Bad ESF pilots and good ESF pilots. Thinking about the whiners.

Ghoest9 · 2013-03-05, 01:46 AM

I was using the Hawk the plast couple of days and watching how different ESF pilots fly.

There are a lot of bad ESF pilots. And yes its fun to shoot at them. You wont kill most of the bad ones but youll get a hit and chase them away. Which seems about fair. The bad one cant kill me and I cant kill them.
There are a few really bad one though who fly in circles absorbing shot after shot till they die - Im not even sure what they are doing.

Then there are the ok pilots. They dont do anything clever but they are good shots usually or they have the sense to only attack when they have counter measures up. If you try to go one on one with them they win. But against multiple guided rockets they know to bug out.

And then their are the good pilots. You dont kill these guys.
1 - They move fast low to the ground taking strafing shots and frequently hitting. You almost never see these guys long enough to get a lock.
2 - They use team work. 3 or 4 guys simultaneously flying smart attacking the same small area is really lethal.

You need a fairly large force just to drive these guys off.
Im not complaining - these are skilled smart players taking whats available.
They cant take out a massed force but they can stop a squad or 2 that isnt well equipped from moving from an out post to a main base or a similat opperation.

I think anyone whining about AA should probably trying playing ground forces just so they get more opportunities to see what the good pilots do.

zulu · 2013-03-05, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

I think anyone whining about AA should probably trying playing ground forces just so they get more opportunities to see what the good pilots do.

A bad pilot would likely be spending most of his time on the ground, anyways.

Satanam · 2013-03-05, 02:49 AM

What is this supposed to be? I hope not a "nerf the ESFs" thread, because if this game needs one thing, it's not a nerf on ESFs. And I don't even know why people want a nerf on it, as your TTK is way lower while on a MBT or infantry than on an ESF. If you're using AA lightning and you know how to play it, you win. Unless the ESF pilot cover himself, but Indar has lots of open areas that you can't easily cover.
There are people complaining about ESF team work with Hellfire Rocket Pods (I'm not saying you do, I'm saying I heard people crying about it) that "they are OP". Yeah, OP just like a bunch of MBT shooting an outpost to farm some certs, or OP just like a group of AA MAXes/AA lightnings.
Anyway, I'm not saying you're complaining, I'm just... Saying.

Actually, it seems to me that it's just a thread to talk about just what we can read: difference between bad and good players, then don't worry about what I said.

BlaxicanX · 2013-03-05, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by Satanam

What is this supposed to be? I hope not a "nerf the ESFs" thread

Read his post and you'll find out.

phungus · 2013-03-05, 04:32 AM

I consider myself a B grade pilot, and I only go after air for the most part. It's still AA MAXes that kill me most of the time. Take from that what you will.

Mox · 2013-03-05, 05:00 AM

The problem is that there are way too many lock on launchers out there. As you say its not deadly. Skilled pilots can hide or performe evasive manouvers. Nevertheless, also skilled pilots are more or less constantly under lock on. Thats a huge problem because you can position yourself as needed to perform enough kills to make piloting ESFs a worthy thing. Therfore i suggest to reduce the range of lock on launchers drasticaly.

Figment · 2013-03-05, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by Mox

The problem is that there are way too many lock on launchers out there. As you say its not deadly. Skilled pilots can hide or performe evasive manouvers. Nevertheless, also skilled pilots are more or less constantly under lock on. Thats a huge problem because you can position yourself as needed to perform enough kills to make piloting ESFs a worthy thing. Therfore i suggest to reduce the range of lock on launchers drasticaly.

...So they become even more useless?

I had a squadron of aircraft flying overhead yesterday. Three missiles out of 40ish lock attempts hit, no kills. Why? Because either they broke lock before the lock actually occured, the remainder dodged and ignored it with a simple button press.

In fact, the only aircav I actually killed was Ostbahn with an AV dumbfire missile.

almalino · 2013-03-05, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by Figment

...So they become even more useless? Three missiles out of 40ish lock attempts hit, no kills.

My AA misses usually always hit unless flair is used BUT I almost never get a kill because pilot just fly away, repair and attack again.

The only time when I relaly kill planes is with Vanguard main anti tank canon because it is one hit kill for smaller aircrafts

Do not hover in front of mine Vanguard people.

PredatorFour · 2013-03-05, 06:24 AM

Empire specific launchers will help. Can't wait for the shitstorm of rage the phoenix will bring to anyone unfamiliar ( or familiar infact) of it from ps 1

Baneblade · 2013-03-05, 06:40 AM

I'm a really bad pilot, I have only actually died to the enemy once, the other times I suicide into stuff.

Qwan · 2013-03-05, 07:02 AM

Im a ok pilot, I do fly when I get a little froggy, but when I first started I was so bad I would die while in line trying to spawn air. It takes time to get used to the controls, and you have to set them up as well. Since the release of this game my suicides have dropped and im actually getting kills.

Ive never believed that air was over powered, it was all about having the proper equipment for the job. If we were having air issues we would get maxes or maybe a sky guard. I will admit though initially we didnt have the equipment, the skyguard was bugged, the max didnt do enough damage, and the sundy was a sitting duck. Now though its gotten better, I never thought that air was overpowered, but as gamers we find things that work and we use them, and at the time air just didnt have any thing that could stop them. But now that they fixed the sky guard, locking rockets that work (kinda), and beefed up the max now, and the sundy actually has some type of air defence, air isnt a problem anymore. Its actually the fly boys crying.

KesTro · 2013-03-05, 08:05 AM

Too much AA spam imo. if you want AA you should dedicate AA not have everyone and their mother rolling AA. But thats just the state of the game currently, what are we to do?

I guess roll MBT's and get people to cry about that more and forget about ESF's.

Figment · 2013-03-05, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by almalino

My AA misses usually always hit unless flair is used BUT I almost never get a kill because pilot just fly away, repair and attack again.

The only time when I relaly kill planes is with Vanguard main anti tank canon because it is one hit kill for smaller aircrafts

Do not hover in front of mine Vanguard people.

I've easily killed more aircraft with AV turrets and machine guns of some sort than AA G2A missiles.

I mean fine, the flare makes the lock on rocket miss. But it shouldn't prevent reacquisition of a lock. What's the point of having that stealth cert then if you can stop lock ons entirely and deny lock ons better with the flare?

Assist · 2013-03-05, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by Baneblade

I'm a really bad pilot, I have only actually died to the enemy once, the other times I suicide into stuff.

Pretty much the same.
I use my ESF as my AA method. Lock-on Rockets + Hailstorm allows me to cheese all the ESF's who Rocket Pod cheese me on the ground, only thing that dominates me in the air is good ESF pilots and the Liberator.

Pella · 2013-03-05, 09:54 AM

Lock on. Wait 3 Seconds "Press" F = Profit.

I cant remember the last time i lost an ESF to G2A missile's.