Aircombat in the latest version.

[Beanchilla]

It's kicking my ass!

I'm not sure if it's supposed to or not but it definitely is.

Do you guys have any tips for taking down UFOs successfully?

[Msvknight]

1 are you using missles [like with scouts] fire one, they will dodge, then when the scout or fighters are dodging, fire your second missile

[StK]

Most importantly usually.. fly in pairs.. one plane is bait one gets on the ufos tail.

taskruel did some how to vids on aircombat, those helped me immensly

[Jean-Luc]

Best tip would probably be to wait for the next build.

[mrsisk]

Light scouts can easily be taken down by a single Condor if you play it right...I'm no expert, I've seen people doing battles much better than this, but on light scouts this works for me:

-Shut off one missile

-Wait for first missile to fire

-The small scout will dodge this missile with a roll

-Fire the second missile...this will hit as the UFO can't dodge again that quickly

-Roll

-Close to autocannon range, adjusting speed to stay behind or to the side of the enemy

-If your jet is in the UFO's attack arc, Roll again and adjust speed

-Repeat that last strategy until UFO's dead

I often come out with a little bit of damage, but usually little enough that the jet's repaired by the next contact.

Obviously this is very early game. Regular scouts are more dangerous and need approached in pairs at least.

Once you have the Foxtrot, send it out with escorts don't let it rush ahead. Let the enemy target a plane that can roll and then the Foxtrot can launch catch up and launch its missiles. After all missiles are away, retreat and put it on afterburners as it has no more weapons and can't do anything useful.

Edited December 10, 2013 by mrsisk

[StellarRat]

Right now the AC is very difficult. It's normally just difficult. LOL. Anyway, the main trick is to use the "roll" button on the Condors and stagger your missile launches. Fire one missile, then when the alien rolls to dodge it, fire a follow up missiles. You need to use the space bar all the time to pause the game so you can see when the aliens fire then you do a "roll" with the Condors to dodge their shots. Also, DO NOT get into a dogfight with the Foxtrot! They can't roll. Those are mainly for carrying the big missiles used to destroy Scouts and larger ships. Use a Condor to draw and dodge UFO fire and leave the Foxtrots further back to fire the big missiles at your target ship. If you're going up against fighters, heavy fighters, or Lt. Scouts use only Condors. Also, you can hit the enemy formations multiple times. Damage remains as long as they are on the map. One tactic is to use a Condor flight to destroy the fighter escort of a large ship, then a combined Condor/Foxtrot flight to destroy the now unescorted target.

[mrsisk]

So I was watching this AC tutorial...He's splitting his squads up in the middle of combat. I didn't know you could direct your planes to go left and right...how's that done, then?

[MrPyro]

Click on the plane to select it, then left click on the map where you want them to go. They fly towards that point.

Can be useful to run flanking or for kiting.

[StellarRat]

So I was watching this AC tutorial...He's splitting his squads up in the middle of combat. I didn't know you could direct your planes to go left and right...how's that done, then?

Yep, and you can also control the throttle setting and afterburner, target selection and hold/release weapons. One thing to keep in mind is that if you hit the "disengage" button as far as I can tell there is no way to "undo" it.

[mrsisk]

Excellent! I found out about the accidental disengage button click thing back in early alpha...d'oh!

[Dead Dread]

I thought you could re-engage by selecting the plane then clicking on an enemy fighter to target... but yeah it's not intuitive.