I am at 500+ chopper hours by now, summing my accounts. This has been overall an enjoyable experience, but sometimes frustrating too. Battlefield 2 has been out for more than 2 years now, and it baffles that after so much time only a few people, actually very few, have mastered helicopter piloting. I expect from the pilot, as a gunner:
1. Good control of the helicopter: The basics being agile maneuvers and no crashing.
2. Good situational awareness: This is the key to survival in choppers, it's to know who is in what and where, and when caught off-guard (which should not happen in the first place), know where to go for cover.
3. Line me up! Give me a decent lineup for TV missiles, and be able to execute the circle of death or similar move to mow infantry. Also has to know where to find enemies and refrain from shooting enemies unless I don't see them.
4. Ability to evade enemy jets and choppers: They are basically the 2 only credible threats to choppers.
5. Be able to use the FFARs (unguided rockets) in case I miss. This is specially important against enemy AA.
If I join a random server with 64 players, chances are NOT A SINGLE ONE will be able to perform these tasks correctly. Exactly, ZERO PERCENT. The ones who will, are a handful of people I know to be reliable pilots. Seriously, I can count in my hands the good pilots I've had! However, if I go the other way, and try to pick up a gunner, it's slightly different. There are chances one or another might be decent.
Now, why this happens? One of the reasons I can think of that indeed piloting requires much more skill than gunning. It only needs around 10 hours for a decent FPS player to learn the basics of the chaingun and the TV-Missile and become functional gunners. It will take a lot more time to master some hitbox tricks, but nevertheless they can operate. The same can't be said for a pilot. Each of his maneuvers and decisions can mean the difference between survival and death. They have to understand each chopper and how it is going to respond to each input, and be aware of the surroundings in game. And while the chaingun and the TV-Missile are point and shoot weapons, FFAR's are influenced by the position and speed of the chopper and the side from which they are fired.
The other reason is a major screw-up EA made in the points system. The gunner gets 2 points for a kill, and the pilot only 1 point. What the hell? They should get the same credit; either give 2 points to each or 1.5 to each. This made many people with potential to be good pilots to choose gunning instead, and as a result we have lots of gunners and few pilots.
I am myself a decent pilot FOR GOOD GUNNERS. I'll fly fast and do crazy maneuvers, and I'll expect my gunner to shoot TV's while I am evading. I just hate when I pick up noob gunners and then they say "you suck" because I didn't hover still enough for them to shoot. No, idiot. I don't like to be a sitting duck. But then when people say I am a very good pilot or whatever, it is just sad. It reminds me what other people are doing for me to stand out.
And what's worse, people under-appreciate the heli pilots. I've seen many times people say "good round Churrasco" because I got a huge score. And when that happens, I'll always say the kudos goes to my pilot. If I had a newbie pilot in the first place, I might not even get off the ground.
Geez, when I start writing I just can't stop. Got a little bit too long, sorry
1. Good control of the helicopter: The basics being agile maneuvers and no crashing.
2. Good situational awareness: This is the key to survival in choppers, it's to know who is in what and where, and when caught off-guard (which should not happen in the first place), know where to go for cover.
3. Line me up! Give me a decent lineup for TV missiles, and be able to execute the circle of death or similar move to mow infantry. Also has to know where to find enemies and refrain from shooting enemies unless I don't see them.
4. Ability to evade enemy jets and choppers: They are basically the 2 only credible threats to choppers.
5. Be able to use the FFARs (unguided rockets) in case I miss. This is specially important against enemy AA.
If I join a random server with 64 players, chances are NOT A SINGLE ONE will be able to perform these tasks correctly. Exactly, ZERO PERCENT. The ones who will, are a handful of people I know to be reliable pilots. Seriously, I can count in my hands the good pilots I've had! However, if I go the other way, and try to pick up a gunner, it's slightly different. There are chances one or another might be decent.
Now, why this happens? One of the reasons I can think of that indeed piloting requires much more skill than gunning. It only needs around 10 hours for a decent FPS player to learn the basics of the chaingun and the TV-Missile and become functional gunners. It will take a lot more time to master some hitbox tricks, but nevertheless they can operate. The same can't be said for a pilot. Each of his maneuvers and decisions can mean the difference between survival and death. They have to understand each chopper and how it is going to respond to each input, and be aware of the surroundings in game. And while the chaingun and the TV-Missile are point and shoot weapons, FFAR's are influenced by the position and speed of the chopper and the side from which they are fired.
The other reason is a major screw-up EA made in the points system. The gunner gets 2 points for a kill, and the pilot only 1 point. What the hell? They should get the same credit; either give 2 points to each or 1.5 to each. This made many people with potential to be good pilots to choose gunning instead, and as a result we have lots of gunners and few pilots.
I am myself a decent pilot FOR GOOD GUNNERS. I'll fly fast and do crazy maneuvers, and I'll expect my gunner to shoot TV's while I am evading. I just hate when I pick up noob gunners and then they say "you suck" because I didn't hover still enough for them to shoot. No, idiot. I don't like to be a sitting duck. But then when people say I am a very good pilot or whatever, it is just sad. It reminds me what other people are doing for me to stand out.
And what's worse, people under-appreciate the heli pilots. I've seen many times people say "good round Churrasco" because I got a huge score. And when that happens, I'll always say the kudos goes to my pilot. If I had a newbie pilot in the first place, I might not even get off the ground.
Geez, when I start writing I just can't stop. Got a little bit too long, sorry
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