In Response To: omfg filmz (vector40)
: 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.
:
Wow....dude, you've taken this to a whole new level.
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