Flying has become pure garbage.

I keep trying to fly ESFs, and I'm getting nowhere.

A2A? I can't do more than 15% damage when I get the drop on somebody and I keep getting triple teamed by enemy ESFs with lock-ons or instagibbed by BR100's.

A2G? With all the G2A and no missiles of my own, I have ZERO chance.

Plus there's the 350 nanite cost preventing me from getting back into the cockpit when cheese happens. My cert gain is abysmal whenever I try to fly. It's very discouraging. How the **** do the veteran pilots put up with this ****, and how am I supposed to learn how to fly?

First of all don't expect any even half decent cert gain from flying ... even with lolpods ... truth be told even with lolpods your cert gain is more of a short spike rather than anything you can brag about in the long run.

Starting out as a pilot is extremly difficult ... trust me i know ... i did it by now i think 3 times ...

I am going to assume that you already know the basics ... watched some youtube tutorials and did rebind your keys.


Starting out your primary goal in an esf should be to stay alive and in the air as long as possible.
Every minute in the air will help you get more comfortable with the controls and give you a better understanding of what those things can pull off and what not.

Next you need to decide what you wanna specialise in.
Do you want to do some groundpounding first or go straight into a2a combat?

In case of groundpounding ...

1. DO NOT BUY THE ENGAGEMENT RADAR:
Can't stress this enough ... so many people use this stupid dish ... it's worthless ... it was garbage when wrell suggested using it in his videos (which i think is why so many use it) and nowadays with everyone running maxed stealth it's completly useless.

2. Train Low altitude flying:
Go into the vr ... and simply follow the road as low to the ground as possible ... your goal is to do a lap more or less at full speed while staying below the branches of the trees.

3. Learn how to pick a suitable target and how to read the map:
While ground units usually want a big fight, maybe even with their side slightly overpopped YOU as a pilot should be afraid of anything above 48vs48 and as a beginner probably anything above 24 is going to get you killed.

Once you found a base on the map ... look at the bases around it!!!

Are there a bunch of other big fights in the area?
Is it a 3way between all factions or a fight that your own faction doesn't participate in?
Is it a tec lab or a tower?
Is it close to one of the enemy factions warpgate (close as in 2 hexes or less)?
Is it in the middle?

If the answer to any of those questions was yes ... STAY THE HELL AWAY!
Later on you will be able to participate in a lot of those fights but not as a new pilot.


Now that you have a target ... what comes next?
Waypoint a neighbouring hex that currently has no fight going on (as far as you can see from the mapview) and belongs to your faction.

Fly to the waypoint ...
STAY AT 800m or higher (altough 900m+ will be risky for you since you might end up hitting the flight ceiling when engaged)

I know it seems natural to hide low on the ground ... but that's not how this game works.
Enemy A2A esfs will usually stay high and peek below them ... by staying high in the air, you usually only have to worry about what's below you.

Every now and then switch to cockpit view (T by default) and look around (mouse wheel pressed) ... roll to the sides to get a better view if need be.
Try to make sure you are covering almost 180* this way.


You reached your waypoint ... almost there:
Now it's time to fight ... make sure you know where the enemy base is ... waypoint a hex in your factions territory that has a landing pad and is far away from fights and do an high altitude flyby.

Head towards the enemy base/fly over it and check:

Is enemy air present?
Are you getting shot at by flak?
Are there a lot of sunderers?
Is the terrain so high up that you would hit the flight ceiling if you try to stay 500m above the ground?
Q spot at AA turrets ... do you see names pop up?

Again if your answer was yes for any of those questions STAY THE HELL AWAY!!!!



Now that you finaly did your high altitude pass and everything looks fine ... IT'S TIME
Get some distance and descend ... try to stay roughly about 300m above ground on your aproach and have thermal optics ready.
DON'T USE YOUR AFTERBURNER DURING YOUR APPROACH ... use it to get the hell away after you unloaded your missiles.

Hopefully you got some kills ... if not ... no problem ... now you at least should know where the enemy hotspots are and how much resistance (g2a) you have to expect.
If you think you can handle it ... do another run ... JUST NOT FROM WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.

Switch positions and your approach ... never come from where the enemy expects you to come from.

Have fun.




As for A2A ... well that's a bit more complicated and would make this post even longer ... so if you are interested in that just ask.

Probably that's continent-specific. I fly more on Amerish and Hossin and typically dodge at least a half of missles.

Hossin helps you dodge all the missiles, unless you try and fry some marshmellows on your exhaust while getting locked or something?

And because you guys apparently need the tips, here they are again:

• Lock-ons will instantly drill themselves in the scenery if you dive during the missile being fired.
• 90% of the lock-ons you meet will be nearby the closest enemy spawn, there's almost always some terrain nearby that can block the LOS to the spawn and instantly sever any incoming locks, any missile already in flight will likely hit the scenery.
• Tying in with the above, the tiniest twig will reset the lock-on time, even friendly players walking in front of the one with the lock-on will reset it. Use this to your advantage and make sure that anything at all will cross the LOS between you and the locker to increase the TTK immensely.
• Most lock-ons are solitary and not teamwork. Unless there's hostile aircraft nearby that will make use of the opportunity you can easily tank a shot while looking for them with thermals, again look near spawns and you'll often find them and be able to kill them until they give up because it's unrewarding and incredibly discouraging getting killed repeatedly by the thing you have a dedicated weapon against and switch weapons to get some actual rewarding stuff done.

