Am I doing this right? [COMBAT]

[Deleted member 110222]

I am a pretty poor pilot in battle.

But today's spreading of equality demanded some interception. So I fought.

Am I right in thinking that the use of reverse thrust is just as important as forward? If so then this is a valuable lesson, as I've always had the bad habit of treating spaceships like fighter planes, with no ability to reverse.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I don't tend to actually put the ship in reverse much, but I'll often flip a 180 FA-OFF to fire backwards.

 

[Marklar_]

Yeah reverse can be very useful, especially if you have long range weapons

 

[StiTch]

Force yourself to fly FA Off for a while and you should get to grips with it. Imagine you are in a giant 3D ice rink, and every push you make will keep you sliding in that direction.

Asking whether reverse thrust is important is like asking if music is important to ballet; it is an integral part of it. I don't see how the question can even be posed seriously.

 

[Straker]

Depends on what you're trying to achieve as some ships don't slow so quickly as others. I find it really depends on a variety of things as to whether you use it or not.

 

[Ananym]

Reverse is critical for maintaining distance, otherwise you'll just be zooming past your target or getting zoomed past all day long.
You need some way of going into reverse instantly, rather than sliding your throttle down.
I use binds for +50% and -50% thrust, but you can also have a button that swaps your current thrust to reverse while held.
I find my vulture unflyable without a healthy dose of reverse.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Force yourself to fly FA Off for a while and you should get to grips with it. Imagine you are in a giant 3D ice rink, and every push you make will keep you sliding in that direction.

Asking whether reverse thrust is important is like asking if music is important to ballet; it is an integral part of it. I don't see how the question can even be posed seriously.

I come from a lifetime of playing flight action games. Ace Combat for one example. I have tens of thousands of hours on that game over my lifetime... And there are even more flight action games I haven't mentioned.

As such, flying a spaceship poses a significant challenge to me, as I'm in the unique position of having near-none comprehension of a vehicle that can fly sideways, and backwards.

My brain, through choice of games over a twenty year period, can only think forward.

I understand where you're coming from. However, as I say, years upon years of honing and perfecting my ability in one flight genre... Severely damages my ability in other flight genres.

 

[StiTch]

I come from a lifetime of playing flight action games. Ace Combat for one example. I have tens of thousands of hours on that game over my lifetime... And there are even more flight action games I haven't mentioned.

As such, flying a spaceship poses a significant challenge to me, as I'm in the unique position of having near-none comprehension of a vehicle that can fly sideways, and backwards.

My brain, through choice of games over a twenty year period, can only think forward.

I understand where you're coming from. However, as I say, years upon years of honing and perfecting my ability in one flight genre... Severely damages my ability in other flight genres.

It isn't your predisposition. FA On is deliberately intended to foster an airplane flight style. Even FA Off does to an extent. FD made it clear that true space combat isn't engaging enough for the game they were creating.

So this is not a problem of yours alone, but it won't magically fix itself either. And FA Off is the easiest way to develop more natural flight skills. No, it is not simple at first. Small movements, and gently counter your turning inputs as required. I almost guarantee you though, an evening of it and you will develop more than you have since you started playing ED. Tentative FA Off moments won't do it; just pick a well shielded ship, a crap enemy, stick FA Off and don't turn it on till one of you dies. The only way to learn space combat is to engage with semi-space mechanics.

 

[Morbad]

Am I right in thinking that the use of reverse thrust is just as important as forward?

All thrust vectors are important, as are controlling velocity and distance to target.

My brain, through choice of games over a twenty year period, can only think forward.

Ever backpedal or use stairs? Ever go swimming? Same idea.

 

[Xious]

Sounds right to me...

Practice, practice, practice...

 

[sb413197]

Absolutely. It is useful if you are in a big powerful ship trying to keep maximum assault on a faster target while it tries to close the gap...or against ANYTHING if you have long range modded lasers or rails. And when that faster target starts to beat you in the turning game, afterburn with flight assist off and turn to face them while still flying backwards.

When I am the smaller ship I find myself using reverse less and instead using more vertical and lateral thrusters while boosting allllll the time to stay behind my target.

