Cadet II/Ship control

Steering your ship

One of Allegiance's charms is its semi-realistic physics engine. It is not truly Newtonian space physics but is "Newtonian enough" to capture some of the essence of flying in space. This lesson is intended to clear up misconceptions, and recommend some strategies for proper steering in Allegiance.

Common flying problems

Over-steering

The middle ship turns normally, the upper ship holds on forward thrust, and the lower ship oversteers.

When you turn, not only do your main engines start pushing you in the new direction, but your side thrusters automatically fire to cancel out your old movement. In many situations you want to decrease the time it takes to execute a turn, such as swinging around a base to dock. This can be done by turning farther than you intend then swinging back on course - aka, oversteering.

When you oversteer you use both your powerful forward thruster and your less efficient side thrusters to bleed off your old momentum. You can tell when your old momentum has been bled off by keeping an eye on your g-indicator, once it is pointing in the direction you want to go simply swing your nose back towards your intended target (otherwise you really will oversteer!).

Tip: Boosters are of great help while oversteering, since the additional thrust will let you almost-instantly cancel your old vector.

Of course, the question of "how much to oversteer" is important. You don't want to oversteer your intended target off screen, because then you can't keep an eye on your g-indicator to know when it lines up. With experience you will learn how to oversteer at sharp angles.

Overboosting

If you are trying to get to a target quickly, then you want to use your booster to get there as quickly as possible. Be careful though! If you use the booster too long, you will gain too much speed and shoot past the target!

This is a very common rookie mistake, especially when trying to kill a bomber. You will overboost even more if the target is flying fast in the opposite direction than you (i.e. the bbr flys towards the base you are flying from). To avoid overboosting don't hold on the boost key too long. Release it when you are about 1.5k out from your target and just coast the rest of the way. After all, if you're too slow you can tap the boost key a few more times to speed up again, but it is a lot harder to lose speed.

Tip: As you coast in towards your target, reload fuel so you're ready and primed for action by the time you're in gun range!

Intercepting a target

The ship on the left aims directly for the target, but takes longer to get in range. The ship on the right intercepts the target quickly, but overshoots. Ideally you want to compromise between the two extremes in order to get on your target's six.

There are many situations where you want to meet up with a target moving laterally across your screen, for example as a stealth fighter wanting to intercept a miner traveling across the sector, or an interceptor wanting to kill a scout before it reaches the aleph. Plotting an intercept course with a distant target is not a trivial task for a human. However, with a few easy tips, you can improve your chances of swinging in directly behind a distant target.

Don't aim directly at your target because then you will end up constantly turning to track it. Turning is slower than flying in a straight line. If your target is a long way off you should be able to change to F3 view, look at your position, look at their position and movement, and get a rough idea of where you can cross their path. Quickly give yourself a waypoint to that point then change back to cockpit view. If you don't have time to change to F3 view, then your best bet is to lead the target. Its a good idea to keep your target on the edge of your screen and as you close the distance swing your nose around to get the target in the center of your screen.

Ideally you want to end up directly behind your target and moving at approximately the same speed. You know you've messed up if you fall far behind the target, overshoot the target and end up in his crosshairs, or zoom past trying to twist your ship to shoot the target while it flies across your screen.

This is a difficult skill to master, you have to be very aware of your own speed, direction, and your ship's ability to accelerate/decelerate. You also have to keep an eye on your target's position, speed, and whether they are trying to avoid you. What you are trying to do is aim your ship in an curve that will flow in nicely into the target's direction of travel. It becomes a compromise between intercepting them as quickly as possible and managing your approach to get on their six.

Tip: Keep an eye on their 3d ship at the bottom of the screen to see if they're trying to dodge you.

Basic Physics

Drag

How "drag" affects your speed

In "true" Newtonian physics an object in space will drift forever after being pushed in some direction. To change direction an object must first "bleed off" some of the momentum it has gained in its original direction. An object under constant acceleration will constantly gain speed without ever reaching a maximum speed.

Allegiance physics has a constant "space-drag" which works against your acceleration. This drag means you need to leave your engines running to keep moving. If you turn your engines off then you will drift to a stop. You also have a top speed that is reached when the drag against the front of your ship equals the propulsion from your engine.

Note One of the best analogies for how Allegiance ships work is that they are all flying underwater.

Throttle vs thrusters

Your throttle controls how much your thrust your ship generates, which is always vented out of your ship's rear engines (referred to as "forward thruster" from now on). At 50% throttle your ship will have half of its maximum acceleration and reach half of its maximum speed.

Your ship also has four side-thrusters that allow you to travel left, right, up, and down, and a rear thruster for traveling backwards. Depending on your ship and faction these side-thrusters can range from 25% to 100% as powerful as the main engine, but are normally closer to 25%. Side-thrusters automatically fire under a variety of conditions (see below). You can manually engage a thruster at any time by pressing the corresponding side-thruster key. When you do, your throttle is overridden to 100% and all thrust is diverted to the side thruster. If you engage two side-thrusters at the same time, thrust is split evenly (see note below).

