Many people do not know where to start when it comes to Il-2 and flight simulation in general. This archival project has brought to light a lot of old, however useful, training resources. This page will be a collection of those, aimed at bringing new players up to speed in the most efficient, enjoyable, and seamless way possible. So if you are new, grab a drink, maybe a snack, sit back, and enjoy the countless hours of effort many pilots before you have put into their work ensuring your success in combat on the front! The first tutorial, Bearcat's control setup guide, is found directly below, and the rest will be listed behind the buttons below this paragraph as well.
For our first training element, an excerpt from Bearcat's "Nugget" guide.
Welcome aboard nugget!!
Before we begin... I must say that Mission4Today.com is the single absolute best overall TOTAL RESOURCE for this sim as far as guides, missions, skins, downloads etc. goes in cyberspace. It has no equal and will henceforth be referred to as M4T throughout this guide. Between here and M4T you will have all the resources you need to become proficient in this sim and get the most out of it. This sim is going to do one of two things to you. It is either going to spark that rise to the challenge fire in you... making you want to master it.... or at least invest a lot of time trying. Or it will frustrate you so much that after a few attempts you will put it back on your shelf and go back to whatever it was that held your interest before you decided to see what the hubbub was about. I cant help you if you chose the latter. However if you choose the former... Then read on.
Preflight: Setting the controls
1- HOTAS controls. In this sim the HOTAS section of the CONTROLS menu is where any command that can be set to an axis (as in a potentiometer on the joystick axis) will be found. (Throttle, Brakes, Prop, Pitch, Flaps, Roll, Pitch, Yaw and the trims associated with them. While controls in the HOTAS section can also be assigned to keystrokes it is more efficient and much smoother to have them mapped to a slider where possible. At the very least you should have Elevator (Pitch), Ailerons (Roll), Rudder (Yaw), and Power (Throttle) mapped in the HOTAS section. I also have my trims set on sliders (Potentiometers.. they can be knobs or levers) and prefer it that way.
Open the sim and go to CONTROLS. Look at that slider on your right hand side and grab it and scroll all the way to the bottom where you will see a section called HOTAS. Once you get to the bottom of the screen you will see the controls menu. Highlight the right side of the line that has the control on it and then move the corresponding joystick function. For example.. if you want to map your throttle L click on the line next to Power and an empty box will open up. Once this happens cycle your throttle from top to bottom. Inside that empty box text will appear that will say something like "U slider axis" or "-U slider axis". Should you find that when you go into the sim any controls in the HOTAS section are reversed, simply go back to the control in question and reverse the cycling of the control in question. If it said U before it should change to - U and vice versa..
2- Individual Controls
Scroll back to the top of CONTROLS and make sure that you have the following functions mapped (these are the basics you will need to be able to enjoy most of the aircraft in the sim in various scenarios), either to a key on your keyboard or on your stick or that you know where they are in the case that they are already mapped:
Additional controls....
*SHIFT+F1 will center the gunsight on some axis planes like the 109s, Ki-84s, Zeros...
*CTRL+D will remove the lens cover on the gunsight for the D-3A, the F2-A and the Ki-43
*ESC will end your mission.
(A more detailed explanation of setting up your joystick): https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&
Once you have set all this up in the controls menu click APPLY on the lower left and you will be returned to the main menu.
