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Post by magnifiscent on Oct 7, 2013 8:32:15 GMT -8
Changes mentioned to me Friday night that he would like to see more of the outfit get comfortable flying. I agree, especially in light of community clash, that having a broader skill-base for the rest of the outfit would be a great thing.
As I see it, Skywatch has a real opportunity to assist the rest of the outfit in meeting that goal and I would love to see us rise to that opportunity.
One of the biggest obstacles new pilots face is surviving long enough to learn to fly. The air game is very different from the ground game. Charging head-long into enemy territory is a great way to find yourself staring at an air terminal while your timer ticks down.
Pilots in planetside tend to come in two flavors these days - experienced fliers and targets. The experience gap between people who fly regularly and the people who are learning is VERY wide and only getting wider. The new guys just can't stay in the air long enough to learn the skills they need to survive.
I think that is a great place for skywatch to step in. In the coming weeks, we are going to establish regular days for air training. There will also be a push for ad hoc air squads during "normal" play time. I want to start pairing skywatch vets with new pilots. I want the new pilots taking point with the Skywatch guys flying their wing to protect them and help direct them. We need to give our new pilots time to learn by keeping the enemy aces from just running over them.
This is a great opportunity for vets to train. Learning to fly someone's wing is just as important as protecting the new guys. Skwaych has lots of skill. If we lack anything it is discipline. Learning to fly wing for a rookie, learning to back off a target and let them do the killing, and learning to cover the rookie and protect them are all skills our air vets desperately need to develop.
I'd like to tap TTA's pilots to assist us in this - those guys need to work on many of the same things we do.
I've committed myself to Thursday nights to help train Forty-Six and Two. That would be a good night to have our vets on to train the rookies. I know everyone's schedule is different. I'd like to have at least one other night we make an effort to do this. Caustic has started to try to pull together air squads during "normal" hours. Do your best to assist him in these. The initial reaction is always positive, but participation drops off as the new players die and run out of resources, or get frustrated.
Let's rally around new pilots; an injection of fresh blood and the development of some new skills will only benefit Skywatch, the outfit, and TTA.
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Post by snoggy on Oct 7, 2013 9:41:54 GMT -8
The competitive players will have to play PS2 for this, rather than final fantasy or war thunder. Only way to learn is to do it.... and die often, like everyone else. One night a week isn't going to cut the mustard.
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Post by Changes on Oct 7, 2013 12:36:49 GMT -8
The point of this is to give people a foundation in survival while using aircraft.
Most people don't fly because they don't know how to survive more than a couple of minutes. Their aircraft never get upgraded because "why would I waste the certs when I obviously am not good at this".
I thought the same thing until I decided to learn how to fly. It wasn't until the great pilots like Caustic and ATRgeist explained to me that it's all about basically playing like a bitch and running away a lot in order to keep your aircraft up... Basically survivability.
Having a bunch of friendly air helped me out tremendously in the beginning. So Magnifiscent (one of the best pilots I know and leader of our SkyWatch) volunteered his time to show you guys how overpowered air really is.
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Post by magnifiscent on Oct 7, 2013 13:09:22 GMT -8
I am guilty there, admittedly. That said, I've made a commitment to this initiative and plan to carry through with that. Many hands make light work - any Skywatch vet is encouraged to step up at every opportunity to help us make this a success. |
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Post by magnifiscent on Oct 7, 2013 13:40:40 GMT -8
Speaking of War Thunder, though, time spent there is not entirely wasted. It has been very good for developing situational awareness and team work. The pace of the fighting is much slower than PS2 flying and a little more forgiving. It has definitely given me some ideas of things we can work on and develop.
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Post by snoggy on Oct 7, 2013 16:35:47 GMT -8
The point still stands though. You aren't going to get any better at Planetside2 if you are playing final fantasy.
