Pilot Training
Manual
BattleDog,Commadore
Director of
Intelligence
Royal
Guard
Judge
Advocate
CONFIDENTIAL
MISSION
STATEMENT:
It is the mission of TFA
Squadrons to provide 100%
effective air/space defense in support of the Alliance, against all
adversaries. It is not your
duty to die, but to survive, and
destroy all enemy opposition. Remember in
TFA
we
“FLY….
Or ……DIE” !
TRAINING
OBJECTIVES:
To develop the specific types of star fighter skills necessary to achieve victory against superior odds 100% of the time in MELEE type combat.
REALITY
BASED TRAINING:
The primary rule of training states one should always train and practice
in a manner as realistic as possible to the actual circumstances and situation
that the desired performance will occur and be
judged. Our evaluation will
occur in combat. The rules of
combat have been defined as a series of 2 on 2 melee type engagements with
reoccurring waves of enemy craft until the predetermined time limit has
expired. At that point, the pilots and team with the most points
are the winners. You are not
limited to imperial spacecraft and as such must train and prepare in all
craft.
We must all remember that the game and social environment is
fun. Skill enhancement training
takes time, effort, and 100% attention to the task during the training
exercises. There are dozens
of skilled pilots out there who are committed to defeating
you. You must train harder and
more realistically.
Several Squads and organizations have outstanding pilots as their
leaders with a couple additional excellent
pilots. Remember a few good pilots do not ensure success in a
battle. They may win their
individual matches. The
WAR Victory goes to the side with the highest number of
points. This is a team effort
in which three or four superstars do not produce automatic victory. Therefore,
it is important that the team receive practice and all players enhance their
abilities. The total number
of pilots in an organization does not equate with
victory.
The Wing II Battle Academy
is committed to training in air combat as well as command strategy/tactics
necessary for ultimate victory.
Everyone has a part to play on this
team. If each pilot becomes the best he/she can be and performs
their job individually and as a team
member; We Are the
Squadron others will look too
and beg to join. Success will
be ours.
INTERNET
PERFORMANCE
CONSIDERATIONS:
Equipment effects performance !
We are all NOT playing with the same
equipment. Like vehicles; some
of us have V.W. Bugs and some have
Corvettes. And just as in a
race between a V.W. and a Corvette the wining factor is more related to horse
power than individual driving skills. So if your computer isn’t a high
performance sports car type ( and most of ours aren’t) EXPECT to have
a disadvantage when playing those sport car types.
Online XVT games have important dynamics that must be understood
by all pilots. These conditions do not exist in “single player
mode”. Understanding these
dynamics and adjusting for them will enhance both your gaming pleasure and
your ability to be victorious.
-
quality of connection (28.8k, cable, time of day,
etc.)
-
quality of other players connections
-
number of other players
-
processing speed of HOST computer
All have major effects upon the game. Understanding what happens
during a game (beneath the surface) will emphasize a few major points that
each pilot must compensate for
individually. Depending on the
equipment YOU use these factors may or may not effect your performance.
1.)
Connection
Speed: You need a good connection to the
internet to avoid performance problems. The faster your true connection speed
is; the better your performance is likely to
be. A 56k connection is considered
the minimum in hosting a smooth 4 player games.
The
internet is like a freeway. At certain times of the day there is a lot
of
traffic
on the freeway (internet). As traffic increases, internet speeds
slow
down
due to the congestion, and game performance is impacted.
2.)
Latency:
Definition; is a measurement
(in milliseconds) of the amount of
time it takes for your computer to send
information (called a packet)
over the internet to the target computer
AND back to your computer.
This is often called lag. High latency causes
poor multi-player
Performance. It is important to have a low latency connection to the
other
players. A latency of
under 500 (ms) between players is needed for a
satisfactory game. The
average latency (4 players
latency total divided by
should
be 300 or so for a smooth game.
3.)
Hosting:
It is a good idea to have the fastest connection host the game. If
you
don’t have a good connection speed and a fast computer
don’t HOST
4
player games. You should instead join games hosted by others.
