Thinking about jumping in

[DeafBringer]

Hello everyone,

Thinking about picking up CoD and jumping in. Haven't played a combat sim since 2001, but loved the flying aspect of many FPS. I got into competitive play way back with AOEII and then Day of Defeat. More recently I've played competitively in World of Tanks but decided it was time to walk away from that game.

I'm aware that TS is highly valuable to a lot of gamers and I see it is extensively used in CoD. I'm a Deaf gamer myself, and would like to see if anyone would be willing to take the time to mentor a Deaf player? I'd hate to jump into a game and find out that no one wants a Deaf player on their roster because they're not willing to type. I can speak back into a mic if necessary, but typing will be necessary to communicate with me. I struggled with finding a competitive clan in WoT and would hope to avoid the same issues in CoD if possible.

I'll check out TS and see what is what before I purchase the game and install all the mods, if I get that far. Hope to hear (punny) from you. Thanks!

[BOO]

Hello Mate - i think i speak for everyone when I say "all are welcome".

I think those of us with hearing do take TS for granted but there are also a good many other ways to fly co-cooperatively - like proper use of macros ---(and well, you just gotta hear TS sometimes to realise just how much useless noise there can be ) . Id be more than happy to help get you into the game as im sure a good many others will too!. This aint World of Kids - This is CLOD - and were all very proud of it and our little community!

Any preference of side you wanna try?

Look forward to meeting up with you soon!

S!

BOO

[ATAG_Dave]

(and well, you just gotta hear TS sometimes to realise just how much useless noise there can be )

only when you are on comms BOO.....

@DeafBringer - welcome to CloD and the ATAG forums as Boo says this is a great game and great community - its well worth the effort to get the patches installed and give it a go. Teamspeak is a great thing for a game like this, but it is not essential.

we have pilots here who only have the use of one hand - so dont let a lack of TS stop you from enjoying this game.

Its also not essential to be in a squad / clan - a large proportion of players are not. People tend to wing up infomally. Its all good basically.

Some useful tips in terms of finding the enemy on ATAG:

hit TAB 7 1 This will give you a written read out of the nearest enemy plane (only reports single engined planes within 15 or so miles and only if they are above 1500 feet), their distance from you and their current bearing from you.

hit TAB 4 1 then 1 again to select which dispatch controller you want. Thereafter hit TAB 4 1 2 and a few seconds later you will get a readout of a number of enemy aircraft, their approximate location, heading and altitude (this functionality is available on some but not all missions)

Look forwards to seeing you online

S!

[ATAG_Highseas]

I'm a Deaf gamer myself, and would like to see if anyone would be willing to take the time to mentor a Deaf player? I'd hate to jump into a game and find out that no one wants a Deaf player on their roster because they're not willing to type.

Another challange

Typing and flying....

My typo count is off the chart in the forum... and man.. you should see my flying... !!


but i use the chat window when is mike off time.. like when the kids are asleep!

and in the heat of the battle...

It's all about eyes anyway in that split second of adrenaline.


Jump in...

The water is.. kinda deadly !


My two pence...

Jump in...

[9./JG52 Mindle]

Welcome DeafBringer. S!

While TS is certainly the easiest way to communicate it is certainly not the only way, as the guys above have stated. I mainly fly with my squad using TS but at other times I may be flying alone.

At these times I often like to fly off comms using just the eyes to see what is going on around me. Flying off comms is great for honing your situational awareness and is often a real challenge but one that will develop your combat and survival skills without relying upon call outs from other pilots. A lot of really good flyers never use teamspeak but still manage to be ace killers.

Jump in 'Bringer, you will find lots of help if you need it on this forum and on the server chat. You can also pm me if you want some pointers. No problem.

[DeafBringer]

Thanks everyone. Taking the plunge now.

[philstyle]

Hi mate,

If you have hearing impariment here are a couple of tips:
1. Set up your chat windows and maybe a hotkey to send in-game chat messages. The text can, in many ways, serve to give similar information to what is communicated over TS
2. Enable an in-game window to show your aircraft damage. Many of us rely on the hit-sounds to know if we are taking fire. But if you are unable to hear the hit-sounds then you will need a damage-info window active. this way you will get text info of damage
3. If you are not completely deaf, you can adjust the in-game audio settings to prioritise the key audio elements. My suggestion would be to turn the "voice" completely to zero (audio slider) and also the music to zero. Keep the rest at near-max. If you find the game too loud (unlikely, but possible) then use the windows "audio mixer" to turn the game volume down. Do not use the in-game slider to turn down the overall volume in game. If you like, you can then turn TS up in the windows mixer. But, as said, if you have "profound" deafness or even "severe" then this might not be possible.

