Agility is not useless.
Small ships are not useless.
Small ship agility is not useless.
However, as Ziljan and a fair few others are aware, flying backwards does present those pursuing such a ship with a choice:
- continue pursuit and present ourselves as a target
- disengage
As it stands, all craft are vulnerable to such a tactic, should the pilot insist on persuing the backwards-flying target. Since smaller ships are naturally less durable, presenting ourselves as a target whilst flying one is rarely a good idea. Persisting in following a backwards-flying target whilst in a small ship (or really, in any ship that cannot afford to take sustained attack from their target), assuming no stealth option, is the mark of a poor pilot, akin with an FPS player entering a room when they are aware that an enemy player is camping within.
Thankfully, we can often still choose to disengage and, as many have pointed out, an enemy can only fly backwards, away, from one target at a time.
However, there may be times when we might forget that we can choose to disengage, perhaps trhough blind stubborness or simple stupidity.
Of course, as some have alluded to, perhaps we should not have such a simple tactical option that has the potential to reduce PvP confrontations, already a rarity when encountered naturally (i.e outside of organised events or on-going campaigns) to a binary choice. I for one agree as neither choices are particuarlly interesting.
Still, much like camping in an FPS, a direct adjustment of the fligh mechanic is probably not the solution. Instead, as in FPS games, perhaps we would need to introduce some strategic penalty for doing so. In an FPS there is often an objective to be achieved, and camping a spot for an extended period of time results in one less player available to secure the objective, which could possibly lose the game round. Sadly, Elite lacks these larger structures to support such play, no flags to be captured in X minutes/before the red team, no points to hold - unless, of course, we introduced them. For example, if commodities were worth fighting for, munition or empowerment not quite so statics and cargo scooping not such a chore, we could force targets away from a key resource, collect said resource and then attack with an advantage, perhaps enough to compensate for our target's flying backwards manauver.
Or not. Maybe something as simple as having the targetting reticule going all wobbly bobbly the longer we fly in reverse. Or as folks have suggested, thrusters providing less speed when we fly in reverse. Not a fan of such methods myself.
Personally, I'd rather bring a friend. It's more cost effecient in terms of ship, while more costly in terms of pilots - but then again, larger ships in Elite simply provide more bang per pilot, which is relevant in a game system that features capped instancing and the logistics of moving around are a game unto themselves.
