Cadet I/Figs & Ints

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"Just Get Something with Guns on It!"

A quick guide to the fighting ships of Allegiance

When you want to be useful and find stuff, you take a scout. When you feel like being all sneaky and lurk for hours before killing something, you take a stealth fighter. But what about the times when something simply needs killing, fast?

Well, you have two choices depending upon your Faction and Tech base.

   * Fighter
   * Interceptor 

Fighters

Shields, missiles, minepacks, ripcording. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well, sort of

They deal more damage than interceptors... if you manage to land your missiles where they belong. Also, their guns use up less ammunition, so you'll be shooting a looong time if you just take one extra ammo clip with you. You can rip to teleport receivers and shields recharge, so you can potentially run around for a long while before you need to re-dock. On the other hand, your ship will go *pop* pretty fast once people start being serious about trying to kill you. Also, all that stuff you can carry with you will weigh your ship down, so it's slower than an interceptor - don't expect to outrun one.

What's a fighter good at? The global mobility is its biggest advantage. Due to its impressive array of weapons, it's reasonably good at killing stuff in situations where its somewhat weak armor doesn't play a large role. Good examples of this would be camping alephs and killing lightly defended miners. Your weapons have a good range, so you don't have to get up close and personal. And of course, let's not forget that once you get advanced fighters, you can mount a Galv gun and destroy outposts and teleports (this takes a loooong time if you're doing it alone, though... so better bring a few buddies).

As a general rule, you usually don't want to go places alone. A single fighter? Not so hot. Three fighters, all shooting the same target? Scary! Interceptors

Lean mean killing machine. Thick armor, strong guns, good boosters... minimal sensors, no shields at all. Think of interceptors as the Komets of Allegiance - very strong, but if you run out of supplies, you're a sitting duck. And you're bound to run out of supplies considerably faster than in a fighter.

Basically, you shouldn't go farther out than one sector away from a dockable base, unless you really know what you're doing. Interceptors can't rip and are pretty slow when not boosting... so if you end up in the wrong place and without fuel, it'll take you forever to limp back. This will not only be boring for you, you also won't be contributing to your team at all (colloquially known as "flying around cluelessly"). So - when you're about to go someplace in an interceptor, make sure you know:

   * Why you're going there...
   * How you're going to get back... 

As far as fighting tactics for interceptors are concerned, it's really simple. Get up close and personal, with all the finesse of a pitbull. You have the strong guns and thick armor to make it work. Remember that you don't have a whole lot of ammo though, so don't just spray & pray.

As far as loadout is concerned, the default cargo of 3 fuel, 2 ammo is very good. Some people will switch one of the fuel tanks for a 3rd ammo, but until you're really good, you probably won't live long enough to use it anyway. Whereas a 3rd fuel tank is good for getting home fast (also known as running away).

Interceptors can also mount pulse probes (PP), which will illuminate pretty much the whole sector for a short time (5 seconds) when dropped. Think of them as those sonar buoy things they have on submarines. The default loadout (once your commander has researched PPs) substitutes the 3rd fuel tank for a second PP... this is usually all you'll need, except for specific situations like hunting down stealths in a sector you own. In those situations, you can just take more PPs instead of extra ammo (stealth craft die really easy - you don't need a lot of bullets to kill them).

Heavy Interceptors with Minigun 3: The dream ship of defense. If you have them, use nothing else. Concentrated fire power from several Ints can shred their target in seconds. This is the ship of choice for defending bases! Moving

Moving serves pilots in avoiding enemy fire. The available options are regular thrusters, side thrusters, boosters and rotation thrusters.

The regular thrusters allow the ship to move forward in space. In a fight, you use them to move toward or away from targets. You can put them to your advantage by going in one direction, and pressing "L", activating the course lock. This will enable you to continue flying in a direction while facing another.

Side thrusters are the most complex to use, and the most useful. The default keys are the Numpad buttons. They allow the ship to move in any direction without having to face it. Constantly changing your ship's direction will force the enemy pilot to constantly readjust his aim, and the lead indicator (if there is one) will also constantly move. Those thrusters also allow you to move toward or away from targets in more efficient ways. As a fighter fighting an interceptor, you want to keep your distance, so that your missiles can fire, but you remain out of range of his miniguns. Sidethrusting is also extremely useful in avoiding missiles. Certain missiles like the Dumbfire have low turn rates, so you can out turn them, and be missed. Others, like the hunter missiles, are extremely difficult to avoid, and require the use of more powerful thrusters that can allow quick surprise maneuvers: boosters.

