[JTL] Learning To Fly Guide

[eqsanctum 1,636]

All work done by 1st_Viduus. Spelling and grammatical updates by NarfBlinko.

OK, like many of the pilots here, this is not my first space sim, so although some parts of JtL were challenging for me (Good Job Devs!) I found it fairly straightforward and tbh one space sim is as good as another, insofar as mechanics of space flight go. We do, however, have many many pilots who are having a great deal of trouble with it, and I'd like to start by saying: It's Normal! Don't be discouraged! Instead, take the time to learn. The first step in that direction is knowing what you need to do. I'm not talking about missions, but flight mechanics, the how-to's. I will try to stay away from controllers and controller-specific tactics, since there are 4 types of controls, and stick to the things that apply to all.

You *must* learn to think in three dimensions. This is not a car, a motorcycle, or a speeder.

By the same token, it's SPACE, so each axis is replaceable by the other - meaning up is always relative to you, not the ground. So you can spin, turn, 'dive', climb, whatever; up is always up. So, as the saying goes, 'think outside the box', and understand that though some rules apply (inertia for example) others don't (like gravity).

Learning to control your ship: The Basics.

Customize your controls if you have to, but set yourself up in such a way as to have access to all the most important controls without looking (and eventually without thought), regardless of controller of choice.

These include:

Throttle

Boosters

Yaw

Pitch

Roll

Fire Primary

Fire Secondary

Fire Countermeasures

Targetting options

Once you have the controls configured, you need to learn to combine your motion. Not much different than driving a car or a bicycle at first. To start with, flying in a straight line is easy, but turning 180 degrees takes time, correct? It's like a long, sweeping highway turn. You simply can't turn quickly, so do as you would in a car -> slow down.

In the case of JtL, the *optimum* turn speed varies depending on your chassis. Experiment to see what works best for you.

Once you reach the apex of the turn, as you would in a car or a bike, accelerate. You will see your ship 'snap' out of the turn.

Want to turn even faster?

Slow down, and do the following all at once:

Turn right;

Climb;

Torque Right;

then Accelerate at the apex.

You should have turned much, much, more quickly. That is because you're turning on 3 axis, not just one.

Now, did notice that your ship seemed to slide when you tried to turn?

That's inertia. Things like to keep on doing what they're already doing. You might want to turn, but your ship doesn't. It's trying to keep going where it was going.

You need to account for this when you plan your turns, and it will apply more later as you gain skill. It can be used as a tactic all on its own.

You CAN however reduce it -- by applying extra force. So once you get *close* to the end of your turn, slap your Boosters on, and you'll have countered your inertia nicely. Very useful, those boosters.

You now have the *basic* principles of space flight!

Learning to fly your ship: Intermediate Techniques.

Alright, so you can fly your ship and turn quickly. What does that give you? Well, that's all there is to flying, when you get right down to it. Oh, there are advanced maneuvers like sliding rolls, barrel rolls, looped rolls, etc., but they are all a variation on a turn. Now you're going to learn how to apply some of these concepts in three dimensions.

Anticipation! OK, so, you see a ship and he's red and he's coming straight for you!! What to do!?

Well, don't panic! You have power in the form of knowledge.

You know he's going to shoot at you from head on.

You know he's going to try to turn faster than you to do it again.

You know if he can he'll try to get behind you and sit on your tail.

So what do you do about it? Well, first of all, your best defense is not to get hit. Make yourself a VERY difficult target.

This is best accomplished by a tight spiral.

To do this (practice on some stationary object first), you need to roll, turn, and lift all at once.

Preferably not 100% of any; more like 35-50% of each, except roll.

Basically, lift about half, right about half, and roll left about half. With an oncoming ship, he should be (relative to you) sitting about 1/2-way to one side or corner of your screen until you're almost ready to pass him.

Properly done, you can watch his laser shots fly by you one behind the other, a pretty lights display.

What's next? Well, you're already turning, so, when your opponent is nearly at the point of passing you, drop the throttle, reduce the roll, and turn to his tail. You have a strong advantage here - you're turning, he's not -- it's a guarantee it will take him longer to turn than it did you!

Once you are on his tail, it can get tricky.

He's going to try to shake you, so you need to make sure he can't.

AI is good for this. If you let him get too far ahead, he'll turn on you and you're right back where you started - nose to nose.

However, if you can get in close enough, fast enough, he won't. He'll just try to turn and hope you give up.

So how do you do that?

Well, the Boosters, to start, to make sure you get moving quick, but now we have to start thinking in 3D and not just *fly at something*.

If you fly towards the lead indicator right off, you are going to set yourself up for an intercept course - putting you ahead of him. Since he is already turning and partway turned towards you, you would then be making it EASIER for him to get away from you.

So, you need to choose a direction about 1/3 the distance between the leader and his ship -- BEHIND him.

By doing this, you're re-opening that 180 degree angle you want and making it impossible for him to turn on you. Anything he can do, so can you.

Once the distance and the angle are closed, creep up your nose at him until you're at the leader.

EASY, Gentle adjustments. Don't *jerk* at it. Just take your time and get a solid steady aim.

FIRE! Shoot that crosshair! You may have to adjust your exact location in the crosshairs, gently. If you're missing, STOP SHOOTING. Get a steady spot you think will hit and try again.

Notice where you miss: too far, close behind, off to one side, and adjust a little accordingly.

You'll find your sweet spot.

Remember, too, that while too close makes it very tough to land a hit, usually the closer the better. To me, optimum range is about 75 to 100 meters. For others they prefer to shoot from 150-200. Just be close enough he can't turn on you and you can find your own *sweet spot*.

Mutliple Targets!!!

Don't Panic!!!

