Re: Viper's Dogfighting 101

**Preston85** · 12-10-2005, 03:13 AM

I can follow most pilots, its shooting them down thats the problem.

I don't turn as soon as they do, if you do then you will turn tighter and could end up infront of them or could overshoot them (the perfect time to change direction as they will be trying to turn tight to catch your tail again, then you can shake them off). Delay your turn so you are shadowing them, then once your paths syncronised you can turn slight tighter so that you can strafe without overshooting.

Listen, often a pilot will go off my screen but if you listen (even through earphones) you can pick out if they are infront, left or right of you.

**munchkin** · 12-10-2005, 04:55 AM

Originally Posted by Deveran

Been trying some of these tips out on pubbie servers. Needless to say they are really easy and the only person that can actually give me a challenge was when I bumped into POLSKA the other day after he destoryed me twice (w/o recieveing the kill..neener!).

Anyway, the firing when they are about to steady out works 75% of the time for me. It's the second when their body is straight and it nails them dead on. I still don't understand the fire when they are doing the loop thing. I tried to fire a couple of times when I thought I was where you were talking about, but to no success.

I need some tips on how to stay on someone though, I'm really bad about that. I think I need to slow down a bit more, because I always end up getting close. Any other tips?

If you get too close, do some barrel rolls. These burn off quite a bit of speed and should take you back into firing range.

**StrikeFear** · 12-10-2005, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Preston85

I don't turn as soon as they do, if you do then you will turn tighter and could end up infront of them or could overshoot them (the perfect time to change direction as they will be trying to turn tight to catch your tail again, then you can shake them off). Delay your turn so you are shadowing them, then once your paths syncronised you can turn slight tighter so that you can strafe without overshooting.

Listen, often a pilot will go off my screen but if you listen (even through earphones) you can pick out if they are infront, left or right of you.

That's good stuff, Preston.

There are 3 kinds of "pursuit" in dogfighting.

Lead pursuit. Your nose is aiming in front of the jet you're chasing. You're probably trying for a gun kill.
True pursuit. Your nose is aiming AT the jet. You're probably trying for a missile lock.
Lag pursuit. Your nose is aiming behind the jet you're chasing. You're not trying to hit him here - you're just staying on his tail. You're probably sneaking up, waiting for a gun or missile kill.

When you are tailing a jet, you must use lag pursuit - which is what Preston was talking about. The easiest way to do this in BF2 is to fly your jet along his contrails. Yes - that means he will go off your screen in a tight turn, but as long as you can see his trails, you're fine. If you can't, you'll have to use the sound of his engines.

More tips:

If you can configure your joystick like this, make it so that when you hit a button, it holds down your commo-rose key, clicks the left mouse button, and then lets go of the commo-rose key. Then aim your reticle at something, and hit the button - and you will spot that thing. Very useful for dogfighting, because if you lose sight of the jet you're chasing, you can tail him using your mini-map.
Same configuration procedure, but use the other commo-rose key. This will allow you as the SL to point your reticle at the ground somewhere, and with one click, issue an "Attack here" order. It helps you direct your wingman.
Assume that hunting jets are tailing you in lag pursuit all the time. Constantly look behind you. Don't every fly straight without glancing back. If you do this, gun kills on you will be rare.
Learn how to fly in rear-camera view without crashing. When you are being pursued, this will be your greatest asset. While doing this, learn to make hard turns and then reverse them quickly. This is the best way to lose the pilot behind you, because he will follow your first turn, and you may go off his screen. When he finally sees you again, you are headed back the other way. He won't be able to get back on your six now, if you do do something unpredictable. That brings us to...
Learn to use the 3rd axis. Most players still don't think in 3 dimensions. Take your turns upward or downward - but not completely vertical.
Use your "lift vector". The tightest turn your jet can make is pitching up. But occasionally, do the opposite, because it's unexpected. Then (again) quickly reverse it to throw off your pursuer. Combine moves like these with altitude, roll, and velocity changes.
Don't barrel-roll when being pursued. It may look fancy, but makes it easy for your pursuer to just fly straight and get a missile lock.

**millipede777** · 12-10-2005, 03:39 PM

When I have really hard time losing someone I often a VERY low altitude loop-the-loop. Don't use the afterburner on the way up, but once you get to the top (while you are flying upside down) hit the afterburner and pull up like crazy. You should just barely miss the ground. If the enemy follows you into the loop and doesn't do it perfectly they'll either smash into the ground or pull out of the loop early and lose you.

I've only done this in the F18 (or whatever the US fighter is called on FuShe) and seems to works pretty well against most pilots. Now if you try using this against Dark Viper and still get blown to bits don't blame, I'm just trying to help.

