Dogfighting

[Clavin12]

How do they do it? How can one person in a scout move so much faster than another person also in a scout? How can one person dodge all of the others shots and yet have all of his shots hit the target? It just doesn't seem possible.

EDIT: Also, how might one become a better dogfighter?

[Red Spot]

Hand-eye coordination...
Against a newer player I could take your scout and hardly take any damage myself. Personally I find the 'speedboost' a bit over the top, but you can hardly blame someone for being very skilled at something .. here on the forum Zero Angel is pretty darn good at getting away .. perhaps he can explain a bit better how he does that.

You also need to anticipate you foes moves and already adjust you fire before your foe does so. A lot of newer players also dont seem to notice they dogfight in paterns, strafe left 2sec, strafe right 2sec, repeat. A good player will see through that before you get a chance to damage him.

Keyword here is: adaptation

[Clavin12]

I see. And practice.

[Zero Angel]

If you develop a good feel for the physics of your ship its perfectly possible to move and accelerate it at rates which take practice to achieve. For example if you angle the ship properly then you can get a boost from your other thrusters (ie: jump, strafe) to move a little faster than just using one thruster.

Also if you strafe too predictably then you will be easy to hit. A more random strafing pattern works good such as LLLLRRLLRRRRLRLRRL instead of RRRLLLRRLLLLRRRR -- notice the second strafing pattern is more uniform so is easier to pick up on. Also sometimes it's good to use terrain to your advantage as well as whichever weapons your opponent is using. For example if he tries to CQB you with MDM mortars and has good timing, or is in a mini/faf ship then use longer strafes to avoid being hit by the FAF or MDM; and once in awhile throw in a shorter strafe to confound him so that he doesnt end up continually focusing you with his miniguns. There isnt much in the way of theory to help you with, you mostly you just have to do it until you get a good feel for it (ie: like when to get in close and when to keep your distance).

[Baconboy]

You could just be Hadean and use the afterburst boost. :p

[Zax]

Or you could have played bz1 for many years, assuring you will never get a good feel for bz2 physics and suck for all eternity, which is the route I went down.

[Ded10c]

With regard to the moving faster, this is generally done by aiming down towards the ground as you travel, and holding down your jump and a strafe key alongside the thrust key.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Or you could have played bz1 for many years, assuring you will never get a good feel for bz2 physics and suck for all eternity, which is the route I went down.

I think it's all just practice. In two instances, I found ships I absolutely hated at first to become ships I love the most and fly the best.

In BZ1 it's the Grendel. In BZE it's the Mortar Bike or Jackal.

[Zax]

Or you could have played bz1 for many years, assuring you will never get a good feel for bz2 physics and suck for all eternity, which is the route I went down.

I think it's all just practice. In two instances, I found ships I absolutely hated at first to become ships I love the most and fly the best.

In BZ1 it's the Grendel. In BZE it's the Mortar Bike or Jackal.

Do note that is a bz2 ship

[Red Spot]

With regard to the moving faster, this is generally done by aiming down towards the ground as you travel, and holding down your jump and a strafe key alongside the thrust key.

Ehm, I'll just comment with that I know about the above very well, very very well ... still Zero Angel outruns me ..

[Fulmen]

How do they do it?

With skillz.

[APCs r Evil]

It's more complicated than just aiming down, strafing and boosting (Jumping.) It's partly in the way you angle your ship when going over the tiniest bumps or clinging to cliff walls to prevent a slowdown or even take advantage of the ship's hover altitude to vault you off a bump even faster. That's the part that requires you to be able to "feel" your ship, and each ship handles terrain very differently.

[Fulmen]

I suggest watching some BZ2 vet strat videos on YouTube to get the general idea of dogfighting.

Or you can host a Titan DM in 1.2 and hope a good player joins and teaches you a thing or two.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

And Clavin remember there's being good with a ship AND knowing the terrain that doesn't work OR works best with the type of ship you're using and spending as little or as much time in those terrains as possible in DM. But at the same time, some players notice you are actually thinking about situational awareness and not blasting away mindlessly and get perturbed.

I can't really comment on BZ2 since I haven't played it for literally years. But as I mentioned, the Grendel, for example, is absolutely horrible on vast flat areas. It's strength is its rocket's blast radius on hills, rolling ground, walls, etc. Trying to get a direct hit with its slow rockets, even splitting, on a fast approaching ship like a stealth tank is very difficult. And trying to hit the ground at a near it on perfectly flat ground is extremely difficult. If you're off by even one degree, can mean missing by 70+ meters shooting at someone 175 meters distant! Whereas the motar bike and its extreme speed to maneuver and the ballistic trajectory of the mortars, and it's ability to raise itself quite high for release to get a better feel of the distance, is much better on flat ground to land the rounds with more precision.

thought I'd use a few old pics, since they are going to waste :/

[Zax]

Heh, you'll get laughed at for talking about mortar bikes on this side of the board impressive nonetheless.