I'm loving Planetside 2 but.....

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by icufos, Jun 11, 2020.

  1. icufos

    I'm loving Planetside 2 but still getting shot down by those pesky 'aces'.

    On the ground I'm now getting some double and triple kills occaisionally. It's taken a year to achieve this, btw.

    However in the air if I do meet an experienced flyer it's over all too quickly.:oops:

    So tell me your secrets...if you dare.
  2. Blam320

    The "secrets" you need to learn to become a halfway decent pilot - let alone an Ace or a Skyknight - are literally exploits that shouldn't be in the game to start with, most egregiously the "reverse maneuver."

    On top of that, controls are very unintuitive, and veteran pilots are everywhere, just waiting for a new pilot to come along and get turned into an easy kill. That combines to make air play the single most punishing aspect of the game to try and get into.
    • Up x 4
  3. Demigan

    That video is some of the dullest air combat I've heard off. "I dived, my wingman shot him. Then we used an AWAC and two A2A superiority fighters to gang up on a single MIG who desperately tried to avoid and eventually crashed in the attempt".

    But yeah as Blam said, air-combat is some of the worst in the industry. Hover combat and Reverse Maneuver are the only skills to learn. Forget about quick banking, loops, twists, turns, corkscrews, preserving momentum and more. It's just Hover Combat and Reverse Maneuver, and the only way to beat someone who is superior in either is to become more superior at those same skills. There's no counter-maneuvers to pull, no method to escape them if you try to flee as all maneuvers that don't revolve around Hover Combat are often detrimental as they allow your opponent to catch up or give them a good shot at you. On top of that the controls are incomplete, some of the controls for aircraft aren't even bound to any key by default. And what controls are there are lopsided at best. Any normal person would either A: Put control of the nose's up/down/left/right/diagonal movement completely in the keyboard, or B: Put control of the nose's up/down/left/right/diagonal movement completely on the mouse. No person in their right mind would split it into up/down with the mouse and left/right with the keyboard.
    And let's not forget how unbalanced it is. ESF dominate all other aircraft for the most part, with Liberators sometimes taking them on or a surprise Skywhale taking some down while they are busy, but usually it's ESF all the way. Similarly while the other aircraft somewhat specialize in their roles the ESF can often pull both A2A and A2G duty at the same time as fighter, fighter-bomber and helicopter gunship. Why? Because F you that's why. They listened to the few people who benefited from the lopsided system and never looked back at how it ruined the air-game and a lot of the ground game where it touched it.
    • Up x 3
  4. UberNoob1337101

    If you want to get good with flying, get to VR, pull an ESF and practice both reverse maneuver and with air controls in general. The sooner you learn to use reverse maneuver, know how to get into and out of hover mode, the better. It's quite useful for not starting out completely green. In the early stages and versus other green pilots, making less mistakes as well as fighting the controls less will help you win fights.

    This is the best guide out there at the moment, it explains everything in half an hour :


    It covers hover dueling, ESF flying in general and ESF customization built around it.

    I doubt it'll change at all, so getting good with it as it is is the only option. You can step away from the meta, go maximum DPS nosegun and Racer High Speed airframe for boom-and-zoom, but inevitably ESF combat against equal or better pilots will turn into a hover-duel, so it's the best way of fighting in the sky ESF versus ESF.

    Now, the skill level of enemy pilots, during prime time I'd say that most servers have a good portion of vets in the air, but there are a lot of intermediate/new pilots. Vets also don't usually stay idle and wait to destroy newcomers, they will mostly either farm with A2G or fight other pilots. You can contribute regardless, I've killed only a few aces in 1v1, but a lot more while they were either farming, fighting another ESF or even landed for repairs.
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  5. That_One_Kane_Guy

    Modern air combat isn't exactly cinematic. Especially when you get stuck facing the best air forces on the planet with equipment you weren't fully trained to use because your boss won first prize in the How Many Countries Can I Get To Declare War On Me At Once Games.

    On topic this is the only game I have not put an even halfhearted attempt to learn to fly in because of the convoluted control scheme. Wouldn't mind seeing some control reworks but at the same time I'm not overly concerned one way or the other. I am curious to see how much of an effect the Colossus has on the air game since it will clearly be capable of dealing massive damage to other flying things when there are no Bastions around to plink at.
    • Up x 4
  6. Alkasirn

    Pft, it's way more action packed than what PS2's got.
    "Yeah so I saw an ESF and prepared for air combat that's almost identical to infantry combat but with more steps, but then a random engineer fired 3 shots into it with a carbine so the ESF freaked out, as most sky knights tend to do, turned and afterburner'd straight into a tree. The infantry got a bunch of exp, there was a huge fanfare and their KDR went up by 0.00001 so now reddit respects them. Wow."

