Post by magnifiscent on Mar 18, 2013 14:10:08 GMT -8
**updated: Preliminary passes made to remove outdated information. Will work on updating nose cannon information in the wake of the overhaul a few months ago.**
Nosce Hostem: Know your enemy.
Temet Nosce: Know yourself.
Rule #1 of the Dicta is concerned with pitting your strengths against your opponent's weaknesses. Sometimes this means shaping the encounter to give you an advantage in positioning, sometimes this means reacting in a way to even the odds, and sometimes this means pitting the strengths of your machine against the weaknesses of your opponent's. Fortunately we are playing a relatively asymmetrical game - Not all ESFs are created equally. Knowing where you excel and where your opponent excels can be vital in gaining the upper hand.
What follows are some preliminary notes on the capabilities of each ESF, some common tactics, easy counters, and suggested tactics. This is not a comprehensive list (yet). Criticism and contributions will be welcome. And as always, there are exceptions to the rules.
Empire Specific Fighters (ESF) or Air Superiority Fighters (ASF)
I actually prefer the ASF nomenclature as it more aptly identifies their true role, but the PS2 community has adopted ESF (probably due to the focus on ground attack rockets). Either way, there is one for each faction. TR has the Mosquito, NC has the Reaver, and the VS have the Scythe. I'll detail my thoughts on each in turn.
Know the Enemy:
Reavers:
Wiki Description:
The Reaver is a one man air superiority fighter in use exclusively by the New Conglomerate. Its large engines have the greatest afterburner capacity and its heavy frame give it the best dive speed.
Visual/Hit boxes:
The Reaver is typically called the Flying Brick. It's slow, it's big, it's heavy. It has a nice wide rectangle with a tall profile and a long tail (good for catching your bullets during a turn). This things is a nice big target from pretty much every angle.
Pros:
The Reaver is a good plane. It does, truly, have the greatest capacity for fast bursts of speed with the afterburner. On a short sprint it will out run even the mosquito. While dive speed is of dubious advantage and rarely used to good effect, it DOES have the heaviest frame. This thing bleeds a lot speed during a turn, giving it the illusion of a very tight turning radius. The mass of the Reaver gives them the ability to perform a 'signature' maneuver:
This is something just about every reaver pilot has learned to do or develops instinctively. It allows them to out turn you in a convectional turning engagement. This maneuver is the bane of many a foolish pilot but is not without exploitable flaws. We'll come back to this in a moment. It is excellent at tricking pilots into missing with sloppy gunnery and if you don't break your speed ahead of time they will end up out pacing your turn radius. While you sit relatively still trying to catch them with your gun sights, they will hammer you with the Mustang AH or the rotary.
The Reaver has access to a nasty rotary, Breaker rocket pods, AA missiles (Tomcats), and the Air Hammer shotgun.
They excel at close-range dog fights but have plenty of punch and can match a mosquito's firepower punch for punch.
Cons:
Some of the things that work for a Reaver also work against them. While they may be able to dump speed during a turn, their try agility is pretty bad - that heavy air frame just will not out-turn a Mosquito that is matching speed. Their speed is limited; they have the slowest cruise speed of all the ESFs and their Afterburners are limited. They cannot maintain a chase for long and cannot run for long.
1. Reaver pilots have become too reliant on their reverse thrust maneuver. You can almost guarantee they will try it in a fight. The flight path of maneuver is almost always the same. If you are moving slowly enough when they do it, you will be able to lead them with your gun, essentially forcing them to fly directly into the path of your bullets. The maneuver must be anticipated, however. If you don't start breaking first, they will drop their speed faster, out turn you, and hammer you.
My two recommendations are as follows: Get good at anticipating and recognizing the maneuver. Reverse flight is only possible under certain circumstances (outlined in the video above). It is fairly difficult for a Reaver pilot to surprise an experienced Mossie with this maneuver. If you don't catch the trick in time, treat it like a head-on pass. The mosquito has fantastic acceleration; if you fall behind in the turn, step on the gas and accelerate at (and past) your opponent. At this point you can choose to disengage, open up the engagement distance, or turn around and try again. Each of these options has their place; truly mastering ACM (air combat maneuvers) will lie in knowing when it is best to apply each. IMO, it is probably safer to learn to read the target and gun them down rather than drag out the fight or run.
