All About Aircraft

[Solumar]

Please post here any interesting things you know about flying the Anansi and/or Tormentor. They are my favorite!

The aircrafts are very easy to destroy compared to most heavy vehicles, so the trick is not to get hit! Easier said than done. So . . . How do YOU not get HIT when piloting?

More what I'm interested in instead of how to dodge a missile is what to do in certain situations to favor the aircraft as a team. After all, the aircraft is easily shot down when spotted if the enemy has deployed turrets and employed soldiers and aggressors. So as I've asked, How to not get hit?

[whiteaden]

tip: focus on anti vehicle weaponry... don't ignore the rocketlauncher.. nail him down when he's reloading...

enable advanced flight controls... :)

to flybys... don't hang in one location,

use your decoys (ofcourse)

[KeFeaR]

You don't get hit by shooting the guys who shoot at you before they can shoot you!

Also, fly like a crazy muhfuggah, if you're not almost crashing, you're not flying good enough

[frizlefry]

There is an art to not getting shot in aircraft.

First thing is to know the maps well. You need to be aware of where the enemy AVTs can be deployed. Watch for the coming and going of magogs or the orange space drop. Verify what fell before proceeding to that immediate area to quickly.

Do not fly too closely over spawns and high places close to spawns. When RL soldiers spawn they will be looking to shoot something right away. You have to dart in and out between spawns to kill deployables because the next wave of players could have one or more RL soldiers. If the other team isn't using many RLs they could still decide to switch to take you out so respect the spawn wave till you determine it's safe. Pick off the the people leaving the spawn who aren't prepared to take you down once you see they aren't carrying RL.
Try to stay on the edge of the maps near no man's land on the smaller maps when looking for targets or lobbing shots at things. This reduces your exposure and gives you some cover from rocket launchers because they can not get on one side of you.
Do not fly over areas with high vantage points that RL soldiers like to perch on without identifying if there is an RL soldier there. The mesas in Canyon, the hill over the tunnel in Valley.. etc. When you are familiar with how most people play the class you can avoid falling prey to them. If you know they are there try to bait them into shooting at you from a distance so you can flare. Follow the rocket trail into them and pound them into limbo. If you are being locked on and cant tell where its coming from fly somewhere you know they can't be and circle back slowly. Bait them into giving away their position and then pounce.
If you want to stay alive you have to deal with threats one at a time. If you're dealing with a turret and an APC starts locking on to you it's time to retreat. It's better to run and repair or retreat and lure the APC away from the turret where you can take it on by itself or shoot strockets from a distance.
The other thing is to keep moving. The faster you are moving the less likely someone is going to lock on. Even if they do lock on they may fire at an extreme angle which will make the rocket have to take a long turn to try to catch you and you can flare. If you are floating around slowly they can take straight locked on shots at you that will be your doom.

[KeFeaR]

Don't forget watching out for the horrible tank to the face perched on top of the mountain, unable to be bombed from above it's cannons range.

though it's fun to try and get it anyway!

[Proteas]

Flying for Dummies :D

http://community.enemyterritory.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6454&highlight=anansi+binds

And 1 good bind ;)
bind "MOUSE2" "_weapon0" "" "vehicle"

[murka10]

Keep strafing left/right, when rocket comes you have a choice, either use decoys and possibly die or make a forward loop and possibly crash.

[Szakalot]

watch my video guide; check the custom content sticky:p

[Solumar]

Murka 10, nice tactic. Can that really work if the missile is locked and without using the decoy?

What's this about video guides, Szakalot? I'll see if I can get a look at it. :)

Thanks for your input, everyone!

[Szakalot]

go here (http://community.enemyterritory.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30057)

and behold:p

[Solumar]

Saw the Flying Guide. I am impressed, and I give it a 6/10. Even though the video wasted many minutes of my time with boring replay after replay of air battles, of which I ended up just skipping past with the risk of missing bits the video, I learned some facts about timing and interesting consistencies that would've taken me many weeks to learn. All in all I say it's a must-watch! But I'd suggest maybe surfing the web or do some housework while it runs in the background and tune in when you hear his voice.

I must add separately, as due to lack of real importance, that it's unfortunate the author wasn't as familiar with the Tormentor to the same extent. Even though the Anansi might exceed the Tormentor in maneuvering, a player will still fly the Tormentor from time to time. And how would a T on T battle go?

Most valuable piece for me, so I hand to the author my appreciation: You canNOT stall the aircraft! I'm curious if this applies to the Tormentor too.

[Szakalot]

im the author, i guess the rank you gave is fine, considering you were not interested at all in air vs. air which is what this guide is about.

Im pretty sure im quite familiar with the tormentor as well, but since it sucks in dogfights i threw it out entirely.

A T on T battle is a mid distance hover of who can get double lock on first, it rarely goes another way; pretty boring.

And of course it applies to the tormentor, as well as the bee, not that it would matter with the bee.

[Azuvector]

I'm curious if this applies to the Tormentor too.

I dunno, I either get the Tormentor stalling on me occasionally when I try to do airbrake-turns, or I'm victim of some ETQW input bugs...

