Pilot tools

[Spud Nick]

What tools do you pilots take when you fly a ship? I'm sure it depends on the ship you take and what ships you are flying against. Perhaps even the map you are fighting on? List some of the pilot tools you take and the ship/build you use them with.

[Sailorman]

Mostly I use a Squid, with a cannonade on the front and flamers on the side and back. My tools are:

Phoenix Claw -  So you can stay on the blind spot of your foes and also its useful to avoid flanking and Ramming.

Hydrogen and Chute Vent - Vertical movement is useful to avoid snipers when you are on long range, you can go up and down and most of the shots will miss you. Also its useful to disengage during close quarters.

[Calico Jack]

I use Phoenix claw and kerosene as standards - the claw for standing turns ie no forward or backward speed, and kerrosene for manoevers at speed, a combination of the claw and kerosene coupled with throttle jiggling makes slow turning ships like the pyra and mobula much more nimble, while the galleon will get over its initial inertia.  For Junkers anything that damages the engines means dragging someone off guns, so I'll avoid using tools as much as possible, but speed boosts are sometimes necessary. For squids  the claw will bring the nose about nicely at full throttle.

I'll bring tar if I'm going to be up close and personal.

If I'm flying mobula, I'll bring helium as it is great at opening distance on attackers particularly ramming pyras (combined with the claw you can turn the tables, literally).
Both vent chute and helium boost the vertical rate of the mob but helium is less likely to cause damage to the hull if I misjudge my timings and it can be used to pop your balloon to suddenly drop from height, not quite as fast as vent chute but, it's effective just the same.

[N-Sunderland]

I bring moonshine-phoenix claw-tar barrel on my Pyramidion. Moonshine works better than kerosene for a few reasons here: it makes up for the Pyra's awful acceleration and allows it to reach its high top speed quickly, and it helps keep the ship steady if I need to go for a ram, while also being generally helpful in stabilizing the ship. Phoenix claw is obviously for countering the Pyra's slow turning, and tar barrel is for escaping. I'll take a buffed balloon over chute vent/hydro.

[HamsterIV]

Kerosine and Tar are my standard two for getting in and out of trouble. If I am flying a pyra or galleon I take Claw to compensate for their horrible turning rates. Otherwise I take Hydrogen for the quick escape. Since the flack and gat have better downward fire limits than upward I find it beneficial to evade upward rather than downward.

If I run a carronade ship (which is rare) I take chute vent so they can't escape under my guns (and for the teabag option).
If I intend to ram I take moonshine and impact bumbers (maybe).

Tar has has become my favorite pilot tool for getting out of a rough spot ever since they tied vertical acceleration to mass. It is also good on a galleon for those times where an enemy ship gets on your aft blind spot and you want to make him suffer while you murder his friend.

[N-Sunderland]

Impact bumpers is a terrible tool for ramming. If you engage it too early you lose a lot of the strength of your impact, and you run the risk of losing your gun arcs and pointing in the wrong direction entirely. If you keep moonshine on while ramming, you don't have to worry about losing your gun arcs.

Not to mention that if you're worried about the damage you're going to take from a ram, you shouldn't be going for said ram in the first place.

[Imagine]

Impact bumpers is a terrible tool for ramming. If you engage it too early you lose a lot of the strength of your impact, and you run the risk of losing your gun arcs and pointing in the wrong direction entirely. If you keep moonshine on while ramming, you don't have to worry about losing your gun arcs.

Not to mention that if you're worried about the damage you're going to take from a ram, you shouldn't be going for said ram in the first place.

I've taken impact bumpers as a defensive measure a few times when I'm going up against a ram happy opponent and I'm flying something a little bit more squishy like a goldfish.

[Calico Jack]

Moonshine works better than kerosene.

Though I can't deny its raw power I find moonshine a bit restricting mostly due to the engine damage it incurs. Though I concede if I spent more time with it I'd probably develop better coping strategies.

[Calico Jack]

Tar has has become my favorite pilot tool

And may I compliment you on your excellent timing in its use.

[N-Sunderland]

Though I can't deny its raw power I find moonshine a bit restricting mostly due to the engine damage it incurs. Though I concede if I spent more time with it I'd probably develop better coping strategies.

It's all about applying it in bursts. You get a similar overall speed boost to kerosene, plus the other benefits (vastly improved acceleration, stabilization). Of course, it's also better for me because I ram a lot. Piloting style is a factor in the choice between the two items.