Playing a 4-way match over the internet
is much more demanding on your computers hardware and CPU than single player
mode. For this reason you need
to compensate for the extra strain on your systems by lowering your screen
resolution to 640x460, 256 colors. Put all the configurations to their lowest
settings and turn
OFF all sound effects.
REMEMBER when competing
with other players the most important thing is that you have a
good frame rate so
you
can react quickly to your opponents actions.
PREFLIGHT
CONSIDERATIONS:
1) It is essential to have a joystick of high quality (M/S Flight
Stick Pro, Thrustmaster,
etc.). This stick should
be equipped with a “thumb hat” and several additional
programmable
buttons. These high quality
joysticks can improve your skills by 30-50
%. They allow you to do things with one hand while devoting
full to the battlefield
situation.
2) Pilots should also have a complete understanding of their craft
and it’s power
redistribution systems as well as the enemy craft.
3) Turn graphics down, sound off and as many details to low as possible
during practice
and
battle. I know all those nice
midi-files and that big pretty
3-D graphics cards are
just going to
waste!
Tough! Many players have
cable (T-1, T-3) connections to the
Internet. This gives them an advantage in combat, known as “Ghost
- Shots.”
basically means your firing where your computer tells you their ship
is! On your
computer you see a direct hit.
(But to your frustration no
damage). By the time
your
firing
information gets to their machine, their machine (much faster, 10-20
times)
shows
the ship in another location. Your
shots record as misses. Lag…(your machine
is
lagging behind in the TRUE information) Generally displays their ship one
or less
seconds
behind were it really is. Leading
the shot should take care of it. But lag
changes, so you have to change your point of aim with the lag. To
them you seem to
be
going in slow motion and are easier to target and
destroy. Notice
that all the top
players
on ladder ranking systems have cable or advanced connections. Hit ALT+D
at
the
beginning of each game to put details at their
minimum. The less resources
your
machine
uses, the faster it processes information (faster frame rate) creating a
slight
buffer
at least. Use every advantage
you can. They will and
do.
Video Cards
like
Voodoo II unlike Voodoo frees up CPU usage causing smoother
game
play
due to the faster frame rate.
Don’t let a players
rank intimidate you. Editors
are out there that can make any pilot any rank they
choose. Also, by flying the
right melees on the Zone for about three days you can be a Jedi and never
face any real competition.
Different craft have different scoring values attached to both the
kills you obtain and the deaths you
receive. Gunboats score the
highest and in a skilled pilots hands can achieve them 80,000 points a
game. Get good in the ships
that score well for they are the ships usually flown in Wars. Go to the TFA
War Page to read a discussion of ships and their scoring attributes. Avoid
flying mixed ships, such as one T/I and one X-Wing on each team. This usually
means the pilots with the weaker ship are going to have a harder time scoring
equally.
Lasers
Have a maximum effective range of 1.5
kilometers. Don’t waste
power shooting at targets beyond this
range. However, if flying head
on start shooting was 1.8 kilometers, the speed of the closing ships will
narrow distance and allow for hits. Remember fully charged lasers cause
approximately 35% more damage
per hit. So recharge em as often as
possible.
If your ship has shields
and they are sufficiently charged, hitting the “ ; ” key will recharge
your lasers back too full ! Three or four fully (linked) laser blasts will
take out almost any craft. This
tactic is not advisable if your shield strength is below
30%.
Most players have two main
settings. Which, they will use
many times by a press of a button.
Shift-9 and shift-0 are two
presettings. They record the
speed and the laser/shield charge.
One should be laser recharging and the other everything to be redirected
to engines… Laser recharging should be a combat mode (lasers ¾,
shields redirected engines.) The
other mode is useful in turning and to get away from the
fire.
TRAINING
for
COMAT:
It is vitally important that each pilot train specifically for these
types of enlargements. Important
skills necessary for success are:
1. Piloting skills
2. Ship awareness and maintenance (keeping the lasers
charged)
3. Battle field situational awareness. Where Exactly are the opponents.
Don’t
get killed
trying to help your wingman. Do so only when the enemies wingman is out
of
range.
Easiest kill is when the enemy is coming after your wingman. You can usually
predict
the enemies move.
