basic flight school for test dummie's

[agathon_orti]

or how do i stop from going boom when i dont want to go boom during a dogfight.

Dont get me wrong, i like explosions as much as the next guy but currently one would think that i am a bit inebriated while "trying" to dogfight when i am certainly not under the influence of any liquid substances.

although some may argue that the lack of alcoholic refreshments is my problem.


tl;dr what is the best way to keep your target in your line of sight, and how to deal with blackouts.?

 

[DarthMunkee]

I can't speak to much of the piloting simply because I would have to record myself and watch the playback to really know what the heck was doing, but I can speak to the blackouts. I've noticed that most of the time it comes from the immediate acceleration when you get the ass end of your ship pointed in a new direction. This makes sense and it probably what everyone expects. I've found that using the brake to limit that immediate acceleration helps. It doesn't eliminate blackouts but holding the brake at least for a second or two at the end of a turn seems to help. I have also tried playing around with uncoupled mode on in a dogfight and in Vanduul Swarm at least it helps. You can turn on a ship behind you and start firing away, you just keep going in the original direction so you have to make sure you correct with some thrust from the engines.

That's just my .02 on what I remember has helped me, it may help you and it may not.

 

[Reyalp CB4]

or how do i stop from going boom when i dont want to go boom during a dogfight.

Dont get me wrong, i like explosions as much as the next guy but currently one would think that i am a bit inebriated while "trying" to dogfight when i am certainly not under the influence of any liquid substances.

although some may argue that the lack of alcoholic refreshments is my problem.


tl;dr what is the best way to keep your target in your line of sight, and how to deal with blackouts.?

Learn to race. It will give you an idea of how to control your ship at high speeds, predict black/Red/White outs, understand why they occur and how to curb them and plus you can be cool like @Shive

 

[MikeNificent]

Hey Agathon.

I'm a shitty pilot. Here are some things I do to be less shitty.

1: Blackouts come from high G-forces from a single direction squishing and/or pushing too much blood to/from your brain. Try rolling 90 or 180 degrees (default q and e) or decoupling (default c) and changing your pitch if you see you're about to black out in the middle of a turn. It will push the blood the other direction and counter what you're dealing with. Another alternative is to slow down, turn, then speed back up. These both help me. I tend to use the slow down technique more if I'm near dense asteroid fields and the decoupling when I'm in the open and my direction of travel isn't something I have to worry about right away.

2: Going boom from other people shooting you happens when your shield protection fails. You have three options. First, don't get shot. Practice evasive maneuvers during free flights or drone Vanduul Swarm. This includes randomly speeding up or slowing down, changing your direction slightly on a random, but regular basis, and using available cover (asteroids). Second: you can use the controls (default is Numpad I believe) to boost power to the shields protecting the direction you are taking fire from. It's tough to get used to, but helps if you can manage it. Third: Spread the love. Roll or decouple (pitch/yaw) to change the orientation of your ship in relation to the ship shooting at you to spread the enemy fire between different directional shields. This can save you for a couple seconds or more, which might make the difference.

3: Going boom from inanimate objects happens, well, all the time. The best advice I can offer is to try to pay attention to the little square box on your ship UI (has a downward pointing triangel in the top middle). This indicator tells you which way you are going, i.e. which direction you will continue going if you cease all thrust. Sometimes you'll try to turn too sharp, and boom (see #1 slowdown then turn above) or you decouple and hit something. Try to be aware of where you are in space and where you're going. I've been practicing lately with decoupled Vanduul Swarm and it has helped me quite a bit.

That's really all I do, but by no means am I a pro. Hope it helps.

 

[Pander]

Doing some yellow jacket training nights on sunday 7pm GMT (hopefully expanding when we get more folk and more time zones) so feel free to come along to train with some other testies

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Learn to Strafe (A and D keys) moving slightly sideways means bullets coming at you have to take that in to account which makes you harder to hit. Space Bar for strafe up and Ctrl for strafe down can reeeeeally confuse someone trying to joust with you. Rotate your ship with Q and E to turn left and right keeping a ship in your sites rather than putting the nose up and down - up means blackout faster, down means redout faster because of G forces as mentioned.

I drive a 350R. Despite the above I fall unconscious a lot.

