[Eve] How do you fly your ship?

Frankiestylee

As the title of the thread says: How do you fly your ship?

If this was the type of game that was all set up for a joystick and some hands on control, well, I wouldn't bother asking, I'd be out dogfighting superior odds til the cows get vaporised and waft home... but since it's all a point and click affair, how does one go about flying their ship?

At the moment I either fly towards an enemy or orbit it at the optimum targetting distance... that's all I know how to do and that's alll I do. But how does everyone else fly? I can't even fathom "evasive manouevres" by clicking a mouse now and again... it doesn't seem precise enough at all and lacks control. Do people actual zoom around weaving intricate flight plans while fighting each other or what?

I'm just trying to get to grips with the advantage of a small nimble craft over an awkward bigger craft. In my experience of fighter sims the smaller craft can often take down something with twice the gunpower using pure agility and pilot skill.... just wondering how it goes down in the mouse dominated land of Eve.

Maddzy

I'm sure you've heard of things in Eve called Transversal Velocity, Tracking Speed, Signature Radius and Explosion Radius. These are the things you need to know about if you wanna be evasive during a fight. Thing is, like you said, Eve is somewhat limited due to its point and click nature.

I'm no expert but I'll put down what I know. Someone correct me if wrong, etc.

Your ships transversal velocity is the speed at which your ship orbits or passes another ship. The higher your t.velocity the harder it is gonna be for guns to track your position and missiles to catch you in their blast. I'm sure there are complex tactics used to gain the highest advantage of this, but what I do if I'm in a small ship is orbit the bigger ship at my own gun's optimal range. Its simple but works. The faster you are orbiting them the harder it is for them to hit you.

Your ship's signature radius is something else to keep an eye on. Things like shield extenders will increase your radius, making it easier to hit you.

When I get into a battle the first thing I do is CTRL-click on the target. This starts the locking sequence. During this sequence I hit F1 - F8 (depending on how many guns I have, and if I am in range) as well as webber, scram, etc. When the ship is locked these mods will simultaniously engage on it.

Another tactic similar to this one is to click on all your offensive mods initially then when the target appears in space / on overview you just click it and the lock sequence will run, after which all your previously selected mods will engage on it.

Another handy shortcut is ctrl-space which stops your ship.

Frankiestylee

Ah, so you just do the orbit at your guns optimal distance trick? Yeah, that's my current standard tactic, but I was just wondering if there's anything more that people do or is this just a fancy version of top trumps where the person with the higher stats always wins? I'm afraid my newbie bravado is being dampened by my inability to effectively take on a superior foe in a dogfight.

Bill Andrex

How do I fly my ship? With Style and Finesse of course!

Logitech G15 FTW!

Macro Key assigned to F1 thru to F8 - Pew! Pew! Pew!
Macro Key assigned Alt-F1 thru to Alt-F3 - Scram, Web, ECM, etc.

Being a Caldari I use missiles, so I would usually go with a sensor booster and start ripping into targets from about 120km out.

As for skills? Any skills that improve your maneuverability are important and should be trained to at least level 4. Why? Well the time it takes to get up to warp speed will be greatly improved and when your in a tight spot it might make the difference between being a ship or a Pod!:D

Found this on the EvE Online Forums http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=299970

Frankiestylee

Ah yeah it seems it's as I suspected. I was half expecting some ultra experienced player to go on about flying loop the loops etc, but it seems it's all about the orbiting and the range.

jaggeh

actually you will find the best interceptor pilots dont use the automated controls much at all. they watch their transversals and doubleclick to move, locking yourself into an orbit can be bad if someone is setting you up.

R0ot

cloaked

tba

backwards

Frankiestylee

jaggeh wrote:

actually you will find the best interceptor pilots dont use the automated controls much at all. they watch their transversals and doubleclick to move, locking yourself into an orbit can be bad if someone is setting you up.

Ah, so there IS hope

Canis Lupus

I set my beagle heading straight for the target, "keep distance" at 5km and watch the target die. Lots of fun.

LordBlonde

Run like f**k while lobbing cruise missiles at them. With drones and NOS for anything that gets within 20km.

Hobbes

What I do with my raven is this.
1. Attack from 100km+ using signal amp.
2. Anything gets within 35km gets 4xmedium drones on it.
3. Anything within 19km gets NOS.
4. Anything within 5km gets smartbombed.

Works very well.