4. Two player vs. two player team skills, require different strategies
than playing the game
single player or 1 on 1 melees.
Below are some specific exercises and suggestions for obtaining and
increasing these types of combat skills.
PLOTING
SKILLS:
You can whip those top ace computer AI pilots with some
practice. Human pilots aren’t
so predictable.
1.
Ladder matches, Cases Ladder
for Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone (IGZ): the Zone is an excellent place
to melee with players on line in a competitive
environment. Cases Ladder is an ongoing tournament ranking match. You
can sign up at www.igl.net/xvt to
be a ladder tournament participant.
Then go to www.zone.com; sign up on the free IG
Zone. Go to the XVT Rebel Base
and 20-100 other online players await
you. Start a host game
…entitle it “Cases Ladder”, and they come out of the
woodwork. The vast majority
of ladder matches are in unshielded tie fighters and tie interceptors using
lasers only! It’s a 1 on
1 dog
fight. Most kills at
the completion of the match is the
victor. Loser reports the results
of the match to Cases Ladder.
There are about 300+ registered ladder participants ranked 1-300 and
as you’re skills improve, you climb the ladder. To get into the top
75 is very good.
What is truly valuable about these matches is they force you to pilot
your ship with precision and evade like hell without shields 1 or 2 hits
and it’s curtains. As you
play the real good pilots, watch their tactics and
maneuvers. You might loose the
match, but you are a winner if you learned something and improved from the
loss. Ladder’s are an excellent
skill enhancement tool. Avoid
over practice in any one craft.
You want to maintain effective craft skills in any craft you might
be flying.
2.)
TFA
Ladder, DJO maintains
their own Ladder ranking system for TFA/TRA members. Go
to
http://www.darkjedi.org/tfa/ladder/index.phtml to sign up and review the rankings.
MELEE
TIPS:
- Inside of 1.8 miles never fly
straight. Move constantly.
Taking brief opportunities to
fire a rapid
shot at oncoming opponents.
- Shoot in a box pattern around the oncoming
ship. All good pilots move also
and will
very often fly
into your shots.
- Don’t use the same successful approach and maneuver two and
three times in a row.
- Remember the most maneuverable any ship can be is when set as 1/3
speed.
Melees
involve close
dog fighting and require rapid turning. If you stay on their tail, you win
and vice versa.
The fastest turns are 1/3 throttle with lasers and shields set to
full
engines. This
will drain all laser power very quickly and unless their in the same mode,
you will come around onto their tail. You may have to readjust laser
recharge rate to
shoot, but you
will be behind them. Reset lasers
to full and fire away. In two
vs. two,
going into a prolonged “Turning War” is not
that wise. You will be turning but moving
very slowly,
that will make you an easy target for your opponents
wingman.
At beginning of a melee opponents are usually 3+ kilometers
away. Have your proper craft
configuration memorized and immediately activate
it. Full laser and shield recharge
is desirable as first options.
Then cockpit mode, link weapons to double/quad, full shields forward
and select opponent (F-9, F-9, F-10, F-10, X, X, S, S, P,
period). At this point, your
opponent is still 2.5 + km away.
As you close distance, you will be building strength even if flying
slower than usually desirable. A
single (F-10) will put all shield recharge to engines and move you up in
speed considerably.
Both lasers and missiles have
a fixed speed plus the speed of the
craft. At approximately
1.9 km, output all shields to engines you will greatly increase the speed
your lasers or missiles are traveling, if your opponent is traveling slower,
fire and move slightly. He may
be unprepared for the extra speed your weapons are
traveling.
PRESET
SETTINGS: Shift-9 and shift-0 are two
programmable pre-settings. Most
players have two main settings which they will use many times in a game.
One pre-set should be set to laser recharging mode and the other set to all
power redirected to engines… Laser recharging should be a combat mode
(lasers ¾, shields redirected
engines.) The other mode is
useful in turning and to get away from the fire. By using the pre-sets you
can effect quick changes in your ships configuration settings with the push
of a single button.
In two on two melees, if you or your wing-man destroys an opponent,
wait until the additional wave (if any) enters (remember ships frequently
enter at very close attack distances.
