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I’ve noticed that players who seek a mentor are able to get over the combat hump between level 3 and level 4.
I want to compile a short list of the advice to give to intermediate pilots. I’ll find a place to post it for general reference.
1) Try out different ship/weapons combos.
2) Remember, the greater the ship mass, the lower the maneuverability.
3) Don’t assume Apu-5’s are the easiest bots to kill. Try a TyCorp Assault.
4) Watch for bots that come in pairs. Make sure you know where each bot is and don’t end up in a bot sandwich.
I want to compile a short list of the advice to give to intermediate pilots. I’ll find a place to post it for general reference.
1) Try out different ship/weapons combos.
2) Remember, the greater the ship mass, the lower the maneuverability.
3) Don’t assume Apu-5’s are the easiest bots to kill. Try a TyCorp Assault.
4) Watch for bots that come in pairs. Make sure you know where each bot is and don’t end up in a bot sandwich.
5) Don't fight fair. Sneak up on bots and blast them from behind.
6)Lure bots out to >3000m and set a destination, allowing you to run if things turn bad
6) Moving on a curved course is better than straight, and along multiple axes of motion is better than just one. Don't just strafe. Or at the very least strafe in a random diamond-ish pattern instead of just one direction. Better, roll and strafe at the same time, and thrust backwards to keep distance between yourself and the enemy. If you're always moving in a tight corkscrew course, bots will always fire where you'd be had you moved in a straight line, and will thus consistantly miss you.
7) do as soltis says, but once in a while, reverse your barrel roll, and thrust forward. you're sure to do some damage. especially effective against an entire wing, with some kind of rockets.
Back up. That way the hordes can't flank you.
Barrel-rolling and backing up makes you virtually invincible to most bots with the exception of particularly suicidal ones (aerna seekers) and particularly large bunches of less suicidal bots (hive queen's posse.)
In any ship. Honest.
Barrel-rolling and backing up makes you virtually invincible to most bots with the exception of particularly suicidal ones (aerna seekers) and particularly large bunches of less suicidal bots (hive queen's posse.)
In any ship. Honest.
Here is my formula for killing Tycorps. I usually get about 40-50 before I have to return to refit :).Bonus : you don't even need neut3!
(a) Get a hornet, put 4 guns on it. It'll be nice if you can get positrons, but any gun would do.
(b) Fly to L11 in Jalik where there is only Tycorps (serco players will have to find their own :))>
(c) Fly out, lure 2 tycorps with you. If you are already comfortable with them, you don't have to do this. Remember : Tycorps attack in pairs.
(d) Turn off Flight Assist.
(e) Pick closest tycorp. And then roll until his partner is on the RIGHT side of your front radar. Point gun at the targetted tycorp, and strafe UP AND LEFT. Blast him while you are strafing. I find that with positron blasters, you can take it out pretty fast. I fire in 3-4 shot bursts, but pick your favourite.
(f) If the partner tycorp is at your BACK (i.e. appear on your rear radar), immediately disengage and fly away. Your are being sandwiched, and you are going to be toast if you don't get out of the sandwich. Fly away till you see both of them are behind you. Then turn back and go to (e).
(g) When you kill one tycorp, usually another will come and take over his place since they attack in pairs. If you are a decent distance from the group, you can keep up the routine pretty indefinitely.
(h) Go to (e), ad nauseum.
Don't fall asleep :). This formula is seriously boring.
(a) Get a hornet, put 4 guns on it. It'll be nice if you can get positrons, but any gun would do.
(b) Fly to L11 in Jalik where there is only Tycorps (serco players will have to find their own :))>
(c) Fly out, lure 2 tycorps with you. If you are already comfortable with them, you don't have to do this. Remember : Tycorps attack in pairs.
(d) Turn off Flight Assist.
(e) Pick closest tycorp. And then roll until his partner is on the RIGHT side of your front radar. Point gun at the targetted tycorp, and strafe UP AND LEFT. Blast him while you are strafing. I find that with positron blasters, you can take it out pretty fast. I fire in 3-4 shot bursts, but pick your favourite.
(f) If the partner tycorp is at your BACK (i.e. appear on your rear radar), immediately disengage and fly away. Your are being sandwiched, and you are going to be toast if you don't get out of the sandwich. Fly away till you see both of them are behind you. Then turn back and go to (e).
(g) When you kill one tycorp, usually another will come and take over his place since they attack in pairs. If you are a decent distance from the group, you can keep up the routine pretty indefinitely.
(h) Go to (e), ad nauseum.
Don't fall asleep :). This formula is seriously boring.
The zeroth rule is turn off flight assist (softy2's rule 'd'). I also do better turning off auto-aim, but that is personal preference.
