Flight Manual 1.3

FLIGHT MANUAL DRAFT1.3 A list of abbreviations

LF: Light Fighter HF: Heavy Fighter VHF: Very Heavy Fighter BBR: Bomber GB: Gunboat CR: Cruiser BS: Battleship CAPS: Capital Ship(s) RS: Repair Ship TS: Trading Ship

EK: Engine Kill(s) RT: Reverse Thrust, (Raven's Talon) PVP: Person Versus Person PVG: Person Versus Group RL: Real Life MR: Mini Razor NM: Nuclear Mine RM: Ripper Mine SNT: Supernova Torpedo

SNAC: Supernova Antimatter Cannon FS: Firestalker Missile

CB: Cannonball Missile SW: Sidewinder Missile PARA: Paralyzer Missile SNS: Sunslayer Torpedo SK: Starkiller Torpedo

CD: Cruise Distruptor CMD: Countermeasure Dropper BR: Battle Razor WG: Weapon Group(s) 1 of 6

Things that need to be cared for before going into a fight • •

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Try to acquire knowledge about the fight and sides as of vessels and numbers they deploy. Check your ship and equipment status. Make repairs and reloads if necessary provided that you have the time for it. Never forget setting up your WG before involving in a fight. Always remember to scan your target's guns and ammo before engaging it. Provided that it is a missile spammer, you might want to avoid cheap jousts and try to swarm it instead till its ammo is exhausted. Else, you still need to form your opinion on your target by scanning its guns and ammo before jousting it recklessly. Try to gather information about who to target first and which targets to be primarily destroyed before advancing to other ones since CAPS might be your primary targets depending on the situation. Follow the words of the person who is responsible for calling the targets. Make sure there is no RL issue or an internet connection handicap that might intervene your activity during a fight. Try to minimize these risks at least.

Things that need to be cared for during a fight • •

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Listen to your flight leader's instructions. Ignoring them might be lethally punishing for you. Try not to lose your concentration during a fight, especially if it is a tiresome and long lasting one. Lack of physical and mental durability is most oftenly the deciding factor in such encounters. Do not rush things at the beginning. Give it some time to weigh your opponents' capabilities and form an opinion accordingly. Avoid jousting known aces at the first place. There is no need to be cheaply destroyed at a quick pace while you could cause problems longer than expected. Try to be responsive to the messages being displayed in your group chat if the fight is not being coordinated on Skype or any other program that allows you to hear commands and the conversation going on or if you are unable to attend to it but able to read messages only. In this case, missing some messages might be a deadly disadvantage for you. 2 of 6

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Always keep a track of your six. Releasing a pair of mines could be useful sometimes if there is someone relentlessly staying on your tail. If this doesn't distract him and you really feel that you are being pounded by a tango, call one of your friends to target it and cover you while you switch to his target so that you may neutralize the pounding effect on you and targets are still equally distributed. If there is a possibility to urge the tango at your six to submission, you may even try to group target and destroy it. Do not try to be a hero unless you have nothing else to do. Even if things are pretty grim, teamwork might save you from a lot of trouble. Believe in yourself, do not lose your confidence till the end. And remember, this is not something happening in your RL. Try to form pairs for different targets if you are in a PVG. Ignoring all other targets but one might be quite problematic unless you are forced to, provided that the target your leader calls everyone to engage is a CAPS that is creating intolerable problem for your side. Try to keep your EK as short as possible. This will give your foe less chance to score a SNAC or MR hit on you. Use your thrust as often as possible and try to outmaneuver your opponent if your ship is close enough to his in terms of agility. Being caught up in a long EK will make your hull more prone to guns and projectiles. Try to lean on a swarming approach if your target is superior than you while jousting. If he is good at with the MR and landing you successful shots with it, avoid jousting him till he is distracted with something else. Jousting him recklessly might end you in a MR+NM or MR+CB combo which will instantly neutralize your shield and probably hurt your hull very badly. Try to be evasive while your shield is down. Do not care if people start to call you a shield runner. Being evasive once needed is as important as being on the offensive. Try to shoot the floating mines around your foe with a CD. If the mines are close to him, there is a possibility that you might hurt him even with his own mines. Do not RT and stop for too long, especially while fighting in a PVG or a field that is covered with asteroids. This way you may be less vulnerable to desynch projectiles and mines floating around at random. Always look for the best opportunity of targets before sticking to one. Your priorities might change during a fight so you have to be responsive to what your team mates and your flight leader says. 3 of 6

