Kill mongers, their numbers are growing and it’s reflected in the general lack of courtesy displayed to countrymates. Last evening I witnessed an extraordinary amount of kill stealing and generally bad manners. Twice I saw guys shoot off the tail of an enemy fighter, only to have a horde of Rook teammates rush in and gun the falling wreckage. They literally took turns trying to steal the kill. In both cases the kill was in fact swiped from the guy who deserved it. In addition, at least one guy killshootered himself trying to shoot thru my La-5 to get at my target, then squeaked about it. A bit later, I was covering a Rook in a good 1v1 with a P-51. Finally, he shoots off the Mustang’s wingtip and it falls off into a spin. Before it hot the ground, no less than 4 Rooks made gun runs at the dying P-51. For me the last straw came when a horde of Rooks violated the unwritten courtesy of not interfering with a sustained 1v1 unless asked. I had been engaged by a 190, which made a series of diving attacks on my La-5. Gradually, I broke down his E, finally forcing the 190 into a rolling scissors. My typical method of thwarting a scissors is to pull the nose high and roll inverted, snapshooting as he crosses my path. Unable to force an overshoot, the 190 stalls and snap rolls to the right. As I drop in for the killing shot, 3 or 4 Rooks roar in and explode the helpless and damaged 190, with my La-5 barely 100 yards astern.
With this last act of theft, or at least, discourtesy, I went elsewhere and managed to find several 1v1 fights where there were no kill mongering hordes waiting to pounce on easy kills. I’ve observed this same behavior by several Bishops too. While defending a field in an Osti, I watched a Rook and Bish pilot duke it out just south of the field. In this case, the Rook was flying a P-47 and the Bishop a Bf 109. Finally, the Bish pilot gained the advantage. However, before he could finish off the Jug, two Bish P-51s raced in and clobbered the smoking P-47. Kill mongers, unconcerned that someone else had worked hard for that kill. For the record, I was tickled to kill one of the thieving P-51s when he flew too close to my Ostwind. I'm quite sure this is a common problem in all three countries.
I am increasingly alarmed by the growing rabid “dog pack” mentality, which is why I am spending more and more time in the CT. This seems to be quite common among new players. I have found that the “old hands” rarely impose themselves unwanted, and generally ask if you need help before rolling into a 1v1.
In contrast, I spent some time flying at A83 (pizza map) last night. Here, there was no kill stealing and everyone worked together very well. I did note that everyone there fell under the category of “old hand”.
Maybe it’s just me, but I seem to recall that courtesy was much more common 10-12 months ago than it is today.
My regards,
Widewing
