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SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING
Posted By: Sparkypinball <send5pamhere@yahoo.com>	Date: 6/18/04 3:21 a.m.
This is my Gift to you, the Halo Community. Enjoy. BTW, hosting of this somewhere would be greatly appreciated. E-mail me if you want to put it on your site, otherwise, I will post it at a yahoo or something. ~~~~~~~~ Ok, let me start by saying that after a basic search of the Forums and HBO front page, I have not found any comprehensive guides to handle the vehicles. Other than fine write ups to fly banshees, there are none that I have seen on how to successfully operate the Hog (it’s a puma!), only lots of pages imitating Randy Glass’ launches. Same goes for the ghost, no handy tips to keep from flipping over large hills. (Why hasn’t there been any ghost launching videos?) The Scorpion doesn’t count; if you cant operate one of those, then I feel sad for you. Till I kill you, hump your corpse, and take your tank, only to shoot you with it and get a few triple killtaculars off your team... The reason that I have decided to write this is because I love to play online Multiplayer, but I hate to be in the back of a gunner hog and be in the heat of battle with an easy kill in sight, only to get killed myself because the driver of my hog has flipped it over a jump. As much as I love driving these things, it is more fun to man the gun. Plus, because of my abilities to drive these lovable beasts (and survive long enough) I have been called a “stoopid hog noob” because I can traverse Blood Gulch without dying and run down or tail whip just about anybody to respawn purgatory. With that said, this is what is from now on to be known as: SPARKY’S GUIDE TO VEHICLE HANDLING The Hog, The Puma, The Moustache Ride Call it whatever you want, to me it will always be the big mean Green Machine. That’s right, Not the Big black one with a yellow stripe. I don’t like that one. Only up close is that hog a threat, or from far away, pummeling an enemy base, such as up behind red base on Blood Gulch, aiming at blue base. The Rocket hog sounds badass, but in reality I think that it is useless because of the slow rate of fire, the slow speed of the rocket itself, and reload time. ANY day I would take a Machine gun hog over a Rocket Hog. HOW TO DRIVE A HOG Other than basic hog handling, there are some other things to be noted. These include landing, saving yourself from a spill, and not rolling over. BE ADVISED: I play inverted; I have NOT tested these controls for the other methods of playing. I am leaving it up to you, the reader to see if these methods work for you. How NOT to roll This is a skill that should be learned by all that want to drive a hog. First, take your hill/ramp/etc as straight on as possible. You can take it to the side if you wish, just have the hog as level as possible when you become airborne. Once you are in the air, push the controls forwards, be it your mouse or control stick. The view isn’t as nice, but this way you will land your hog, and keep your gunner and passenger happy. Or Alive. Or happy AND Alive! (Thanks RvB) Also, do NOT let up on the throttle, there is no point in not gunning your engine in the jump. Keep your thumb on the gas (diesel?) as you make your jump. You can do some amazing jumps and land them EVERY SINGLE time if you understand this idea. Most notably in the Maw, where you have that large gap, it is no problem if you push forwards the entire time. Same thing in Timberland, you can jump that large hill in front of the base and land it every time no problem. The Second lesson of Not Rolling A Hog is to recover from a bad landing. A hog is not like a normal car. It can take a lot of abuse, as Randy Glass has demonstrated, and BOLL made a nice game out of. It is most different from a normal car in the way that it steers, today called quadrasteer. This means that all the wheels move to take a turn. What does this mean to you? It means that if you are leaning to the right in a hog, you should push your Controls TO THE RIGHT. “But Sparky, that is Not Logical!” I know, but the reason is by doing this, you create a nice cup to land in with your tires, and you can tail whip out of your landing to continue on your path with little loss of momentum. So, if you take a hill in Danger Canyon, and your hog is falling to the left, you should push your controls TO THE LEFT to have a Nice landing 90% of the time. If you are