**Preston85** · 12-10-2005, 03:50 PM

Good stuff Strikefear, I really need to dig out the old Lock On, I was trying to think of all the proper terms but its been to long.

Hi-lo and lo-hi manouvers sort of work in BF2, they help when the jet your chasing or trying to lose is more manouverable.

**GRimm** · 12-10-2005, 11:56 PM

Viper, I haven't flown against you yet. I'd like to fly against you some day. I was just playing and I forgot who I kept shooting down but he just kept flying in a straight line was getting quite boring. I'm a decent pilot, So maybe if we see eachother in the server we can go at it. My name in BF2 is RA::GRimm

**wushuhero** · 12-11-2005, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by Steel_Penguin

That would explain why you crash all the time

.

I dont crash, I just land too hard

I guess the jet just cant handle my 1337'ness

**Deveran** · 12-11-2005, 01:43 PM

Well, I've been playing on MA's server for a long while now and it seems to me that either their pilots aren't that great, or I'm getting better. =x I think I've been playing against the pilots you all scrimaged against, because everytime they are flying I hear some other MA member going "Hey <insertMAnamehere>, not getting much competition, eh?" Or the other night some guy was saying he was ranked like 12th in dog fighting. I asked him where he was ranked but had no response. Anyway, I stayed alive and really only died at most once by them through the match (the other deaths are attributed to crashing or flying too low and unexpectedly seeing some radio tower out of the middle of no where =x). I tried some of your tips and I was able to follow them for a good 3-4 minutes until they got fed up and stalled on me. I tried to shoot as soon as they get to the top, but I'm making a slight curve so if they decide to move straight down instead of stalling; thus, I'm not always locked on. Any advice on taking them down? Should I jsut follow them and think they are going for the stall or should I expect them to go down like usual?

Thanks for the tips ya'll. =)

**munchkin** · 12-11-2005, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by Deveran

Well, I've been playing on MA's server for a long while now and it seems to me that either their pilots aren't that great, or I'm getting better. =x I think I've been playing against the pilots you all scrimaged against, because everytime they are flying I hear some other MA member going "Hey <insertMAnamehere>, not getting much competition, eh?" Or the other night some guy was saying he was ranked like 12th in dog fighting. I asked him where he was ranked but had no response. Anyway, I stayed alive and really only died at most once by them through the match (the other deaths are attributed to crashing or flying too low and unexpectedly seeing some radio tower out of the middle of no where =x). I tried some of your tips and I was able to follow them for a good 3-4 minutes until they got fed up and stalled on me. I tried to shoot as soon as they get to the top, but I'm making a slight curve so if they decide to move straight down instead of stalling; thus, I'm not always locked on. Any advice on taking them down? Should I jsut follow them and think they are going for the stall or should I expect them to go down like usual?

Thanks for the tips ya'll. =)

Most of the time I say don't follow them to the ceiling. Or, if you do, maintain a good distance between yourself and the target, and lock them up as you fly. If they're attempting to recover, you should be able to shoot them down, but if they're stupid they'll be spinning to their deaths anyway.

And Dev, if you want to see how good you are I'm more than willing to gun you down during practice. =P

**SloppyJoe** · 12-11-2005, 07:02 PM

How do you make a joystick button that can spot the enemy?

**munchkin** · 12-11-2005, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

How do you make a joystick button that can spot the enemy?

Go into profiles -> Controls

Find this line:
ControlMap.addButtonToTriggerMapping c_GIOk IDFMouse IDButton_0 0 0

Copy/paste it and make the second one look something like:
ControlMap.addButtonToTriggerMapping c_GIOk IDFGameController_0 IDButton_0 0 1

The above depends on what you're using for a joystick.

**munchkin** · 12-11-2005, 07:21 PM

Can anyone recommend a good (hopefully free) video editing program that is pretty simple to use?

I'm going to have a try at turning a 531 practice on BattleRecorder into a proper video.

**Steel_Penguin** · 12-11-2005, 08:04 PM

I don't know about easy too use but Jahshaka is open source and that's what turned up on google.

**face84** · 12-13-2005, 09:44 AM

As i said beofre u guys have to anticipate stall moves. Most of the time even if they r not trying to slow just kick back a little on the engines and when in half of a loop kick them back up with afterburners ull stay on any1.

And as for stalling, for me the best way to do it, is to kick ngines down by a half and turn to one side to lose some speed and them kick them all the way down and turn to the opposite side.
That way ull manage to cut into their circle and when u see them passing in front of u, kick afterburners and go after them.
F22 Lightning 3 comes in handy here cuz it was an arcade game like Bf2 is.

**Dark Viper** · 01-09-2006, 10:45 AM

MMMMM dogfighting tactics and maneuvers.

http://www.combataircraft.com/tactics/index.asp

And while BF2 isn't a flight sim, some of these do come in handy.

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