No point in getting good in flying :((

[taraluga]

So I was practicing for a few days and got really good at flying the aircraft.

Then I started practicing to fire and kill targets.
To my surprise it took ridiculously long to kill just about anything.
I tried upgrading the guns which did not really make much of a difference.

Then, a bit annoyed, I landed my Schyte, exited and started shooting at it with my basic light-assault gun.
I destroyed the Schyte in seconds.

Am I missing something here, or is aircraft ridiculously imbalanced, given the amount of effort it takes to actually be able to fly??

[Reithan]

ESF are basically made of paper...but it's really FAST paper... so...

[Wahooo]

Part of being good at flying is being able to hit stuff before it sees you, or being able to fly in such a way you can still land rounds on target while taking minimal damage.

I'm not a good pilot, BUT I like to shoot at them, and have to say if it is taking you a ridiculously long time to kill anything besides a sundy or MBT you are doing it wrong.

[Selerox]

Not to be funny or anything but saying "You're doing it wrong" is hardly helpful...

[Methonius]

Attack tanks from the rear with rocket pods. You can kill them twice as fast.

[PredatorFour]

Keep at it, it took more than a few days for me to get decent at flying. It takes time and you can't instantly be good at it.

[Taramafor]

You can never be good at it with keyboard and mouse it seems. A joystick would get in the way with me and there's no way I'm ever using a gamepad. And you can't aim with the mouse. Up and down but not side to side (unless I'm missing it in options?). Seriously, just set it so the craft rolls a bit when you aim sideways and let me use keys to compensate for the rolling. I'd aim a lot better that way.

[PredatorFour]

You really can fly well and kill lots of things with keyboard and mouse. Like i said, it takes time:)

[Reithan]

TBH, even though I know Keyboard/Mouse is how most of the 'ace' pilots fly, there's a lot to be said for not being able to swap from roll/yaw on mouse/keyboard to it being keyboard/mouse.

In a PERFECT world, I'd like to be able to make it so JUST when I'm zoomed/scope in while flying, it inverts yaw/roll to be mouse/keyboard so I can aim with just the mouse. That would make me so happy. [/Butters]

[Wahooo]

Not to be funny or anything but saying "You're doing it wrong" is hardly helpful...

Yeah, it is. If I could say how to do it right I probably would, I just know it is possible from getting ROFLPWNed by good pilots. The TTK of rocketpods vs a skyguard is still silly. And the ability to pick and choose when to fight ground troops is more in the favor of the pilot. Coming from a weird angle and taking a lighting to half health with a nose gun and flying away before they can even get a bead on you then coming back to finish them off while taking minimal damage. Its possible. Not by me but I've been on the receiving end of it enough to know some pilots can cause a lot of damage and just not take that much in return, enough so that it seems strafing and reverse maneuvers glitch flak to not explode.

[Taramafor]

You really can fly well and kill lots of things with keyboard and mouse. Like i said, it takes time:)

Without rockets? Flying a default mos is no fun when trying to line up shots against infantry.

[Reithan]

Without rockets? Flying a default mos is no fun when trying to line up shots against infantry.

Nope. Still fun.
http://youtu.be/8bUfQoIBrrY

[Varsam]

It takes a lot of time to master, but flying in this game is one of the most enjoyable experiences to be had. Don't give up - once you get there, you won't regret it.

Also - there is no real need for weapon upgrades (except maybe rotary mag upgrade). You should be concentrating on frame, defense, and utility upgrades instead. Honestly, you don't even need rocket pods or A2AM, most experienced pilots these days fly with AB fuel tanks. It allows you to get out of sticky situations, which is the real skill you should be focusing on developing - not getting into those.

No need to target infantry when 1 ESF kill > 5 infantry kills.