If your going to help
your wing-man you will be a sitting
duck. If however, your opponent
enters 2.5, - 4 km out, turn quickly and double up on your wing-man’s
target. This can go back and
forth in the spirit of cooperative teamwork and be extremely
effective. Use caution to avoid
getting too caught up in the heat of battle and let your assigned opponent
get too close and pick you off.
1) Hosting
is a disadvantage in one on one matches.
In 2 vs. 2 matches , hosting is an
advantage, especially if the hosts wingman
has a bad
connection.
2) Keep
moving 100% of the time when within 1.6 km of a hostile
ship.
3) Never fly directly at a person for prolonged
periods.
4) Don’t fly in a straight
line. Keep moving, weaving,
ducking and dodging in between
your
shots.
5) Lay down “suppression fire” if you don’t your opponent
will simply retarget you and
have a
free shoot. Put them on defensive
and let them stress.
6) Shoot in a rapid box pattern (single
and double). Fire just to sides,
top and bottom of
opponent. This way when
they adjust to avoid flying straight you should get some
hits.
If you fire directly on them; by the time your lasers get there, they
will have ducked,
dodged, or moved out of the way, causing a miss. If your opponent
is inexperienced he
may not know to move well. If that is the case shot dead on
!
7) Frequently when additional waves first appear, they are facing
away from you and are
initially
disorientated as the attempt to find you, readjust their ship, and
attack. Use
this
initial
three or four seconds to your advantage.
Be ready. Target
immediately. Fire rapidly (great
time to use shield power to fully
recharge
lasers tactic). It is absolutely
demoralizing to appear with a fresh ship and be
destroyed
again without even getting a chance to find your
opponent. When very
close
to approaching
opponent who is critically weakened within .15 km, veer to the side and
don’t
allow him the opportunity to ram you, killing you
both. (This is a frequent
melee
tactic). By the way,
use this tactic to destroy your opponent if you can, especially if
he
has a
reasonably undamaged ship. To be down to 5 or 6 shield strength, red and
limping
and wipe
out an undamaged ship is a terrific payoff. Also if you have lost all lasers
to
damage
Ram if close. Don’t waste 15 seconds trying to get your lasers back
on a ship
with a
heavily damaged hull !
BEGINNERS
SUGGESTIONS:
It takes time to become a good pilot, usually 6
months of improving will make a decent
pilot.. Nevertheless, people
change tactics, so you have to be flexible all the time
too.
The various aspects of piloting a craft must be mastered to obtain
a high combat alertness level necessary for
survival. New/Intermediate pilots should spend time (single player)
committing these skills to a subconscious memory level.
1. There are two pilot
cockpit views for each ship (“.” key toggles them between
the
modes). Know exactly
where the various instrument indicators are located!
2. The front and rear
sensor displays are critical to success.
You must be constantly
aware
of your opponent’s location and direction of
travel. Practice following ships
in
close
combat situations using the sensor display while monitoring the
additional
environment with your peripheral
vision.
COMBAT
MULTIVIEW DISPLAY (CMD)
This sensor provides valuable information regarding your opponent
and his ship status. The opponent
must be “targeted” to be in your sensor
display. The targeted ship rotates
in 3-D to reflect its current orientation
in relationship to your craft.
This will tell you if his weapons are aligned and he is capable of
firing. This sensor proves three
readings of your opponent’s status that are important to
you.
1. It’s distance
in km from your ship.
2. The hull strength;
listed numerically from 1-100 and color coded (red)
critical,
(yellow) moderate damage, (green) strong hull
strength).
3. The ship’s
orientation to your craft provides you with information regarding its
direction of travel.
COCKPIT MODES
The (HUD) heads up display mode maximizes your view of the external
environment by removing much of the cockpit
interior. The CMD, sensors and critical data is still visible to
you. This is the preferred cockpit
mode for most pilots. It provides
for maximum field of view over the battlefield during close quarters
dog-fighting. All necessary
sensors and monitors are available in this mode.
