BF2S Forums How to fly: Some tips

Wicked89 wrote:

I just got my joystick and it's really difficult to go from K&M to joystick.

Wicked89 wrote:

One more thing I just wanted to mention how good this guide was and how you've kinda become my flying idol, I even use your localzation files.

Janus67 wrote:

I am actually wondering the same thing.  Also, can we get in trouble for these files being "modified" and checked by bf2?

Last edited by [CANADA]_Zenmaster (2006-04-10 17:43:38)

Mj.Blindfisch wrote:

[CANADA]_Zenmaster wrote:

Wicked89 wrote:

I just got my joystick and it's really difficult to go from K&M to joystick.

It will take you 2-7 days depending on how much you fly to get used to it. Once you learn in one game though, every game after is a quick learning curve and you won't regret the time invested. Nobody can expect to jump in  any vehicle and instantly master the controls - you have to have previous experience and training.

Yup,be sure to use a joystick,it improves the experience of the game and it makes better pilots.
I got a joystick from a friend who only tested it once or twice for BF1942.At that time the Kübelcopter mod for BF1942 came out(Desert Combat was Version 0.2b then,and  they sent me a betaversion! ) and I flew Kübelcopters all day to get used to the choppercontrols,but after a few days it really paid off.

btw,has anyone seen those before?Might be useful.....
http://www.combataircraft.com/tactics/

DebonairXcel wrote:

[uV}Debonairxl’s Comprehensive Jet Guide V:1.22

I. Jet/ Bomber statistics

                       F-35               F-18           MiG-29           J-10              F-15        Su-34     Su-30
Roll (sec)           3/2 s            4/3 s              4/3 s          3/3 s           4/3.5 s      5/3.5 s     4/3.5 s
Loop (sec)          7/6 s            7/6 s             7/6 s           6/5 s           9/8 s          8/7 s       7/6 s
Speed KPH 1020/1410  960/1140          910/1060 1100/1320  990/1150    890/1040  1080/1280
Afterburner          10 s             11 s             13 s               13 s           18 s          17 s           10 s
Gun Ammo 600 rnds 600 rnds 300 rnds      300 rnds     300 rnds   300 rnds 300 rnds
Gun Position    Down 2 cm D2, Right 2.5  D2, Left 1       D3, L1        D1, R3     D.5, R3     D2, R2
Missile spread    Close             Wide            Medium        Medium        Medium     Wide      Medium
Missile fire location R, L, R      L, R, L           R, L, R         L, R, L          L, R, L     L, R, L R, L, R
Key:
-Missile Spread: indicates how far the missiles fire from the center Reticle
-Missile Fire location: shows which side a missile fires from first; death resets this, reloading does not.

Notes:
-Jet speed does not affect bullets or missiles, they always fire straight from the plane, and tangent when turning.
-Jet Missiles curve upwards after a short while, accurate dumb-fire requires close to moderate range fire.
-Speed does not mean maneuverability in loops, the f-18/Mig-29 makes sharper turns in loops at a lower speed. This allows them to follow faster craft through evasive maneuvers.
-Gun position means the location of the gun compared to the center firing reticle. So 2 cm down means that if you are gunning you need to aim down 2 centimeters to get accurate cannon fire. That is why hitting IGLA/Stinger sites with jets, requires a little compensation to get a clean shot.

Vehicle Specifics:
-Jet Guns pierce everything but assets; however bombs & LGM missiles take out assets much like C4, two-three direct hits. 
-Jets turn harder at slower speeds, this is particularly true of the Typhoon EF fighter.
-The F-35 shows when it is decellerating, use half-way decelleration to prevent the enemy from reading the manuever.
-The J-10, F-18, and Typhoon EF are the best at evading missiles, the bombers, mig-29, and F-35 do not evade missiles and rely on flares in most cases. 
-All Jets are particularly vulnerable in the tailpipe and cockpit, aim for these to maximize gun effectiveness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. Jet Section
A. Basic Manuevers:
+++++++++ _  _
++++++++/       \
++++++++(         )
++++++++ \       /
Loop: ->_ _ - -_-/ - - - >

