BASIC RULE NUMBER 1

KEEP MOVING! This cannot be stressed strongly enough. All the good pilots will tell you this. If you stop, you're dead. If you want to take a break wait til you're killed. Then you'll have all the time you want. Or go into observer mode. This is better, cause you can still kinda see what's going on while you get your heartrate back to a normal level. As you get to know the levels you'll find, in some, there are places you can hide. Fine, use them. Be aware, though, that the good pilots know these places too and may come looking for you. Don't get upset if one of them pops over the top of a hill in Bedlam and blows you away.

All right, you say, keep moving. But how? There are three modes of transportation in D3. Forward thrust, afterburner and chording. Forward thrust is fine if you want to just cruise around. But it's not very good for getting out of harm's way. So hit afterburner. YEAH! ALL RIGHT! CRANK UP THE BOOST AND LET'S GET OUTA HERE! Great, except it doesn't last long, eats up energy and makes a lot of noise which can lead other pilots to you. Always pick up an afterburner cooler. It reduces the noise considerably. And pulse the AB in short bursts keeping the level above 95%. That will get you your fastest speed.

Chording is a whole different ball game. Again, I'm not about to go into it in detail. Mobius has an excellent discertation on it. I will only go so far as to say this. Bi-chording is moving forward or backward while, at the same time, moving up, down, right or left. A good maneuver for dodging missiles. Tri-chording is another story. As an example, you can be moving forward, nose down while sliding right. All at the same time. And for some reason I don't know it almost doubles your speed. And it's QUIET. It is absolutely imperative that you learn to tri-chord in all directions if you want to be successful in this game.

Which leads me to the next, most logical topic of discussion which is controls. This area is very subjective. Some fly with mouse and keyboard, some with joystick and keyboard. Others use only the stick. I only know of a few who use only the keyboard. I think it's Mobius who says this is suicidal. I can understand why. Personally, I use a joystick, speedpad and voice recognition software. I only use the keyboard for chatting and function keys. I'm not saying this is the ultimate setup, just that this is what seems to work for me. The most important thing here is that you find a configuration that is comfortable for you. Experiment. Start a game in single level and play around. Find out what you like. Once you find it, practice with it. Use of your controls should become almost second nature. You shouldn't have to think about which button to push to do what you want. If you have to take an instant to think about how to turn around, back up and fire at the same time, YOU'RE DEAD! These movements should become reflexive. Work on them.

YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Coupled with the ease of knowing your controls is also the ease with which you use them. You need to have a comfortable environment for gaming. If you're going to spend any amount of time in this game, and I'm sure you will, you need to reduce any amount of physical strain as much as possible. For starters, you need a good chair, one that won't start giving you a backache in an hour. How's your hand on the keyboard? Comfy? Maybe you need a wrist rest? How are you reaching for your stick? Case in point. I've found my stick sits too high on the desk which cocks my wrist back too far. I think this affects my feel for the stick and my ability to fly smoothly. So I've mounted two platforms extending out from the desk which results in my forearms being parallel to the floor. Anyway, make yourself comfortable. Your brain will get tense enough. Your body shouldn't have to.

Next comes levels. NEVER, EVER, EVER go into a level you don't know. All you will do is fly around, bang into walls and things, get boxed in and DIE! It is imperative that you know the ins and outs of every level you fly. "Ah, but coach, how do I do this?" Simple. Find a level in PXO you want to learn, preferably one that is empty at the moment. Download it and exit. Go to single player and start the level. Now you're all alone in there and can get to know it. Fly it. Fly it til you can do it backwards, if possible. Memorize it so you don't have to think where you're going to go. Then study it. Hmm, are there any places I can hide and ambush? Can I bounce a missile around this corner?What weapons would work best here? See where I'm going here. The good pilots know all the tricks of every level they fly. You need to, as well. A little more advice. This isn't from me. I got it in an e-mail from Wakeman, one of our "PRINCES".

" The best advice I can give you is
to get your head game down.
Every time you die think about
what you did and what you could've
done to avoid it. This, combined
with a good control configuration,
will have you flying great in no time.
Aiming better and flying will
come with time, but if you can outhink
your opponent you already
have half the battle won."

Thanx Wake

Just remember, that NEWBIE may become your worst nightmare