Starting at Rank 2, what do I need to do to get to the P-51 as fast as possible?

I really couldn't care for anything else, the P-51 is the aircraft I want to fly because once I own it I can test fly it as much as I want over the gorgeous WT landscape...but what do I need to do to get it in my Hangar without losing too much on repairs and buying all the (IMHO) 'rubbish' aircraft I will never fly, getting to it?

Cheers, MP

Wish I had the answer mate, but I'm interested in what the response is going to be. I'd like to buy a Spitfire so I'm in the same boat.

For the P-51D, there is no other way that to grind up the branch of it's tree.

I can understand for online play that a player should not be able to buy their way straight into the best plane in the game (although with good matchmaking, that shouldn't matter either)...but why not allow people to buy whatever kite they want for offline flying? Are these guys in it to make money, or what?

I've got the same problem as you guys: I'd like to have fun and fly some of my favourite planes as well as unusual ones, but I'm not trying to play a "competition" and run for leaderboards. War Thunder could be a great virtual flight museum/encyclopedia (for which I would gladly pay), but its rigid way of tying everything to the damn furball competition ruins that possibility. I've often been told by other users to be patient and wait for a better campaign/single player mode, but I've never seen the devs show any interest at all in historical campaigns and missions (remember, what they're serving us for single player/coop and campaigns is simply the continuation of what they've done before with BoP, WoP, Birds of Steel - I see no evidence that it will change with WT).
I was like MysticPuma initially, trying to figure out how to reach such and such plane of interest, but I've given up now because there is no way around the grinding through repetitive furballs (and at Australian times I can't even find FRB games which makes it worse).

The reality, Heinkill, is that they'll make money alright with their model and therefore don't give a damn about us interested historical sims: the World Of Tank business model is a juicy one which will feed on players easily caught in the obsessive circle of climbing up the ladder while spending insane amounts of money to sustain their addiction - to me it's no different from Slot machines or other money machines.

Think you nailed it there!

IIRC it actually IS possible to take any plane for a test flight, as long as you remember it's stricty offline...
I know I did it some time patches ago.

If I'm not wrong, you just have to click on the plane you're interested in and from those little square icons at the very bottom there's a test-flight one.

OTOH, these guys are working hard and giving the users a free game. It just seems logical that they make money out of it.
Yes, grinding it's bothersome and yes, it can take a LOOONG time to get to the toys we want... But at least you know that if someone has a great plane he earned it with sweat. Not just bought it.

But what about the people that want historical missions and co-ops for instance? They just aren't catered for, and these are people they could be making income from.. it's crazy they are letting a potential method of generating income just slip away...
It's just gamers, leaderboards, extra powerups and dogfights... but it's their trainset and they can do what they want with it!

Yes, I completely see your point of view.

For comparison I will mention Rise of Flight:
In this case you'll see the two opposed commercial profiles...

Rise of Flight take very seriously the historical side of the flight sims.

Very simply War Thunder was not primarily meant as a Historic Battle tool, despite the name given to the game modes...
It's a micro-transaction based flight simulator with some realistic flight models.

I agree that the potential is nearly infinite, but obviously they aim for something different...
And as far as I've seen they're owning that niche and making crazy bucks.

In complete honesty I was hoping something like you guys too, but when they make ends meet and earn good on top- well...
Good for them. It's some time I'm considering removing the game from my HDD, if it wasn't that it look so SOOO great...

Bottom line for me?
The people that want historical missions and co-op have to live with what is found there, look somewhere else or keep discussing about this on the developer forum and see their reactions.

I know I tried all of them...