This is a vertical or hoizontal manuever that basically requires using the yaw to turn the jet and then pulling up hard on pitch, or just pulling up hard on pitch. In most jets, it requires that you are less than 600 meters up in the air, otherwise you'll pull up past the 800 meter mark.
code:

oooooooooooooooo - + +
ooooooooooooooo /         \
ooooooooooooooo -          +
ooooooooooooooo-          +
oooooooooooooooo \ - -  +
Barrel Roll: ooooooooo /
ooooooooooooooooooo| 
oooooooooooooooooo /\

This manuever is one of the simplist ways to evade gun fire, not the most efficient but it works. It requires that you maximize your yaw (start spinning), while holding your rudder to elongate/shorten your overall roll.

B. Advanced Manuevers
  1. Double loop ->_ _ _ 0_0_->

oooooooooooooooooooo _ _ _
ooooooooooooooooooo(_    _ )
  2. Figure Eight ->_ _ _ _)  ( _ _ _->
               
oooooooooooooooo _ _ _
(Horizontal turn-oo( _ _  ) _ _ ->
3. High Circle ->_ _ _ _ /
 

oooooooooooooooooooo_ _ _
Inversions pref:oooooo/      \
4. Scissors ->_ _ _ _ _/         \_ _ _ _/
 


5. Split-Soooooooo-> _ _ _ _
oooooooooooooooooooooooo\
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo)       
oooooooooooooooo< _ _ _ _ /

6. Immelman Turn -Maneuver 5 Reversed
                                                     
7. Close the Gap:oooooooooo<-_ _   
(Horizontal manuever:ooooooooooo\
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo/
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo/
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo\ _ 
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo\
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo|
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo/\
                   Note: Use this to help opponent get close

8.  Stall Pass
Decelerate:ooo _ _ _>
ooooo->__ _ _/                     

Note: Only use this on an opponent that is right on your tail; otherwise the only tail you’ll see is an IMP’s in the hot place.

9.  Escape -> _ _ _ _
oooooooooooooooooo\    <-After Burner!)
oooooooooooooooooo \_ _ _ _->   

  10.  CORKSCREW
          -Think of making an exaggerated corkscrew to shake a tough opponent.
          -Cork Screws are great for forcing an enemy to get close, and possible pass by you.  A following craft 
            can still shoot you with missiles, especially if they are at a distance.
C. Rules of Evasion
1. Rule #1 Save your afterburner, and do your best manuevers, it used to be that several fakes were a good way to break a J-10, but with the improved missile lock, its better to get out of their as quicky as possible.
2. Combine maneuvers, but realize that any barrel rolles, spins, and the sorts will reduce turn speed.
3. Don’t try to evade missiles by rolls (too inconsistent, even in a J-10).
4. Bring the enemy in close: while slowing down makes you an easier target for missiles, the closer your are to your enemy the harder it is to hit with missiles, unless they are directly behind you.
5. Use Rolls: to set up turns and inversions, Do not use them for their own sake.
6. Save your afterburners: only use them to chase and evade missiles, additionally use them in pulses.
7. Know your plane to beat your opponents, if you are faster, escape and re-engage, if you turn harder keep forcing a turn, if you roll faster, roll to set up a break away turn.
8. Get GREEDY! If you can have two enemies on your six, FANTASTIC! Collect enemies chasing you, use rear view and drop flares the moment one fires. In public servers, they often will crash into each other.
9. Use friendly AA guns/enemy AA missiles: Enemy AA
missiles are great for killing guys on your six, however friendly missiles will likely kill you if you aren’t constantly turning, and even then sometimes. Fly close to essex guns, to give them a shot, and if you have no friendly AA, use the enemy’s.
10. Use flares wisely: flares drop, meaning that if you drop altitude they will cover you longer. However, many missiles will go through flares and will re-acquire lock on you, so be careful. Drop, fly low, and turn is the best means to maximize flares effectiveness.
11. Stay by the carrier/mainland, if you are in a F-35, try to stay near an objective, and jump out if you are out of flares, wounded, or low on AB, the other pilots will hate you for it, but until EA fixes the Jet imbalance, survival is key.
12. Bust the roof/doors: while being a medic fly either out of bounds, as you will heal yourself and may cause the enemy to die or break off their attack prior to them sending you to spawn-pwn alley, or fly to through the roof, try not to make it obvious that you are trying to break the roof, either fly straight up and slow down, or fly right at the 800 to 820m mark, and let them fly up to get you.
13. Use the terrain, if you can fly through the kubra dam consistently and while in the middle of a turn, do so, if you are flying inbetween smoke stacks, try to also turn hard through them rather than go straight through, this will increase the chance they hit an obstacle.  Flying straight with minimal turns through obstacles will get you killed, you have to fly at the juxposition between nub and expert. 
14. Parachuting: make sure you parachute right before impact, via HALO jump, High altitude, low opening jump, that way you don't make yourself an obvious target for ground forces. 

