Cadet I/Basic flying
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Basics of Flight
Simple Thrusters
Indicated on your HUD by the top left bar, the level of thrust determines the percentage of maximum cruising speed you'll achieve. 100% of your thrusters means you'll be at 100% of your maximum speed ... simple. Pressing \ (under Backspace) will engage your thrusters at 100% capacity. Pressing Backspace will cut your thrusters to 0%. Pressing + and - (left of the backspace) will increase and decrease thrust power.
Allegiance is unrealistic in that it has "drag" in space. Strictly speaking, if you were to constantly accelerate in space you would constantly speed up until you reached infinite speeds. But in Allegiance this "drag" limits the top speed you can reach. Also, the closer you get to this top speed the slower you accelerate, as shown in the picture to the left.
Momentum vector (aka G-indicator)
As indicated in the previous lesson, your actual direction is indicated in the center of your screen by 
. If you wish to fly around obstacles you have to make sure that your momentum vector, your real direction, does not point toward the obstacle because that's where you're going, like it or not. Similarly, when approaching a target, make sure your momentum vector is pointed properly, otherwise you may have momentum from previous movements taking you in the wrong direction.
Unlike real space, where there is no drag, the game physics allow for drag and momentum. If you have ever driven a motorized vehicle in slippery conditions, made a sharp turn and had the vehicle continue to slide in it's original direction, you will have a feel for the mechanics of flight in Allegiancee.
The momentum vector is the only hint given by your ship for you to know exactly where you're going. Pay close attention to it at all times. It is what you use to direct your ship toward targets and to keep your ship from colliding with objects.
Tip: You can work with your momentum vector to pull off some impressive maneuvers. For example, doing a 90 degree turn and then holding on the side thrust key will allow you to continue flying in your original direction while targeting something beside you.
Boosters
Pressing Tab will engage your boosters. Not all ships have boosters, so watch for it when you prepare your ship. The booster consumes fuel, indicated in your HUD display by the top right bar. Be careful when boosting, it has a much greater strength than your thrusters and using it incorrectly may result in crashing into an asteroid.
Note A common newb mistake is "overboosting", which is holding down on the Tab until your target is in range and then go zooming past! Release the boost key when your target is about 1-2k away to avoid this
Good pilots use boosters to change direction tightly or to avoid enemy fire in all kinds of ways. However, the primary use is faster travel. Traveling extreme distances, in a short period of time, obviously requires a lot of fuel, make sure you adjust the number of fuel refills you bring to the amount of fuel you'll need. Whereas short-distance defensive actions require little booster use leaving youe space for other, perhaps more useful, items.
Tip: You can teleport while boosting! Boost and hold the button down, then teleport as normal. If you do not let up on the booster button, it will keep boosting and resume after a reload allowing you to rapidly escape an opponent.
Rotations
You can rotate your ship (clockwise and counterclockwise). Pressing Shift-← and Shift-→ will have your ship rotate. This is generally not useful, but comes in handy in some situations.
Example Rixian ships are extremely agile on the horizontal axis, but not very agile on the vertical axis. As a result, a good pilot will rotate his ship so that he always turns on the horizontal axis, resulting in almost twice as much maneuverability.
Example Ships with a thinner profile will try to make sure that only the thinnest side is exposed to enemy fire, exposing less surface to enemy weapons and thus becoming more difficult to hit.
Example Ships that have all their guns in a line, and are shooting at a thin profile ship, will rotate to bring their guns to bear instead of having one shooting above and the other below their target
Sidethrusters
All ships have sidethrusters that allow them to fly in any direction. They are primarily used in dogfighting but serve many other purposes, such as getting around a station in order to dock. Note that sidethrusters are generally not as powerful as main thrusters, having both lower accelerations and lower maximum velocities. Of course, ships with high accelerations have highly accelerating sidethrusters too. Many pilots choose to remap their controls so that these buttons are closer to the rotation and boost keys (also both widely used in dogfighting). The default keys for sidethrusters are on your Numpad.
- Numpad 8, 5, 4, 6 are forwards, backwards, left and right respectively.
- Numpad 9 is upwards, and numpad 7 is downwards.
When using thrusters in a dogfight, do not alternate between opposite thrusters. For example thrusting up/down or left/right combinations. This forces your ship to a standstill and makes you an easy kill.
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