You could outsource it and pay some kid in Bangalore 20USD to grind his way to the machine you want...

http://www.topsite.com/goto/guru.com

H

short answer mystic,aint gonna happen !
Ive been flyin WT for about 6 months since I had a hissyfit with you know what "other flight-sim" !...Ive only flown FRB in WT.
Graphics are absolutely spectacular,no question, how "immersive" with clouds and rain (droplets on the canopy etc)...Watchin your instruments(even though you dont believe them) as you fly feeling Disorientated through bad weather !...Incredible and fun !
Now here is where its not so nice !......
Picture your flying a Spit MK2 !.....And you come across a GERMAN LA5fn...need I say any more !...You can "buy" a lot of planes that just dont fit the era or timeframe,theather....So by the time you "Grind' to your P51,you may be in combat with Mig 29s !
J~S

I have the P51. I get maybe 3-4k for a kill in HB. But if I get shot down, it takes 16k to repair it. I can't come out with those odds, so I fly older planes. I can still get kills and can nearly, overall, come out ahead with them. The P51, I don't fly so much.

that's confirmed and absolutely killed this game for me now.. The devs made a great hulabaloo that this was going to be 'the' flight sim to have, there would be mission editors, historical planesets and missions etc.. not happening is it?

A cautious question, not meant to spark any flame... is it still in beta?

As a matter of fact the Roadmap SEEMS to include correction to all of this...

Straight from the website:
Planned new features of War Thunder to be introduced during open global beta:

The earliest changes:
personal statistics;
squadrons (clans);
enhanced game balancer;
new missions, locations and game modes;
major update, new menu and interface;
furter FM corrections;
new aircrafts (check the Release Tree section);
update of the economic model;


Other updates:
new languages localization;
control over ground vehicles and battle ships;
tournaments;
player's missions, and full mission editor;
game mode «World War»;
bombers cockpits;
voice chat.

lol.. yes I know mate, still know its in beta of course, but still, in it's present state I won't be trying to work my way through anymore so won't give it much time on my 'flying agenda'
If that changes I'll only be too glad to jump in on proper historical co-ops, or make my own missions if the ME idea ever kicks off.
But bearing in mind with what we have been discussing, the loss of possible revenue, plus the advent of another 'historically based' WWII simulator game is on the not to distant horizon, and that means competition.

Aye,
all in all, what I'm saying is I agree with the current state of the game, let's just wait a bit more

I guess we all agree it looks and performs really well, though. Right?
It deserve a fighting chance.

And I can't wait for competition. Competition is ALWAYS good.

Yes it deserves a chance, as it still has potential. I start it up every few weeks to check for new versions, full mission editor, offline campaign missions, aircraft availability, World War feature, etc and shut it down again. I'd like to see an early model spit, 109, Lagg etc, just to practice with to see if the sim interests me enough to invest more in later models aircraft and features. I believe WT had an opportunity, and may still have the opportunity to draw more people from the combat flight sim community if they included a couple more early monoplanes. I believe a majority of the older combat flight sim communities eyes glaze over when they start talking about Lions/XP/Grinding/repair costs. I have no problem buying some aircraft/new features at a decent price, but they haven't interested me enough yet to start. Patiently waiting.

Ah, okay, so it appears it's still not possible

Basically all I really do want to do is take a P-38/P-47 and P-51 out on free-flights. In the early Alpha build (I was one of the testers), this was possible for all aircraft. All aircraft were available for "Test Flight" in the Hangar, without having to buy them.

This then let you choose the aircraft tree you wanted to invest your time in, I mean why would you grind your way to an aircraft you've never even tried, only to find after spending all your time and money...that it just didn't work for you?

I really can't be bothered to fly around in the biplane's for months, lose XP, lose Lions, by XP, lose insurance....lose, lose, lose...buy, lose, lose...and still get no further up the ranks and therefore unable to spend my money on what I actually really want to fly.

Guess I'll have to wait until there is a SP Campaign that lets you buy the aircraft you want to use

Cheers, MP

Yep MP, welcome to the club, that's the attitude I have decided to take with WT: wait and see. Maybe they'll deliver a full mission editor (but I suspect it will only let you use plane you already unlocked, just like the quick mission builder...), maybe they'll release paid campaigns (but they really need to revise their mission design, the current single player and campaign mission are horrid and usually unplayable in full sim mode due to unrealistic objectives) - time will tell whether this beautiful engine will cater for the historical sim crowd or not. At the current rythm, I'd give it one or 2 years for any significant content of that type to show up, so by then hopefully we'll also see what the competition offers.