Habitually, in a wing of 3 opponents, they will come at you as a wing, in formation, until after the pass.

So, the same spiral maneuver will save your forward shields, and the same rules apply for turning about.

What to do after you turn? Typically, one will break off to try to draw you - usually whichever you decided (or the auto-targetter did) to target first. Don't let him. Stick with the pair. As a matter of fact, take the leader of the pair.

Two in front that can't shoot you and one behind is far preferable to 1 in front and 2 shooting at your back.

DISABLE. One behind the other. The commands for that are [ and ] to target the engine or reactor.

Just disable them, then sweep out for the third.

If you feel you are in too tight of a spot, or the 2nd also breaks, you can always change targets.

Do not get glued on one target, if the others are behind you!

I can't stress that enough.

If the other targets are hitting you, then break off, unless you are sure you can handle it.

Break off, and execute some maneuvers. The Spiral will work just as well when the enemy is behind as it does when he's in front.

It will also let them catch up to you. Wonder why that's a good thing?

Because when they get close enough, you can execute the 180 degree turn you learned earlier twice in a row, and that will put them right in front of you.

Pick one, follow it, disable it, and move on to the next target.

Fighting in space can be much like a sport - you need to formulate a strategy, and adjust it as you go.

Sometimes there's overtime, just dig in and prepare for the ride.

Don't get caught in the single-leader trap. What that basically means is that while you are shooting at the ship in front of you, you are at your most vulnerable to that ship's wingmen. You are flying in HIS pattern, at HIS speed, in HIS turning arc. That means his wingmen can follow you exaclty and shoot you down very quickly.

That means you need to be aware of your opponents positions at all times! If you think they're setting up behind you, BREAK.

Set up a safety!

There is a thread somewhere here that has an excellent escape macro.

When all else fails... well... RUN!

There is, of course, much, much more to piloting than just this, but these are the basics.

Once you get comfortable with the above, you will find yourself suddenly duplicating maneuvers you see others do, or *inventing your own* (though there's not really much that's truly new, hehe) and having a great time of it.

Myself, I like to barrel roll out of a turn and slide in underneath them. I call it *dropping in un-invited*. I know it's not original, but it sure is fun!

I hope this helps at least some people who are finding JtL challenging.

Vets of flight sims, feel free to add anything you feel I've missed that's important, or a continuation of what I started.

Message edited by NarfBlinko on 04/04/2008 13:43:27.

OK I'm going to assume as you start reading this that you have already started down the path to Ace, or maybe even are an Ace, and are looking to improve your game.

If none of these things apply to you, then I strongly suggest you read the first post of this thread. I even re-read it now and then, it's a good reminder to get you refocused even if you know all the information to be found there.

So then, on to K.I.S.S., which doesn't stand for Keep It Simple, Stupid, not today anyway!

Knowledge

Idiocy

Stupidity

Supremacy!

Yeah I know, looks kind of dumb, but I hope it at least got a chuckle from you.

Before I start getting into specifics, let's break it down, shall we?

Knowledge:

Knowing from experience, and what you (hopefully) read, what to expect from an enemy or group of enemies, you are armed with the tools to get yourself killed. (What?! you say?) Yes, that's right, once you know it a few things happen:

1. You get overconfident and cocky.

2. You stop paying as close attention as you should.

3. You start to develop easily identifyable habits on par with the expected behavior.

4. You get surprised by the unexpected or a change in behavior.

Whoa! Am I being nice to you or what?! Okay, don't take it personally, (nearly) everyone does those things at some point or another.

So, unlearn what you have learned. You won't really forget of course, you catalogue things all the time and they become a part of your nervous system, so let your reflexes handle it and let it go.

Idiocy!!!!

Besides the idiocy of forgetting everything you know, well, how smart would you have to be to fly head-first into 24 NPCs in a cluster? Not a good idea, you say? We'll see about that. Being an all-out idiot can give you the upper hand in both PvP and PvE. More on that later.

Stupidity!!!

Yes, more of the same, except I mean it in a different way this time.

There's 2 kinds of stupidity you need to ID in 1/8th of a second or less: Yours and Theirs. Especially Theirs.

Now, that doesn't mean go calling some other pilot stupid. No, no, no, no!!! You should thank any pilot that does something stupid and maybe even apologize for blowing the snot out of their ship. They'll feel better and probably come back for more!

Your stupidity though, don't go beating yourself up over it, but DO make sure you go over it in your mind again and again and again, to see how you could either avoid repeating it, or turn it into Idiocy to make it work for you under different circumstances.

Supremacy!

Yeah, well, every halfway decent pilot has an ego the size of Dathomir, and though that's close to what I'm talking about that isn't what I mean.

You need to have a reasonable expectation of winning. Be excited enough to be aware and cautious, but expect to win enough to be cool and confident. Many pilots lose simply because they're intimidated. Have confidence in yourself, already! You can take 'em!!! COME ON!!

SHOW ME YOUR STUFF!!!

Alright, we've covered the new K.I.S.S. (no makeup?), so let's get to more specific details already.

RULE # 1 !:

Know thyself.

In this case, not only 'thyself' as in your habits, but 'thy ship' too. Each and every time you change ships, or equipment, you should be relearning her. She's your only ticket back to land alive, so you'd best be learning all her curves.

There are a couple of ways you can go about this before ever entering combat.

1. Generic Space Stations have a built-in obstacle course!

A tight fitting figure 8, this will teach you to control your ship, and learn how she's handling at different speeds. It'll also teach you a bit about accuracy, inertia, and how to overcome it.

The course goes like so:

Park right smack dab in front of the Docking Bay, in the middle of the U of the station. Pick a direction. Let's say left.