As KAos_nyrb stated, you absolutely must fly out beyond 3000m and have a destination programmed into the nav computer. This will have the dual effect of providing an avenue of escape and keeping too many bots from joining the fray.
Backing up is essential for threat management. Point your crosshairs right between two attacking bots and fly backwards. Vary your vector to keep the crosshairs between them. The bots will stop shooting and concentrate on chasing you, and in the process will end up pretty close together. (If they do shoot, strafe a little while backing up.) After you've got them both squarely in front of you, go on the attack.
I do not ever fly foward while attacking bots, because you lose control of the flight path that way. Hold down a strafe key. Every two or three seconds give a quarter roll. Between rolls, fire your guns. If you take a hit, switch strafe keys. If the bots get too far apart, back up a while. My intention is to produce some diagrams of flight paths so that people can visualize what needs to happen. (I don't want to get tiresome with references to old games, but waaaay back in the 1980s era of F-15 Strike Eagle the manual had diagrams of classic dogfighting maneuvers, and that helped a ton.)
As for equipment, it is a must to try all the ships available to you and find one that fits your style. Stay away from ammunition-consuming arms until you can hit reliably. Fire in short bursts; don't mash the trigger button.
And forget about Aputech-5s.
As KAos_nyrb stated, you absolutely must fly out beyond 3000m and have a destination programmed into the nav computer. This will have the dual effect of providing an avenue of escape and keeping too many bots from joining the fray.
Backing up is essential for threat management. Point your crosshairs right between two attacking bots and fly backwards. Vary your vector to keep the crosshairs between them. The bots will stop shooting and concentrate on chasing you, and in the process will end up pretty close together. (If they do shoot, strafe a little while backing up.) After you've got them both squarely in front of you, go on the attack.
I do not ever fly foward while attacking bots, because you lose control of the flight path that way. Hold down a strafe key. Every two or three seconds give a quarter roll. Between rolls, fire your guns. If you take a hit, switch strafe keys. If the bots get too far apart, back up a while. My intention is to produce some diagrams of flight paths so that people can visualize what needs to happen. (I don't want to get tiresome with references to old games, but waaaay back in the 1980s era of F-15 Strike Eagle the manual had diagrams of classic dogfighting maneuvers, and that helped a ton.)
As for equipment, it is a must to try all the ships available to you and find one that fits your style. Stay away from ammunition-consuming arms until you can hit reliably. Fire in short bursts; don't mash the trigger button.
And forget about Aputech-5s.
Just get a vult guardian. load up 2 neut III's, strafe and roll. My record for tycorps is around 75 but my friend's killed i think over a hundred before he refitted before. (just takes practice) Then again he's killed around 4000 of them at least. (Anevitt)
/givemoney Devs 2c
/givemoney Devs 2c
Just strafe and roll with autoaim off for 100m+ and on for anything less... Flight assist on I find easier... recommended ship is vulture... but hornet or hog would do. Don't waste any rockets on those bots though.
This should easily take care of tycorps and the guardian bots. oh and for energy weapons over 100m, ignore the targeting reticle.
This should easily take care of tycorps and the guardian bots. oh and for energy weapons over 100m, ignore the targeting reticle.
I find that if you attack TyCorps so that they're at an angle to your plane (ie, horizontal for them is about 45 degress for you), and shoot them while strafing, for instance if you're closer to heading (mostly) sideways for them, but your shots hit them from the top or bottom, it tends to confuse their dodging algorithms and they sit there obediently for you to kill them. If you're going sideways for them and your shots hit them from the sides, then they'll dodge, likewise if you're moving vertically for them and your shots hit them from the top, they'll also dodge.
Remember that up and down are just as viable in terms of dodging as left and right is.
Up and down is actually better, since it follows the mind more naturally to negative-compensate with the mouse in horizontal movement.
Move as little as possible, don't overdo it. The more you move, the more the bots will move to compensate.
Bots like it at a certain distance and angle to you, if they can stay there, they won't move much out of your aim. Let them ;)
Bots dodge after a certain amount of hits (3-6 ? ) Use a weapon that packs more punch per shot to go at it faster.
The warthog is a great ship.
Space it, at 2500m from the roids, the tycorps will come at just a slow enough pace for you to smack them one at the time. By the time one is dead, the next will be halfway to you. Find the perfect distance for yourself.
Inside roids, keep an eye on the radar. Most importantly on the right one, thats behind you, large dots there means you should dodge.
Avoid swarms where bots are behind you, boost through them, turn, roll, boost. Just get out, the bots will follow, and line up to die.
Up and down is actually better, since it follows the mind more naturally to negative-compensate with the mouse in horizontal movement.
Move as little as possible, don't overdo it. The more you move, the more the bots will move to compensate.
