Moderate and advanced tips

[Nenomitrosis]

Hi, I have seen a lot of threads for new players, and I wanted to start one for interesting tips or things that vet pilots realize after a lot of flying experience. For example, someone explained that hydrospanner is a really bad ability or the improved killing zone is not as good as it suggest, and after changing them my results went way up.

 

So, anything interesting to share for the not-so-new ones?

[zaskar]

Attack Plane

 

When attacking anything, jousting is just dumb unless you're an accomplished bomber pilot out to make gunships look stupid. Many GSF pilots are not as situationally aware as they should be, they don't track what is around them. Only what is directly in front and visible on the screen. Use this lack of awareness to your advantage.

 

Locate a target that is being difficult for your team to deal with, a bomber, well flown strike or gunship. Take 10 seconds to locate their area of focus. Move between 15 and 30 degrees out of their forward vision. Choose an angle that is above or below, again between 15 and 30 degrees, attack. More than likely your first series of attacks will go unnoticed and sustained fire will kill the target within three to ten seconds depending on the reaction of the pilot and the ships defenses.

 

Continuing to use all three axis and moving out of direct vision of targets, you will walk away with a much higher kill to death ratio that you have before.

 

RUN

 

You can tell when a pilot is moving beyond the basics when they start to hit and fade. Using attack planes as described above, attack at full speed and once you pass the target boost away behind cover, choose another attack plane and repeat until the target is dead. A fast moving target is unlikely to succumb to a railshot or missile attack if they are using obstacles to constantly break lines of sight. Most pilots won't be able to react to the large amounts of damage each pass does. You will also not give the target the time to react as you will already be gone.

 

This tactic should be used especially in cases where you are attacking a target that is amongst other targets that may be working to defend it. Like a bomber holding a satellite or a wall of gunships in a TDM match.

 

MOVE

 

Like running but for gunships and bombers, even strikes and scouts in small movements not great ones. You can use your maneuvering thrusters (strafe) at anytime, even when targeting a railgun. A moving target is much harder to hit than a stationary one, a great gunship pilot will never stop moving. For a gunship, once you start to use your scope to aim, hold down shift+w (or any direction you feel like) to gradually thrust upwards. This tiny movement will not be too noticeable to anyone targeting you but will move you out of their crosshairs enough to make many shots miss.

 

Great pilots will tap their shift key as they are moving around to adjust their trajectory enough to frustrate any attackers.

Edited September 29, 2014 by zaskar

[nyghtrunner]

Can't give this the time it deserves, but one mistake that I see a lot of pilots make... Learn when to let people go, especially in a dogfighter.

 

As someone who loves it when people chase me, it's usually a huge mistake if my enemies actually do follow me. There's almost always a reason I'm leading you where I'm leading you, whether it's to my allies (which is honestly kind of rare, unless I do it inadvertently), or because I'm ranging you from your backup. If I get you where I want you, and turn around to go after you, then most likely, you're going to get dusted. It's not a given, but if I turn around, it's because I feel like I have the advantage. Understand this before it happens, and learn to let people go.

 

Even taking me out of the equation, though, focusing on a target from the moment you engage to the conclusion of the engagement, to the exclusion of all else, is not a good idea. If the person you're on has a jump or some other defensive advantage, and another target flies by, and you have a better angle on him than your original target, switch. The life you save may just be that of a teammate.

 

I guess one other thing that I can't stress enough... Using missile breaks at the right time is key. You want to wait until the missile is in the air, and the triangle is in full "DANGER! DANGER!" mode before you hit it. This really serves multiple purposes:

1) It means that the enemy's missile component is on CD. For some missiles, that means they can't fire another one for a while. Not to mention the wasted ammo, which for some of the missiles is far from irrelevant.

2) If you're chasing someone, it can allow you to get the last few hits in and bag the kill before you need to react to the "new" threat.

3) It allows you to "plan" your escape route. I wouldn't be surprised if the #1 killer in the game is people using engine maneuvers into objects. That extra second or 3 can mean the difference between shooting the gap with your barrel roll and getting your tail LOS'd, or going headlong into a wall.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

I guess one other thing that I can't stress enough... Using missile breaks at the right time is key. You want to wait until the missile is in the air, and the triangle is in full "DANGER! DANGER!" mode before you hit it

 

Just to add: I set up my GSF UI so that my co-pilot chatter is right next to the missile lock warning. Since co-pilots usually say something once a missile is launched it's a nice additional visual cue that you've got incoming (especially useful too if you didn't hear the missile launch audio alert for some reason). It also helps decrease the odds of hitting your break too soon against pilots that intentionally hold the lock hoping you'll do exactly that.

