Any tips for a rookie pilot?

So im actually in a game,interested in air combat,not just ESF but in genenral since i will need at least basics of flight to in the future organize air raids,strafes and fly in general.So im an NC pilot,i will be doing some time in the VR to get a bearing of Reavers abilities and playstyle.Im looking for advice or tips,any faction since both sides of the nose gun help.Im not trying to be a amazing dogfighter i just wanna know how to be more then a clay pigeon in the sky.As for settings for my mouse i ran the sensetivity to 100 so its easier for me to fly.

Most important: rebund your pitch to mouse keys.

Second most important: Don't get frustrated when you die. If you see someone pull off a flawless RM in the distance, wait until you have more friendlies, or just run.
Learn from your deaths.


Also, if you're not an amazing dogfighter... you're a clay pigeon. That is why the air game is so difficult to learn and get into.

Watch youtube tutorials to get a basic idea of what you have to learn and rebind.

And then practise in vr until you can pull the most basic manouvers off without thinking about them.

For a2g you are good to go after that.


If a2a combat is something you want to give a try then prepare for a long and somewhat difficult journey.


For a2a combat until the update from pts hits, use a mosquito.

Why?
Because it's controlls generally feel smoother and more reactive to a new pilot and it's default nosegun is a lot more suited to help you improve your aim.


After a few days you are probably able to pull off sneak attacks even in a reaver, but that sadly doesn't teach you much and once you end up in a hoverfight you will struggle a lot more than with a mosquito.


The needler is so far the best learning tool nc pilots have ... it has the same bullet velocity as the mustang but a higher fire rate and magazine size.
That means you get more tracer rounds that help you improve and slowly but intuitivly learn about the bullet drop in relation to your own and your enemies movements.
And at the same time, the higher magazine size gives you more room for error.


An great pilot will likleyoutperform you, no matter what esf you pick ... but the mossie with a needler at least gives you a lot more feedback when it comes to aiming.





Once you feel like you have the needler at least somewhat under controll, go into the vr with a reaver or mossie again.
This time your goal is to start each of your playsessions in there and spend 10-20minutes perfecting your favourite manouvers.

WHILE SHOOTING!!!!


So start big and aim at the gal, do your manouver and try to stay on target the whole time.
This mind you is vs a stationary target, but even that will be realy tough at first ... that's why you only do it for a bit but regularly.


Oh and use recursion stat tracker, it will slowly but surly show your progress and help you figure out when you hit a roadblock and have to change up things.

here's a playlist by MattiAceGaming on how to fly ESF's
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfjSgtIwLF_OsMjrw2NRfasx48Rc0tri-

Thanks,those videos will be something ill be using while learning,but the main reason i wanna learn how to be a pilot in PS2 is because its challenging,i want a good chalenge so i never get bored playing,i always have something to master and dogfighting is something i will find always challenging.

Excellent post man, and especially like the end. Really great advice.

Fly with numbers first before you take to the skies solo.

Find a squad or platoon who is leading an airsquad. It'll take the pressure off while you learn to control speed, hover and aim. This way, you can learn to aim and lead targets in an environment where you won't be shot back at. Eventually, when you've had enough experience with an organised airsquad, most of the flying and maneuvers will become instinctual.

Just remember laddie,
THE SKY[box]'s THE LIMIT

A good place to learn flight controls, mechanics, and methods is actually not flying an ESF. Use a Valkyrie instead. Its more forgiving in terms of collisions, only slightly more tanky than an ESF, and is generally easier to learn.

The main selling point of course, is that its dramatically cheaper. Meaning you can afford to crash more often getting a feel for how to fly around obstacles and such.

Also, you can't learn obstacle avoidance, terrain following, or ground fire evasion in VR. Spawn a Valk on Indar, lock it (To protect others) and then find a point and buzz around it. Start at the edges, getting a feel for the range on turrets, the positions, etc. Start getting a feel for how to use terrain to break and dodge missiles. The travel time will easily let you afford another one.

That said, in order to placate skynightside:

The current "pro" bushido honorobru meta is that you will be facing off against Fire Suppression Full Mag Needlers with Dogfighting Airframes that will tell you that they never bail.

For Mossys, remember that the side hit box is fairly long. The long and somewhat wide top profile is also useful for raking fire from the top or underside.

For Scythes, remember that they *believe* they are the most manueverable thing ever. They are, but many scythe pilots, particularly those that are career scythers, will under-estimate your manueverability at critical moments. I recommend matching their speed and vector from the skybox and ambushing them from the top. Alternatively, if you can predict their approach, you can hover under them and wreck them up.

Reavers sometimes like to play with shotguns sometimes, but their hitbox is massive.

