piloting skills

[AJAlkaline]

Everyone keeps talking about how the Reavers are awesome and can take down anything easily, but with my personal experience with the Reavers it wasnt exactly that way. Really, though, its due to my inexirence and inability to find a good Reaver battle strategy, and I was wondering if any Reaver pilots could share their's with me.

I generally always go for the full speed swoop down and attack method, which is acctually a pretty good method for taking down enemy Reavers using the same attack strategy, but sucks insanely against stationary enemies. It always seems that I cant distance my self far enough away from the enemy to get me sufficent aiming and firing time on my way back, but when I get too far away I make myself an easy target. I've tried slowing down and setting it to about a 7 or 8 speed when I go into battle but that only makes me an easier target. Also, by the time I usually spot enemy Reavers (I suffer from a bad connection) they've planted themselves in one spot and for me to take up the same stationary position is just plain suicide. Could anyone help me here?

[MilitantB0B]

Go into the attack at full speed, empty your salvo of missles, then use your afterburners to make a hasty get away. This is not to say you won't receive enemy fire, such is war. Thats why engineering is a very usefull skill for a reaver pilot. Just fly away and find a remote place away from action where you can set 'er down and repair.
As far as air-to-air combat goes, I have no idea. Thats what made me stop being a reaver pilot, I kept getting owned by other reavers and mosquitos.

[Zenny]

Here's what I do for Air-to-Air battles, use all dimensions of around and up and down.
What I mean is kind of circle strafe them while floating up and down then reverse the circle, get above them, below, everywhere, its the only way to take em down, then if they hit their afterburners take after them and dont let them get away, if they do then it's their victory!

[Streamline]

Ppl that use a stick for flying may have an advantage i don't know. I use a mouse. On that mouse i bound up to mouse2 or right clik. I then have dwon bound to mouse4 or thumb. Up, down, and latteral movement is very slow. So i like to have the quickest response time posible.

Air to air i like to get behind them. Careful not to overtake them but not let them get away either. I pay close attention to their afterburner and mine. I try to salvage as much burn as posible. So that i have something to burn all the time right when i need it.

Slowing to turn if your ducking behind some trees for cover while making a turn. Point down into your turn. Then Let of the throttle, hit the decend and bring your nose up a little as you whip your turn. Try to incorperate the opposite strafe for the turn you are doing. Right turn? Left strafe. If you can do all these things at one time in one fluid motion. Your turns will be tighter, quicker, and harder to track.

I use this flying style inside and along tree lines all the time. If im on then i can usually stay outa the trees. But not every other pilot can. I've shakin many pilots with more opportunities to kill me than I of them. Many that try to follow me threw forest area end up getting shot down by the trees.

As key is to relax. You all practice tree flying when noones around and you do fine. Just cuz you're taking fire or being pursued should not change that. Just relax, look ahead, pick your turns. don't rush. As long as your mouse cursor doesn't freakishly take off for no reason like mine does. You'll be fine.

Same rules apply here when dueling semi-stationary aerial targets. High ground so to speek. Try to get right behind and above them. Basiclly mounting position.

[Navaron]

You need no piloting skills to kill anything in this game. The flight model is a joke.

/stumbles off ranting incoherently about Dave G and his damn 3d boating sims...

[Matri00]

Originally posted by MilitantB0B
Go into the attack at full speed, empty your salvo of missles, then use your afterburners to make a hasty get away. This is not to say you won't receive enemy fire, such is war. Thats why engineering is a very usefull skill for a reaver pilot. Just fly away and find a remote place away from action where you can set 'er down and repair.
As far as air-to-air combat goes, I have no idea. Thats what made me stop being a reaver pilot, I kept getting owned by other reavers and mosquitos.

i llllove reavers....when i was in bata reavers were soooo efective against EVERYTHING...tanks infantry turrets maxs etc....anyway reaver vs reaver is easy...when u aproach him (if he doesnt see u) u give him a few missles in the ass after that he uses afterburners to get away and u follow him.Then he'll start going in circles and trying to shoot u...use the afterburners again to turn faster and finish him off with the chain-guns...like that ive never been shot down by a reaver....

[Hamma]

Some people *cough* Nav hehe, seem to think piloting requres no skill.

I believe the opposite, you can tell the folks who spend allot of time honing their reaver skills, from those who just hopped in because they thought it was a cool vehicle.

[wheredhego]

I have found that the biggest problem I face when I was flying is that if you have another aircraft on your tail there is no way to see him. I mean if they would atleast show up on your radar you would know if you lost him instead of turning around only to see him smiling at you with a full salvo of missles.

On another note I have read of people having problems getting thier joysticks to work. I had this same problem what I found was that if you play with the sensitivity setting you will get it to start working. Although Mine still seemed buggy and its rather old so i took it apart to clean it. LOL well I guess it was time to upgrade anyway.

[kerosene31]

Reavers are fairly easy to fly, but it does actually take some skill to hit a moving target with weapons.

Anyway, as others said, hit and run. Dive in, burn away. The important part is that the next time you go in to the same target, come in from a different direction. On real world bombing missions, a 4 plane attack will all come in from different directions. They never follow the same path in because the guns will be pointing right there the next time by.

Also, before you attack, look at your surroundings. Take note of mountains, valleys, friendly towers, etc. Anything you can jet behind and hide. The only perfect defense against ground fire is to put a mountain between you and the person shooting at you.

When flying away from the target, get as low as possible and get behind something. Valleys, mountains, etc. Once you get good at it, you should be going between trees, not over them. The lower and faster you are, the better.

Finally, select your targets carefully. If you go after something, and it is surrounded by AA Maxs or other stiff anti-aircraft weapons, don't be afraid to abort and go hit something else.

Oh and it was probably mentioned, but of course never attack without 100% afterburners available.

[Navaron]

Well, I guess skill is relative. Does it take more skill to fly a reaver than to use a TR DC Max? Yes. But if you compare skill in any other game with flight vehicles to PS, then it takes no skill (don't count tribes cause it's the same damn thing). I personally no no other game where you can rocket up to the ceiling, and then leave to go get a beer, take a piss, a shower and return to the game to still be sitting right where you left.

(I'm bitter.)

[Happy lil Elf]

Yeah I was kinda disappointed in the flight engine too but I guess it didn't really suprise me all that much either.

[wasupx]

air to air evasion: i find when being chased, best maneuver is to afterburner up in circular pattern. Once you reach sufficient height either look for your target or make a getaway. Wont work if the target is at a distance, but its good tactic if you know hes chasing you. Only other way i seem to get away is if there are large mountains i can fly by and stop on a dime and defend myself. Fly behind a mountain turn around and nail em.

Problem with air2air combat is the afterburners are too forgiving. If they made it where you couldnt afterburn until reaching some minimum speed it would be more exciting.

[shinken]

u can use the zoom implant to "snipe'' w/ the rockets but i dont know weather this really works