Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

[Lolyn]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

Flying backwards isn't difficult at all provided you're in tune with your HUD. Anyone can flip a gunship upside down... just hold down the throttle, watch the descent/ascent meter on the right and make sure the marker is in the middle or slightly higher. Also pays to watch the altitude meter too. You can quite easily do laps of suez entirely upside down

My favourite way to get rid of tailing gunships is bailing out and getting back in after a steep climb. Sometimes when it all works out for you, you end up behind the enemy gunship albeit at a vastly slower speed, but the enemy gunship can't shoot your gunship whilst there's nobody in it unless there's a direct hit.

Sometimes that just goes wrong and you either miss the gunship to get back in, get back in too late.... or the other gunship rams your gunship and you're stuck somewhere that resembles greenland with nothing close by.

[hooahguy]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

just also be sure to de-throttle if you are upside down, then go forwards to flip.

[Fingulfin]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

@Hooah: It doesn't help you face your enemy, unless he is flying in a straight line from you...

As for firing techniques... I normally do what Dtneter says actually. 3 Missile Bursts. Most people lack the brains to escape me, so losing them isn't much of a problem. If I am going against someone of my own or higher skill level, I fly high then shoot a TV at them to get them to raise shields, then I swoop in for the kill.

[H4yd3n]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

ok the question is how do you get out/recover from the upside down flying. do you pull up or down? i always crash to the ground when i try coming out of flying backwards.

I usually will fly up, then with the right combination of keys, mouse movements, and not pressing the throttle, I can do a half barrel roll to right myself back up. I also will do a flip or just pull up, it depends on where your enemy is.

[Amaranthuse]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

Well the problem I still run into sometimes is that the foe pilot following me where ever I go. It's easy to turn the gunship upright and fire back but sometimes I end up ramming the other gunship by accident.

I think I am a horrible pilot because all I do is deny the enemy of their gunship.

[CTFalcon]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

First order of business is to assess the other pilot's skill level, that's going to determine the way you're going to fight. Situations differ from each other based on a multitude of factors (elevation, speed, number of enemy gunships and enemy AA's).

Situation 1 bad enemy pilot: Since you're periodically checking your chase front camera angle you should very rarely be jumped from straight in, so as soon as you hear tone flip to chase front to check the angle the rockets are fired from then turn away from them horizontally and vertically. Since the pilot is pretty bad you can burn your shields here and still win this fight handily. As soon as his volley is done flip your gunship so your nose is pointed at him and fire your entire clip of missiles from distance then flip your gunship again once you're near him so you're now both pointed in the same direction as before but closer. You should be in tight with shields coming back or at full strength, simply get him in a spinning fight or attack vertically with either rockets or a TV.

Situation 2 good enemy pilot: The key here is to survive the initial attack without burning your shields. Pulling the same style maneuver as before, attempt to steer out of the locking range of his initial volley or TV missile. Get your nose pointed at him as quickly as possible and make sure to never turn tail and run, upside down or not. Once in tight the dog fight will determine your fighting moves, if you're decent you have a chance, if you suck you will die here most of the time lol.

Keep in mind there's no one golden move that will save you in any situation, it just takes practice flying against the best pilots out there to get good enough to react to any situation.

[Amaranthuse]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

lol I win most of the 80% of the dogfights I encounter. Mostly doing some solo TV through their shield or by using the technique you mentioned above. Great advice!

I still feel lack of confidence as I get extremely anxious when I hear the locking tone. AA EMP? SAWW? Enemy Gunship? Idiot using Engie rockets?

I need more practice I guess.

[Fingulfin]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

Engi rockets really shouldn't be a problem... Fly fast when you are low to the ground, and don't ever hover. You can easily dodge AAs by flying upward and diagonally though... Unless they manage to EMP Trap you low to the ground/close to them. SAAWs are a bit harder, but they are still possible. Just keep practicing, you will get it eventually

[Lolyn]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

SAAW/EMP lock-ons are easy to throw if you fly very low and fast.... you will put things between yourself and the engineer who fired the missile which causes them to lose lock. Only really fails if the engineer is on a high point (where it's more difficult to put an obstacle between you and them). I generally don't get hit by SAAW/EMP lock ons by doing this anyway.

One nice trick I've been doing lately to throw off chasing pilots is to force them to crash... fly upwards at about 45 degrees from vertical, then dive into a front flip and loop back up. Most people have no problems doing a regular rising loop but there's surprisingly few people able to do a front flip without crashing, especially if you get the altitude just right so you pull back up a few meters from the ground.

[the_Mr.Ree]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

I figure out my chances of winning based of altitude. His chances are 95% if he is 20 meters off the ground :cry: :bipolar: ( Wait... that's not a smiley :p)

[Amaranthuse]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

My odds of winning are my altitude, speed and reaction time. I only need Altitude if I solo TV him since my gunship will drop like a rock. Speed is for evasive manuvers and avoid their missiles and reaction time is when I see the shadow of the gunship and make a quick thought to do something about it!

I am getting better now, just need to keep on his tail 24/7 and rip my shots in time.

[Fingulfin]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

My odds of winning are my altitude, speed and reaction time. I only need Altitude if I solo TV him since my gunship will drop like a rock. Speed is for evasive manuvers and avoid their missiles and reaction time is when I see the shadow of the gunship and make a quick thought to do something about it!

Point your nose up, you fall ALOT slower. Most experienced TV Solo'ers can do it from 20 meters off the ground (assuming its a short ways to your target).

[Amaranthuse]

Re: Enemy at my 6 o'clock, Am I completely In his Mercy?

Nice tip, I'll definately try that. I do notice in videos solo pilots generally like to point up a bit and manuver their TV rather than having it lined up with target like I do.

Some embrassing manuvers i tried made me crash into UAVs and pods from spawn beacons. Lol.