Hope this helps.

[ATAG_Ezzie]

Great to have you onboard Deafbringer.

One option to consider is flying multi crew aircraft and follow Philstyle's advice to set up a window that displays their voice warnings as text.

So in the -110 for instance your gunner will alert you via text to bad guys behind your wing line out to a range of 5 km which is very handy for SA. But he will only report a bad guy once so you'll have to keep track of him after the initial alert. And his aiming/shooting, ummm, isn't the best usually.

Look fwd to seeing you online soon.

Ezzie

[ATAG_Pattle]

Glad you have decided to jump in Deafbringer. Hopefully you can get a feel for the type of community we are by the assistance a number of the community have already offered. All very good. Loving this game doesn't come down to what you hear, it is the visual beauty of the flying environment, watching a dogfight from a 'safe' distance and grabbing the courage to get in a have a crack.

Looking forward to seeing you in the air, and help if needed.

And most importantly you will meet guys that will soon become good mates. To me, that's what makes this sim and the community a very special place.

Pattle

[II/JG77_Jack]

Hey, welcome! I highly suggest picking it up and starting! Just dont forget it wont be easy at the start, it is a big learning curve!

[ATAG_Bliss]

Hi mate,

If you have hearing impariment here are a couple of tips:
1. Set up your chat windows and maybe a hotkey to send in-game chat messages. The text can, in many ways, serve to give similar information to what is communicated over TS
2. Enable an in-game window to show your aircraft damage. Many of us rely on the hit-sounds to know if we are taking fire. But if you are unable to hear the hit-sounds then you will need a damage-info window active. this way you will get text info of damage
3. If you are not completely deaf, you can adjust the in-game audio settings to prioritise the key audio elements. My suggestion would be to turn the "voice" completely to zero (audio slider) and also the music to zero. Keep the rest at near-max. If you find the game too loud (unlikely, but possible) then use the windows "audio mixer" to turn the game volume down. Do not use the in-game slider to turn down the overall volume in game. If you like, you can then turn TS up in the windows mixer. But, as said, if you have "profound" deafness or even "severe" then this might not be possible.

Hope this helps.

Going along with this, maybe something like the buttkicker subwoofer that attaches to your chair would probably be highly beneficial as you could feel the things going on around you and still get sensory cues. I wonder if anyone has tried it with Clod?

http://www.thebuttkicker.com/gamer2

[ATAG_Highseas]

Going along with this, maybe something like the buttkicker subwoofer that attaches to your chair would probably be highly beneficial as you could feel the things going on around you and still get sensory cues. I wonder if anyone has tried it with Clod?

http://www.thebuttkicker.com/gamer2

Looks interesting...

Is that cabbage powered ??


Does look like a very good idea though if hearing is an issue... Good shout Bliss !

[FluxCapacitance]

Hi DeafBringer. I'm new as well.

There's some hardware/software out there that might help out. Not sure if you'll be into spending a lot of money. Some of it is "free".

Windows 10 has a nice (compared to past) voice recognition package that types what is spoken. You can mic the speaker to type what they say on notepad. Some of it might get garbled, but the guys are good at speaking clearly. If you have a second computer, you could use your own mic to speak.

As mentioned above, tactile subs that hook up to your seat can be set up as a single speaker (for feeling RPMs etc) or four way for feeling which direction sound is coming from.

I'm figuring out the basics of using the Blenheim and will be going online now and then on the bomber server to practice "bombardiering" it (I have the flying part figured out). Not sure of the mechanics yet, but I guess you can have 3 guys on a single bomber online. Feel free to jump on board anytime if I'm on there. Typing on TeamSpeak is no big deal. Beware that if you want to survive I may not be the best choice to fly with. haha

You'll also note that the average age is about 40. See the bellcurve here.

Regards.

[ATAG_Marlow]

Hi 'Bringer....great to have you with us and welcome to the Atag Forum and servers. I've gotta say, I'm blown away by the quality and generous nature of the responses in this thread. As a relative new comer myself, I can assure you that it is a true reflection of the awesome community that you've just joined. You are not going to regret downloading those patches.