Tip: Overusing your side-thrusters constantly diverts power from your main engine, greatly reducing your speed and turning you into a sitting duck.

Note If you engage a strong side-thruster at the same time as a weak one, the net thrust out of each will be even. However, the weaker side thruster will be absorbing more "power", and so your overall loss in speed will be greater than if you were using two powerful side thrusters.

Auto-engaging thrusters

In some situations your side-thrusters will automatically engage to control your movement. Unlike manual side-thrusting it will not override your throttle, nor necessarily cut your forward thrust to zero.

For instance, Vector lock automatically uses your thrusters. Engaging vector lock causes your thrusters to maintain your current direction of motion, regardless of the direction you are facing. If you face the same direction as your vector lock, then it will use 100% of your forward thruster. If you face some other direction, your less efficient side-thrusters will maintain your direction of motion. As explained above, this means you will slow down.

Tip: Many veterans avoid vector lock. While you can shoot in once direction while moving in another, vector lock ensures that you're moving slowly in a straight line, making you an easy target. To achieve much the same effect without being easier to hit, most veterans side-thrust manually.

Changing your throttle setting will also auto-engage thrusters. When you reduce throttle to zero not only does your main engine cut power, but your rear thrusters will automatically engage to slow your ship at the maximum rate. Similarly your rear thrusters will auto-engage whenever your current forward speed exceeds your throttle setting. This is why bombers with good acceleration (such as tf) are difficult to ram: they are very good at slowing down to their normal speed!

Tip: Manual thrusting overrides any automatic behavior, which is helpful in a variety of situations. For instance, if you are flying a bomber and want to maintain speed after a ram, then hold down your forward thrust. This will prevent your rear thruster from trying to slow you down.

Turning and the G-indicator

A common operation that automatically engages thrusters is turning. Turning engages your side thrusters to cancel your old vector while your main thruster begins propelling you in a new direction. As a result your speed drops (less forward thrust) and your ship carves out a little arc in space.

The G-indicator (also known as "momentum vector" and shown as on the screen) always indicates the direction your ship is currently "drifting". The location of the G-indicator can give you a clue as to how close you are to completing a turn. When it is centered the turn is finished; if it's a long way off the screen then most of your thrust is working to cancel your old vector, and you'll probably lose a lot of speed!

How fast you execute a turn is a function of your ship's agility, acceleration, side-thrust efficiency, and how drastic the turn was.

Tip: Holding on forward thrust when you turn will override the side thrusters auto-engaging. This means you won't lose as much speed as you turn, although on the other hand your arc will be a lot wider. It can be useful if you're trying to loop around a sector while someone is chasing you. Just don't side-swipe a rock: you'll look silly!

Acceleration vs agility

Agility is a measure of how quickly your ship can change the direction it is facing. Acceleration is a measure of how quickly your ship can change the direction it is moving.

Ships with high acceleration can make tight turns, and start/stop on a dime. It doesn't take long for their G-indicator to align with their nose of their ships. Interceptors have very little mass and generate a relatively large amount of thrust which gives them great acceleration. Ships with high agility can whip around much faster than other ships, making it easier to keep the enemy in front of their crosshairs. However, an unwary pilot can find that they have turned their ship too far away from their G-indicator, automatically engaging their side thrusters and slowing themselves down.

Tip: Your cargo can add to your mass and decrease your acceleration. Try packing your scout full of large shields and launching from base - it's an experience not to be missed!

Boosting

Your ship's booster (if it has one) provides additional forward thrust at the cost of fuel. It is an additional component, rather than an integrated part of your ship's thrusters. You can not divert booster-generated thrust through a side thruster.

Note The retro-booster is an exception to this, it pushes thrust out of the rear thruster. In fact, you must hold on back-thrust (or have throttle set to zero) for the retro-booster to work at all.

Holding down the boost key will prevent your side-thrusters from automatically engaging (even if your current ship doesn't have a booster installed). If you try to turn while boosting it will take longer to execute because the side-thrusters are not engaging, unless you oversteer (see below). This is a common issue when you are trying to intercept an enemy or race for an aleph.

Tip: Imagine a rally car drifting around a corner for an idea of how to aim your ship to make turns while boosting.

You can use this behavior to your advantage.

• Hold down the boost key just before you start to ripcord. Instead of spinning and slowing down, your ship will boost forward for most of the ripcord sequence.
• If you are out of fuel, reloading fuel, or without a booster then holding down the boost key acts little like vector lock. This isn't quite vector lock (the drag in space will cause you to stop), but you can throw yourself in one direction and use the boost key to "slide" in that direction while you turn your ship to engage an enemy. It is a quick/handy trick for those who master it.