D. Jet Attacking
1. Rules of Engagement-*Consider these before engaging*
I. Know thy Enemy: Jet capabilities & Pilot Tendencies
II. Surprise: Staying out of visual/chase cam
III. Ideal Range: close for guns/ far for missiles
IV. Distraction: Enemy has a objective that is more important than getting rid of a missile lock
V. Keep your afterburner/Ammo: don't start a fight you can't finish or escape
VI. Enemy of my Enemy: (friendly Missiles)- use enemy missiles/to hit your opponent (they have a faster turn
radius)
VII. Slow down, many jets turn harder, not faster at slower speeds, this allows you to maintain lock longer, but allows them to gain distance and if they are in a faster craft get behind you faster.
IIX. Use bomb mode to sneak up on enemy aircraft, switch to missiles to say hello, if you time this around hostile AA and approach from an alternative angle, you may convince your enemy it is just AA, as such use that to your advantage.
Ex: If against a J-10 with full health and ammo, you have surprise from below, the j-10 is attacking helos, and are in a F-15. Therefore, you have probably one attack run from behind. Get in close range for guns, lock on and fire dumb-fire missiles. Do not give prolonged chase, otherwise the j-10 will likely own you.

2. Angle/Range of attack
I. Face to face attacks: are generally fairly useless unless your opponent is traveling very slowly. Missiles will most likely miss, and latency may cause a crash, though playing chicken with J-10s is an effective means of taking them down. 
II. Behind close range: In this situation guns and dumb-fire missiles may aide you, especially if you have surprise or are against a less maneuverable craft. Against a more maneuverable craft, you need to hit them hard at the correct angle. If they tend to turn left after being engaged. Prepare for that and fire your guns far in front of them. In a turning war at long range, its almost impossible to make it so the guns hit. That is why you want to aim so far ahead with guns and keep the stream flying. Against a bomber or slow turning craft its easy to make the stream hit, but if the enemy begins turning even slightly, you need to aim far ahead to compensate, at least a plane length or two. So if the enemy is veering left, be farther to the right to compensate for missiles, if looping upward, be below them, etc.
III. Enemy does vertical or horizontal loops in a better craft: in this case your only chance is to *slow down* your speed, and hit the afterburner to increase your turning angle to get a shot. This will help you keep them in visual range, but realize this is a losing fight, so escape to re-engage when the tides look to switch.
IV. Enemy does barrel rolls: this is the time to use missiles, while they may not hit, an enemy in a barrel role, there is a good chance that one will. And one missile is usually enough to make an enemy pilot wary.
V. Enemy goes for the roof: follow them but slow down... Most of the time, the decrease in speed will make them missile fodder, just be careful to turn off prior to 750 meters, otherwise once you hit 800 you’ll go into a flat spin.
VI. Enemy goes out of bounds: unless you are a medic this is very dangerous territory, an enemy can easily switch roles if you aren’t a medic. In this case, your best bet is to pursue intelligently and escape to go for another surprise attack. This is a really cheap avoidance tactic, but it works wonders against non-medics.
VII. Use altitude and speed: if your enemy isn’t using afterburners and is doing a loop or gaining altitude this
is a prime time to fire a missile, a slower opponent is more likely to get hit.
IIX. Use altitude, sides, and below: Most advanced pilots will use their chase cam to check their six on straight-aways. This means giving quiet pursuit may not be enough. In such cases, use altitude to hide your self, possibly the sun, or fly low or parallel while gaining on them. Attacking from an angle, also reduces the amount of leading for guns, and such is often better than following their jet-trail.
IX. Tailing one and another on your six: this is actually surprisingly advantageous if you save you flares, an
enemy who kills your enemy saves you the trouble, and it causes ensuing mistrust. Additionally, do not go for
missile lock, it will cost the enemy pilot a few seconds to realize that a missile has acquired him and that may be enough for a hit. If this does happen though, I suggest going by friendly AA, if you play your cards right, you have a 1/3 chance of being hit.  Just make sure you have flares, as after 1.22 this manuever became very risky.
X. Tailing Two: This is a great time to go for missile locks, while you may miss, there is a higher chance a missile will hit one of the two jets. Be careful when flying by friendly helos in this case, missiles that miss their intended target turn harder and love to earn you a few extra Tks/TDs for your whoops.

