Vehicle boarding: Hold the E key down!

[ScratchMonkey]

This is a feature someone showed me on a BF1942 Road to Rome map, and DICE carried it forward into BF2.

When you need to board a moving vehicle, don't wait for it to stop. Just hold down the E key and push into the vehicle. As soon as you're in range, it will suck you in. It works especially well when boarding flying vehicles.

The first time I saw this, a teammate had taken off in a 2-seat bomber without me. He told me on TeamSpeak to stand in the middle of the runway with my E key held down, and he flew over me low (as if he was going to run me down) and I popped into the bomber's seat.

I've noticed a lot of new people don't know this trick, and wait for a vehicle to come to a stop before boarding, or they'll stand off to the side, hoping it'll stop for them to get aboard. Or they get run over, and then hit the punish key.

If you know your squad will use this, just put the hammer down and drive that APC through the crowd, and they'll all pop aboard in record time.

The one thing to worry about is that you can still run down someone if you're full to capacity. So pay close attention to the + number after the driver's name to see if it's likely he's got a seat open for you. If not, you'll be road kill.

[Deveran]

Anyone in my sqaud knows how to hit the E key now. Else..they get ran over. I don't stop for them and I try and run them over. Why do I do this? They can spawn on me when we're over to the objective instead of waiting for a ride.

I didn't know you could hold it down, I just continually press the E key and jump and it hops right in the vehicle. Good tip!

[icky]

Originally Posted by Deveran

I didn't know you could hold it down, I just continually press the E key and jump and it hops right in the vehicle. Good tip!

I've lagged many times right at that crucial moment and found myself jumping into the vehicle and then out of it... very frustrating.

[jepzilla]

Originally Posted by ScratchMonkey

This is a feature someone showed me on a BF1942 Road to Rome map, and DICE carried it forward into BF2.

When you need to board a moving vehicle, don't wait for it to stop. Just hold down the E key and push into the vehicle. As soon as you're in range, it will suck you in. It works especially well when boarding flying vehicles.

The first time I saw this, a teammate had taken off in a 2-seat bomber without me. He told me on TeamSpeak to stand in the middle of the runway with my E key held down, and he flew over me low (as if he was going to run me down) and I popped into the bomber's seat.

I've noticed a lot of new people don't know this trick, and wait for a vehicle to come to a stop before boarding, or they'll stand off to the side, hoping it'll stop for them to get aboard. Or they get run over, and then hit the punish key.

If you know your squad will use this, just put the hammer down and drive that APC through the crowd, and they'll all pop aboard in record time.

The one thing to worry about is that you can still run down someone if you're full to capacity. So pay close attention to the + number after the driver's name to see if it's likely he's got a seat open for you. If not, you'll be road kill.

I call it flathatting a gunner.

It's a safe way to pick someone up if you've got a good pilot and the enemy jets are camping your airfield.

[Shiner]

My only concern is that you don't necessarily know if that APC is full and if you jump in front holding "E" your going to be mashed into the groud if it is.

[ScratchMonkey]

Originally Posted by Shiner

My only concern is that you don't necessarily know if that APC is full and if you jump in front holding "E" your going to be mashed into the groud if it is.

Yep, I thought of that just as I was finishing my write-up, hence my recommendation that you check the "+" number above the vehicle to see if it has room. Alas, you have to know how many seats it has. You can also get mashed if you jump in front just as the last seat fills, and that might happen if someone spawns in on his squad leader. So leave some margin if you can.

Back when BF had capture the flag games, this was a great tactic for picking up your capper in a hot zone. A 2-seater just had to time his low-pass over the flag so he'd hit just as the capper grabbed, and you'd be out and clear of your chasers.

This is also a good tactic for rescuing swimmers. If you're in a transport on Wake and flying low over the water and see a swimmer, fly as low as you can and the smart swimmer will get sucked up into an empty seat. Same for boats. Don't try to pass the swimmer, go right over him.

[ScratchMonkey]

Lots of good examples in Sir Community's stunt video:

http://media.putfile.com/Movie2645