Now, so you know your course, go slowly the first time through.

See those uprights? Right. Go to the outside of the upright, hug it as close as you can and go around it. Once you turn that 2nd corner you'll find yourself facing the center of the U.

Don't Cheat!!! See that box/crate looking thing? See that narrow space between that and the upright? Yes, that's the one. You fit through there in any ship except maybe a POB. That's where you're going! Watch those walls! Bouncing around in there is frustrating!

Rinse/repeat on the other side, making the Figure 8. Do it as fast as you can, until you can do it without touching the walls at all.

2. Waypoint in Empty Space.

Set one and start playing with it. Approach from a certain angle, pass it, try to turn around and be heading straight for it, as quick as you can. Sounds easy, but I bet you are off more than you'd think you would be.

Circle it. Find your optimal speed for turning on 2 axis and figure out how to fly sideways!

Try to turn into it along the length and get right parallel with it as you pass through it. Learn about how much inertia your ship has.

Shoot at it immediately coming out of a turn. You'd be amazed how much inertia can throw your shots off. You're not always shooting where you think you are.

Alright, that should get you going on learning thyself.

Rule # 2 :

Know Thy Enemy.

Have we heard these rules somewhere before? They sound awefully familiar.

Well, anyway.

If you don't know what the enemy is capable of, PC or NPC, then you are in deep doo-doo. That's okay, you'll learn from your mistakes. In JtL you DO get a second chance if you lose, as many chances as you have the guts to take.

First, know the ships, know their threat level, and know what you're diving into before you do it.

Amazing how many people I've met up with in Deep Space who see a mixed escort cluster, target nearest, and dive right in, then get blown up 2 seconds later. Why? An A-Wing alone isn't dangerous. 6 A-Wings shooting your tail at once, plus a few B-Wings and maybe an X-Wing or 2, that hurts. Or maybe they forget to stay clear of the 2 hulking Corvettes the fighters were escorting in the first place, who knows?

They certainly don't or it wouldn't happen.

So know not just what SHIPS are dangerous, but what combinations are dangerous, and you're one step ahead.

Alright, those are the only 2 real rules. So where does that take us?

Strategy I suppose.

Now, you have to understand, the rest of this is just a guide, one man's experiences over a few years of space 'sims', and a few flight sims, what have you. In general they are global in their applicability.

En Masse!

Just you and 24 Enemies! What to do?!

Well. I've done more than 24 and come out with all armor intact, so it can be done. 5 Vette escorts at once, now THAT's entertainment!!!

Okay, so what's my secret?

Well, be idiotic, but don't be stupid. LOL!

On the approach target nearest enemy. See that HUGE cluster? Yeah. DIVE RIGHT IN, BEBEH!

Hit that Booster and spiral in as hard as you can. Potshot around the fringes if you want, it could save some shooting later, even if it's one shot that can mean 1 second.

Now as soon as you're passing that closest ship, hit the brakes and pull over (and up or down) HARD! And for God's sake, KEEP ROLLING!

They're probably ALL going to fly right past you. You'll take a hit or 2 sure, but geez, they're NPCs for crying out loud. It's not gonna kill ya.

Now, RETARGET closest enemy! Oh my, last guy in the pack is gonna get nailed first!! Whee!!

But pay attention! 3 B-Wings at the tail and closest breaks free, you go for the pair. Be an Opportunist! Take 2 instead of 1, please! More is better. The faster you can take out targets and start the next the better!

Now, the rest of them are going to do all kinds of sweeping around and start coming at you from all angles. That's fine. As long as you keep moving, you're doing ok. Remember in the previous post where I said "don't get caught in the "Follow the Leader" trap"? Good time to remember that.

Watch your radar. See anything starting to make a big red ball, break and start over.

And for goodness sake watch the incoming hits. If it starts to hurt, BREAK.

Did you do that, with the waypoint? If you did, then set optimal and turn a few circles flying sideways. That'll mess it all up and give you room to breathe.

And please, please, don't be scared to switch targets, and have "target under reticle" mapped!

Now, that sounds really simple doesn't it?

Well it is. A few simple things that are so easily overlooked. Being a great pilot might take skill, but a lot of it is just plain old guts.

No guts, No glory, as they say, and that's the PvE version of Supremacy.

What about PvP, Vid? How do I take out so-and-so in his super-blahblah setup ship with his lightning-fast reflexes?!

WELL, now that is a different story isn't it?

First of all, let me offend 3/4 of the PvP community right off the start:

IF YOU CAN'T PVE against 'IMPOSSIBLE' ODDS then YOU CAN'T PVP!!!

What? Everyone says they're completely different!!

Yes, they are different.

Those people are 100% on the money.

BUT

The skills you learn in PvE, so long as you aren't repetitive, are exactly the skill foundation you will need for PvP.

Juking, in smaller, lighter ships, for example.

Helix in heavier, less responsive ones.

Just remember that pre-planned tactics in 1v1 rarely end up in the other pilot dead. You need to be adaptable, and know how you need to move, react, or what any action you take will do to your position and vector. In 'longer' PvP it even becomes an issue of controlling how your enemy moves, by allowing him a window of least threat. Forcing an enemy where you want him means he's off balance and REacting instead of going on the offensive.

Remember that the real attributes of a great pilot are:

Creativity.

Control.

Reflexes.

Accuracy.

GUTS.

Situational Awareness.

The biggest difference in PvP (not talking game mechanics here, e.g. 1-shot killing) is unpredictability.

Yours and your opponent's.

You were stupid piloting once, we all were. You did something silly and got killed. For some of you maybe it was in another game a few years back, but you still did it. You learned from it and moved on, got past that hurdle.

