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Techniques to Master
A lot of material is posted about general gameplay tips in the manual and on the wiki. What I'd like to get a bit more information on is advanced flight techniques.
Today, I learned what a barrel roll is. I have to go home and practice it now. What are some of the other tricks of the pilot's trade?
Also, I read/heard that some of the more advanced techniques require toggling between flight assist and physics modes. What techniques are being referenced here?
Today, I learned what a barrel roll is. I have to go home and practice it now. What are some of the other tricks of the pilot's trade?
Also, I read/heard that some of the more advanced techniques require toggling between flight assist and physics modes. What techniques are being referenced here?
You should always have swarms on your ship no matter what. Swarms are awesome.
You need to find a mentor in game to practice with....
http://www.vo-wiki.com/wiki/Player_VS._Player
Good stuff in there.
Regarding FA. Most good pilots I know have FA toggle bound to their mouse wheel so you can flick it on and off without a thought.
Good stuff in there.
Regarding FA. Most good pilots I know have FA toggle bound to their mouse wheel so you can flick it on and off without a thought.
Except for the swarm thing, pretty much any "techniques" people laud as being "advanced" are just verbal diarrhea about about how much these "advanced" pilots would like to suck Shape's, or Eldrad's, or Icarus', or some other "legendary" player's massive ion cannon.
You do what you think will work, and if it doesn't work, you either try it again or move on to something different. Eventually you'll either find something that works well for you or decide that PvP is for assholes. Either way, getting there is part of the fun.
You do what you think will work, and if it doesn't work, you either try it again or move on to something different. Eventually you'll either find something that works well for you or decide that PvP is for assholes. Either way, getting there is part of the fun.
Pro Tip: Get to know VO's forum trolls and their in-game alts. The dignity you save may be your own.
If you're using flares (dumb fire rockets) try to fire above, below, to the left and right of your target. takes some getting used to but when you eventually get it down... you create a "flare net" that, if you aim right... is fairly hard to avoid.
Alternate between flight assist and physics mode.
Never underestimate the importance of strafing.
Alternate between flight assist and physics mode.
Never underestimate the importance of strafing.
Remember the 5 D's of Dodgeball!
Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge!
R.I.P. Patches
EDIT: But seriously, advanced flight techniques? Eh. It basically comes down to executing various combinations of thrust movements in conjunction with the situation at hand. The 'advanced' reference is you advancing yourself in performing and recognizing combat maneuvers to survive, cause the most amount of damage, or whatever your desired goal is.
Techniques range from pissing about and ramming in an EC-89 to prancing about in a Skycommand Prometheus flaring like the 4th of July.
Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge!
R.I.P. Patches
EDIT: But seriously, advanced flight techniques? Eh. It basically comes down to executing various combinations of thrust movements in conjunction with the situation at hand. The 'advanced' reference is you advancing yourself in performing and recognizing combat maneuvers to survive, cause the most amount of damage, or whatever your desired goal is.
Techniques range from pissing about and ramming in an EC-89 to prancing about in a Skycommand Prometheus flaring like the 4th of July.
Remember that you are in 3d space, not a 2d plane. You can dodge up/down, left/right, and forward/backward. Dodging forward/backward is less useful in a 1v1 fight (though it still helps - and also adds/subtracts to the velocity of your shots), but it is pretty important when people are attacking you from the sides (like when being ganked).
Remembering the shape of your ship can allow more intelligent dodging. When you're in a vulture or centaur, if a shot is aimed at your center, moving upward or downward will get you fully out of the way faster than moving left or right. In revenant, you're a little taller than you are thick, so left and right are your friends. In any case, don't be too predictable.
On a similar note, be conscious of your wings when in wide ships, especially when dodging flares.
If you see the enemy backing into an asteroid, there's a good chance he doesn't realize it's there. Be ready to take advantage of his slight loss of control when he bounces off it. Even if he does realize, it will reduce the amount of dodging he can do. Conversely, beware of roids behind your own ship.
As far as specific maneuvers go, I personally like turboing at people (carefully!), which can quickly change the distance between us if they aren't expecting it, and can let me fire shots with a larger relative velocity than they are used to dodging, which can sometimes catch them off guard. And distance has a large impact on tactics. My fighting style and weapon choice is most effective up close, so up close is where I usually like to be, and turbo death charges can get me there. Plus the close up fights are more fun to me, which is of course the most important thing.
