It seems that in spite of the Devs' best efforts to the contrary, PvE in the game often descents into a very "turrets in space" style of gameplay, where 2 ships just slug fire at each other while trying to shield tank the damage taken. I believe that this has a deterimental impact on the overall gameplay for most higher level PvE as this FPS style gameplay is not really all that fun for most people.
The problem arises because even if you can get on an enemy's tail, it becomes very difficult to do so once they start boosting due to the boost being a one off increase to thrusters which can't be controlled and which differs in both the distance covered and the speed gained for all ships. This means that boosting often lead to overshoots and can't be effectively used as a way of getting on an enemy's tail. Another issue is also the fact that the blue zone also applies to FAOff turning, for no discernible reason, again making control of the ship in FAOff a more complex process which is easy for the AI but difficult for humans.
This is however a problem that can be somewhat easily fixed by making ships more controllable. The changes that would be required for this are:-
1. Changing the boost from a one off injection of speed into an afterburner which simply gives you significantly increased acceleration and max speed in the forward direction only as long as it is applied; this would allow ships to control their speeds more accurately and make it simpler to not overshoot enemy ships when boosting as this makes ships more controllable for the pilot by giving them more control over how they can apply boost. Ships with better boost and speed would find their speed and boost to be much bigger assets in combat with this change.
This change would make ships more controllable and therefore make fights far more dogfight like and less like a FPS in space. At the same time, this may also fix the problem of permaboosting as boosts would no longer operate as straight up increases in all forms of movement and be incremental (making permaboosting less attractive in combat); shifting the focus from simply moving fast to a heavier focus on ship control.
2. Removing the arbitrary application of the blue zone for turning to FAOff, thereby making it easier for players to include FAOff into their flying style and thereby making it's use more accessible to new players. The application of the blue zone into FAOff mostly benefits the AI and simply acts as an arbitrary complication for players that makes FAOff flight less accessible and harder to use.
FAOff should simply make it easier for the ship to move in any direction as it is no longer trying to go forwards at the same time. This would practically mean having the same acceleration and deceleration values as FAOn, while making all directional and rotational movement occur at the same rates as the blue zone in FAOn, as the ship no longer has to apply part of it's thrust to keep itself moving in the forward direction.
TL;DR: make the boost an afterburner that only operates in moving ahead in a straight line and change FAOff to have equal acceleration and deceleration values to FAOn while having all turning in FAOff happen at the same levels as the blue zone of FAOn (i.e. removing blue zone for FAOff).
The problem arises because even if you can get on an enemy's tail, it becomes very difficult to do so once they start boosting due to the boost being a one off increase to thrusters which can't be controlled and which differs in both the distance covered and the speed gained for all ships. This means that boosting often lead to overshoots and can't be effectively used as a way of getting on an enemy's tail. Another issue is also the fact that the blue zone also applies to FAOff turning, for no discernible reason, again making control of the ship in FAOff a more complex process which is easy for the AI but difficult for humans.
This is however a problem that can be somewhat easily fixed by making ships more controllable. The changes that would be required for this are:-
1. Changing the boost from a one off injection of speed into an afterburner which simply gives you significantly increased acceleration and max speed in the forward direction only as long as it is applied; this would allow ships to control their speeds more accurately and make it simpler to not overshoot enemy ships when boosting as this makes ships more controllable for the pilot by giving them more control over how they can apply boost. Ships with better boost and speed would find their speed and boost to be much bigger assets in combat with this change.
This change would make ships more controllable and therefore make fights far more dogfight like and less like a FPS in space. At the same time, this may also fix the problem of permaboosting as boosts would no longer operate as straight up increases in all forms of movement and be incremental (making permaboosting less attractive in combat); shifting the focus from simply moving fast to a heavier focus on ship control.
2. Removing the arbitrary application of the blue zone for turning to FAOff, thereby making it easier for players to include FAOff into their flying style and thereby making it's use more accessible to new players. The application of the blue zone into FAOff mostly benefits the AI and simply acts as an arbitrary complication for players that makes FAOff flight less accessible and harder to use.
FAOff should simply make it easier for the ship to move in any direction as it is no longer trying to go forwards at the same time. This would practically mean having the same acceleration and deceleration values as FAOn, while making all directional and rotational movement occur at the same rates as the blue zone in FAOn, as the ship no longer has to apply part of it's thrust to keep itself moving in the forward direction.
TL;DR: make the boost an afterburner that only operates in moving ahead in a straight line and change FAOff to have equal acceleration and deceleration values to FAOn while having all turning in FAOff happen at the same levels as the blue zone of FAOn (i.e. removing blue zone for FAOff).