4. Advanced Combat Notes:
-Combining Manuevers and altitude: In most cases, moderate to high altitude is what allows you to combine your manuevers, staying at around 300 feet gives you room for descending and ascending loops/half loops. Additionally, most enemy jets stay between 100 to 150 meters, meaning you will see them before they see you. Thus when hunting enemy jets, stay high, and if at all possible, fly in the direction opposite of the sun, it will blind enemy pilots.
-When using altitude, think of it this way, the higher up you are, the greater the speed you will have when going down, it wont last long, but it will help you get into effective cannon distance of bombers/ jets. Try it, it works wonders.
-Prior to combining and holding to a steadfast manuevering pattern, realize any manuever can be followed. A general rule of thumb is not to combine manuevers at the same time, barrel roll loops for instance, slow your jet down during the loop, as inverted vertical climbing is reduced. This means missiles and guns are more effective. If you are going to use rolls, stick with them until you switch, so use barrel rolls followed by a corkscrew. Or in loops, do a full vertical loop then after you are finishing the first one, keep pulling up and hit the brakes. Works wonders in non-f35 craft.
-Note, using your breaks in an f-35 is a dead give-away,as your burner will drop as if you were going to into a hovering manuever. That is why using brakes with F-35's often times gets you dead, in the case of other jets, there are only two animations, afterburner thrust, and normal thrust, thus other pilots won't see you hitting the breaks until they start gaining on you.
***As for attack angles, always try to hit from the sides, top, or bottom. Except for the case of aiming from the bottom, you always want to aim for the cockpit/rear of the plane. Both of those do double-damage, and in the case of the cockpit you can kill the pilot outright instantly. Be careful however, if you fly your jet into the rear of their craft you will probably be killed without the other pilot knowing the difference.

3. Teamwork in Jets:
I. Offence: If you are working through VOIP, switch attacking roles, and fly behind and with your teammate. If he loses visual range, you may be able to keep it. You can fire guns, but do not fire missiles as the wing-man.
II. Defense:: Its better to scare off enemies through getting a lock and holding it then firing. Only fire if they dropped their flares. Additionally, if both of you are engaged, try to create a flying “train”.
Alright, well first off gentlemen all manuevers can work in any situation if pulled off at the right time against the right enemy. The corkscrew works very well against many newer pilots, but I've found that if you just slow down, fly straight, the enemy pilot will keep doing there thing... you wait till they run out of AB and then you can smack the hell out of em. "Note- Corkscrew is the F-35's manuever of choice.
code:
III. Plane Trains: Give your teammate a chance to take out the fighter on your six. This means,"NOT doing loops". Loops are horrible for giving your teammate a gun run. However, supposing you made the enemy run out of missiles, barrel roles work wonders for giving your ally the opportunity to save you from going back to the docks of "Finding nemo."

