Crimson Skies

You've read the beginner tips in the January magazine-now suit up for advanced multiplayer strategies for Microsoft's Crimson Skies.

The wild blue yonder just got tinted a smoky black and flaming orange! To help you earn your wings, here's GamePro's exclusive web guide to surviving the wild online world of Crimson Skies.

Prepare for Take-Off
Custom-created planes are not only a source of personal style and pride for online pilots, but often the difference between victory and defeat in an air battle. Tweak a few planes to your personal tastes, keeping in mind that you'll want completely different vehicles for Capture the Flag and Zep vs. Zep matches. In fact, you may want to outfit your squadron with two different planes. For CTF, a flag carrier Bloodhawk and a flag-defending Brigand is a good choice. And if you want your entire squadron to fly the same custom plane, the files are small (1K!) and can easily be emailed.

Put simply, there's no excuse not to customize planes for your online aerial battles. Building a custom plane is easy; just select what you want from the menu. Any plane built in Instant Action or Multiplayer mode can be used in online games. Almost everybody has multiple custom planes in their arsenal. There is, however, no way to edit a plane once it's been created.

The best starter planes for online matches are the Devastator, Fury, Bloodhawk, and Peacemaker. The Bloodhawk may feel squirrelly at first, but it's very maneuverable and fast-maybe the best plane out there. The other planes are good too, but these get the most action since they're agile.

If you fly a Hoplite helicopter in an online game, people will hate you. Hoppers are so agile and nimble that they really aren't fair against common planes like Devastators, or even Bloodhawks. Turrets, though, are your best weapon against Hoplites. They can nail the pesky choppers much more easily. That brings up another problem: A lot of pilots feel turrets are unfair, too. You may see both Hoplites and turrets restricted by the game host so don't rely on either of them. Also, be aware that since turret kills are automatic and somewhat cheesy, you'll only get one point for any plane a turret downs.

In the Garage
Don't worry about giving a loud-colored paint job to your planes-the idea of painting your plane bright blue to camouflage it against the sky doesn't really work because opponents will see a big red target box that highlights your plane anyway. Enemies will see you no matter what.

For multiplayer matches, lose all gun banks but one, however, make it a twin gun setup for more firepower. In the armaments menu you'll see ".70 caliber" and "(2) .70 caliber" selections. Pick the latter to put more rounds per shot and you'll also want to add in a nitro engine. They're essential for making quick escapes out of gun range, gaining airspeed or altitude quickly, or closing in to help out a teammate who's under fire. Each plane has three "regular" engine levels, and three Nitro versions of those same three engines, for six total options. The level 3 engine weighs the same as a level 2 nitro engine--but the nitro will give you a MUCH faster top speed when you hit the juice. After you pick a fast engine, put any and all extra weight allowances into armor.

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