    But yeah, like everyone else has said, if you have an interest in any actual dogfighting, play literally any other game. There are only exploiters here.

    (Personally I'd recommend Ace Combat 7, even on easy mode that game's harder than anything you can do with an ESF in PS2 but it's still super arcade-y like in PS2)
    • Up x 1
  7. icufos

    Ok, thanks. Reverse maneuver. Got it Commander.



    I want to rule the skies so it's a start.

    Kinda shocked watching the WW2 vid. They had obviously done enough damage and the enemy is going down......they carry on shooting.:eek:
  8. waystin2

    Here is my brain dump from one newb pilot to another after a few months of flying. Physics do not apply. If you have flown any other sort of flight game you are at a disadvantage until you retrain your mind. There are no red-outs or black-outs in monstrously high G maneuvers. Reaver is fastest/quickest climber but has the largest hit profile, Mossie seems to be the best all around fighter of them all, good turns, good rolls, good acceleration, climb, etc., Scythe is the slowest but by far the tightest turner, smallest profile. Always run in a pack. Check outside view regularly. Don't be afraid to hit the turbo and get the hell outta dodge if you find yourself outnumbered. Liberators best defensive weaponry is a collision so watch out for this devastating weapon. Tanks can and will shoot you, even if you are not shooting at them. Never fly straight lines for long periods of time, it makes you a target. If you get locked up by a missile try to fly behind something to throw the missile off, if you cannot do so safely take the missile hit instead of crashing flying for a safe position. Do not underestimate the hitting power of a Max with dual bursters. The range is long and up close they can make a mess of an ESF.
  9. Demigan

    That video is from a game (this one: https://www.google.com/search?q=il ...droid-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8). Thats why many of the maneuvers arent "real" maneuvers. The maker of the video deliberately makes it look authentic for fun.

    That said, yes that looks several magnitudes more enjoyable than the PS2 gameplay, although hits would need to deal less damage so a hit does not instantly murder you.
  10. McToast

    As long as you don't approach PS2 like a flightsim you can have a lot of fun. Air combat is tailored to the game engine, so it's not realistic at all. It's a crude mix of classic air combat, space combat and VTOL/heli combat. I'm glad it's the way it is, because it's unique and can be picked up by anybody willing to learn pretty quickly while still having a high skill ceiling.
    • Up x 1
  11. Desann

    What i can't stand is the solo lib pilots who perfectly barrel roll and 1 shot your ESF with a dalton...

    BRING BACK SEAT-SPECIFIC VEHICLE ENTRY!!!

    COUGH

    PLANETSIDE 1

    No seat swapping!
    • Up x 1
  12. Peebuddy

    All the vets have long moved onto A2G load outs, that's where the cert farm is to feed our huge egos. You have to be, imagine trying to survive up in the air with near completely useless weaponry against attacking air, you better be damn good.

    But what keeps me alive the longest is to just not engage them, once they start shooting you immediately run toward friendly ground forced or aircraft. Most pilots break off the moment they see they're under lock-on or any amount of flack. If you're looking to down enemy planes I'd look for enemy A2G fighters, they're usually looking at the floor and are completely oblivious to an approaching fighter and you can get a good barrage off.

    Thought the folly of most pilots isn't necessarily superior enemies but the fact they overextend, if you're chasing someone whilst playing Kenny Loggins in your head then you're probably already dead.
  13. Twin Suns

    PS2's supposedly "set in the future shooter" has always been a long running joke to me. I found it to be, just your average classic grindy shooter mixed with a hodgepodge of 1970's aircraft mechanics. I still play it, but I don't for second believe it's futuristic theme.

    o7
  14. Demigan

    I just corrected that for you.
  15. InexoraVC

    The main problem with the air combat is that bullets you shoot don't inherit velocity vector of your ESF. That is why the hover combats are the HELL for new pilots: pilots have to ignore physics.
  16. AlcyoneSerene

    Indeed, the game goes to the trouble of simulating real projectiles but then falls short of giving them what they deserve.