Author Topic: Is it "easier" to fight good pilots? (Read 1181 times)

TexMurphy · « **on:** March 14, 2005, 03:37:23 AM »

Dont take the question literaly but let me explain my reasoning behind it.

When I used to play American Football (yeah we play it here in sweden as well) I played defense (DE and LB mainly). Since Football is kind of a "crappy" sport here some teams where really bad and the worst thing there was for me was playing against bad O-linemen. Why? Because they did wiered unpredictable crap and where impossible to read. When playing against a good OL you always got correct reads on the play and could react much much quicker to the play. Granted you could get your arse kicked much harder but you always knew what was going on from reading em.

Last night while learning my new ride (the F6F) I ran into BatfinkV in a Ki84. The 2nd time I engaged him I knew what he was going to do through the entire fight and could adjust to it. I knew he was gonna be slowing down the pace of the engagement, indeed so he did. When I got on his six I knew he would try to slow it down even more and try to get me to overshoot, indeed so he did.

Ive had the same experiences fighting other good pilots. Like when fighting good 190 pilots you know when to expect the rolling scissors and when to ease off in your engagement.

When fighting good pilots I know what they are gonna do, ofcourse since I still suck I do die to them but since one can read em much easier one can at least mentaly prepare for what is comming.

Another example is when one goes low in a merge and the enemy is going low with you and pushing it then one knows quite alot about how the engagement is gonna unfold. I know that he aint gonna go for a HO shot, I know he is gonna go high in his opening move, that he will fight for vertical position in all merges and I know Im gonna die.

Seriously while the fight it self gets much harder it also gets much easier to read.

Personally I do prefer to fight the better pilots because since I like to "study the game" and they fly their planes "by the textbook" I can compensate some of my serious lacking in piloting ability with knowlage of what they are going to do.

Tex

Tumor · « **Reply #1 on:** March 14, 2005, 04:03:47 AM »

Is this a trick question?

hogenbor · « **Reply #2 on:** March 14, 2005, 04:45:22 AM »

LOL, I don't have much to contribute to the post but your avatar is nice Tumor

That having said, sometimes you know you're facing a newbie and if see I usually push the engagement much more aggressively.

Schutt · « **Reply #3 on:** March 14, 2005, 05:34:16 AM »

Ok so how experienced have you be to make the other pilot beleave you are a newbie ?

Actually being predictable is a bad idea... so maybe instead of fighting batfink- style and just slowing down sudden pace and strategy changes could be more rewarding?

Or pressing low and instead of going up use a energy saving reversal and come back with speed low again?

That is more a theoretic question. When the otherone blasts away on the merge and goes past me still fireing at some place where no plane is i know i have a small chance... otherwise i just hope to learn a bit.

frank3 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 14, 2005, 05:48:44 AM »

Well ofcourse all pilots have their own way of fighting/defence, but most of all, many moves can be predicted by the plane they're flying.

For instance, P-47's will NOT turn when they have speed.
Fw-190's make scissors.
Spits will always turn.
Hurricanes and Tempests will try to HO
P-38 will try to outclimb you.

Etc

Vudak · « **Reply #5 on:** March 14, 2005, 07:54:45 AM »

I've sort of noticed this too... I'll use another sports analogy.

When I'm playing hockey against a very good opponent, my entire team pushes itself to beat them. We play our best, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but its always a really fun game. When we play an opponent that's not as good, we usually don't play as well and manage to win a sloppy victory, and sometimes get upset and look like haughty morons.

The same thing happens in Aces High... When you know you're fighting someone good you push yourself and try like mad to beat them. The fights are intense, and always a blast.

I see what you're saying - you can almost tell what someone is going to do, their experience just allows them to pull off the move in a way you can't quite match yet.

As far as not knowing what the inexperienced fellows are going to do, well, as long as you're familiar with their plane, at least you know what their plane is going to do. After that it basically comes down to predicting which way the fish will flop

mars01 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 14, 2005, 08:00:09 AM »

Quote

Last night while learning my new ride (the F6F) I ran into BatfinkV in a Ki84.

I thought this was about fighting good pilots.

- Just kidding Bat.

Dead Man Flying · « **Reply #7 on:** March 14, 2005, 08:02:23 AM »

I don't consider it easier, but it is different. I'll merge in a neutral fashion against most opponents without favoring any particular angle or style. However, if I know my enemy and exactly how he flies, I'll adjust tactics accordingly to fly to his weaknesses. This puts me at an advantage over having merged neutrally with that player, but I would hardly call that "easier." Maybe "smarter" but not "easier."

