Hello everyone,
So for those who have flown with or against me, Probally know I'm in the Gunship just about 24/7 365, WHEN we are on a gunship map. I've flown for going on 3 years now. I've also had the privilege to fly and team with some very skilled gunship Pilots such as x=Fast=x & Soulzzz. In this, I will discuss both Pilot & Gunner positions. Now here we go!!



So the basic concept is what is your sensitivity set to for your Gunship.
-Me personally, it is set to 10, and my YEW/YAW are both 7.

Reason why so high?
-I fly with a mouse and keyboard, & if I gunship flew past me or a gunship was behind me, I want to be able to get myself in position to be able to take a shot the fastest way possible.


Now it is time to learn your Gunship.
-Now truelly at the end, and if you do not agree, the EU (Black) Gunship I believe is the best out of the two.
--Reason Why?
---The EU Gunship can out maneuver the PAC (Tan) Gunship without any problem.
---The EU Gunship also has better missiles. Why? I do not know but EA just did this.
---The PAC Gunship does have a Shield glitch, Meaning that if you hit directly at the back tail, even with the shields up, You have an 60% chance that the missile will hit through the shield.
---The PAC Gunship also has a problem with its missiles, For somereason he does not like to lock on, unlike the EU Gunship's missile can lock on a lot more.
---However the PAC Gunship, & you may disagree, does turn faster if you hover to turn around. (Normaly you would not hover in a Gunship, but for somereason, I have learned that if you are in close combat with another Gunship, you can hover for a few seconds to turn around and it will actaully be faster than the EU.)


Am I saying you should NEVER fly the PAC Gunship? No, I have gotten success from both Gunships, Now as I prefer to fly the EU Gunship over PAC Gunship, I will still fly the PAC Gunship & can still help with Anti-Air/Vehicles.


~~


Okay, So you have a general idea of each Gunship. Now time for the learning curb.

(For first time Pilots)


Unless you use joystick, which I don't but HAVE flown with it, I'm only going to go over Mouse & Keyboard.


~So the basic,

W - Accelerate
A - turn Left
D - right Right
S - Hover (Not Reverse)
X - Shields

An icon with a locking noise will come up on the bottom of your screen if anything Targets you. (SAWW, Gunship, AA Gun)


The mouse helps you turn more and let you move either Up or Down, Left or Right.

If you use for example A to turn Left and move your mouse to the Upper Left, you will actaully turn faster.


~Landing

Landing I have heard to be a big issue when you first learn, Hey guess what?! Same here =)
We all start somewhere. So anyways.

Hovering is not the worse thing to do, but for just learning. Say you are coming in to repair/rearm let go off the W key for a few seconds, (Unless you are coming in too low) Then start Tapping W key untill you can either land or keep tapping the W key over the Helipad.


~Air to Air

Air to Air is probally just as hard as Air to Vehicles. Specially when the pilot has flown for awhile.

So time to use your imagination and some of the situations while Combat.

~If you are on the enemies 6, (Behind him directly) & he moves to the left, You have to lead shot your missiles. So put your nose or Cross Hairs infront of the Enemy Gunship and fire away. If you miss, keep track of the Enemy Gunship, If you have a skilled Gunner who can Spot him, Great! Makes life so much easier.

~Now if the Gunship is on your 6, There are a few things you can do to out maneuver them.
--Such as Fly straight up and do a loop.
--Find a friendly Walker to help you! (Has saved me a few times! (Thank you Ion/INSU))
--If you are more skilled you can actaully do half a circle, stay upside down and pull back on your mouse while holding W key. This is a VERY hard maneuver to learn, even took me a few months to get down. If you can stay at 150+ in the air, untill you feel safe that you lost him, or know you did. (Personal Favorite)


Now some people might ask why I said why not just turn sharp?
Well the reasoning for this is if they know better, They will slow down and take a shot at you if you are just flying in a circle just like that.
Also if you stay straight, They will just pop you till you die.
--Also note that you will learn to use your shield too if they start shooting at you.

~Now finally Close Combat with a Gunship

--Guns in the Gunship will hit through the shield. So be aware of close combat and a gunner.
--Try to stay higher than the Enemy Gunship, If you are under them, The Gunner can do a lot of damage and every Damage does count. I have lived with 11 Armor left.
--This does become tricky when you find yourself Tangoing with another Gunship. Shields is an issue, Do not pop shields untill you see them fire atleast 2 shots. 99.9% of the time though, they will shoot all their missiles, not just one and stop.
--Why would they stop if I put my shields on you ask? If you shoot 1 shot and see they pop their shields, Stop firing, Because by the time you get a run of missiles out, Their shields will have blocked them all, By the time you get reloaded, They might have already taken you out, So if you see them pop their shields, Hold fire and then light them up like a Christmas Tree when they go down.


~!~Now remember these are only of the few combat sitautions, Not ALL of them. I will try to update time to time if anything does every change. =)



~Air to Vehicle/Infratry

Now this does become tricky time to time. A few things can you should take note on.

