[Vehicle] Horrible Dogfighter Needs Help Learning to Dogfight

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by LeonardJones, May 31, 2018.

  1. LeonardJones

    I have a maxed out scythe on Emerald which to date I have only used to auraxium the AI nosegun (RIP old LPPA) and for fast transport. 've wanted to learn to dogfight for awhile now but im still having a lot of issues (especially with valks, they seem immortal in a 1v1 when they have fire suppression and one engineer in the rumble seat)

    If anyone wants to help, im LeonardJones on VS
  2. adamts01

    Good for you for taking the steps to become better instead of asking for everything to be made easier. Start sending tells to the guys who shoot you down if they could help teach you, and join big platoons and ask for help over coms. Most pilots will jump at helping new players learn the air game. If you were on Connery I'd show you the relatively little I know and help you on your way.
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  3. JibbaJabba

    For me (I'm no expert) the best help I've found is to just work on my gunnery. My flying seems OK, but my gunnery just sucks.

    practicing against individual infantry (not vehicles!) in VR has been helpful.


    Agree with Adam too. May of the enemy pilots know exactly the struggles you are having. Don't be afraid to chat with them. They may be willing to dual a bit, or perhaps leave you alone while you're still learning.
  4. AEROCHAOSS

    If you can handle the reverse maneuver, you could get the **** coyotes do a primary dmg, then keep shooting with nose gun. As the saron does only little more dmg compared to the Antares, pick that one. It is slower in velocity but has a way bigger magazine. This leads you to have higher on time.
    Valks in general are just annoying you could boost away from them, if you have nose gun plus tank or spam them to death, if to close for proper aim , with coyotes. For valks, try to stay above their belly and to keep shooting them. Antares shines here as you get easily a huge ammo pool.
    Whats about watching dogfight videos on YouTube. To Learn how much you need to lead your target?
  5. OgreMarkX

    Map your pitch up and pitch down keys to your mouse; I use the two thumb buttons. This helps you turn tighter and to climb and descend faster and it helps keeps you aligned to your target.

    When fighting Valks, it can help to keep a but of distance--easier to track and hit them while they take evasive maneuvers.

    Mapping those keys helps you all air combat.

    And remember, never underestimate the flight characteristics of a coward. My best air moves come when I running away crying and many a pursuing enemy has crashed in pursuit.
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  6. 23232Bleh

    Why try to get good, they designed weapons so you don't need to--use yotes or a2a and just fly in a squad of them. Doesn't matter how good or bad you are when you gib a person by shooting near them.
  7. Prudentia

    wait one more week.
    then you can spawn ESFs om Koltyr and train dogfights with a friend in a controlled environment.
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  8. JibbaJabba



    WOOT! That's great news. Was this in a PTS note or something?
    • Up x 1
  9. Prudentia

    yep, came on PTS i think 2 updates ago so it is likely to hit live with the next one.
    i'm already planing to a flight school evening for my outfit so they can learn there is nothing ourageous with flying a galaxy upside down for 6 kilometers.
  10. JibbaJabba



    I can't do that. I spend too much time flying one upside down and my muscle memory gets stuck permanently backwards for like half an hour. I wreck when flying rightside up.
    • Up x 1
  11. LodeTria

    >Spend ages learning to dogfight.
    >Get okay to decent enough that you're not dying every 5 seconds.
    >Get zerged by skill-less lock-ons and coyotes.

    Either
    > Join another air zerg and use skill-less lock-ons.
    > Wonder why you bother anymore and uninstall.
  12. Silkensmooth

    The most important thing you can do, if you havent done so already is to turn off mouse acceleration.

    I had that on for the first few months of flying and it was awful. I just thought i was terrible and someone told me about mouse acceleration and how bad it is for fps game.

    I turned off my acceleration and the next thing im getting tells from all of the pilots who had been totally destroying me asking if i'd gotten an aimbot.

    I'm left handed so my controls are perhaps a bit odd, but i use e,r,t,d,f,g as my flight controls.

    E is pitch up.

    R is forward accel.

    T is pitch down.

    D is yaw left.

    F is brakes.

    G is yaw right.

    I have ascend on H and my pinkie (left handed) is almost always on that button unless im actually fighting.

    Descend is mouse thumb button.

    Analog throttle (another very important trick) is on S.

    Afterburn is Left click (left handed) and fire is main mouse button.

    Y does Camera view 1st person to third. Even while dogfighting i switch to third person any time im not actually firing the gun. Even during reloads i switch to third person. It much easier to see and avoid incoming damage in third person. Much easier to see other enemies and avoid obstacles like the ground and trees.

    If you notice all of my keyboard buttons are within reach without moving my hand.

    If you yaw in the direction of a turn while you are pitching down, (with the pitch key of course), you will do a 180 degree turn slightly faster than if you dont yaw. You want to yaw in the opposite direction you roll. So for example if you roll to the right with your mouse and then you pitch down you would yaw left and if you roll left then you would yaw to the right.

    Sensitivity is mucho importante. If you find yourself see-sawing up and down when trying to aim at your target then your sesnitivity is too high. If you have trouble tracking targets with the mouse then its probly too low.

    I run 1000 dpi and .342 in game flight vehicle sensitivity.

    Also make sure you have a good mouse, thats pretty vital. Something designed for gaming. Left handed so i use the razer death adder left handed edition. Its kinda flimsy but the most comfortable left hander i could find.

