Inspired by remarks I see on the forums and ingame that there are too few aetherhunts, and pilots apparently being the hardest to find, I want to learn how to pilot. And I probably aren't the only one out there. Would anyone be willing to share their knowledge or even write a little tutorial? And what about scripts, are there any good (free) ones available or should I write my own? If writing my own, what triggers and aliases would be needed? To complete the topic a tutorial / script for empaths and gunners would be nice too. I can't offer much in terms of compensation, so I hope a thank you will do. Unless you feel confident enough to also let me pilot for you. Good way to test if you've taught me well, that's for sure

Overwrite your keypad to do the respective ship movement commands when you're locked in. Set another button to toggle gliding. Add an macro for pilot launching and docking and then go find a cheap and practice. Add assorted commands as necessary (such as a shipsight adjustment macro)

Just start doing it. There are many people with ships they don't use if you don't have your own. Don't start learning by using other people's scripts, build your own to meet your needs as they arise. Find the maps on the lore wiki and learn to read them. Be prepared to eat a few deaths. Depending on your client, turn off all your triggers so you don't spam yourself out on glide. Fly without an empath, you will get better faster if you are forced to be self-reliant. You will feel like a hero when you are able to fly all the way back to the plex from an aetherbubble with a damaged chair. When you've learned to keep yourself alive, you'll feel more confident keeping 10 other people alive on hunts. It's the same as PK or even bashing, you only learn to keep your composure when things get dicey through experience. Don't skimp on learning the aethercraft skill, but don't use flashpoints until you don't actually need them.

I think the key pad macro's are a good idea, but aside from that just fly around and practice a bunch. Back before ranged attacks I spent awhile practicing kiting mobs in tight circles on my own, untill it became a fairly mundane task. And we got forcefields now, if you find yourself in an emergency.

From experience, I was more confident practicing while using glide so the ship moves a bit faster. I suggest starting at the aetherplex - the narrow aetherways there is definitely good for practicing. You might, die, but you always have vitae(if you don't have conglutination in planar).

I've done all of this. I feel very confident flying solo missions, and have now visited every bubble on my own (though, with use of a map). I feel very confident about taking out a crew... HOWEVER, could someone please explain to me the strategic use of shockwave? This is the only mental barrier from taking that plunge.

This all sounds like so fun O.o

Shockwave is a mine. When a ship runs into it, it hurts and basically afflicts the ship, but this can be cured. When a creature runs into it, it stuns them, I don't know how long.

Shockwave basically turns that room on the aethermap into a room that stuns enemies that walk into it. You need to activate it from a turret and it costs 8 power.

It's used mainly to bait certain powerful aetherbeasts (dragons) back and forth to prevent the ship from taking damage.

You can also set it up by a vortex so that you siphon one out, fly to the other end, and kill it as it slowly makes its way to you. That's how Serenwilde does gargs. We tried flying back and forth over them once, but even triggering clarity didn't seem to be much faster than just waiting it out and it was annoying.

You're mixing two abilities - rupture (mine, does damage) and shockwave (stun).

Let me repeat to see if I understand this correctly. I open my vortex for siphoning (or setup shop near one that is already open). A few "rooms " away I lay down one (or possibly two) shockwaves. Then run circles from the vortex and then around the shockwave. If I'm quick enough rounding the shockwave, the beastie will make a direct bee line and run through the shockwave. Do they need to run over the shockwave, or do the effects increase as you get closer in proximity (meaning they have an area effect).

When the aetherbeasts enter the room with the shockwave, they're stunned for a while (not sure how long, would guess at 5-ish seconds). It only affects the room it's placed in, so no area of effect, no. The placement of the shockwave varies from tactic to tactic, I've seen everything from a single one (which you circle around) to a line (which you sprint from end to end and let the beasts hit shockwave after shockwave) to a big blob which you run in circles around. There are likely a few other arrangements as well.

Generally you set up shockwave/shockwaves directly adjacent to the vortex though (although no vortex in the same room).

~: aetherspace
*: shockwave
O: vortex
(note: that was written by hand, not copied)

You need to set up shop at an existing vortex, or one that spawns behind you, you can't make them on command.

The idea is to summon the critter, then (depending on the speed of the critter) run around the shockwaves so it hits them, or dive into the shockwave yourself so it follows you (your empath can clear the shock if they can clarity, so you recover before it does).

Critters don't attack or move while shocked, so your turrets get free time to kill. While the critter is shocked, you move to such a position that it would run into the other shockwave, then move so it would run into the one it just vacated, etc.

They need to actually hit the shockwave.

Is that you in your sig?

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This was immensely helpful. I might put word out there to pilot my first crew on this upcoming Crit Hit Thursday. One other question, other than suggesting where to set down shockwaves and running in circles for hours on end, are there any other duties a pilot needs to fulfill?

Since everybody else generally can't see where you're going to avoid the spam, pilot can announce when they're at a vortex so people can siphon. Though I think some crews just have people start spamming the siphon command until they get something.

Also shockwaves last one hour, and because beasts tend to die on top of them, you probably won't notice that they're gone because dust is going to be on top of them. Somebody in the crew should be keeping track of time and know when they're about to fade.

Call siphoning (as you need to know when to expect a critter to appear). Critters don't appear on every siphon, so MANUALLY call every second or two until one appears, but be ready to move when they do.

You may also need to call targets, depending on how your turreters are set up. That's just some fairly simple triggers.

Siphoner: CONFIG AETHERMAP OFF. CONFIG SHIPSIGHT 1.

Now the siphoner can see the vortex without all the spam!

Not as much, but they will still be getting spammed.