Note Latency: if you have a higher latency than your opponent missiles have a greater tendency to miss, and guns seem like they are completely missing.  In such cases, it is wise to modify default latency to compensate so it feels "normal". 
In the console: type in "SettingsManager.floatSet GSDefaultLatencyCompensation 0.1".  Do not use parathesis, be case and space sensitive, and 0.1 is for 100 ms ping, 0.04 is 40 ms ping, set this so it averages around your current ping, you only have to enter this once (Danke to those who found this gold nugget).

Final Note: Joysticks are better than mouse/keyboard or just a keyboard. Think of it this way, you have more control in a joystick than in a mouse because movements are consistent and do not require retracking the mouse at the edge. Keyboards, do not allow for minimizing movements, you can't decrease your speed to half and hold it. Nor can you make finer adjustments. Thus while you may be good with either of these two combos, becoming good with a joystick will make you better, even if it takes awhile.  If you have to use keyboard/mouse maximize sensitivities, it will save you in the end. 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. Bombing
A. Basic Bombing

Realize that the speed you are going indicates the spread of the bombs in a horizontal bombing run.
-> - - - - >  Slow speed.
++\\
+++\\
+++ xx
++++o

-> - - -  - > high speed
++\++\
+++\++\ 
++++ x o x

O is the target, as you can see horizontal bombing runs are not the greatest for hitting precise targets, and are infact fantastic for gaining you the admiration of stray teammates. Of course slower bombing runs make you an easy target for guns/missiles. So you have to compensate right?
code:

-> - - - 
+++++\
++++++\ _ _ _ _ ->
+++++++\\
++++++++\\
++++++++xx 
+++++++++o

-A descending/dive bombing run makes it so the bombs are closer together without sacrificing speed. This is the ideal form of bombing "hard targets".

Additionally, try dropping bombs while doing a ascending loop. An enemy fighter on your six may get distracted/ follow the bombs for a moment, or possibly get hit by the bombs as they decend back towards the earth. :-)

B. Advanced Bombing
-Stay above 200+ meters, while this may dampen your bombing runs a bit, as you wont see every vehicle moving, it will save your ass from enemy pilots. Altitude means, speed, and the sluggish bombers, need every bit of it, to break away from a fighter/determined bomber. Additionally, unless you are facing poor fighters, do not use the bomber to engage other fighters/bombers. Sure you may kill them, but you risk the chance of ramming your teammate who is trying to do the same thing, or waste the time and purpose of the bomber.
-If you have a decent fighter pilot with you, let him take care of other jets, with the exception of making opportunity runs.

C. Single Bomb Trick:
-When in a fighter if you drop both bombs, but only take enough time to rearm one, drop, then reload both you will be able to drop one bomb per click, to change this back to normal.  Repeat by dropping both, then rearming one. 

C. Laser Guided Missiles:
-These missiles lock-on to enemy targets, but can be fired like TV missiles from the attack helocopters, except that any mouse movement changes the flight direction of the missile.
-The viewer is not friendly/enemy specific, it shows all vehicle targets, as such use your minimap to target, or wait for lock-on.
-Pilots should only use bombs on vehicle convoys
-LGM ROE gunners should aim for targets that are under their flight path, targets on the sides are particularly difficult to hit.
-LGM missiles, can be fired in rapid succession, the moment one blows, fire the next. 
-View the Wiki guide for more tips on LGM usage.  (http://wiki.bf2s.com/tactical-guides/lgm-use)

III. Anti-Vehicles
A. Attacking Attack Helos:
-If they are flying parallel away from you, you can Missile lock.
-Otherwise use bombing view and gun, and switch at the last second to dumb-fire missiles.
-With no other AA/Jets in the air, slow down and use bombing view to gun
-Aim for cockpit for ~2x damage
-For Transport Helos, missile lock is viable.

B. AA / 50 Caliber Guns:
-Dive bombing is the best attack as it allows for effective bombing and the speed of diving makes it harder
for AA to track your jet.
-Do not slow down to attack any AA emplacements.
-Do not rely on Flares, they aid evasion, but do not prevent it.
-Take out the AA on the first run with guns, save your bombs for visual targets.
-Memorize AA locations, and use the rear cam, if the missile misses you'll have a good idea where it was fired from. So come back and destroy that AA even if there isn't a targeting reticle.
*Look into AA guides, "Up the tail pipe" to learn what not to do when facing good AA.

