A horrible realisation struck me as I was playing Incursion for the umpteenth time - I'm really not very good at this game.
The difference between my current flying, dulled by years of rpgs and strategy games, is far removed from that of my perceived inner ten-year-old.
For those who want to give up and "wait for the Beta"; don't. You'll get even more aggravated in multiplayer as our pirates want to steal the cargo you're carrying. So practice!
Incursion can be rather difficult, especially when 4 ships are thrown at you at once. A few hints: The rail gun is only good against larger ships (Cobra and Anaconda), and only against the Cobra when you two are "jousting". Since it takes so long to power up AND kept aimed, it's much more difficult to use against the sidewinders and vipers.
When you're jousting, you can almost always break off the enemy's run at you by keeping your beam laser trained on him and getting several hits. That just takes practice and a steady hand.
I remapped my thruster keys on my HOTAS so they're all on the throttle. The rocker switch is my right/left and buttons 9 and 10 are up and down. I can use them while jousting to fine-tune my aim. (I put my boost on button 5 too.)
Get one ship targeted, and keep on him no matter what. If your shields get to 50%, increase power to them. (My hat switch is set to do a quick power change in the heat of battle.) The enemy doesn't "know" how to get on your 6 and stay there, so if you are getting hit, juke around some, change your angle and they'll fly past you.
As one poster said earlier, when making turns, keep your thrust in the blue area and you'll get the best turn radius. I don't know if this makes any difference, but sometimes I'll use my up/down thrusters too.
I haven't polished off the anaconda yet either. Got it town to 9% when it changed direction and took me out with it's beam laser. Stay behind it and you'll be safer. (I would have won that one, but my bout with the 4 ships in the earlier wave didn't go so well for me that trip, so my hull was pretty weak.)
And practice!
