Why is it so hard to get into the airgame?

The airgame is the absolute hardest thing to master, and I have no idea why some people think it's worth it (and it might actually be worth it, but idk anybody who thinks that it is). I know one of the main reasons are dedicated pilots/air outfits like QRY and PREY on Emerald NC and SVO on Emerald TR, yet the Emerald VS don't seem to have any dedicated air outfits, just a few excellent pilots. So, what's the other reason that getting into the airgame is so hard? Is it because of the high amount of skill it takes to maneuver your aircraft in a way that not only keeps you alive but also gives you a good angle to shoot at enemy targets (especially aircrafts)? Is it because ESFs and Libs are easy to take out when there's concentrated fire (all dedicated air outfits, looking at you guys)? Is it because there's too much AA? Is it because there's almost always never a single aircraft roaming the skies anymore, and it's all pretty much "get into an air group or die" sort of thing? What are the other reasons that getting into the airgame is so hard?

Infantry clusters. Rocketpods/Banshee. Ohhhhh yeahhhhh....

It's not hard, just get some QRYotes™

Hover mode, though affording great depth, is not intuitive. The learning curve is initially very steep, particularly because there is insufficient player feedback about exactly what they're accomplishing by doing some complex maneuver. Also, aiming is plain difficult.

Because the way aircraft maneuver in this game is horrible for anybody who is not familiar with how to fly.

I'll even go so far as to say that Tribes 2 method of flying aircraft is 10x better than the crap SOE pushed.

The PS2 vehicle game in general has a very large cert gap in addition to a skill gap, so you are behind the eight ball from the start.

I don't know. Reverse Maneuver maybe?

I guess the airgame is all about Reverse Maneuver. Everything seems to evolve around this particular single thing.
But I'm not sure 100%. I never bothered to practice this thing, because it seems lame to me. One-trick-Pony, rule them all.

Personally i have serious problems with aiming, due to the restrictions in key-binding. I just can't aim, the movement is transmitted digitally, so the crosshair literally "jumps" to much. I need my mouse for yawing.

I also guess there is hardware, like expensive pro-joysticks and pedals, which give huge benefits ingame.

It's difficult because, unlike the armour game which is a little bit similar (vehicles are expensive and have the same cert tree issue):

- You don't have cover, so if you get exposed you will probably die. In a tank battle you can usually get back behind the last rock or bump in the road.
- Aiming is 3 dimensional, so it is much harder
- Aircraft are constantly moving so they're hard to hit, and moving quickly so you have to lead a lot
- Because they're not against a surface, it's hard to get the feedback of how much you're missing by
- It's rare that there is a random allied air zerg that you can go up and practice in
- ESFs are weak so any mistake is very costly. Dalton, dumbfires and tank shells are OHK, lockons and bulldogs 2HK, and a good enemy pilot can kill you in seconds. That makes it hard to learn from the mistakes.

Because a stock ESF is the worst thing in the game.

Only the Decimator is 1HK, standard dumbfires put you in critical HP which is recoverable with fire suppression or a quick landing. Of tank shells, only Titan HEAT/AP and Supernova FPC are OHK, if I'm not mistaken. Lock-ons are 3HK, not 2HK.

The skill gap is too wide more or less. It's the widest gap in the game by a mile.

Hover fights are inherently no better than aircraft circle jerks in other games, but when it came time to nerf the reverse, the ESF pilots went into outrage mode. So now who wins depends on who can tweak their mouse sensitivity the best and keep the aim on the enemy aircraft the longest while hovering. Not even flying, just hovering. There's only a few ACMs even worth knowing in PS2, and their applicability is nullified if you just go to reverse/hover mode flying.

Also lolpods needing a counter means that all ESFs are super-vulnerable to surface to air weapons. Horrible debris mechanics means that even when you win, you often lose. The flight ceiling is way too low, so there's never multiple layers of fights. The view distance is so short that you get jumped instead of seeing each other well out of weapons range, like what should happen in normal helicopter combat (the ESFs are more like helos than fixed wing aircraft, due to hover and slow speeds).