    Really being able to fly on koltyr will be a game changer. If you fly on the continent against real enemies you get very litttle practice time when new because you get shot down so fast. An hour dueling on koltyr is worth many hours of live flight time practice. In a few hours you will be able to compete with pretty much anyone. Especially if you have your settings properly set up.
  13. Silkensmooth

    To do the reverse is pretty easy.

    Just fly up high above the ground.

    Roll on your side.

    Pitch down witth the pitch key while yawing toward the sky until you can do a 360 while remaining horizontal. If you dont yaw to correct (or roll slightly) the plane will tend to dip toward the ground.

    Once you can manage the pitching hard to do a 360 you are ready tto start reversing. All you have to do is go to flight controls. Set a button that is easy for you to hit without moving your hand to the command called Analog Throttle.

    Analog throttle will sort of kill your engines and keep the thrusters in the hover position better than just pure braking.

    So you are rolled on your side pitching down while remaining as horizontal as possible, and you hit the analog throttle button. Its VERY important that you keep your finger OFF the throttle now. Blipping the throtttle will turn off the analog throttle and you DONT want that right now.

    When you hit the analog throttle button your engines die down and shortly after your thrusters will tilt down ( cant see it in a scythe, so best to learn in a skeeter or reaver) and when they do you are ready to use the afterburners to fly backward at crazy speeds.

    While reversing you can roll around a bit making it nearly impossible to hit you.
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  14. Silkensmooth

    When dogfighting dont forget that avoiding incoming fire is at least half the battle.

    Ascend and descend and at other times in between sit still.

    What i mean is you are facing your opponent and you two are firing on each other. As soon as you start taking damage you change what youre doing. Firing without ascending or descending makes it easier to be accurate as you dont have to adjust as much so start out like that.

    As soon as you start taking damage you would hold down ascend. This makes the enemy have to re-aim and he will miss a few shots. When he regains his aim and you start getting hit again you descend.

    When you get good you will find that some people have a pattern tthat is predictable, up and down.

    I find that at times just sitting while doing neither ascent nor descent confuses some because they expect one or the other.

    Mix it up. Save afterburners so that you can reverse during reloads to avoid taking damage.
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  15. Silkensmooth

    Agree with the comments about skilless coyotes and lock-ons.

    I find it very ironic that when infantry got a gun, (the canis) that had a similar mechanic to coyotes, (firing near someone and getting direct hits) the infantry crowd went nuts.

    But up here in the sky we have had to deal with this crap for YEARS.

    Make it so stealth works against these crappy weapons again, but thats another thread.
  16. Pacster3


    That is not compareable at all. You are not going to win a 1vs3 even with the unnerfed Canis and rather skilless enemies....you can easily do so in aircraft dogfights when all just use their main cannon. The skill ceiling is so much higher in aircrafts than for ground combat. Lockons are leveling the playing field a bit...not more not less. A good pilot will still win any 1on1 easily...he just can't outgun more than 2 ESF at a time anymore.
  17. Pacster3

    And you really believe that? Seriously, the whole air combat is so different from anything else in the game and feels so odd that you will need many, many hours(possibly in the 100s) even on koltyr. Especially when we break it down to just main guns. Koltyr will make things easier but it's still going to be a long and rough ride to handle all those crazy moves while somehow staying on a moving target. Air combat will stay something for air knights...all others won't invest that much time to get the muscle memory right just for this part of the game.
  18. Silkensmooth

    No pacster, you are wrong.

    I have trained many pilots on the test server.

    Calling people names who are good at flying is the communist way of degrading someone who has worked hard, in favor of someone who has done nothing. The fact that you will resort to name calling instead of WANTING to compete against the best says something about your warrior spirit.

    Flying is not hard. With a good teacher one can become proficient in a single evening.

    Naturally that will depend upon the individuals natural abilities and previous experience in other games.

    Also having something that is very difficult to master is good for the game.

    There are lots of things that take almost no skill at all, like flak and lock-ons and hesh tanks and shotguns and sniper rifles to name a few.

    The problem with making everything easy is that it severely reduces replay value.

    Having a component of the game that provides an almost limitless ceiling gives players something to keep playing for.

    The reason i don't drive a skyguard is because the skill ceiling is so low its akin to killing AFK players. I cant get any better at a skyguard and that makes it very boring.

    Challenge is good for you.

    We all started out as complete noobs. If you read my first post you will see that i flew for MONTHS with mouse accel on.

    Remember, nothing worth having comes easy. Your skill as a pilot will be hard to gain (easy now that koltyr is open to flight) but just as rewarding as it is difficult.
  19. Silkensmooth

    Also the air community tends to be pretty tightly knit as someone mentioned.

    Most of the people you refer to as skyknights dont really find blasting newbs out of the sky all that fun. We prefer fun fights.

    Most pilots will be happy to help you learn, and there are always air-wings that you can join to drastically increase your survivability.

    The term skyknight initially referred to a particular type of pilot who only liked to duel and would get angry and even teamkill anyone who interfered with their fights.

    Being a good pilot doesnt mean that you are a skyknight. I myself prefer the large fun air battles that mostly can no longer happen due to constant flak.
  20. Prudentia

    lol, as if "air knights" are interested in competition. last week i shot down a banshee farmer together with another Scythe which i considered to be great practice in becoming a better pilot, he promptly pulled a Needler mossie and shot us both down and then sent a tell "thats what you get for try harding scrubs"
    they want to "feel" like they are powerful and are gods among man. they do not care about competition rising up, as that has the issue of maybe harming their self image.
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