Control method setups and ship selection guide for beginner to intermediates

:nodControl Setup Methods:nod

After picking many expert player’s brains and also writing posts asking the same old questions that top players have already answered a thousand times, I have decided after taking a suggestion from one of these top players on this site to put all this information into a guide which is aimed at helping other novice to intermediate players like me, with the intention of preventing further repeat posts and time wasting as players try to find out information and experts having to repeat themselves constantly.
I hope this guide is helpful and useful and will save people time. It’s my first game guide ever..hope you like.:nod:nod:nod

D-Pad Vs Analogue sticks Vs Six-axis Vs Negcon

After holding a poll and speaking to many top players as well as from my own experiences it appear that the following is the general trend with regards to what control methods are good.

D-pad

D-pad tends to be used mainly by veteran players from previous Wipeout games where analogue stick was not available. The D-pad is digital so it possible to train yourself to do exact cornering for example a certain corner on a track need 3 quick pushes of the D-pad to get around it well, another corner you just hold the D-pad in fully to complete the corner. This is good for consistent racing, but at high speeds and online racing when things don’t go to plan this can cause a few problems. I find on speed laps and time trails this method of control is excellent, another really good aspect to the D-pad is the ease and speed of barrel rolls, with your thumb in the middle of the D-pad you can perform a barrel roll much quicker than with a stick as the movement needed to pull it off is much less. So I would say the D-pad would be strongest for speed lap or time trail mode.

Stick control

As the stick is analogue its much easier to do minor adjustments take shallow corners as all strength of turning is dictated by how far you move the stick. From players I have spoken to and from my experience I have found the stick works really well on the Zone modes as the speed is always changing the turning and steering need to be finely adjusted to compensate for the increasing speeds, the D-pad being digital doesn’t seem as easy as the stick at high speeds. In online racing the stick is good when you need to adjust your self from situations in a game for example you just got rammed off your racing line before a hard corner, or hit by a weapon.
So I would say stick is best for racing/eliminator and Zone modes.

100% six-axis

I have not found any top pilots who use this method. To be honest I only know of two players who use this method. I wouldn’t recommend this method for playing Wipeout. Not because it is rubbish but because getting good at Wipeout heavily relies mostly on a great many hours of practice and holding a game pad level and ensuring you are sitting correctly is a real pain. I like to crash out when I play and my game pad is always in different positions depending on how lazy I feel when I am playing games, for this reason I would never be able to put enough hours in to get good with six-axis.

Negcon

If you can rig one up, these twisty style gamepads will do wonders for pitching and barrel rolls, takes a bit of getting used to. I would almost consider these an upgrade for a D-pad user.

Control Settings

Air brakes

Having the sensitivity lowered might seem a good idea as the ship will turn faster but this will make medium turns a bit tricky as a gradual air brake may be all that is required. Most players I have spoken to generally use from 50 to 70% sensitivity. High sensitivity can cause over steering issues too and generally makes handling a little more difficult and over responsive. I started off on 10% as I have improved I am now on 70% and feel much more in control. But saying that there are top players who change their sensitivity of the airbrakes to match the track they play on for example 90% on Moa and 10% on Subenco.I wouldn’t recommend this till you really know what you are doing as it takes a lot of practice and skill to fly in many different configurations. Best to stick to single setting till you have become skilled then review it from there.

Acceleration

Set to 10% you need to maintain maximum speed throughout the game. Nearly all experts agree on this.

Views

Far view is the most popular mode due to the fact you can see more as well as on both sides of your ship and a little to the rear. Most top players use this.

Close is similar to far but with less vision, so not really as good.

Cockpit is the coolest view as the screen spins and rocks as the ship moves but your vision is restricted and when you get hit by a rocket or severely rammed you get severely disorientated. I personally love this view and always use it because it’s cool. But if I really wanted to win an online race I wouldn’t use it. I need to know what’s happening on all sides and behind and need to be able to react to things as they happen during a race. Use this mode for showing of on Youtube.

Rear view

Configure your gamepad so rear view isn’t, L1 L2 R1 R2 as they will interfere with air brakes. Use a button that won’t affect your handling as much when used. Rear view is important if you need to block other racers or drop mine well. Your scanner is ok for this too so don’t forget to use them both as required.

Pitching
Pitching is important. Pitch up to help pull off barrel rolls you would never have time to pull off, pitch down to stop your ship from hitting ceilings or losing speed while gliding. Pitch up on upward hills and pitch down on slopes. Bad pitching cost speed and control don’t overlook this.

How do I pitch the best?

There is no answer to this question, I have asked many top players tried myself, read articles and players are split on this, it appears all methods are used and no method has an advantage over another.
I personally use 6-axis pitch only with sensitivity set to default. That works well for me. The most important point is just remember to pitch accordingly.

[CENTER]Ship selection-What is the best ship[/CENTER]

Top Speed

First of all most important thing to note is Icarus isn’t the best ship just because its got 10 for speed and Feisar is the worst because its got 7 for speed. These scores are misleading as there is only a measly 8 km/h between slowest ship and fastest ship.

1. Icaras - Top Speed 10: 792 km/h
Piranha - Top Speed 10: 792 km/h
2. Auricom - Top Speed 9: 789 km/h
Triakis - Top Speed 9: 789 km/h
3. Assegai - Top Speed 8: 786 km/h
EG-X - Top Speed 8: 786 km/h
Harimau - Top Speed 8: 786 km/h
Mirage - Top Speed 8: 786 km/h
Qirex - Top Speed 8: 786 km/h
4. AG-Systems - Top Speed 7: 784 km/h
Feisar - Top Speed 7: 784 km/h
Goteki45 - Top Speed 7: 784 km/h




Fast ships with poor handling need to travel further to make a corner than a better handling ship with low speed. Take this into consideration before you take your piranha up Subenco climb.

