MrJengles

This is something I've been meaning to post for some time now. For some reason a lot of the time when I fly, and my gunner or my pilot is in my squad, I hear less talking than when I'm in a squad on the ground, and I ask myself, why? Is there less to tell eachother about what's going on? As far as I see it the answer is no.

Gunner

A gunner should be VOIP spotting like crazy. A pilot can miss things on the radar just like anyone can at times. That tank at a far away flag look like a nice target? Ask to be pointed in that direction for a second and send a TV missile his way.

Or even more importantly, spotting the enemy Gunship! If that gunship isn't on the radar then it is entirely possible the pilot missed it flying somewhere in the distance. Tell him it's there, and on top of that, exactly where, you need to think in 3 dimensions when you're in the air, so "enemy gunship, he's north-east - our height" or "gunship near ____ flag, up a bit too" or "way up high".

And why is it in a dogfight my gunner goes almost dead quiet while we are being chased? He's just thinking he has nothing to do until his gun is lined up...but whenever I'm gunning I'll be VOIP spotting that gunship like crazy, saying where the gunship is over and over because its position is constantly changing "he's below now - going behind us". At that point I realised a very useful trick only recently (really should have thought of it sooner, whoops XD) changing your view! If he's behind you, as a gunner you can't possibly hit him, so the best thing to do is switch to reverse third person and say "he's not looking at us yet.....now he is...he's firing, use the shields!" It stops shields being wasted too early, or used too late. Furthermore, this can be used to find out how close that SAAW or other anti-air missile is. A useful dodge tactic is to go in a straight line until it is close and then suddenly change direction, (ie dive if you were going up at first). So tell the Pilot it's following you and for him to fly straight, then "dive now"....should it be unavoidable you can also tell him to raise the shields.

Expanding on a previous point, knowing whether the enemy gunship is or isn't looking at you when you know he's behind you makes a huge difference, because all of those flips and dodging movements should be used the moment he is, to throw him off. Just like a shield - if used too early you will have less of it remaining when the enemy finally does face you and fire. Of course you can just do another flip, again and again...but there will always be that moment you level out, or make a movement that was expected. Half-way through dodging isn't good, before you move and the opponent doesn't know which way you'll go: much better.

Pilot

Next we come to the Pilot. While the gunner is busy spotting everything and firing whenever he is lined up, it is the job of the Pilot to make all of the decisions about which targets to go for and to fly around in his own unique way. The gunner is not a mind reader, he has no idea whether you're diving to avoid that lock on or because you're giving him a shot at those infantry. Pilots need to tell the gunner where to look, so both of you are looking in the same direction and focusing on the same objective. This way you don't get pilumed flying low because the gunner thought he was meant to be taking a shot at that tank and then suddenly returns to the gunship view finding the ground crawling with infantry. The pilot being annoying that no bullets were fired and the gunner that no requests were made; this is not a tactical way to play. Anytime that a pilot makes a decision on a target he should tell the gunner, what it is and where it is, again with 3 dimensions included if it is an air target.

Conclusion

Alright so there are people who do this very well, but I find them rather rare and far between. There are also plenty of people that say "TV that tank" or "gunship - up" together with a map and a q-spot, this is generally effective enough. But I mean for this thread to remind gunners to spot consistantly, not occasionally. And for pilots to mention when the target has changed, if you both miss the tank or you happen to be flying towards an obvious target, where do you think the gunner will be trying to aim? Even though you are now more worried about that walker...

I am hardly an amazing pilot, but with a competant co-pilot, I see a significant boost to my performance in-game. So just a reminder to everyone to not simply say the bare-minimum on VOIP to count as using it, but plenty more!

LogicalHarm

Good points made here. However, personally, hyper-active gunners only add to the pressure I'm already under. If I'm in a dog fight, my gunner shouting at me is the last thing I need. I've potentially got a gunship trained on me, SAAW's and EMP's trained on me with alarms going off constantly. My gunner shouting at me is not helping. In dogfights, I don't really need my gunner to continuously tell me where the gunship is, i only need to know one thing: whether he's above or below me. Other than that, I'll take care of the gunship, you just concentrate on q-spotting him and waiting for an opportune shot with the guns/tvm. VOIP spotting does absolutely nothing for me, as he's changing position constantly.

So for me, gunners should only relay relevant info that the pilot is unlikely to know. I don't need to know where every tank on the map is, just the most dangerous things. Even then I'm unlikely to have missed those walkers. As a pilot, I'll always remind my gunner that Walkers are first, followed by AA etc, but ideally they should know this.

Re. Pilots. Indeed the pilot should be talking to the gunner, but personally I'm usually quite general in my requests. I'll generally just say, "Switch to guns" or "TV's please".

This is all just personal to me though. I like to take a calm approach to these situations, and there is such a thing as over-communication.

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MrJengles

Well I don't mean for someone to be hyper-active in spotting or for it to be anything but calm. Shouting won't help but then no-one should be shouting anyway.

I know he's constantly chaging direction...that's why I find it helps to know where he is. Also, if you want to know whether he's above or below that could very well and, most likely, change often and so your gunner is VOIP spotting for you. If he's on the radar I dont mean you need to say right or left while dodging. But for those times you exit a series of maneuvers and the enemy isn't on the map, VOIP spot away.

General requests work most of the time, but I find all too often I am focusing on an old target because the Pilot hasn't said that there is a new one. Perhaps that's down to me then, but if the Pilot wants me to shoot at something and hasn't said, I can't be entirely to blame.

Guardianx11x

When I fly, most of the time in now in view of the ground. When I need intel, I berate the commander, like Logical, the only thing I ever have my gunner Q-spot is the gunship. When I'm not in a dogfight of engaging a target I use the PDS to sweep the map at a high altitude (where the gunship actually flies faster). I find this to be a fairly effective tactic that yields plenty of intel.

The reason why I dont fly lower and have my gunner Q-spot stuff is because a Q-spot on me in the gunship can sometimes be certain death, this is not the case for ground armor. Gunships rely more on surprise and quick engage-retreat tactics.

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Mr.Ander50n

I flew with guardian, and liked his tactics of flying above,and tried them on a pubby server today, with a lot of success. Swooping down on an unsuspecting gunship gave me the victory every time.

When I squadded up with a half decent TV shooter, we had a hayday picking off tanks from a high altitude,and even took out 3 or 4 gunships that were hovering below us.

Flying at a high altitude with a PDS is a great way to go, and your gunner can concentrate on TV'ing. In addition, no one will have the chance to Q-spot you,since you can't see the gunship flying high (unless the commander Q-spotsyou...)

In terms of communication, if a gunship gets the drop on me, I want him to tell me where he flew to so I can make the correct direction change and take him out. Sometimes it is nearly impossible to find the enemy gunship, especially if he is directly above or below you, and having another pair of eyes certainly helps.

On the TG server, if there are awesome pilots on such as guardian, I prefer to gun, because I have more of a chance of TV'ing an unsuspecting tank than taking them out XD