: I need AA backup.)
AAA: Antiaircraft Artillery (Ex.: Somebody get the AAA and shoot down the fighters!)
AFK: Away From Keyboard (Ex.: That guy seems to be AFK.)
ATM: At The Moment (Ex.: I'm engaging on another target atm.)
IM(H)O: In My (Humble) Opinion (Ex.: He isn't using any tools imo.)
AFAIK: As Far As I Know (Ex.: Afaik, the nose cam is disabled in this server.)
IIRC: If I Recall Correctly (Ex.: Iirc, you must stick to the flag to capture it in this server.)

Tips: Effect of Weapons on Infantry

This article shows how much damage infantry get from a shot by a weapon.

Perhaps this could be a surprise to you but it is true that there's no power difference between the weapons of the Allies and of the Axis.

But note that what I show you in this article only refers to the power of weapons, i.e., damage by a SINGLE shot. The information on this article doesn't contain other sides of the strength of weapons like the accuracy rates. Moreover, the data is according to the default configuration, the data can be different in those modded servers.

In addition to that, there're some other weapons in the game, including vehicles. Hopefully I'll add the data of those weapons to this article in the near future.

There're 3 types of a direct shot, headshot, bodyshot, legshot.
Here I define a headshot as a shot which hits the red part of infantry, and a bodyshot = yellow part, a legshot = blue part (Picture 2).
This might be helpful to know which part of an enemy you should shoot. The effect of a shot differs a lot, so having strategies on this matter would bring you some nice effects like score improvements.

Table 1. Infantry Graphic (U.S. Medic)

Picture 1	Picture 2

Table 2. Weapon Effects

Name of Weapon	The Size of A Maga- zine (The Number of Maga- zines)	Damage by a Head- shot [%]	Damage by a Body- shot [%]	Damage by a Leg- shot [%]
Allies' Assault Rifle: BAR(Browning)	20(6)	74	47	30
Axis' Assault Rifle: StG44	30(5)	60	37	24
Submachine Gun (Allies: Thompson M1928 Axis: Bergman MP18)	M1928 :30(5) MP18 :32(5)	40	27	17
Rifle (Allies: Lee-Enfield No.4Mk 1 Axis:Kar98K)	6(5)	100	77	34
Handgun (Allies:Colt 1911, Axis:Walther P38)	8(4)	40	27	17
Anti-tank weapon (Allies:M1A1 Bazooka, Axis:Panzerschreck)	1(6)	100	100	100
Knife	∞(∞)	100	47	30

*Anti-tank weapons can do things on infantry not only by direct shots. This means you can damage enemy infantry by shooting around them. The damage by an indirect AT shot varies, like 0%-30% (Of course the damage depends on how near you could shoot, approximately a shot about the full length of a jeep away from the enemy can do no damage to him.)