Rolling?

Max Gene

Spaceman
Alright, I've made it through almost all the WC games just fine without rolling, as well as Starlancer. This is somewhat because I never had an easy way to roll on my setup, but my question being- what good is rolling, when do you do it, and how much of a help is it, really?
 
There's a manuver in the Star Wars games called the Wotan Weave that goes a longway towards reducing the threat of incoming fire power against you and involves rolling quite a bit. But I've always found that rolling in on my targets helps me line up my shots better, but it might just be me.
 
I can see rolling at targets being a little helpful. and for that matter I can see rolling so that a shot hits me on the other side while I get that one last shot in...
 
Well, some fighters have higher yaw than pitch turn rates or vice-versa, so in a fighter like the Panther it would be beneficial to roll to keep your target on the horizontal, or in the Vampire on the vertical.

Without an analog rolling device like rudder pedals or a turning joystick it can be kind of a pain to do, though. However, if you do have a way to comfortably roll it feels quite intuitive when used to maximize your ship's maneuverability.
 
I can see rolling at targets being a little helpful. and for that matter I can see rolling so that a shot hits me on the other side while I get that one last shot in...

The other advantage is presenting your stronger shields or armor to a target that's bearing in on you, to avoid taking more damage on a side that maybe has weaker armor.
 
Rolling has its uses. It can be very useful against ships like the Dralthi to align your axis to that one of the enemy that has the largest dimension. Similar it is easy to fly between the shots of a Jalthi with a Dralthi if you are aligned properly.
Personally I also like to do the corkscrew maneuver for first approach/attacking where rolling is pretty much essential if you plan on hitting anything on that first pass.
 
I use rolling constantly when I'm playing. It's very useful for lining up deflection shots and making sure that all your rounds will impact the target. WCP/SO/Standoff the AI tends to roll a lot itself so it definitely helps in lining up.

I miss my old Thrustmaster RCS, but with the commands mapped to Q and W, and right next to the AB, it's still a function I use constantly.
 
The corkscrew maneuver is also very usefull for long distances approaches when playing WCP multiplayer; I use it all the time.
 
How the heck does one do a corkscrew maneuver?

I don't know if I'm right with that, but I assume corkscrew means doing barrel rolls. So it is basically a not so accurate rolling.
You roll your ship but at the same time you pull the stick into another direction. So you roll around an axis that is not your fighter's middle axis.

I do that all the time. Great maneuver to avoid enemy gunfire.
 
I tend to roll more in the LucasArts games - but I certainly use it in both. One of my favorite techniques employing rolls would be attacking an Imperial class Star Destroyer in X-Wing. I would approach head on, about even with the center of the ship, then come up over the top and blind-fire 3 torpedos at each shield generator (you couldn't target components in the first X-Wing game.) The shields would immediately fall, and I would zoom over the bridge and park behing the engines to finish her off.

Any time I wasn't aiming torps I would be rolling and spraying laser fire. It never failed to get the adrenaline going, especially if there were lots of TIEs in the area!
 
"Do a barrel roll!"

It can help for aerial manoeuverability, not so much evasion itself rather than setting up for evasion.

Also, doing it makes you cool and causes the Kilrathi to flee in terror at your sheer awesomeness as you do it.
 
The corkscrew maneuver is also very usefull for long distances approaches when playing WCP multiplayer; I use it all the time.

Oh yeah you do! Pete will come roaring at you in his Panther will rotating to throw your aim off. Typically the pass ends with my ship screaming klaxons or simply exploding....sometimes I get lucky and he's the one tumbling off into space, but the WCP MP killboard shows that doesn't happen very often.
 
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