Common ESF tips: - Bind your mouse buttons to pitch up and down. - Have your sensitivity at a level that will let you aim accurately without sacrificing maneuvering and turning. - Use spacebar (ascend key) while slightly tilted downwards (15-20 degrees) to go faster. - Don't use the upper technique when trying to go through tight gaps. You can become used to it and forget about this. - Use CTRL (descend key) while tilted downwards and holding S to slow down faster when landing. - Don't land near the frontlines, or on sieged factilities/towers. - When your aircraft is burning, it handles a lot more sluggishly and will become much more heavy, so watch it when performing emergency landing. - Remember to reload your weapons when landing for ammo refill. - You can lift off a bit before you get your last ammo refill, as it will complete during your take-off. - If one of your wings or other parts are stuck in terrain or some sort of railing, try to gently tap space bar and wiggle out. - If you are flipped over at the warpgate, use descent key while rolling to flip over. - You can outrun a lock-on rocket while using extended afterburner tanks by burning your entire fuel and speeding away from the source of the rocket chasing you. - If you are pretty sure that the lock-on is from a A2A missile and out in the open, turn around while popping flares and engage the aircraft. Otherwise even if you pop flares it will follow up with another one untill you are dead, and the less damage you take before engaging them the more chances you have to fight them off. Thankfully people who run A2A pods usually have horrible nosegun aim and don't know how to react to this if done properly. - You can tell apart faction ESF's by the sound of their thrusters, and the sound of their noseguns. Scythe: Not very machine-gun like. Not sure how to describe it. Synthetic, kind of unlike a engine. Reaver: Very clicky and mechanical, <TCHK TCHK TCHK TCHK> Like a loud, continuous howl. Mossie: With a spin-up, and a smooth machine-gun sound. <vvvVVV-DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA> Sounds the most like an actual jet. - You can also tell apart infantry weapons from guns like the Basilisk, ESF noseguns and liberator noseguns by the rate at which you take damage, the sound, how much of it is chipped of your health and the velocity, volume and - Whenever you hear a different faction's ESF or see ESF tracers fly past you do the reverse maneuver and be on the lookout, unless you are on very low health and there is a chance to make it within safe territory. - While being chased by an enemy ESF try to judge when the enemy is about to reload, and try to turn around at that moment. - Also while being chased, don't try to go in a straight line to maximize speed. Wiggling your mouse like a madman and trying to evade gives you much better chances, unless you are already very far away from the pursuer. You can also try loosing them around structures like bio-labs that are owned by your faction in hopes someone will force them to pull out. Just don't crash. - You can also try to do the reverse maneuver behind rock formations, especially on indar canyons and amerish mountains to be able to turn around while not being exposed. - When you hear a liberator shooting at you and see the slow tracers fly past you, just continue flying as fast as possible in a semi-straight fashion. Turning around could mean your death. If you hear a "swhooosh" it means they are trying to shoot at you with their bellygun. If this happens, and the source is a liberator that is chasing you, you can be pretty sure the pursuit is over and they turned around. - When engaging liberators first pop a few rounds and watch how they react. If they turn your belly towards you, don't try to engage them alone. If they are charging towards you with their noseguns, afterburn away or try to fly past him without letting him shoot you. Liberator noseguns can literally kill ESF's within a second. This might also happen as a follow-up to the turning-their-belly-after-tickling-them thing, so be careful and refer to the point above. - If it's a lone pilot or the gunner tries to shoot you with the tailgun, keep a bit of distance and just pump clips into them. Unless you get too close and don't move too much relative to them, you will be fine. (however don't understimate the lone guy switching seats and getting a kill on you from the bellygun if he's good enough) - Don't engage galaxies or liberators deep within enemy territory. Especially galaxies. It will waste almost a lot of your ammo and leave you vurneable for enemy ESF's. Only do it with support of other AA or ESF's, or while being sure that you're safe from engagements. - You can also tell apart drop pods passing by from liberator noseguns from the type of "swhooosh" they emit. - While on the topic of drop pods; don't fly over really busy areas, as there is a risk of a giant metal cage slamming into you from above with a quite fast velocity. - When engaging ground armor, don't descend to their level and try to be above them in a way that won't let them blow you up with their main cannons. - Before engagin a lighting make sure it's not a skyguard. - When you hear flak thumping, perform evasive maneuvers, as it is very often you that is the target. - Manned turrets will automatically be spotted within a certain range, and unmanned will not at all, so if you see a dorito above a AA turret avoid it.