Like Szakalot says, the Tormentor generally does best with the double lock-on. (Lock on with a Strocket, fire, lock on again(/keep your lock constant) immediately, and fire a second. Almost always you then get a kill. Dumbfiring Strockets tends not to be as successful as with the Anansi's LAWs, due to their slower speed and limited range.
Tormentor versus Anansi, I tend to find your best bet is not to try to match the Anansi in the circling-of-death tactic that most experienced Anansi pilots use(You can occasionally get a close-range Strocket lock and win that, but more often than not you're dead if the Anansi knows his business.)
The Tormentor tends to accelerate faster and have a higher speed than the Anansi. It also seems to be quieter. Best results I've had in downing Anansi pilots(Or in being downed myself by a Tormentor.), tend to be through two general tactics aside from the obvious double lock-on.
1. Sneak up on the Anansi. Lurk around somewhere unexpected and come at him from behind or the side, or even below. (I'll occasionally hover a few feet off the ground behind a building, and watch for the Anansi to fly by, then come up after him. (This is generally not a good idea on a full server with infantry and tanks running around, unless its in a deserted part of the map: and deployables and ground vehicles make more sense to go after than staking out the Anansi repeatedly, anyway.) That first Strocket lockon generally lets you control the situation, by forcing him to decoy and/or dodge.)
2. Accelerate hard straight at the Anansi from a long way off. Don't play chicken; a LAW will hit you if it's aimed your way. As you close the distance, you'll naturally get a Strocket lock. Don't fire immediately. Wait until you're quite close, within maybe 10m or so, fire, and immediately turn to avoid ramming the Anansi. If you do it right, he's going to have very little warning of your arrival, and hopefully a Strocket for lunch.
3. This is something of a combination of #1 and #2... When an Anansi starts doing the circle-of-death with you, break off and accelerate hard away from him. It'll hopefully take him a moment to figure out where you've gone, and by then you've got range and can turn around and accelerate back to him. What you want to establish here is a long, narrow elliptical oval loop of repeated high-speed passes on the Anansi. Spam like crazy with the Plasma cannon, and try to get a Strocket lock while you're inbound. Ideally, try to slide around behind things like hills or buildings when you're doing your turn, to try to get the Anansi to lose track of you. AVTs generally aren't a big thing with this, as you're usually moving too fast for them to nail you until you slow to make your turn, but watch out for the Anansi following you after an AVT goes after you. Double lock-ons work both ways.

[Sniper47]

snipers can be a nightmare,if they pick you,also avoid the range of minigun and hyperblaster.Use obstacles for cover.Nothing s worst than a plasma mortar,10% chance you sirvive!!!!

[Szakalot]

just bail out at the slightest plasma mortar provocation

[Solumar]

You guys rock! You make sense with your points about flying as I relate the data to my experience.

Azuvector, thank you for your tactics on Tormentor. :)

There were a lot of other things I enjoyed about Szakalot's video, so many that I won't list them all but simply suggest anybody who's interested in flying the Anansi well to watch it.

I have a question though. I programmed my autoexec with this exciting command:

seta g_fov "[some number higher than 90]"

. . . but . . . it doesn't work! Any ideas? If I turn the cockpit on the FOV changes for the cockpit graphical layer but NOT for the environment. I don't need to see the drink holders and the backseat ashtray, but if I did I'd have the ups. Any help on that too would be much appreciated.

[Szakalot]

in vanilla
fov of vehicles is fixed to 90, and you cant change it;
they made it so when +90 fovs proved to be buggy a lot (so instead of adressing the bug, they removed the context in which it occures).

I guess i dont mind, dogfighting allowed more sneaky sneaky, and some funny maneuvers.

[hellight]

I'll admit it, I was the player who jumped in and admittedly flew it into the ground. I have bind power now! HAHAHA.

[appleseed]

I may suggest you seek n destroy the plasma mortar(s) as a primary target, then go for the radar(s) from far, then focus on the front line to backup your teammates, you can also deploy a good wall of fire from mid distance on the objective to clean it up before your footmates attack it...

Well it all depends on the situation and I'm a shitty flyer anyway :P

[Szakalot]

id say a plasma mortar is a secondary target, unless its firing, and your close.

team will win more likely if you target heavy vehicles and avts if thats the mcp stage.

[Basiley]

id say a plasma mortar is a secondary target, unless its firing, and your close.

team will win more likely if you target heavy vehicles and avts if thats the mcp stage.

thats depend opressor skill.
experienced at least can try to buy enough MCP downtime time, to help reinforcements take positions and join MCP beating, party.
but yeah, armour was serious threat. and skilled[enough] RL-soldiers are rare and not fast enough, sometime[to counter].

[appleseed]

id say a plasma mortar is a secondary target, unless its firing, and your close.

team will win more likely if you target heavy vehicles and avts if thats the mcp stage.

I wont argue with you bout the flyer capacity anyway ;) but when I suggested the mortar I was thinking : "protect my arse first, then help the team" but as I said it all depends about the situation you are facing...

/drunk
/pity english

peace ;)

[BobMem]

I'm very much in the "protect my ass first then help team" camp, trouble is I can't seem to stop the damn trees from flying up and killing me :(

@appleseed, WTF is that in your sig?! :cool:

[whiteaden]

@appleseed, WTF is that in your sig?! :cool:

it's Basiley.. DUH

[Sgt.Smegma]

expert mode: roadkill tha noobliterator desperately trying to kill u. wait for lock on... decoys out and then full throttle staright in the face of the lamer camping the base on quarry (b.o.)

Sgt.BloodGutsAndBonesOnTheAnansi

[THE-HANGMAN]

Unless you are trying to dodge a tormentors Strocket, there really is no way NOT to get hit.
I always try to circle around the aircraft, this usually ensures not getting hit, but it also means it`s MUCH harder to hit the other player.:mad: