A good time to practice FA Off is during docking. You can approach the station from the backside, allow the gap between your nose and the edge of the station and the go FA Off, and practice spinning your ship toward the slot. As you drift up through the entry zone, go FA on and see where you end up. You'll learn the drift that way. Start with a small ship so you can lose a few, because you will.
How do you guys pull off FA-OFF flight?
- Thread starter ReaperSpace
- Start date
I like to fire up the training missions any time I come back from a break or at random intervals to practice FA off fine thruster control:
[video=youtube;UNrWjWIhnBo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNrWjWIhnBo[/video]
Sometimes I bump into stuff, but it doesn't matter cause it's a training scenario.
[video=youtube;UNrWjWIhnBo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNrWjWIhnBo[/video]
Sometimes I bump into stuff, but it doesn't matter cause it's a training scenario.
I'm not good at it so my input probably isn't worth much, but to me it seems that the key to FA-off is to be light on the controls. Flying FA-on encourages you to use maximum control deflections and stronger control inputs - but with FA-off, until you're really good at it those are almost always a recipe for departing controlled flight. FA-off is something to practice for hours in open space where nobody is going to be either in your way or shooting at you, until gentle and subtle maneuvers with it come naturally before you even think of using it more than intermittently where more radical maneuvers might be required.
Absolutely! The more effort you expend putting your ship out of control, the more you will need to bring it back under control. Even if the practice may not come immediately, most people quickly grasp the theory that with no further inputs applied the ship will continue to do whatever it is you just told it to do. Want to pitch up? Pull the stick back a bit, leave it alone then push it forward a bit once the desired angle is attained.
The linked series of videos above are by CMDR Hobs who is the founder of the Newton's Gambit group. Very good videos which go into a lot of detail and have some great food for thought. That said they aren't aimed at complete beginners, more the player who has experimented a bit with FA off flight and wants to embark on structured training. If you are still at the stage of "Flight Assist ... off" - ZOMG my ship is out of controoool! you might want to work your way up to those videos first.
When I started I spent a bit of time in the "Target Practice" training mission. You can safely ignore the hitting targets with fixed multi-cannon part of the exercise when starting out. The asteroids provide a useful frame of reference to orientate yourself while you practise getting the ship under control, and if you crash you can get back there in a few clicks through the menus rather than having to fly all the way to a local planetary ring as you would have to do in "live" training.
From there you will probably want to try docking at an outpost. Lining up on the pad requires fine control of your thrusters. Practise without that pesky spinning making things harder. Starport docking can come later.
Or not at all. I mean its ok practice to do a few times, but even that value is negligible as I've never needed to land on a moving object in combat. FA Off docking on a rotating station is just for FDL flying space hipsters who roll their own space smokes, or guys who like to make things harder "Because ah'm a maaaan".
I'm still curious what input device the OP is using. I have used FA Off with both a regular and an elite Xbox One controller, and I can definitely see why it is viable with a HOTAS, but imho you're asking for a lot of trouble if you don't have access to all ranges of motion at the same time (and you won't for example with a standard XB1 controller, you'll need to choose between yaw and roll and use alternate flight control switching)
Turn all the sensitivities waaaaay down at first.
When I started learning I just went onto one of the Landing training missions and flew everywhere in and around the Coriolis exploring every nook and cranny with FA off, Morbad has the right idea
you can also try not submitting a docking request and see how many times you can fly into the station, touch the back or fly around the structure right at the back and fly out again before the timer runs out completely. Practise really is the way with this.
Imo its worth it just for the satisfaction, if you can match the stations spin speed and gently thrust towards your pad you can then pretty much 'fall' towards it making only tiny adjustments. Its very tricky at first but when you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you didn't try it sooner!
When I started learning I just went onto one of the Landing training missions and flew everywhere in and around the Coriolis exploring every nook and cranny with FA off, Morbad has the right idea
you can also try not submitting a docking request and see how many times you can fly into the station, touch the back or fly around the structure right at the back and fly out again before the timer runs out completely. Practise really is the way with this.Imo its worth it just for the satisfaction, if you can match the stations spin speed and gently thrust towards your pad you can then pretty much 'fall' towards it making only tiny adjustments. Its very tricky at first but when you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you didn't try it sooner!
