f13.net

Hey, is anyone out there a skilled flyer? With GTA4 out now, I decided to have a go at finishing GTA:SA, but then realised why I stopped playing - shitty flying missions.

I'm up to N.O.E. Which is the first shitty flying mission after the plane training. I think I may have actually spent a few hours lfying shitty planes around the map in an attempt to grind up my flying skill before losing interest totally.

If anyone out there is interested in me sending them my save file and doing this strand, PM me.

Are you using a gamepad? I wouldn't be able to jump in and fly for shit, but I do remember gamepad is mandatory.

I did it all with the keyboard (got 100% completion on the game, gold-starred every school, the works), but I think I may have messed around with the key bindings to make it easier.  Something along the lines of binding the steering and throttle to WSAD and all the pitching and rolling stuff to the numpad.  Or is that how it's set up by default?  I can't remember now.

If I still had the game installed I'd take you up on that savegame thing, but the prospect of digging up my discs and spending an hour reinstalling it for five minutes of flying isn't that appealing.   :-P

http://www.thegtaplace.com/downloads/category.php?id=39

Thanks, though the problem is that I like my own save. It's just the shitty flying missions I want to skip. I figure I've still got a big chunk of Las Venturas left to do.

Are A and D the rudder controls by default?

If not, put them there, and put the roll controls on the numpad.

Makes flying much easier because then your left hand can pretend it's driving a car, which should be automatic by this point, and you can devote your right hand and most of your brain to handling the fiddly three-dimensional stuff.

Gold-starring the flight school is a beast, but you should be able to at least pass the required missions without too much trouble.  And they're fun, especially the last one.   :drill:

Do the flight settings also affect the RC plane or is that just entirely different?

I think it's the same.

I'm still kind of amazed you guys played this with the keyboard. Nobody bags on gamepads more than me, but for this game I love it. I'm playing it a little again, and I only use the keyboard for some of the set pieces where you can't use lockon targeting, like Big Smoke vs the Russians when you're on the back of the motorcycle.

Camera control with the mouse is just so much easier that it negates any advantage the keyboard on its own might have had over the gamepad for driving, never mind the shooty stuff. The gamepad might be better for flying if you spend enough time practicing at it, but so far I haven't found that to be the case.

What Samwise said.

Mouse >>>>>>>>>>>>> Thumbstick for aiming and looking.