Great!

But I sure hope you remembered it.

Here's a an example of a PvP encounter:

I fought an X-wing the other night in Deep Space. She was a great pilot; I saw her working a GB so I did a flyby on her windshield (she hadn't seen me coming, I don't want to be a ganker!) and came rushing back after she broke.

She rolled right out of my fire and immediately managed to get into a slide coming on my port flank.

GREAT maneuver!

Then she made a (few) mistake(s).

She overshot the aim and started to stop, waiting for me to fly into her fire.

I saw it coming.

I rolled and boosted for a half a second, then came to a stop of my own (well, down to 1/4 speed), causing my ship to totally *snap* the 90 degree turn, and I pelted her X-Wing with one, solid, decisive blow.

She'd already hit the boosters I think, but it was too little, too late.

From this situation she broke a few rules and didn't follow the new KISS:

1. She seemed flustered at being surprised, her nerves were less than steady on the stick.

2. She was still confident she knew what an Oppressor could (or could not) do and severely underestimated me.

3. She stopped. !? A still ship is a dead ship. Should have learned that at Tier 1. Idiocy rule?

Now this isn't meant to be insulting, and I left the pilot's name out for that very reason.

Believe it or not, GOOD PvP does exist, and it's not about "racking up kills", "ganking", or trash talking.

It is about challenging each other to make yourselves better. And then even better. And rising to a challenge.

Don't be scared to try though. She wasn't; she learned something.

I learned something from her too, so it was an even trade of knowledge.

Feel free to post any feedback (positive or negative), but please keep it constructive.

And as is normal, more tips and tricks are always welcome, as are questions.

Message edited by NarfBlinko on 04/04/2008 15:39:04.

Alright so I keep saying "know your ship", but what exactly does that entail?

Knowing her handling, her 'quirks', her limits, all of these things are significantly dependant on equipment.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there, and plenty of uninformed people who simply can't FIND the info they're looking for.

So then, I decided to write up a "breakdown" on the equipment, what it does, and what the stats mean.

Universal:

Armor:

This is damage the item can take before damage to it starts on "Hitpoints". Generally, incoming damage that passes through the shields and armor is evenly dispersed among your components, and the lowest Armor parts are affected first.

Higher is better.

HitPoints:

After armor of an item is gone, Hitpoints start next. These are dealt 100% damage, and your item will reduce performance in direct relationship to the amount of Hitpoints it has. If it had 100 and got hit for 50, it will work at 50% capability. At 0, the item is completely disabled.

Higher is better.

Reactor Energy Drain:

The amount of power the item draws from the Reactor.

While 1200 may not seem much more than 1100, with 8 items drawing power that adds up quick.

Lower is better.

Mass:

The mass of the object.

Less is better.

Item Specific:

Reactor:

Powerplant.

While "more power" may be better in theory, it is best to find a power level that is *just* over what you need. By keeping power to "adequate" instead of "exceptional" you can balance out your ship more easily by freeing up a little mass here.

Engine:

This is not just your speed, your engine controls (almost) all aspects of your ship's behavior. Turning, rolling, speed, everything you do that involves motion.

Pitch, Yaw, and Roll! These statistics are a vital part of your ship! Pitch is your up and down speed limit. Yaw is your side-to-side speed limit. Faster is better! From the other posts, and your experience so far, you should realise how important turning quickly is to your survival. Max Speed is quite self-explanatory.

These statistics will be modified in many chassis, but regardless, you'll need them as high as you can get them at any certification level.

Shield:

This is your first line of defense!

A rather important piece of equipment, your shield is what keeps you from exploding after a single hit. The stats on a shield to look for are Front hitpoints and Rear hitpoints, as well as Recharge Rate. Something to note: regardless of crafted or looted, different F/R (front and rear) numbers will equalize once fitted and launched to space. This was done to circumvent a bug/exploit which allowed people to create shields much stronger than they should be. So when shield-shopping, add the two stats and divide by two, that will be your f/r protection.

Recharge Rate:

Anything that says "Rate" is Units Per Second.

In the case of shields, that's XX Units per Second PER SIDE. If you have access to reinforcement programs, and you have 100% rear shields, but 20% front remaining, it would behoove you to even them out. You will recharge them in half the time.

Higher is obviously better for all 3 of these statistics.

Crafted Shields (done properly) are better than Straight-Looted shields, but not normally better than Reverse Engineered shields, and definitely not as good as the Reward Shields.

Armor:

Well, all the statistics for armor are in the universal, so suffice it to say that *most* Looted or Reverse Engineered Armor cannot measure up to Crafted. The advantage to crafted is that it can be custom made to almost any specific mass limitation and still offer better protection than most looted/RE'd, and can be duplicated over and over. Overall a well-balanced item between loot and crafted.

Capacitor:

The HEART of your weapons, pilots.

Without a cap you can't even fire a spitball, so you need to pay attention to this piece of equipment.

Recharge Rate, as with shields, is Units Per Second. Higher is better, much better.

If you are using a single weapon with .33 refire rate, and 25 energy drain, then you are taking 75 units of energy from your capacitor every second. With a recharge at 25, you're depleting your cap twice as fast as you are refilling it.

Capacitor Energy is how much total energy is stored for use by the weapons. Having as much as possible is also desireable, but rather secondary to Recharge Rate.

A cap with 25 recharge and 1000 energy won't do you much good in an extended fight (escort missions anyone?) where you're firing nearly constantly; but a 40 recharge on a 700 energy will allow you to fire again with only short pauses between targets.

Even Cert Level RE'd caps have the best Energy and Recharge, but Crafted Capacitors can have excellent Recharge, too, they just lack a bit in energy. The Collection Capacitors, while short on Armor/Hitpoints and long on Drain, also have excellent Energy levels with superior Recharge Rates.

