So Long ago I spent like 4, 2 hour sessions on being able to fly a ESF without crashing and losing control while taking evasive maneuvers. And for the jet style flying I'm sure most people would say I'm good at it. But not I'm getting to a point where I practically have everything I want for my infantry and prowler, so I want to try flying again. So since I have 0 ability to dog fight (a single hit is a victory that's how bad I am) so I want to know if there are any maneuvers and exercises I can practice in VR for the next few days. Dog fighting, evasion/chasing, aiming, ect.
Check out MattiAce, he has good exercises for pilots. The VR is a good place to start... However it could use a revamp IMHO.
Same situation. Feel like training, maybe on the PTS? I hate being slaughtered within 10 seconds every time I engage an ESF.
Also point out if there are any factions that make learning the raw basics easier, for one reason or another.
I'll keep it short and easy to follow. Loadout ====== ESF: Mosquito (you already have TR Certs, Mosquito is great for learning) Primary: Needler (Rate-of-Fire and Mag Size and Damage Range and low Damage Drop make it great for learning; top choice for Primary among Mosquito Pilots; HUD color and big Mag and high Rate-of-Fire make learning to Aim much easier) Wingmount: (depends on what you want to do: see A2G and A2A below) Utility: Fire Suppression (almost everyone uses it because it's so good: it's a "get out of jail free" card) Defense: either Nanite Repair (so you don't have to land to repair) or Stealth (to keep off radar better and slow down missile lock) or Radar (for hunting Infantry or helping Faction); right now I like Stealth best because it makes me harder for others to track, Nanites is very popular, and Radar is used by some but less popular Performance: either Hover (better mobility in Hover) or Racer (faster speed); right now I prefer Racer, but lots like Hover Using ESF ======== Using an ESF is mostly about Flying, Aiming, and Situational Awareness. The better you are at these, the better you will be. When you have problems in your ESF, figure out which of these you are having problems with. There are ways to get better with each, but you must first know the source of the problem. Setup Settings =========== Bind "Pitch Up" to a keyboard key or to an extra Mouse Button (if your mouse has more than 2 buttons) Bind "Pitch Down" to a keyboard key or to an extra Mouse Button (if your mouse has more than 2 buttons) Bind "Throttle Analog" to a keyboard key or to an extra Mouse Button (if your mouse has more than 2 buttons) Re-Bind Exit Vehicle to a keyboard key that is far away from your other Keybinds: you do not want to Exit Vehicle on accident while hundreds of feet in the air. Set your Flight Vehicle Sensitivity to ~0.35 (the lower the setting, Flying takesmore Mouse Movement, but Aim is more precise) ESF Roles ========= These are the things ESFs can do. You need to decide what you want/like to do, and how to play toward that. Many new pilots find that they like to do A2G vs. Infantry, because it gives good Certs and Kills, and is less lethal than A2A. Most new pilots fantasize about doing A2A, but unless you have a Gank Squad to join, I suggest you go A2G. Here are the roles: A2A: vs. ESF A2A: vs. Gals, Libs, and Valks (Gals are a waste of Ammo unless it has taken a lot of hits, Libs kill only if they run and if they turn to face you then run away, Valks are easy and just make sure they don't ram you) A2G: vs. Infantry: use Wingmount Hellfire Rocket Pods; target non-Max (careful vs. HA w/ Phoenix or Dumbfire); can also use Hornet for AI; Banshee is the "AI Nosegun", but it was recently nerfed and is not worth using. A2G: vs. Vehicles: use Wingmount Hornet; target Magrider, Flash (more dangerous but doable: Harassers [also use Nosegun on Harasser], non-Skyguard Ligntning [but if you don't know what kind of Lightning it is, best to avoid it], Vanguard); Sunderers are OP vs. ESF [dangerous and hard to kill] so best to avoid them for now; can also use Hellfire Rocket Pods for AV A2A: vs. ESF ========== If you start it, and: 1) they run, then follow in 1st Person View and kill them 2) they turn to face you, then you get into 1st Person mode and slow to Hover and engage while staying in Hover If you are attacked, and: 1) you can see them coming toward you, then you get into 1st Person View and turn to face them and slow (hold down Throttle Down) to Hover and engage. If they pass you, then get into 3rd Person View and roll sideways toward the side opposite they passed on and use Keybind Pitch Down to keep your nose tracking them. Then once you have them in sight and with your nose facing them, switch to 1st Person View and engage them while staying in Hover if they are stopped (hold down