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Avoid jousting BBR aces on your own. Let your wing assault it with combined fire instead. Be on your swarming stance. Same applies for the HF or VHF aces those who are talented at the MR and equivalent. Joust only if you are truly confident of dealing damage to your foe's hull with absorbing minimum damage on your hull. Be careful with desynch torpedos. Once met by a CD or a swarm of missiles, the combined blast might force you to eject. If you are in a BBR and your flight leader does not have an objection, your priority in a fight will be mostly likely neutralizing the CAPS on your foe's side. Do not follow a regular pattern while fighting. The more irregular your movements are, the more your opponent is distracted and exhausted. Fighting a GB might be tricky. If you are in a BBR, you will eventually need to get close to it in order to score SNAC hits. You have to combine two stances here. Offensive and Evasive aka Hit and Run. Be careful against missile spam while fighting a GB. If you are in a pair, you may need a wing mate to subtarget the incoming missiles and CD them while you pound the GB to death. If the GB is not spamming missiles, best is to keep a concentrated fire on its shield and send SNAC volleys as soon as its shield is down. In order to fight the CR and BS in a BBR, you will eventually need to keep a range of at least 2-3k away from them. You will also need to be aware of the deadly capabilities a BR may provide them with. If you get caught too close, you may be sniped down with its high muzzle velocity, provided that their gunnery are being commanded by some sharp shooter officers. In any case, we can't leave this to pure luck. Keep your distance while fighting them off. Be on your utmost evasive while waiting for your SNAC to rechange and as soon as you can fire it, close into around 1.8-1.9k range in order to release your shot. Once its sent, move back to the range of at least 2-3k and turn back to your evasive. If you are good at the evasive or if the CAPS pilot is not very much successful at hitting you, try to stay close to the 2k range. Since the SNAC has a range of 1960m which is 1.96k, the closer you are to this range, the more SNAC volleys you will launch in the same time. Staying much more away in this case will only render your ability and chances to catch the CR and BS with their shields down. Remember that the ultimate goal here is to score as much SNAC hits as possible while their shields are down.

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If you are in an LF and joining either a PVP or PVG, you have to be on your toes always. Remember that a single MR shot might disable you. Mines and projectiles of any kind also are deadly for an LF. Being in an LF during a fight will eventually force you to be on both evasive and swarming stances. Ultimate goal here is assisting your teammates while not being group targeted and draining the time of your foes as much as possible if they start to group target you. In a PVG, you will most oftenly be ignored at the first stage. Turning this to an advantage is in your hands. If there is an enemy CAPS nearby, you have to keep a range of at least 2k away from it in order not to be dismantled to pieces. Sparing ammo and using them conservatively may prove to be crucial in some cases. Do not forget this and do not needlessly spam them. Use them once you feel you really need to. Such as launching missiles or torpedos on targets that do not target you. Try to avoid it if your target is not aiming you and able to evade your projectiles while not aiming you. However, if the target is a cheap one, sending a pair of missiles even if he is not on you might work and cast an effect of disheartening and distracting him. You may even land some deadly strikes if his shield is down. But still, guns are the primary choice for running or evading targets. If your foe is badly damaged and almost cracking, spam him with your CD with reasonable intervals of time that won't let him flee. Not only this will unable his escape but make it quicker for you to finish him off.

Things that need to be cared for while retreating from a fight •

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Retreating from a fight is viable if there is no chance left for you to change the tide of the fight. Try to be realistic in such cases. Giving away needless losses is not our style. Follow your flight leader's instructions. You will have to rely on your evasive stance and use your thrust more oftenly. Follow an irregular pattern while strafing and include different combinations of eccentric movements by using your mouse, while you are on a long thrust for emergency retreat. Most importantly, you have to do the retreat in a coordinated way. You need to try your best in order not to leave any of your team mates behind while falling back. Try to cruise at the same moment if you can. You might also hope for your CMD to work efficiently here. 5 of 6

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A critical thing is the barrier point here. If you stay more than necessary after exceeding the barrier point, you will most likely be swarmed, and distrupted to death till you are down. As soon as you understand there is no chance left, launch cruise and do it coordinated with everyone remaining on your side around there. Spam as much as your CMD lets and be on your utmost evasive. If you can manage to evade the distruptions and proceed in cruise, head to the closest jumphole that will lead you to the system with the passage to the closest base you can dock at for repairs. If you are severely hurt, and have lost equipment that will be too costly to replace, you will probably need to practice on your suicidal tendencies.

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“Theory will fail unless backed up by practice.” Caglar.A