Booster:

Now here's a fairly complex piece of equipment to do a fairly simple set of chores.

What's important on a booster is dependant on the pilot and the situation, so I'll try to address the roles a booster *should* play, and the properties that you need to fill them.

Role 1: Speed up your ship for intercept.

Getting targets down as quickly as possible is important many times, especially in certain missions. That means getting from the target you just destroyed or disabled to the next one as fast as you can. For this, "Burn Time" is probably most important, with "Booster Speed" being the next most important statistic. I'll explain where to get "Burn Time" from momentarily.

Role 2: Escaping The Enemy.

Sometimes it gets too hot, and you need breathing room. While in theory boosters should get you up to speed and out of range in no time, the fact is that it's rarely the case. Enemy fighters giving chase WILL catch you.

This is viable however against larger, slow-moving enemies, such as those pesky Shuttles, YT's, and most gunboats.

In a case like this, you definitely want Speed as your primary attribute, and Recharge Rate as the secondary. What good is a 35 speed enhancement if it takes 2 minutes before you can get decent burn again?

Role 3: Accelerating to Attack Speed.

By far the best use for a booster, it can be used to counter inertia and boost your acceleration out of a turn to unreasonable rates.

Getting turned around and behind an enemy is all fine and dandy, but if he puts 450 meters between you before you can get up to speed, you just wasted your talent. In this case, Acceleration is the most important statistic, with speed second, recharge rate is almost irrelevant, since you should only be boosting 2-3 seconds at a time, at most.

So how do you determine what stat combination you need?

Burn Time is a combination of Booster Energy, Booster Energy Consumption Rate, and Booster Recharge Rate.

More energy means more burn time; lower rate of consumption means more still, and higher recharge means yet more on top of that.

Remember that "rate" is units per second - consumption is "how fast does it eat the stored energy".

Acceleration is the only player-controlled acceleration factor in the game. All engine acceleration is dictated by the chassis at this time, so if you want to make that beast boat of yours get up to speed quickly, you will need a very high acceleration. Your ship will go from "zero to sixty" in no time flat.

Maximum Boost Speed is the unit that will increase your speed under boost; it's a straight addition to your current max velocity, and not affected by any overloads. So a 55 speed engine in a 1.0 chassis with a 25 speed booster will go 800 in space under boost, with no overloads running.

To cover "all the bases", Reverse Engineered boosters are the way to go. HOWEVER, they are guaranteed to have higher mass than a crafted booster, and probably more Reactor Energy Drain.

Crafted Boosters, when made with proper resources, can be custom tailored to fit any of the roles above, at lower mass and energy drain, and will perform more than adequately. Boosters simply "made" and thrown on a vendor probably won't fill your needs. For this part, I suggest talking to a master Shipwright and getting it custom made. This item is probably the best-balanced crafted item in the game.

Droid Interface:

So much confusion!

The only unique statistic is Droid Command Speed.

LOWER IS BETTER!

Droid Command Reset Time is determined by the Droid Command Speed, the type of program you are executing, and, in some cases, the level of that program.

Overloads reset in DCS / 4 seconds. Shield Adjust/Reinforce commands reset in DCS / 2 seconds. Cap to Shield Shunt resets in DCS seconds. [Note: These may be off and will be corrected after future testing.]

You can see where this can be a vital part of your ship.

If you are not using a droid interface and flight computer or droid, start.

Currently, crafted DI's are better than anything you can Loot or RE.

Weapon:

Now things are much simpler with weapons than some folks think, but certainly more complex than others realise.

There are 7 statistics on a weapon that are extremely important:

Reactor Energy Drain (RED)

Minimum Damage & Maximum Damage (simply listed as Damage: xxx - yyy)

Vs. Shields

Vs. Armor

Energy/Shot

Refire Rate

Now, just like the ground game, damage range is extremely important. Minimum damage is a stat all by itself, and so is max, keeping those numbers high is important for obvious reasons; closing the gap will let you hit more consistantly.

Vs. Shields and Vs. Armor:

These numbers are a flat-out percent damage of your hit that is dealt to either.

So, a typical crafted having .48 to .50 means it's doing 48-50% of the damage per hit, not much at all.

Getting these numbers as high as possible means dealing the most damage. Better to take a lower damage gun with 70% damage than a higher with only 48%.

In the case of multiple weapons, some people feel that going with manufactured ION and Disruptor combinations is the way to go. While this is valid while leveling, you can take a looted Ion (high Vs. Shields) and Disruptor (high Vs. Armor), drop them in the same RE job, and get a gun that does 65-80% damage on both statistics. With 2 such RE'd guns, you're doing double what the Ion/Disruptor combo is doing.

Energy / shot: Lower is better. This is how much energy each shot sucks out of your capacitor. With multiple weapons you can be looking at some serious drain to capacitor here. Review Capacitor ^.

Refire Rate: Lower numbers are better, as they mean more shots per second.

When using multiple weapons you will probably also want to try to match these as closely as possible, to give those first few hits serious impact.

Currently, Reverse Engineered weapons give you the most serious offensive power. Some raw, looted weapons have good damage stats, but none will, alone, cover "all the bases" as it were.

Crafted weapons are useful for leveling and beginner PvP loadouts, but your weapons are the first RE projects you should complete.

Missiles:

There are 5 kinds of missiles of different grades - and each has it's purpose.

Proton:

By far the most commonly used, yet probably the least useful of all missiles.

