New pilots are being neglected by all except the elite pilots, who destroy them.

This has actually already been done. Some of these things are only one cert for the first rank. But flares and such will do no good for a new pilot fighting 'ace' pilots who just nose gun them down.

That just makes this:

Happen quicker and more often. And just passively buffs the other pilots' cert gain.

You want to fix ESFs? Lower the skill ceiling to that of other vehicles. No one has effectively explained or even attempted to explain why ESFs should require tutoring and hours in the VR to learn to fly to actually stand a chance. No other vehicle in the game requires that. Not Tanks, Not Sundies, Not Harrassers, and not even Galaxies or Liberators. Do you know why? Specifically speaking about the Gals and Libs.. they do not have the reverse maneuver. Remove that, and possibly remove 3rd person view and now flying is relatively difficult in its own right. But engaging others is a little more even on the playing field.

Some might say that removes skill frome ESFs. Well perhaps, but why should it require so much more skill than other vehicles? If vehicles took that much skill to drive/fly then I would say its fine. But its not. So either buff the skill ceiling on all vehicles or lower the ESFs. Now on the contrary I believe this wouldn't lower the skill needed for ESFs. I believe it will simply move it to another location in a sense. Instead of doing fancy controls, you have to worry more about position, attack angle, and reconnaissance. It also leaves room for buffs to the ESF.

As I said, no one has effectively or even tried to explain why the ESF should require tutoring and practice in the VR. No one. I mean its not like its the one seat wonder of vehicles that can go toe to toe with every vehicle. Hell a MBT can chase it away with a Kobalt. Its pretty much an air version of the flash at best. And probably will be just that when the Valkyrie is released. So its not like a super ace is doing great things on the ground. Most people ignore them except for ESF noobs who get trounced by them. But most aces are getting chased off by single heavies/MAXes that aren't normal zerglings.

On the contrary, I think gals and libs require just as much skill as ESFs to fly effectively, it's just not that you fly in the same way. While the controls are simpler, you still have to worry about your gunners getting a good shot, which isn't the easiest thing in the world to do by any stretch.

In esfs, you already have to worry about your position, attack angle, and reconnaissance. The latter is more important when you're flying in a group, but is also very important when you're up against AA, or enemy air. I usually go and scout for any skyguards, and then once I know their location, I can organize a focused strike on it specifically with my squad. I'll go in first, give it a few shots to get its attention, while my friend sneeks up on it and unleashes a fullclip of lolpods, then while his attention switches, I'll quickly jump the skyguard again from the opposite direction, taking out the skyguard . This requires coordination, good positioning, and reconnaissance to pull off.

Regarding your last point of anyone being able to take out esfs, that's not quite 100% true. An ace won't die to a few measly heavies or even a burster max, since anyone with some more experience will know to run. Additionally, a2g specialized esfs ( And no, not just lolpoders, but esfs that are using their dedicated a2g nose gun ) will often be able to fight ground threats in small numbers. Also, esfs can tank dumbfires from full health if they're running fire suppression.

Somewhat agree with OP, however the same could be said for most aspects of the game.

The First 20 hours of play are and horrible experience of endless frustration for newbie.
You are not used to your weapon, you have no mods, everyone has Flak 5 or Nano 5 ... you never win a 1v1.
Any second of immobility is rewarded by a OHKO from a sniper 250m away ... and so on, and so on.

Learning about bases layout and teamplay is not instantaneous. This is a F2P game, and while it is easy for people to try the game and start playing, it is also very easy for them to rage quit and leave to never return.

The first 2 weeks of gameplay are crucial for a newbie so he can learn the ropes and introduce the game in his daily routine. A casual player should always be able to play the first few days without feeling stuck against a paywall or a massive grind.

One of the stuff I feel is missing for new players is a proper matchmaking. Of course, a "matchmaking" system is impossible in an open world PvP game. But if there were a small scale island with a limit such as BR1-20, it would help them get more used to the game. Think of it like a newbie island.
Of course, at any moment a newbie can join the main continent should he wishes to.

If you want a lore excuse, let's just pretend this island is of low priority to your empire, only a couple bases, no AMP, no tech, no big stuff. So your empire send the untrained and unreliable gaunts to take care of this low stuff.

Is there not a way to have multiple people in VR mode? Like, a sparring system where each player can practice whatever vehicle/weapon they like against other live players could be good.

We'd have more skilled players/drivers/pilots and there'd be a lot less buyers remorse when you realise that the gun you sank 1000 Certs into isn't as "to your playstyle" as you thought.