 

[Thugari]

Learn to race. It will give you an idea of how to control your ship at high speeds, predict black/Red/White outs, understand why they occur and how to curb them and plus you can be cool like @Shive

The Keg of Knowledge states that no one can be as cool as Shive

 

[Reyalp CB4]

The Keg of Knolegde states that no one can be as cool as Shive

but we should all strive to try

 

[FZD]

Well, I'm mostly piloting a Freelancer, so this comes from that perspective.
Freelancer is slower, less agile than, let's say, a mustang. So what do I do when I face a mustang? I kinda don't want to waste missiles if possible, those are a valuable commodity. So getting the Mustang to joust would be ideal, I got much better shields and hull plating than the Mustang; I really want to get the Mustang out of it's area of expertise and force it to mine. So, speed up in one direction, decouple, and turn around to fire at the Mustang, that is now hopefully foolish enough to chase you in more or less a straight line.
Well, you can still dodge fight with the freelancer too, but it's more difficult to stay on tail of a faster ship.

 

[zeddie]

Oh boy, a thread made just for me!

 

[marcsand2]

or how do i stop from going boom when i dont want to go boom during a dogfight.

Try to avoid enemy fire, easier said than done, but, strafe with boost helps allot, when your shit (hmmmmm, t and p aren't even close to each other) is more agile than your enemies it is easy. When your enemies ship is more agile, hopefully his weapons are less heavy, disengage while using evasive manoeuvres and engage again from a better firing distance.

Dont get me wrong, i like explosions as much as the next guy but currently one would think that i am a bit inebriated while "trying" to dogfight when i am certainly not under the influence of any liquid substances.

liquid substances make your aim more steady

tl;dr what is the best way to keep your target in your line of sight

Try to keep optimal firing distance. If you engage head on, then your firing distance will get smaller. If you engage and hit strafe + boost away from your target, then you will slowly make an arc around your target while keeping speed and distance. Reverse strafe before your nose is pointing to the side of the target will decrease the distance when the target flies away from you. Add a little afterburner to reverse your speed

how to deal with blackouts.

Use slower ships
Roll into your turning direction, white-out (blood leaving your brains) is less severe than red out (blood entering your brains)
Release boost / afterburner enables your G-safe
Don't make too tight turns

 

[AstroSam]

Lets organize a xmas-2.6-release-party-flightschool! :beers::beers::beers:

 

[marcsand2]

Lets organize a xmas-2.6-release-party-flightschool! :beers::beers::beers:

Ow, last time we stayed crashing into each other :beers::beers::beers:, @Blind Owl is the unbeaten crash champion, finally he choose to crash into Kareah to save us from more embarrassment :sweat:.

 

[Blind Owl]

Ow, last time we stayed crashing into each other :beers::beers::beers:, @Blind Owl is the unbeaten crash champion, finally he choose to crash into Kareah to save us from more embarrassment :sweat:.

It was a sacrifice I made for all.

 

[B3aT]

I don't have blackout problems because I only have an Aurora. From what I saw we (the newbies) we'll learn much more in 2.6 because we will have training nights :D. There are lots of written tutorials on this but nothing is better then learning the hard way, just doing it :)).
As for first steps racing and free flight between asteroids improved my skills, now I can get to level 3 swarm :)).

 

[agathon_orti]

o boy thats alot to remember during flight :P i will try it out and see how horrible i will do.

Doing some yellow jacket training nights on sunday 7pm GMT (hopefully expanding when we get more folk and more time zones) so feel free to come along to train with some other testies

o nice i might join you guys this sunday, currently the only fighters i have are the merlin and a hornet loaner. not sure wich one would be better.

I don't have blackout problems because I only have an Aurora. From what I saw we (the newbies) we'll learn much more in 2.6 because we will have training nights :smile:. There are lots of written tutorials on this but nothing is better then learning the hard way, just doing it :slight_smile:).
As for first steps racing and free flight between asteroids improved my skills, now I can get to level 3 swarm :slight_smile:).

swarm is not really a problem, i got to level 9 the other day just strafing left and right and keeping my gimballs on the target.
but players are a different story.. they will wreck my shit and i have no idea how to counter them, they allways seem one step ahead of me.

