How Is It Some People Are Impeccable Flyers?

Good tip to improve flying: fly close, very close to the ground at max speed,
and dodge everything using only your mouse.Fly into arch tunnel, in bridge tunnels
No hover, no turbo... You'll get better at dogfighting

Sounds like you just need a bit of practice or you're coming up against better or more organized players. Take any one of those situations you mention and play the inverse role, see how it feels at the other end.

The game would be infinitely better off with no ESF's, just Galaxies and Liberators. You know, things that require teamwork and aren't OP as hell...

VR is nice, but the best place to practice flying in the real world is on the test server, it's mostly empty still and you can fly around actual in game places without getting ganked by aces. Plus with the new resource system, as long as you have the basics of flying you can continuously practice maneuvers around mountains and what not.

Not that I'm a good pilot, I've actually been planning to get in there myself to touch up on my maneuvering. I'm pretty good at avoiding flak etc from the ground but need to get my reverse maneuver a little more ingrained in muscle memory for dog fighting.

I do not respect your opinion.

ESFs are challenging and fun. You can get better kill streaks and/or XP with so many other things in this game than an ESF.

In my book, Rebirth is a waste of money. That was the last time I will ever trust a company's record to pre-order a game without any per-purchase footage beyond measly trailers.

As to whether it's playable or not, technically it was since the last I've played it, which was a while ago. There has been an optimization pass, a gazillion bug fixes, new content, new campaign, etc, and it's probably not a half-bad game right now. I just can't play it without remembering the huge disappointment I had when I first started, and it won't be for quite a while before I work up the courage to play it again.

I feel your pain and feel exactly the same .
And recently I feel like PS2 goes a bit the other way - patching a decently working game till its totally broken .

Some are using macros to bind yaw to mouse axis. Kinda an involved process but then it's just a matter of switching their mouse from high sensitivity for steering to low sensitivity for aiming. (Something many gaming mice support).

Don't believe me? Google it. You'll find 2 or 3 different ways to do it. I don't recommend using it (In any form). SOE might suddenly find a way to detect macros.

It's real "fun" being spammed by them let me tell ya.

Isn't there a flight sim out there where you guys would be more at home?

It's not fun being spammed. Period.

But with some stuational awareness to avoid them and at least 2 burst maxes you will get rid of all ESF.

Sadly, this is true. The ESF game has no place in 24-48+ man battles. They dominate in 12-24 though, and are just wasting their time at a 1-12. I mostly blame early days severe rocket pod ease of use for forcing AA to pretty much turn any sizeable battle into a no fly zone. Seriously, just remove the splash on rocket pods, and ESF won't need to be super vulnerable to flak. Does SOE listen? No, they just turn the ESF largely into unwelcome rubbish, that aren't even good at taking on liberators because those just go belly up and shoot back.

It's crazy how much nose gun damage from an ESF that Libs can soak up. Is there resistance at play or is that just pure hitpoints?

I read somewhere about the four stages of learning; unconcious incompetence, concious incompetence, concious competence, and unconcious competence. In my experience with the planetside 2 air game your going to reach concious competence somewhere in the 60-100 hour mark in your esf, unconcious competence somewhere after 100 hours in the cockpit. Those impeccable flyers are probably 300+ hours in an esf, go on the players site and check some names if you dont believe me.

Bottom line: It takes a massive time investment to get good at flying in planetside 2

Liberators do have 5,000 hitpoints to an ESF's 3,000, but they also have an 86% resistance to nose guns, and 75% to rocket pods. I can't seem to find their resistance to A2AMs, unless all lock-ons regardless of type are grouped in the same category (in which case it's 32.5%).

I also can't find Hornets specifically mentioned anywhere, so I'm not sure what damage type they are.

Honestly, I think Libs and Gals should be a little more vulnerable to nose guns (though effective DPS is usually better against them anyway because they're easier to hit). The idea would be that rotary+AB pods is a Lib/Gal hunting loadout, while A2AMs are for killing other ESFs.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...h8RJnceRswI1CZRFKnF-dT4_w/edit#gid=1609408229

Enjoy digging.

I wish there was something that provided the high thrills of PS2 A2A combat without all of the downsides that come because it's only part of a much more complex game. Sadly, I don't know of anything right now.

"Asperger's"

There is no such thing anymore.


The diagnosis of Asperger's was eliminated in the 2013 fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and replaced by a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder on a severity scale.

Trust me, I am a professional.

Part of it is damage falloff, which is especially noticeable if you're using a rotary. It's not wise to engage a well crewed Lib at 100-200 meters.

I disagree, i played a lot of other flight games out there (heroes in the sky, war thunder, il sturmovik series, etc) and the situational awareness and the speed you need to react to enemies nerby really help with other games, besides other games all have different type of leads, and in none do you have to react so fast to the fast enemies movements, yes there is no flight models, the difference btwn esfs its minimal compared to other games having historical and even imagined flight models, but man, after you learn to fly in PS2 and have a good couple of fights you wont miss any other arcade flight game, there is no action like that of PS2, tough its really rare now a days with all the death squads with 100 lock ons you dont survive one sec. Simulators tough thats another story.