-- Todd/Leviathn

lazs2 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 14, 2005, 08:03:02 AM »

It works both ways.. leviathn flys one of the slowest planes at low alts against superior numbers all the time... drex will fly a P47 in a low slow turnfight with multiple enemies. Most good sticks will be able to get on your six moments after you have got on theirs.

Most unskilled players will make the same moves over and over too..

The only thing "unpredictable" is.... that you don't know the skill level till you engage...

That is why some of the really wussy sky accountants here will only engeage guys that are allready tied up with other players... wouldn't want to risk world fame and their precious score now...

lazs
Public Relations Officer for the BK's

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 14, 2005, 12:04:34 PM »

Yeah, I think Lazs summed it up.

Also, you just can't say, "After 3 minutes fighting against a certain pilot, you will be dead." There's a lot to do with luck in how a fight comes out or how fast it ends.

I know I've been up against a lot of good pilots who have just missed a snapshot by inches only to have me get them right after.

Guppy35 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 14, 2005, 12:24:45 PM »

Lets just say that you know when you are up against someone who knows what they're doing, in about the first 3 seconds after the merge.

Then you start to sweat, or at least I do

Dan

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #11 on:** March 14, 2005, 01:03:12 PM »

It's much easyer to fight good pilots. You'll be hanging in your chute in no time and try to find a noob again.

Sikboy · « **Reply #12 on:** March 14, 2005, 01:34:31 PM »

Funniest thing happened to me the other day (Sat. I think).

I took up a Yak-9U from a base under attack. There were some guys getting buzy on the deck, so I got about 5k, and noticed an La sitting a bit away from the furball. So I head over towards him. On the first pass, he tries to rope me. We both stall the tops of our zooms at about the same time, giving neither the advantage.

He scoots away a bit, then comes back, tries the same thing a second time... exact same thing. Exact same result. I comment on the range vox: "This guy's suffering from a serious lack of talent" I figure that I'm about to get myself a pretty easy kill.

I'm not sure what happened next. We merged, and right away I thought "Uh oh" and just like that, he was on my 6. Damnit! lulled into a false sense of security lol. I took him to the deck a-rolling-and-a-jinkin. Begged for help from a countryman who was nice enough to save my ass. Turned out it was aka, hardly the n00b I figured I was facing.

-Sik

wetrat · « **Reply #13 on:** March 14, 2005, 01:36:25 PM »

I generally kill "competent" pilots in dissimilar planes faster than noobs (unless I guess what the noob is going to do on my first pass... 40% maybe) since they're easier to read, making it easier for me to position myself to tater them. A "competent" pilot in a similar plane will die quickly, but a fight with someone equally skilled in a similar plane will last until someone makes a mistake or gets cherry picked.

eagl · « **Reply #14 on:** March 14, 2005, 01:54:19 PM »

I find it harder to kill sucky AH pilots than I do more experienced ones, yes. The sucky ones pull stupid things like take an HO or two and then run away, and then it takes forever to hunt down their cowardly butts and kill them. Or they don't know why, but they know if they flail around on the stick just right, they seem to live just a bit longer due to getting out of sync with the network lag and smoothing code. Both of those kinds of behaviors seem to come mostly from sucky players.

Against a really good player, I can usually tell within a few seconds if I'm going to win, lose, or have to pull out all the stops to even survive. In arena fighting I rarely have any reason to run so I usually give it 100% and try to win even when I think I'm outclassed, but even then a "long" fight with a talented player, regardless of if I win or lose, is usually shorter and more satisfying than dealing with a noob who can't do anything but HO and run, or flippety-flop back and forth.

I fought against Drex for several hours straight at one con, and it was great. We could talk about what was happening, and even though there was a huge furball going on in the exact same location, we'd find each other every single time just because we know each other's flying styles so well. You'd think that knowing exactly what the other guy was going to do would result in either a stalemate every time or one guy just totally dominating the other, but we swapped kills back and forth with Drex beating me by about a 2-1 or 5-2 ratio. And on top of that, our fights really didn't last all that long compared to how long it takes to nail a flippety-flop spaztic loser or an HO-then-run chicken. What they had was quality. The first one to make a mistake lost, every time. Against one of those 2 types of irritating noobs, either the noob gets lucky and kills you or you spend 20 minutes hunting him down just out of principle.

I chased a tiffy with my spit one night. He started out 5-10k above me, made a few passes, then dove for the deck before I even decided I needed to drop my ext fuel tank. I followed him around and finally killed him 20 min later when he turned 90 deg to try to HO someone else and I guess he forgot I was there. That fight sucked. No skill was involved anywhere, and I even had to down him mg only because I forgot to re-select my cannons after dropping my fuel tank. It was like creating a masterpiece marble scupture with a toothpick. Sure, you might get the job done in a lifetime, but that's the only thing you'll do for a long time and you'll hate it by the time you're finished.