Early in my Kali career, I learned the art of fusion from Soulvoid. Endless 20-2 games in Athena, but something eventually sank in. SV was a big influence in my style early on, and I followed the path of the 'big dogfighters' that were popular in the day. Probably the first pilot I could claim actually did any training with me.
Later on Kali, I studied a lot with Deimos. I'm not sure you could exactly say he trained me, but we played a lot, and he was always clearly the better pilot.
Probably the most lasting influence he's had on my game is that it was he who talked me into switching to mouse. Been a mouser ever since.
After joining TNT, I trained a lot with FlyNight in the art of shakers. Sweeper some, too. I'm not sure I can say I ever "got" it, but I think that period of my career gave me a "dodging anything is possible" outlook on life. You could shoot five shakers at those guys, and they'd just shrug it off. Amazing stuff. I've always aspired to that.
After joining UF, Nitrate took it upon himself to train me. We played a lot -- a lot! -- for several months, and talked about the game a lot. Most of it was dogfighting technique. That's what Nitrate did, and the kind of pilot I was at the time.
He was an uncanny pocket dodger, though, and that contributed further to toward my feeling of safety as long as I had space. That tradition continues to this day -- "She can dodge'h anything!"
Upon my arrival in the Rebirth era, I received a lot of training from Lotharbot. He'd always been the better pilot of the two of us, and that was still true, but I was always much more of a straight dogfighter, and he was always more of a funky rat. I had never 'gotten' that game, and not for lack of trying back in the day. Didn't like it, didn't get it, didn't study it. Dogfight me! But two days after returning to Descent, I said, "I get ratting now" -- some game I'd played in the intervening years had resulted in a lightbulb coming on, I guess. We played, he said, "You DO!" And he proceeded to train me in all the basics of the field, all the ways of ladder matches, basically all the stuff I never had gotten into back in the day that he had. He taught me about visibility and thinking about spaces and just . . . I guess all kinds of stuff I consider basic, now, that I didn't know.
A couple months into my return to Descent, I found I was playing Jediluke a lot, and he seemed pretty willing to answer questions and teach me things. I'd always really looked up to him as a pilot, and wanted to understand his game, so I kept on asking, and kept on learning, and
really liked the results and -- gosh, has two years gone by? He's done 90% of the training I've had in Descent at this point. He's by far the biggest influence on my current game. All missiles, all tunnels, all hit and run! Mega huge focus on mind game. A big change from my early days. I was always an NH kind of pilot, too, and now I'm an x4 kind of pilot. Speaking of learning to dodge anything! I call Jeds my sensei these days, and that's not really stretching the truth very much.
Other pilots in the modern era have helped me along the way. Bahamut and Behemoth both took some time to teach me what they knew about fusion, and that was a huge help. I try to play that particular game the way they do, though I can't claim to have maintained those skills. Mark has told me unspecified secrets from time to time
. . . but I'd honestly have to say his influence on my game is small. He's responsible for a couple of big breakthroughs, and he reminds me to focus on breadth and basics . . . but honestly, most of the stuff he's told me, I'm just not good enough to make real use of.
But it's appreciated. LoNi has given out a lot of tips, mainly about how to relate to the game psychologically, but sometimes just identifying dumb stuff that I do. He gave me a lot of encouragement when I was coming up to gold, and I still aspire to his very 'chill' approach to competition. DKH . . . couldn't really say he's trained me, but he's trained
with me, and plenty of what I do now -- particularly the emphasis on vulcan -- has come from studying his game. So those guys are all influences, too.
People who have influenced me who I don't personally know -- The Guy Who Wrote The Descent Weenie Tactics Website had a huge influence on my early-Kali and pre-Kali game. So did Glock21 through the Descent Professional's Resource. Sirian influenced the way I think about pilots and the community, and some of the attitudes I bring to the game, through his writings on the DBB. And Koolbear influenced the way I treat pilots because I always liked the way he took care of people, and I try to emulate that.
I think that's about it? Lots of people have helped me be who I am today, and I'm very grateful.
But uh, as far as piloting mentors go, it's been a lot of people over the years, but honestly . . . mainly Jediluke.
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 5:11 pm
Morfod would be a close second, even if he's a step ahead of me in most places. -_- I like playing when he's not focused so much on the lag, except I can never seem to get a DCL game with him when he's in that state.
I am humbled to have the opportunity to play competitively with you.