falling to the RIGHT, push your controls TO THE RIGHT. Practice this, and you have mastered the basics of how NOT to Roll a Hog. TAIL WHIPPING The Tail whip is the BEST anti Infantry weapon the Hog DRIVER has. This is done by whipping your car to the side, and smacking people with the rear of the car. Master this, and I will see far less hog drivers circling a person with a plasma pistol getting killed while trying to run them over. SEATING ARRANGEMENTS The passenger seat is often empty. On Slayer, Oddball, Race, and CTF games, this may not be the best strategy. In Race, more people in a car, the faster your team scores. That is reason alone to have a passenger. In any other game, a passenger might not need to be necessary, EXCEPT in Oddball, because the ball carrier can only score time if they are in the PASSENGER seat. In any other game, the passenger seat should be the heavy weapons, such as Flamer, Fuel Rod, Rocket, or Shotgun. There is nothing better in my opinion than watching a person on the ground burn because of a guy with the flamer in the passenger seat of a hog. It’s Hilarious! The other advantage is if a Hog tries to ram you on the passenger side, a well-placed Fuel Rod Blast, Rocket, or Flame puts ends to those plans quick. Mentioned Before, but worth repeating, the Passenger seat is NOT for the Flag. A flag in the passengers seat is a big sign saying “Idiot Sitting Here”, or more commonly “I HAVE BEEN STOLEN, SAVE ME FROM THESE PEOPLE!” You can only imagine what those Spartans would do to that flag once they have it at their base…. The Horrors! Only Ride with the flag in the passengers side if: 1) You are an Idiot 1) The driver and gunner are Idiots and wont move for you 2) You need a ride outta there FAST 3) You are going for glory, and want to rub that Flag Capture in **Nelson HA-HA laugh here** The Gunner in the warthog should focus on pummeling people that are standing on the base, or far away from the car. There is no point for the gunner to shoot at the same person that the driver is trying to run over, unless there is nobody else around, or he has a heavy weapon. In that case, the driver made the mistake of trying to run them over. If somebody has a heavy weapon, the driver should steer clear of them, and let the gunner have all the fun. In the meantime, the driver should drive in a nice straight line, guaranteeing an easy kill for the guy with the Heavy weapon. No, wait, those are the EVIL, “Give Sparky more Kills” directions… Sorry folks. What you should really do is the same thing you should do when walking: Vary your course. Snipers like straight lines. In low lag games, I can get a triple kill on a hog with one clip of sniper ammo. There are people that can hit a hog all the way across a map with a rocket by predicting where it will be. Never drive in a straight line. When engaged by a FRG or rocket boy as driver, take tight turns, spin in tight circles, but most importantly…RUN AWAY! The point of the game is to prevent the other team from winning. If you are dead, you cannot do that, so by getting yourself needlessly killed, you are in essence helping the other team. There is no shame in running away from a fight you cannot win, so you can come back with a rocket so you can…and don’t forget the hump afterwards! HOW TO JOUST Warthog Jousting is very fun. VERY FUN. Unless you can’t land. Hopefully, after reading his, you will be able to land. If somebody is going to, or has rammed you, Press/mouse forwards and you will land 85% of the time, especially if you saw them coming and took appropriate action. If you are going to ram, before you hit them, press/mouse forwards, and you are more likely not to fly in the air. The reason for this (I think) is because the front of your hog gets all the weight this way, and keeps your nose down, most likely keeping you on the ground, and your opponent in the air, which upon landing get crushed by their car, or your tires. HOW TO FLOAT A GHOST Yes, not how to drive, but Float. The Ghost is not a car, but a hovercraft. Hovercrafts operate using Inertia. (For those of you that don’t know, that means that if it is going in a straight line, it wants to keep going in a straight line) Basically, if you want to turn in a ghost, the best thing to do is this: For a Right Turn Go in a straight line at where you will begin your turn. Turn the nose of the ghost to the right, but don’t press forwards anymore, instead press left. Your ghost will now be facing