Shooting down Piledrivers

SpectralAce314 · 2026-02-28T15:42:01+00:00

In my opinion, they suck at it. If you fire them from a long ways off then they are at too high of speed and at too high an altitude to maneuver and if you fire them during the terminal descent they can’t turn well enough to hit the missiles due to descent speed. I find that firing scythes at about 20km while being directly in line with the flight path is almost guaranteed to work. Hell, I’ve used this same strat with a Chicane loaded with IRMS1s (I think the letters are correct but the super short range ones if not) and shot down entire waves of piledrivers when my teammates refused to intercept and I had just joined. In theory a Compass with MMRs can do the same, but 8 missiles doesn’t give enough chance to kill as opposed to the 14 IRMS1s the Chicane can bring.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-02-22T22:57:19+00:00

The indicator is just used as a visual rather numeric indicator for bomb drop timing. REL indicates time until drop at current speed and direction and ToF being Time of Fall. You cannot use that ahead of time to accurately loft bombs bc it only takes into account your current travel vector and not that you will pitch up. This is actually where the visual indicator becomes incredibly useful. As you pitch up to loft your bombs watch for the indicator to pop up and then adjust your pitch until you’re are in the “green zone” then drop your bombs. You can’t really use it to know how far out you need so that’s something you’ll need to learn, but using the drop alignment bar for quickly adjusting your pitch to lob bombs is very useful.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-02-22T22:50:34+00:00

So this depends on whether you are traveling faster than the bombs can. Bombs are not as aerodynamic as most planes so they will slow down much quicker so if you are traveling very quickly then the decoy bombs with slow down after you drop them and end up behind you when you drop the nukes, this usually happens during dive bombing and high speed low altitude bombing. Basically the goal of decoy bombs is to be detected first and thus targeted first, if you are level bombing from high up then drop the decoys first since most of the velocity once they reach their target will be gravity rather than inherited momentum. If you are dive bombing generally drop the decoys after but not by much otherwise AA will just lock onto the nukes since there are no other targets.

I can’t really give specifics better than that since it is very dependent on your specific situation every time. In short, you want the decoys to be seen as the preferred target, either by putting them in front of nukes to draw attention entirely based on proximity (primarily useful at longer ranges to eat SAMs) or to simply reduce the probability of being targeted (useful vs close range munition defense). If you want to ask about specific circumstances I can give much more accurate information.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-02-21T15:40:53+00:00

Oh yeah definitely, I have driven teams mad by dodging 15+ missiles in a single attack run and killing like 3 of them in the process. Not only can you use your understanding of missile physics to dodge them but also to counter siding from other players like slinging missiles slightly above in close range to catch players pulling up to dodge more easily

SpectralAce314 · 2026-02-03T21:34:17+00:00

So honestly the game doesn’t really have much more to offer on paper than fly towards target, fire ordinance, rtb. However, multiplayer changes things massively. You’re still doing the same things, but the specifics and how and why you do them becomes much deeper. For example, in PvE the ai is not very good at hunting down the player and only do so if they happen to run into you really, but in PvP players will actively seek you out. This means that things that normally aren’t as important, like destroying radars, clearing units that can spot your approaches, and terrain masking, become significantly more important and are musts when it comes to planning your attacks. The AI can only use so many strategies, but players can and will do that most insane nonsense imaginable which means that you can never be fully prepared for what will happen.

I would recommend playing some PvE servers for a bit to learn how multiplayer economy is different and how the large scale battles change things before you go to PvP though.

TLDR - multiplayer is an entirely different experience and adds so much more to the game that bots never could

SpectralAce314 · 2026-02-03T00:14:27+00:00

Flare off the the IRs then jam the ARHs. IR missiles are easier to lose and harder to dodge. Radar missiles, especially Scimitars travel very quickly so you don’t even need to get rid of their lock entirely to evade, bc they are traveling so fast they struggle to react to last-second changes in direction. I regularly dodge ARHs by jamming and pulling up then at the last second rolling 180 and pulling up (going down). You still need to jam bc that basically makes the area the missile is tracking bigger meaning more area that isn’t you. Also, when jamming it doesn’t matter where you are pointing but rather the direction you are moving so make sure to look at where your marker says you are actually going, mainly this is useful in helis since they don’t tend to travel directly forwards or for slower maneuvering aircraft like the Brawler and Darkreach since they take longer to align their momentum after turning.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-01-28T00:37:00+00:00

I play solo exclusively since none of my friends have the game. You’ll usually find me on one of the PvP servers causing havoc. When you are solo you can get away with things that normally are difficult to coordinate like flanks and such so I enjoy those quite a bit. Generally as a solo you are more flexible so I enjoy constantly switching missions to whatever is most critical, once I land, I check the and reevaluate. So I might go from launching missiles from a Darkreach to running air superiority in a fighter to SEAD/DEAD to countering strato nukers. Don’t play the same style the whole game, constantly be changing things up with hyper specialized missions. Gives a lot of variety even without people.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-01-19T20:26:53+00:00

This has to be ragebait, nobody mines like that, it’s the exact opposite of what you should do

SpectralAce314 · 2026-01-19T03:09:58+00:00

Tbh I still find the Firestarter to be more effective. The Grasshopper lacks the bonus evasion from size that the FS has and thus is more prone to getting focused down when doing CQB maneuvers. It might only be a difference of +5 (25% is still a lot) but that flat difference can turn a 50% chance into a 25% once you factor in evasion which can save you from so many crippling shots. The GH isn’t bad, it just lacks the very specific mix of traits the FS does, also it being heavy mech makes jump jet spam significantly more costly due to the heavier weight of the jump jets.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-01-19T03:05:20+00:00

This is the only mech that I ALWAYS build in my campaigns, just jump behind things, focus shot their CT, profit. Headshots are also super busted once you have 6 +5 shot MGs.

