Well it was Sat or Sun, LW Orange. I'm tooling around in a Ki-61 chasing a 109K4 alt monkey that won't fight. Up I go... He makes a cheap pass or two then runs away at 25k. I get up to 20 or so.
I'm not looking. I think I'm clear. I'm pulling up my map and typing on squad text with squaddies.
All of a sudden tracers past my clipboard. rudder + aileron in the same direction while looking behind me. By the time I actually achieve motion to kick off my auto-level, I've been seeing tracers go past me for 2 solid seconds.
P-47N, closing fast. I think to myself, "this guy's the worst shot in all history" and evade. Bad shot or no, he's quite able to stick to my butt as I nose down. I don't recall exactly what I did. A bit of rolling while split-S-ing to come out at different angles, or something. It takes 2 or 3 of them to break him from his 200yard death grip, and then once we're out of rhythm it takes a bit of time for me to get around on him. We're down past 15k I think by then. He probably had the E to pull back up above me or something, but ended up -- somehow -- allowing me to get near enough to try latching on. My first attempt isn't so good, and he pulls away as I'm trying to keep up. He breaks back in just as I'm coming around and I get a lucky top-down deflection shot as he spirals under me. I never saw the hit sprites even though at close range (400 yards?) but I saw the damage my guns did. Set him on fire. He popped seconds later. I think I'm below 10K by this time
So what's the point of this little tale? Aside from a mini-AAR for your enjoyment, he PMed me. I PMed him back.
We had a civil discussion. He said he saw hit sprites all over me (2 seconds, remember?) and I mentioned I never heard damage sounds. I explained how I never saw sprites on him, just damage, etc. He was rather disappointed. I can't blame him. I was essentially a free kill, no SA.
So all is not lost with AH. Sure rooks will try to intentionally RAM YOU more often than shoot at you, but still... Been seeing a lot of dejected posts lately about how AH is lost, AH is gone, the AH they love no longer exists.
Hell, if some guy can be nice to me after I kill him, it gives me hope. I hope to repay it in the future, to "try" to make AH a better place.
<S> Diver8up
<S> all that still "try" at this game. It can break you down if you let it. It gets to me sometimes as well. Try to rise above and find the good.
It's there!
