Dumbfires in a dogfight

Weylin · Post by **Weylin** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:40 am

So... how exactly are these meant to be used in the cases where there's an encounter and you all end up pairing up into little 1 on 1 dueling circles?

Or is the whole idea of the dumbfire that you're only supposed to hit either pilots running from you, or pilots charging head on towards you suicidally?

Can dumbfires be used in a practical way when the other pilot actually has a $#@!ing clue?

What about if a target is moving towards you, but at a tangent? Can you "hook" the dumbfire to make it hit them in the front?

For general use, I know it's good for cons, miners, bombers, anything moving away from you, someone sitting still.
And I *think* that you get better results when you aim dumbfire behind your targets direction, not in front of them.

Apparently there's only a few people in the community that can do this effectively. Got any tips? (selecting a target and pressing right mouse button isn't detailed enough

)

Andon · Post by **Andon** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:48 am

Dumbfires are difficult at best to target. They track towards where the target is NOW - meaning, to get a hit, you have to ensure that same direction is also where the target WILL be. Hence firing behind the target - It'll aim towards where the target is NOW, which is the same direction it is heading. If you aim in front of the target, it'll track back towards where it is now, increasing the chance that it'll pass behind the target. Of course, you can still gain a hit, especially against larger targets, but it's difficult.

If the other pilot has a clue, dumbfires are little more than "Make them move" missiles - and even then, it's often a waste of a perfectly good missile since the gain of them moving is so insignificant as to be useless. I personally don't use them against anything smaller than a bomber/HTT, and even then with care.

Jyppa · Post by **Jyppa** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:20 am

Shiz taught me a neat little feint a while ago, which will occasionally fool anyone. While you're in the sidestrafe circle movement, suddenly switch directions, ie sidethrust the other way, wait about a second so your opponent can just about react, then lob the dumbfire. The instinctive response to the maneuver is to join you in the circle going the other way, resulting in a short timespan when the enemy is almost perfectly static in relation to you, which allows the missile to hit. This works best at about 2-300 m for me, and it usually doesn't work while circling out of gat range. Another smart thing to do, especially against ints, is to keep backthrusting as well as sidethrusting. Not only does this help keep the distance, but it will make the opponent move towards you, which both sets up for a mp kill and makes them more vulnerable to dumbfire.

notjarvis · Post by **notjarvis** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:24 am

Always remember - You suck at allegiance. See jucktos excellent lesson on dfs......

CronoDroid · Post by **CronoDroid** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:19 am

Well at my advanced level I usually do a few things to make DFs work in my favour.

1. Ask the commander to buy Missile Track 2. I'm not sure whether or not it actually helps DFs hit but it makes me think it does, and subsequently I just use them better. It's psychological.

2. On the psychological note, sometimes I will my dumbfires towards the target through sheer force of mind, and it works! Sometimes.

3. I just backtrack and lead the dumbfires on target. This requires a) you being able to see your enemy early so b) you can get a head start on backtracking. If you're moving forward, it takes a while to decelerate and go backwards, by which time the enemy may be going faster than you can backtrack which nullifies your ability to slide off minepacks and dumbfires.

4. Lastly, when I'm in a Fig, I usually run away from fights because figs, well, suck. But being the master shadow warrior that I am, I can usually get the jump on my opponents and hit 'em with a few dumbs. Similar to what Jyppa said, you have to watch the enemy's movements and tell when their movement will lull and their ship is static so you can fire one off BEFORE it happens.

Correct · Post by **Correct** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:25 am

1. Stupidity
2. Lag
3. Luck

raingriffin · Post by **raingriffin** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:14 am

If only DFs had a worse payload, but in the end every time i see that basic seeker or QF hit someone just to scrape their avatair painted on the hull it just makes me want to go back to the old higher dam dumbs... And it never works for me but as Crono said, it's psyche for you...

Spinoza · Post by **Spinoza** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:15 am

Step one: suck badly at hitting with gatt.
Step two: load up a ton of dumbs.
Step three:Look for trouble.

Either you'll get better at using the gatt, or you'll be forced to figure out how to use dumbs.

On a serious note: the secret is creating optimal dumbing conditions and using the dumb when that happens.
If you spam dumb all the time, you'll hardly ever hit and you'll only learn that dumbs suck.
Understand that dumbs are like prox/mine pack. You can spam and hope for the best or you can pick and choose the bets time to use them.

On a related not to the steps mentioned above, flying a scout probably helped me get better with dumbs. When you know you're going to die and all you have is a chance to lob a dumb or two, motivation is high.

Edit: fiksed a town of spoiling mysteaks

Broodwich · Post by **Broodwich** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:19 am

http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index...showtopic=51356
man its not even on the second page

Weylin · Post by **Weylin** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:54 am

Oh right... I keep forgetting to use the search tool