FeralShadow

hey guys. I've been flying the gunship for some time, and I believe i'm fairly good at it, I know how to fly upside down, line up shots for the gunner, take down gunships and such, I've learned to stay away from walkers and everything. Now then, In all my time flying the gunship there are a few things that I do not know how to evade. When there's a gunship on your tail, what is the best way to shake it? Does your shield cover your back? Sometimes it seems the missiles hit you even if you have it up, if they're directly behind you. SAAW's in particular give me issues. I always seem to get shot down by them. How do you counter them? Thanks fellas!

-Feral

Uranium - 235

I've noticed the same thing. To my knowledge it's a game engine glitch. I've been killed many a time by missiles after I put my shields up. I believe it has something to do with the direction the missiles are hitting you from.

The best way of evading other gunships? Depends who you're flying against. Sometimes you can spook them out with evasive flying (just make sure you don't crash into a tree while flying like a madman). One of my favorite tricks in BF2 was to make them overshoot me. With the more responsive thrust controls in 2142, nosing up and applying full VTOL thrust will make you do a tight flip. It's a good way to shake pursuit, but it'll be difficult to regain track of the hostile gunship.

Also sometimes lousy pilots will smash right into you if you do this maneuver.

Zhohar

This is a great tip for Transport vs. Gunship fights too. You can buy yourself some time by nosing up and shutting off thrust -- this makes you fall back like a kite when it's flying against wind. It's not the be-all and end-all but it does buy you some time -- either to tell your squad to bail or to get the gunners and SAAWs working on the gunship.

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Pfft, how can you call it suicidal if we lived through it?

Reaperassault

the shields are broken on the PAC gunship and it doesn't help that the EU missiles actually track.

this has been tested and they just don't cover the hit box of the gunship to prevent damage like shields should

on a similar note the PAC gunship missiles do not track as well as the EU missiles unless you guide them with a little love.

SAAWs are just nasty sometimes and either gunship is likely to take damage, but its nice that they put the change view in there so you can hit the shields when they are about to hit since they don't always give tone.

either way life is tough in a gunship, but a tough life can bring many rewards to your team.

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LogicalHarm

If you're playing against a decent pilot, looping and other crazy maneuvers is generally just a way to delay their shot, but they will stay with you. If you're playing against a great pilot, looping and such is just pointless, as they'll just hover a short distance away from you until you've stopped being a daredevil and then shoot you in the face.

I find you've got to apply the shields at just the right time while going vertical as fast as possible. Move vertical, but slightly upside down rather than facing forward. As soon as you get to around 600ft you've entered the weirdly fast area (of course I'm just stating the obvious) so you can bust a move to a safe location (try not to make this your home base as a good pilot will just stake it out).

The Top Gun/Harrier jump-jet approach of hitting the brakes so they fly by is a good measure, but check your six, they have to be close to you, otherwise you've just given yourself to them on a silver platter.

Dogfights are generally decided by who saw who first. For this reason, I fly at a constant 200-300ft, unless I'm sure I have air superiority.

Of course, none of these tactics work against Single pilot/gunner switch players (I'm sure someone has a better term for them) who get 60 gunship kills a round, and it's generally best to leave the gunship and harass them with the SAAW.

I was flying with another TG pilot the other day, he said for EMP missiles fly as high as possible, for SAAW missiles, do low flying between buildings etc and hope it hits something. I think that's the best advice for SAAW locks.

FeralShadow

Wow, never knew about the glitches but i suppose now that you mention them.. it's certainly true.

LordKelvin

The SAAW tends to be very, um, tempermental. I think my favorite glitch is when it is about 10m from hitting the gunship, then veers off suddenly at a 90 degree angle into the nothingness. That really is one of those classic Battlefield 2142 "wtf?!" moments.

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Why MTG has lost any sense of balance:
Lotus Cobra

black_Mirror

You mean like Maverick ( Tom Cruse ) in Top Gun?

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draeh

If the gunship pilot is successful in breaking the SAAW lock the missiles just veer off into oblivion. Sometimes I get lucky and they happen to veer in a direction that still causes a hit. Seems that missile technology has regressed in the future.

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LogicalHarm

One of the Northern Strike unlocks should have been, rather than an increased capacity mag, a vehicle scanner which pinpointed the origin of a missile-lock from a ground based anti-air unit.

Repaq

Or just a smoke trail.

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draeh

You Gunship pilots rape us poor ground pounders enough without needing to know exactly where we are.

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Zhohar

1. The "Larger SMG clip" unlock is life saving for engineers in maps where there are few vehicles -- ie. the majority of maps on TG, such as Gibraltar, Cerbere etc. Ten bullets really do make a difference.

2. The smoke trail is an awesome idea for the SAAW.

3. Between the EMP locks on both the walkers and the AAA, the ridiculous damage they both deal, the tank turrets, SAAW locks and titan anti-air turrets -- I think the fight is very much so slated in favour of us poor ground pounders.

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Pfft, how can you call it suicidal if we lived through it?

Uranium - 235

^ ^ ^

Agreed, but maybe I'm biased...

Autoaiming missiles inferior to a gunship? C'mon now.

Anospa

The shields aren't broken, its the missiles and the heat signature they track. The EU gunship's heat signature is pretty odd it seems, as it makes the missiles usually spiral around it before hitting or veering off and doing no harm. The PAC vehicle has a larger one allowing missiles to strike it easier. As for missiles seemingly going through the shields, they pretty much are. SAAWs and gunship missiles seem to ignore the shields if the shields aren't activated in time. I don't know why, but they will go through if they are toggled too late. The shields work, just not when you expect them to.

As for evading/engaging, well, as already said, many dogfights will be decided on who saw who first. As a pilot, situational awareness is paramount, and really must encompass the whole battlefield. Knowledge of terrain and buildings can be useful in losing a SAAWs tracking ability. Watching the minimap will help a lot and can be useful in spotting enemy armor and possibly a spotted gunship.

If you're getting attacked, there's a few things one can do to get out of a messy situation. Check camera angles constantly for glances of enemy gunships and you can sometimes get the jump on them first. Being a daredevil and racing at the ground and using buildings doesn't work too well the majority of the time. I'd only recommend it after making sure your enemy has lost sight of you. Gaining altitude gives you energy, and energy is what will win dogfights. Eroak wrote up a very well detailed air combat theory guide in the TGU forum, check it out for more complete discussions. http://www.tacticalgamer.com/tactica...ory-101-a.html

A lot of being good with the gunship is practice and learning from mistakes. There's some basic stuff people can teach, but its finding a style that works for you.

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