*looks menacingly at the Anchor*

I don't believe there is such a thing as Elite Pilots.. Only Kill hors and Play for Scoreboard..
These so called "Elites" only play in ESFs because it 99% of the time guarantees 10-30+ KDr.

Not only does it guarantee 10+ the abuse of the Redeploy guarantees zero Deaths 99% of the time..

Watch one of Daddy's videos and you'll see what a typical so called "Elite" is.. Farm in ESF, lose fight Bail, Redeploy, get new ESF.
However don't get me wrong, Daddy is thee best ESF pilot when it comes to ESF vs ESF.. but most of these "Elites" player die like any other player on the ground in infantry combat.

I don't 24hor7 in my Mossy, but when I do, I use The Banshee with afterburner fuel tanks and racer frame, I can guarantee 100+ kills for zero deaths within 30 minutes. When I do meet one of these so called "Elites", who's only advantage over me is a proper A2A weapon and not a Anti-infantry weapon.. I can leg it with Auto-Repair, Fire Extinguisher and Quadruple the afterburner, and either heal my self before that can catch up, and bail in a safe place and Redeploy..

Again, these so called Elites are the greatest living being in existant, it's just their type of game style and the abuse of the Redeploy function makes them look like the best players. Where in actual fact, if you actually looked at their stats, they fail on the ground as inf to someone who placed in the 20-30 on the scoreboard who actually places Inf 24/7..

All These so called Elites ABUSE the Redeploy Function, FACT!
Also, they all play as LA not Engineer in their ESFs.

fly as a wingman to an experienced pilot... there's nothing wrong to ask for instructions.

If you want to be a Air vs Air ESF Pilot watch one of Daddy's youtube videos, it give you a nice view of how to aim (from over steering using A/D), and how he avoids taking hits using the reverse maneuver.

The only difference from a experienced pilot and a new pilot is Certs, keeping your aim on a ESF is sadly based on the skill of the Player, not a game issue.. in my view anyway.

I also know a some pilots who using a Xbox controller while flying and Bail at very high altitude to switch back to keyboard before landing.

This is true, but flying in PS2 isn't actualy difficult, it is just awkward, the two are very different things (basically if the controls could be setup as they should be able to be flying would be a lot "easier" without actually changing anything).

This will be their biggest challenge with the PS4 migration, I think.

The truth is that the lesson learned from the above situation is "If you're a new player, stop flying into air fights alone."

Once you learn that you can move on to the next lessons, but that's Lesson #1 for any type of fighting: find a fight worth fighting at.

Why do PS2 aircrafts fly so 'awkwardly', compared to other games ?
Seriously you can be great at many other space/flight sims and fail horribly in this one.

they are set up about as well as they can be

KBAM only provides two methods of analog control: mouse left/right and mouse forward/backward. For two axis movement (i.e. infantry, ground vehicles) this is fine because, obviously, you only have two axes to control. In flight, the third axis is necessarily controlled by less-than-precise keyboard functions.

here's the thing: roll and pitch are the two that you should want fine control over. Yaw is the easiest of the three to make irrelevant in PS2's flight model. Aircraft would become quite difficult to navigate precisely if roll were controlled by the keyboard instead of yaw (which some people seem to want /boggle.) If you want to beef about proper joystick implementation I'm with you, but I doubt that's the big concern of 99% of new-to-average pilots.

You're sort of right. The controls are simpler and you have to worry about more than the controls. But the point is, you're not in the VR practicing those skills. You can hone them in actual game play just like tanks or sundies.

Absolutely, but without a reverse manuever, those skills become more important, since you lose your get out of jail free card. If a noob catches you with your pants down, he's gotcha. Where as right now.. you can tilt up and float in a curve around him. Why not reward someone for getting the drop, sort of like in infantry.

It changes the dynamics, and I think its for the better.

You're right, an ace won't die, but I didn't say they would either. I said they'd be chased off. As for tanking dumbfires with FS.. if its not a deci... and if they're not running flares. Its about 50/50 that don't.

ESF's are in a bad spot right now. The only real function they have is it gives 'aces' a dueling ground. They really don't affect the ground. Yeah every so often they'll catch a tank or soldier unaware and light them up. But in larger battles, Battle Galaxies and Liberators dominate. There's an illusion of ESF's being crazy good. I mean try it, load up in a ESF and fly around, eventually you'll get another ESF pilot to get on you looking for a duel. Heck you can even send a pilot a tell and ask to fight over an area.. 9 times out of 10 He'll be there lol. But how much of an effect are they actually having? Most points are inside, most bases have AA turrets or places to shoot out from with minimal if any return fire.

