Introduction So, you want to be an ace pilot and get those 40-1 K/D ratios that everyone talks about. You wanna fly about like you are Tom Cruise, getting all the ladies and talking about other pilots being wingmen like a boss. I can understand that, who wouldn't want easy experience and certifications? Who wouldn't want easy glory? But you don't know where to begin? Don't worry about it, I know that existing pilots are extremely unhelpful but I am here for you. They don't want to share the pie or they are afraid you'll ruin the pie by attracting AA. This is the guide for you to be one of them, the few, the best. Getting Started - Setup Hey, hey, hey. Whoa there, is that an aircraft terminal I see you going to? What makes you think you are ready to actually fly a plane? No, no, no absolutely not. There is much we must do first so lets cover these basics first. Basic 1 - Settings If you have flown from the Tigers Claw or the GTD Baston or have ever worked for Galspan, then you'll notice that the controls are wacky and reversed when you attempted to fly for the first time (probably right into the floor). This can be corrected in the settings so be use to go through the controls and tick the boxes. You'll find them from the map screen in the bottom corner. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then #1, shame on you and #2 feel free to experiment with reversed controls because they definitely make a lot more sense when you are flying about. Secondly, you may want to move the "enter" command to another key other than "e". It's right next to reload and abilities you need and ejecting from your ship in mid air is both embarassing and painful. Also, your gunners if you have any will not be impressed to find themselves suddenly mid-air and pilotless. Basic 2 - Class The next thing to worry about is your class. Typically you will always want to be an Engineer, this is so that you can disengage and repair somewhere when you get hit. All pilots will fly engineer and invest in their repairgun. The other choice is to be a light assault. This is helpful when you bail from your craft in panic or under fire and plan to land safely without horrible death. It's totally unnecessary in a galaxy though because there is no fall damage when you eject from it no matter the height. 100% of pro pilots will be Engineer without exception. Basic 3 - Know your craft and its equipment There are effectively 3 classes of plane to fly around in. A light fighter, a medium-heavy bomber and a very heavy transport plane. The only one of these you can use effectively for free is the medium-heavy bomber. This is because the default underbelly turret is how the majority of kills with this class are obtained. There is a high-explosive upgrade that allows for far better and more effective farming but it's unnecessary when getting started. The light fighter (Hereon: ESF), while being the best tool for farming other players like they are cattle, is worthless without the purchase of Rocket Pods (perferred) or missiles (if you like). 1000 certifications is the cost for both of these and it takes an exceptional amount of time to earn them. If you don't feel like being one of the sheep to be sheered repeatedly for experience points, for the best part of 2 months I might add, then you are going to need to man up and pay up. You don't get to roll with the best and win like a pro unless you pay for that right. It's a free game, don't expect to get any joy out of the premiere farming tool without paying for that privilage. Hardcore forum goers will tell you that paying isn't necessary, but if you are reading this guide you probably have a job or kids or both and have a few hours to enjoy each weekend. You will not get any joy out of the ESF if you don't pony up. So you may want to skip this class entirely. The other reason they tell you this is covered in the "But take from them everything" section later on. The medium-heavy bomber (Hereon: Libby) is a three man bombing machine that racks up kills like a turkey house at Christmas and most of these will come form your gunner. Your job here is to fly over bases and hover in place, while dodging rockets and fire as and when required. You'll also want to fit either zoom or optics to that all important bottom turret when possible and extend the ammo. The upgrade if your willing to pay (High Explosive 150 type turret) will net you more kills and will get you them more easily but once again. You've almost certainly gotta pay for it so it's up to you to decide. You'll often want to fly this in 3rd person mode by pressing t (default) when over a base. This gives you a better view of incoming hate, you can switch back quickly if you need to get away. The heavy transport (Hereon: Gal) flys like a torp bomber from any space game you've ever played and is twice as defenceless. You'll also get little to no reward for flying this giant, slow, target of a ship. Don't even bother. Anything you can do in this, you can do better in a libby, quicker and with more reward. As far as you are concerned, this plane does not exist and anyone who mentions it like it actually matters is an idiot. Basic 4 - But take from them everything Finally, do you have the mindset to be a pilot? Your enemy is the AA trooper. