Lets talk dog fighting tactics

[Psyco Diver 69]

I've been coming and going for a long time now and generally just lurk around these forums and I noticed time to time newbies will still come in and say they keep getting their butts handed to them in a fight so I was thinking lets make a dog fighting guide so anyone that comes into this game will be able to handle themselves. I know how frustrating this game can be to a new comer. I was thinking a list of simple, fairly universal rules that can be used by a player for most any ship they buy. I know there is alot variables since there are alot of different space ships in this game. Now personally I use medium fighters like a Derivitive mostly and I use my Franklin or Llama from time to time and so far they seem to be the most common ship to use.

Heres some rules I've come up with so far
1.turn into a ships attack, it throws off a attacker causing them to change in direction, that change is a delay, and a delay means more time your guns and/and or missles can be hitting them

2. Afterburn as soon as you come out of a tight turn, the bigger the ship the more is slows down in a hard 180* turn, hitting the afterburner causes the ship to get moving so your not a sitting target

3. Keep your enemys off balance, this is critical in the begining of a fight cause enemys will gang up on you. If I'm facing a bunch of ships (4+ ships) I will damage a ship enough to knock out its shields and cause some damage to its hull, this causes ships to get defensive, I then switch to the other ships to get them off my back and switch back to my original target to finish him off


Now I have a personal manuever that I love to use like I will after burn into a crowd a Aera coming at me and I will put my ship into a roll and pitch my nose up and into the direction of the roll, usally this will cause little to no hits on me and get me behind the aera causing them to scatter, then I focus on one ship, if they have a stronger ship in their squad I go after that, if their all the same ship I attack who ever is closer. Nice thing about this move is if you time it just right you can "slide" your ship by one keeping your guns on them longer insaid of being right behind them

Anyone else got anything?

[Keller]

Actually, all you're describing are maneuvers well known to any player of combat flight sims.

Rolling scissors: An attack or defense where the ship's path essentially follows a corkscrew maintaining the same essential vector. The scissors can be used as a means of approaching a target that is defended (or a during an HO merge), but is more often used in defense, as you use a ship's maneuverability and your opponent's inertia to cause him to overshoot (i.e. drive past) you, giving you a nice 6 shot.

Merge turn: Where the "defender" turns early in a merge fight (i.e. towards one another) taking advantage of inertia, allowing him to turn into the path of the previous "attacker" who is now on the defensive. This usually ends with a well placed Hammer Head attack, which is essentially the same as "Crossing the T" is to naval combat.

These 2 are the most used tactics in any space combat sim. Space combat is much simplified (when compared to flight sim combat), as the pilot only has to contend with the ship's inertia and not any E management, as there is no real sense of up/down in space.

[loki1950]

There is still delta v to contend with in space do your missiles have enough acceleration to get to your target as it accelerating away not a real issue with bolt and beam weapons though

Enjoy the Choice

[bgaskey]

And missiles have a lot of accel compared to most ships (with the exception of the spec drive of course)

That's a unique factor to combat in VS, the fact that you can use quick SPEC jumps to skip behind your target and cut down their engagement time if you have a range advantage, at the cost of most of your shields.

[Joe B]

If you intend on doing a lot of sliding maneuvers I would suggest beams due to their nature. If you like getting beaten on alot, use bolts.

If you run away like me go for a speed of about 500 and jump to spec this will cause the AI to go REALLY fast in flight mode, or jump in and out of spec constantly either way he can't hit you once you get to a jumgate accel to around 3000 keep the spec on and jump, when you come out the other end you will be going VERY fast in spec and (if the enemy can follow you through the gate) he will be eating your dust.

Repeat as needed until you get to a safe system

I wonder if anyone has fired a long range torpedo.and run into it with spec?

Joe B

[Zama]

Some over size ship fired over sized beams at my OX. I look at My OX as a over sized battery Ram

[loki1950]

Now imaging the Uln with Oxes

Enjoy the Choice

[Turbo]

I wonder if anyone has fired a long range torpedo.and run into it with spec?

Unlikely, because the autopilot (if it is functioning correctly) will steer you around it. This allows you to do what the modern artillery calls a "Time On Target" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery#Time_on_Target

Here is the VS version of this technique: Fire a torpedo at the maximum range you can. When it has flown part of the way to the target and your torpedo is almost ready to fire again, SPEC toward your target. As soon as you see your ship swerve to go around your already-fired torpedo, drop out of SPEC and fire at the target again. Repeat a few more times if the target is a tough one. Because you fired each subsequent torpedo while you were near the ones already flying, they will all hit within a few seconds of each other. A TOT has two advantages: it increases the chance of getting past any PD turrets, because it has more torpedoes to knock down at once, and if any do get past the PD (or there are no PD turrets) it allows the first hit to weaken shields so the others can hit the hull before the shields can recharge.

TOT is not cheap because torpedoes cost money, and it requires a ship that can mount more than one. But a capship bounty payment will cover the expense if you are successful.