BF2S Forums Would someone please share the secrets of dogfighting?

darkside wrote:

Okay so the game has been out for a long time and people are moving on. Can someone who knows the secret about dogfighting finally let me in on the "big secret"? What am I talking about? Well, I've played every kit, every vehicle and have learned all their nuances and more or less mastered them all... except jets. Specifically the heat seeking missiles- so not exactly restricted to jets but to ground based AA as well. I simply cant seem to figure them out. I cant get them to hit reliably, it always seems so random.

But I know it's not. There is some subtle trick to them because there have been plenty of times I'm flying in the air and trying the same evasive maneuvers as anyone else but while my opponent would dodge just about all my missiles I get hit ~90% of the time. The contrast is highly frustrating and I'd be most grateful to anyone who can provide me with some tips on how do I get my missiles to hit, and how I can dodge other people's missiles. I use a joystick and I am quite a good flyer.

For example, when I hear the sounds of a lock, the first thing I do is flip to my rear camera to try and identifyt he threat- is it a jet behind me? If so, I make a sharp turn as hard as I can, varying in direction often to test each way- up, down, left, right. The opponent doe snot fire missiles right away but fires them while I am making my sharp banking turn, and even if I drop flares I get hit twice very quickly and blow up. Ok I am cool with that, but the thing is when I try doing the same thing to an opponent when I am behind them, my missiles just fly right past them. They don't hit. It is incredibly rare that they do hit while my opponent is banking hard on a turn.

I cannot pull my joystick and harder, so I cannot make a tighter turn than I already am. I have experimented with using afterburners or not, either way, I get hit. I try toggling engines down too. I really have spent many hours just trying anything I can think of but sadly I cannot figure it out.

Or maybe it's not the evasion part, maybe its the firing part that I am doing wrong, maybe if you fire the missiles right they just cannot be evaded? So I tried different thing son that end, from varying the distance I fire my missiles from to varying how my crosshair leads the target (ahead/behind/right on). again no conclusive results. I feel I have exhausted all my variables but I know there's something I overlooked.

But what is it?

Just recently I noticed a BF2 video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPTwGSrjsgo which reveals the secret of leading targets (you actually have to aim BEHINd a moving soldier to hit them) I will try applying this more in my jet combat trials but like I said I have already tried leading behind but maybe just no far enough? Does it even make a difference where your crosshair is pointing when firing heat seeking missiles after obtaining a lock on your target? Not sure

Last edited by Fredrik (2007-01-07 05:35:52)