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to make his life hell? He's paid as much if not more in certifications to beat you. He can only have done this out of spite. You deserve 40+ kills per run and he intends to stop you. These people are scum and you are there to put them in their place. Most AA guns cannot aim up properly or accurately. Get above them and let your turret rain down death on the AA emplacements. If you are hit, fly away (and upwards) immedately preferably towards any nearby allied tank column or base. Get out and repair. Never be less than 100% health. Stick with the zerg, it will protect you. Never fly around without other aircraft (at least 3-7 of them). If there is tons of AA enemies about, simply go somewhere else. Enemy AA is slow and can barely move on a good day. You can get to 200-300kph. Just leave, there is always a base out there with little enemy airsupport or AA for you to farm so do that. You can even cap empty base points if you hover just above them, though you must be secure in your piloting to pull it off. Remember to watch out for enemy AA maxes and turrets. The tanks are a joke and can be ignored. Sunderers can be deadly, as their turrets hurt quite a bit, but they can only angle 30 degrees, so as long as you are "above" them somewhere, they are zero threat. If all else fails, to be a good pilot, you will be required to suicide your plane into the ground to prevent AA players from getting any exp or rewards. Give them absolutely nothing if you can. This is the reason why novice players are discouraged because they die to AA fire. AA players get kills, they are rewarded, if they are rewarded, they play AA more often. You must not allow that to happen. You must absolutely, never, allow them to get anything from you. You can detonate your plane mid-air by typing /suicide or deconstruct your plane if you need to. Do it. Give them absolutely nothing I can't stress it enough. Most people who have AA don't play it because it's unrewarding and bad exp. Keep it that way. Keep it frustrating and pointless and they will stop playing AA, allowing your farming to continue uncontested. So you are ready to fly So, you've got it all down and your ready to fly. You'll want to roll with 2 other players normally and rotate flying a libby or all flying an ESF together. This is done to ensure everyone gets a turn on the turrets in the libby and also to conserve resources. This will mean that you'll never be without a plane to fly. Try to make good pilot friends to help you in this task. When all flying the ESF, one of you will want to roll AA missiles and protect the others who are rocketfarming. This can be done on rotation too if you like. Note that, between the 3 of you, no "3" other players, in anything doing anything can really stop you. They might be able to drive you away if they are all AA Maxes, but that almost never happens because, pilots follow the "but take from them everything" code. If you do see this you are facing an organised outfit. Time to leave and farm somewhere else. All in the landing To be honest, once you've set the controls flying is pretty easy, but landing to repair can be tricky. Practise your landing in the warpgate area. My pro-tip is to angle your plane slightly up (1 or 2 degrees), tap c gently to come down and then hit space (which pushes you up) whenever you are over 30kph. Once you touch the floor, hold the c button down to "pin" yourself to the ground. If your in a libby, your gunners will pop to repair you, so sit in your seat and relax. Make the gunner your squad leader and get him to make waypoints for you, so you can take him where he wants to be exactly. Fast landings for fast repairs is vital, so get it down to a fine art. The quicker it's done, the quicker you can get to farming. On the ground, you are vunerable so don't be there long. One thing to note is that you can spin mid air in your plane without moving it by holding the left or right arrow keys. You need to be a certain height (50m) to do this but it is definitely useful. Angle your nose up and tap space gently to reverse backwards if you get too close to something. If your plane flips it'll explode instantly and that is embarassing. Don't let it be you. Missile Dodging If you've flown pilot before in other games, the standard trick of angling your plane towards the floor while spinning either left or right will allow you to dodge most missiles. Amusingly, you can also outrun them in an ESF if you use the afterburners. There are also countermeasures you can use, but I wouldn't rely on them. If you suddenly here 3-4 missiles coming for you though, they can be a life saver. Remember to floor your plane if you've got no escape route but if your with your zerg, this will very rarely be the case. Flying very low through archs or buildings will put off bad pilots so spend serious time practising it. This is your only real defence against A-to-A missile planes. They are rare but they are out there so beware. Tail gunners can put the hurt on though, so in a big air zerg you should be safe. Conclusion Flying is a ton of fun and a great way to make experience points and certifications. Practise hard and you'll soon be enjoying all the benefits. Once you play pilot and get good at it, it's pretty hard to go back to anything else because being so powerful and so unstoppable is a rush that just can't be beat. I'll be adding more as the questions come in, including best bases to farm and other details. Happy piloting .
I wonder if anyone in this forum sees themselves as a novice though ^^. Ah well I will be back to improve this later rather than take questions now.
Very good post. One thing I would add (I almost don't want to say this). Fly at the Altitude limit until you figure out the area (# of hostile etc). Most people don't do this and it will give you a lot of power coming at them from above. Myself and 2 other AA ESFs have regularly held off much larger fighter squads by doing this. In air, as with most things, people don't look up.
Sounds like good advice (for your pilot scum brethren). SOE needs to nerf, not the killing ability of planes and tanks, but the amount of EXP that you get from it. You know that it's unbalanced, you make no secret of it, you brag about it and revel in the imbalance. Your third sentence mentions "easy experience and certifications". Driving a tank or flying a plane should not yield multiples of the EXP that Infantry get, unless you're really good at it, as I'm sure the OP is.