right, but still going in the Straight line that it was following. Now, press forwards. The ghost will now start to take a new straight line, and you made a right turn. Do the same thing, but different buttons to go left. If you collide with something, and your ghost does a 180 spin, it will take you a while to turn around completely and get back up to speed. There is a better way, and it keeps you alive longer if being hounded. If you find yourself turned completely around, just pull the ghost backwards. Now, you will be floating backwards. However, you are still at about the same speed you were before you spun, and it is easier to turn around now by turning your nose around while still heading in the same direction you want to go. For Example, on the Keyboard, you would be pressing W before you hit something, you spin around, press S and keep you nose pointed backwards with the mouse. Turn, for example, to the right with the mouse, and press D (if you turn left by the mouse, press A instead), and when you are pointing the nose of the ghost in front, resume pressing W again. HOW TO JUMP IN A GHOST MANY times I have heard people say that they cannot land a ghost over a large hill, only to show them by taking their flag and jumping the Hill in Timberland, Landing, and speeding off to score, that it can. The proper way to jump a ghost is easy to master, but not logical. The laws of inertia apply, so don’t worry. What you need to do is before you are airborne, press jump to get you nose up and gain some height. Now, this is where logic disappears: Pull backwards/press S. Do this to level out your ghost, and prevent it from flipping over and dumping you out, making you a sad Spartan. Do not worry about losing speed by doing this. The reason you wont lose speed is because of inertia. You will remain on your path in the straight line that you took once you became airborne. As you near the ground, press forwards again to keep the speed that you had before taking the jump. I can jump in Timberland, Infinity, and from the top level to the bottom of Gephryophobia (?) using this technique without flipping out of my ghost. Practice these techniques by playing Race by yourself in Blood Gulch. I can drive the entire course in both vehicles without flipping over. That includes both of the narrow pathways (Light side and Dark Side). Banshee handling can be found at the Junkyard, and tank handling, well, if you cant drive a tank, then there are some serious issues at hand. (Why are there six pedals if there are only four directions?!) That is all for now in my Vehicle Handling guide. Next up I will discuss how to play and succeed in KOTH, Oddball, and race. In the meantime, I can most often be found online at Team Bungie Servers, playing as Sparky or SqwattngBear (FTC rules!) Thanks for all the knowledge you guys have given me, and I hope that mine is helpful for noobs and old timers alike.

Learn Tactics and Banshee Flight here

Message Index

SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	Sparkypinball	6/18/04 3:21 a.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	juggtron	6/18/04 3:33 a.m.
Good Stuff, Sparky! *NM*	Mintz08	6/18/04 4:29 a.m.
Good guide, gotta try that today. Thanks, Sparky. *NM*	Awacar	6/18/04 3:43 a.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	someone that you dont know	6/18/04 4:38 a.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	Sparkypinball	6/18/04 4:53 a.m.
HOLY CRAP, I AM SUCH A BIG FAN	NickLee808	6/18/04 5:53 a.m.
Re: HOLY CRAP, I AM SUCH A BIG FAN	Sparkypinball	6/18/04 1:23 p.m.
Re: HOLY CRAP, I AM SUCH A BIG FAN	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	6/18/04 1:36 p.m.
Practicing Race on Blood Gulch works...	The Burninator	6/18/04 5:02 p.m.
Re: Practicing Race on Blood Gulch works...	Sparkypinball	6/18/04 7:16 p.m.
::tips hat:: *NM*	vector40	6/23/04 2:04 a.m.
Re: ::tips hat::	MikeMan445	6/24/04 4:53 p.m.
Re: ::tips hat::	vector40	6/24/04 10:48 p.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	6/18/04 8:54 a.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	Khaim	6/18/04 9:02 a.m.
I did that all the time... now I know why it works	Tar	6/18/04 12:26 p.m.
Re: I did that all the time... now I know why it w	Viral	6/18/04 5:34 p.m.
And here I thought I knew how to drive...	Matt(Uh...#5?)	6/18/04 7:18 p.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	Wort	6/28/04 2:59 p.m.
Re: SPARKY'S GUIDE TO: VEHICLE HANDLING	Sparkypinball	6/28/04 4:24 p.m.