A couple tips for space dogfighting
* Never, never, never take on enemy fighters head-on. Instead, when you spot them heading toward you or an ally in radar, try to fly past them at a parallel heading and then come in behind them....close in....and take them out
* You can be a great pilot with mouse and keyboard, but you need practice. I play with the sensativity settings for flight set to full in Control Settings. You should be using the A and D rudder controls a lot more than you think you should.
* When firing at an enemy from behind, continuously roll your craft as you fire, and more of your shots will hit your target.....as soon as he starts to evade or break, you should roll your craft so that you are on the same plane as him and use your A and D rudder keys to make small heading adjustments to finish him off
* If you get involved in a circle dogfight, you need to slowly lead your counterpart toward a capital ship so that you can try to lose him by swooping, looping, doubling back, and using that capital ship (ISD also works) for cover. Request assistance and usually a team mate will come and help.
* If you are trailing an enemy fighter along with several other teammates, consider breaking off and dropping back behind your teammates. That situation is VERY likely to net you a TK or make you the victim of a TK form friendly fire, and if you drop back you can usually find a couple enemy fighters lining up your friends in their sights.
* Speaking of which, keep an eye on friendly craft as much as you do enemy contacts. Y-Wings, B-Wings, and TIE Bombers are FIRE MAGNETS!!! Trail a friendly craft that draws tons of fire, such as a B-Wing, and watch as enemy fighters go after him and swoop right into your line of sight.
* When firing at an enemy craft chasing one of your own pilots, imagine a rope from the tail of the first ship to the nose of the pursuing ship....aim about halfway between the two craft on that rope line as they weave back and forth in front of you. Using this rough estimate you can score a lot of hits, even from a distance.
* Watch your radar on maps like Taloraan and keep an eye on the continuous scans your friendly capital ships make....I get 3-4 kills per space map from simply spotting enemy bombers parked next to a friendly unmanned cap ship, and I fly over and take em out for easy kills.
* Use the radio......I always, always throw out a "Thank you!" to a teammate who comes in to save my pie in an A-Wing, and when collaboratively taking down an enemy fighter with friendly help I use a "Roger that" when someone makes the kill. People stick with you when they figure out you're a team player.
* B-Wings are tricky to kill, even from behind. They are tough and have a strange profile which makes them hard to hit.....aim for the connector between the engine pod and the cockpit. More of your shots will connect with the cockpit and engine pod than if you were aiming at the "true" centre of the craft.
* EVERY TIME you die in a fighter carrying unspent torpedos you are WASTING ORDINANCE!!!! Always, always, always fire your torpedos at an enemy cap ship as soon as possible, even if you're mainly dogfighting. Always, always, always fire your torpedos at a turbolaser tower on Battle of Yavin before going off to dogfight. You may be the lucky SOB who gets to kill an entire Galofree crew!
* If you notice a couple friendly cap ships and fighters laying into an enemy cap ship.....YOU SHOULD TOO! Fire your lasers, ion cannons, torpedos, fire your grandmother at the thing for crying out loud. Again, all you need to be is the one laser hit that takes the thing down and you've netted 2 or 3 odd kills....a handsome space map bounty if I do say so myself.
* When in a TIE Defender or an A-Wing armed with homing missiles, make sure to fire 'em off before dying....you don't need to be trailing anyone. Just fly into a cloud of fighters and slow, ugly Y-Wing fat-asses and let 'em loose. You should be hanging onto those concussion homing missiles for as little time as possible each time they reload....a lot of the time you can be flying away from enemy fighters, fire them, and they eventually find a wounded ship and net you a kill.
* On Battle of Yavin, the player manned stationary turrets are kill goldmines for both teams. If you're Imperial, get in one near the action and you're likely to be a top three player on your team if you have semi-decent aim. If you're Rebel, hone in on the little boxes that are emitting green pew-pew (you can see this from so far off it's not even funny, come in full speed from a high angle, use A and D to correct your aim, fire two torpedos from a ways out and break off. You'll get a kill message two to eight seconds later.
* As Imperial, when chasing a Y-Wing....figure out which side of the ship is pointing UP and fly BELOW the horizontal plane of the ship...so you're on the bottom side of the craft. You can get a lot of double-kills this way while not being a prime target for the tail gunner.
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