Ok, I'm writing this so that Prom pilots become uber to the extent of their abilities. As many arguments have been made that prom pilots can be beat.

So, suppose you're flyin a Prom with AGT + flares.

1st, Don't retreat, You're flyin a monster which needs a good range, (within 200m) to be effective. ATTACK. FA mode on works great for this, but you can use FA off too.

2nd, don't try to turn to aim. As good as the AGT is for making up what turning ability you lose, if they're on the periphery of your screen, you won't be able to keep up with their damage.

3rd, STRAFE to aim. That's right, there IS another way to aim.
When you strafe in the direction of the reticle, it speeds up your aiming by leagues. And considering the strafing power of the prom, this makes it fully capable of keeping up with a light fighter. However, this means that you can't roll, so throw those rollbinds out the window.

4th, DON'T let yourself be outflanked. Keeping from getting outflanked is easy, if you start to lose control of them, either

a) if you're in FA mode off: back up, now they're not flanking you anymore

OR

b) if you've got FA mode on: turn FA mode off, you'll fly out on a tangent, as your centripetal force is now gone.

Basically, to keep from getting flanked, all you need is a little room.

5th, when not firing flares, keep your aimer on the center of their ship, this does a few things. First, it makes it so that your ship shows the smallest cross-section available (you don't show your length). Secondly, it keeps them centered, so that you have more time to react to changes. The AGT will do the work for you here. And if you're going to fire flares, just make a quick motion to do so and then go back to keeping aimed on them.

6th, when firing flares, you don't need to dead-on them, don't overshoot in the direction they're moving to hit them perfectly,
fire right about in the middle of where they are and where they're goin, if they get indecisive, it WILL dead on them, and otherwise there's a good chance you'll fringe hit them.

7th, Don't spam flares, you need those. AIM, get a hit, and they have to work harder at trying to make you waste them, (which basically means they'll go overboard and give you an opportunity). Flares are a fearsome weapon, so let the fear work for you.

8th, and finally, realize that the prom is just too damn forgiving and easy to fly, and move on to a light fighter.

Very good, young Shape.

Although you missed some of the advanced sunflare techniques, but I think those would be better left under wraps. ;P

hehe, well, most sunflare techniques have to be learned, no real way to pass em on. People just have to get a feel for them.

Forgot to add a little bit of dodging advice.

Forget rolling, strafes give you more control. You get to choose which direction you dodge. Furthermore, against other proms, at close range, rolling will make you an easy target for the AGT; at long range it will make you an easy target for the flares; and at midrange, you'll be a target for both (don't forget, they CAN just turn off autoaim and spray into your roll)

If someone is firing flares at you, look 2 sets ahead. The first one is almost always there to set you up, and if the second one is missing, they'll often fire a 3rd one in frustration.

You CAN suck up damage if you need to, but use it as a last resort as part of a charge. Most of the time there's just no need to get hit at all.

Swarms: Just turbo a bit to get a better angle of approach, as long as the swarms are coming from an angle, the prom dodges em fine. If its a hog, you screwed up, they shouldn't have been around long enough to hit that all-important FIRE button.

Rails: if you're getting hit by these, your strafe pattern isn't random enough. You can dodge these in just about any ship with the exception of the moth.

Blaster Spamming: The so-called "way to beat a prom". Ok, so they're going to keep their distance and just spam in at you. Considering that every other strategy they try is going to be met with a nasty AGT+flare combo, this is generally the most solid way to go about it.

So, you can either attempt to lure them in to you, (don't follow let them come in to 200 m and then let them try to get away when you go full speed forward) or, just dodge till they get frustrated and try to come closer. I also like turboing after them when they turbo off to get some distance, if you've been saving your energy, they'll run out of juice long before you do, then flare em.

NO ONE outside of a MOTH should get hit by blaster fire outside of 100 m.

EDIT: and if you come up against an MGC that's conserving its fire and waiting for you to get into range... well, that's a toss up, figure it out :)

Hey, man, this almost makes me want to sign up again and level up to where I can get a prom and AGT+flares. :D

very good Shape, that is exactly it.

Thinking if you left anything out... hmm do not think so.

M. Duncan

Your point 8 is just too ironically hilarious when one thinks back to the days of alpha, and people making the same point about the valk...

The most important thing to maneuvering any heavy ship is to not overmaneuver. Heavy ships are slow to start and slow to stop, so you must plan well in advance where you want your maneuver to end, and countermaneuver so as to stop your nose from spinning past your target and giving him an opening.

Hrm. I have a long way to go. I just learned point #3. Strafing to aim in a Rev C makes you almost imposible to hit at a distance.
I will work my way up to a Prom once I feel better about my skills in a light fighter. Oh, then of course there's the little problem of my -900 Serco standng. :(

But good info, Shape!

Man... If you weren't a pirate, I'd nominate you for some kind of "great teacher" award... sharing your acquired knowlege like this is great (you and a few of your mates). Ah heck... I'll nominate you anyway... :p

I do think you left something out... #9 - practice, practice, practice...

Now... as soon as I can get back in-game (life has interrupted), there's more for me to work on...

Seta

Damnit, you give away the strafe flares? Now everyone will hate them even more.

Long ago, Shape taught me his key layout that's better for strafing. I picked up flare strafing on my own. Then I got my HogTD along with gat. Then it was the prom. Then I picked up alt fire rockets. And now I've come to the quad flare hornet.

Just don't forget that the prom is uber.

Long live light fighters

Moriel
IDF

yeah long life light ships
Prom users should thank us for still using it....
I refuse to fly a ship (centurion) that everyone got!
But i gotta admit that i've got big issues to fight in my IDF valk...
seriously....

But BTW great job Sir shape ( and try to do the same for light ships in a "Light Piloting" thread ... thx)

I really like point number 8. that's easily the best piece of advice.

Move to a light fighter you say, eh?
Seems just as bad to me. I've NEVER been hit while flying a modern cent. EVER.

Genka you silly sod. :P