Strafing

[Knightex]

Yes, I know this will sound stupid...but I really only practice flying against AI.

So, when actually happens when you hold the strafe keys while you are in the air? When I press/hold them, nothing happens...whether I'm using air brakes or in the just plain flying.

Actually, I'm really not sure but I had it in 3rd person so I should have been able to tell. I've seen plenty of demos and manned the minigun/hyperblaster positions a few times with an experienced pilot.

I have tormentory and anasi context binded (or whatever it's called) to their own class(flyers, cause I got free-aim on space, I need space for desecrator and cyclopes). I'm wondering if that could be the case why they aren't working. Lean works on the ground just fine though. Thanks for any help. Excuse this newbie question.:p

[Seanza]

Air vehicles don't strafe...AFAIK

[Mr.Rey]

Move your mouse to the left to strafe left.
Move your mouse to the right to strafe right.

[BioSnark]

Aren't strafe keys how you aim? Strafe keys (default "A" and "D") are y-yaw, mouse y-axis is pitch and mouse x-axis is roll... as in:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Flight_dynamics_with_text.png/325px-Flight_dynamics_with_text.png

Lean keys (default Q and E) strafe in the desecrator (and also turn in the bumblebee?) and hard turn in the husky (and armadillo?).

[jALLAD]

as Seanza says, no strafing in flyers. you have to understand what is the mechanics behind flying. there are basically 3 motions to control.

firstly though you must understand the fact that the direction is controlled as a combination of rotations not displacements about various axes.

rotation about the direction the nose of ur flyers is pointing to is the roll. this is the mouse x axis
rotation about the axis perpendicular to the previous and along the wings (if the nancy had any ;) ) is the pitch. this is your mouse y axis
and rotation about the axis of rotation of the rotors is the yaw. this is controlled by the keys you use for strafing while on ground (mind you they might be the strafe keys, but the flyers dont strafe, strafing would be what the desecrator does when you press the lean keys)


now after getting your direction sorted, all you have to do is control the speed and elevation. for that you use the sprint/walk and forward/backward keys. that is it.

one more thing you should note, if the flyer is not exactly horizontal, i.e. if you are inclined and looking at the ground at an angle (for instance when you spam the MCP or the construct objective or maybe a titan or a deployable), all you need to use is the elevation controls for small corrections to your forward speed. note that as you are tilted, part of your vertical thrust is going towards propelling you in the forward direction. using the forward thrusters (sprint) in this case might make you go too fast. so while doing the fine adjustments, holding down the reverse thrusters would be a good idea to stabilize the flyer.

edit: you might want to look at these wikipedia links, (skip the maths :p)
Tait-Bryan rotations (roll-pitch-yaw thing) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tait-Bryan_rotations)
Flight Dynamics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_dynamics)

@biosnark: I see you got the pic from wikipedia. nice find :)

[Knightex]

as Seanza says, no strafing in flyers. you have to understand what is the mechanics behind flying. there are basically 3 motions to control.

firstly though you must understand the fact that the direction is controlled as a combination of rotations not displacements about various axes.

rotation about the direction the nose of ur flyers is pointing to is the roll. this is the mouse x axis
rotation about the axis perpendicular to the previous and along the wings (if the nancy had any ;) ) is the pitch. this is your mouse y axis
and rotation about the axis of rotation of the rotors is the yaw. this is controlled by the keys you use for strafing while on ground (mind you they might be the strafe keys, but the flyers dont strafe, strafing would be what the desecrator does when you press the lean keys)


now after getting your direction sorted, all you have to do is control the speed and elevation. for that you use the sprint/walk and forward/backward keys. that is it.

one more thing you should note, if the flyer is not exactly horizontal, i.e. if you are inclined and looking at the ground at an angle (for instance when you spam the MCP or the construct objective or maybe a titan or a deployable), all you need to use is the elevation controls for small corrections to your forward speed. note that as you are tilted, part of your vertical thrust is going towards propelling you in the forward direction. using the forward thrusters (sprint) in this case might make you go too fast. so while doing the fine adjustments, holding down the reverse thrusters would be a good idea to stabilize the flyer.

edit: you might want to look at these wikipedia links, (skip the maths :p)
Tait-Bryan rotations (roll-pitch-yaw thing) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tait-Bryan_rotations)
Flight Dynamics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_dynamics)

@biosnark: I see you got the pic from wikipedia. nice find :)

Aren't strafe keys how you aim? Strafe keys (default "A" and "D") are y-yaw, mouse y-axis is pitch and mouse x-axis is roll... as in:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Flight_dynamics_with_text.png/325px-Flight_dynamics_with_text.png

Lean keys (default Q and E) strafe in the desecrator (and also turn in the bumblebee?) and hard turn in the husky (and armadillo?).


Yeah, the strafe thing with desecrator and some gdf vehicles, I already knew. I'm not that dumb with vehicles, but thanks for informing me nevertheless.

@Jallad

Unfortunately, while I appreciate you taking your time to type all that, all I needed were that I should try incorporating the reverse key and those 2 great link. I understand what you're saying, but of course I won't be able to remember all that as I fly...which is why I wonder how many hours it took dom to fly like he does. Thanks for the answers guys.

Funny how Bioshark posted the same pic found on both Wikipedia pages...probably written by bored aerodynamics engineers.



But now, here's another question: when people fly about deployables and just unload their guns onto it (relatively motionless), are they holding airbrake, reverse, or a combination of both?

[shirosae]

But now, here's another question: when people fly about deployables and just unload their guns onto it (relatively motionless), are they holding airbrake, reverse, or a combination of both?

They'll probably have the power on to maintain height (default W), have airbrakes on for reverse thrust to avoid moving forwards (default CTRL), have their nose pointed down towards the deployable, and will be banked to one side slightly so they're effectively circle strafing their target.