Throttle Down or tap Throttle Analog) or chasing after them and engaging them if they keep going and run away. 2) you cannot see them, then you get into 3rd Person view and roll (any degree between sideways and upside down), then hold down Throttle Down and Keybind Pitch Down. This will cause you to both turn and enter Hover mode. Once you are in Hover more, keep holding down Throttle Down (or tap Keybind Throttle Analog), and swivel around while in Hover to find opponent. Once you find them, get your nose toward them then get into 1st Person View and keep nose toward them and engage (again, stay in Hover if they are not running; follow and chase them if they run). NOTE: once in Hover, you can do all kinds of different moves that make your ESF Dodge. But that is more advanced and I will leave it to others. Just getting your ESF into Hover and facing your opponent and in the right View mode will put you ahead of most pilots in A2A duels. vs. AA ===== For most AA, you want to drop altitude and/or find cover: dodge and break line-of-sight. If flak/fire is coming from ahead of you: 1) roll ~60 degrees and hold down Keybind Pitch Up (or Pitch Up using Mouse) and hold down Throttle Up until you are level and facing and moving the other way. This will have moved you to lower altitude and will have put you in fast movement speed away from the Flak. At this point you can use Roll and Pitch adjustments to make yourself harder to hit as you retreat. I often like to stay level and use repeated Pitch Down adjustments to dodge down, level off, dodge down, level off, etc. If flak/fire is coming from side of you or behind you: 1) keep moving in same direction, and use Pitch Down and Roll (away from fire) to get your altitude down, speed up, and better distance from fire. Also, look out for terrain that may help break line-of-sight. Implant ====== Enhanced Targeting is great. If lets you know how much damage a target or foe has sustained, which will help you decide to engage them or not. Continents ======== Only play on Indar or Amerish. Esamir is bad because Thermal Optics don't work well and because it's usually difficult to break line-of-sight vs. AA. Hossin is bad because the visibility is terrible. If both Indar and Amerish are locked, Esamir is better than Hossin. Though I have characters on 2 Servers, and when one Server has Amerish/Indar locked, I switch to the other Server. Drop a Weypoint on your Warpgate so you can get your bearings easier if things get crazy. Zoom out and expand size of Map (H Key by default) so that you can see enemy Air better. The farther you get from your Warpgate, the more dangerous it is. Flying near ally ESFs is safer. Never trust an Ally zerg or AA Base Turret to provide AA support vs. enemy ESFs. Flying ===== If you want to improve your flying and Hover swiveling/control, I have a great exercise to do in VR. It's what got me to really get how to move while in Hover in 3rd Person view. (including the "Reverse Move") More ==== All areas can be expanded upon. It probably best if you figure out what areas you want to improve, and then I or other can talk about those areas. Remember, it's mostly either Flying, Aiming, or Situational Awareness. But it's also things like Loadouts, settings, and how to hand each target type.
The reaver makes flying easier, because it has a stronger vertical thrust than the other 2. That makes it easier to get into and stay in hover mode, and you can reverse at higher angles than the mossie or scythe. The reaver's afterburners are also stronger, including in hover mode, which makes it even easier to use. For that reason unless you plan to stick with the reaver do not practice with it, you'll learn bad habits that won't work in the other ESFs. The mosquito is the best practice ESF for a scythe pilot, it flies about the same but you can see the thrusters so you know when you're messing up. Mossie is also the best practice ESF for a mossie pilot of course. Drills: Practice flying low, through and around terrain. Practice stopping, getting into hover mode, and turning around as quickly as possible. Then practice the previous drill but behind terrain. Hug the terrain as closely as possible. You'll crash a lot at first. Pick a fixed point, like a mountain top, and use hover mode to circle it. Add in shooting at the mountain top Add in switching to third person between bursts. Add in using afterburner without going into forward mode. Add in rolling and switching your circling direction. Go to the tower in the corner of the map and repeat all that, except now you're circling the tower from only a few feet out. You'll crash a lot at first. Once you can do all that you can hover fight successfully, you just need to learn to lead your target while doing it. For that you need to fight real ESFs.
