Life as a "Jet Jockey"

[impulseSV]

So It's been about a year now for me playing BF2 (I know...late bloomer), and after making an effort to learn all aspects of the game I have come to realize that the "Jet Jockies" have it rough. Before you blast me, hear me out. The reason I am so addicted to BF2 has to be because of the diversity of game play. You can log in and choose between Infantry, Armor, Helis, Jets, Commanding, etc. depending on your mood that day.

After taking some advice in this forum, I went out and got myself a nifty Saitek X52 Pro Joystick & Throddle. I started by focusing on learning the fly the choppers (over 100 hrs now). It was always frustrating how hard it was just to get your hands on one. Between the lack of respect for waiting in line, the tkers, and the pad rapers, I felt lucky just to get off the ground to only get taken down by a jet seconds later.

So I figure, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." right? That's when I learned the "Jet Jockies" have it even worse. Every match begins with the foot race to the Jet and you're only prayer is that you are randomly spawned closer to the jet than the others. And then, if you happen to make it first, you can count on a team kill because some bitter player is standing in front of your wheels waiting for you to take off so you will team kill them and they can punish you for it. So you take your -4 and get off the ground and just as you start feeling good about youself with a possitive k/d ratio, some frustrated admin kicks you for no good reason .

Am I the only one to experience this? Maybe there's enough "Jet Jockies" out there already. Just my thoughts. Thanks for listening to me vent.

[WolfAlmighty]

Re: Life as a "Jet Jockey"

My time in jets is rather limited simply because of that. Most of the time I don't even bother going for the jet since people will sell their testicles to be able to whore the J-10 for a round. On servers that enforce a waiting rule (which are few) I won't really spend a lot of time standing in line when I could be doing something else other than picking my seat and waiting for the jet to appear. But really, the in-fighting for the jets is some of the most amusing stuff you can witness in BF2. It's amazing how creative asshats can be to get something they want or to screw someone else over to get it. Sad, but amazing.

[jesus]

Re: Life as a "Jet Jockey"

I've experienced this, but I would consider myself "above average" in all aspects of BF2 (infantry, helos, jets, tanks, etc.) so if I don't get a jet I just simply say "Oh well, I'll just go get something else and have equally as much fun." I don't let not being able to get a jet ruin my fun.

Now, I have experienced this, but not every single time I try to get the jet. Sure, it's always a competition to see who gets it first, but TKing rarely happens when I'm playing, and I play on the most popular pub servers.

[impulseSV]

Re: Life as a "Jet Jockey"

Tomeis are you in the US? If so, can you recommend some good servers? Thanks.

[jesus]

Re: Life as a "Jet Jockey"

Tomeis are you in the US? If so, can you recommend some good servers? Thanks.

Yeah sure, but I can't guarantee that these servers will be like I've described, it's just that for the most part I never have to worry about purpose TKs/force TKs.

=SF= Highway Tampa Ranked [FF OFF] 69.12.109.55:16567
FullContactWar[Squad/VoIP Preferred] 69.12.111.7:16567 <-- these guys do all maps
KILLER B SERVER #4 206.196.124.23:16567 <-- 24/7 dragon valley
-=NUNYA! All Maps [FF=OFF]=- 72.37.185.26:16567
Texas ...TeamPlayers... BF2 206.123.95.74:16568 <-- all maps
MoonGamers BF2 Mostly Oman 64.34.181.14:16567
24/7 Wake Pure Madness 69.12.63.20:16567
=HOG= 24/7 KUBRA DAM 64.34.171.25:16567

And then a bunch of infantry/infantry only servers

[impulseSV]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

Thanks Tomeis. I have played the KILLER B SERVER #4 before and agree that it's one of the best administrated servers out there (that I've seen anyway). I'll try out some of the other ones this week. I need to start checking out different maps anyway, I'm sort of a Dragon Valley junkie.

[DoubleG]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

You've been in wrong servers mate. Trying going to ones that have Admins on (most of the ones Tomeis said are good.) And if there is no admin and you get TKed, just TK them back.

By the way, I never heard anyone use the term "jet jockey" You should the old fashioned "jet whore."

[impulseSV]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

Not sure where I picked up the term "jet jockey" actually. I was called a "jet junkie" the other day though. Pretty funny since I suck in a jet and since my little experiment have racked up a total of 12 hours. I'm not a fan of the whole TK idea...at least not on purpose anyway. Having to worry about TKers is just a waste of my time. I'd rather just play the game the way it was meant to be played and not have to worry about all the douche bags out there taking out their pent up aggression on virtual representations of everyone that has ever wronged them in their lives.

[imported_kiwi]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

Wrong servers probably. Well admined servers will not tolerate rule brakers. And try to choose not so populated servers, I agree that on a 64 player server I have seen like 15 players waiting for a jet

Why do you mention pad rapers? Although cheap it is so much fun to rape PLA jet spawn on wake for example :) If your first J10 cant kill F35 you deserve to be raped :)

[impulseSV]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

Although I don't feel that there should be a rule against pad raping, I just become frustrated when a jet will make it their sole mission to do loops between the air base and the heli pad to drop bombs over and over to insure you to not have a chance to get off the ground. Just seems like a pretty cheap (but admittedly strategic) tactic.

[WolfAlmighty]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

Wait until they make their pass, and as they're flying away quickly hop into the AA (if you're on the PLA airfield in Wake, use the one on the southern end of the airstrip). Fire when you get tone unless you see him pop flares, in which case wait to see if he's turning back around to take another pass. If he is, leave the stinger and run for cover (around the other side of the building). If he heads back to the airfield, stay in the stinger and keep on him until you get a lock and fire or until he leaves your lock range. Then leave the stinger site and repeat if he returns. He'll either have to stay away long enough for flares to recharge or he'll come by again and you'll get the kill. Alternatively he may strafe the AA station, but if he's doing that it means he's not able to strafe either the helipad or airstrip and should buy you some time.

What hurts this strategy the most is when some noob decides to STAY in the AA and get himself killed and get the AA station blown up. Barring that, it's a decent way to at least keep the F35 busy enough to allow you to get some aircraft in the air. That is, of course, unless you have BOTH F35s baseraping in which case you'll have to get more creative and use the less-obvious AA emplacements, and be VERY quick about it.

[Minmaster]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

yea this waiting for aircraft thing is one aspect i really hate about the BF series, it's just too hard to get into one when you want to fly. they somewhat alleviated this in 2142 by making aircraft more balanced (nerfed compared to older BF games) but you still see people waiting for aircraft.

sadly, i don't see things changing for the next BF, since making vehicles available as a purchase system like crysis wouldn't really work.

[zone36]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

Some quality responses in this thread.

Another factor to consider, that I didn't see mentioned, is the current demographics that make up the BF2 community these days. Nearly 4 years old, well-seasoned and hardcore enthusiasts make up a lot more of the given server population than they did during the first 1-2 years after release. MANY of the average PC gamers have moved on to other (newer) titles.

Consequently, there is a much larger chance that if another player does beat you to the jet (or chopper), that they are skilled enough to remain in the air for most of the match, which of course, gives you no oppurtunity at all to try your hand at flying that round.

It's a tough situation for the newcomers, no doubt.

[Minmaster]

Re: Life as a &quot;Jet Jockey&quot;

yea i think that's the main reason they added rank restricted servers in 2142, although i don't think anyone is running them right now. i did see them when the game was fairly new though.