I personally like Feisar because you can really mess up a corner badly and still recover from it because the handling and turning circle are incredible.

Top sped isn’t important for novice to intermediate. Getting around a track with a perfect lap is more important. Only when you become a top player will top speed be important to you.

Handling

Handling is an important factor too.

In my opinion Icarus ship should be used by an elite player that can get ahead of the pack early and simply just need to do perfect laps to win. If you can’t do that you will lose in an Icarus as the poorer handling will cost the average player and the small speed advantage will be lost while they get smashed about the place by weapons and racers as well as hitting the sides.

Thrust

Crap players benefit from ship with good thrust as they won’t lose as much time accelerating from there many crashes. This becomes less important as your skill grows.



AG is similar but really has good thrust.



To be truly honest there is no best ship in Wipeout. The elite players use all ships to equal effect. The key is finding a ship that suits your style, your ability and the track. Don’t pick the same ship as an elite player and expect similar results. Elite players do tend to use many different ships to suit their current situation.

Shields

Shield is not really too important facto on ship selection considering weapon absorb can counter low energy quite easily. Big shields become important when eliminator is played when speed and handling are not so crucial and the emphasis on giving and receiving of damage are priority.

Higher shield doesn't help in eliminator matches since weapons will do the same damage to your ship regardless, or at least to the best of my knowledge this is true. Shield affects damage taken through collisions with other ships and the wall.

Also, you don't give thrust enough credit. It gets you off the line faster then any other stat and affects your speed gained from a speed pad a bit. Depending on the map and your skill at hitting speed pads this can cut down your lap time quite a bit.

With all these handling tips Im suprised you forgot about sideshift.

Thrust needs more recognition too, seeing as how half the key to winnning a race is getting ahead at the start.

Just needs a Bit of cleaning up then it looks good ;)

I think you need to clarify that setting the controls to 10% acceleration doesn't give you better speed (or indeed better acceleration).

It's merely a sensitivity setting, meaning you don't have to be pushing so hard on X in order to maintain 100% thrust.

I think you've put too much emphasis on perfect laps. I've seen something like the following asked before, "I'm doing perfect laps but other people are still 5 seconds faster than me per lap".
People seem to think that perfect actually means they couldn't have done it better or faster. That's not necessarily true, as we all know. But I would even go so far as to say that if you get perfect laps a lot, then you may well be doing it wrong. Perfect laps are rare, especially so if you're really pushing the track hard and taking corners very tightly. A minor wall brush may actually take 1% off your shield, thus preventing a perfect lap, but really have very little effect on your speed, and far less of a negative effect than taking a wider, slower line would have.

In conclusion:
Perfect laps don't mean anything when it comes to speed.

Having said that, as a guide for novices it's pretty good and I guess if the message is that there's no point using Icaras if you can barely get around the corner at all, then it's probably true. Just needs some polish (the shoe kind, not the country) in some areas, and a thorough spell check.

Thx for your advice . i will edit and clean it up, and clarify on some points.

I was suprised to learn that most people like the far view for piloting. I always use the close view (not internal). Am i a rookie now for learning something from this guide? LOL

-GJ Jasmin

*I think it would be neat to make an html guide with all information implemented in a proper hierarchy. Beginners click here. Phantom CP rev click here. Team specific info for a particular course click here (brs, best approach to a corner with a certain team). etc, etc.

I like the far view because it gives me a better view of the track at the horizon level and the ship is smaller, blocking less of the screen. I definitely race better focusing on the horizon instead of close to the ship.

Yeah I'd also like to dispute the fact that close is 'not really as good'. I'm hardly a 'top' player but I've been playing these games for years... and I've always preferred the close camera. Using the far view doesn't help my performance at all.

I think these two views should be labelled as purely personal preference.

i personally dont use either..i like cockpit, but on talking to many top pilots i was told on many occassionsthat far was the preffered view as you can see moreto the side and rear. i think this is mainly for racing..time trial and zone and speed lap play just as well in the other views.



thx for the tips divided zero..but i cant do complicated things like you ask..i would be good, i just dont know how

@Jasmin, sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasnt asking YOU specifically to do it.

Just a general comment...thinking out loud. :p

Using close view here. Far view makes too many things move on the screen and I can't get used to that. Close seems to allow for a larger "focus point", and internal the same but I can't stand the spinning.

I personally Use close as well, Far is well... too far, And I cant race competitively at cockpit.

I race in cockpit-view on Moa Therma, Anulpha and Sol2. All others I race in the 'Far' Viewpoint. Crazy I know :)

Nice guide Jasmine :)

close external is the only thing i use after the first couple of weeks of HD. all three camera angles is about personal style or preference.
and saying one is better than the others is kind of like saying all profesjonal racers use the black and red icaras skin :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SaturnReturn

In conclusion:
Perfect laps don't mean anything when it comes to speed.

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Such a true observation. In the "olden days" you could forget a world record time without a perfect race. Even on Pure the top 5 TTs will almost always be perfect races. The walls were just right in Pure, you could get away with an occasional scrape and they weren`t nasty in stopping you dead, but it paid to never hit them. In HD it`s obviously quicker to BR and grind than to make a point of being clean. Doesn`t mean it`s necessarily bad - but it`s definitely different. :p Still it`s not like Fusion where the quickest way sometimes seemed to be to keep the hammer down against the wall on some turns.

when i stated perfect lap i did actually mean to fly the lap in the fastest rute with all barrel rolls and shortcuts..I just wasnt very clear..ill amend it so its clearer to all other readers along with a few other points players have brought up :)