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Post by Hans1942 on Oct 9, 2013 12:54:10 GMT -8
What if we did Test Server intra-outfit clashes? We go on the TEST server on Hossein (where resources are more forgiving) and have two teams that fight each other. We can have one manned Sundee and one manned skyguard. The goal will be to be the first team to blow up the Sundee. You may not use infantry or other vehicles.
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Post by magnifiscent on Oct 9, 2013 13:07:59 GMT -8
Swatz scheduled us a regular gig with DPSO for scrimmage on the PTS Thursday nights. I don't expect it to be every Thursday, but we'll have that opportunity. We've got a good relationship with NUC and Coltorl has offered to push future crew or recursion to scrim against us from time to time as well. I think we'll have plenty of opportunity to scrim on the test server, likely in a variety of situations.
I'd like to use the PTS to run as close to 'real' circumstances (as far as community clash goes) as we can. The resource starvation is a serious factor and one I want people to get used to. Rationing resources so we're not dead in the second half, and learning to be careful with your planes are skills we all need to develop.
Those scrimmages will overlap with what I planned to use as more focused training time, so I'll look into adjusting the schedule a little bit if necessary.
I don't see a whole lot of value in creating real artificial circumstances to practice in. The live server offers us the opportunity to find easy fights and ease people in. You tend to play like you practice; I want to practice as close to CC situations as possible.
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Post by snoggy on Oct 10, 2013 2:29:08 GMT -8
Swatz scheduled us a regular gig with DPSO for scrimmage on the PTS Thursday nights. I don't expect it to be every Thursday, but we'll have that opportunity. We've got a good relationship with NUC and Coltorl has offered to push future crew or recursion to scrim against us from time to time as well. I think we'll have plenty of opportunity to scrim on the test server, likely in a variety of situations. I'd like to use the PTS to run as close to 'real' circumstances (as far as community clash goes) as we can. The resource starvation is a serious factor and one I want people to get used to. Rationing resources so we're not dead in the second half, and learning to be careful with your planes are skills we all need to develop. Those scrimmages will overlap with what I planned to use as more focused training time, so I'll look into adjusting the schedule a little bit if necessary. I don't see a whole lot of value in creating real artificial circumstances to practice in. The live server offers us the opportunity to find easy fights and ease people in. You tend to play like you practice; I want to practice as close to CC situations as possible. I still don't see the point in all this. Though, should clarify. All fine and dandy with running training sessions to explain things to inexperienced pilots, help them choose what things to spend certs on... giving tips and pointers. Sort of leading them by the hand to help them out but in the end, they have to learn through experience. Where I'm confused is how scrims and 1-2 day a week closed events lasting 1-2 hours is going to help anyone. I mean you look at the experienced outfits, TGWW, mercs, fcrw, recursion... list goes on and on. On the real servers, what's their average BR? 90? 85? The top players are all BR100, they've played for 40+ days (over time). They have tons of experience to dynamic enviroments and their individual skills are phenomenal. I don't see anyone getting up to the levels of ace pilots, let alone ace anything playing for 4 hours a week spread across two days. Flying against TXR using scythes and reavers isn't going to solve anything. Mostly because the vast majority of us have spent more time in flashes than we have in those aircraft, and cannot hope to utilize them to the levels that the baddies can. Now, I think it would be far more beneficial to run a few how-to events, so people can learn to talk the talk.. but maybe not walk the walk. Then just fly.. a lot. Rather than just playing infantry during the week, take up an aircraft and have a go. In my honest opinion there's no better way to learn than to get out there, do it, die a lot.. and learn from your mistakes. I can guarantee you the best pilots on the server didn't get to that level by playing a few hours on Wednesday and a few on friday. I can instantly tell if the ESF coming after me knows what he is doing.. or is some infantry newb who pulled an ESF for giggles. Same goes for liberators. Building on that, flying with the TTA airwing should be a requirement. There are a ton of experienced, dedicated pilots that fly with that group. You can learn a lot and you will live a lot longer with experienced pilots around. As an aside, for aspiring lib pilots and gunners.. it should be obvious that you need to play to learn. Which is very much the case... anyone will tell you. I personally would love to find another TXR lib crew to mentor... we just don't have any dedicated pilots. I've seen fourty up a few times but he usually gets dragged into leading a squad so it's hard to fly. I even got hereticus his first AA dalton kill the other day =) In a nutshell, you can give advice and all that but unless people are willing to log in to practice.... it's a futile attempt. And watch youtube, they are full of informative videos.. and sometimes watching to see how others do it can help. |
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Post by magnifiscent on Oct 10, 2013 8:56:20 GMT -8
I think you've misunderstood exactly how the training is going to be run...or I have done a very poor job of explaining (which is more likely).