 

[marcsand2]

the merlin

Is very hard to hit but also can't hit hard

hornet loaner

Is the tank, very easy to hit but also can hit hard.

they will wreck my shit and i have no idea how to counter them,

1 vs 1 can be a fair fight if both players use equally matched fighters. Everybody wants to win so usually everybody picks the best fighter they have. If it is team vs team or all against all, then the weakest fighters get shot down first. There are only a few exceptions which can survive longer.
The 350R and the M50 can survive longer, because they can outrun every target and the M50 is hard to hit because it is very small. As long as they do boom and zoom, those 2 can stay safe but can't deal allot damage because boom and zoom only gives a short firing window. If they engage in dogfight, then they also become dogmeat.
The Aurora, Reliant, Avenger, Delta, 325A and Gladius don't stand a chance against a Super Hornet or a Sabre because they are dogfighters with light weapons.
They can outmanoeuvre a Super Hornet easily, but can't land enough hits to really do allot damage while the Super Hornet only needs a few good hits.
The Sabre has overpowered shields which only can be bypassed with ballistics and the Sabre is more manoeuvrable than the Super Hornet which makes it hard to land enough hits.
The Merlin is small, hard to hit, but it can't regenerate boost energy. Boost energy is essential for evading, boom and zoom.

 

[agathon_orti]

1 vs 1 can be a fair fight if both players use equally matched fighters. Everybody wants to win so usually everybody picks the best fighter they have. If it is team vs team or all against all, then the weakest fighters get shot down first. There are only a few exceptions which can survive longer.
The 350R and the M50 can survive longer, because they can outrun every target and the M50 is hard to hit because it is very small. As long as they do boom and zoom, those 2 can stay safe but can't deal allot damage because boom and zoom only gives a short firing window. If they engage in dogfight, then they also become dogmeat.
The Aurora, Reliant, Avenger, Delta, 325A and Gladius don't stand a chance against a Super Hornet or a Sabre because they are dogfighters with light weapons.
They can outmanoeuvre a Super Hornet easily, but can't land enough hits to really do allot damage while the Super Hornet only needs a few good hits.
The Sabre has overpowered shields which only can be bypassed with ballistics and the Sabre is more manoeuvrable than the Super Hornet which makes it hard to land enough hits.
The Merlin is small, hard to hit, but it can't regenerate boost energy. Boost energy is essential for evading, boom and zoom.

yeah you just hit the nail on its head.. equal fights are pretty rare atleast in arena commander where almost everyone is using a sabre, superH or warden, the most i seem to do is annoy them.

right now the merlin doesnt seem like a good (snub)fighter with its lack of boost and peashooters which makes me think why it even comes with the connie.

i just have to power trough the hornet and get some practice until i can get a warden or something with rec.

 

[Blind Owl]

Is very hard to hit but also can't hit hard

Is the tank, very easy to hit but also can hit hard.

1 vs 1 can be a fair fight if both players use equally matched fighters. Everybody wants to win so usually everybody picks the best fighter they have. If it is team vs team or all against all, then the weakest fighters get shot down first. There are only a few exceptions which can survive longer.
The 350R and the M50 can survive longer, because they can outrun every target and the M50 is hard to hit because it is very small. As long as they do boom and zoom, those 2 can stay safe but can't deal allot damage because boom and zoom only gives a short firing window. If they engage in dogfight, then they also become dogmeat.
The Aurora, Reliant, Avenger, Delta, 325A and Gladius don't stand a chance against a Super Hornet or a Sabre because they are dogfighters with light weapons.
They can outmanoeuvre a Super Hornet easily, but can't land enough hits to really do allot damage while the Super Hornet only needs a few good hits.
The Sabre has overpowered shields which only can be bypassed with ballistics and the Sabre is more manoeuvrable than the Super Hornet which makes it hard to land enough hits.
The Merlin is small, hard to hit, but it can't regenerate boost energy. Boost energy is essential for evading, boom and zoom.

Listen to @marcsand2 boys and girls. He knows. He knows.

 

[marcsand2]

yeah you just hit the nail on its head.. equal fights are pretty rare atleast in arena commander where almost everyone is using a sabre, superH or warden, the most i seem to do is annoy them.

right now the merlin doesnt seem like a good (snub)fighter with its lack of boost and peashooters which makes me think why it even comes with the connie.

i just have to power trough the hornet and get some practice until i can get a warden or something with rec.

Get the HORNET FLASHFIRE SPECIALTY MOUNT for the Hornet and mount a Revenant on it. I like to use 3x 11-SERIES BROADSWORDs on the wings and nose. They are good to bypass shields and the fire rate is medium. For lighter targets like NPCs 3x CF-227 PANTHER REPEATERs do a good job. Don't rely on long range shots against fighters. The Revenant does a very good job at short range.

Euhm, above config works fine for flightstick and fixed weapons. I don't know how to fly with mouse and keyboard :blush: