BF2 Piloting: The complete guide

[Cadde]

Yeah the guide is nice, all im worried about now is that there will be more guys waiting at the jet spawnpoints while we normal soldier tries to cap flags the fair way.
Man to man, gun to gun. No extra tools.

Im not a avitator person myself so i only read for the sake of learning but this is practically obvious stuff and mostly taken from the only flying game i have... (Flight simulator)

Need a chopeer guide just like it.

Okay, i might very well put up a nice little heli guide.
I consider myself a pro heli pilot and gunner.
And alot of others call me a pro too so that's why i might just do this.

//Cadde

[Scrobes]

Really informative guide. Though one minor change I'd suggest.

You ought to change it to "jet" piloting as there is no content on helicopters.

[Eddy01741]

Ok, barrel rolling might shake off missiles, but the normal rolls won't, that's the same as flying straight, and you can't outrun missiles in this game, only outmanuver them. But, strafing can be a bit useful, but complicated manuvers cant be done on a jet, like a Split-s, or immelman, as well as doing a roll (not rolling side to side, like a flip kinda thing), but the approaches can be useful, but all the complicated manuvers are almost impossible to do.

[Baseline]

Pretty good guide. Most of it a BF42 or any flight sim veteran would have picked up, but nonetheless very informative for those who want to fly.

A big mistake a lot of players in pubs make when trying to shoot down enemy planes is that they are always in missile mode, and it's pretty easy for your opponent to know you're on them when they hear "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" with a red box. The only time missiles are efficient is when you're opponent is flying very slow, or at a climbing stall, or SOMETIMES if they are flying over their strip to reload... Other than that any normal person will turn/barrel roll (and the good players will do it with afterburner). So dogfighting with the bombing mode is key if you actually want to shoot down any decent pilot, plus it will keep them looking in front chase or leave the pub because they don't want to deal with wondering if an enemy plane is behind them.

Secondly, shooting for the engines when they are flying straight usually shows some small explosions followed by smoke, and when they are turning, for some reason it seems like dead on the cockpit is the sweet spot (I guess that's hitting the engines with the lag). I know in '42 it used to be in front of the plane (because the propeller/engine was on the nose).

Those are tips that most pub players don't use, and are the difference between decent dogfighters and great dogfighters. Aside from that, keep afterburner, flyby, front chase all on your joystick. Those are key dogfighting tools you don't want to have to reach to the keyboard for. I'm thinking of trying TRACKIR, because I also play IL:2 FB and LOCK-ON, but it's a little bit of cash for something I'm not sure will work much better than my hat-switch for looking around. I've seen videos of it and all, but I don't know. It is kinda expensive.

EDIT: And by the way, I disagree with the having to drop 1 bomb thing. I have absolutely no problems with TK'ing OR taking out enemy tanks/apcs in a single pass with two bombs. The key there is to bomb the way small aircraft are supposed to: DIVING. In '42, you had to dive less, you could be more shallow. But in BF2, very very steep diving in the 2-bomb fighters in the key. The deeper you dive, the smaller of an area your bombs land in. And that's important to know because if you're bombing an enemy flag and there aren't any teammates around then you can level out a little (but still deep) and the the bombs will be more shallow. After a while, you can judge how steep you need to be diving whether it's a tank you're trying to hit (steep steep, almost straight down) or a line of infantry moving on a flag (more shallow, not as steep, bigger area). And if you fly at full speed all of the time like I do (except against helo's I slow down a little), then you need to strictly adhere to this type of bombing because the faster you're going, the more distance between those two bombs, and you really don't want to slow down against good players.

[oaKenfoLd]

Ok, that was just copying from Microsoft's Combat Simulator 2 handbook, wow real resourceful, i have the game and the handbook. I know how to do all that stuff, but it's not the most useful on BF2, it's like imposible to do a Immelman and stuff, and dive bombin aint the way to go, plus if you roll to evade enemy fire, he'll put a missile in ya, rolling only avoids gunfire, WWII does not equal the near future, not the most resourceful guide for flying.

The pictures were credited in there, last lines of it. The text was written by me, today while I was at work.

You may notice that the moves I cover, at least a majority of them, were also covered by the FS2 book. Would you suggest that I make up new moves so as to not infringe on any books that may also have also talked about manuevers?

Of course, I don't recall the FS2 book talking about when to switch to missiles, loop bombing, single bomb dropping, how to avoid missiles, how to use after burner efficiently, hints for improving bomb and missile accuracy, hints for taking down choppers, or how to be a good pilot to a bomber gunner.

Please read the post before accusing me of plagarizing.

Dive bombing is ridiculously accurate, and also allows you to keep multi-bomb drops in a more condensed area. This is especially true of the slower bombers, who can also used the gained speed to bug out after the bombs drop.

Regarding whether this is or is not useful for BF2...
I only covered relevant subjects and manuevers. For instance, I did NOT include the immelaman, because it isn't really possible or feasible. I did, however, cover:
afterburner usage, missile usage, being a good bomber pilot and a good copilot in the bomber seat, the altitude ceiling, the ways to help your odds in surviving a 1500 foot altitude run, how and when to shoot down jets and choppers, how to avoid tking and improve bombing accuracy, how to practice to be able to loop bomb effectively, how to drop single bombs...

Seems I've covered quite a bit of relevant-to-BF2 information. Nonetheless, I hope you learned nothing from it Eddy. Here's to you being a at flying than you are at reading.
=========
To Baseline:

The single bomb drop works very well for me, but to each their own :). Many times, dropping two bombs on a damaged tank is a big waste of your reloading time. Additionally, I find I can hit a tank where infantry is 5 feet away, and not take down the friendly infantry. Not that I don't occasionally get the punish though

I bought TrackIr for Lock On and FS2004, but found that if I downloaded the older software for it, I could use it to enable mouse emulation for inside BF2. It's not as crisp as it is in the other sims, but it's still 1000% better than using the pov hat(not sure if its possible in bf2, but i had it in 42) or the <gasp> mouse.

I'll experiment with the behind the cockpit thing, maybe it depends on latency. Thanks for a good post.

[Eddy01741]

The pictures were credited in there, last lines of it. The text was written by me, today while I was at work.

You may notice that the moves I cover, at least a majority of them, were also covered by the FS2 book. Would you suggest that I make up new moves so as to not infringe on any books that may also have also talked about manuevers?

Of course, I don't recall the FS2 book talking about when to switch to missiles, loop bombing, single bomb dropping, how to avoid missiles, how to use after burner efficiently, hints for improving bomb and missile accuracy, hints for taking down choppers, or how to be a good pilot to a bomber gunner.

Please read the post before accusing me of plagarizing.

Dive bombing is ridiculously accurate, and also allows you to keep multi-bomb drops in a more condensed area. This is especially true of the slower bombers, who can also used the gained speed to bug out after the bombs drop.

Regarding whether this is or is not useful for BF2...
I only covered relevant subjects and manuevers. For instance, I did NOT include the immelaman, because it isn't really possible or feasible. I did, however, cover:
afterburner usage, missile usage, being a good bomber pilot and a good copilot in the bomber seat, the altitude ceiling, the ways to help your odds in surviving a 1500 foot altitude run, how and when to shoot down jets and choppers, how to avoid tking and improve bombing accuracy, how to practice to be able to loop bomb effectively, how to drop single bombs...

Seems I've covered quite a bit of relevant-to-BF2 information. Nonetheless, I hope you learned nothing from it Eddy. Here's to you being a at flying than you are at reading.
=========
To Baseline:

The single bomb drop works very well for me, but to each their own :). Many times, dropping two bombs on a damaged tank is a big waste of your reloading time. Additionally, I find I can hit a tank where infantry is 5 feet away, and not take down the friendly infantry. Not that I don't occasionally get the punish though

I bought TrackIr for Lock On and FS2004, but found that if I downloaded the older software for it, I could use it to enable mouse emulation for inside BF2. It's not as crisp as it is in the other sims, but it's still 1000% better than using the pov hat(not sure if its possible in bf2, but i had it in 42) or the <gasp> mouse.

I'll experiment with the behind the cockpit thing, maybe it depends on latency. Thanks for a good post.

Sry, i know some of it was yours (mainly the writing) but all the pictures most of them were from FS2, i don't want to accuse you of pladigirism, i'm not a high school teacher, But still, could you explain how a roll ofr instance (not a barrel roll) is good for avoiding enemy missiles, unless the missles are really that stupid (which in a sense they already are quite stupid) then that will only avoid gunfire. But i don't do dive-bombing, it's too risky, especially on maps with lots of trees or buildings and cranes, that messes me up, but strafing is fine.

EDIT: BTW, it was morning, i'm on vacation in china, time's are 12 hours different from where i live, sorry for my rage at your post, i'm always grumpy in the morning, cause my mom is always like "take a shower!, change your clothes, brush your teeth" and stuff like that, so i hope you get what i mean. I always am on Totalbf2.com here, there's nothing else, i got no games to play, i already read PC World like 10 times on the 20 hour flight, i read the whole 6th harry potter on the flight too (kinda disappointed about it too) so this is all i doo all day long.

[Baseline]

I actually just flew for an hour or so tonight, and I noticed I really don't use my hat switch (mouselooking) as much as I did in '42. In '42 (or IL2/wwII flight) you're flying slow enough that you can tilt the plane a bit and mouse look to see what's around you, and see where the enemy is/going in dogfights. But in BF2, these planes go so fast that I find myself using rear chase cam and fly by 95% of the time during dogfights, and front chase cam during casual flying sometimes (to make sure a good player isn't on my six in bombing mode). I think just about the only time I actually used my hat (mouselook) was to look around for planes choppers or align myself to fly over the carrier/strip to reload. Really isn't much if any mouselooking in dogfighting situations in BF2. Mostly flyby for me (that is only when the opponent knows I'm on him and he's evasive).

I still think I'll pickup a trackIR though. I'm having a lot of fun in IL2.. I can't quite get the hang of LOMAC though. I really need a tutor. lol..

[Wranger4400]

I should probably do that myself.

[oaKenfoLd]

Eddy-its all good :)
I wrote it myself, but admittedly scanned the pictures out of a book that I knew had illustrations I could, em, illustrate with. I credited the pics to them toward the bottom of the guide too, if you check it out.
Not sure if I'm misunderstand you or vice versa about the barrel roll helping to avoid missiles, but I'm saying its the barrel roll(the corkscrew) that helps, not the aileron roll.
About divebombing, it has its moments. It 1-Gives you alot of speed for the post-bomb bug-out(maybe into a tree or shrub :P ) 2-Allows you to control the spread of bombs if you're in the bomber or dropping 2 out of the fighter. 3-Allows a clearer line of sight on maps with higher terrain and buildings.

Baseline-Lomac is tough as hell man. So far, I've managed to get through the whole A10 tutorial, and can use it pretty well. But it takes about 30 seconds of playing in the fighters before the computer smokes my ass.

Not sure if this will help at all, I don't really know wtf most of these are talking about. Hopefully it helps you more than me though: http://flankertraining.com/lomac/

If you do get the TrackIR, you will be VERY happy. However, I will say that you must be patient in getting it set up and getting your sensitivities and positioning correct. Once you have it there though, man its great.

That lomac expansion allows for the full trackir movement(6 dimensions instead of just x/y). You can zoom in by moving forward, roll your head to bring your view parallell with the horizion while you're turning, etc...

It's not as slick in BF2, though there have been rumors of BF2 going for real TrackIR enhancement. Until then, though, the mouselook emulator for it is 1000x better than trying to fiddle with the mouse. What a joke, dogfighting, where seconds in a turn are the difference between life and death...the mouselook in BF2 then disables any directional control(though it seems throttle works) and you have to unhand your stick. I have a button on my stick to activate mouselook, so I can be very fast with my scan and not lose those valuable seconds.

[big_sammy_b]

Fair play he spent some time on that cool looking website too i like the banner at the top :)

I guess i better get my joystick configured for Bf2 then i assume you can easily set it up so the joystick works in paralell to the mouse and keyboard meaning i can jump in a jet pick up the stick and start flying?

I have a PS2 controller on a usb converter for my pc it'll be interesting to see how well it works :)

[IVfluids]

Ok, barrel rolling might shake off missiles, but the normal rolls won't, that's the same as flying straight, and you can't outrun missiles in this game, only outmanuver them. But, strafing can be a bit useful, but complicated manuvers cant be done on a jet, like a Split-s, or immelman, as well as doing a roll (not rolling side to side, like a flip kinda thing), but the approaches can be useful, but all the complicated manuvers are almost impossible to do.

cant do an immelmen or a split S?

what patch release did this happen on

[Solipsist]

Thanks for posting that info. I can't seem to keep my plane under control. I've been having problems setting my Logitech X3D PRO.

[oaKenfoLd]

IVFluids, good catch on the immelaman, I was thinking of the hammerhead actually. In my old BF42 post documenting such manuevers, I had listed that one.

but the split S is there. It wouldn't be much of a guide nor would I be much of I pilot if I didn't include the split S!

Solipsist, if you tell me what problems you are having and what questions you have, I'd be happy to help you get setup. I use the same stick.

[Ashbringer]

Wait, ramming your plane into a Blackhawk isn’t a tactic?

Well... it wasn't listed, but I find it quite effective

Nice guide, I'll have to dig out my joystick when I get home and try it out

Thanks

~Ash

[Eddy01741]

cant do an immelmen or a split S?

what patch release did this happen on

I still play on 1.00, i'm on vacation in china, never had a chance to upgrade before i left. Anyways, people say it only fixes mem leaks, so i'm still not sure.