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omfg filmz
Posted By: vector40 <foo@berkeleyhigh.org>	Date: 5/22/04 6:22 a.m.
All right, so some Banshee stuff. Some of you may be familiar with something I do called "dancing." Basically I just enter (or create) a solo game, usually on Death Island, grab a Banshee and just fly around alone... do tricks, bounce off stuff, push the limits of the vehicle. No enemies, just flowing. It used to be something I did for fun when there weren't any good games going, but I like to make it a habit to still dance a bit regularly -- because, during the course of that "free associating" in the Banshee, I've learned a large quantity of the moves that I know now... and more importantly, honed an immense degree of the comfortability and familiarity that I have now from that purposeless, kata-like dance. It can also be lovely, though; it harnesses and exhibits the freedom and the fluidity of the air like nothing else. I got goatrope to film a couple of dances, and he's handily made them available if anybody would like to watch. The interesting thing to YOU guys will probably be to see some of the limits of Banshee capability that you might not be familiar with. Time and time again, I say that the mark of a real pilot is not being able to execute x, y, or z move effectively -- it's being truly familiar with the way his vehicle CAN and DOES behave, because then the "moves" stem naturally from that. For example, a couple of people have said of these videos -- and of watching me dance in general -- that the most impressive part is the ease of which I invert, or flip over so that my belly is facing up. It's true that inverting is not something most people can do -- but what you should realize is that it's NOT a trick, not a gimmick -- it's just a natural reflection of UNDERSTANDING HOW THE BANSHEE CAN MOVE. Like a top-flight NBA player who can dribble and dunk in incredible ways, it looks cool and is striking to the layman, but it's just a window into one small sector of piloting ability; it's one example of the ways that the Banshee can move when you push it past what you THINK it can do and into the realm of its upper limits. Films: http://berkeleyhigh.org/provinggrounds/dancing2.avi and http://berkeleyhigh.org/provinggrounds/dancing.avi Okay, here's some more stuff. I got to explaining some things that have been on my mind lately, within #HBO on IRC, and I don't want to retype it so I figured I might just paste those chat logs here. I don't know whether this will interest anybody at all, but it was a pretty striking thing to me, so maybe some folks will have a similar eye. vector40: Okay, so. vector40: Take two techniques. vector40: "Drifting," and the idea of "dominant positions" in a dogfight (trailing, belly, etc.). [note from vec: drifting is a technique usually used on ground targets -- try flying overhead, then suddenly cutting throttle and turning hard toward the target. You'll keep flying in the same direction, but will be able to rotate to face your target, and can fire at them, yet still have a degree of evasive action because you'll still be moving laterally. It'll be in my next article.] vector40: Back then, I was full of techniques, a veritable school of bullshitsu. vector40: Now, what happened is that both of these things kept fermenting, until they became entire... entire aspects of flying, in the paradigm I use anyway. vector40: It's hard to tell the change, because the EFFECTIVE end result is fairly similar. It's how I VIEW it that's changed -- and the fluidity and overall cohesiveness, as a less direct result. vector40: Take the "dominant positions." vector40: I realized one day that I no longer look at it in that manner. Now, the way I look it at -- I'm striving always to keep myself OUT OF THEIR LINE OF FIRE (away from their barrel), and, as a second priority, to keep them WITHIN MY OWN. vector40: Now, those positions -- that's what they DID. That's what made them USEFUL. vector40: But now I've skipped the "middleman" of trying to establish x or y position, and gone straight to the purpose. vector40: So I realize now that I'm just sort of chasing around trying always to sit within these fields of safety that also allow me to direct fire onto them. vector40: That's done by way of being able to 1) control yourself well and 2) "read" the opponent so you know not only where they are and where they're aiming, but where they're HEADED and where they'll be in a second. vector40: Because if you orient yourself based on their current position, you'll always be too late. vector40: You have to be one step ahead of them and planning two steps. vector40: But again, the practical, external difference in this paradigm shift is relatively small -- but by realizing the core of that "goal," it opened me up to keep refining and studying it, rather than being stonewalled by a "technique" which was set in stone and fathomless. vector40: It's also more fluid and adaptable and "seamless." vector40: Okay, now look at drifting. vector40: Again, that was just a technique, and a pretty neat one. vector40: But as I did it more and more, and melded it with other things, and so on, I found that it was encouraging another paradigm shift. Rather than "my flying" and tacking the occasional drift onto that, like a post-it note, I discovered that there's an entire IDEA there. vector40: In my first Banshee article, I wrote that there are three types of motion a Banshee can follow. vector40: Dropping, hovering, and "forward." vector40: I'm realizing now that's wrong, though it can be a useful way of thinking about it. vector40: What you can ALSO do is move along any given axis, and ROTATE FREELY AND AT ANY ANGLE while you do. vector40: Generally not for very long, of course, because you're running on momentum. vector40: But you CAN, and that realization opens you up to "unlocking" your flight from a "forward only" methodology. vector40: And lets you see that, for limited streaks, you can face ANY direction while flying on such or such a direction. vector40: Then change direction and switch again, etc. vector40: But again, it's a change in the way of thinking. Drifting isn't a tactic; it's a facet of Banshee handling, potentially almost as core as any other vector of flight. vector40: shrugs vector40: Just some thoughts.

Message Index

omfg filmz	vector40	5/22/04 6:22 a.m.
Re: omfg filmz	vector40	5/22/04 6:29 a.m.
Amazing. Good Work. *NM* *NM*	dwchief	5/22/04 6:34 a.m.
Re: omfg filmz	tarehart	5/22/04 11:47 a.m.
Re: omfg filmz	tarehart	5/22/04 11:50 a.m.
Re: omfg filmz	retsamolah	5/22/04 9:38 a.m.
Bah.	MikeMan445	5/22/04 9:52 a.m.
Re: omfg filmz	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/22/04 10:49 a.m.
Nice... now try...	KTI	5/22/04 12:00 p.m.
Beautiful :)	Crispy Spartan	5/22/04 12:01 p.m.
Re: omfg filmz	M.N.C	5/22/04 12:44 p.m.
Looks more like Drunk Driving . . .	serpx	5/22/04 12:46 p.m.
Re: Looks more like Drunk Driving . . .	geekd0ubt	5/22/04 2:19 p.m.
Re: Looks more like Drunk Driving . . .	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/22/04 2:27 p.m.
if...	gspawn	5/22/04 2:58 p.m.
Re: if...	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/22/04 5:06 p.m.
Re: if...	vector40	5/22/04 8:22 p.m.
Banshee division tactics	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/22/04 9:45 p.m.
Re: omfg filmz	Skeletor	5/22/04 2:27 p.m.
wow!	mrsmiley	5/22/04 3:50 p.m.
thoughts from the gspawn	gspawn	5/22/04 3:51 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Djof	5/22/04 4:17 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	KTI	5/22/04 4:27 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/22/04 4:46 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	KTI	5/22/04 4:57 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/22/04 5:16 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	KTI	5/22/04 5:53 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Louis Wu	5/23/04 10:24 a.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/23/04 11:38 a.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	KTI	5/24/04 12:37 a.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Louis Wu	5/24/04 5:44 a.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	5/24/04 11:27 a.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	vector40	5/22/04 8:52 p.m.
Re: thoughts from the gspawn	Golden Chief	5/23/04 8:41 a.m.
Jeezuz.	Richard	5/22/04 5:08 p.m.
Re: omfg filmz	Jamirus99	5/22/04 10:53 p.m.
Banshee skills just went up. *NM*	Gre'Thor117	5/23/04 1:48 p.m.