Bots like it at a certain distance and angle to you, if they can stay there, they won't move much out of your aim. Let them ;)
Bots dodge after a certain amount of hits (3-6 ? ) Use a weapon that packs more punch per shot to go at it faster.
The warthog is a great ship.
Space it, at 2500m from the roids, the tycorps will come at just a slow enough pace for you to smack them one at the time. By the time one is dead, the next will be halfway to you. Find the perfect distance for yourself.
Inside roids, keep an eye on the radar. Most importantly on the right one, thats behind you, large dots there means you should dodge.
Avoid swarms where bots are behind you, boost through them, turn, roll, boost. Just get out, the bots will follow, and line up to die.
Try a hornet with 4 neutron blasters, if you shoot in bursts of about 6-8 they cant dodge it, usually 2 bursts and their dead :)
In a warthog, it is not even necessary to roll when fighting assault bots. Just strafe down right before the first shot. Keep strafing down around them. They will constantly miss you by an inch.
Pi) If you have a ship that is bigger horizontally than vertically (like a Vulture of Warthog) then strafe UP or DOWN, instead of left or right. You get less screen space to watch your target, but you also get hit a lot less.
sqrt(2)) Remember that bots are tracking you. If you strafe and roll too fast, they will be rolling along with you and become hard to hit from far away. So the solution is to roll SLOWLY when far, and roll faster and faster as you come closer to the bots.
e) Lower class of bots attack in solo, middle class bots attack in pairs, and high class bots attack in wings of 3 or 4.
When fighting a pair, keep alternating your targeting and firing between the two, and always strafe AWAY from the other. You can also place your ship deliberately between the two and keep going in a tight corkscrew trajectory. This way both bots will fire in mirror and you can dodge their shots with the same maneuver.
When fighting a wing, keep alternating targets between the two furthest bots and strafing outwards. You might also want to draw them away from the other bots so that when you kill one, you have time to kill one more before reinforcements arrive.
sqrt(2)) Remember that bots are tracking you. If you strafe and roll too fast, they will be rolling along with you and become hard to hit from far away. So the solution is to roll SLOWLY when far, and roll faster and faster as you come closer to the bots.
e) Lower class of bots attack in solo, middle class bots attack in pairs, and high class bots attack in wings of 3 or 4.
When fighting a pair, keep alternating your targeting and firing between the two, and always strafe AWAY from the other. You can also place your ship deliberately between the two and keep going in a tight corkscrew trajectory. This way both bots will fire in mirror and you can dodge their shots with the same maneuver.
When fighting a wing, keep alternating targets between the two furthest bots and strafing outwards. You might also want to draw them away from the other bots so that when you kill one, you have time to kill one more before reinforcements arrive.
My goodness, what else is there to say?
Personal experience is that (and as Spider originally stated) you shouldn't "move excessively" or dodge anymore than is required to keep out of enemy fire.
In fact, one of the best ways to get bots into your killing zone is to stop strafing, rolling, going up/down and simply travel backwards for a second. The bots will stop compensating for your various vectors and will cooperatively line up in your targeting reticle. Pull trigger. Severely damage bot.
If and when the bots send a volley of fire your way, simple dodge a bit (using two vectors in my experience).
Do I have to say, "watch your six while all of this is going on?"
:-)
Personal experience is that (and as Spider originally stated) you shouldn't "move excessively" or dodge anymore than is required to keep out of enemy fire.
In fact, one of the best ways to get bots into your killing zone is to stop strafing, rolling, going up/down and simply travel backwards for a second. The bots will stop compensating for your various vectors and will cooperatively line up in your targeting reticle. Pull trigger. Severely damage bot.
If and when the bots send a volley of fire your way, simple dodge a bit (using two vectors in my experience).
Do I have to say, "watch your six while all of this is going on?"
:-)
KixKizzle: Remember that this advice is for level 3 pilots who are new to the game. They don't have access to good kit, either because of license limitations or because they don't know where to buy it. It's probably safe to assume a Vulture MkI with plasma HXs is the best kit they'll have.
I find it a great help when fighting pairs (like Tys) to use the scanner alias/bind. It targets the nearest enemy once a second. That way you can always be sure to target the closest attacker and see where he is reletive to your view.
Bind it to MMBUTTON and turn it on the moment you enter a bot sector. That way nothing can sneak up on you.
Bind it to MMBUTTON and turn it on the moment you enter a bot sector. That way nothing can sneak up on you.
A vector is ehum, a direction and an, uuuhhh... acceleration?
Uhm... That's great. You, uh, just go on uhh, doing whatever it is you're doing there...
Uhm... That's great. You, uh, just go on uhh, doing whatever it is you're doing there...