New Galaxy Pilot Tips?

[Dubstep Peanuts]

Hi PS2 Community,

I've starting playing PS2 with my friends and was very intrigued when he told me about Galaxy pilots who drop players in the battle. I told him I wanted to learn how to do this but he said he didn't know much about them. I was wondering if anyone here had any tips/certs for new galaxy pilots?

Thanks,

[Hamma]

Personally I cert top speed and additional armor. After that it's just a matter of getting the hang of flying.

[Calisai]

Originally Posted by Dubstep Peanuts

I was wondering if anyone here had any tips/certs for new galaxy pilots?

Make sure to look at your keybindings carefully and note the ascend and descend buttons. Gals and Libs are VTOL so you can start upwards before going forwards and you can stop in midflight and descend downward to your landing point. (very useful if you've never flown one before).... after awhile of getting used to it, you'll be able to make more graceful manuevers.


Oh, and set personal waypoints and use them often... stay away from out of bounds... if you accidently enter one, good luck turning fast enough to get out. BOOM!

Other than that... pull one and try it out... you probably have an excess of aerospace resources so it shouldn't be hard to practice.

[wutzibu]

Make sure that everyone of your passengers knows how to hotdrop. Really explain to them that they dotn get fall damage when they bail out of the gal! you dont want the grief after you jumped out yourself before the ship exploded and they didnt!

get at least 1 level of zoom for each gun its 1 cert poitn each and even though its not much of a difference it makes people feel a bit more comfortable flying with you.

if you are attacked by anything in the air, try to ram it. You receive little to no damage and most ESF pilots think its smart to shoot on a galaxy and then fly close under or above it. Surprise motherf***ers! your wing guns cant directly shoot in front so dont look straight on the target. Your top gunner is also unable to shhoot directly in front, angle your ship. if you are good you can make all guns except for 1 wing shoot the enemys. Try flying loopings it scares the heck out of your passengers^^ but only if you are high enough^^


If there is an Enemy sunderer who really is problematic with a lot of AA just fly very high, tell everyone to bail out, set the galaxy on a collision course and jump just before you hit the ground. It works^^

get Bulldogs on your wings. they suck as AA but they make your galaxy to a real bomber!

[ShadetheDruid]

Be careful with the hot drops though, landing on a sloped surface is deadly (they really need to fix that, if they haven't already).

But for a random tip, try to keep moving. A hovering or slow moving Galaxy is like catnip for us tank drivers. We tend to drop everything to take shots at you with our main guns, and you really don't want that hitting you.

[Dubstep Peanuts]

Thanks for all the feedback guys,

I have one question though, how to do a successful hotdrop/landing into enemy territory. I usually think just to land and then get the **** out of there but that always ends up with me dying. ALSO, how do you get people to get into you galaxy. I'll usually spend 5-10 minutes trying to get a full galaxy then when I do, the people in my galaxy get bored then leave.

Thanks,

P.S. R.I.P. G-AMS

[wutzibu]

Hotdrop means people jump out of the flying galaxy. you receive no fall damage when jumping out of one. thats the whole point of hotdropping.

Use /region in chat or voice chat if your weapons are a bit interesting (zoom, not the standard wepeons) or you tell them you have a interesting target and communicate with your passengers the communicative people will stay.

[Calisai]

Originally Posted by Dubstep Peanuts

ALSO, how do you get people to get into you galaxy. I'll usually spend 5-10 minutes trying to get a full galaxy then when I do, the people in my galaxy get bored then leave.

This is where being in a good outfit is key. If you're serious about doing gal drops, look for a good outfit that has enough members to require gals to get places quickly and are committed to air-drops.

A good outfit will have 11 guys ready to go at a waypoint when you land (with the inevitable straggler or two)... load up and move out. This was a key part of some good outfit operations back in PS1... There are a few outfits that do this as a regular part. I'm sure there is always interest in capable and dedicated Gal pilots.

As for just being a random taxi gal from warpgate to the fight... you'll be hard pressed to really find that enjoyable. Getting randoms to fill a gal and drop effectively is like herding cats.... while technically possible... it isn't going to be easy and probably not as fun in the long run.

I also suggest taking a look at Sundy driving as well. A good alternative to the Gal when a short distance run is needed (with the added bonus of spawn XP)

[Paige]

Some 10 quick tips for you, I'll keep them as a list, try to make it easier to read

1) Galaxy is a VTOL, like the Liberator it can hover perfectly, use its upwards thrust with the nose pointing down to squeeze out more speed, and to allow your top gunner a forward firing arc.

2) When taking off, from the warpgate especially, point about 45 degrees up, use forward and upwards thrust, and keep going to about 970 altitude (max is 1000) this keeps you safely away from enemy AA, and most ESF pilots, your easier to spot if their above you, as most pilots look down from altitude for targets.

3) Invest at bare minimum, 1 cert into each gun for a zoom optic (total of 4 certs for 4 separate guns), this is considered basic courtesy to gunners on any vehicle. And will help your gunners defend you and keep you in the air longer.

4) Next look at a speed airframe, and additional armor. Put a Walker AA on your tailgun first (most ESF's will come in from behind and get close), Bulldogs on your wings to shell the ground, finally a walker for your top gun for ESF who sit above you/attacking from the front.

5) Your a big bird, and have a pretty large healthpool. Your exceptionally good at ramming other aircraft, a drop in speed along with pulling up can catch ESF off guard and cause them to collide with you, instantly killing them.

6) Use your minimap for hotdrops, once you learn the structures, you can, for example. Slow down before say a techplant, position yourself over the roof (with the turrets and teleporters) and deploy a whole squad of guys onto the roof, enjoy the deploy xp as they clear out the deck (a squad deployed like this who can hold their own can often bring a base down) Feel free to wander around friendly bases deep in your own territory to learn their layouts.

7) Learn to use pagedown to eject your troopers, but please inform them your doing so, either ask them to wait for your signal, or tell them to wait for you to eject them. Falling from a galaxy a trooper can survive any fall (some bugs on slopes) however, avoid pointing your nose down and moving at speed while doing so, as this seems to cause far more deaths on landing in my experience. Also consider keeping your 4th seat gunner (tailgunner) and make sure he knows beforehand, as your likely need at least him to help you safely fly home.

8) When loading at the warpgate, state in /yell your intended location, the type of drop (hotdrop or landing) and your ETA of departure (most start at 1-2 minutes, and broadcast every 30s). And sometimes the location of your galaxy to help people find it amongst other galaxy's.

9) Try and find an outfit, your find your efforts far more meaningful, not only in having a proper flightcrew, but also being involved in their stories afterwards. This can be very rewarding and enjoyable in comparison to herding cats (ehm, pugs) knowing that your gal drop took a base.

10) Look for `watchtower` (tall tower like structures with a clover shaped top, 4 helipads) bases being capped by friendlies and land on one of their 4 aircraft pads (use the two at the warpgate base to practise, much safer), when you see a base nearly flipped, land and state in /yell your galaxy is loading, with a nearby target (similar to warpgate) and watch troopers come flooding in.

Keep it up, it may seem slow at times, but running logistics as a dropship pilot can be good fun, try asking people to friend request you if they liked your flying/hotdrop. Can be useful finding an outfit or a group of guys to hotdrop with.