I agree that Reaver is very easy to learn Movement with. With Fuel Tank, it also has the fastest Top Speed. And it also has an easier to hit profile at more angles. The Reaver also has more variety in usable Noseguns. With M20 Mustang (effective at all ranges, bigger mag, bigger ammo supply), M30 Mustang AH (Anti-Infantry, but still very effective vs. ESF at close range, with Small Mag requiring precision shots, pairs well with Fuel Tank to ensure it can dictate range to targets), and Vortek Rotary (close-medium range, short Mag and small Ammo requiring precision shots, pairs well with Fuel Tank to ensure it can dictate range to targets) all seeing a good amount of use. All that said, I find the Vortek Rotary and M30 Mustang AH requires more Aim skill than I have. This is true for a lot of other pilots. So the only Reaver Nosegun I like is M20 Mustang. And since I blew my NC Characters Certs on AH and Vortek (both of which I don't use), I have still yet to buildup enough Certs on my NC characters to try M20 Mustang Loadouts in-game.
A mate suggested I would leave the post here, it may have similar parts to Zaspacer's post, but I think it might be useful. Quote from older post: Flying consists of three things: movement, aiming and situational awareness. 0) If you have time, I strongly suggest reading all the possible stuff on http://learn2flyesf.wordpress.com/category/guide/ That's a web dedicated to flying ESF. 1) Movement. 1.1) watch tutorials on Youtube. After classic Reverse Maneuver tutorials I can recommend https://www.youtube.com/user/SpadarFaar/videos He's got some pretty advanced flying tutorials. 1.2) train your flying in VR: flying below trees and object, flying around rocks in hover mode as closely as possible etc. Try to find challenges and make them easy as pie. 1.3) practice 1vs1 fights, more in AIM part. 2) Aiming. 2.1) In Planetside 2 bullets DO NOT inherit any of your speed. Which means, if you are in hover fight and both of you are ascending - you HAVE to to aim higher to hit the enemy. How to know what enemy is doing? If you push SPACE and he stays on the same level as you, he must be pushing SPACE too. Visual clues. 2.2) Go to PTS with a friend (if you have none, get one) and practice 1vs1 hover fights (duels). At best you should be dueling someone slightly better than you are. Here is the example what duel might look like: Basically you and your opponent pass each other and this is when duel begins, then you turn around whatever way you like (RM, just air brake and pitch/roll or maybe just pitch with no brake at all) How to duel in same faction: create a squad with your friend, both set your Vehicle management of ESF to "Locked to squad", exchange ESFs. Such way you won't get weapon locks. You can ofcourse do this on LIVE, but your friendlies might start shooting at you, since they'd think you're teamkilling... 2.3) NEVER use lock ons. Whether you agree it's a noob crutch or not - it will keep you from learning properly how to move or aim. 3) Situational awareness. 3.1) Know where your friendlies are, and where your enemy is. 3.2) Use altitude to be above ground locks / flak distance. I don't know the exact number, but I think you need to have 600 meters above ground. 3.3) In the beginning only pick fights above friendly units / with friendly esfs in the skies. 3.4) If possible, use terain / rocks to hide and watch what happens nearby. 3.5) Fly in 3rd person, as it gives you better forward view. If you need to look on the side, roll a bit to the side and use 1st person free look mode. Well that's some short tips, the key to learning flying (or anything in your life) ishaving a good practice instead of just practice. Other info (1) Speaking of ingame sensitivity: ESF sensitivity has acceleration built in. So try in VR, do slow pitching and do fast pitching - watch how it affects what angle you pitch. Same distance on mouse mat with differnt hand speed doesn't equal same pitch angle. Also there is a maximal pitch rate, which you can test by binding pitching to some of your keyboard or mouse keys. (2) DPI and sensitivity: I used to play with higher DPI and even higher sens number than what I have now. Now is 800 DPI + 0.56 ingame. With infantry sens being 0.20. Most good pilots I know go with slower sens. In the longer run I realized that I am much more consistent with lower sensitivity. To translate ingame sens to different DPI I use mouse-sensitivity.com. To my experience it works correctly. When aiming - try not to do jerky motions - try to be more fluent with your mouse movement. (3) You gotta start thinking of some visual clues. If you read point 2) in quote, you'd see I wrote to try and realize what movement your enemy does. Your leading is purely dependent on enemy's movement. If you hang in the air and shoot an ascending enemy - you always aim ABOVE him, right? Well, if you start ascending too, your lead STAYS the same. Now, if you both turn upside down and start pushing space and move downwards, on your screen you'd still need to aim ABOVE relative to your point of view. With the enemy's descend, you aim BELOW relative to your point of view. To recap: if enemy stays in the same position on YOUR screen while you're pushing space - you HAVE to aim above. If enemy stays in the same position while you're pusing ctrl - you have to aim below! I hope you understand. (4) Use burstfiring and watch where your bullets go - it's a good visual clue for aiming feedback. If your bullets keep flying below your enemy - it's obvious you need to aim higher... Before firing at your enemy, try to aim in the correct place first! Make it a habit. Some people just go full auto and then adjust their aiming to hit the enemy, while it should be: try to aim correctly, burst, if no hit - adjust. Your overall accuracy will go up even tho you may deal less damage in the beginning. That's all for now - if you have some concrete questions - ask.