2. A Reaver trying to escape will pile on the speed. A lot of pilots try to maximize their speed by flying in a straight line - that being the shortest distance. Gunnery is a big help here. Targets flying straight make easy kills. Lead them, correct for bullet drop, and empty your nose gun at them. Alternatively, this makes for a good time to use AA missiles assuming they have popped flares recently. Give em a parting missile as well as some parting gunfire and then move on.
*A note here: Just because you can beat their speed on the long-haul does not mean you have a license to chase them back to their warp gate just to prove it. This is a foolish thing to do. You might get away with it sometimes, but you'll get nailed at the worst time if you make a habit of it. Play smart. During ops, control is more important than kills. Run off is just as good as dead. If they come back, you'll have your shot again. Pace yourself.*
3. The Reaver has nasty guns, but most are designed for close range. The Rotary is roughly the same as our's - deadly close in, but prone to missing further out. The Air Hammer is very much as close-up weapon.
Taking advantage of this is a matter of positioning and controlling your blood-thirst. It is a lot like fighting their infantry on the ground - don't get too close if you can avoid it. Close in their weapons are dangerous, far away, not so much. Close in, their reverse thrust can out-turn you. Far away, it looks kind of silly and doesn't do shit to get them out of your reticle.
Know the Enemy:
Scythes:
Wiki Description:
The Scythe is a one man air superiority fighter in use exclusively by the Vanu Sovereignty. Vanu technology allows the Scythe to be a more stable aircraft when hovering and decelerating.
Visual/Hit Boxes:
The scythe has a very wide, flat shape. The leading edge is razor thin and hard to hit side-on. From above or below it is a nice big target and the plane bulges nicely towards the rear making it fairly easy to hit from behind or head-on.
Pros:
The wiki describes the advantages as hover and deceleration. While the reaver can kill speed effectively during a turn, these guys can stop on a dime and typically do as their "go to" maneuver. They don't need to turn to drop their speed and this catches a lot of pilots off guard.
Their weapons are pretty nasty. They've got the default Sauron which has next to no drop on the bullets. That means it is very easy for them to aim at a distance. It also reducing the factors they have to account for when leading their target, so their weapon accuracy tends to be better than it otherwise might be. They've got the Light PPA instead of rockets - they do intense damage per shot but fires slower than our rockets. That gives them comparable DPS, but much better burst. I'm actually unfamiliar with the Hailstorm at this time. Their photon pods seem to be on par with our Tomcats.
In the hands of a good pilot, the scythe is a decent threat. It doesn't have the agility of the mosquito or the quick sprint of the Reaver, but it can decelerate and hover very well. It can lure you in and force you to play the turning game; a game it can win by sitting still and hovering inside your turn radius.
Cons:
Unfortunately its greatest asset is also its greatest weakness. Speed is life in the air and hitting the brakes really only works in the movies. If you prepare for it, all they are doing making themselves a nice target. If you anticipate the move, you can slow down nearly as quickly - they aren't getting bonus decel during the turn like the reaver.
The scythe can be a more difficult target to hit, but if you can lead them with your gun during a turn, they will eat every single bullet - they are a huge target from a top-down angle (like you seeing during a high-roll turning race).
The scythe is deceptively thin - scythe pilots feel smaller than they are.
My suggestions here are really just expect them to hit the breaks as soon as they start taking damage. Pull off the acceleration in anticipation and you can stay on them plenty long. If you can't make the breaking, gun the jets, turn away and open up your distance a bit. Use your acceleration and then try again.
Stay mid to close range on these guys as long as you are matching speed well; their cannons really excel at longer ranges due to less bullet drop. Stay behind or above and give them a little cushion at the outset of the engagement and you'll do fine.
Know Yourself:
Mosquitoes (the good guys):
Wiki Description:
The Mosquito is a one man air superiority fighter in use exclusively by the Terran Republic. Decades of refinement have made this aircraft the quickest and most agile. It has the quickest acceleration while boasting the highest cruise and climbing speed.