As Pattle says, you are going to make lots of new friends (seems like you already have!) and meet many people who will add to the great advice already given above. Wade in anytime, Mate.....we'll all be ready to 'wing up' and help out as best we can. See you up there! Salute!

[DeafBringer]

This is awesome, thank you all!

I don't even know where to begin. I certainly wasn't expecting all these responses.

I guess I'll start with the fact that I was online last night trying to get started. Instead, I looked and felt like an idiot lol. Had someone helping me via TS. But I'm more of a hands on/visual learner anyways. Currently I'm stuck on trying to figure out what buttons are essential to set up so I can get off the ground and start flying. Last night I sat in the cockpit for over an hour trying to figure out how to get the engine started and getting the joystick set up. After that I find myself crashing into the trees lol.

regarding speech to text, I've tried that extensively with dragonspeak. It doesn't work very well with TS, multiple voices and slang/jargon. Generally I just have people use hotkeys with me and then I'll ask yes/no questions as necessary. For the most part I just read the situation and try to guess what's expected of me. That was with 15v15 with lots of prep time before hand. Worked out pretty well for the most part.

Right now I'm struggling with getting my extreme 3d pro and keyboard set up. If anyone has a layout they recommend, please let me know as that'd be awesome. I'd like to try and get off the ground tonight if possible. If this continues and I get serious about this, then I'll invest in some kind of tracking set-up in order to free up more buttons on the joystick.

How do I set up the chat box? I didn't see that in the key binding menu and it drove me crazy. Also how do I set up the damage panel? I didn't see that option either.

While I'm not completely deaf, I am profoundly Deaf. I have a subwoofer by my feet but I can't turn it up too much or my wife will complain. She likes to be in the same room as me watching tv while I play. If the convos gets good or interesting, she'll come interpret and participate, which can be the source of some hilarity. She's a gamer herself as well so it works out well.

Is the ATAG server the one that everyone is on? I was on it last night but not very many people were on. I run dual monitors with TS on the 2nd monitor so I can keep an eye on it. I absolutely do prefer in game chat whenever possible though. I appreciate all the help everyone. Hopefully I can pick up the game soon enough and then start contributing and showing that your contributions to me were worth it.

[FluxCapacitance]

Haha. Yeah, I guess one of the marketing ploys for the transducers is that they operate "mostly" below hearing range.

If you mean the in-game chat I had to guess and hit "Enter" to enable it. Enter selects the text box so you can type. Then Enter a second time will send the chat message and deselect the box.

I also use the same joystick. See the attached image for what I used when I got started. joystick_setup.jpg

I've changed it a little since then. Now that I've figured out some engine management fine tuning, I no longer need button(s) that keeps the radiator(s) always open for safety.

I picked up a trackIR kit (my birthday conveniently fell on this week), so now I use the hat switch for elevator and rudder trim. I also have a Logitech G13 from my CAD days which I can program that TAB-7-1 stuff automatically. I also have every percent mapped for prop pitch. At least on the Brit planes, mags, fuel, and compass/gyros can be adjusted on the ground with a mouse and before flight (I now have those mapped too). Since I'm already familiar with planes it was easier for me to find everything that could be clicked and avoid buttons until it got easier. I can't say it's the best but it's working for me so far.

Hope this sort of helps.

[Silent135]

Hi DeafBringer, To set up your chat window and damage window you have to create 2 new info windows and then customize them as covered by points 1 and 4 in this thread by Lewis:

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.co...ead.php?t=3273

Take your time and have fun!



Silent135

[DefaultFace]

Just gonna say... Deafbringer is hands down the coolest nickname I've seen in a while....

Happy flying and good hunting

DefaultFace

[DeafBringer]

Thank you all for the kind words and help.

This is definitely a challenging learning curve. Also hard to get people to type while flying, which I understand. I think a lot of people don't know I'm deaf yet so they keep trying to talk to me in TS.

I'm still working on my controls. One thing I notice is that my 109E4 keeps pulling up and to the right. Plus any time I try to make any movements I go into a spinning nose dive that is really hard to recover from. Can't seem to make any sharp or quick moments, is that normal for this level of realism?

Also I have a hard time spotting enemy planes in the distance. Then when I do and I angle for a better approach/attack, they disappear, literally. Is there some kind of draw limit? If so, can I increase it?