Well I'm a TR player so I don't exactly care about Reaver weaponry save the AH because that thing is the bane of my existence as a LA roof runner.
All the easier then. Since I fly Mosquito almost 100% of the time, I prefer Mosquito, and my big write-up posted above is basically for using the Mosquito. You're gonna want: Loadout ======= Sure things... Nosegun: Needler is king for Mossie pilots in this slot (Mag Size increase is a major boost, it's what helps A2A vs. ESFs; Thermal OPtic is nice but optional because won't need it early since Needler is garbage at AI and A2G where you'd be using it most; Ammo is nice, but you don't have to Max as even just the early levels will have you swimming in more Ammo than you need) Utility: Fire Suppression (it's the king of this slot; just about everyone uses it cause it's amazing: basically gives you +50% life and stops fire, and you use it to escape death over and over and over; makes things like near OHKs that put you on fire from various sources change from being lethal to being survivable) Your choice... Wingmount: for A2G... if you want AI, go Rocket Pod. If you want AV (MBTs), go Hornet. Hornet can also do AI, and Rocket Pod can also do AV. Since you are using the Needler with these, that gives you solid A2A as well. You can read the rest from my other post above. The most important things in flying are: 1) make sure you spend Certs/SC on the right stuff: Certing an ESF is expensive and if you buy the wrong stuff you're broke and hosed 2) make sure you setup your keybindings and settings 3) you are gonna die a lot. To accidents (40+% of ESF die to accidental collisions), to Aces, to Gank Squads, to AA, etc. The trick is to keep track of how you're dying. Once you determine how you're dying, you can get help in dying less to that source. Sometimes it means "learning a move", but often it means "identifying and flying in safer areas". Good luck, have fun, and post back with results or questions.
I got a lot of AI kills with needler. sometimes it's what I do for fun and certs. Go AI with needler ... Takes some skill aiming and it's a fun challenge, if your bullets hit, people go down fast. But I guess it's not for beginners, learning a2a fights is much more important.
I do use Needler for AI once in a while, and I do have Thermal Optics unlocked on my Needler. It's also handy to see various targets through smoke/explosions. But I figure if you're on a budget to Cert out your ESF, Thermal Optics on Needler can wait.
So my current practice routine is around 20 minutes of low flying as a warm up (Crazy **** you wouldn't actually want to do as a pilot), followed by 20-30 minutes of shooting the four TR on the cliff edge near the tower. The goal being able to come in from a odd angle, fire off a burst of rounds (hopefully) killing one, then turbo out using terain to break line of sight (as if I was being locked on to). then I spend the same amount of time doing the same thing to the scythe nearby since it's a more size appropriate target. Then if I'm not ready to log off yet i'll fly around the tower trying to keep it in my vision and preferably my crosshairs. Log 1: I have a habit of only rotating 70-80 degrees instead of the full 90 when I bank, using A and D to supplement the lack of turning speed. I only seem to use the full 90 when that isn't turning hard enough. Flying as LA, Trees = Good. Flying as ESF, Trees = pure evil. Need to work on landing still. 10 seconds of slowly inching my way forward to get to the pad will not do. Need to work on infantry aim. Need to work on third person flying, I get disoriented and lose control way to easy if I'm trying to fly while (searching) for enemies. **** Trees. Need to practice escape, to many of runs on infantry would have had me eating dumb-fires. Need to fly lower when breaking lock-on's sight. **** Rocks. Need to practice regaining stability after preforming evasive maneuvers around trees and rocks. Take too long stableizing self when reapproaching targets.
