Smooth Sailing Techniques

What happens when you get in a tight spot? when you need to make a turn or dodge between ships.  Well this guide will not only give you some tips to help with that, , but also give you some insight about what you should be doing when in a in general.  So sit back, relax and let us begin.

So the first thing you need to know before we start is some of the basics about what it means to be maneuvering,  we will then go on to explain how that works.

• First thing to do is understand that all ships have what are called “turning radius”,    This basically tells you how fast your ship can turn, lower rating means slower turning.
• Second part of maneuvering is understanding the throttle system, this will be split into two sections one for beginners and then one for more advanced people.

So to get started I’m going to explain how the throttle works in it’s most basic form, .  You should always be aware of your throttle setting when maneuvering,  as it may come in handy.

So the way your throttle works is by giving you 3 modes to choose from:   forward, neutral and reverse.  Each mode has a different maximum speed which are described below.

Forward: 100% – 75% speed (reverse), Neutral: 0% – 50% (forward), reverse: 0% – 25% speed (neutral).

Knowing these speeds can help you plan out your next move and keep you from slamming into the side of a asteroid.  So let’s start with some simple ideas and then we will give some examples against ships of different sizes later on.

First we need to know all the location of the throttle.  So take a look at the images below,  

The throttle can be found in three locations:  In the middle of both the pilot and copilot seat, on top of your dashboard to the right or left of you depending on which way you are facing and finally there is a small dial located on each side of your ships starting locations.

So now that you know where the throttle is located let’s move on to some examples of using this knowledge.

First we talk about how you should use this knowledge in general.  Every time your ship takes damage,  there will be a permanent reduction in it’s maximum speed accordingly, .  So the easiest thing to do is just try not to get hit by anything.

How do you go faster when smooth sailing?

You may ask how you go faster and well this is quite easy.  Every time you make a turn, your maximum speed will increase by the same amount of percentage that it decreased due to damage.

So to summarize, The faster you are going the easier it is to dodge anything that comes your way.

Now let’s put this knowledge to use!

First we will talk about how you should use this information when being chased by another ship.  It is easiest to do this with a medium or large ship as they move fast and can catch you easily,  This might be harder for a small ship like the sidewinder.

The best way to use this is to make sure your throttle is in it’s lowest setting and then just go straight .  This will make you to the slowest and it also makes any chasing ship move closer at an alarming rate.  

As soon as you see them getting too close or chasing to fast,  change your direction and make sure you are turning away from them.

Next let’s talk about how this knowledge is useful when outmaneuvering smaller ships like the Eagle or Sidewinder.  This is a much easier task for beginners as you have more time to react and evade the other ship.

So first we start out by turning away from them early,  this will help avoid any engine damage which would slow you down even further.  Make sure that your throttle is in it’s lowest setting when doing this.

As they are chasing you,  try to lead them in a direction that is away from your starting location.

Finally when they get too close or even right behind you change direction and make sure to turn towards them.  This will keep them stuck on your rear end while giving you the opportunity to evade and get back to your starting location.

This concludes the first part of this guide and we hope we have helped you learn something new about your ship and how it maneuvers in space .  

How do you smooth sailing upwind?

So now you might be wondering,  What happens when I am going the wrong way and my throttle is all the way up?

Well here is what will happen:   Your ship will move really fast but it won’t turn at all.

Turning your throttle all the way up will give you a speed boost but it will also make you turn extremely slow or not at all.

This makes riding upwind a very difficult task and something that only more experienced pilots should attempt to do.  So let’s go on and talk about how to avoid this situation altogether.

The first thing we recommend is always keep your throttle in its lowest setting unless you are trying to get away from something or someone.  

The second thing we recommend is to never have your throttle all the way up when going into a turn.

This will prevent you from overshooting and ending up going in the completely wrong direction.  

So now that you know what happens when it’s too fast,  what can happen if you are not fast enough?

Well first let’s talk about what happens if you try to follow someone or something really fast and you don’t have your throttle at it’s lowest setting.

It will be harder than usual to turn and dodge anything coming your way.

The best thing to do is slow down a little bit so you can make those tight turns around.

This will help you maneuver around anything that might come at you and it will also help with climbing upwind if needed.

Now let’s talk about what happens when you don’t go fast enough to catch someone or something.   

First let’s briefly recap what happens if you go too fast and turn at the same time.  It will be really hard to dodge anything that comes your way and it might even be impossible depending on how fast you were going and how fast they are going.

Now we want to talk about what happens when you go too slow and follow someone upwind.  

First let’s talk about why this happens ,  it often happens because the person chasing is not in an ideal ship for catching someone else who is going upwind.

Catching someone or something that is going against the wind can be difficult if you don’t have a good balance between speed and handling.