TARGETING
HEADS UP DISPLAY (HUD)
This instrumentation cluster provides you with extremely valuable
information. During battle that
must be instantly known (and rapidly acted upon) in order to make the proper
decisions and adjust your crafts systems to increase
survivability. The Outside Threat
Indicator Array (OTIA) is part
of this cluster. It tells you
if your lasers, ions, or missiles are the
currently selected weapon, whether
weapons are in single, double, or
quad link mode. (READ PAGES 27-31 IN THE XVT INSTRUCTION
MANUAL). Along the top of the
(OTIA) are four warning lights
(numbered 1-4, left to right).
# 1 (Far left) - Lights
up when you have been targeted by an enemy starfighter and
are
within its range.
EXTREEMLY
IMPORTANT#
#2 Targeted by
a capitol ship.
#3 Indicates a
beam weapon is currently affecting your ship.
#4. (Far right) Will
blink yellow when an enemy craft has targeted your ship and is
attempting to get a missile lock on
you. The light will turn solid
red when he has a
positive missile lock.
Well as you can imagine having these types of information available
to you in the heat of battle are very
important. Combat awareness
means constantly being aware of and analyzing all these variable bits of
combat data. Summing up there
combined influences and utilizing
the totality of the information to make the appropriate choice of
action.
A very good way to practice developing combat awareness is melees
(single player) at the hard level utilizing all
weapons. Create and additional
player to practice with.
Don’t worry how bad his statistics are going to turn
out. You can always delete
him. Your only objective in
these training sessions is to practice utilizing all of your available combat
data to make various combat decisions.
No one is born with excellent combat
awareness. It’s a skill
that must be learned. Anyone
who tries can. Minefield melees
can greatly increase rapid target acquisition and accuracy. As you fly these
practice sessions, concentrate on what your enemy does, what you do, and
what happened as a result. After
each ten minutes melee, spend a few minutes analyzing the
battle. What can you do different
to increase your results. All
good pilots go through this constant evaluation and improvement
process.
Another excellent training exercise for development of combat awareness
is the custom dogfight. Fly
past two containers (X and A or T/A &
T/GW). This will get real intense
very quickly, but it sure provides you with lots of combat data to
analyze. Good luck on this
one!
Pilots are Officers, and as such should act as
gentlemen. Don’t use profanity
directed at players or other teams.
Don’t brag, or insult others piloting skills in open chat
areas. Defend yourself and respond,
but be better than they are, Beat them with tact and
brains. (I’ve responded
to several foul mouth braggarts that “their mommy’s should have
spent more money on their charm
school”). At this point
other players join in and hehe the poor
guy. He will settle down usually
or leave. You win and in tactful
and honorable way! And to all
you new players, may I add,
“The game”, as in life, is enjoyed most; by those who prepare
properly, play fair, maintain their dignity, and deal with others
honorably. You will develop
an on-line reputation very quickly . . .
Make it a good one. First
impressions last a long time and do reflect on your TFA team mates as
well.
MORE NEW PILOT
INFO
New pilots should complete all the single player exercises that are
specifically designed to train you in the basics of starfighter
combat. They are challenging
set at the hard level. Start
off on easy level for the first 6-10
missions. Then start over at
the hard level and play through all of them (except eight player
missions). Repeat each one until
you receive an award patch of at least good.
STAR-FIGHTER
CRAFT
Power systems are fixed at a specific
point. The energy output flows into three important
systems.
1.
Engines - Affect the speed of the craft.
2.
Shields - Affect their recharging rate.
3.
Laser type weapons - Affects their recharge
rate (remember fully
charged produce more damage).
The three systems are affected (strengthened or weakened) by the
amount of energy they receive. You
control which systems get how much energy.
Example (shielded
craft)
1.
You have a total power output of
100. Normal distribution
of energy would be 33% to each system. To increase the rate your lasers recharge, you might want
stronger lasers in a dogfight. If
you increased the laser recharge rate to maximum, you are redirecting the
normal use of the energy from one of the other two systems to allow for this
to happen. An increase in one
area creates a decrease in energy available to the other. The transfer of
energy either slowed the ships speed
OR weakened the
shields.