Sounds good. I HIGHLY recommend you spend some time doing the "fly around the tower while keeping ESF nose pointed toward it" while in 3rd Person. That was what really made me finally "get" flying an ESF. Also, I recommend trying out the different ESF Weapons on different targets and writing down how many hits each took to Kill them. This gives you a solid understanding of what Targets you should (or should not) be going for with each Weapon, what Weapon to use for each target type, and what kind of Kill Times you are working with. If you want to turn and slow speed or turn and slow into hover, use Pitch Down (+ Thottle Down) when you turn. Often best to turn to face and ESF opponent or when coming in for a landing. Often best to roll some degree of upside down, so when you turn you are climbing and this kill speed faster as well.. If you want to turn and speed up, use Pitch Up (Throttle Up) when you turn. Often best to get the heck out of an area. (against AA, I often roll nearly upside down before doing it so I drop altitude and get near ground to break line-of-sight AND speed up) 40+% of ESF Deaths are from accidental collisions: http://ps2oraclestats.com/monthly-vehicle-deaths/ (sort by ESF) Dying to trees is normal for all pilots. Flying in a particular area over and over will sensitize you to terrain particulars there which to be more careful of. But all pilots crash at some point. Not a lot of vids show modern ESF landings, but here is one that shows one version @ 3 minutes and 50 seconds: It's basically the same maneuver as when you get attacked by an enemy ESF: turn and slow and get into Hover fast. So you basically want to fly to the landing spot (as fast as you want/need to), then roll sideways and crank Pitch Down (hold down Pitch Down Hotkey or swing that mouse), hold down Throttle Down, hold down Yaw in the opposite direction of the ground, and hold down Ascend. It feels like you're trying to stick the bottom of your plane to be facing in the direction of your velocity, so terrible aerodynamics and your bottom jets can kill your speed. This will leave you at 0 speed and just a bit off the spot you are landing in. From there, mix either (1) roll sideways to drop down faster or (2) roll level and tap Ascend (speeding up taps just before landing) to slow descent. Doing it this way, I can land VERY quickly. Which is important because you often need to do it when on fire and with very small (and often uneven or inclined) areas to land on. I first saw this technique in a random video as some guy was landing, and thought "why is he flipping his ESF around wildly like that before he lands". Now I know: it kills airspeed. NOTE: this is the same technique to use when you find yourself accelerating into a wall or other terrain object that you can't steer around. Just crank your ESF's bottom toward it and use the terrible aerodynamic and Ascend key to push away from it. Sometimes you'll still hit the wall, but your ESF bottom can take a much bigger impact (and not explode) than the rest of your ESF. You can also just climb up to a busy Warpgate landing pad and watch how the players do it. Good luck with that. I just use Rocket Pod or Hornet to kill Infantry. Might use my Needler if they're almost dead. Otherwise, I typically just fly off: know your best targets and focus on them. Seriously, do what "fly around the tower while keeping nose at it" thing in VR while in 3rd Person. So good. Add in each flight input as you do it, and you will really become a master of what to do when and why for each motion. It was truly an epic leap for me when I did this exercise. Trees happen. But learning how to brake fast and learning where the bad areas (so you are more careful around them or stay away from them) are in a map area does help a lot. I very often end up eating Lockon that is fired at me. The trick is to make sure you don't eat more than 1 A2A or more than 2 G2A. Rocks happen Use the landing method I mentioned. Roll sideways or some degree of upside down, Pitch Down, Throttle Down, Yaw away from direction of ground, and Ascend key. Just think like you're trying to make your ESF have horrible Aerodynamics in the direction it is going, throwing your plane sideways and with your bottom going that direction.
