SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Cooperative Multiplayer

I mentioned previously that, while some groups of online players (I'll call them squads from now on) are very coordinated, some just aren't. And some — perhaps most — are in between. Maintaining flight discipline, where each member sticks to his or her task, is extremely difficult — maintaining flight cohesiveness even more so. If just one member of your flight decides to go off and do "his own thing", this can have several effects on the rest of your team. Firstly, it may encourage some of the other less disciplined members to do the same. This can be avoided by a timely comment on comms that everyone needs to focus on their own particular role. Secondly — and much more importantly — someone going off and doing their own thing can create a "gap in the plan". In other words, the task that he or she should have completed will remain unfinished unless you, as flight lead, take steps to address it. Either re-orientate your entire flight so that it attempts to meet the same threats with fewer resources, or simply assign to one person the additional role that should have been performed by your now absent team member. The latter usually requires an extremely competent player, but avoids the situation where the whole team has to shift their position, which can be much more difficult to coordinate.
Lastly in this section, "think 3D in the 3D world". What I mean by this is that you need to try to develop a sense of situational awareness that won't come naturally to you. A flight simulation on the PC will give you a limited field of view, and it'll usually be very difficult for you to look around as quickly as you could in real life. Likewise, your body is robbed of certain sensations — notably the effect of g-forces. With experience and practice, you will begin to develop a “feeling” for where you are in relation to other objects — both friendlies and enemy and also — very importantly — the earth. A useful tool for this is the very successful TrackIR system available from NaturalPoint or RC Simulations. Any competent flight simmer will develop a sense of where their aircraft is in relation to terra firma.

The Debriefing

Contrary to popular opinion, the debrief can be as fundamental a part of the learning process as either the briefing or the flight itself. Some pointers as to why:

As before, listen to each other. Discuss your own failings during the mission you’ve just flown. Did you go “off objective”? Did you communicate efficiently? Or did you jam up the comms channel with unnecessary chatter when someone else needed it to call a threat? Examine your own failings — there’s always something we could have done better — and be careful to listen to any other criticisms of your performance.
Provide others with feedback. Any criticism should always be constructive. Remember that you’re part of a team, and that it’s only by building your team spirit that your team will reach its maximum efficiency. Destructive criticism will have a negative impact here — others may be unwilling to fly with you in future and your criticism may simply get others’ backs up and so start a chain reaction of such criticism. Don’t do it. It’s not big, it’s not clever, and it’s no fun flying by yourself.
This links to the above point, but it’s worth reinforcing — every aspect of your time in a multiplayer experience should be undertaken with one purpose in mind: enjoyment. And enjoyment comes from, firstly, conducting a successful mission and, secondly, sharing that success with others and forging a common bond with your team. Never forget this — you’ll increase your own enjoyment of the experience and hopefully those around you.

Conclusion

Never forget: any computer game (and, really, that’s all a flight simulation is) is to be enjoyed. And that’s all this article is aimed at - increasing your enjoyment. If any of the points set out here don’t work for you — no problem, disregard. Just enjoy yourself — and don’t neglect real life.

Check Six.

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