Example
Let’s say you’ve been hit by
enemy laser fire and your shields were weakened to
20%. At this point, it’s
a strong possibility you could be killed by the next laser
hit. If you divert all laser
energy to the shields, the stored energy in your lasers is used to increase
your shields! Jumping to 50%,
shield strength by this tactic can greatly increase your current chances
of survival, and in turn, victory.
Remember the basic principal
that the winner is the one that survives the longest to inflect the most
kills and receive the most points !
·
Go to the war page and read the rules before you start
playing.
·
Locate and select
the
current War Reporting Page as a favorite in your browser so you can
find it quickly and report matches in the least amount of
time.
·
If you are playing against a Cable Modem (or excellent pilot) and
are getting stomped, it is poor
Team
Strategy to continue playing and loosing heavy points over and over
again. Instead, “thank them” for the lesson in humility, and move
on to another battle!
·
If possible,
have
a wingman available and ready when joining a game that already has
two players just sitting their. If
you join as the “third pilot” YOU may get a
rookie wingman as the forth pilot.
Experienced wingmen will tear you and your wingman apart no matter how good
you are individually. This is a favorite tactic of several Gamma and Iota
pilots as well as the other Zone teams.
·
A single game takes 15-20 minutes each. The pre game details and
reporting is time consuming. So when trying to rack up points keep the chat
to a minimum and urge them to launch if they are the chatty type.
·
Squads that dominate don’t waste valuable time chatting on the
main or in games. Turn off your zone message client and ICQ. Simply play,
report, and jump back into another game. You’ll be surprised how fast
your points will add up.
·
Play Team Matches and get good in T/Is, Gunboats, and X-Wings. They
score well and are the favorite ships in all war games.
·
Try to play with a wingman from Your squadron whenever possible.
Twice the points are earned for your squadron.
·
If a match is laggy for
YOU ……..
QUIT
quickly ! If you stay
too long it is a reportable match no matter haw bad it was!
·
If you intentually quit,
use the “tab”
communication system to tell the other players. Just type “ I’m
out” . then press the “L” key and check the time you sent
the message. If the time is under 8 minutes it becomes a reportable
match.
·
When deciding to enter a game room for a match look at the connections
of the other pilots ! If one or more have over 500 latency at the Zone, it
would be wiser to look for another game. If you
do give it a try remember to quit within two minutes if it’s
laggy.
NOTE!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These combat tips, exercises, etc. are not solely my creative
thought! I owe most of these
ideas and tips to other excellent starship pilots in various leagues across
the Internet. Some of these
tips/suggestions come from the mountains of home pages across the
Internet. They are indeed an
available source of information.
With special thanks to:
--
Dracronious,
Kali XVT server, He was smart, sharp, and for some reason always wanted
to kill me!
-- Victoria _W _
NIR, Zone, ; taught me
that women can fly a spacecraft and humiliate ya!
-- Pro
_ mux (muxxy _ NIR)
_SST
_MUX, without a doubt, the best woman pilot out there and one of
the top 5 best pilots I’ve seen period
! (Gave me my 1st ladder
loss). Pro_Mux maintains her
own web site with advanced combat
tactics. Go to WWW, NTX, NET/MUX
she displays attack diagrams and advise that is
exceptional. Like all masters
she is dedicated to passing on her knowledge to all who are respectful and
honorable pilots.
Deceptikon_NIR, his
competitiveness and sportsmanship towards me in spite of being in competing
leagues. AND dozens of
other Zone-ers I took the pleasure to kill, and at
times, die as the hands
of.
-- The Many Fine TFA AND TRA
pilots and TFA Gantoris in particular who have been my friends And teachers
in this fine gaming experience.
--
Alex “Inquisitor”
who has pages of tips and info as his
Internet
site WWW.SW gamers.com/xvt/strategy. He has Web
Published two guides on beginning
and advanced tactics.
-- Kali-XVT server, The Rim
league; The Alliance of the Worlds on the Rim (AWR) organization
and its pilots, who accepted
this newbie initially, and who
taught me the many little lessons of online gaming with X-wing vs.
Tie-Fighter.
And
finally!
HERO, who without his
dedication to the game and resources we would all be members or lesser
clubs!