Pilot Archive

If you have the money, the Heavy Tie Fighter with ~ 96k Mass is a good choice up to Tier 4.

But you don't learn anything about fitting out a ship with the Heavy TIE ... the others force you to make choices, so you get to understand where you can cut corners best to get extra mass for the gear that matters.

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Kryxal wrote:
But you don't learn anything about fitting out a ship with the Heavy TIE ... the others force you to make choices, so you get to understand where you can cut corners best to get extra mass for the gear that matters.

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I'll agree with that completely. The best people to figure out mass on a ship are Imperial pilots. We have to do it with 75% of our ships, considering we only get 2 (pre-RotW) higher mass ships (I don't count the aggressor as really "higher mass").

But, for the sake of sanity, one of the easiest ways to level up Imp Pilot is to grab a Heavy TIE. It is pretty much identical to the Tier 0/1/2 ships we get, but holds a lot more.

Things to note about imperial pilots:
We get 1 gun (except for on 2 ships). Get used to packing your biggest, best gun on your ship and building around that (A-10 anyone?).
Most of our ships have very similar maneuverability: high. You will almost always be able to swing around and get in behind your opponent. Just a common concept in TIEs...they are maneuverable.
You'll learn great sacrifices. So you need an extra 3k mass for your gun to fit? Not a problem, take off that armor plating. Yup, all of it. With our smaller hitboxes, we can readily sacrifice some armor to make up for the deficiencies of firepower.

And last, but not least, always remember. You're an Imperial Pilot. You fly in a ball with different solar panels attached to the outside. That's it.


/funny comments off

A good progression, if you don't go with the heavy route, is TIE/LD, TIE, TIE/In (not game's TIE/In, but the TIE/Interceptor), TIE/Adv, TIE/Opp.

A lot of people comment on the Oppressor's handling, and for good reason. It's not like anything you've flown in the Imperial Navy. It's heavy. It's got a lot of guns/missles. It's got a lot of mass. This makes flying an Oppressor after all those other TIEs quite interesting. Just remember, 65% throttle = engaging maneuverability, 40% throttle = 180's all day long. This ship will slip and slide on you so much, you'll think you're doing the Indy 500 on solid ice. But, once you learn about your oversteer and how to use that to your advantage, you'll be one hell of a pilot to contend with up there.

And, as to my recommendation on ships, the reasons you skip certain ships are obvious, others are a little more subtle.

TIE/Ln (In-game as TIE/In) TIE Line Fighter: It's just the same thing with a slightly different mass to what you've had so far. If you succeeded with the regular TIE (not the TIE/LD), then you'll be able to make it easily to the TIE/In before you need an upgrade. Is it wrong to upgrade? Not at all, but only if you really want to. That TIE will easily get you through TIER 2 and onto your TIE/In.

TIE/B TIE Bomber: It's big, it's heavy, it carries very little payload, it's a flying brick. This is the mutant of the Imperial Navy. It's not maneuverable, it doesn't have enough of a payload to really make up for that, and it's just ugly compared to all the others. Recommendation: skip it. Fly it later if you really want to feel like you are in slow motion, but you never have to actually fly one.

TIE/Agg TIE Aggressor: It's a multiplayer TIE. With a rear facing gun. Works wonders at making your passenger get very dizzy. This, from first glance, is an odd TIE. It's got this funky flat section in it. And it seats 2 people. Don't get me wrong. This is a very nice ship for helping out a friend that needs to grind some combat experience. I always keep my deed in my backpack. And, for some, it's actually pretty good as a one-pilot fighter, since it has the highest mass of all our maneuverable ships. But, it's not quite up to par with the others, and besides, who'd favor this over the 2-gun-wielding TIE/Adv.


Other thought, or other possible path, would be switching the TIE/In for the TIE/Ln. Since Tier 3 is all about missions, never really having to grind out any combat experience, it might be cheaper for you to skip the TIE/In completely, upgrading to the TIE/Ln at Tier 2 just to make it through Tier 3. While this is a good idea for those that are hurting on finances, it is definately not recommended to completely forgoe the TIE/In. It is one of the better ships in the Imperial Navy. Even as master, I still have my TIE/In and TIE/Adv geared up and ready to fly at a moments notice. They are some of the best dogfighters we Imperials get.

Doing Imperial pilot is actually your first step into becoming a better pilot. Its the low mass in imperial ships that forces you to learn a little bit more about the game, and how to manage your ships. Imperial ships require a higher degree of intimacy with the game to get good performance out of them.

While others may recommend it, i strongly advise AGAINST the heavy tie. You wont learn anything in that ship. That being said, while imperials do have a couple more ships then rebels in their lineup, the first three are all supersets of the previous.

T/LD
T/F
T/Ln

WIth the possible exception of maybe the T/Ln the above three are throw away ships. The T/ln you should challenge yourself with later. Infact when you hit their 3, if your good, you can do all of tier 3 in that 40K mass chassis if you know what your doing.

The T/B is quite frankly, really unnecessary. Although newer and less experienced pilots may graviate to the T/B at their 3 because the higher mass allows them to take more of a beating and helps them get through the missions, but the bloody thing flies like a pig.

Simiarly the T/I is also a their 3 ship and is a good choice. This is acutally my deepest regret in that once you hit their 4 its really only good for PvP at that point on out.

The T/A is the pinnalce in standard tie technology, and is why you just dumped the T/I. This ship, preROTW arguably had the best firepower to manuverablity ratio in the game. Yup, only 65K mass, but i garuntee you, you'll be turning some heads when your up there outflying and outkill less experienced pilots in JSF's.

I should mention tie Tie Aggressor, my thinking, is, "don't bother". It only has one forward gunmount, and despite its 120K mass, is not worth using over and advanced.

The T/O is arguably the best all around master level ship in the game. It does equally well in both PvE and PvP, and has the highest missle payload of any starfighter in the game. It handles like a Krayt gunship, and enjoys the smallest profile of any master ship.

Ultimatly in the end, you'll proably find yourself with a Tie advanced, and Tie Oppressor seeing the most use post ace.

Message Edited by Ducimus on 08-27-2005 08:28 AM

The important thing, and the biggest area of mistake I see with pilots, is not knowing which components they can skimp on for mass. This'll help you a lot as you level up Imperial squadrons

- Reactor - level 1 crafted will probably do fine, but the rule of thumb is never go any bigger than you have to. My Oppressor runs off a level 3.

- Capacitor - level 2 with 30+ regen seems to be the rule

- Booster - good balanced level 2

Those three are pretty standard, and will save you a lot of headache in loading out your ships.