Yeah, it is. If I could say how to do it right I probably would, I just know it is possible from getting ROFLPWNed by good pilots. The TTK of rocketpods vs a skyguard is still silly. And the ability to pick and choose when to fight ground troops is more in the favor of the pilot. Coming from a weird angle and taking a lighting to half health with a nose gun and flying away before they can even get a bead on you then coming back to finish them off while taking minimal damage. Its possible. Not by me but I've been on the receiving end of it enough to know some pilots can cause a lot of damage and just not take that much in return, enough so that it seems strafing and reverse maneuvers glitch flak to not explode.

You should've said that then, instead of essentially saying, "L2P".

[Obstruction]

i think in this case L2P itself is a valid answer. the tenor of the thread, and the immediate reaction frpm those of us for whom it has taken hundreds of hours justifies it. it is important to note that because of this it is not an insult intended to belittle or question the ability or authority of the OP, in the manner of "do you even lift?"

if someone is trying to learn to skate or surf, and they are not controlling their center of gravity, they will be unable to stay on the board and fall. they are the definition of not doing it right, or in this case doing it wrong. they need to understand that before anything else can be taught.

just because a particular answer is cliche to the point of being a meme does not make it invalid under all circumstances.

that said, OP needs to spend more time flying against live targets and remember that you don't always have to kill everything you shoot at. most of the time fixation on a particular target will lead to over-extension and death.

if i were the OP i would save certs from some other method of earning them; for example playing medic can be very lucrative. then i would invest those certs into my ESF timer up to about the 200 cert rank (i think rank 7?) after that i would pull that ESF and fly it as much as i could against live targets, all the while upgrading the ammo on the rotary, nanites, and flares. airframe can come later, again probably earned from other avenues of cert income.

i'd also recommend watching some twitch streams from the really good pilots out there. the first one i recommend is NoXousX from Connery's Future Crew. you can learn a lot watching him fly, among others.

[camycamera]

you have just gotta make sure that you land ALL of your shots onto the target, especially on ESFs. either that, or get lolpods or A2A missles.

[KesTro]

Learn to lead you targets. I don't know if scythes have bullet drop for their rotary or if you're even using you're rotary. If you aren't that is your problem. Then again I could be wrong, I know a lot of scythes users prefer the default gun for sniping infantry. Someone correct me if you can. Either way learning to lead your target is what is going to save you and in general just becoming familiar with how your guns on the scythe behave.

[snafus]

Issue with Planet Side is that the potential for aircraft effectiveness used to be very high. Back at launch pilots could obliterate ground combatants, but we still took heavy losses our selves. Now pilots being the master race of PS2 naturally learned to seek out easier kills that don't pew pew back as much. And thus we farmed "bad" infantry players to the point that many players quit or acquired a deep rooted hatred for the skill based aspect of the game.

Then followed a grand campaign on forum side that lead to the continued nerfing of all vehicles, aircraft in particular. This great crusade of butt hurt bad ground players continue to this day praying that the ESF or LIB may never reach its old status of awesomeness. For these sad reasons we video game pilots must still outperform ground pounders with great feats of skill and E-courage. With our majestic space stallions nerfed to the degree even COD kiddies can find appealing we have learned to persevere. It isn't easy and requires hundreds of hours to reach even the title of "good" pilot. But with patience and the acceptance you will die an ungodly amount to broken game mechanics or OP AA systems then I think you will do just fine.

[Reithan]

With our majestic space stallions nerfed to the degree even COD kiddies can find appealing we have learned to persevere.

You had me until this part.

How would nerfing them make them more appealing?

Other than that - spot on. :P

[snafus]

You had me until this part.

How would nerfing them make them more appealing?

Other than that - spot on. :P

SOE had to bring us down a couple notches to make the game more fun for the supposed oppressed peasants.

[Reithan]

SOE had to bring us down a couple notches to make the game more fun for the supposed oppressed peasants.

But that would make infantry more appealing, not ESFs... *brainhurt*

[snafus]

But that would make infantry more appealing, not ESFs... *brainhurt*

That is the point, they are the larger player base that needs to be made happy. The smaller player base that makes the pilots are not a priority.