Side thrusters are also useful when flying in one direction while looking in another, to either increase your sensor range in a certain direction or fire in one direction while flying in another. While the vector lock can do this, manual flying is always best. Sidethrusting can also be used to slightly move your ship to adjust your firing at a target and thus improve your aim.

TIP: Don't use your thrusters in combinations that cancel each other out. I.E., up/down or left/right. If you are going to use a combination or alternate between thrusters, use up/right or up/left as an example.

Boosters give your ship quick acceleration at the price of consuming fuel, the highest speed being approximately 510 MPS with fully upgraded Dreghklar interceptors and all speed GAs. Boosters allow you to make quick changes of direction, or to keep a constant turn rate (like turning around a bomber while boosting, which is done by constantly turning the ship while constantly boosting; you are always facing the bomber, yet turning around it, giving the turret gunners a difficult time). Boosters also serve a simpler function in evasive maneuvers. When in a simple 1 on 1 dogfight, when you must reload your ammo, boosting out of enemy range is always a good thing. Finally, when you are under missile fire, suddenly boosting in a direction will allow you to outrun the best of missiles, even hunters (you might need physical obstacles to avoid hunter killers). If you fly in a direction, then quickly boost in another, the missile will not be able to compensate for all the momentum it has put in the first direction, and will miss you. Boosters can also be used to out turn a ship.

An interceptor fighting a stealth fighter should boost and fly closely by the ship, then turn, and attempt to find itself beside or behind it, allowing it to fire without being fired at due to the stealth fighter's low turn rate.

Note that boosters that are used improperly can lead to serious problems, and most pilots are still fairly incompetent in this domain. Most pilots use their boosters until they reach their targets, at which point they stop. Of course, this leaves them with a huge momentum, and they fly right past their targets, having to turn all the way around, and use the boosters to come back. HTTs are often approached in this way, and defenders thus fly right past them instead of gently blocking the HTTs way.

The same goes for bombers and miners. Pilots often fly past bombers and miners and have to come back, wasting very valuable firing time. Stop firing your booster when you judge you have enough momentum to catch the target at a reasonably low speed, which is often about 2000 meters. Then concentrate on flying properly, and getting to your target.

Of course, boosters are also used for travel. Although very rarely used on Fighters or Ints, the Light Booster is designed for travel, allowing long periods of boost at moderate speeds. Normal boosters provide a faster speed, but shorter acceleration periods. Pilots using regular boosters simply load a lot of fuel in their cargo when expecting long travels.

Rotation thrusters are used to rotate your ship. The default keys to use them are shift-left arrow and shift-right arrow to perform counterclockwise and clockwise turns, respectively. These keys are most useful for the Rixians. (And the opposite for Phoenix)Their ships have exceptional turn rates horizontally, but terrible turn rates vertically. As such, Rixian pilots are constantly rotating around to increase their turn rates. Of course, rotating is useful for every faction. The position of the weapon mounts on a ship is of capital importance. If your weapon mounts are aligned on your horizontal axis, for example, rotating your ship to align your gun mounts to your target is important to have all your weapons hitting your target at once.

Similarly, rotating and turning your ship around is important when exposing your ship surface. Most ships have thin and less thin profiles. The best example is the GigaCorp Stealth Fighter, which has a very thin profile, but a large, rectangular profile when looked at from the over or under. A GigaCorp Stealth pilot must always rotate the ship to keep only the thin profile exposed, whereas an enemy pilot can attempt to fly in a manner to expose the larger profile. Target Selection

Often choosing your closest enemy is what's best in a random dogfight, all targets being almost equal. "X" is the default key most used to target the closest enemy. However, generally, a specific target, such as a miner, a bomber or a station, is more important. In these cases, targeting it is most easily done using the "Target Center" command, for which the default key is "C". Often, in these cases, an enemy nanite can be near, repairing the miner or bomber. In these cases, you must notice the Nan, either by seeing the target's hull regenerate, hearing or seeing the nanite weapon, and then target the proper ship, again using the Target Center command, and destroy it, then proceed back to the previous target. When turreting, these two targeting systems are used in conjunction, targeting center to find the most dangerous ship or to get the ship right in front of you quickly, and targeting closest when under fire by a lot of ships and not having the time to find your best target. Use both wisely.

When in a situation where you must quickly pickup pods, targeting them is quickly achieved by pressing "J", which only targets friendly pods. This way, you can get a clear reading of their position quickly, and proceed to rescue them if possible. A Few Closing Words...

Whatever you do, remember you're part of a team. Pay attention to where you're needed, don't get bogged down into needless shoot-outs. Dogfighting is a means to an end... it's easy to lose focus on what you're really trying to accomplish in the sector when you're running around shooting stuff, but try not to.

Good hunting!

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