How to suck less in dogfighting?

[DarthMatter]

Only if you can fly faster than me in reverse.

No problems! I'll just... Why is my rear-view camera not working...?

 

[Blind Owl]

Also very important when engaging multiple targets: pick the last one, not the closest unless you are sure that you can kill it before you are behind it, otherwise you wil have one or multiple on your six

This.
Learned this the hard way

 

[marcsand2]

This.
Learned this the hard way

Another advantage is that you don't have to make a 180 again to get your next target ;)

 

[Blind Owl]

Another advantage is that you don't have to make a 180 again to get your next target ;)

Always good.

 

[DcTrojan72]

Ok, I'm fully aware that this community is all about crashing Auroras. But let's say one finds himself in a situation that he has run out of Auroras to crash and needs to revert to an act of randomly waggling his joystick (no, not THAT joystick, the other one) some like to call dogfighting. How is that supposed to work?

Couple of questions pop to my mind.

1. Is it more important to aim or to manouver? Yes yes, both are important, but when I'm starting from zeroish skillz, would it be more beneficial to first learn how to connect the lasers to the enemy or to move around less randomly?

2. When flying something like, lets say Super duper Hornet in a dogfight, should it be flown decoupled all the time, or mostly coupled and just decouple to do some random waggling when near the enemy? Does this differ in faster and more nimble ships like M50 or 350r?

3. Any advice on how/when to spam missiles. As AC is basically a deathmatch and getting 1-3 kills per game would be good result to me, I usually lock 4-8 missiles to the closest enemy and fire away when I get lock and hope for best.

4. Why I die in seconds in Super duper Hornet against something lame like Deltas or 325a's? Super duper Hornet should be "military grade". Not very high grade in UEE military then, I suppose.

5. Is dogfighting for lamers only and should I just concentrate on crashing into things instead?

My joystick is Thrustmaster T16000000000. It has this kind of throttle slider, which is quite crap but still better than no analog throttle at all. I'm not getting HOTAS anytime soon. And mouse + KB flying is quite... hmmm... lame. (I was gonna say gay, but I'm not that familiar with this board yet to know if it would offend someone and get me permabanned)

We arent allllllllllll about crashing auroras!! :eek::eek: We crash other ships too! And theres beer that must be drank;)

 

[thezenix2]

My very limited experience so far... the M button that will match speed with your target is damn usefull. It can really help you stick on your enemy's tail to get a few more shots in.. and missiles. From what I've seen so far, it important to have fire power and skill enough to get shots in to reduce the shields and start doing proper damage. When I fly around in my Aurora with pea shooters, I need to get in a series of like 10 hits before there will be any noticable damage. If the enemy then avoids me a while, shields will be back up and we're back on square one. So... focus firepower with your allies if there are some.

 

[marcsand2]

My very limited experience so far... the M button that will match speed with your target is damn usefull. It can really help you stick on your enemy's tail to get a few more shots in.. and missiles.

The Aurora is one of the slowest fighters, so M would result in full speed, unless you are targeting bigger ships. Try to use strafe away from the target when too close, strafe towards target when engaging. The strafe helps you to evade incoming fire and keeps you at optimal firing distance when close enough.

From what I've seen so far, it important to have fire power and skill enough to get shots in to reduce the shields and start doing proper damage. When I fly around in my Aurora with pea shooters, I need to get in a series of like 10 hits before there will be any noticable damage.

Which Aurora do you fly? The LN is the most capable Aurora for fighting? If you use ballistics, the shield gets bypassed. For the LN I use 2x S1 Longswords for bypassing shields and 2x S2 Badgers for a lot of incoming fire. 2x fixed Longswords and 2x gimbal-locked Longswords should give you a lot of shield bypassing fire. Unfortunately right now there isn't a S2 sword cannon, only the S1 Longsword and the S3 Broadsword.

If the enemy then avoids me a while, shields will be back up and we're back on square one. So... focus firepower with your allies if there are some.

Or bypass shields ;)

 

[SneakyPete]

Tutorial is rather old but the basics have not changed

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJzcDqqLjk&t=2440s