These do poor-to-mediocre damage (damage stats & mods are defined the same as for blasters), but are split equally between shields and armor, so they can be used against "anything". While useful in theory, the damage does not justify the cost. In the time it takes to lock and fire, then to do so little damage, you've only added one or 2 blaster hits to what you've dealt the enemy, for all intents and purposes.

Seismic:

These missiles are specifically designed to penetrate armor and/or reduce a chassis to spacedust. Excellent choice of missiles simply because you should be firing while you aquire lock, thereby reducing shields, once shields hit 50%, a hit with a seismic will do decent damage, possibly even the killshot.

Concussion:

Also a useful missile, especially in ships with more than one launcher slot, and against larger targets. Missile range is *slightly* higher than gun range, and you can sit behind a large target that is on a static course, and fire off con's to take out shields with little-to-no risk to your ship. These are also excellent for taking out subcomponents.

Image-Rec:

This is a lower-damage, faster-locking version of the Proton, meaning it does equal damage to shields and armor. These are the primary missile used in PvP, due to the fast lock time, and are favored by TIE Oppressor Pilots, since the 3 tubes makes up for the lower damage per missile.

SpaceBomb:

There are 2 levels of Spacebomb, one and two, and they are by far the most damaging missile in the game.

Excellent damage to both shields and armor, at level 2 they can easily be made to guarantee 1-hit kills to any fighter-class NPC.

The downsides: They're very expensive (to make), you typically get only 3 or 4 in a pack, and they take FOREVER to get a lock. However, an excellent use for missiles just the same - emergency damage-dealer when you're in over your head to bring the odds into your favor.

Counter Measures:

Use a Level 1 Chaff Launcher. The Chaff is equally effective against all missiles and higher-level Countermeasures are no more effective, so you are just wasting mass and energy running them.

That about sums it up for the equipment. Putting it all together in the best balance is something you will need to work out for yourself, depending on your flying style, skill, ship, and what you find most important or effective.

Feel free to ask any questions if I missed something or was unclear.

Message edited by NarfBlinko on 04/04/2008 16:25:27.

Alright.

You've (hopefully) read Part 1, got the basics.

Then you read Know Your Ship, and got a better understanding of what it was you are jockeying up there.

After that you read K.I.S.S., and improved your "ballsyness" and stopped being such a target.

Now you're still having trouble, and don't know what to do to get better.

This thread isn't going to coddle you.

This thread isn't going to be gentle and tell you "in a nice way" how to get something done.

This thread is going to assume you practice maneuvers already advised.

This thread is going to be direct and up-front in calling you on oversights, shortcomings, or plain foolishness.

But I'll try not to be rude.

So then, let's start, shall we?

Before you even launch!

You threw together your ship did you?

I really hope you built it around an appropriate engine.

Listen to me very very carefully:

Your engine is the heart of your ship. That is the ONE component that is defensive and offensive, and will give you the edge in both PVE and PVP.

It is more important than the chassis itself, when you get right down to it. You can overcome any chassis' limitations with the right engine, and if you put your reward Cert6 in a ship that has 150k+ mass allowance, you've already given away your strongest advantage.

That being said:

If you're using a crafted engine.... stop reading now.

As a matter of fact, stop flying altogether.

Until you get yourself a great PYR, I can't help you get better, nobody can.

Know your needs folks... a light fighter can take a light engine and still be superior, but a heavy ship is going to be a slow-moving hulk of metal to all hostiles, just begging to be shot out of the sky... and you can put the biggest guns on her you want, if you can't track long enough for a solid set of hits, you may as well sell them to the Chassis Dealer for the bunch of scrap they'll become after the AP are down to 1.

Moving Right Along:

Maneuvers, part 1:

Maneuvers! What the hell is Vid talking about when he says that?

Right. Well.

Look folks, maneuvers are not normally given complex names. In Aerial combat there are a few "named" maneuvers, and that's great for airplanes, but listen:

These are not airplanes!

I can't seem to stress that enough. People are still thinking, even after ace, that there's some kind of correlation between Space Flight and Air Flight. There's NOT! STOP thinking that! Self-defeatist thoughts, BEGONE!

There is WAY more in common between Space Flight and a Cigarette Boat than there is to a F-18!!! OK?!

Right. I did say I would be direct, didn't I? I can't get more direct than that without getting downright rude.

Stop thinking of your craft like a plane. It's not, and never will be.

"Twitch" based indeed.

The key to winning in "twitch" is not how you react, but what you thought (or didn't) at the time you chose that action.

So if you're thinking this is an airplane you will lose to people like me everytime, and the AI will constantly keep you guessing.

Maneuvers, part 2:

If you don't know before you finish a turn/maneuver where your enemy is going to be, then you:

Aren't thinking.

Don't understand what you're doing, you're just doing it without forethought or understanding.

Don't understand vectors and relationships

Forgot that your target is moving too.

Think too much.

Think the wrong things.

All of the above.

Wow what a list! And I'm putting it right on you, too, aren't I?

Yes well, them's the breaks.

Listen, if you don't understand what your ship is doing when you do it, (I don't mean "i noticed a slide blah blah"... I mean really understand, and know it as second nature), then go back to the first part of K.I.S.S. and practice flying your ship around static objects and waypoints for a few more hours. Seriously. Use boosters sometimes, other times not; try at different speeds; try shooting through the center of a waypoint "from the hip" (start at it, fly out 450-500m, whip around and fire!)... whatever you need to do, do it. If you don't understand where you're at and how you're moving in space at every single moment, then you are like a 3-year old trying to drive a car. You might make it out the driveway, but sooner than later you're going to meet disaster.

"But, there were 4 A-Wings flying sideways and shooting me in the front the whole time!"

