So I have this amazing setup (HOTAS Warthog, TrackIR, Saitek Combat pedals, and three 30" monitors in surround for full immersion) but even after MANY hours of practice in War Thunder (Realistic Battles), I am still sucking really hard.

I have a few hypotheses:
1) War Thunder is not the best game to get used to new peripherals because of X or Y (bad flight physics maybe?)

2) I am not setup correctly. I have a R3volution coming but until then my Warthog is on my desk. From cockpits pics I saw, the correct position seem to be at waist level. Could this account for the sucking?

3) I am setup correctly, but not using them correctly: my understanding of WW2 mechanics is that speed is key, rudder is to be used for small or minor adjustments only, and then I've watched some flying techniques videos.

Yet, I am having a hard time aiming precisely with the joystick. I've tried all sorts of sensitivity. A lower sensitivity seems to make it easier for me to handle flight, but I regularly empty my ammo magazine without killing a single plane. I could be tailing one for 10 minutes before I manage a kill. This doesn't seem "normal".

4) My expectations are wrong: I have near zero experience in flight sims, I got this setup for Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen especially. Last time I used a joystick extensively, it was for Freespace 2, which we can all agree has f-all to do with atmospheric flight. In space sims you'll be shooting down a dozen ships every minute, I suppose if this is what I want I should play War Thunder in arcade mode and play with a mouse, but that wouldn't be satisfactory.

My guess is my problem is a mix of 3) and 4), but I still don't think 15 minutes of tailing is considered apt.

Are there better games I could play to improve with the Warthog? New settings or sensitivity I could apply to make it easier? Use my rudder pedals differently?

Any guidance you can provide on how not to suck would be appreciated

I have never bothered with WT so I cant comment on the FM. However maybe if you could record you flight and pause the replay when you shoot then you should be able to see where your bullets are going. It could be that you arent giving enough "lead" and or your convergence isnt set up right. I fly 1946 mainly and it could be that WT hasnt got the weapon trajectory modeled different to IL-2

I have a cockpit.

WH (with 15cm extension) and rudder pedals and the immersion is great.
However I was more successful when I was at a desk with a twisty stick.
Going for the immersion has done nothing for my "mad skillz"

Having a good setup will not necessarily make you more successful as an online pilot.
It's all about practice, practice, practice.

I've been flying flight sims since 1994, I sometimes forget how hard they are to use.
This was brought home to me the other day. My son who regularly burns me in Call of Duty had a go in my pit.
He couldn't even keep the plane straight an level.
I suppose it's like learning to drive, not easy at first but the more you do it the easier it becomes

I am considering buying an extension because I find the Warthog very hard to use in micro-adjustments from center. I don't know why. There's resistance and it translates back into my wrist which is both uncomfortable and impairing. The X52 pro was flimsy in comparison, but it made controls easier.

Practice is one thing but you have to practice well and correctly.

I suppose the purpose of the extension is to nullify that resistance?

The FFSB R3 mod sounds interesting but I'd feel stupid spending 600$ on a mod I don't even know I will like.

I don't necessarily think the purpose of the extension is to nullify resistance so much as provide a wider, more realistic range of movement to the stick.

The Warthog's gimbal is inherently flawed, plain and simple. There's plenty of "stiction" that makes fine adjustments difficult, be it from center or well outside of center, mainly because this ring that the springs press on binds against its guideposts. An extension might help overcome this because it provides more leverage, but it doesn't eliminate the core problem.

The X-52 doesn't suffer from that, but it has a far greater problem in that its gimbals are just plain sloppy, not perfectly translating the movement to the sensors.

Anyway, using a HOTAS takes practice, and in any halfway realistic flight sim, gunnery is DIFFICULT. A lot of the videos on various sims I've seen show that I'm not alone in having narrowly missed the target on a deflection shot and needing a surprising amount of bullets to shoot the target down. The World War I tactic of choice, as I've heard here, was to try and ram the target so you couldn't possibly miss, but pull away at the last second so you don't actually crash.

Aside from War Thunder sim mode, you could try out Rise of Flight or one of the IL-2 Sturmovik iterations for good old dogfighting sims that put realism first.

Thanks a lot Nameless, very interesting insight.

I tried IL:2 COD with Team Fusion mod but was having difficulty with my surround monitor setup (the center screen bleeds a bit on both left and right monitor in the menus only, which makes changing options difficult). I also own IL-2 1946 but haven't played it in a while. I've been waiting for IL-2 Stalingrad, but not holding my breath after how they handled COD.

Never heard of Rise of Flight, will try that later.

Thanks again!

PS. Would a FFSB R3 eliminate the problem completely? People often say FFSB is more useful for modern jet sims whereas for WW2 it's not. Since I plan to use it mostly for Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous (and Diaspora), I'm interested. Most people say it takes a lot of getting used to but since Im untrained with a standard HOTAS, it wouldn't be too bad.

1) War Thunder is not the best game to get used to new peripherals because of X or Y (bad flight physics maybe?)

Can't comment on this one, never played it.

2) I am not setup correctly. I have a R3volution coming but until then my Warthog is on my desk. From cockpits pics I saw, the correct position seem to be at waist level. Could this account for the sucking?

Possibly, but I know a lot folks who do pretty solid flying with the stick at higher then waist level.

3) I am setup correctly, but not using them correctly: my understanding of WW2 mechanics is that speed is key, rudder is to be used for small or minor adjustments only, and then I've watched some flying techniques videos.

Well all AC have a certain speed where they turn the best, WW2 AC bleed airspeed bad so faster is almost always a good thing. Rudder, depending on the AC, can be minimal or it can be floor stomping. Keep the slip indicator (the "ball") centered when you turn best as possible for the smoothest most maneuverable flight.

Yet, I am having a hard time aiming precisely with the joystick. I've tried all sorts of sensitivity. A lower sensitivity seems to make it easier for me to handle flight, but I regularly empty my ammo magazine without killing a single plane. I could be tailing one for 10 minutes before I manage a kill. This doesn't seem "normal".

Don't feel bad, a lot of real world pilots had the same problem. Rule 1 is get close. Rule 2 is get closer still. Rule 3 is get even closer. I'd have to find the study to get the hard numbers, but basically deflection shooting over 15 degrees had about a 5% success rate. Hence why lead predicting or correcting sights had been developed starting in WW1. Hitting successfully when firing at high deflection angles takes a LOT of practice to do with any degree of reliability.

4) My expectations are wrong: I have near zero experience in flight sims, I got this setup for Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen especially. Last time I used a joystick extensively, it was for Freespace 2, which we can all agree has f-all to do with atmospheric flight. In space sims you'll be shooting down a dozen ships every minute, I suppose if this is what I want I should play War Thunder in arcade mode and play with a mouse, but that wouldn't be satisfactory.

Unless you're really good, or the enemies real bad (or you get lucky and get both) don't expect to knock down more then 1 aircraft in a sortie. There's a reason making ace was a big deal.

-Jenrick