When I run my static squad, and we use a sundy. A Scythe/Mossie or two isn't a threat. Four, five, or more is of course. But we don't really stress over a ESF. Now.. why take the RM away if they are that bad? Well so that they can be buffed. Buff them as they control now, and the good pilots get exponentially better in power. We don't need that. We need a change that will elvate everyone by the same amount. If you want to give a skill rating and say an Ace is at 75 and a noob is at 25... When we buff the ESF we want to go up by 25 points on both. Not simply times it by two. See Aces will get up to 100 and noobs to 50, instead of 50 and 150. This brings the newer players just a bit more level. I don't know if that makes any sense at all.

Get a friend that also wanna learn... Go to VR do mock dogfights...
Youtube watch film
Learn to fly lib? tailgun experienced pilots... (dalton will be occupied)
If all above fails... cry some on forums!

I disagree with you OP.

I would say that I am above average when it comes to being an ESF pilot, but I learned everything just from playing the game, well before VR came out. Having learning curves like this keeps people playing the game. When everything is simple to do, the game becomes stale, and people stop playing because it is boring.

Truth be told, the learning curve is a good thing. If you want to be a pilot, then jump into an ESF, and learn from the mistakes that cause you to explode. Go up against pro pilots, and watch what they do. You are going to die a lot. That is a given. However, pay attention on how they manage to kill you. It will help in the long run.

There is a lot to pay attention to when you flying an ESF in a battle, but that's the part that makes it fun.

You hone your ESF flying skills outside of VR too. VR is only for if you have trouble crashing into terrain, since you're not penalized for dieing, but otherwise, you can't learn anything in VR with your ESF.

The reverse maneuver is actually useless on its own. It's the creative ways that you can use it that make the air game more interesting. Simply doing a 180 doesn't guarantee anything.

And about getting the drop on someone, that still holds true as things stand. If I get the drop on someone, they're either going to be smoking, or dead. The problem with lesser skilled pilots is that they never actually get the drop on anyone or anything. They slowly fly in a straight line towards someone and miss 90% of their shots, alerting the person they went for. It's the same as having some noob sneak up behind someone as infantry and start shooting but miss most of their shots, allowing for the other to turn around and slap them in the face. It's not that getting the jump on someone isn't effective. You can't reverse maneuver your way out of a full clip of vortek that's already been fired at you, as pretty much every vs and tr would know on waterson

I can completely dominate even some low 25-48 enemy pop battles for as long as they don't pull a ton of AA, at which point I can just do quick strafes and still have a large impact on a battle. An A2G ESF is an invaluable asset to any groundfight ( For the side they're on, of course ). If they go unchecked, they will dominate everything, especially a mossie with a banshee and lolpods. A2A esfs are meant to deny these a2g esfs, as well as liberators.

As I said, esfs are a definite threat to a small battle, if they know what they're doing.
Changing the way mechanics work isn't going to fix anything. The ace pilots will quickly adapt, and those who were trying to learn will be left in the dust, as what they've been striving to learn will have become completely irrelevant.

Agree with OP:
Terrain and Skill both behave the same:
Fighting an uphill battle is challenging
fighting a downhill battle is relaxing
fighting down a cliff is BORING
fighting up a cliff is FRUSTRATING

you can only really learn if you have a long uptime allowing for micro adjustments to take effect and be noticable. eg i can learn the drop on a Sniper rifle with very little problems, because i'm relativly save and can take many shots in succession comparing them against each other.
Flying on the other hand looks like this: "Does it work when i do it exactly like this" *dies* -waits a few minutes, playes Infantry- *spawns new plane* "what exactly did i try half an hour ago?"
Getting the Grip off the Gal or the Liberator is very easy, as their large health pool allows for experimentation. The skill floor for ESFs however quite literally in the skies.

The only thing that stop me to play in esf is playing in a toaster

The air game is just painful and very hostile. It is IMPOSSIBLE to learn. I put resource cost, bad VR and cooldown as core reasons for it.

I just went back to Planetside 1 to check... and the controls are just so much better. Can't we have that instead of this weird control?

my advice would be to fly during your own factions air zerg. They happen just as much as tank zergs and you're far less likely to be gimped by "aces" if you do. I know it's very risky to plunge into a swarm of scythes, so most pilots wont try to.