Dogfighting

[Maninthealley]

I'm not in beta, but can you dogfight in reavers and mosquitos? I want to be a reaver pilot and I want to know if they are for ground assault or air superiority, or both.

[cgreene415]

I can confirm there is dog fighting ...but Im not in beta so I dont know about the superiority

[AztecWarrior]

Yes. I waste aircraft all the time when I see them while I'm attacking ground troops.*

*applies only when the aforementioned aircraft does not fly near a base or forest, causing Aztec's 256 RAM and GF3 to max out, in which case the aforementioned aircraft escapes.

[Maninthealley]

Are the reavers good anti-infantry weapons? Are they better than MAX's? Are they easily damaged by infantry fire?

[AztecWarrior]

They are pretty good against infantry, but tanks are better. An individual does little damage to a Reaver, but a few troops put together, maybe a little SAM launchers, can hold off a Reaver.

[Maninthealley]

Is an anti-infantry MAX a better infantry killer than a reaver? Does an anti-infantry MAX have a lot of armor compared to someone in reinforced armor?

[AztecWarrior]

1: It all depends, but probably. Reavers are more geared towards anti-vehicular combat. Just passing by at high speeds, guns blazing, drives away the infantry, though.

2: The MAX has 650 armor, I think. Reinforced is 150. :whip:

[Maninthealley]

Thank you so much. :)

[Timormi]

I'm a reaver pilot/hacker/med assault in beta. I was on Esamir heading towards my squad to prove cover, when I saw and enemy sunderer pinning down a couple of friendlies. So I hovered, switched to missles, a fired 5/6 follies ( 1 missles each) at the sunderer. That took about 3/5 of its health, but I could not finish it off because the weapons lock signature came up and I had to afterburn away from the missle. The sunderer's heavy guns did barely 1/3 damage to me, more like 1/4. So its a good anti-ground unit, but I have not used it in a dog fight, which i really wanna do!:D

[Warborn]

Originally posted by Maninthealley
Is an anti-infantry MAX a better infantry killer than a reaver?

In virtually all situations, yes, they'll gun down infantry like nothing at close range, barring any heavy anti-armor weapons being present.

Does an anti-infantry MAX have a lot of armor compared to someone in reinforced armor?

/ramble

Yes, MAXs are also a different class of target. To explain, different things in PS react differently to attacks. An anti-vehicular MAX will damage a vehicle pretty well, but against infantry they'll destroy their armor before going to health, making them relatively slow infantry killers. Now, that said, MAXs do have 650 armor, but they also react much differently to attacks than Reinforced. With MAXs, their armor has to be depleted before their health takes hits, and they're very resistant to non-armor piercing rounds. With Reinforced, your health goes down from the start. You usually end up dead in Reinforced with ~60 armor left. MAXs are also much more vulnerable to anti-armor weapons than Reinforced is. So, against anti-vehicular weapons, MAXs tend to die pretty quickly, whereas a guy in Reinforced will probably die in equal number of hits, but actually has a chance of dodging the missile too.

[Harps]

well said warborn

With the dogfighting .. i really dont think its like getting position on each other like bf1942 its more of who sees who first..

yah they are a very good anti inf.

if they can catch a max offguard they can take him down pretty fast with missles

[Seer]

Reavers are good against mosquitos, but a skilled mosquito can easily get the best of an enemy reaver if they have the initiative. Air to Air, I'd say the reaver and mosquito are about equal.

[Streamline]

If you bother a skeeter to much he can just leave ya.
Other reavers however cannot. Flying is lack luster imo. As for the reaver. It's up and down is too slow. Lateral movement, slow. Turn speed, slow. Top cruising speed, slow. Rockets? Slow and weak. AA MAX ordinance travels faster then reaver rockets. Armor? does it matter? against all teh AA, which i wouldnt say is over powered. But the reaver and skeeter both are getting ripped here.

Not 2 mention you can't hardly land the things anywhere.
Plus all the stupid shit to take damage for. It is almost as if the flyers rode on track that where being put in place by you controling where it goes. Stupid shit can derail it so to speak. Buildings and trees have wierd interactions at slow non-lethal speeds and landing. See here: http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=125191#post125191

As much as it pisses me off. It's still my favorite vehicle in the game.

[Sputty]

Rockets are good against whgat they're supposed to be good at. Killing vehicles. Mosquito tears through infantry. Also, Reaver is slow for a reason. If it was too fast then it would be massively unbalanced. Land on a landing pad or road or just find some flat ground. You have after burners to run and AA MAXes can be taken down quickly by a barrage or Reaver rockets.

