Pilot Archive

Ok, here is more..as I promised/warned .

Right then. So last night was to put it simply...awesome. Large group based pvp is -totally- different to one vs one pvp and even in my oppinion totally different to times when I've been on my own vs up to three or four simultaneous opponents. Why? Well..to put it simply..it's wingmen and context.

I'll start with wingmen. Last night, I was in the assault group for attacking the Imperial station [Solar Phoenix in the Karthak system] and it went smoothly. There was only one point when the Imperials had the upper hand however...I wasn't flying like I usually do. I was infact, panicking and overly twichy [as far as playing a game can go]. This was because I had responcibility forced upon me. Not just for my own 'life', but for my wingmate's well being too. Orders/advice were being blurted over TS and I was having a deal of a time keeping up with the information, whilst flying at the same time. I had to look out for my wingmates..they had to look out for me [and they really did ] which brings me onto my next point...

Context. The context, was two large groups. Now I had been comparing this...in the run up to the event with my own more usual experiences of myself vs. a group of people where I'm fairly confident I'll either win...or be able to evade them long enough to escape into hyperspace. Well...silly me. I failed to realise, the striking difference between those situations where the only life which mattered to me was my own and the relevant situation yesterday where my wingmate's survival mattered as much as my own and in the greater picture of things...the survival of 'us' as a collective mattered in order to hold the objective. Retreat was only an option as a -very- last resort and I tried it only once [I got torped as my hyper sequence kicked in though x.x] but regardless...I felt uneasy about it. I didn't want to just leave people there in the fray but I had to because my ship was non-functional.
I havea lot to learn, it seems. In my first few days on Starsider, I was doing real well. I still am..in the context of flying my personal overt patrols, but I got to hand it to those guys who fly in the events. They're way ahead of me in the respect of looking out for those on your own side, holding the objective and ultimately, 'knowing' each other for their strengths and weaknesses. I felt 'completely green' all over again. It was so exciting. Anyway...moving on.

Anyway. So how did I fare wholly? Well, I'll start off with my mistakes as this is the area I seem to know best. In my oppinion, being you're own biggest critic actually translates as you..being your own best friend as it'll make you strive for making yourself achieve greater things. First of all, I was far too twichy. I think I'd made it obvious of that even before we launched to some people. I was a bit 'too' excited. Anyway...it made my fly stupid for a while and I never fully recovered. I also found I was trying to concentrate on too many things at once, rather than resigning myself to a task and sticking to it. On TS, I'd hear people shout "take out so and so" while I was engaged with someone else...I'd strike a hit on that opponent then break off if I found the mentioned enemy nearby and attack them. Usually I'd get in a few good hits or disable/kill them but the thing is, I just found the tactic of scoring 'one hit' then moving on doesn't work. Not with my gun anyway. The thing is..in reflection this is what was happening.

I score hit...move on in the hope one of my friends would see a partially damaged craft and finish them off. Now this is foolish. I don't know why..but the fact that other people shield shunt apart from me didn't quite click at that point in time. The excitement really did cloud my prior experience in this one...and with the damage coming from my ship hitting Lvl8 reward shields [in some cases] only once...then it isn't much at all. My tactic would have worked way better if I'd gone for 'fire until they're disabled..then move on' kind of approach. If anything...hitting them once and moving on just got more enemies gunning for me.

The next thing I found difficult was missiles. Now I'm fairly adept at countering enemy missiles coming from one or two people...even against TIE Oppressors, you can deploy 3 chaffs in time a lot of the time, however this was a battle where a lot more people were carrying them. Rather than having the viewpoint that missiles shouldn't be used...well, they are condoned on SS and thats kind of cool. The fact is though that you now have a lot more people, with no qualms about missiling you..and they're all from different angles so there is little chance of always avoiding a lock. My chaff launcher was emptied twice during that battle. In fact, one of my two deaths was by a mk III proton. The one which got me as I was trying to hype out for repairs.