When making a charge with turbo, be sure to change your angle just before turboing, otherwise you'll be a sitting duck. And don't turbo continuously for very long - if you're coming in from a distance and need a long turbo, break it up and change directions slightly. This throws people's aim off because the leftover and diminishing tangential velocity and your acceleration cause your velocity vector to change continuously. Remember the large speed you'll have as you get closer though, and try to stop in time so that you don't overshoot them by more than you want - ideally you come out of turbo and by the time you've rotated to face them you're slightly behind them and begin strafing around them and shooting before they've managed to get pointed at you. If they're in a heavy ship it might take them a long time to finally catch up, if they ever manage it. When you get close to a newbie who's in a heavy ship, it's pretty easy to ensure they never manage to face you at all. More experienced fighters understand that they can strafe while they rotate to break out of such a situation - which means you have to strafe in a way to counter their own movements, which is trickier and not always effective.
If you have jackhammers and gauss on the same ship, remember that they might mistake one for the other if they don't look carefully enough. If they don't know you have both, you may be able to trick them into dodging a gauss more widely than necessary (which makes their movements more predictable so you can lob a real jackhammer, and without the delay they'll be expecting you to have), or in the reverse situation they might not dodge an actual jackhammer widely enough, thinking that it's just gauss.
Remember that your shots inherit your velocity. If you change the relative velocities between your ship and the enemy ship, you change where you need to shoot to hit it. If you can predict how that location will change based on which moves you make, you can rotate your ship with the targeting reticule rather than in reaction to the targeting reticule. In other words, when trying to aim, don't only rotate. Use strafing and rotation together to aim, and try to be aware of how the reticule will move so that you can move with it. Of course, you should be dodging at the same time as you aim, by dodging such that the dodge brings your target onto the reticule...
And don't forget to consider the enemy's mind. If your enemy gets flustered easily, fight aggressively, pushing and pushing without relent so that he falls to pieces. If the enemy has little patience, draw out the fight so that he gets impatient and makes bad decisions. If the enemy isn't good at dodging up close, get up close. If the enemy excels at fighting up close, keep your distance which, in addition to avoiding giving him an advantage, can have similar effects as drawing out a fight has on the impatient enemy. If the enemy likes keeping their own distance and you want to get close, stop pressing forward and back off. The enemy will be forced to approach to keep you near enough to hit, at which point you can switch from backing off to a turbo death charge and get close before they respond - this is dangerous however, and is one of the things an impatient fighter might try, so use caution.
If you are in a fight and your style doesn't seem to work, change to a different style. Besides the possibility of locating a more effective style, changing styles can avoid being predictable, making it harder for the enemy to anticipate your movements. It can also disrupt his plans if he had some larger strategy he was trying (such as pushing you toward an asteroid or a coordinated effort with his wingman that relied on your tendency to fly in a certain manner, etc.).
Experiment. Just because somebody says something doesn't work doesn't mean you should believe them. It might simply be that they suck. Even if they're a good fighter, they may simply lack the flexibility to utilize an alternate style. The way you fight is very personal. Also, don't fall into the trap of always using the same style. I tend to do that a lot, and my skill deteriorates. I'm at my peak when I have been using several different configurations on a regular basis. It's kind of like cross-training - different styles require different types of thinking, so you need to use several to make sure that you exercise all of your skills. Even if your preferred style doesn't use some of those skills very much, it does need them, and training them will make a difference. Also, being flexible is useful when you find yourself in a situation where your standard techniques don't work.
As far as F/A mode goes, it depends on your control scheme. There are no techniques that require it of their own accord, only techniques that might be cumbersome to execute on particular control systems without it. Like people fighting with keyboard and mouse, or even just keyboard. It could also be useful if some unexpected situation arises that requires you to fly with only one hand, e.g. the cat starts trying to lay down on the keyboard or you decide you want to change the radio station or something. Personally, I use an n52 and a joystick and have my controls laid out in such a way that I've never had a need for F/A, and therefore can't really say much for how to use it effectively when needed.
Remembering the shape of your ship can allow more intelligent dodging. When you're in a vulture or centaur, if a shot is aimed at your center, moving upward or downward will get you fully out of the way faster than moving left or right. In revenant, you're a little taller than you are thick, so left and right are your friends. In any case, don't be too predictable.
On a similar note, be conscious of your wings when in wide ships, especially when dodging flares.
If you see the enemy backing into an asteroid, there's a good chance he doesn't realize it's there. Be ready to take advantage of his slight loss of control when he bounces off it. Even if he does realize, it will reduce the amount of dodging he can do. Conversely, beware of roids behind your own ship.