Visual/Hitbox:
The mosquito is a smallish round target. It presents a long narrow target top-down and side-on, and a narrow target head-on. I believe the issues with the extra sized hit box have been corrected. We aren't the hardest to hit, but neither are we a huge target.
Pros:
The mosquito is the most agile and the fastest of the ESFs. Our cruise speed is anywhere from 220 to 240 stock (depending on if you are tilting and using the thrusters for extra push). We can turn sharper than the other ESFs when our speeds match. That is an important distinction, btw. You cannot out-turn your opponent just by rolling your wings over and turning; speed counts for more than agility in a turn. Many a foolish mosquito pilot will get out turned by failing to modify their speed effectively.
Cons: Our high cruise speed can be a liability when it comes time to drop air speed. We have a light air frame and weak brakes and that means if we don't plan ahead, we can lose the turning game in a hurry. This is worsened by the fact that we tend to be moving faster than the other ESFs - not only do we drop speed more slowly, we have more speed to drop.
You need to be aware of this and plan accordingly. Give your target a cushion so you can minimize their deceleration advantage, learn the correct gun lead for your engagement range, and get used to bullet drop which comes into play during longer-ranged engagements.
Airframes: We have 3 options, each with their benefit. It comes down to pilot preference as to which to use.
Dogfighting: Further augment your already impressive agility. This will make you the most nimble thing in the air and is my personal favorite.
Hover: This addresses our only weak area - deceleration and hover. It is a great choice and has excellent application for ground attack and dog fighting.
Racer: Augments your already impressive speed. I feel like this gives you the least impact for the slot, but some people really like it. I think it takes some work and increased speed can be a real liability during a dogfight - having more speed means you have to bleed more to out turn your opponent. You can run and chase, but I don't feel these are terribly useful anyway. Still, some people love this frame. I suggest a comparison in VR before you commit to one or the other.
--------------
Knowing what your enemy is good at will help you anticipate what they are going to do. Knowing what you are bad at will help you avoid placing yourself is situations that magnify your weakness.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I will do my best to add pointers to help newer pilots navigate the learning curve more quickly.
In the end there is no better teacher than experience.
Nosce Hostem: Know your enemy.
Temet Nosce: Know yourself.
Rule #1 of the Dicta is concerned with pitting your strengths against your opponent's weaknesses. Sometimes this means shaping the encounter to give you an advantage in positioning, sometimes this means reacting in a way to even the odds, and sometimes this means pitting the strengths of your machine against the weaknesses of your opponent's. Fortunately we are playing a relatively asymmetrical game - Not all ESFs are created equally. Knowing where you excel and where your opponent excels can be vital in gaining the upper hand.
What follows are some preliminary notes on the capabilities of each ESF, some common tactics, easy counters, and suggested tactics. This is not a comprehensive list (yet). Criticism and contributions will be welcome. And as always, there are exceptions to the rules.
Empire Specific Fighters (ESF) or Air Superiority Fighters (ASF)
I actually prefer the ASF nomenclature as it more aptly identifies their true role, but the PS2 community has adopted ESF (probably due to the focus on ground attack rockets). Either way, there is one for each faction. TR has the Mosquito, NC has the Reaver, and the VS have the Scythe. I'll detail my thoughts on each in turn.
Know the Enemy:
Reavers:
Wiki Description:
The Reaver is a one man air superiority fighter in use exclusively by the New Conglomerate. Its large engines have the greatest afterburner capacity and its heavy frame give it the best dive speed.
Visual/Hit boxes:
The Reaver is typically called the Flying Brick. It's slow, it's big, it's heavy. It has a nice wide rectangle with a tall profile and a long tail (good for catching your bullets during a turn). This things is a nice big target from pretty much every angle.
