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this lesson is actually pretty easy but it is a lesson that new players need to learn ASAP to avoid long boring pod rides back home.

as you already know, being new at this game means you will get podded VERY OFTEN. (stick around for the soon to come training topic: how to escape death like a ninja)

pods dont travel very fast and u cant shoot/harm enemies so essentially it is a "timeout" imposed on you for your failure to stay alive. since we cannot yet master the arts of staying alive (or hidden!), let us discover ways to make our pod ride a little more interesting/productive and perhaps a little shorter.

first, let's make sure our pod is flying in the right direction. very often i see new players get podded and their pods just start drifting into outer space in no particular direction. while this is OK in science fiction tv shows like star trek when they launch the body of their deceased from their torpedo tubes into the abyss, it is definitely not OK for you.

engage the autopilot: PRESS B, P.

second step: while you are in pod, look around you to see if there are any friendlies around capable of rescuing you. you can press F3 to switch to top down view so you can quickly assess your surroundings and pick the closest teammate who is most likely to listen to your distress call. you can even click their ship in this view (if they are podded like you, they wont be of much help...) and press ENTER to talk to them to ask for help.

this is the command to call their attention to come save your butt: PRESS `NP (need pickup)

tomorrow i will talk about more ways to get back into the action quickly but first i want to give you guys a chance to give some feedback, present some of your own ideas and solutions that you have came up with yourself or learned from others that you can share with the rest of the class.

HOW TO GET BACK INTO ACTION - PART II

If you get podded in a sector without any outposts or other pod recovery objects and there are more than one connected sector with rescuers, the command B P can pick the longer route.
In my experience it always happens that I can go trough aleph and then B P suggests to go to another side of the sector (to a carrier F.E.), although the shorter way would be to turn around and go back trough aleph. Basically B P always takes you home, but not necessarily to the home that is closest.

Are GT's rescue drones worth the price?

yes! great observation vazix. as it is often the case, artificial intelligence is trumped by human intervention. so yes, b p to get yourself going in a direction, then f3 and look around to make sure you are taking the shortest path.

gt rescue drones are actually pretty awesome but nobody seems to get them. i get them all the time in small games where having a pickup has greater impact. (if your team is 3 players, then getting one pickup is 33% of your team!)

~NP should be a grouped up field.

One common problem I find when using b+p, is when you are podded in a sector with 2 friendly bases. Many times it will target you to the furthest away rescue base (this is specially noticeable when the second base is a teleport).

alright as promised, here are more ways to get back into the action. these involve committing suicide, that is to say, you will reset your kb back to 0... but hey who cares right? it was a low number to begin with anyway

1. manually drive your pod to ram any of the following: enemy (miner, ship, constructor,caltrop,prox)
2. fly to the outer reaches of the sector until you start taking damage and KEEP GOING (f3, then give yourself a waypoint above or below the plane by right clicking and dragging mouse)
3. ask the guy who podded you to kill your pod (f3, click their ship, press enter to talk to them. or just press enter , start typing their name, tab to autofill, tab again to start typing)

the point is to avoid dying due to running out of O2. if this ever happened then you know that you have been taken out of action for the maximum possible duration (worst case scenario for your team).

It's my experience that #3 rarely succeeds.

Fwiffo, I'm finding these to be exellent reading even for vets. Keep up the good work!