One can't stress this enough. You really absolutely need to crash your plane as soon as you take over 50% Damage. Otherwise you risk them getting exp. So if you take 50% damage, nose down and drill yourself into the ground. This can't be stressed enough. You absolutely must do this! Don't deconstruct, just fly into a structure or the ground. Deconstructing takes way to long. You have to fly into a structure. Absolutely, without any questions. Do it.
Agree on some parts, disagree in others. To be an effective ESF pilot you don't need neither rocket pods, nor A2A missiles. I bought both on release, and yet I find myself still using the Afterburner Fuel on most air superiority engagements. It's the superior option for people that know what they are doing as it can be used in multiple situations, and above all, grant you a get out of jail free card when attacked by multiple A2A nabs. Edit - Nevermind me, I just read the OP further, it's a troll guide afterall Suiciding to prevent enemies from getting exp? really? heh
Why would preventing the enemy from getting EXP make it a troll guide? I am willing to bet that giving away exp (and thus attracting AA players) is the number one reason top players want to prevent people from getting into piloting. Sad? Prehaps. But thats how it is. MMO war is hell. Nothing trolling about reality of things. I wouldn't floor at 50% though, I'm sure that was it sarcasm. But at 10% with nowhere to go? Absolutely. I don't think you'll do well with guns and fuel over A2A missiles, unless you are really good. The power to stand off with them is just too much for even a decent pilot to handle, especially in many verus many situations. Better for newer pilots to stick to missiles.
Long write up but worth the read. Here are my 2cents to contribute. I would not agree on 100% of the time being engineer, but I do agree it comes down to that or La. This one depends on how impatient you are. If I am fighting near my warpgate then I ALWAYS take Light Assault. I can always make it down safely and not die which is a big deal to me, I hate dying. Not to mention when I land to repair I will be going back to the warpgate I am fighting near anyways, it just takes a second if you land in right place to swap into and back out of engy for repairs. If you dont care about dying and just want to kill as fast as possible then stick with engy, and when far afield stick with engy as well since the time you spend trading loadouts is too dangerous for you and your plane. Also dont disregard a standard loadout fighter, the only esf I ever upgrade the nosegun on is the scythe. The other two do just fine with default (so can scythe but their upgrade felt like more of an upgrade to me) and can be very deadly to tanks already in a fight with something else so they arent shooting at you, other aircraft that arent liberators (works but takes forever) and foot soldiers if you are really good and steady with the aim. These will all however require flying a bit slower and a bit of hovering depending on the situration. When you mention angles this applies to most everything in the game. So many tanks will get so annoyed if you get right above them and hover firing at an angle they cant fire back. All they can do is move back or forwards to get angle on you and if they do you just whoosh out climb and come back and do it again. Fighting the libbys is all about angle too, if you just follow from behind they will tear you up. If you see them do a ret4rded looking move and turn their belly towards you they are letting belly gunner eat you so get out of there. you want to be above their cockpit pointing down on them and watch your bullet trail instead of your crosshair to properly lead them. Flying to the side of them works well to but they can tip their wings and easily let belly gunner fire back on you. If you stay above neither of them can see where you are. On the missle dodging its the G2A you can easily dodge by mashing afterburner or even flying in circles some times . Sad but true. Unlike G2A, the A2A is actually effective at hitting the only thing it can be fired at. Diving below hard cover and clinging to it is usually your best bet. A good pilot behind you will pretty much always be behind you though. I know people say how they lose everyone but honestly, I lose no one and no one really ever loses me unless I collide with something or get jumped by other pilots. Finding friendlies you can run to so they jump the guy behind you is still the best move I have.
Yeah this is pretty much what I said and it's great advice. I singled out the Sundy turrets specifically because they really, really hurt and are easy to aim. You will see good busdrivers park their sundy on an incline somewhere so they can aim them up further at the cost of being unable to hit ground units. These ones you really have to be aware of as 50 rounds of Bassie turret ammo can easily take you to 50% if the gunner is half decent and guess what, the bus has two of those. I think the standard loadout fighter is the hardest thing to use by a long way. It's not for novice pilots and it's not even for mid range or decent pilots. You have to be in the top 1% to fly it and actually get kills and/or farm with it. Is it worth it? Probably not. Especially when a couple of friends with A-to-A missiles will always win out. Missiles get better in groups because they come from all directions and become a nightmare to avoid. Still, I do agree it's possible to do well... just difficult .