[Verain]

Listen to the pace of the missile lock tone

This can distinguish between different "lockon classes" of missiles. A cluster will have a much faster tone than a proton.

 

Map and use more keys

GSF is very light on the keyboard, but has some really niche options. You can look at angles, for instance, at a button press- consider mapping those somewhere and practicing pressing them at times so you'll know to press them later.

 

Toggle between "no throttle" and "slow throttle"

If you are moving at normal speed, pressing and holding "decelerate" will move your throttle to a low position. You can turn much better in this mode, but everyone knows that. If you press and release "toggle throttle", your throttle will go down to 0, and your speed will drop. Initially, this will make your turning even better, but then suddenly you will be in the "turns like a bus" category of speed. But that small difference can really let you cut a corner. It can be a bit risky, but can be nice to have.

 

Learn the extents of your engine maneuvers

If that's a movement power, which it normally should be, learn where it will put you. You should normally be able to engine maneuver and land near various rocks and objects without routinely destroying yourself. If you screw up while learning, that's fine, but you'll have it in a close fight.

 

Plan your defenses so you don't get caught out

This could be a basic tip, but I see good pilots do this on occasion. If you have to barrel roll somewhere, it should be somewhere that you can LOS if you need. Same with power dive. Make use of your booster in this situation.

 

When flying close to an object, use "accelerate" (military speed) and "decelerate" a whole bunch

As you orbit a rock or satellite, being able to change your speed (and obviously your facing, but everyone sort of figures out when a reversal is a good call) can really frustrate most laser cannons and all lockon missiles.

 

 

Try really hard to think about what your opponents are doing.

Specifically when they are attacking you. If you are rolling around a rock and he pulls off, is he switching to another target, or is he assuming you'll continue your rotation and land in his line of fire? If you kill him, will he come running back on a gunship to try to revenge kill you? Is he going to pop cooldowns and focus a friend? By being in their heads just a little bit you can respond to what they are about to do sometimes.

 

 

Map your strafe buttons

Strafing is semi-important on a gunship, but it can also enable a bit of sliding on any ship at low speeds. Strafing is deliberately not a big part of the flying experience, but practice it for the few times it does matter.

 

 

Be aggressive about pressing tab

There's very little downside to losing your current target in some ships, and you can normally just retarget the guy you think is important. Unless you are hunting or fleeing really hard, try to tab around. You can often spot gunships trying to roost (call or deroost) and bombers blazing for nodes (call, snare, damage). These big plays for objectives require setup time, and intercepting the enemy attempt helps your team immensely. It won't show up on any scoreboard.

 

 

 

The map is not the territory

Assume someone who knows everything about (any game) is watching you play. Assume that they are some AI, or god, and know EVERYTHING that would be correct to do, and know what your response time and mental capacity are, etc. From THAT perspective, did you play properly? The scoreboard is how most people subconsciously grade themselves and others, because having some metrics is better than none.

Do you think or agree with any of these thoughts?

> Proton is better than thermite because my allies steal all my thermite kills.

> Slug is better than Plasma because someone kills the guy before the dot finishes, and it is never me.

> Concussion is better than proton because concussion does more damage.

Focusing on the "because" (obviously slug is better than plasma, but not for that reason). If that strikes you as compelling, you are steering by the map (scoreboard) and not the territory (game state). Focus on the win and on correct play, even if no one is there to give you credit or explicitly pat your back, have faith in yourself when you are playing properly, even if that results in you holding a node against a bunch of people you can't kill, or you getting chased by five bads who can't kill you in TDM but can prevent you from doing damage, or when you are ionning your enemies to snare them and allow your allies to devastate their ranks. None of these show up on any scoreboard or can be metered correctly, and some the GAME ENGINE will even flag you nonparticipate for. Ignore the lies, focus on the game state.

[caederon]

Know When To Cause A Diversion

 

In a Domination match, you'll often find yourself in a situation where your team controls one sat, the enemy controls the other one across the board, and B is contested (or in enemy hands). If you see a huge furball around B, and it looks like the enemy is over-committing to the push, that can be the perfect time to swoop in on the other enemy-controlled sat and at the very least flip it to neutral... or at best, if they're not paying attention, take it outright.

 

In a fast scout with rockets and/or burst lasers, you can strip a satellite of all its turrets in seconds. This can and should draw defenders back to the satellite you're attacking. That gives your team an opening to take B, or as mentioned above, you can steal a satellite outright, especially on Denon where there is a lot more space to cover.

 

- Despon

Edited September 30, 2014 by caederon