So, recently, I've seen several new-for-2.0, returning players and genuinely new players in matches. So, here's another helpful 2.0 (current game mode) tip:
It's a bit of a cheesey move, so if you're a pro, move along, nothing to see here. If you're not seeing "victory" as often as you'd like, feel free to click the spoiler below to read on. But, be warned. It's immersion breaking and, while not listed as a punishable "exploit" (to my knowledge), it is abusing bad game design and it's lame...but effective.
A) I call this the "tactical ditch".
In the current game mode, you are allowed to respawn if you are shot down up until several minutes into the match when a "squall line" appears and blocks reinforcements from flying into the area (game lore, explanation). I'm not sure the exact time that squall hits, but 2 minutes before it does, there is an announcer audio cue and a "2 minute until squall" notice in the upper right corner of the screen, on a yellow background. At 30 seconds 'til squall, you get a 30 second timer that counts down to zero. At zero, you will no longer be able to respawn in that match, even though the match may continue for several minutes.
Regardless of whether you have survived the entire match, once squall hits you cannot respawn if you are shot down. This design essentially punishes you for not getting killed. You will likely have a wounded bird, at "field repair" hitpoints level with some yellow components and trailing smoke. (More info on "field repairs" here: https://blog.worldof...cs-20-repairs/
You get NO CONSOLATION for having survived. BUT, all the planes that recently spawned will have full health and 100% healthy components. WORSE, planes who are shot down right before squall will actually respawn AFTER squall and essentially be full health reinforcements after the reinforcements are supposed to have stopped! EVEN WORSE, if you were in a drag out knife fight with a player who wounded your craft, but you got the better of him and shot him down just before squall, you may have to face him again. Except this time he'll be in a fresh plane and you'll be low on hitpoints! You won the first fight, but will likely lose the next fight and the match....just because you managed to stay alive longer. Good game design or #RussianLogic? You be the judge!
So, if you're flying a wounded bird and the game doesn't look like a sure win 30 seconds before squall, find a comfy place OUTSIDE OF A SECTOR to crash (aka "ditch") the plane. Plan ahead and do this outside of a sector or you could be responsible for giving a sector to the enemy. Dying in a sector gives the enemy capture points! (More on that here: http://forum.worldof...581#entry784581)
If you crash BEFORE THE SQUALL TIMER COUNTS DOWN TO ZERO, you will respawn with full hitpoints, healthy plane, and be ready to face the enemy who has also just respawned in the same.
B) The tactical teleport ditch
Ok, this one is just really cheating and is bad game design at its finest. Don't do this. It's not a listed, punishable "exploit", but it should be. This is even cheesier than the item A, above. Don't do this. Unless you want to win and you need to do it. Then, go for it. #RussianLogic in action.
If you have control of airfield type sectors, the game allows you to choose these sectors to respawn in, instead of spawning at the starting spawn location. If the match is close and you see that one such sector is in danger of being captured and you'd like to defend it, but you're far away, you can crash (aka "ditch") and choose to respawn in that sector. Effectively, you are teleporting yourself to that sector in order to defend it.
You spawn in at full health and pounce on the unsuspecting enemy who just seconds prior thought it was just air defense aircraft (ADA) bots and they were all set to capture it. That player (or "player bot", red enemy) is likely focused on an ADA or other teammate already in the sector and won't even notice you spawn in on top of them. Just aquire the target, line up a shot and repeat until you've cleared out the enemy and filled up your capture circle with pretty blue.
One thing to note before you do this is the type of aircraft assaulting the sector. If you're in a low altitude aircraft and it's a bomber capturing the sector, you probably won't be able to spawn in and climb up to it in time to prevent him from capturing it (or, at the very least, you would have been better just going to another sector and using your low altitude fighter to wreck ADA and capture that other sector). Press TAB key to bring up the map and LEFT ALT key to see what types of enemies are visible in that sector. Try not to press ALT before TAB or you'll think I tricked you into closing your game. If you do goof, just click back into the match from your windows action bar WOWP task icon.
The tactical teleport can also be used if the map is set up in such a way that the airfield sector you can respawn into is close to a valuable objective under attack and in such situations (as a plant, missile base, or command center close to your spawn), the starting spawn point can also be an effective tactical teleport location to get you back in time to save that valuable sector from being captured, if you're watching the map often enough and have enough time to crash, respawn, and travel to the sector before it flips, some guesstimating of travel time and what opponents are in the sector are required to make use of teleporting to a spawn or airbase sector and then having to travel to the sector you want to defend. If you go to late, you wasted time being out of the fight and could have capture some other sector, but possibly you'll get there in time for the sector to be unlocked if it did flip and you can recapture it right away.
Reminder: ditch OUTSIDE of a sector or you completely defeat the point of ditching to save another sector by helping the enemy capture the sector you crashed in.
Related: if you are on the tail of an enemy, especially another human player who's given your team trouble (or a high hit point ground attacker) and it's close to squall, WAIT UNTIL AFTER SQUALL HITS TO ACTUALLY SHOOT HIM DOWN! This will prevent him from coming back. If you splash him before squall, he'll just come back since he can respawn as long as he was downed before the squall timer actually counted down to zero. This is REALLY nasty; we all hate getting popped RIGHT after squall. But, IMO, it's not nearly as cheaty as the above two techniques.