Flight Assist On/Off Mechanics

[Dan Springford]

So I have been playing the game for a couple of months and am curious about the mechanics when you switch to flight assist off. If you are skilled you obviously can do maneuvers that are not possible with flight assist on. However why is it impossible to fly in the same arc or decelerate at the same rate as when you put flight assist on. This means I am constantly switching between the two modes to get the most out of the ship. This is frustrating since clearly you should be able to do any maneuver if you are skilled enough with flight assist off.

This is not because I am not skilled enough and I think the game works such that the thruster power just works differently for flight assist off. Correct me if I am wrong but this doesn't make any sense flight assist on should just mean that the ships on board computer simply balances the ships different thrusters to make the ship fly in a perfect best possible curve however the ship should be able to do everything the same with flight assist off. I have made these conclusions by feel. I would be interested to see if anyone else has noticed this.

 

[Mohrgan]

What you seen with FA off is what would happen if your ship flew completely free except for the influence of your ships thrusters. You are asking for 'some' of the available assist to remain. FD has set it up for all or nothing, and the mechanic is, more or less, designed to be toggled between the two modes for the best efficiency.

 

[Dan Springford]

I don't want any part of the assist with flight assist off what I mean is it's as if the thrusters especially the side and up thrusters have less power so you cant fly in the same curve as with flight assist on however you balance the thrust. Its a bit difficult to explain it...I will maybe try to make a few video's to demonstrate might be more clear.

Put another way the flight assist on flys your ship in a curve right? That curve is not possible at the same speed with flight assist on however you press the keys I am sure of this.

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that curve is not possible with flight assist *off i mean

 

[Astronut57]

With FA on the ship flies in the direction it is pointing (unless you're flying with reverse thrust, in which case it flies in the opposite direction). Also the ship will decelerate quickly if you throttle down to zero because the flight assist fires the thrusters opposite to your direction of travel thus slowing it down.
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When you turn FA off the ship continues to fly in the same direction regardless of which way the ship is pointing. To stop the ship with FA off (if it was flying forwards before switching FA off) you have to turn the ship 180 degrees and fire forward thrusters OR apply reverse thrusters.
<edit>
I re-read your post and I get the feeling you already know this. Sorry, don't want to sound patronizing.
</edit>

 

[Draxxen]

FA on fires several thrusters at the same time to adjust your trajectory. You can achieve this in FA off if you are able to fire the same thrusters in the same way; forward+upward thrusters for an arced flight path, for instance. In theory. It is, however, not easy for most people to fly this way, because the thruster precision is very difficult to master. I am trying, but have a long way to go.

 

[Xenthrix]

I think I know what he means. Hes saying that when trying to turn inside your apponents turn radius its faster with assist on than it is with assist off. Or visa versa. I've noticed the same thing. Its much faster to yaw when assist is off than when its on. But its seems slower to adjust the pitch when assist is off than when its on. It would seem that you it should be more maneuverable when assist is off, but thats not the case for all axis.

 

[Yodafone]

So I have been playing the game for a couple of months and am curious about the mechanics when you switch to flight assist off. If you are skilled you obviously can do maneuvers that are not possible with flight assist on. However why is it impossible to fly in the same arc or decelerate at the same rate as when you put flight assist on. This means I am constantly switching between the two modes to get the most out of the ship. This is frustrating since clearly you should be able to do any maneuver if you are skilled enough with flight assist off.

This is not because I am not skilled enough and I think the game works such that the thruster power just works differently for flight assist off. Correct me if I am wrong but this doesn't make any sense flight assist on should just mean that the ships on board computer simply balances the ships different thrusters to make the ship fly in a perfect best possible curve however the ship should be able to do everything the same with flight assist off. I have made these conclusions by feel. I would be interested to see if anyone else has noticed this.

Hi Dan, I'm not the kind who spams someone's thread at any opportunity with links to my own stuff, but... I've just come across this post of yours and I made a series describing anything and everything concerning the flight mechanics.

Here's part 1 of 3, each has links to continue on to the next part. Hope this helps!

https://youtu.be/JWrvKoUJOEw

 

[Dan Springford]

Yes I do know this i can fly very well with off but feel that its not possible to get the same results hiwever you control your thrusters

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Yes Xentrix you got it

 

[CMDR Memphis]

It is actually worse than that. I experimented yesterday with FA on/FA off boost.
I let go off the stick, to minimize any input from my side.
With FA on, I went straight as a stick.
With FA off, the nose started to drift to one side. I assume it is the joystick, but I feel like the deadzone is made smaller for FA off..

It makes it very difficult to use for me.

 

[Dan Springford]

I think I know what he means. Hes saying that when trying to turn inside your apponents turn radius its faster with assist on than it is with assist off. Or visa versa. I've noticed the same thing. Its much faster to yaw when assist is off than when its on. But its seems slower to adjust the pitch when assist is off than when its on. It would seem that you it should be more maneuverable when assist is off, but thats not the case for all axis.

Xentrix you get what i mean right. That doesnt make sense that for certain things you need to toggle. Clearly it should be possible to do all manoeuvres with flight assist off? Does the flight assist on computer somehow enhance the vertical thrust so you can fly in a tighter circle.

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If so thats just silly and its really frustrating u have to toggle. How do we contact the devs to complain? !

 

[Alex Brentnall]

It's called gameplay. Skill should win and therefore this is something to master. Its not a bug its a feature so complaining won't help.
Check out the flight combat games like tom clancy Hawx. Operates in exactly the same way but with gravity and air resistance.

This is one of those places between where the simulator meets the game. Another example is how that you cannot infinitely increase speed since there is no resistance in space you should be able to keep accelerating forever, but again, gameplay.

 

[Captain N]

You're right, the ship actually puts out higher thrust than if you were doing that manually in FAOFF.

You can test this simply by accelerating to maximum speed and back using side thrusters in both modes. There is a noticeable difference in the accelerations.

Not only that but the thrust is higher when you're decelerating towards 'zero' in FAON than when accelerating away from it.