best way to dogfight (non-pvp combat in general)

[sqzbox1]

Just try to stay on their tail - that's all. That's what dog-fighting is all about - flying and vying for position. If you fly to stay on their tail then they can't joust you. For me, I find part of the difficulty is simply the result of representing 3-D imagery on a 2-D medium. I'm sure the VR would help. If you are playing on a simple screen then it is hard, if not impossible, to determine the movement in 3-D space of a vehicle when it gets more than a couple of hundred meters away (unless it is one of the big ones of course). Up/down and left/right is ok but is their nose turning away or towards you? Can't tell. So I always assume it is towards you and try to resolve the imagery into 3-D that way, but it isn't easy I grant you. But flying this way means I haven't used the fly backwards tactic in ages - in fact, since FD reduced the speed of backwards flying which is before release I think. The thing is, if you use this technique then you are wasting valuable practice time - better to do anything to avoid that - try anything and everything EXCEPT backwards flying in order to learn new techniques because while you use the fly backwards technique you are not trying other things and won't move forwards in your ability.

My advice (FWIW)? Spend AGES practicing nothing but staying on their tail. This includes getting out of the opponent's sights and onto their tail in the first place. CZ's are great for this. Use thrusters whilst turning (especially up and down), discover rapid turning via FAOFF, learn to use your own throttle to best advantage, use your eyes to keep situational awareness on their speed relative to you through the changing distance indicator (tells you a lot about where they are going), your pips (practise changing pips frequently), your own ship's health - all at the same time.

I'm no expert by any means (although E: D considers me Dangerous) but I know I won't get any better unless I continually try new things and SJA's impending AI improvements will make me do that so I'm looking forward to the next edition when me and my Vulture will be challenged to a higher level.

 

[Arry]

Just try to stay on their tail - that's all. That's what dog-fighting is all about - flying and vying for position. If you fly to stay on their tail then they can't joust you. For me, I find part of the difficulty is simply the result of representing 3-D imagery on a 2-D medium. I'm sure the VR would help. If you are playing on a simple screen then it is hard, if not impossible, to determine the movement in 3-D space of a vehicle when it gets more than a couple of hundred meters away (unless it is one of the big ones of course). Up/down and left/right is ok but is their nose turning away or towards you? Can't tell. So I always assume it is towards you and try to resolve the imagery into 3-D that way, but it isn't easy I grant you. But flying this way means I haven't used the fly backwards tactic in ages - in fact, since FD reduced the speed of backwards flying which is before release I think. The thing is, if you use this technique then you are wasting valuable practice time - better to do anything to avoid that - try anything and everything EXCEPT backwards flying in order to learn new techniques because while you use the fly backwards technique you are not trying other things and won't move forwards in your ability.

My advice (FWIW)? Spend AGES practicing nothing but staying on their tail. This includes getting out of the opponent's sights and onto their tail in the first place. CZ's are great for this. Use thrusters whilst turning (especially up and down), discover rapid turning via FAOFF, learn to use your own throttle to best advantage, use your eyes to keep situational awareness on their speed relative to you through the changing distance indicator (tells you a lot about where they are going), your pips (practise changing pips frequently), your own ship's health - all at the same time.

I'm no expert by any means (although E: D considers me Dangerous) but I know I won't get any better unless I continually try new things and SJA's impending AI improvements will make me do that so I'm looking forward to the next edition when me and my Vulture will be challenged to a higher level.

Plenty of good sound advice there, you could practice on USS non hostile ships.

Keep an eye on the hologram of the other ship, it is, as it is. I still have issues working out which side is the top etc. But the 3D state of mind, is not as hard as if feels, just time, that's all.

 

[Ichijo]

Plenty of good sound advice there, you could practice on USS non hostile ships.

Keep an eye on the hologram of the other ship, it is, as it is. I still have issues working out which side is the top etc. But the 3D state of mind, is not as hard as if feels, just time, that's all.

Unless you fly a Vulture or Eagle, this is very inefficient. It is possible to get on their tail but this will take too long. And at that point it really is no longer a dog fight. It's just 2 gunships moving in 3d space at very low speeds shooting at each other (this might turn into a backpedal shoot to win situation). Notice how the npcs either boost away fast (VIPER, Courier, Diamondback) making it VERY annoying to destroy or just float around (Cobra, Dropship, Sidewinder, Adder, Clipper). I think I just listed almost all the ships you see in a RES.

 

[schurem]

I rarely backpedal. Even with the python I can saddle up on the larger ships. Try down thrusting and proper throttle management.

 

[Starbuckz]

Sorry, I've fixed a load of issues with my minions... and given them some "fun" new stuff! Well I think it's fun... You're gonna love it!

As a coder myself I was/am always curious about how you would program an AI in a game like this.
Could you publish some fragments of code for us to look at? Something that can be published without any problems for you?
I'd love that.

Thanks.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

There is no ship in the game that is agile enough to maneuver around out of a half decent boosted flight assist off turn.
This brings your throttle out of position but at least for the ships that don't turn as well, this isn't so big of an issue - they're not losing much maneuverability as a result. It's effectively a power slide.
If someone tries to backpedal against me, I just leave. Unless I actually need to kill someone, I see no reason to chase what's fleeing. But the general counter-strategy is to boost and use laterals to get around their yaw-axis. Any ship that is slow enough to need to backpedal is usually one that is slow enough to boost around.

 

[Badben]

Backpeddaling is a good tactic, but not the best. You can get much of the same results by turning off flight assist. This allows you to point your ship in any direction while continuing to travel along a different trajectory. So, for example, you can fly along side your taget, but be looking right at them, fire, and quickly boost, changing your trajectory very quickly, making you much more difficult to hit. The problem with backpeddalling arises when you have multiple targets, simply backpeddaling makes you too easy a target for other ships because of how slow you are moving, and in a straight line, where as turning off flight assist generally makes it more difficult to hit you. Combat, in this game is actually a lot more nuanced than I originally thought. for example, has anyone noticed that is possible to do much tighter turns by turning diagonally rather than straight along x or y axis?

 

[Ichijo]

Such theorycrafting is good on paper, but try it in an actual RES backpedaling is actually the most effective way to kill an npc ship if it has a higher maneuverability rating than you. When I say backpedal, I mean backpedal with pitching. Purely backpedaling will take longer to have your target in your sights.

1. You reverse thrust a bit
2. Throttle to zero or keep a zero speed relative to your target
3. Put pips in weapons and fire
4. Once they ship starts moving out of your sights, you backpedal/pitch a bit and repeat.

You can try and get on its tail but good luck getting doing so. I have tried boost assisted turns which are very good (for turning, but throws you a distance away) but the opposing ship (e.g a Python with maneuverability rating 6) will be facing my nose again 1 second after I finish my turn.

I have a combat rating of Dangerous so I think I know what I'm doing very well. I can not count how many times I have flown nonstop circles with an NPC eagle and Vulture. It was like an amusement park.