Got jumped by a plane yesterday while trying to descend in order to land. Didn't see him at all even though I was looking around. Any time I got fighter into/bearing and started in that direction, that info changed completely, sometimes in the opposite direction so I was frustrated. The fighter managed to damage me pretty good over 3-4 passes before I crash landed, which I botched pretty good.

Any more advice for a noob? Thanks again!

[ATAG_Ezzie]

Thank you all for the kind words and help.

This is definitely a challenging learning curve. Also hard to get people to type while flying, which I understand. I think a lot of people don't know I'm deaf yet so they keep trying to talk to me in TS.

I'm still working on my controls. One thing I notice is that my 109E4 keeps pulling up and to the right. Plus any time I try to make any movements I go into a spinning nose dive that is really hard to recover from. Can't seem to make any sharp or quick moments, is that normal for this level of realism?

Also I have a hard time spotting enemy planes in the distance. Then when I do and I angle for a better approach/attack, they disappear, literally. Is there some kind of draw limit? If so, can I increase it?

Got jumped by a plane yesterday while trying to descend in order to land. Didn't see him at all even though I was looking around. Any time I got fighter into/bearing and started in that direction, that info changed completely, sometimes in the opposite direction so I was frustrated. The fighter managed to damage me pretty good over 3-4 passes before I crash landed, which I botched pretty good.

Any more advice for a noob? Thanks again!

Re spotting distance - there's a thread in which someone has loaded a file that u can use to test how far you can see contacts at. If you can't find it someone who has used it might be able to assist. As a guide I can see contacts at about 13 km when they are co-alt or flight above the horizon. Not sure what is happening Re it disappearing.

Re fighter /info bearing - this takes a while to understand and can be confusing especially re the complete change of direction. Here goes with some info that might help. TAB 7-1 gives you the slant range to the nearest s/e fighter. If you are flying at 6k alt you might see fighter 240 range 4. And then 20 seconds later it might say 120 range 4. In this case you have flown more or less over the top of him and he's prob at about 2 km altitude hence the big change in bearing. Or he has just flown over you - could be Mr Barn Swallow or Snapper. The rate of change in bearing combined with your own alt can help you figure out a rough altitude of the tgt with a bit of practice.

TAB7-1 will not show contacts below 500 m. So sometimes you might have a contact at 240 7 km and then 30 sec later it says 120 8 km. what has happened here is that the 240 7km contact has dropped down below 500 m altitude and the 120 8 km is the next closest. If you are near a low alt fur all these changes can happen a lot and you can end us chasing phantoms if you don't understand this

Re how to use - if you get a contact at 270 degrees 30 km then the first thing to do is estimate where you think he is heading. If you just fly 270 you will always be chasing him unless he comes straight at you and will prob never get him. With experience and using the map you can estimate where migh be going. Let's say you think he's going south. So turn your a/c to 235 degrees (while the TAB 7-1 says 270 he could actually be anywhere between 255-285 as the reading is in 30 degree increments) to cut the corner. Hopefully the range will count down 30, 25, 20, 15 - you might have to adjust your heading to be closer to the TAB7-1 reading as you get closer in range and then in 1 km increments down to 2 km. it won't show a range of less than 2 and if he's closer than 2 u won't get him on TAB7-1. So if a tgt ever gets to 2 and then disappears then watch out. Takes practice but it will become easier pretty quickly especially once you work out the hot spots where most people head to fight.

Hope this helps

Ezzie

[Infinity]

Search for a thread called "the men who stare at pixels" or something like that. There are a bunch of tricks you can try to maximize your spotting distance. It's important to stay zoomed out (counterintuitively) to have the best chance of spotting a distant contact.

[Silent135]

Link to single player contact spotting mission:

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.co...ad.php?t=13915

Run the mission and then have a play with your graphics and monitor brightness/contrast settings.

[lil_head]

Thank you all for the kind words and help.

This is definitely a challenging learning curve. Also hard to get people to type while flying, which I understand. I think a lot of people don't know I'm deaf yet so they keep trying to talk to me in TS.

I'm still working on my controls. One thing I notice is that my 109E4 keeps pulling up and to the right. Plus any time I try to make any movements I go into a spinning nose dive that is really hard to recover from. Can't seem to make any sharp or quick moments, is that normal for this level of realism?

Also I have a hard time spotting enemy planes in the distance. Then when I do and I angle for a better approach/attack, they disappear, literally. Is there some kind of draw limit? If so, can I increase it?