C. Essex Guns/Moble AA
-Dive bombing is preferable, have a plan of escape whether it is flying low behind mountains, buildings, or the dreaded trees, you must break the lock-on. AA has a lock on radius, and most AA do not look straight up.
-Save your flares, use bombs, and make sure you use your guns.
-Moble AA is harder to kill than APCs with bombs, keeping that in mind, try to plant both bombs on them and use your guns. 
-Tight turns may save you from a missile or two, but with 4-8 coming, its usually best to embody the bat from hell and either gain altitude
-Make sure you check your six, its easy to confuse AA lock-ons, and enemy Jets, for that purpose check your six.
-Currently the only way to seemingly avoid AA/Enemy Jet missiles is in doing hard loops with afterburners and that is only when turning away from the source of the AA. Keep your afterburners for this folks. Flares do work, but only if dropped when turning, otherwise the missiles still tend to re-acquire lock.
-Precision strikes: have a target in mind go in, bomb/gun drop a flare as soon as you get a lock on, and bug out.
-Direction of attack: fly around the outskirts of the level so that you attack from at least a 110 degree angle from your teams airfield/last known location.
-Work in pairs, one flying on the outskirts of the radius of the target AA, then have another jet from another angle.

D. Anti-Infantry/Anti-Jeep:
-Use guns while compensating for gun location, Missiles as Dumb fire, and Bomb Run.
-Do not slow down for .50 cal/jeeps unless you are dive bombing, .50 cal damage will rip your jet to shreds.

E. Anti-Armor/APC
-Initially try to dive bomb to maximize damage, while using guns with slight speed decrease to finish them
off.
-Do not to fly low if they know where you are, better not to risk going back to TK haven (via spawn)
Note: Check your radar before bombing/gunning, just because the reticle shows vehicles, it does not mean they are necessarily enemy vehicles, it could be allies who are nearby or allies who jumped out of a vehicle that still have heat signatures. So in otherwords, check before you bomb, otherwise you'll collect extra TKs.

Final Notes:

-Ettiquite: Please don't TK for jets, wait your turn, and only spawn kill if the server condones it. 
-If anyone knows the EF fighter stats please P.M. me with them.
-Special thanks to those who helped test, inform, and revise this for me-
           [uV]DebonairXL - www.uvclan.com

[CANADA]_Zenmaster wrote:

I agree with most of this minus some technical issues/differences of opinion, but for anyone reading this it is worth your time if you need help learning to fly.

+1 OP.

A few notes:

- LGM destroy assets in one hit. Bombs destroy any asset in two hits.

- MGs will destroy APCs but continued fire on a tank will only take 1-2 bars of health off it (still worth while though).

- In my honest opinion, sacrificing airspeed for time on any target is dangerous and not worth the risk when a second pass will do. You will not loose your excess speed gained through continued burst use of your after burners if you take a second pass, nor do you risk getting shot down and loosing your jet, nor will you have to chew through your remaning afterburners to get back up to speed. Important factors with the new air to air. Ground AA is still pathetic though.

- Totally agree that the F35 should conserve afterburners for escaping certain J10 death. You have no hope without it, and your flares literally are your lifeline. If you cannot loose the J10 in the time it takes your flares to drop, you are a dead man. As such, I feel that all of the above maneuvers are overrated for BF2 combat.

These maneuvers, barrel roll etc, are fun and sometimes useful in combat flight simulator games, but in BF2 most of these maneuvers are just plain easy to track and the worst maneuver being the stall which is easily detected leaves you helpless without airspeed and flares if you dropped them foolishly. I prescribe to the notion of keep it simple stupid, e.g. rely on a handful of maneuvers, anything else is fancy flying for specifically excellent pilots chasing you. If you were in an F35 in that scenario you are dead anyway so really it comes down to fancy flying and not something rookies need to learn nor is it something experts don't already know.