As far as specific maneuvers go, I personally like turboing at people (carefully!), which can quickly change the distance between us if they aren't expecting it, and can let me fire shots with a larger relative velocity than they are used to dodging, which can sometimes catch them off guard. And distance has a large impact on tactics. My fighting style and weapon choice is most effective up close, so up close is where I usually like to be, and turbo death charges can get me there. Plus the close up fights are more fun to me, which is of course the most important thing.
When making a charge with turbo, be sure to change your angle just before turboing, otherwise you'll be a sitting duck. And don't turbo continuously for very long - if you're coming in from a distance and need a long turbo, break it up and change directions slightly. This throws people's aim off because the leftover and diminishing tangential velocity and your acceleration cause your velocity vector to change continuously. Remember the large speed you'll have as you get closer though, and try to stop in time so that you don't overshoot them by more than you want - ideally you come out of turbo and by the time you've rotated to face them you're slightly behind them and begin strafing around them and shooting before they've managed to get pointed at you. If they're in a heavy ship it might take them a long time to finally catch up, if they ever manage it. When you get close to a newbie who's in a heavy ship, it's pretty easy to ensure they never manage to face you at all. More experienced fighters understand that they can strafe while they rotate to break out of such a situation - which means you have to strafe in a way to counter their own movements, which is trickier and not always effective.
If you have jackhammers and gauss on the same ship, remember that they might mistake one for the other if they don't look carefully enough. If they don't know you have both, you may be able to trick them into dodging a gauss more widely than necessary (which makes their movements more predictable so you can lob a real jackhammer, and without the delay they'll be expecting you to have), or in the reverse situation they might not dodge an actual jackhammer widely enough, thinking that it's just gauss.
Remember that your shots inherit your velocity. If you change the relative velocities between your ship and the enemy ship, you change where you need to shoot to hit it. If you can predict how that location will change based on which moves you make, you can rotate your ship with the targeting reticule rather than in reaction to the targeting reticule. In other words, when trying to aim, don't only rotate. Use strafing and rotation together to aim, and try to be aware of how the reticule will move so that you can move with it. Of course, you should be dodging at the same time as you aim, by dodging such that the dodge brings your target onto the reticule...
And don't forget to consider the enemy's mind. If your enemy gets flustered easily, fight aggressively, pushing and pushing without relent so that he falls to pieces. If the enemy has little patience, draw out the fight so that he gets impatient and makes bad decisions. If the enemy isn't good at dodging up close, get up close. If the enemy excels at fighting up close, keep your distance which, in addition to avoiding giving him an advantage, can have similar effects as drawing out a fight has on the impatient enemy. If the enemy likes keeping their own distance and you want to get close, stop pressing forward and back off. The enemy will be forced to approach to keep you near enough to hit, at which point you can switch from backing off to a turbo death charge and get close before they respond - this is dangerous however, and is one of the things an impatient fighter might try, so use caution.
If you are in a fight and your style doesn't seem to work, change to a different style. Besides the possibility of locating a more effective style, changing styles can avoid being predictable, making it harder for the enemy to anticipate your movements. It can also disrupt his plans if he had some larger strategy he was trying (such as pushing you toward an asteroid or a coordinated effort with his wingman that relied on your tendency to fly in a certain manner, etc.).
Experiment. Just because somebody says something doesn't work doesn't mean you should believe them. It might simply be that they suck. Even if they're a good fighter, they may simply lack the flexibility to utilize an alternate style. The way you fight is very personal. Also, don't fall into the trap of always using the same style. I tend to do that a lot, and my skill deteriorates. I'm at my peak when I have been using several different configurations on a regular basis. It's kind of like cross-training - different styles require different types of thinking, so you need to use several to make sure that you exercise all of your skills. Even if your preferred style doesn't use some of those skills very much, it does need them, and training them will make a difference. Also, being flexible is useful when you find yourself in a situation where your standard techniques don't work.
As far as F/A mode goes, it depends on your control scheme. There are no techniques that require it of their own accord, only techniques that might be cumbersome to execute on particular control systems without it. Like people fighting with keyboard and mouse, or even just keyboard. It could also be useful if some unexpected situation arises that requires you to fly with only one hand, e.g. the cat starts trying to lay down on the keyboard or you decide you want to change the radio station or something. Personally, I use an n52 and a joystick and have my controls laid out in such a way that I've never had a need for F/A, and therefore can't really say much for how to use it effectively when needed.