Got jumped by a plane yesterday while trying to descend in order to land. Didn't see him at all even though I was looking around. Any time I got fighter into/bearing and started in that direction, that info changed completely, sometimes in the opposite direction so I was frustrated. The fighter managed to damage me pretty good over 3-4 passes before I crash landed, which I botched pretty good.

Any more advice for a noob? Thanks again!

Debrief:

I was there when you got jumped in descending. There was 4 of us chasing you. We also had trouble finding you. I was back and forth chasing my tail trying to find you near manston. We finally saw you when you turned for France. We thought you had seen us. We followed you all the way back but we were barely in visual range. I lost sight of you once or twice. The guys I was with were able to catch you when you descended and 2 or 3 of them had a crack at you. I stayed top cover. We all recognised your name when it came up after you crash landed.
Unfortunately the server was heavily populated with RED at the time so don't be hard on yourself, we had 4 sets of eyes at work.
S!

[DeafBringer]

Thanks for the additional info.

I suspect part of why you were chasing your tail is because I was literally chasing mine, trying to force an encounter with whatever fighter was up there. I didn't understand how the coordinate report worked then so I'm sure that is what threw you guys off.

What is the typical altitude to fly at? I'm not sure if I'm flying too high or too low.

I'm looking at the stare at pixel thread. Seems my monitor might be too small and my GPU too weak? running a Nvida GTX970 with a 23 inch monitor I believe. What resolution should I set the game at? I have crap vision too which doesn't help.

[lil_head]

Sometime you see the enemy early sometimes you don't. You were higher than us. 109's usually start high and attack prey that are lower. That way you boom and zoom back up, using the 109' strengths(dive and climb)

Some people use lower resolution to see aircraft better. I use 1080 x 1920 on a 23 or 21 inch monitor. Its hard to see the tiniest pixel but I've gotten use to it. I still find it hard to see though. But with experience you'll start picking up aircraft. Fly with team mates where you can as the more eyes the better.

Good luck mate.

[ATAG_Dave]

What is the typical altitude to fly at? I'm not sure if I'm flying too high or too low.

As a general rule higher is safer / better / provides more options- in 1600 hours of playing clod ive never thought - 'damn im too high'...whereas ive thought 'damn im too low' many many times (normally just before a member of JG52 or KetarianFox etc puts my ailerons out of action

My brain works in feet so convert to metres for the 109 - if you are hunting then sometimes 22,500 feet is ideal. Its high-ish and you are just below contrail height and so are less visible to your intended target. Of course 22,500 is no good if your opponent turns out to be at 25,000....

But it depends what you are looking for - theres no right or wrong - its a game after all and the point is to have fun and sometimes you will just want to find a fight and enjoy yourself without ensuring you have an advantage at the start. If its action you are after then you will always find it low over the ships on the Sealion and Hellfire Corner maps, anywhere over the solent on the New Dawn Fades map, Le Harvre for the Relinquish map, there are many others and i cant recall them all right now, but it all becomes familiar with a bit of time.

Anyway great to see you enjoying the game, keep at it - CloD has a very steep learning curve, ATAG server 1 is a brutal, (but excellent) place to learn. Its normal that its hard to start with, after lots of practice it will be (a bit) less hard

S!

PS Congratulations - you have a kill to your name already

Splash One.PNG

[ATAG_Highseas]

in 1600 hours of playing clod ive never thought - 'damn im too high'

erm...

me neither...

[ATAG_Highseas]

PS Congratulations - you have a kill to your name already

Splash One.PNG

Yey !!

Nice one Deafbringer !!

[ATAG_Pattle]

Hey Deafbringer.

Congrats on 'bringing you first!

Did you get the message I sent yesterday re tab 7 1 etc?

Pattle

[DeafBringer]

Thanks everyone. I still need to fix my view range, as it's extremely limited so I'm a bit concerned about climbing high and then not seeing anyone.

Pattle, I did. thank you!

Regarding the kill, I feel that doesn't really count as I died in the process. It was a mid air collusion playing chicken with guns firing. The spit was turning to my left trying to get shots on me so I started rolling right and figured I could start climbing to try and beat him out of his turn. Seems he was following my thought process and started to roll in the same direction. Not sure if my wing clipped him, or if he clipped me, or if it was a more solid impact. Either way, we were both instantaneously dead, lol.