-Walkers in the Anti-Air seat will be very difficult to kill without a Gunner, even with a Gunner, you want to make sure this Gunner can hit his target. The Walker is not very big truelly, and a lot harder to bring down without a Skilled Gunner. The Walkers Anti-Air Machine Gun can take a a Gunship down in a matter of seconds, even with the shield on.
-Tank's Gunner seats may also bring you down if you stay around too long, They also go through the Shields.
-Try to advoid sitting at a Flag/Silo too long, Either someone can either get a Pilum shot off, a tank may just take a happy shot off, or a Gunship might come by. Or all 3 at once. That was funny.. Oh anyways! Oh and of course an AA Gun will give you sparkly colors as you start going down by an Emp and he/she blows you up. =)
-Another great trick is when you hear the TV go off, and as soon as you see it, Pop atleast 2 shots into an Vehicle. Your missiles are faster than TVs so Gunner will still get rewarded but the Vehicle will go down instantly without time to Shield/Repair.



~-_
Now now now, I know some gunners might be wondering why I haven't spoke for any tips for them, It is coming up soon I promise!!
_-~

Now this will be a little tip for once you get more comfortable with your flying skills and awareness.

-Which brings me to knowing your map and limitations.
--As much as you would love too, You cannot go doing a loop at 20 meters in the air, Just won't happen. Sorry.
--Walkers will light you up if you just sit there and smile.
--And then next thing you know is you blow up. Good times..

-Switching Camera views, Now I know we try to make it as realistic as possible, In a way, you can stay in your Cockpit view and look only so far, But I personally do this all the time and if you have seen any of my youtube Videos, You see me switch a lot of views.
--The reason we do this is so we can obviously get more of a view of who is where and what we couldn't see before, we may now be able to see.
--A lot of times I can spot a Gunship flying behind me if I see a lock icon pop up. Or when I do a loop, I can see where the Enemy Gunship is going and where I should position myself to get the edge against them.
-Check your maps constantly to look for the Gunship or when you hear it.

-Another thing you can do is fly between 250-300 Meters in the air, & time to time point you nose down and just float down letting go of W for a little bit or Tapping it slowing. This gives you a view of the field at the same time, Lets your Gunner spot things and/or take a TV shot at a Vehicle.


So I believe that sums it up really for part of this Guide. Now note I will find things probally to add time to time soo...If you have a suggestion or something to add, Just leave a comment and I can add it. =)




~!~!~!~Gunners!~!~!~

Oh I bet ya'll are excited now, Gunners talk time. =)

So Gunners job is not as easy as some people might say, The end.
Though there is not a lot to know about it.

You have 2 Basics

TV Missile (You control this with your mouse)
Machine Gun.

Yes this will be very short, Sorry, but truelly. Not all that much to it.



So you have the basics down as in if you Right Click your mouse button, You switch to the TV, then switch back if you Right Click again.
When you are in TV mode a circle with an X in the middle is FRIENDLY, Please do not shoot. I have done that mistake before, Oops.
A Square around a vehicle are Enemy.
Air Vehicles do not pop up as anything. So if you go to shoot, Make sure it is not Friendly.


~Air to Air

-This gun, You will have to lead shot, Unless they are directly infront of you, It is hard to say how far you have to lead shot, but after enough practice you get the hang about where you should be aiming.
-TVing Air to Air is EXTREMELY HARD. I still might only hit a Gunship/Transport about half the time. Truelly if the Gunship is sitting still, He/She deserves to be TVed, but if they moving. Do not waste the TV's on a for sure miss.


~Air to Vehicle/Personal

Yup, you get to make things go Boom, Launch Infratry 100 Meters in the Air and more! Well I think there is more. Anyways!

-If there is a couple Infratry on the ground, Gun them down, However, If there are 3+ more guys, & they are not moving around too much or you can TV them, Take the shot. Best knocking 3 guys in 1 shot then having to float around for someone else to come shoot you down.
-Walkers will be the toughest and hopefully you can hit them 1 try. It makes it a million time easier if you hit them.
-Each time you go to a flag, Keep your TV ready. Switch constantly, If you see something, Tell your Pilot & spot it out. Take a longer range shot. By the time you the Gunship gets there to see the Target, you should be reloaded.



~!Bugs To TV!~
Yes there is a common bug and happens atleast a few times per round on me. The TV sometimes does not like to let you direct it, So you get to watch the TV fly away. However if you keep Left Clicking, The TV will be directable again. Letting you control it.







~!@@!~ Well this truelly sums it up. I know it is a lot of reading and you won't become an expert Pilot/Gunner in 1 day. It took over 2 years to learn what I know now.

Now I'll give a story of myself.


While I was learning to fly & gun, I watched Youtube Videos over and over again of Different pilots AROUND the whole World. I basically studied this Shots, Saw what they did, Saw different ways to Approach Targets and It helped me A LOT! If you are interested in looking at my Videos, Just search Dorb on Youtube. Their will be a few videos with me Flying and my Good friend and Gunner Kaminari666 from =TBG= that is ran by x=Fast=x and Soulzzz.


Well I hope you have learned a thing or two that you might have not known so. =)
Good luck, and truelly the best thing you can do now is Practice Practice Practice! Get those invites into a Gunship Squad, Or make your own. Get in that Gunship and learn it. Get a comfortable feel for it and have fun of course. =)




If you have any comments or questions, Feel free to tell/ask and I'll be happy to either add something I missed out or answer a question.

Thanks =)
Dorb