Anyway, my second death was right at the end to Harotak. Now previously, I'd got a few hits on him..but I really should have stuck on him a bit more. However, the final encounter...that guy was on fire..both literally and idiomatically. I couldn't hit him...I really regret suggesting to him thathe tries flying a bit more evasive than always being aggressive as it caught me out that time..It forced me into a 'damn I got to hit him while he is busy' situation and the next thing I know..I blow up. I didn't even see the shot. That was one of themany humbling moments of that night. The thing I liked about Harotak for this event was..he was actually my closest 'rival' as far as ship setup goes. He was in a T/A with lvl 8 engine, similar shield etc and of course as we know, he had the same kind of mass to work with as I as the T/A and A-wing both have the similar mass capacity. I'd be interested to see if he continues with that ship. In some respects I hope he does...it'd be interesting to compare notes in future, but I think he would prefer to make a rather large come back in on of the relic ships than fly a 'lesser' ship for stubborn experimentational kind of purposes like myself...which is fine. As I said...I got nothing wrong with people flying those ships. My reasons for flying what I fly are personal and just equally valid so if I die to a pimped out JSF..the one who killed me wont be getting any tells along the lines of 'oh but your ship is better' from me. In fact, the only time I'll tell anyone along those lines is if they're particularly cocky/clueless and its an RG TIE with the hitbox issue.

Oops..erm, back into context.

So, success wise now? Ok...well to be honest, I was too excited to keep track of my kills. I noticed the 'you have disabled your opponent' message flash up a fair number of times but as far as full kills went, I don't think I got too many. Maybe about four in total. One thing I liked about the RS guys/other Rebel pilots was they were excellent for assist kills. I got in on a few of those. In fact..thats a revelation. It wasn't about the flying for personal glory as much as the flying for the team. Now I prefer that aspect..the team comes first etc, however that was the first time it ever really hit home for me in this game . I kind of count only two deaths as a success, but...with me having stupidly unrealistic standards set for myself when I fly...I'd aim for more kills for that amount of deaths in future, or the same kills but for less deaths.

Ok so tactics wise for the A-wing. [Finally here]. Things I'll bedoing is:

1.Get to know my wingmates. I want flight timewith some of these people so I can learn how they fly, like what they respond to, how they respond to it, what their attack angles are etc.
2.Inever tried it...but in looking back, I never suggest the use ofshield front adjust for large engagements like that one where there are so many missiles/people behind you. It opens up your rear shield way too much and is a command which takes longer than shield shunt to normalise.
3.Damage. I need more firepower. Now I'm sticking to the A-wing. That is the whole point of me flying atm, but I need that lvl 8 tri-cannon placed back inside. Luckily I got one spare which isn't re'd and in order to get it inside, I know I can without removing my current shield if I re this one to a lower massthan my current one[i know its achievable] and if I rethe spare QIDI have to a lower mass than my current one. This is going to take quite some time as I'm going to need stellar parts mass wise for the process. If I remove my ordnance it'll then slot inI'm fairly sure of that. I can get away with a slower refire rate too because, I don't know if anyone has noticed..but I'm picky with my shots. I rarely simply hold down the fire button.
4.Speed. Man...first time I ever felt slow compared with some people . One of the basis I'm setting this A-wing up on/relying on to survive de to other weak areas is that A-wingis supposed to be quicker than mostly everything else. This is not the case currently due to the high standards of my competiton but with my current QID project..it can be achieved.
5.Actual flying. Next time, I need to cool it.My stanceis...excitement is good, but you can get overly excited.IfI fly with a laid back attitude in a neutral frame of mind being confident of 'me' then I adapt better and can utilise whatever skills I possess to their full potential.
6.Picking out targets. There is no 'set way' to do this, but the general rule seems to be a. Identify missile boats, b.Kill them c.Kill everything else. Thats what it felt like last night anyway but correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok enough with the numbers. Other things I'm going to try is leading my opponents a bit more and to make use of the space around me more efficiently. At some points I must have been 'orbiting' the samelocalisation of space [like within a 80m 'cubed' volume sometimes] for far too long.

There are other things but this post is already very long and I guess putting down for all to see what my ideas for the future will be isn't all too sensible if I want to live so I'll just sum it up now.

I'm sticking to the A-wing..we know. These days it's for a more experiment into the comparison between it and the 'new' ships kind of task. I admit that the JSF I seen in the hands of my new found friends would probably wipe the floor with me..if not, they're still stats wise superior to anything I'll ever achieve with the A-wing as it stands. That brings me to this sub-conclusion. If I want to compete on this server some more and stick to the A-wing, its no longer so much a process of adapting my ship as it is very nearly at it's own limits of what can be done with it imo. The variable which can be improved though...I don't know how much by but hell, its a game...I'm allowed to try at least ...is myself and my own skills/strategies.

I apologise for the length of these posts. You don't have to read them though .