engineering, hull reinforcement, hull boost.

[Wily Rites]

The thing about maneuverability is everything you can improve about the thruster performance modifier, improves everything equally. So going faster also means being able to turn faster, and because for combat-fitted ships weight is a moot point to consider, it's just "improve thrusters as much as possible (dirty tuning + drag drives) and you're done, where outfitting for turn speed is concerned, short of selecting another ship.

As I mentioned already, you can try to make a ship that sacrifices very significant amounts of combat sustainability to get to the point where reducing mass will give you appreciable gains in maneuverability - but you should do so knowing it is not going to be optimal for combat, and there's really only a few specific ships where that potential exists. Most 'made-for-combat ships' are just going to be too heavy for it to be a thing.

Regarding flight assist - it can be useful to turn off for doing certain maneuvers, but it's definitely easier to aim with it on. Full HOTAS/joystick users have a (much) easier time making FA-off work, but it's not necessary to use it by any means. The default game settings are jank, and it's worth fiddling with them til you're comfortable and can keep your aim precise on a moving dot.

Oh, that's an interesting thought, I'd not considered thinking in terms of distance, I've been trying to get on the tail, but not really getting it just yet, but now that you mention this, it is quite obvious that under and overshoot are the things to look out for, once you've chosen your desired vector.

Sure the flight analogies are poor, just looking to find a footing I think, to best understand how to perform. The shield/altitude comparison really was only one of a store of energy, so as not to think of them in the same way other than, you watch your shield amount like you watch your altitude; Only really meaning the importance.

I suppose someone in the game dev team must have been thinking about this combat dynamic, when they decided not to put on a rear view mirror and hard point, a mod which would massively change this aspect of combat, if applicable!