I've taken impact bumpers as a defensive measure a few times when I'm going up against a ram happy opponent and I'm flying something a little bit more squishy like a goldfish.

Yeah, it's an excellent defensive tool against ramming pilots. It's just a bad choice when you're ramming offensively.

[HamsterIV]

And may I compliment you on your excellent timing in its use.

Thanks, I used to suck at using it, but a couple months of practice cured that. My hat is off to the real pioneers of tar use for advancing the meta. I wish I could remember more of their names right now.

As for ramming and impact bumpers. I remember them being more useful back when ships would get stuck on each other. Now with proper bouncing physics they are less useful for ensuring a kill via ramming. However they are useful if your hull is scraping the ground after a carronade attack. I still rarely take impact bumpers because getting a kill through sustained gunfire is a much safer option and if I do ram it is done more for positioning reasons than attempting to secure a kill. I advise new pilots to take impact bumpers since they don't self damage the ship and will save them if the leave vent or hydrogen on for too long.

The Kerosine vs Moonshine discussion is an interesting one. Kerosine allows you to travel faster since you can leave it on longer without destroying the engines. So when you need to get back to the fight from across the level or run away after you loose an ally kerosine is the best. However if you need a sudden burst of speed, to dodge a ram/hwacha volly or get out of a galleon's field of fire Moonsine is the way to go. Also when attempting a turning ram (knocking an enemy ships guns away from its target) the moonshine's rotational drag property will prevent your ship from suffering a similar fate.

[Zenark]

I never leave home without the Phoenix Claw. I find it useful on every ship (minus the Spire.) You can keep your guns on an opponent that's faster than you, which is what I use it for primarily. I also use it as a sort of braking system to come to a complete stop faster. When on my Squid, if I can't keep both front and side gun on target (chasing someone, gubs with small arc), I'll have my front gun take out the ships armor, turn on phoenix Claw, and spin that side gun to face them. The extra burst of turning speed allows me to get that side gun on target in at least a second.

I use kerosene mostly, but have been trying moonshine as a replacement, it just takes some getting used to. In conjunction with phoenix Claw, you can turn your ship fast to get your guns on target, then inject a half second of moonshine/kerosene to have your turn come to a complete stop. The combo of these two tools allows your ship to have more control spatially, allowing for some unpredictable maneuvers.

The last tool is Hydrogen, Chute Vent, or Drogue Chute, depending on what ship in using, or if the enemy is using Carronades or lumberjacks.

[Calico Jack]

Also when attempting a turning ram (knocking an enemy ships guns away from its target) the moonshine's rotational drag property will prevent your ship from suffering a similar fate.

a combination of steering against a glancing kerosene impact, with a touch of Claw just after to correct positioning, works well enough,  it doesn't however guarantee stability like moonshine, and when you get a really bad bounce, like a pyra on pyra beak encounter, can be unpredictable.

However the points you raise on quick changes of course to dodge enemy fire has got me thinking about trying moonshine again.

On a side note - I'd love the ability to quick swap pilot tools, guns too for that matter, by which I mean the current interface is designed as if I would be browsing at my leisure whilst reading the item descriptions and then want time to reconsider before confirming. And there are times when I do this, but usually in match lobbies, I just want to scroll a menu of the last X number used, just names and no pictures.

[Crafeksterty]

Pheonix claw + Monshine/kyrosine + Hydrogen/chutevent (depending on map and enemy ship)

As a spire, i try to use its 3D form as much as possible and its stats. The loadouts i am allready familiar with but with maps such as Canyons, moonshine is a good thing to have. Pheonix clawing your self sidewise and then moonshining just wheere you are aiming to go at make you do a quick geometrical turn which is usefull for hiding behind cover.
Just because of its slim design.

With hydrogen or chute vent, i use hydrogen on maps with large vertical space, or low horrizontal space. (duel at dawn, northern fjords) And chute vent on close quarters maps. Sometimes i vvary even if the maps arent the ones best for. Because maybe i want to stay high in northern fjords. And get fast down. etc

[HamsterIV]

I am not sure Phoenix claw is a good counter to a ram turning. Claw lowers your rotational drag which is what helps slow down a turn. I don't think the increased counter torque you get from claw balances out the loss of drag. Ideally you would use moonshine to cancel out the unwanted torque and start clawing when you are at neutral torque to get lined up again. Alternately you could use claw in the direction of the spin to pull a 270/360 faster than you could have done the counter spin.