Am I Being Too Hard On Myself?

[FatBadger 10]

Hi all

This isn't my first look at "TOH". I first tried it a while ago, but RL distractions and an unfortunate hard drive problem pulled me away from it before I even got properly started really. Now though, inspired by a fantastic birthday present earlier this month of an "X52Pro" HOTAS and "TrackIR" (No Pedals though, not now and not in the near future.) I decided to re-install "TOH" and have another crack at it.

I'm very much enjoying working my way through the training missions. I didn't get very far yet and have just reached the take off tutorial. In doing so though I have reached a bit of a crossroads and am trying to decide which route to take.

While I've been fine in the air, flying through rings and generally waving at the sunbathing babes on the boats below. This tutorial I am finding discouragingly difficult. I have the difficulty set to "trainee" by the way. So am cutting myself every kind of slack.

I remember from last time around that it was really difficult, but back then I was using my old "Extreme 3D Pro" stick and while I love it to bits and we've tackled many great sims together, it is getting a little long in the tooth and my feeling that its sensitivity was an issue, has been borne out by a huge result in "DCS A-10C Warthog", where the new HOTAS has enabled me to immediately succeed at a training maneuver I was consistently failing in before.

So I was hoping for a little easier time of it in "TOH" with the new setup, but sad to say it seems however careful I try to be I simply can't manage a hover. I mean I'm not even close. The bird probably gets about six feet off the ground before it decides to go wildly wandering one way or the other and any careful counter pressure I try to apply, sends me drunkenly lurching the other way. I'm failing every time for leaving the take off area instead of hovering.

Goodness knows there's little point in my leaving this lesson without getting it right, because the next one is landing and... well we know where that's going don't we.

Thing is.. I'm not really asking for advice with that. (Although advice is always welcome) I fully appreciate that it's going to be a matter of practice and trying to get my pasty paws around the problem. But all the time I'm being tempted by the auto hover option. The training text actually says words to the effect of "if you find this too hard, use the auto hover. Go on, you know you want to." (ok..it might not actually say that last bit.)

So yes I could do that and yes it'd see me through this lesson and the landing lesson as well. But I wanted to do it properly and this feels so much like cheating. Plus, unless I'm going to commit to just using the auto hover feature forever, sooner or later I'm going to have to master this challenge.

I wonder if I just roll with it and take the hit, whether getting much more used to the flight model, might magically make this easier somehow at a later stage. Somehow I doubt it though.

Anyway, while I decide which way to roll on that, I wondered whether any of you might be able to recommend a series of good solid tutorials on YouTube covering the early aspects of learning the sim. All I've been able to find are vids of people flying about over Seattle (lots of em) and I'm sure that there must be video guides out there somewhere by the "TOH" enthusiasts.

See you up there folks. :D

Badger

[JohnKalo 657]

Wow, this is some serious post. NO offence, it is just biiiig.:D

Now what I would like to say is that the old controller could be better than the new one by what aspects though? These are that IF you have a separate throttle then it will be very difficult for you to maneuver the chopper. I have personally got Logiteck Attack 3 with the throttle at the bottom of the stick and everything is perfect. The X52Pro is also perfect but for flying airplanes. Now as for having no pedals a Steering wheel with pedals would be just right.:D

Now the problem that you were having with the sensitivity of your controller was one that also occurred to me. You can change it by going to Settings, Controls, Controller, choose your controller, and then alter the columns that "calibrate" your controller. Lessening the sensitivity and the dead zone will greatly enhance your ability to fly and this is no cheating...

Also the auto hover thing, no shame there, some helicopters as far as I am aware do have auto-hover. Not the small ones but the heavy and medium ones surely do. I don't want to boast but I can now hover, with difficulties, with the different helicopters. But look at it this way. I have played the career twice and the missions and challenges many times. I am sure that with practice you will master these helos. The heavy one, NO promise, cause it is really wild:D

Now as for videos in YouTube and extra tutorials I don't think that there is anything to find but who knows? Maybe someone will upload one...

Hope I helped. And you can be sure that great hours of excitement await you!!!

P.S. The auto-rotation tutorials are extremely difficult. And even if you haven't accomplished them you can still auto-rotate to the ground safely. Sadly this happens also the other way around...

[FatBadger 10]

Wow, this is some serious post. NO offence, it is just biiiig.:D

Really?:laugh: And to think, I was so restrained as well! The whole thing is positively Lilliputian I tells ya! Not to worry though, if I get around to asking a proper question I'll let you know first so that you can make a nice cup of tea and grab a biscuit before you sit down to read it. :D

Meanwhile, thanks for the reply and the useful info. I'll get right on looking at that dead zone thing and give it another try without the chea.... er...hover mode. :cool:

Badger

---------- Post added at 03:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:27 PM ----------

Lessening the sensitivity and the dead zone will greatly enhance your ability to fly and this is no cheating...

This was great advice, it's made a huge difference and as you can see from my time stamp, I was so pleased with it I've actually stopped playing to come back and tell you about it!:clap:

I've just romped through the take off lesson where before I was unable to stay in the designated area for long enough to avoid failing. I'm not going to say it was pretty, but I was straight through the "easy" and "pinnacle" sections without a single retry! "Crowded" on the other hand took a few attempts. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be living in any of those apartment buildings close by. But in the end I passed and frankly I'll settle for ugly but successful.

Badger

PS: On that last section. Once I'd succeeded and the instructor took back control, HE then proceeded to crash us right smack into a building! That's not my fault, I refuse to take any blame for that!

[JohnKalo 657]

I am glad that I helped. And I'll have some tea equipment ready. And as for the instructor's crash well... maybe it was a lesson of how to astonishingly crash on buildings. Who knows?:D

Also practice makes perfect. I hope that you will now be able to live your Take on Helicopters experience and career. Many surprises, adrenaline and excitement awaits you...

And last but not least some stunts you can make so as to master your skills:

But on the other hand when everything else fails,

, this is the sure way:

:cool:

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