Pros:
The Reaver is a good plane. It does, truly, have the greatest capacity for fast bursts of speed with the afterburner. On a short sprint it will out run even the mosquito. While dive speed is of dubious advantage and rarely used to good effect, it DOES have the heaviest frame. This thing bleeds a lot speed during a turn, giving it the illusion of a very tight turning radius. The mass of the Reaver gives them the ability to perform a 'signature' maneuver:
This is something just about every reaver pilot has learned to do or develops instinctively. It allows them to out turn you in a convectional turning engagement. This maneuver is the bane of many a foolish pilot but is not without exploitable flaws. We'll come back to this in a moment. It is excellent at tricking pilots into missing with sloppy gunnery and if you don't break your speed ahead of time they will end up out pacing your turn radius. While you sit relatively still trying to catch them with your gun sights, they will hammer you with the Mustang AH or the rotary.
The Reaver has access to a nasty rotary, Breaker rocket pods, AA missiles (Tomcats), and the Air Hammer shotgun.
They excel at close-range dog fights but have plenty of punch and can match a mosquito's firepower punch for punch.
Cons:
Some of the things that work for a Reaver also work against them. While they may be able to dump speed during a turn, their try agility is pretty bad - that heavy air frame just will not out-turn a Mosquito that is matching speed. Their speed is limited; they have the slowest cruise speed of all the ESFs and their Afterburners are limited. They cannot maintain a chase for long and cannot run for long.
1. Reaver pilots have become too reliant on their reverse thrust maneuver. You can almost guarantee they will try it in a fight. The flight path of maneuver is almost always the same. If you are moving slowly enough when they do it, you will be able to lead them with your gun, essentially forcing them to fly directly into the path of your bullets. The maneuver must be anticipated, however. If you don't start breaking first, they will drop their speed faster, out turn you, and hammer you.
My two recommendations are as follows: Get good at anticipating and recognizing the maneuver. Reverse flight is only possible under certain circumstances (outlined in the video above). It is fairly difficult for a Reaver pilot to surprise an experienced Mossie with this maneuver. If you don't catch the trick in time, treat it like a head-on pass. The mosquito has fantastic acceleration; if you fall behind in the turn, step on the gas and accelerate at (and past) your opponent. At this point you can choose to disengage, open up the engagement distance, or turn around and try again. Each of these options has their place; truly mastering ACM (air combat maneuvers) will lie in knowing when it is best to apply each. IMO, it is probably safer to learn to read the target and gun them down rather than drag out the fight or run.
2. A Reaver trying to escape will pile on the speed. A lot of pilots try to maximize their speed by flying in a straight line - that being the shortest distance. Gunnery is a big help here. Targets flying straight make easy kills. Lead them, correct for bullet drop, and empty your nose gun at them. Alternatively, this makes for a good time to use AA missiles assuming they have popped flares recently. Give em a parting missile as well as some parting gunfire and then move on.
*A note here: Just because you can beat their speed on the long-haul does not mean you have a license to chase them back to their warp gate just to prove it. This is a foolish thing to do. You might get away with it sometimes, but you'll get nailed at the worst time if you make a habit of it. Play smart. During ops, control is more important than kills. Run off is just as good as dead. If they come back, you'll have your shot again. Pace yourself.*
3. The Reaver has nasty guns, but most are designed for close range. The Rotary is roughly the same as our's - deadly close in, but prone to missing further out. The Air Hammer is very much as close-up weapon.
Taking advantage of this is a matter of positioning and controlling your blood-thirst. It is a lot like fighting their infantry on the ground - don't get too close if you can avoid it. Close in their weapons are dangerous, far away, not so much. Close in, their reverse thrust can out-turn you. Far away, it looks kind of silly and doesn't do shit to get them out of your reticle.
Know the Enemy:
Scythes:
Wiki Description:
The Scythe is a one man air superiority fighter in use exclusively by the Vanu Sovereignty. Vanu technology allows the Scythe to be a more stable aircraft when hovering and decelerating.
Visual/Hit Boxes:
The scythe has a very wide, flat shape. The leading edge is razor thin and hard to hit side-on. From above or below it is a nice big target and the plane bulges nicely towards the rear making it fairly easy to hit from behind or head-on.
Pros:
The wiki describes the advantages as hover and deceleration. While the reaver can kill speed effectively during a turn, these guys can stop on a dime and typically do as their "go to" maneuver. They don't need to turn to drop their speed and this catches a lot of pilots off guard.