Oh geez. Dude/Ma'am, no insult intended, but if you managed to get this far and don't understand how that's done, or can't do it yourself in any ship.... you had a lot of help reaching ace/master. Like Seriously. Again, go back to basics, or KISS techniques, and come back when you're ready.

-NOTE:-

I have seen several instances of the AI doing completely impossible things (X-Wing flying backwards while I was at a standstill and still firing on me for example), but these instances are fairly rare, and they seem to be becoming even more rare as time goes on. Where this is the case, just laugh a bit, because a target that's flying backwards is very easy to kill.

-end Note-

At any rate you have a serious advantage over those sideways-flyers, if you understand what they're doing:

You know exactly where they're going when you break past them. Which is to say, behind you and facing away from you if you boost straight, and on your flank of choice and facing opposite if you roll out, or on your flank and perpendicular if you do the opposite of what they're doing. In either case, entering a perpetuating circle gives control to the target being circled. Remember that sentence. You're going to need it in the future. PvE and PvP - there's no difference. So long as the target is aware, the craft in the most danger at any given time is the craft with the most control of the situation.

"But what does all that mean, and what does it have to do with 'maneuvers'?"

Glad you asked. Actually, no I'm not. You should understand that from what was said, but for those of you who are just reaching this plateau, it's a good question to ask.

A "maneuver" is a set of chained actions resulting in a desired direction and vector.

"HUH?!"

Example:

Turn left, hold and pitch up while rolling right, at 360 degrees straighten all & slighlty adjust vector ------> You just did a Barrel Roll.

Several instances of actions combined to create a single "maneuver" ...................... when properly executed.

Sadly, I know many pilots who still can't do a barrel roll. Yet they wear an Ace tag. *sigh*.

I'm going to try to stay away from those Air-Flight terms in the future though, since:

1. They aren't performed the same as in the air, and

2. I'm trying to discourage comparison to air-flight, not encourage it.

So what does it all mean?

It means situational awareness. You've seen the term thrown about here and there on the forums already, but to be truly aware, you need to understand what YOU are doing, as well as what any ships around you are doing, or are capable of doing.

Note that I sometimes use the word "Know" and other times "Understand". These are not interchangeable terms, ok? "Knowing" means something you think on that instant and your thinking is correct, because it is based on "understanding" your situation and all its nuances.

These words combined are what give the top pilots their edge. Not the equipment, not the ship, and certainly not just "balls".

Situational Awareness means "taking it all in at a glance"... without the need to think about anything or reason it out, you can glance at the 20+ blips on your radar, use your peripheral vision on what's in front of you, and a thousand miniscule clicks of information you gathered in the last second without thought to know without thinking what to do next.

I watched a friend of mine in Deep Space (a good and talented pilot I might add!) get blown to shreds in about 3 seconds because he didn't "register" the 6 gunboats --- or his position relative to them --- while chasing down an A-Wing, and he pot-shotted one in over-fire from the top. DUH! He asked for it... he got it. What you don't know, in this case, will hurt you... to the tune of 100 BF and HAM wounds.

Focus on what you're doing.

Almost everytime I've taken more than shield hits is sometime when my wife or someone was distracting me, reducing my attention from 100% on what I was doing... be it in-game or IRL, distractions will get you hurt. So, if you're trying to chit-chat and work pilot in a risky situation at the same time... I hope you have at least 1 hyperspace macro to get you out of dodge so you can get back to it when you have the time. Piloting is not a half-baked effort you can run a Macro for and split your time. "DO, or DO NOT". *credit: Yoda*.

Now, let's get a little more specific.

Yeah, specifics...

That IS a tough one isn't it?

Here's the deal:

If you already have an understanding of all of the above, I'm wasting my breath on specifics. You don't need them, because you already know where you're going and where he's going, and the best way to make your fire close the distance.

If you don't have that understanding, I'm probably going to confuse the *^&%!! out of you by going into nitty-gritty examples and specifics, so that would defeat the purpose.

There are a few of you out there, though, that are right on the edge of grasping all this.

I never said much specifically but I've given you a million things to digest already, and you're just sitting in space with your mind whirling, just missing the point, almost getting the bead you wanted, just about seeing the target where you wanted/expected it....

For you:

You're about to blow Gun4 on the corvette, and the mother starts rolling and pitching like mad!

OH NO!

Well, if that was your first thought, cut your engines and let her shoot you.

If on the other hand you thought "Now which way to the objective", /salute.

BIG GUNS can't aim, ok? Rolling target means even worse aim. Just keep calm, you can absorb at least one hit I hope... now double-helix in the opposite direction the 'vette rolls... you know what I mean? Yaw left, Roll Right, some pitch, straighten out and bring it down... yeah you just did two loops flying over and around the Z axis of the 'vette at a fair but not fast speed, and you didn't even get hit... and now you either

1. See the gun you're after in firing range or

2. over/undershot your mark and are on the wrong side... so rinse/repeat. It really isn't complicated.

This is a big-arzed peice of space-scrap that you can easily fly about without ever taking more than a single hit from at a time, provided you continuously change your vector --- and you never need to hold steady long enough to aim at a single spot more than 1 or 2 seconds. Fear will kill you hear, and so will getting over excited. Just follow the logic...

I've done this in Deep Space around 3 'vettes plus full escorts within firing range (theirs, not mine necessarily!) and flown away with only shield damage after destroying my objective. NPC's aren't much better than the 'vettes are for aim, if you keep moving on all your axis'.

Don't be so scared to break!

OMG, I've seen people get blown to shreds chasing a single A-Wing after tapping it a few times, determined to take it out!

D00D!! OMG! You're Dense!