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
Me too. FA off always is tricky to say the least, treacherous above planetary surfaces (gravity).
I'm curious to know if any of the FA-off gods use HOTAS as apposed to M&K?
![[VR] Enexemander](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/119/119036.jpg?1621636716){kind=avatar}
Yep. I use a T16000 and I highly recommend them for FA Off because the X and y sensors are amazing. The Warthog uses the same Hall tech so they are also recommended. I do not recommend the T Flight X or similar because there is a large mechanical deadzone on the stick.
And to answer your question, Isinona uses a Hotas. Also, lots of Newton's Gambit guys do.
Edit- Also I use fixed weapons with my stick. Anything is possible with practice!
Last edited:
Are you using Joystick Curves? That will give you much better fine control over rotation.
You could also try low-RoF-high-DPShot weapons like plasma accelerators; it's super-hard to module snipe with FA-off at the best of times anyway.
Most of them do as far as I know, or at least that's how it used to be. In fact, I don't know how any of you are using KB+M (even with FA On) when a controller or stick is an option. The nice thing about PC vs console is that you can still use and remap keyboard keys, so I basically turned my keyboard into a console for all the usual non-combat stuff like lights, plotted route targetting, cargo scoop etc which freed up quite a bit of mapping on the controller.
There used to be a guy on here who swore by a 2 stick setup instead of the slide throttle, basically just like using a controller only with joysticks instead of thumbsticks mapping wise, and then he had rudder pedals and flew a ton of FA off.
Is anyone in following this thread really good with FA Off using a keyboard and mouse? And if so, can you prove it with some video? Not that I don't trust ya
Last edited:
Rinzler uses m/kb, as does Jason Barron, IIRC.Almost all of them do as far as I know. In fact, I don't know how any of you are using KB+M when a controller is an option. The nice thing about PC vs console is that you can still use and remap keyboard keys, so I basically turned my keyboard into a console for all the usual non-combat stuff like lights, plotted route targetting, cargo scoop etc which freed up quite a bit of mapping on the controller.
There used to be a guy on here who swore by a 2 stick setup instead of the slide throttle, basically just like using a controller only with joysticks instead of thumbsticks mapping wise, and then he had rudder pedals and flew a ton of FA off.
Is anyone in following this thread really good with FA Off using a keyboard and mouse? And if so, can you prove it with some video? Not that I don't trust ya
That's crazy. Using KB+M for this game feels like I'm flying with my feet on the controls, only you've swapped my left and right feet, and not told my brain they are in new spots.....
I think most of the good SDC guys do. I'm guessing because Pipk0 does and that is who taught them?
Anyway, a mouse is objectively going to give you finer control, just as a matter of input device precision. But who wants to fly with a mouse?
If you're using a mouse you can bind thrust forward/backward to thumb buttons if you have them, that can help a lot.
Personally, I do my FA off practice in the training mission in tr Sidey. Just flu around the asteroid field. Pick one to shot, and use your laser to shoot it. they tend to be nice and large, easy to hit, and as you go further back, they get smaller, until you can target well enough to take out the toxic waste in the gun training. Also, the Coriolos stations have an awesome internal structure (not via the letterbox).
Get in there, turn FA off, and just try to not hit anything. Being a training mission, you won't screw up any stats/iron man modes/whatever.
Z...
Get in there, turn FA off, and just try to not hit anything. Being a training mission, you won't screw up any stats/iron man modes/whatever.
Z...
Yo, I don't smoke rollies or fly an FDL. The xbox controller is probably one of the trickier input methods for flt assist off because 'dang tiny thumbsticks too easy to over correct' but hey, I manage. (right stick pitch + yaw, left stick vertical thrust roll) boost turn alot in combat and watch the space dust.
Come to the dark side and fall in love with the lovely ballet that is FA-off!
This is how I have my setup for KB+M I also show what keys I"m pressing etc as well as my later vid showing what my mouse is doing as well. Feel free to hit us up on discord etc if you want to talk FA-off
https://youtu.be/mVBqSbDnE0g
This is how I have my setup for KB+M I also show what keys I"m pressing etc as well as my later vid showing what my mouse is doing as well. Feel free to hit us up on discord etc if you want to talk FA-off
https://youtu.be/mVBqSbDnE0g