Read my sig for inspiration and I happen to fly in one of the most contested places in Sirius.
It doesn't matter that you die, it's the taking part.... :haha:
But seriously, if I get into a fight and it lasts a few minutes of adrenaline pumping button pushing blind panic, I generally consider it to have been fun - and yes, I am not unique in losing almost every time.
The only time it isn't is when you get nova'd at the start or you get team killed by an overzelous user of cap missiles.....*cough*Armin*cough*.
Get out there and have fun. Learn the easy stuff first like evasion. If they can't hit you much, the fight comes down to who gets carpol tunnel syndrome first (usually me at my age). Shooting at stuff can be learned later but the trick with that is to hit the thing you're shooting at.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Ace Pilots are rather rare now and days, it seems to me though that you've never really been properly trained. I know in one session with an excellent pilot I learned much more then I ever had in the months of simply fighting without knowing what I was doing.
Knowing the theory behind dogfights and the tactics behind them are just as important as having the skill to execute them.
It's one thing to joust in a straight line and aim for your target, it's another to break left, drop a mine, early turn towards them, CD the mine, and fire accurately while making sure you have a broad target to hit while keeping an eye for a mine, or a CD that might throw you off your game if you weren't prepared for the interuption in Engine Kiil. At the same time you need to know when to change your tactics when the enemy adapts to them. This also works vice-versa when you have to adapt to a change of their tactics.
You have to keep in mind that you will not magically get better just because you've played the game a long time. You need to make an actual effort to improve and train. Every Ace Pilot was once in your position, but Ace Pilots became Aces because they had the drive and determination to become very good.
What I advise you to do is go to Connecticut and ask someone to give you a tip or two. Maybe talk to the people you fought and lost to and ask them what you could do to improve your skills. Maybe ask them what the biggest mistake you made was.
I'm utterly useless in fighters. I noticed that I am somewhat competent in bombers. But then again, hitting a capship the size of Newark isn't really difficult.
The only thing that really helped me is: find someone who is really good. Somehow make him spend 2 h with you one on one, just doing the basics of "how to move, aim, fire". I think 2 hours of training was worth more than almost 1 year of trying, just making the mistakes again and again, not even knowing how to do it correctly.
Something that is helpful: forget fighter combat, get agile bombers. They can dodge well enough (you survive) and they contribute to team fights by hitting heavy enemy targets. That's something you can do, because everything that is larger than a GB is easy to hit and one can train to hit GBs.
Doing this reduces the frustration of just dying fast, while doing nothing to the overall outcome of a fight.
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