I've been flying in game for a bit now. I'm no Ace, I'm far from being a "Pro" but I can do alright some times and even get lucky now and then. Yes, ground lock on's are a pain in the rear, and the swarm I feel is a mistake and should never have been brought in. Flack turrets are annoying, but nowhere as bad as random skyguards out in the middle of nowhere looking to instia-gib any air flying by. And of course there is the A2A lockon's, both normals and coyoties/hyena's, but they are all part of the game and flying near areas that have all of these pointed up just looking for you is of course a bad idea. I personally hate getting hit by ground fire while having an air battle, but at the same time, I use the friendly ground fire to chase off or take out an enemy esf that's on my tail.

Flying in planetside has always been a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, learn what and where to avoid, and don't expect to get cert farms, then it is enjoyable.

i see many good pilots that kill me many times even as a HA try to kill them

i think like many says its all about learing how to fly those things good and it takes time

Since there still is issues ill post this so that you can understand. I have made multiple posts saying that the current relationship between air and ground are balanced, since it is against the rules to repeat posts ill make as brief of a summery as possible so that I don't waste anyone's time.

First a video
Skip to 2:46 and watch to 15:48



Second

Air is a supportive role, anyone who does it for any other puropose is eather farming or wasting ammo/time/certs.

Third
Control of the air is Important, However without the ground forces to back it up its a house without foundations.

Like all houses without foundations it leads to failure, then collapse.

I agree with everything you said except for this.

Flying that high makes you so easy to see for any A2A pilot. And if you suck at A2A, you're basically a free kill. Forcing A2A pilots to dive into flak and lock-on range for that kill is going to put you at a lower priority than someone sitting at 500+ meters. I give priority to targets who are above the lock-on and effective flak range all of the time.

You are right ... in some ways here.

Yes if friendly AA support is present then you will want to be at a lower altitude.

But for travel purposes without support ... especially as new pilot staying up high has big advantages.

A good A2A esf will see you no matter what ... trust me from above any esf is relativly easy to spot ...
even tough you as a new pilot are very likley to die during any a2a engagement you can learn more from that fight than from a surprise oneclip dive in your back.

It's simply easier to keep looking on the ground than on the ground and at the sky above you ... the scythe here has it a bit easier thanks to it's cockpit view design ... but overall i think by staying up high at least as a new pilot you have much better chances to see the enemy coming.

It gives you better chances vs suprise flak/lockons too ... it's rare but from time to time some outfits love to put an AA squad between the fight and the warpgate/nearest tower.

And best of all ... the number 1 killer for new pilots ... also known as "the ground" is far far away from you.

All empires farm with tanks. I have BR 100 on all 3 empires and get farmed by tanks from all three empires.

Not saying the prowler isnt the best at infantry farming, it clearly is, but they are all infantry farmers.

My ideas for making ap rounds do no damage against infantry and allowing ap tanks to equip infantry blocking armor would solve most of the prblems.

Farming tanks would be helpless to the AP tanks just as infantry are pretty much helpless to the farming tanks.

As far as air and ground balance goes, why cant ttks just be balanced? Allow tank cannons max elevation but lower the damage they do. Make it so that a dalton lib and an AP main cannon have the same ttk. Why cant a skyguard and an ESF have a similar TTK? If ESF could actually fight with skyguards then it would be more fun for both sides. Give skyguard an ESF type gun and adjust its armor so that the ttk is the same. The skyguard has the advantage of a more stable firing platform and the ability to hide behind things and the ESF has better mobility and the ability to run away from a fight. Also the skyguard can more easily repair between reloads or whenever he needs to.

Clearly things like hard counters should only exist in rts games where you control all the units. In a game where each unit is controlled by an individual it is a bad game mechanic for units to have hard counters. No one enjoys facing their "hard counter".

All the veteran pilots have quit flying. Its all lock ons all the time, whether from ground or air.

I used to try to get everyone to fly. Now i would say; Dont bother. It's no good anymore. I have 60 days flying and i can't usually get more than a kill or 2 before the air zerg with locs gets me, or i inadvertantly fly over some infantry with locks.

Everyone will attack you all the time.

It used to be different, but now definitely not worth your time. Stick to infantry, or if you want to pad stats drive a tank.

Sadly i have to agree here ... somewhat.

Flying is currently a lot more frustrating than it ever was ... and in all honesty focus on A2G.

You ll eat more lockons/flak somehow during A2A (probably because you are easier to spot while fighting another esf) and in a2a even if they don't kill you outright, it's usually a death sentence anyways (gl overcoming the enemy esfs aim while getting shelled)

At least when doing A2G the lockons/flak feels somewhat justified ... also as a beginner stay away from indar.
2/3 of the continent doesn't even have enough distance between the ground and the flight ceiling to stay above lockonrange and every other location has towers/tec plants ... stuff with platforms that basically do the same thing.