What rookies need to learn most and what I agree with you on is utilizing the afterburners correctly, don't leave them full, burst them, but if you are in an F35 conserve them a bit more then in a Mig or J10. Keep your airspeed up, utilize altitude to your advantage, only drop flares when it counts. If you hear a continuous tone and see someone on you in rear view, it is time to consider releasing them. If you are randomly hearing tones and dropping flares: not a good policy.

Utilize the split - S vertical loop, literally a half loop, a rotation, and another half loop on top of it; it is bar none the most effective way to avoid AA and loose your chasing opponent. You can do it twice in a row or any combination of immelmans and split S to loose an enemy easily and really it is all you need to put into practice. Any other maneuvers are too easy to track, cost airspeed and afterburn usage that does not loose the enemy nor avoid AA. That doesn't mean they aren't fun to do nor am I saying you shouldn't be creative, but for the purpose of learning, if you are a rookie, learn this first and worry about fancy flying to shock and awe your peers another time. Flying is so straight forward in this game, nothing is really impressive when it comes to maneuvers anyway. It's all about how fast you can destroy the enemy and help your team out.

- Slowing down on bombing is not good policy for reasons mentioned above, but more importantly different airspeeds like you mention result in your bombs falling in different places. If you are always slowing down your airspeed will never be the same and your practice will be inherently flawed. It is better to maintain your airspeed and a downward angle for every target you choose, that way you will develop a sense of where your bombs will land and you won't be vulnerable at the same time.

If you are cutting throttle to make it easier, you are really only making it harder for yourself to develop the mental pattern that gives you the instinct of where they will land without looking. Nevermind that you'd always have to cut your throttle because you would have horrible aim at full speed not having practiced with it. A third thing to note is that tank shells often go straight through a plane at full tilt, whereas cut your speed below 75%-ish and you will blow up; doesn't happen often, but a reason nonetheless.

Further for people practicing, I'd like to add that different fighter jets obviously have different bombing dynamics (due to airspeed and release location), and every time you switch jets you will loose accuracy until your mind reaccustoms itself. Hence, if you are swapping between MEC and USA or China and USA every round, your plane skills aren't going to be top notch. I'm saying you should stay on the same team if you want to fly the Mig for a bit, or stay on USA if your bombing skills have been honed those last few rounds.

- Utilize the rear view to see where AA is being released from. As the OP mentioned, don't just bomb the site, strafe it first, and if you don't get a kill quickly, THEN release your bombs as you approach the site because the person will have dived off the AA next to the sand bags to avoid you. This happens OFTEN, and it is better to bomb the AA site so that it is useless and get a kill, then to let the guy jump back on after you fly over and light up your ass hole.

Also, if you know a guy is on the AA and you are descending on him, I release flares when I am getting near bombing range and that way his AA won't have a target that he will release on. MG him up, bomb him if he doesnt die, then pull up and burn out of there, reload your bombs and your flares will be ready again. +2 points for you and no damage taken.

- When bombing jeeps, if they are driving towards you, you must release your bombs much earlier then you are comfortable with. If they are driving away from you, drop your bombs as you would normally. This is a big hang up for most pilots, they don't release bombs early enough for approaching targets. When I fly, I think about the plane as a hawk, and the jeep on the ground as the rodent. When you swoop down on it, you must anticipate in your mind where it will be. Some people just can't do this...

- As another pilot said somewhere, the best advice he could offer was don't get greedy. You will loose your jet, and eat another death which pilot whores notoriously hate. (Gotta work off another 14 kills before my next death etc.). That said, your true measure of a pilot is how fast you rip through the competition. If there is another good pilot in the server, I will do my damndest to light up their whole fucking team under their nose. Nothing is more satisfying then delivering an ass kicking and having the server hate you for it. Bombs away!