I like ESFs. I don't like how they can farm infantry anywhere close to as well as Liberators. They should clear the air for libs, not be libs themselves. I wish they actually modeled things like momentum, gravity, air resistance, stall speeds, g-loading, etc. Instead you dive to the ground without accelerating, and you can climb to the alt cap without decelerating. Which is just dumb and unintuitive.

I think ESFs are hard to learn because of a combination of A) they are overpowered, but balanced in that surface to air is also overpowered, so that new pilots get blown up very easily, and B) all the things they did to abstract away the mechanics of flying an aircraft had the perverse effect of making flying very unintuitive.

If you want to learn to fly, put dogfighting on the back burner. You're going to lose dogfights... for a very long time.

Instead, build a cheap Infantry Farmer.

Get AI nosegun (You're VS? Get the PPA. It's only 100 certs) Throw Thermals (200 certs) and rank 3/4 spare ammo on that.

Utility/defense/airframe is up to individual tastes, but for this build:
Utility: Scout radar or Fire Suppression. Radar is more team orientated and makes finding targets easier. I don't even look down until my client has updated with all infantry posistions, which I can tell when the dots finally show up on radar. Fire Supp gives a measure of added survivability.

Defense: Nanite Auto Repair or Stealth are the 2 best options. Flak is "ok" but won't stop THAT much flak damage TBH. I prefer stealth.

Frame: Just don't get "Dogfighting". It's useless. I prefer Racer on all my ESF's, V-Thrust is good too though and may be preferable. Try both in VR to see which you like.

Secondary: Max out your AB fuel pods cert lines. You'll need that fuel and speed to get away from A2A ESF's, G2A locks, or just bug out when Flak turns on you.


Now just fly around the fringe of big battles using buildings and hills to block LoS as much as possible except for your attack runs. You can get practice flying, have fun, get kills, provide radar for team (if you take scout) and without nearly the frustration of trying to take on pro pilots (who you're better off just running from even with an A2A build, so why even bother?)


When you get good at flying and are ready to try to take on another pilot, then you can grab the Rotary for 250 certs.

For a couple k certs, you can have a very competitive infantry attack fighter.

I seriously doubt any top players would use a joystick?

That sounds nightmarish.

lol yeah, only Gal pilots can get away with joystick flying.

ALL ESF pilots worth a darn fly M/K... though I should add they also all add keybinds for pitch to do flips.

Dumbfires put you on critical HP so a couple of bullets and you're down, before or after. Technically you're right but they're effectively OHK, particularly for a newb who won't have high level fire suppression certed. (Phoenix is a genuine 1HK, by the way.)

I am NC so you might be right about that. I thought Prowler AP was as well but maybe not.

I'm pretty sure I get taken down to half health by at least one of the lock on weapons, maybe only Annihilator does that. The main point is still true though, a mistake will get you killed a lot more often than in tank battles.

I forgot another point: air fights are not directional, someone can always come at you from behind. In a tank fight there's usually a clearly defined 'forward' and 'back' in the battle line, so choosing how exposed you want to be isn't that hard. In the air you need much higher situational awareness to do that.

Took Ronin Oni' advice about a banshee/racer/fuel pod build and I've been farming infantry like crazy these past couple days. Swapped out nanite auto repair for stealth and it really does make a huge difference for preventing lock ons and being sneaky, but I do miss auto repair for when only having taken minor damage, kind of a pain to set her down just to top her off. Also, I run ejection seat like a dirty bastard just incase I get in a bind where I'm screwed (QRY, Prey ganging up on you for example). Bail out and insta hit redeploy and hope for the best ^^ Just don't do it if you're banked 90 degrees to the right or your esf will bump you and cancel the safe landing buff resulting in suicide crediting the kill to the last guy who dinged you.

I would love to fly but that is all I can do atm.
The instant I get any action idk what to do but die.

One day ill give it a go when I can fully cert it on the onset like I did my MAX

LOL you lil cheeky snit. Bailing out on people

I die sometimes, sure. Obviously, but I'd much rather have Fire Supp for emergency quick mini heal or Scout (My fav)

But yeah, the best way to get into the air game.... is to ignore the rest of the air game

2 words.
Gank squads.