Because they're tilted forwards, the power on W thrust will try to move them upwards and forwards. The airbrake CTRL reverse thrust will attempt to move them backwards and upwards (because their tail is pointing up). The combination will result in a pretty much straight upwards thrust.


The good thing about banking when trying to saturate an area is how it helps when you get too close. Straight on, as you tilt your nose down further, the thrust begins to point forwards, pushing you over your target. If you just keep aiming further down, you'll tilt the aircraft until you can't maintain your altitude.

If you're banking slightly, you'll be able to circle the target. You can then change the radius of that circle by banking more/less to maintain your altitude without losing your target even if you're too close for stationary flight.

You'll probably also need to tap your pedals (default A and D) at times to keep your nose pointed into the circle.

Whenever you see an aircraft slowly drifting sideways in a long arc unloading, this is probably what they're doing.


There was a video of Dom doing exactly this when spamming the Antarctic side of Slipgate's slipgate, but I can't find it at the moment.

[jALLAD]

shiro is spot on. this is exactly what i wanted to say in the note to my previous post. but i guess i wasn't clr enough. :)

the idea is to balance the effects of the reverse thrusters and the increase in elevation. you control the forward movement of the flyer by continuously adjusting the two. by dropping a lil elevation u can fall back, or to move in you give the reverse thrusters a lil slack.

and about what i said in the previous post, i dont remember it either while flying :p but once you practice enough. all that comes to u naturally. thats the only way to learn. log as much hours in the nancy as u can. even bots are fair shots, so thats a good start. for flying in pubs, u'll need real low ping, otherwise you will continuously need to lead your shots to adjust for the ping. (i think PIMPS has a dogfight server, might want to try that :))

and Knightex, its never a problem helping out a fellow QW fanatic. :D

[Knightex]

even bots are fair shots, so thats a good start. for flying in pubs, u'll need real low ping, otherwise you will continuously need to lead your shots to adjust for the ping. (i think PIMPS has a dogfight server, might want to try that )

1. I get shot down 99% of the time by a bot on hard (maybe I need to do easy, lol)

2. Cause of my truly advantageous position :rolleyes: , my ping is always at least 200 unless I'm on the Australian servers (my regards to whoever the admin is).

3. Thus, I can't play on PIMPS.

@Shiro

Thank you very much. Awesome guide I'll be incorporating and master one day (with some luck maybe). I seriously wonder who mastered flying first. Must be some aerodynamics engi.

[jALLAD]

...I seriously wonder who mastered flying first. Must be some aerodynamics engi.

oh no, its a "dominican guy called mafia" ;)

[shirosae]

1. I get shot down 99% of the time by a bot on hard (maybe I need to do easy, lol)

2. Cause of my truly advantageous position :rolleyes: , my ping is always at least 200 unless I'm on the Australian servers (my regards to whoever the admin is).

3. Thus, I can't play on PIMPS.

@Shiro

Thank you very much. Awesome guide I'll be incorporating and master one day (with some luck maybe). I seriously wonder who mastered flying first. Must be some aerodynamics engi.

\o/

Don't forget that you can spawn a bot server with cheats on, then turn god mode on, spawn an anansi using the console ('spawn vehicle_anansi', i think?), and then practice whilst invincible. There will definitely be a guide to doing this somewhere in the forum.

As far as remembering all of this when flying, what happens is that tilting to move becomes second nature. It's like when you know that you need to cross an open space, then duck behind cover, pull out a supply station signal nade, reload, then move again. When that happens you don't think about the keys your pressing, or the mechanics behind your movement. The same thing happens with flight, if you keep at it.

[brutt01d]

Hmmm, while circle strafing above a tank for example, do I have to use also "move up" button or only airbrakes+roll+a/d? Will airbrakes be enough to keep me above tanke stable or not? Cause I use to press "move up" and "airbrakes" all the time, so I finally slowly fly the object by.

[shirosae]

Hmmm, while circle strafing above a tank for example, do I have to use also "move up" button or only airbrakes+roll+a/d? Will airbrakes be enough to keep me above tanke stable or not? Cause I use to press "move up" and "airbrakes" all the time, so I finally slowly fly the object by.

It depends on how tight the circle is.

The tighter your circle is, the more you'll be tilted forwards, and the greater the proportion of your reverse thrust will be dedicated to keeping altitude. You'll also lose the benefit of move up, though.

The good thing about circle strafing in an aircraft is that if you hold in move up too, you can use the extra thrust to make the circle tighter and faster, so your inertia from one side of the circle can help hold you up on the other.

It's a situational thing that you feel as you're flying, IMO. I tend to have it held in often, but switching movement suddenly is good for putting off unlocked shots from tanks and RL and other aircraft.

[brutt01d]

OK, then this is at least the one thing i'm doing correctly ;)

And yeah, my cirles tend to be often too tight and too fast :D

The problem with slow horizontal no-pitched hovering is you are a perfect target for RLs and tank shells :(

It's a suicide tactics IMHO. Especially in Tormentor (lower rocket range).

[space]

Umm.. someone designed a helicopter that can't strafe.. must have been difficult.

[Knightex]

Yeah, I know dom is the best. After all, I have played with him a few times. Just wondering how long it took him and who beat him (at least for a while) to it.

Anyways, I still can't manage to learn the "banking" technique. Well, I suppose I'll get it eventually. So what might I need to roll for, as it's there for a reason but I haven't seen it in action enough to know.

@space

Well, it's not a helicopter, it's a VTOL, which isn't necessarily a helicopter. It would be nice to include one, but then things might get unbalanced. I'm surprised how hard it is fly these things...