Always know the area of greatest threat, and break it up. Dive straight through any/all concentrations, remember? BALLS. Dive through and pot-shot where needed, but make it split. That target you already tagged... don't worry. It's going to keep coming at you and sooner or later you'll pop it... probably with less difficulty than when you were letting it lead you around by the nose like some lost sheep.

I swear I said this before too but:

Be an Opportunist!

GAH you're chasing down an A-Wing and passing 2 Y-Wings in perfect position... switch! Take the 2 Y-Wings! Reduce incoming damage and hostiles at every opportunity. If you don't have the ability to shoot a target on sight, at least have "Target Under Reticle" very, very close to hand, and use it!!!!

Be aware of what's shooting at you, and what you can handle.

Firing on a B-Wing with 6+ blinking red blips behind you can be risky, but worth it... but here:

IF you know what your ship can do, you can easily boost a deep loop and come back 360 behind your target, parralel to whoever was shooting you from behind, thus destroying their trajectories and maintaining your viable target.

Result: Target destroyed, Shields Saved, additional targets controlled and disbanded.

The shortest distance between 2 points is NOT a straight line!

I can see you saying "what?!" already.

Yeah well, it isn't, if you want to stay alive. The shortest distance between you and the nearest station is a straight line anywhere there are hostiles.

Roll... Roll and Yaw... Yaw... Pitch and Roll... Pitch, yaw and Roll...

See? Dropping in from above/below and left/right... think like a boat! Always always in space you are turning. Use that to your advantage, don't ever try to b-line anything. Learn to "drop" in, from more than one axis. Interception usually means following an unlikely path to the ideal path slowly - and minimizes your target profile.

This also gives you the advantage of reducing - seriously reducing - the need to go from one extreme of motion to another. If you're rolling left, pitching up, and yawing right, yawing left from there will completely alter your direction... if only pitch and yaw, you need to change both to get a similar effect, which takes time, and increases your target profile while your ship stutters against the broken inertia.

Take Your Time! Don't be impatient, instead follow the most likely path at any given time to a more likely strike.

PREDICT!

Oncoming targets.. geez, what do YOU think they're gonna do? Um, they've gotta turn at some point, but before that they need to get past you. The target thinks you're going to keep coming, else it wouldn't be charging at you... so... don't. Slow down at the right time to turn into the coming turn of the target.

BOOST! GAH!

The #1 important stat on a booster is acceleration. This is the one piece of equipment that can get you out of a turn and into the targets wash 100m behind before it has any chance to get out of your vector range... strongly suggest crafted boosters for this, but whatever, just use the tools you have!

IF YOU GET DISORIENTED!

Watch your blaster fire!

#1 Guide to re-orientation! It will give you exact information you need to tell you where and how you are drifting, allowing you to re-orient yourself to what is and is not a straight line! Don't get too far ahead of yourself doing crazy loops and twists, if you don't know where you started from, you may end up going straight to the next starbase.

What Were You Thinking!?

"I was fighting a guy and he was got me stuck in a loop flying sideways! When I tried to break he nailed me!"

Yeah, I would to, most cases.

The reason so many PvP encounters that are on equal footing when they start end up in long loop-sessions is because pilots don't know how to get control of a situation. Breaking without becoming a target is the #1 skill to being an excellent PvPer in any situation where it's equal footing at the start and not a 1-shot kill situation.

You broke off, sure... how? Just picked a moment and boosted straight did you? Turned in the opposite direction? What?

If you can't see at least a 30 degree angle on your enemy, breaking off in any direction is probably a bad idea. If you can, and you could, and you still got shot, you obviously went the wrong way.

How To Break:

ROLL IS YOUR FRIEND!

Did I say already that a straight line is the quickest path to the nearest starport? Thought so. Yeah well, you need to remember that.

Now...

There are 2 ideal scenarios for breaking out, but both involve knowing your enemy and your risk.

1. When your target has you at your worst position:

Boost TO him and past, rolling in the direction opposing his, to place you behind his ship, or at worst, in 2 seconds he can get re-oriented.

TWO SECONDS is a LONG TIME in PvP... and if you're moving in any 1 slot for more than that, you'll get shot. After 2 seconds, break and come back, keep putting on the pressure.

2. When your target is at his least likely firing position, but you are at close to your best

Break off and roll/yaw into his wash, then reverse yaw OR pitch - remember to track him on the radar. Closer to the outside may be closer to center for you but also probably means he's already turned.

Again, 2-second rule... switch out and come back. There's only room for one error at most in PvP.

Don't ever show your belly!

You know and I know your tendency is to pitch UP, and if I see your bellypan you're dead. Period. The ONLY way out of a situation where you show me your belly is to go past all instinct and pitch DOWN... which may be fine in theory but pulling it off still leaves you exposed to my guns for a solid second.. plenty of time to blow a hole in ya... else your next trajectory puts you flat into my line of fire.

Just don't do it.

Last thing for now... don't ever head straight at a target. Not unless you can see his burners full-on. Otherwise, trust your radar.... you don't need to see a target reading over 500m out to know where it is in relation to you... your radar tells you it's that way xxx meters. Act accordingly.

Feel free to ask any questions you want here, but be warned that as posted above, this thread is not about coddling or coaching, this is a full-out "here's your failure" thread.

Also note that different flight styles will yeild different answers to certain situations, so heated debates are very well possible... debates are welcome. Arguments are not. Keep your temper in check, and we'll get everyone flying in true Ace style sooner or later...

Lastly, some of you just don't have what it takes to be good at this.

Sorry, but it's true.

For you, know where your limit lies and don't chase it down further than you can follow.

Enjoy the aspects of JtL you can, and don't go overt.

Away we go....

Message edited by NarfBlinko on 02/17/2007 19:02:40.