- Taking out the Essex: A good pilot only need use the MG from a high angle of attack so that the Essex doesn't see you coming in on the horizon (<- Noobs do that). If the Vulcan doesn't explode, release a bomb last minute as you pass over. In terms of beating a hasty retreat, flying 10 feet above the water in a power turn works well, flying away from the Essex semicircle of influence. Both guns have a limited sphere of fire, and the gun near the bridge is usually unmanned because its a pain in the ass to get to, and if it is manned, blow the fool up and he won't want to get back in anyway because of the walk. Anyways, when you take out the rear essex gun, swoop low to the water, and turn and burn away from its sphere of fire, utilizing your afterburners. Once safely out of missle lock range, juice up your altitude and continue on your merry way. I'm hugely against spawn raping the carrier though, so if you do that, I hope your own airbase gets violated while you are waiting for your jet.

- About ditching your jet: you won't get another jet back, you'll end up somewhere you really don't wanna be with no squad to help you out and no vehicle, and it's really quite pussy when another jet works to shoot you down and you puss out and rather eat a suicide. Don't be a pussy.

- Shooting down choppers: hours of experience has shown me that aiming for below the rotor shaft is the best meaty target. The cockpit isn't that lucrative, you may ding the pilot or copilot, but you'd down the bird faster if you shot the rotor shaft area. Also the rotor area is mid way along the body of the craft, so shooting there helps your MG deviation land all shots in a meaty target. For the blackhawk, aiming just back of the rotor shaft area works wonders.

I could think of more shit to talk about, but it's time to give my RPK some loving. You can see some videos and junk like that here: http://hosted.filefront.com/CanadaZenmaster.

Edited for clarity and the fact that I write big run on sentences.

Hyper wrote:

Mj.Blindfisch wrote:

[CANADA]_Zenmaster wrote:

It will take you 2-7 days depending on how much you fly to get used to it. Once you learn in one game though, every game after is a quick learning curve and you won't regret the time invested. Nobody can expect to jump in  any vehicle and instantly master the controls - you have to have previous experience and training.

Yup,be sure to use a joystick,it improves the experience of the game and it makes better pilots.
I got a joystick from a friend who only tested it once or twice for BF1942.At that time the Kübelcopter mod for BF1942 came out(Desert Combat was Version 0.2b then,and  they sent me a betaversion! ) and I flew Kübelcopters all day to get used to the choppercontrols,but after a few days it really paid off.

btw,has anyone seen those before?Might be useful.....
http://www.combataircraft.com/tactics/

joysticks do not make a better pilot.

washow wrote:

Hyper wrote:

joysticks do not make a better pilot.

that is just ridiculous

it's like saying "good computers do not make a better player"
it seriously fucking does !

all you people with good computers, have you ever played on a crap computer where your option is all low/off and it takes 5+ min(sometimes) to load up and you still lag 3 min after the freaking game started?

you lag so much.. it's like this; 2 seconds of game and 1 second of freezing. how the hell do you expect me to do things if i can't even freaking move around?

so yea, joysticks do make a better pilot because it enables you to manuver the jet way better than keyboard/mouse

period

washow wrote:

Plisken wrote:

dude, a good player will be able to adapt to different playing conditions, a good computer/joystick only slightly improves the persons ability and can make a good player a great player.

basically, that's what i'm trying to say..

good computer? having a joystick when flying jet?

THEY DO HELP !

Hyper wrote:

washow wrote:

Plisken wrote:

dude, a good player will be able to adapt to different playing conditions, a good computer/joystick only slightly improves the persons ability and can make a good player a great player.

basically, that's what i'm trying to say..

good computer? having a joystick when flying jet?

THEY DO HELP !

i do not fly as well with a joystick...why? too much work to do anything really.
i can do the same thing with my mouse/kb.
whats actually rather ironic about this is that the person who todld me that i made an assanine comment....only has a SLIGHTLY higher kd in planes than i do.
i fly with my kb, he uses a joystick...so again, a joystick does not make you a better pilot.

Hyper wrote:

i do not fly as well with a joystick...why? too much work to do anything really.

Hyper wrote:

i can do the same thing with my mouse/kb.

Last edited by [CANADA]_Zenmaster (2006-04-29 14:22:50)

Last edited by [CANADA]_Zenmaster (2006-04-30 16:19:03)