[BeerJedi]

reavers are nothing more than striker snacks. They are really good at anti vehicular combat, but a good foot soldier with an AV (at least vanu and TR) will shootdown that reaver long before the reaver can do anything about him.

I've logged in over 40 reaver kills, and climbing.

I've got a nice and mean trick with the striker, and if i'm shooting at you, if you don't immediately bug out, you're going to get shot down.

[DarkDragon00]

Im glad im on ur side! Shit, too many peeps have AV now, making it a lil' harder for me to countinue owning the skiez if the skiez ain't flyable!

AV are the only peeps that kill me in the sky, no MAX or Vech can take me!

They should add countermeasures and Pluralize missle lock (s). It tells u about the first one, but it forgets to mention the 50 others :)

[Happy lil Elf]

No three is no dogfighting. There is hover around in circles while holding down the trigger. Don't mind me, just hate the flight engine a little...ok, a lot.

[Freedon]

The flight engine is not as good as it could be. Planes can not fly upside down or anything like that. So you are restricted in that way. It looks like they used the same engine for vehicles and air craft so you have the same limitations.

I still am impressed by the player who flew through the front gate at top speed though.

[Happy lil Elf]

It's not so much the fact I can't to loops or anything as much as it is the control just doesn't feel smooth. Hard to explain but it just feels really jerky to me /shrug

[Virtuoso]

I can safely say, after a few hours of flying the other night, that the flight engine in PlanetSide is sorely lacking. They need to do a few things to make it easier to use and more realistic.

-Virt

[MrVulcan]

I dont know, I like the flight system, thought I would hate it, but I actually like it. I have had some very sweet dog fights flying over clifs, under bridges, through trees, through bases, etc.... If you are good, you can make a mos do some very cool things. Sure, there is not inverted flight, loops, etc, but you can still do quite a bit from just raise lower hight and tilt/fly combos with boost on the side...

It is not dogfighting like planes, more like dog fighting with choppers, not quite the moves, but you can still do some sweet things at those very very high speeds (a good dog fight, you can end up flying all over a cont or 2 a couple times over) :p very fun IMO.

[PeregineDive]

damn you Vulcan! Now I am itching to kill someone for their beta account. Only thing I want to do is be a pilot =P Quick question tho, you said you can't do loops(takes all the fun out), but you can pull off other nifty tricks. Can you do rolls? I know that it is a really important aspect of jiggin' to avoid fire and AA


-PD

[MrVulcan]

you can NOT invert your plane at any time *ulness it crashes*

So, you have go up, down (chopper like), forward, back, left right, tilt up and down, turn left and right, and any combo of those:
ie: you can streif left and right just like rolling, etc

With boost, you can do some neat things. (stop and go on a dime, helps to change your direction quickly)

No, it is not anything like a flight sim (loops, rools, etc), but it is very fun in its own respect.

Oh, and trees are the best thing for anti AA fire (lock missles, guided missles, etc), just fly through a thick forest at full boost, if that doesnt get your heart pumping, nothing will ;) It can be tricky flying through a forest at full, but very fun....

[Shadowsword8]

Running into a forest is a good thing to avoid enemy missiles, but you don't know what you'll find in that forest ;)

I usually take cover in the trees before I shoulder my Phoenix launcher... In one day I destroyed 4 reavers and 2 mosquitos, and damaged many more...
I don't count anymore the number of MAXs I destroyed.

[MrVulcan]

I love sitting on the TOP of the trees overlooking a base or where lots is going on. If you can find a thick forest (like thats hard in most places lol) then you can walk around up there and find some very good hiding spots under the leaves of 1 tree and standing on another, then shooting a sniper or phoenix, now that is great, having several maxs go looking for you only to pick them off 1 by 1 :lol::lol::lol:

[Maninthealley]

Whats more fun, Reavers, Max's,or normal troops (in reinforced armor)?

[Destroyeron]

I am now recalculating my certs to incorporate the Mosquito....


I like it cause it doesn't show up on radar, and I'm not a very good pilot, so I need as much cover as possible, lol. :p

[BlakkyZ8]

What is more fun to use... Mos or Reaver?

[MrVulcan]

well, I love my mos and will never give it up. It is the king of the skies, and I can take down several reavers and galaxies before they can take me down (I find that 2 reavers attacking 1 mos is about even if they are all good)

But the mos is not a great anti land craft, I can take out inf alright (if they are not AV inf) and a max or two, but it is for scouting and anti air

The reaver is very good at taking out tanks, base turrets, and just about all ground troops (though inf takes way too many rockets for it to be a real valid tactic due to its very limited ammo). It is ok at shooting down gals...