[Reithan]

Why can't we all just get along? :P

[Wahooo]

Why can't we all just get along? :P

Because everything one side uses is obviously the right way to play and requires skill to use effectively and whatever the other side uses is cheap and OP.

Why there must be "sides" I dunno.

[PredatorFour]

Learn to lead you targets. I don't know if scythes have bullet drop for their rotary or if you're even using you're rotary. If you aren't that is your problem. Then again I could be wrong, I know a lot of scythes users prefer the default gun for sniping infantry. Someone correct me if you can. Either way learning to lead your target is what is going to save you and in general just becoming familiar with how your guns on the scythe behave.

Turbo laser is a BEAST for killing infantry so yes, get a rotary asap would be my advice:) I would say get pods too. A lot of pilots use AB and rotary but you can still take them on with the 'all rounder' set up. Getting pods will get you more XP quicker.

Learn to shoot infantry with rotary. You can do this in the warpgate free from harm, practising on friendlies. I use thermal vision on both rotary and pods and it does help a lot especially with sniping troops with the turbo laser from quite far away (like when they sit on bio lab pads)

Getting the dogfighting frame will help you shooting infantry and ESFs with rotary. A lot of flyers use Hover airframe for doing outrageous moves in dogfights but you can do this with dogfighting if you want just not to the same extent. When you go up against some hover pilot doing these moves it is important to get to grips leading them as they move, this again takes experience so you have to be patient. Also keep moving side to side, make yourself as hard to hit as possible as you chase after them.

Upgrade the composite armour asap too and grab flares.

So you have a long way to go to get the certs to do all this but it is worth it. Try to keep within friendly lines and always be backed up by other scythes. A guy called Daddy who is the number 1 in the whole game does this. He flys his mossie(where there is normally around 50 % tr pop on the cont) within a big TR force and farms noobs. It is much safer with strength in numbers afterall.

[SolLeks]

For a loadout, get the rotay (in your scythe's case, the hailstorm) and keep your AB fuel pods for now, switch to rockets if you get good with the rotary and want to focus on A2G (but get your rotary skills up first). the frame you choose is 100% preference, all 3 frames have their place. get flares because lockons and for a defensive slot, either go stealth or nanites (I run nanites).

Next, if you have a good handle on flying and 'choppering around' (IE using hover mode to move yourself as if you are a chopper) then learn the reverse maneuver (youtube it, many many good videos. I suggest anything from spadarfaar).

After you can use that fairly well (I suggest 2 hours of practice) then get your situational awareness up. A good headset with surround sound is a must as that will be your main indicator of where the enemy is in a tight dogfight, Learn the enemy's engine sounds and weapon sounds (so in your case, the reaver's engine and mossies' engin / weapons). After you have a decent grasp on that (should not take to long if you play a lot of FPS games and use footsteps to find people) then you can go into combat and win most of your fights. It will take a wile to get your lead down but the good thing is the scythe is fairly forgiving on that end (not as much as the mossie though).

All aircraft will die in one magazine from your rotary, assuming you hit all rounds. the same is with you, you will die if hit with an entire magazine from any other aircraft. infantry take 2 to 3 hits to kill, and tanks take about 2 to 3 mags to kill depending on where you hit.

Last bit of advice, talk to enemy pilots who kill you, /w them "good fight" and often they will whisper back, most pilots, even more so the aces, will talk with you if you killed them or you got killed by them. And find a good scythe pilot on your server (can figure out the name by asking skilled pilots who killed you if there are any scythes that they fear, often times pilots will know a lot of other pilots on the server, my friends list is almost entirely enemy pilots lol).

It can be good to watch videos of other pilots as well, they can give you ideas on how to kill and dodge better.

Vortek Chronicles - YouTube

shameless video plug =) but I think the wall of text justifies it xD

[Zadexin]

Nope. Still fun.
http://youtu.be/8bUfQoIBrrY

Nice video.

I gotta say I envy you pilot guys a little bit. PS2 looks incredible from the air. I have never been able to able to really get the hang of flying with mouse and keyboard.