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[Flying Dice]

Playing again after a short break. Jeez where did everyone go. Esamir seems even more abandoned then usual, I'm ghostcapping during primetime. Still some activity here and there, mostly when an outfit decides for a change of scenery to the usual Indar(side). Getting a little dull like this, this is in the Cobalt server btw.

I don't know when you have been playing but at the times I'm normally on Cobalt, Esamir is usually full of big battles since the warpgate rotation. I've also been seeing Indar getting pop-locked semi-regularly during peak times recently which generally results in those who can't get on there spilling over onto Esamir.

Amerish does tend to be quiet and mainly ghostcapping but I'm not particularly surprsed at that due to the map design. The fact that there are so many adjacent teritories that you can't get to in anything close to a straight line deters pubs from playing there, so it's mainly left to the outfits outside of occasional large fights at the main complexes.

I agree that one of the main reasons for Amerish being empty is the terrain: it's excellent for air, snipers, LA, and anti-vehicle work; meh for other infantry; and dreadful for armor. Esamir has the same sort of problem, but to a lesser degree. Air has almost no cover, infantry are exposed in all directions outside of bases, or in all but one direction when near mountains, and armor has wide open plains to race around in. Indar offers a mix of terrain that caters to all playstyles, so the pub zergs tend to gravitate there, and the higher population draws outfits that want to fight instead of ghost-cap.

[palsch]

I just spent nearly eight hours on Esamir on Cobalt and didn't lack for action during any of it. On the other hand I do enjoy smaller scale defences and fighting off enemy squads to prevent breakthroughs, or diving into a biolab that is a certain loss to cause as much pain and grouping of enemy forces as possible while everyone else pushes elsewhere.

I played that long because I've been limiting my time by how long it takes my laptop to crash. This afternoon I finally picked up some compressed air and destroyed the dust bunnies living in the fan. Somehow the game runs better when the CPU/GPU are running at 50-60 degrees rather than 80-90... Still crashed, but after eight hours instead of eight minutes.

It was also the first time I've had a positive KDA over a full session, mostly thanks to improved framerate (40ish consistent with minimum graphics). Only about 1.2, but still pulled up my overall 0.4, and I still spam /suicide to redeploy faster. I was averaging a bit over 30 certs per hour. And most of that was from defences with only a handful of captures (capture point jumping while your side push is the quickest cert source outside kill farming). I think I had 80 base defences to 12 captures at one point.

I now have AV and AI mines. Already killed around half a dozen Sunderers with the AV mines. Pretty OP. Nothing else on my must-have cert list, so probably save until I decide I need a new gun or something particularly shiny jumps out at me.

[Toaster]

AT mines are far from OP- two won't kill a sundy with even one rank of mine guard, and several ranks (not sure what point) will even save it from three hits.


They're still worth every penny, though.  Even a couple lying in the middle of a road somewhere halfway across the map from you can still get you a surprise MBT kill- bonus if it's an Extreme Menace kill.

[Girlinhat]

Even if it won't kill a sundy with mine guard, there's still plenty of vehicles who lack mine guard for one reason or another.  Some Sundies are new, or mounted with ammo distributors or shield passers, while Lightnings are pretty flimsy overall, even with Mine Guard.  And then you can just get Flash kills as well - not worth as much exp, but AT Mines are a renewable resource, take what you can get.

[Toaster]

^

Though a flash hitting your two-stack of mines is a bit of a letdown.


On that note, the shield diffuser is pretty awesome, especially when you can park a battlebus sundy in the inside of a tech plant and rain fire on the unsuspecting defenders.

[Girlinhat]

My ultimate goal is to get a Shield Diffuser Battlebus and help to rush people into tech plants and amp stations for maximum pwn.  Those anti-infantry guns are pretty cheap too, add power to your smashing in!

Or hell, just confuse people as you run your sundy in one gate and out the other and keep going.

[Toaster]

Moment of awesome- As the shield goes down at enemy-held Hvar, charge in on my flash.  Fire turbo as I hit the V-pad and use it to jump in.  Sail right under the bridge, where their sundy is parked at the point.  Bail in midair, whip out tank mines and chuck them.  Run into the distance as the explosion goes off behind me.

[palsch]

AT mines are far from OP- two won't kill a sundy with even one rank of mine guard, and several ranks (not sure what point) will even save it from three hits.

It's 1 extra mine per level and two for the final level for 7 total. And I do think it's pretty much mandatory for anyone serious about pulling a Sunderer. Then again, I found (IIRC) six today that didn't have even the 30 cert rank 1, so effectively six free Sundy kills. I'm sure it will balance out in the future, as more Sundies have the guard or they can't be planted on stationary targets, but for now it's just an incredibly easy way to destroy a spawn.

At least when I'm doing my C4+rocket one shot kill to the backside of a tank they have a chance to survive if they see me. With the AV mines you can plant them fast enough that even them shooting at you normally doesn't matter.

Oh, and as for Extreme Menace kills from mines, easiest method of farming in a large facility (especially bio-labs). If you are about to lose it, plant every explosive you have around the spawn room within radius of each other, with a single anti-personnel mine in the middle. When the enemy take the lab they gain 1000xp, bumping their bounties nice and high just in time for them to rush into your minefield. I still need to play with the distances, but I think it would be possible to take out both of the infantry terminals on the ground floor with a single anti-personnel and two anti-vehicle mines. Keep sniping them through the shields until it falls to make sure they are hungry to kill you. Just be careful if you are spamming grenades out the doors that you don't fuck up a throw and set off your own mines by mistake. Not that I would ever do that...

[Toaster]

Now that's a clever trick.

[darkrider2]

Okay I'm trying to get the hang of flying but, it just feels like its impossible without the aid of a joystick.

My main problem is when you move the mouse up, it pitches you up then stops dead. So if you're in say, a dogfight, you gotta pick the mouse up and keep rolling up just to keep that turn going. Then I tried binding pitch and roll to my numpad and say just screw the mouse, but that's almost just as hard as it decides to turn really fast and makes it hard to aim.

So... any advice here?

[Girlinhat]

I'm using a trackball.  I move the mouse with my index and middle finger (it's a giant sphere), thumb is left click, and ting finger is right click.  However, the left and right buttons also have a smaller extra button right by them.  These are mouse4 and mouse5 (mouse3 is 'mousewheel click').  So I've set the left-click-extra to "pitch up" for great result.  You press it and you start turning upwards as fast as the vehicle is able.

[Twiggie]

yeah i have the thumb buttons on my mouse bound to pitch up and down, gives you max turning when you need it, otherwise stick with the mouse

[palsch]

Ideal for me would be a way to toggle between mouse roll with keyboard pitch and rudder and mouse pitch/rudder. The former seems best for dogfighting while the latter makes more sense for attacking ground targets.

That said, I don't fly at all if I can help it.

[Twiggie]

you can. you use both at the same time, then use thumbs when you need to...

[palsch]

you can. you use both at the same time, then use thumbs when you need to...

Nah, I mean have the mouse left/right rudder left and right instead of pitching. It would make targeting while hovering easier IMO, but would be useless during dogfights so would need to be able to toggle it on/off.