I don't want to run closed events with artificial parameters. I want Skywatch pilots cover the asses of new players to try to keep them alive long enough to gain some experience and have some fun. I want them flying with TTA air. I want them flying with Skywatch on fridays. I want Skywatch members to get on and pair up with a rookie and keep them alive. I want all of our pilots taking part in whatever PTS scrimmages we get - they are supposed to be run exactly like community clash events - I want people to practice in that environment as well.
I absolutely agree that the only teacher is experience. Our job as trainers for this will be to keep people alive long enough for them to get that experience.
This isn't limited to 3 days a week. I want skywatch people grabbing rookies and flying their wing all week, whenever you're on. Encourage people to fly with you. Help them.
I am very serious that this will only be effective if we have a good, active response from the rest of the skywatch.
The largest barrier to new pilots is trying to stay alive. Keep them alive.
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Post by snoggy on Oct 11, 2013 1:49:56 GMT -8
Problem is if they don't have an interest in flying, they won't. Not going to pull teeth =P
Even during TTA ops, the past month or two it's been caliver and I on the TTA TS flying with mercs. Lastrogian shows up on occasion but that's about it. The number of dedicated pilots we have... well you can count them on one hand =P
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Post by odaddy on Oct 11, 2013 20:50:00 GMT -8
I'm in skywatch and I am willing to help. My real life is very busy but if we can set up a time or I can post times that I'm avail I'm always willing to help train. I'm trying to see what times work best for me so I can restart those training sessions. As far as playing on TTA and Skywatch, I just have a lot of fun killing people on the ground. I'm ok in the air but if TTA needed pilots, just let me know and I would switch over. At this point I was concentrating on a harasser/vehicle/armor division so I might be leading that... But I'm always willing to help train anyone who wants to fly  |
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Post by magnifiscent on Oct 15, 2013 10:51:19 GMT -8
The number of dedicated pilots we have... well you can count them on one hand =P Yeah, attendance has been dropping off fairly steadily. Even for the events I can make, I've noticed problems. I'd like to solve this by broadening the member base so that we can be successful without requiring everyone to show up every night - a lot of us have other things going on. There are other solutions to this problem; If we don't start seeing some improvement in participation - especially from people with skywatch badges - we'll look into other options. For now, though, let's try to make this new effort a success. |
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Post by snoggy on Oct 15, 2013 12:58:17 GMT -8
I just pray the TTA is running an air wing during ops. Otherwise it's very boring and very lonely.
Even during the week it's much more fun to roll with the mercs as they have more pilots than we do, who fly more often.
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Post by Laistrogian on Oct 15, 2013 14:32:39 GMT -8
even during the last friday night ops, only hops and i were present as TxR in the TTA airwing. caliver didn't show up as snoggy wasn't online. i've seen 2 or 4 skywatch tags in the TxR TS, trying to invite them in TTA TS for the air ops but got almost no response at all. i'm pretty disappointed by the response. one thing we can do is to do traitor tuesday skywatch edition, fly as libs and ESFs, killing TxR infantry until they get fed up with it  |
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Post by Hans1942 on Oct 16, 2013 9:46:41 GMT -8
Omg I am very down for that
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