Flight Academy Lesson: Basics

Recruits,

This is your instructor speaking. On behalf of the entire Wargaming team we'd like to congratulate you on joining the first and only World of Warplanes Flight Academy! In this series of articles, we'll give you all the basic information you need to advance from novice flyer to master pilot. Are you ready to begin your training? Good, let’s begin. 

The Basics

Do the Tutorials! - It may seem redundant to mention to most of you, but we know that there are always some chaps who choose to skip these introductory missions. Even die hard simulation aficionados should take a short moment to familiarise themselves with how things such as the controls or the interface work in World of Warplanes! Trust us we'll make it worth your while. Not only will you gain invaluable knowledge that may help prevent frustration in the game, but you'll also be rewarded with both XP and credits for your efforts on these tutorial missions.

Learn the different plane classes! - There are four different plane classes in World of Warplanes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each class brings something valuable to the battle and have their own characteristics to balance out the field and ensure fairness and fun gameplay. We've covered the differences between those classes many times already in our previous news coverage. In this lesson we want to tell you how to recognise the different classes in the game, particularly during the loading screen and throughout the in-game countdown when you should be planning your strategy.

Example	Color	Aircraft type
	Grey	Fighter
	Dark Grey	Heavy Fighter
	Blue	Carrier-based Fighter
	Brown	Ground Attack Aircraft

We've assigned a colour to each of the different classes for you to be able to see at first glance how your team and the enemy team are stacked up. The in-game match-maker puts the teams together, mixing up the different classes while keeping the game balanced for both sides. It's always helpful to know who exactly you're going up against and the colours should give you an indication that you should use to your advantage when drafting your strategy.

You can also click on any of the enemy planes to see a comparison between your plane and the enemy aircraft with respect to their performance in firepower, speed and manoeuvrability. Use this information to your advantage to figure out which target to engage, and which planes you should leave to your higher-tiered (or lower-tiered) team mates.

Get to know the plane models! – Try to learn the planes to know which to attack and which to leave be. With practice, you will be able to tell them apart and then you can dominate the skies. When in flight, it helps to know the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents, so that you can work out how best to defeat them. 

To help guide you, use the comparative markers in the bottom of your target window to instantly compare your plane with your locked-on target. If you know who you are matched up against, you have a better chance of drawing up an appropriate strategy.

Don't underestimate the modules! - Modules are more than just visual customisation elements and can significantly boost your plane's performance. An upgraded airframe can give you additional HP, while an improved engine can boost your top speed or rate of climb. In terms of firepower, there are significant differences between the basic guns on the stock model of a plane, and the top gun modules. Sometimes you can gain over 100% firepower increase simply by researching and equipping a different module.

If you have trouble grinding your way up to the next tier plane, try a module upgrade! It's cheaper than going to the next plane in the tech tree and will cost you less XP. In most cases, flying the newly assembled aircraft will feel like going into a higher tier, without having to pay the price of a higher matchmaking value. Don't forget to make full use of the modules!

Choose your favourite control scheme! - While World of Warplanes is a flight game, it doesn’t mean that it has to be played with a joystick! In fact, our developers have prepared five different control schemes for you, consisting of the joystick option, the classical keyboard only, the game pad and two versions of the most common keyboard + mouse combo. You should try out all of the options available to you and find the one you feel most comfortable with. Control is the one thing that you should not compromise on when playing World of Warplanes, since it's a fundamental part at the core of our gameplay. Make sure you're as effective as you can be, no matter which input device you end up going with.

You can also check out our article on this subject if you want to learn more about the pros and cons of each control method.

Performance over beauty! - Set your graphical options properly and customise your HUD for the best performance! We know it's tempting to crank up all the graphics features to make the game look as stunning as possible. However, you should not go further than what your machine can handle in order to avoid fps drops and severe control loss over your plane.
In a dynamic game such as World of Warplanes, every split second counts! This is why we've heard from the most dedicated players that they reduce extra graphics features such as the motion blur to gain a clearer look at the battlefield around them.

Of course, if you happen to like the visuals or don't find that they impact your performance, then by all means crank up the graphics and enjoy the view!

Regardless of what graphic features you go with, you should fine-tune your HUD before going into serious one-on-one dog fights. In the options menu, you'll find many customisation settings for you to personalise your interface by adding, modifying or removing elements as needed. Take advantage of these options and find the setting that works best for you, rather than simply accepting the default pre-set. 

With this, our first lesson comes to a close.

Remember to check in next time, when we reveal what's probably the most pressing question for every World of Warplanes fan out there: How to play offensively!

That's it for now, Recruits. You're dismissed.

Now go Get Airborne!