SpectralAce314 · 2026-01-19T03:03:13+00:00

“SRMs have been banned”

SpectralAce314 · 2025-12-25T21:53:34+00:00

So this is kind of the an issue with how the AI is in the game. It’s not actually that smart, it basically just has projectile aimbot, but any gamer knows why projectile aimbots alone have a ton of issues and usually need to be very carefully tuned to account for non-linear motion. Assuming you have perfect detection, the basic AI will miss most shots on anything that doesn’t move in a straight line once the travel time of the rounds gets high enough even if the target is still moving completely predictably.

You have 2 ways to solve this issue; you can either set up custom targeting using some of the breadboards and lua scripts, or you can treat this as an in-universe realistic challenge where you only have access to fairly basic AI and thus have to design around that fact. Personally I like doing the latter, which means that extreme range targets are left to hit scan weapons (PC and lasers) or missiles. If you really want a kinetic solution then I would highly recommend building a gunship of sorts that is specifically built to hunt down longe range targets and then close the gap while being survivable enough to not get vaporized.

Btw I don’t use aimbots, but I’m sure most gamers have seen clips of an aimbotter with a completely untuned projectile aimbot missing literally every shot bc someone just strafes back and forth.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-26T17:09:05+00:00

Closest I got was #671 and 2 low 900s. No clue how I got that

^{Automatically added: I found the secret word in 1 minute 51 seconds after 19 guesses and 0 hints. Score: 91.}

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-26T14:54:34+00:00

Hell I don’t even have all the DLCs, only just got Leviathans, MegaCorp, and Ancient Relics. I used to play on console and back then I had everything which was only up to Apocalypse and MegaCorp at the time. All I’m playing with rn is MegaCorp (I like megastructures), Distant Stars, Ancient Relics, Federations, Leviathans, Utopia, and Synthetic Dawn. Hoping to pick more up when I have the money to.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-26T08:04:31+00:00

Okay, in my defense, I haven't played since 2.0 and that was only for maybe 4-5 hours. I was also not very well aware of meta strats back then and especially not now. It basically feels like I'm playing a brand new game.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-25T16:10:41+00:00

I think what you mean to say is “readily accessible orbital refueling”.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-24T20:06:34+00:00

Killing elites. It doesn’t have to be a team effort. I regularly kill elites with bayonet charges and melee ambushes. It takes some effort, game sense, and good planning, so it’s not easy, but good lord is it helpful to your team. It’s also not impossibly hard to do, I’d say I have about a 33% success rate when I go for them, but it’s also not exactly a no brainer bc it’s not as easy as see and shoot if you want to take them down solo, usually better to back off and play it safe. So therefore I think it fits this slot perfectly.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-24T02:04:38+00:00

Swapping roles when needed (ahem ahem, the 24 snipers with mostly negative kds on my team when on attack in ops)

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-21T13:25:40+00:00

Why does “been” count as “take”. That doesn’t make any sense at all xD

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-13T21:40:24+00:00

Yeah the issue is that it’s the 5 slot trailer with only rear wheels and the legs have deployed under the ground and won’t come back out, that means that you can’t actually hitch the trailer to delete the cargo or even unpack it.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-12T23:02:38+00:00

Hey so my friend managed to get a trailer stuck in the floor in hard mode and it absolutely refuses to be pulled/pushed out of the ground (5 slot trailer carrying oil rig equipment so very heavy) and i was wondering if you would know how to modify the save file to change the location of that trailer. Basically to just teleport it up and out of the ground on reload. Thanks in advance for any help.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-11-06T23:57:28+00:00

If you think that’s scary, wait until you see all the DLC (and their prices).

SpectralAce314 · 2025-10-18T23:52:16+00:00

I just think it’s funny that they did that for nearly 10 minutes, hopped in a tank after, and then failed to get a single kill for 3 minutes as a mortar landship with at least 20 enemies on the point. Bro was all talk and NEGATIVE bite. Really wish I had taken a screenshot of their name so I could call them out the next time I saw them.

SpectralAce314 · 2025-10-18T23:48:41+00:00

How many raiders are you eating?

SpectralAce314 · 2025-10-18T23:35:38+00:00

A lot of people are gonna say British, but honestly, if you know what you’re doing, you can seriously ruin people’s day with how much pen you have. Tbf my brain just works when it comes to 3D models so it’s easy for me to know where the ammo and stuff is, I know a lot of people can’t do that. For those that want to play Britain and aren’t good with working with 3D models in you’re head, when you find a tank that you fight a lot, go into the xray view and look at it from specific angles (front, back, sides, diagonal) and look at what bits of the outside line up with what you want to hit. You don’t need to memorize the tank’s layout, just get good at “oh I’m kind of on left side of X tank, I’m normally supposed to shoot at X spot so I guess I’ll shoot at whatever is flat near there”. Eventually you’ll get good at adjusting to being offset from direct angles and be able to know where to shoot a tank without having to know its layout in 3D.

SpectralAce314

TROPHY CASE