Oddly...as often as not. The people I tend to whine about them running are the ones I attacked who had the advantage or started with the advantage.
Take last night for example. I attack a higher pony who had more E and alt on me and his first reaction is to turn. Miss on a shot and dive straight away and run to his ack. He only came back at me when I attacked two of his lower countryman also in ponies (killing one) and as soon as I turned to deal with him. He turns right back around and circles his field at low alt again....and again....and again
Oh ya, I remember this well cuz I was laughing like a drunk Hyena the whole way. OK FWIW... I never made a move towards you to begin with. You picked me up after I made a pass through at least 4 almost-as-high-as-me "reds", (our base below was being severely horded at the time so, not an option). Literally maybe 3 Green dots in a sector with at least 10 red. I went up and came back through, fast. I wasn't worried or concerned about you let alone aware of you, until you were in close at 1000. But, then you locked-on and I was out of options. So, please don't be all about how you out-clevered me with your badassery to get on my tail. My nonchalant zip-through showed you my 6, and you wouldn't look away. I can't say I blame you. Then, I pretty much figured it was you, because... well, it was a 190, it was fast, and it was fixated, and it was knit. See, for years I got picked by higher 190's and stuff... I know how not to do that. AND you DO tend to get fixated Dred (just a friendly note). I might add I think I thought I could faintly hear you rage-crying "A RUNNER A RUNNER, LOOK A RUNNER, KILL KILL KILL", but I'm not sure. Anyway, I made it to ack and you turned and "picked" Fearless... so then I knew for certain it was you. So that takes care of up to about pass 1.5 or 2 through the top end of my ack. I know it's friggin unreal that a pony managed to outrun you all that way. <shrug>
Now, at this point knowing it's you Dred... I can't fly to a merge with you, because I KNOW there's a 100% chance I'll get HO'd with superior (and highly practiced) firepower. Oh, and I lose around 99% of those, so I just don't (because, it's lame). 100-PERCENT-CHANCE of full-frontal-metal-high-velocity-Dred-precipitation. I would add... you actually TRIED to HO me from about 1500 lol. I'm not flying straight at you Dred, I'm not in to jousting.
My one advantage was ack, as you consistently zoom climbed to deny me any sort of level playing field, over and over and over and over. I patiently used ack to MY advantage until you made a mistake. That's what I did... and you did, and you went to the tower leading 3 or 4 of us on a jerky flip-floppy 5min chase. YOU waited too long, lost your SA, and let TriTip get over you, and that was the end of you.
The kicker to this extremely enjoyable event was the friendly banter going on between myself, my hero Tritip, and Fearless. Once you popped, we were all like.. what are we gonna be, Clowns or Cowards. It was Cowards! Thank you Dred. The inevitable Ch200 DredIock Rage because you.... got whacked!
But, here's the deal. I dont' fly, or play this game, or whatever you want to call it... to present a target to YOU or anyone else. I play in MY way to make as many Red guys die as I can while I remain among the living. I don't care HOW I do it, and I certainly don't consider stopping and fighting every red guy I see just because he's there, or "for the fight". I'm not even remotely concerned with putting myself into losing situations, chest-thumping, out-clevering, score xxx'ing or whatever (uhh, beyond K/D). I ENJOY treating this thing called AH as a simulation of sorts, I mean I know it's not really, and I know HTC didn't design the game for pilots to act like... WW2 pilots, apparently
, but there you have it. I ALWAYS plan on landing when I leave the runway (and I'd say I'm at least decent at that). I always depart with 100% fuel, a lot of the time with DTs... or fully loaded with bombs and rocs. This often lends itself to not getting into any kind of turn-fite at all, cause well... a whole LOT of people have much better performing (turning) aircraft and they never have more than 25%. Numbers is another little SA thing I keep in mind. I find it terribly entertaining to fly in a stealthy manner, to a stealthy spot, over a horde and totally PICKTARD people, or even better, those who are AFK while on their way to join the local horde. Ask Yucca.. I'm kinda rusty right now and my aim is pretty much normal so I missed and accidentally 6-crashed him last night lol and I (deservedly) am the one who got the damage. My ~input~ if you will, to the game, is to help MY side in whatever way I can and like it or not, I do what I can to remain among the living while doing it. (Ya Hitech I know... flying to stay alive is akin to not even worth playing the game right?, well, opinions are like those stinky things? Everyone's got one) I'm patient... I've refueled up to 5 maybe 6 times. I enjoy what I do. I'm NOT good at the whole turn-fight thing.. at all.. never was, especially not in the Pony. There's a certain balance in cartoon flying between, pretending to do things like a pilot would do, and doing gamey things no "pilot would ever do. I lean hard to the pilot thing, so I'm at a distinct disadvantage almost 100% of the time. I do MY thing the way I want to do it for the price of MY subscription the way I know is best for ME.
You died. I landed 2. FOR ME, I caused you to cartoon-die, even if indirectly. End of story. Maybe HTC could implement a new branch of the game and call it "Courtrooms High" so you can SUE ME! For not allowing you a kill shot!!
<signed>
The Cowardly Clowny Pony