Their weapons are pretty nasty. They've got the default Sauron which has next to no drop on the bullets. That means it is very easy for them to aim at a distance. It also reducing the factors they have to account for when leading their target, so their weapon accuracy tends to be better than it otherwise might be. They've got the Light PPA instead of rockets - they do intense damage per shot but fires slower than our rockets. That gives them comparable DPS, but much better burst. I'm actually unfamiliar with the Hailstorm at this time. Their photon pods seem to be on par with our Tomcats.
In the hands of a good pilot, the scythe is a decent threat. It doesn't have the agility of the mosquito or the quick sprint of the Reaver, but it can decelerate and hover very well. It can lure you in and force you to play the turning game; a game it can win by sitting still and hovering inside your turn radius.
Cons:
Unfortunately its greatest asset is also its greatest weakness. Speed is life in the air and hitting the brakes really only works in the movies. If you prepare for it, all they are doing making themselves a nice target. If you anticipate the move, you can slow down nearly as quickly - they aren't getting bonus decel during the turn like the reaver.
The scythe can be a more difficult target to hit, but if you can lead them with your gun during a turn, they will eat every single bullet - they are a huge target from a top-down angle (like you seeing during a high-roll turning race).
The scythe is deceptively thin - scythe pilots feel smaller than they are.
My suggestions here are really just expect them to hit the breaks as soon as they start taking damage. Pull off the acceleration in anticipation and you can stay on them plenty long. If you can't make the breaking, gun the jets, turn away and open up your distance a bit. Use your acceleration and then try again.
Stay mid to close range on these guys as long as you are matching speed well; their cannons really excel at longer ranges due to less bullet drop. Stay behind or above and give them a little cushion at the outset of the engagement and you'll do fine.
Know Yourself:
Mosquitoes (the good guys):
Wiki Description:
The Mosquito is a one man air superiority fighter in use exclusively by the Terran Republic. Decades of refinement have made this aircraft the quickest and most agile. It has the quickest acceleration while boasting the highest cruise and climbing speed.
Visual/Hitbox:
The mosquito is a smallish round target. It presents a long narrow target top-down and side-on, and a narrow target head-on. I believe the issues with the extra sized hit box have been corrected. We aren't the hardest to hit, but neither are we a huge target.
Pros:
The mosquito is the most agile and the fastest of the ESFs. Our cruise speed is anywhere from 220 to 240 stock (depending on if you are tilting and using the thrusters for extra push). We can turn sharper than the other ESFs when our speeds match. That is an important distinction, btw. You cannot out-turn your opponent just by rolling your wings over and turning; speed counts for more than agility in a turn. Many a foolish mosquito pilot will get out turned by failing to modify their speed effectively.
Cons: Our high cruise speed can be a liability when it comes time to drop air speed. We have a light air frame and weak brakes and that means if we don't plan ahead, we can lose the turning game in a hurry. This is worsened by the fact that we tend to be moving faster than the other ESFs - not only do we drop speed more slowly, we have more speed to drop.
You need to be aware of this and plan accordingly. Give your target a cushion so you can minimize their deceleration advantage, learn the correct gun lead for your engagement range, and get used to bullet drop which comes into play during longer-ranged engagements.
Airframes: We have 3 options, each with their benefit. It comes down to pilot preference as to which to use.
Dogfighting: Further augment your already impressive agility. This will make you the most nimble thing in the air and is my personal favorite.
Hover: This addresses our only weak area - deceleration and hover. It is a great choice and has excellent application for ground attack and dog fighting.
Racer: Augments your already impressive speed. I feel like this gives you the least impact for the slot, but some people really like it. I think it takes some work and increased speed can be a real liability during a dogfight - having more speed means you have to bleed more to out turn your opponent. You can run and chase, but I don't feel these are terribly useful anyway. Still, some people love this frame. I suggest a comparison in VR before you commit to one or the other.
--------------
Knowing what your enemy is good at will help you anticipate what they are going to do. Knowing what you are bad at will help you avoid placing yourself is situations that magnify your weakness.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I will do my best to add pointers to help newer pilots navigate the learning curve more quickly.
In the end there is no better teacher than experience.