But the Reaver is designed more as an A-10, the Mos is a f-14

You can maneuver much better with a mos, but then again, your valid targets are less, and you cant take as much (though if your good, I find that you can actually last longer due to how hard it is to hit you, and your not bearing down on AA all the time)

So, it is your taste, they are both good in the right hands (and junk in the hands of a novice)
I would get in the VR to see what you like

[Cyanide]

I was a reaver pilot for a while in beta. Gave it up though cause it got boring with no real dog fighting competition. The only thing that ever killed me were locking missles (you can shake them but it seems like they can follow you forever). Skeeters are good dog fighters on paper because they can fly circles around a reaver. However, their chaingun does crap against reaver armor and reavers will chew them up if they get a good shot. Reavers are the air superiority fighters and the ground pounders in PS. Skeeters are scouts and fast solo transport (good for snipers and sabatores). One thing though. If you want to be a dog fighter in this game learn to fly like a helicopter pilot. The aircraft in this game can't do loops or barrel rolls so once somebody is behind you there's no way to get them infront of you unless you just stop and pivot around like a helicopter. People who fly the reaver like a helicopter do much better in PS than people who can't drive it through their heads that the reaver is not an F-15.

[Streamline]

I can usually take any other reaver one on one. But at times when the sky is nothing but red reavers, i wish i had a mos cert. Which i may pickup again. Reavers just happen to have the most fire power. As it is now they are little more than sky turrets. I dont think the AA is over powered. But i do think the reaver and skeeter both are very anemic. I dont think bumping the armor and speed turning/up/down/strafing/reverse over powers it. Certainly not against multiple strykers and numberous other AA weapons. The reaver rockets aren't even that good. They are slow and splash damage isn't really what you'd think it would be. If they are gonna be that slow then they should be more powerful and be effected by gravity. Making it a true air to surfice projectile. The chaingun needs to put out a few more rounds per second and the spred needs to be a little tighter. Other wishlist add-ons... vehicles favs, counter measure, shields, inverted fight, and a decent radar system.

On dogfights... a dogfight only happens when someone runs. If you just sit there, then expect to get shot down like a turret.

[MrVulcan]

I find that a mos's chain guns do a bit more dmg than the reaver's ones (worthless) and that I can down a reaver from full with my mos in about a min avg time...

but the reaver has a very hard time shooting down a mos with its rockets and its guns dont do anything to anything (1st itme i used them, I was wondering if they were even in game since I couldnt kill an inf with them lol)

But yes, key is treat them like choppers, not fighters, and dont just stop in the air and shoot, you will get downed by anything lol, even a reaver can not take much dmg, but if used right, they can be very powerful.

[Streamline]

Hey... have you seen what the new choppers of today can do? And this is the future? Treat them like choppers yeah. But thats just it. You can't get in fast enough. Slowdown and manuver fast enough to unload anything and get out fast.

[half the sky]

I've found the reavers chaingun takes down Maxs quite quickly if I can get into position well. The rockets LOOK impressive and are easier to get into position to use against most targets but are so slow and do so little damage that I have to unload quite a few to actually kill anything and the reticle seems to be backwards on it. To me it looks like I'm actually viewing the reticle for the rocket I just fired, not the one I'm about to fire.

Turrets with motion sensors rip reavers right out of the sky. :| Biggest weakness.

I do love the manuverability of the Reaver. I get a lot of small freezes during heavy action in it at this point in development. I would love to try it out when the game is smoother. I have a feeling the reaver chaingun will be more important. I'm interested in seeing what happens with the reaver between now and release.

[AztecWarrior]

In a perfect world, I'd take off all of the rockets and put on a big old 150mm cannon. I don't care that the recoil would send me flying backwards, as long as it takes down a Prowler in a few hits.

[Streamline]

No, then you'd have to mount it to a galaxy. lol

One of the biggest things i wish i could add and forgot to mention is 3rd person / free look. The current external view mode sucks.

[TekDragon]

Im definately thinking they are going to add a gun ship. Sortta like the galaxy MK2. Mad armor + huge guns = death from the sky.

Of course if they do this it will mean everyone and their cousin will have a-v certification. Maybe they should pump a-v up to 3 points.

[enjoi]

*applies only when the aforementioned aircraft does not fly near a base or forest, causing Aztec's 256 RAM and GF3 to max out, in which case the aforementioned aircraft escapes.

heheh i get the same exact thing cuz i have the same setup as yours. that is why i quit piloting and ordered a 512 stick of ram which should be here tomorrow, w00t! :)