Fite me in Planes - Anyone else play War Thunder?
Flying sorties with IC bros. This is a TON of fun.
War Thunder is a free to play WWII flight sim (and also has tank stuff, but eff tanks, we're only here to fly) that has a stellar assortment of aircraft from the era and tons of customization. The free to play grind is pretty rough, but to be honest we have so much fun flying sorties that we don't even think about it.
I'm currently researching the American bomber tier of aircraft, and have only recently been able to purchase a proper bomber. I love it, and having a couple buddies to escort you to a target and peel off to engage enemy aircraft is the kind of experience I always wanted when I was younger playing old flight sims.
The few of us that have been playing are grouping together in realistic mode (which is mostly simulation, but with some concessions such as limited HUD and the ability to view your plane externally during fight). Right now, @Ilriyas is specializing in dive bombers, I'm sticking to heavy bombers, and @DontCallMeKelso, @Church4252, @cola and @GnomeQueen have been sticking to fighters.
If you want to get in on this, you'll need peripherals. Sure you can play with a mouse and keyboard, but you can't really play. You'll hate it, and it'll make you suck. Some people settle for a gamepad (360 controllers are decent), but if you want to be a real man, you gotta get a flight stick. Ilriyas has the Thrustmaster Hotas X, and I'm running with my old trust Saitek X45:
So yeah. Fite me in planes.
Comments
Get a better monitor, @UPSLynx.
eeeewuuuuuAARRRRRRRRR THUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Jimmy, Ryan and I used to play this. Unless much has changed, I disagree with the peripheral comment, I found this game incredibly easy to manage with just keyboard and mouse since it's more arcadey than simulation. I'll have to redownload, it was a ton of fun.
@NiGHTS were you on the arcade mode? IIRC that makes it pretty keyboard friendly, where the "harder" modes are less so.
@drasnor has a pretty sick setup.
I could give this a go. Will sign up tonight.
@Tushon If I remember correctly, there was more of a 'historical' mode that hardly anyone played and the alternative, which appears to be shown in @UPSLynx 's pictures.
I guess my point was to not scare anyone away feeling like they needed some sort of HOTAS setup for a game that is entirely approachable by keyboard and mouse.
Airsims, IMO, have a stigma of needing some extra hardware to make it worth your while. I don't feel this falls into that category - makes it much more approachable for Icrontic as a whole.
Why is it that we always have to fight you in tites and planes and knights and things? WHY GA'AH FIGH' BRAH
I remember having a lot of fun with this. Would play in a big squad.
The game handles significantly better on the Realism and Simulator modes with a joystick, this is my own opinion but I've yet to see someone using a mouse and keyboard properly execute Scissor maneuvers or radial G turns like someone using a flight stick.
Phrasing.
I don't remember playing this. I have a 360 controller I'd throw at it. Is this free to play, or do I need to buy the DLC?
@CannonFodder F2P, no dlc needed to purchase
Additional motivation for me to fix my casual joystick. I think I'll take that apart tonight and order the replacement potentiometer.
It's a touch grindy, but since I'm a cheapass, I put up with it so I don't have to spend monies.
You start with totally GARBAGE planes for all sides. I spent my "premium" currency to quickly research past it to the next tier (you get some free premium currency from the start). It was totally worth it, once I had a decent plane, I enjoyed each match enough that the grind didn't bother me.
Important note everyone - you can choose US, UK, Japan, Germany, and Russia to fly, all of which have seperate planes and tiers. However, when we play together, we must all be the same country. Currently, we're working hardest on the US tiers (because USAF is best AF, and I want a B-17 G). So if you want to grind a little on your own to get better planes before grouping up, I'd recommend spending the time in US tiers since your unlocks don't roll over to other countries.
If you wish to fly Germany or England hit me up when I'm not squadding with @UPSLynx, I tend to fly a lot of Luftwaffe on my spare time and I fly Tommy when I feel like being silly.
Just discovered a really frustrating limitation with this game
Max players in one team to play together is four, which sucks. However, you can pay $14 to make a Squadron, which is essentially a guild, and have all your friends join. Come to find out, even if you purchase a Squadron, you are still limited to four players at any given time.
So that significantly limits the fun we can have together with this game
Are all the matches 4v4 then? If so playing against each other might be fun.
Groovy. The replacement potentiometer isn't available through normal distribution channels. I dropped a line to the sensor manufacturer; maybe they'll take pity on me.
It's 16v16, but they limit friends to groups of four so you can't pub stomp.
Awww yuss, turned out to be a cold joint. All better now!
Bobby's landing gear was shot so he couldn't use the runway, the lake seemed like a viable option.
Welp, I updated this and bought a joystick ...
That "debate" you had in chat was pretty...annoying lol @Ilriyas
Well, I guess I'm giving my time up with this on PS4 and going to PC with you all. @tushon, what joystick you get? Thanks.
Hmmm... I guess it's time to dust off my joystick.
Logitech 3D Pro
This Thrustmaster has less buttons but decent reviews. Not sure how many you "need" for War Thunder, so I went with a little more rather than less.
Was gonna buy a nice fancy flightstick setup, but remembered black friday is 2 weeks away.
Quick story behind this screenshot, I had been pursuing a Blenheim light bomber in my Messerschmidt managed to shoot it down too but not before his tail gunner ripped my engine to shreds and caused a fuel leak.
Having to compensate heavily due to holes in my right wing I actually managed to land the puppy on a friendly airfield despite having poor visuals and no instrumentation short repair later I was back in the air and managed to finish the mission.
Really good match that netted be about 3k experience too.
So could we form multiple groups of 4 and all join the same server to get to our 16? I have the game installed, but won't have time to play until this weekend.