Yeah i am starting to understand that air is a dangerous place,where only the persistent and determined will actually learn something from it,but i've actually caught a mosquito offguard and menaged to destroy him(tho i died before ) but i find it an improvement,and every little victory paves a way to better scenarios or not,i honesty don't care ill do it anyway.
So should i invest (besides engagement radar) anything else like rocketpods or lolpods how ever you call it,i tend to use them as anti AMS weapon or whenever i need to do some A2G spray.

Well. The orthodoxy is that you should learn to use your default cannon well before jumping into weapons.That said, they do become quite helpful for getting certs.

The rocket pods are obviously nice for firing on ground targets.

The Coyotes and Tomcats are fixing to be changed in the upcoming update, so I would hold off on getting them for now.

Hornets are very difficult to master and get into, and the trial period won't really reveal much for you. But if you can get good at hornets, they can become quite effective.

And i imagine im going to get used to deaths by superior pilots.Actually thats an obvious question,but i like to think positive.I died at least 5 times mostly due to me choking and crashing into the ground.But ya know,no pain no gain.Any Miller air squads by any chance while im at it ,ya know?

With ESFs specifically, it's all about minimizing exposure and being able to navigate close to obstacles. That is the weakest skill I see in pilots in general, myself included some days.

So far im going to go for lone or smoking ESFs if i can if not then i high tail it back or i go around and look some more.As far as i understand my mindset is like a chicken when your outnumbered and snake when you find your foe.

Indeed. Most pilots I've seen do not understand terrain, or at least seem skittish about obstacles. They insist that mid-high and Skybox are the only places they can fly. This denies them numerous tactical advantages. However, I do seem the merit of using that, as many pilots need as much vertical space as possible to dogfight in.

However, these same pilots often express constant amazement at how easily people see them coming.

My best advice is to ignore most of what people say here: Especially: ignore anybody telling you to fly with an air squad. You won't learn anything by having other people do the job for you.

Ignore Insignus: he's a bad pilot that gives terrible advice.

Some advice on here was good, but there was a lot of bad advice or missinformation. I'd suggest to go to reddit/r/Planetside or www.reddit/r/emeraldps2 and ask there. I would recomment the emerald one mostly, and watch for advice from people sporting the PREY or HONK tag.

And last but not least, if you're playing on connery, I suggest you change server if your goal's to get in the air-game; especially if you want to get good at it.

There's plenty more to say, but I wouldn't want you to listen to someone that just says listen to me and ignore everybody else: that's why I'm pointing you to a place where there's plenty of confirmed pilots with thousands of hours flying that can actually help you.
The number of pilots on this forum.... You can count them on the fingers of a sole hand.


Hopefully you'll listen to my post. Otherwise, best of luck anyways; I tried my best to help you.

How I learned to fly:
Be a ground ****ter. Yea ik it's not nice, but you do learn basic aim, get certs and get some basics.
HOWEVER! What I ran to get used to the reavers combat style was racer maxed, afterburn tanks and max fire suppression with nanites.

Most ESFs RELY HEAVILY on their wingmounts, the ability to run is a great one, never to be underestimated, being able to grt close quickly because most don't expect people to afterburn INTO a fight catches a lot of people off guard and can lead to some nice assists with other reavers.

After you're done with the AH ********, you can move on to the pure nosegun build or the vortek rush build, which with enough mag increases, can one clip another esf. Personally I run AH just so I can stay semi flexible on the field, however if I dedicate to A2A, more often you'll run into bad A2G esfs, a dedicated A2A esf with all the tools to run is usually going to win, especially if they think they can run into an unguarded airspace.

Lastly, pick your fights, you may have afterburns and racer to run but charging into 3 even 2 mossys is going to deck you, you can't never expect to see another esf run the same hit and run build either, at that point you've learned to aim well and get into a hover stance or you're probably screwed, but that doesn't mean get mad, simply you didn't play as long as the other guy.

So to sum it up:
Max racer, afterburn tanks to start for an easy hit and run build
If you see another reaver in a 1v1, throw some shots in the enemy esf, its good practice and might save his life
Pace yourself and use your ability to run wisely

Almost forgot, you either want the awareness implant so that either allies will spot and shake a chaser for you or a enhanced targeting implant on so that you'll see your opponents health and engage accordingly. Both are pretty damn good for different playstyles but ET is usually better for the hit and run practice style.

Well i was able to get my first Air superiority ribbon so im looking at this as a step in the right direction but i still got tooons of stuff to learn and i hope you guys could give me a good list of things to cert up if possible so i know what i should buy so i don't go wasting it on example ejecter (im on the sky bushido motive)

Vortek mag size + ammo pool. I would also try to max out NAR/FireSup as early as possible.

This isn't necessarily the best path, but it's the one I went with, and it's worked

You might want to look at vehicle stealth max before the next patch when everyone gets engagement radar for free as a passive