 

[Stealthie]

I've never been keen on a forward/reverse throttle 'cos it's always a faff trying to find all-stop accurately.
So, I've got my throttle set up for thrust and a separate button to select forward and reverse.

Problem there is that it makes it kind of fiddly to swap from forward to reverse intuitively, in combat.

I started off with a 4-way hat-switch on my joystick controlling momentary vertical & lateral thrust and a 2nd hat controlling momentary horizontal thrust on it's vertical axis.
Trouble there is it means I couldn't apply thrust in X, Y and Z axis' at the same time cos I only have one thumb on each hand.

In the end, the solution was simply to map horizontal thrust to a hat-switch on my throttle.
So, now I can set the throttle to a desired position and, if I need to, I can use the hat-switch to either brake or go into reverse and then resume my previous speed as soon as I release the hat.

In general, I use the momentary thrust (mostly up/down and forward/reverse) to "strafe" around an approaching ship so we're never nose-to-nose and I'm always firing on the other ship from above or below.

*EDIT*

Alternatively, when I'm in my Corvette, I just do the full "reverski" and get into a tank-off with the other ship, which I've never yet lost, against an NPC at least.

 

[Exluna]

Like you I am not what I'd call an accomplished combat pilot. Most of my engagements have been npc pirate ships trying to steal my cargo. However in these instances I have found that reversed thrust is very useful for keeping the enemy in your sights, especially if you're going to overshoot your target and end up with him in your blind spot. You'll notice as well that the NPCs make liberal use of reverse thrust to make sharper turns to face a player. I find that watching for npc thruster flares and matching them with my own thruster work very useful to keep my little Cobra healthy and happy. I've been blown out of the sky enough times in my Sidewinder! Now I think I've become at least, a little less of a blind mosquito. More like an annoying horsefly. One day with lots of practice perhaps we could become yellowjackets eh?

 

[Six6VI]

I am a pretty poor pilot in battle.

But today's spreading of equality demanded some interception. So I fought.

Am I right in thinking that the use of reverse thrust is just as important as forward? If so then this is a valuable lesson, as I've always had the bad habit of treating spaceships like fighter planes, with no ability to reverse.

It could be argued reverse is even more important in combat when you finally get into the Cutter.

It's turning circle is so awful it's easier to fly backwards and pick off targets while "following" you.

 

[Susanna]

Yeah reverse can be very useful, especially if you have long range weapons

I'm a big fan of long range lasers as they have no DPS drop off. I can often strip the Shields of a ship before its even got within firing range. I have found reverse to be particularly effective against FASs as they will just persue you while you continue to fire...

 

[Susanna]

snip
*EDIT*

Alternatively, when I'm in my Corvette, I just do the full "reverski" and get into a tank-off with the other ship, which I've never yet lost, against an NPC at least.

LoL, I like to do exactly the same in my Vettes

 

[KimBo]

I use reverse if another ship is passing slowly and i am not flying fast. In that case it is most often the fastest way to get behind the opponent. In all other cases, FA off, throttle in blue zone, loop, is faster. Reverse and long range weaps works,
As mentioned by others, but I think your question is related to close combat.

 

[Susanna]

It could be argued reverse is even more important in combat when you finally get into the Cutter.

It's turning circle is so awful it's easier to fly backwards and pick off targets while "following" you.

Very true, the Cutter has a 5km turning arc... It is very much the Oil Tanker of space. It's thrusters are awesome though, especially with DD5s! Reverse combat comes into its own in the Cutter.

 

[babelfisch]

If you fly mostly with FA On, reverse can be very useful when you are fighting a more maneuverable enemy like Eagle or SLF.

 

[StiTch]

Would probably help if you clarified whether you mean reverse thrust or velocity. Reverse thrust in itself is just another tool in helping you get where you want to be, ahead or behind, which is how I think about combat; not "what moves can I use here" but "where do I want to be, and what moves will get me there?"

If you mean actually traveling in reverse, it can be a nifty alternative to a standard pitch turn with an unexpected repositioning, but giving exact examples is somewhat diffixult in text. Reverski itself is viable but I would frankly question why you play ED...may as well sit in your room holding the trigger button and watching something else on your monitor.