User:Al Pokriskin/Drafts/Advanced piloting techniques: Difference between revisions

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 == General navigation ==
-=== Warping ===
+=== Warping and alignment ===
-Warping is critically important for moving around space, and manual piloting of your ship has a big impact on how well the warp drive will work.
+Warping is critically important for moving around space, and manual piloting of your ship has a big impact on how well the warp drive will work, meaning how quickly you can enter warp.
-When you press the warp button, several things happen. Your ship begins to align as described above. You lose a certain amount of energy from your capacitor based on skills and the distance of the jump (if you cancel the warp at this stage the energy is still lost). Once you are aligned, you warp to your destination, accelerating up to, and then decelerating down from, your ship’s warp speed.
+When you press the warp button, several things happen. Your ship begins to align to the warp-to point. You lose a certain amount of energy from your capacitor based on skills and the distance of the jump (if you cancel the warp at this stage the energy is still lost). Once you are aligned, you warp to your destination, accelerating up to, and then decelerating down from, your ship’s warp speed.
-==== Alignment ====
+Pods align instantly, and shuttles nearly so (2 seconds). So if you are paying attention, and have no lag, it is nearly impossible for you to be locked before you warp in these vessels (especially because their signature radius, a ship parameter affecting the attempted locking time, is of the smallest). Frigates have a typical align time of 3-5 s, cruisers might be more like 7-9 s, and battleships, industrials, and larger ships can take 20, 30, or more seconds to align for warp.
-Pods align instantly, and shuttles nearly so (about 1 second). So if you are paying attention, and have no lag, it is nearly impossible for you to be locked before you warp in these vessels (especially because your signature radius is so small). Frigates have a typical align time of 3-5 s, cruisers might be more like 7-9 s, and battleships, industrials, and larger ships can take 20, 30, or more seconds to align for warp.
-Your align time depends on your mass. Higher mass makes it harder to accelerate, decelerate, and turn the ship. Every ship has an agility modifier, which you multiply with the mass to get an “effective mass” that determines how agile your ship really is. Modules like nanofibers or inertial stabilizers reduce your agility modifier and therefore reduce your align time. [[PYFA]] can give you an approximate align time for your ship loadout.
+Your align time depends on your mass. Higher mass makes it harder to accelerate, decelerate, and turn the ship. Every ship has an agility modifier, which you multiply with the mass to get an “effective mass” that determines how agile your ship really is. Modules like nanofibers or inertial stabilizers reduce your agility modifier and therefore reduce your align time. In-game Fitting window or external tools such as [[PYFA]] can give you an approximate align time for your ship loadout.
-So where does piloting come in? Well, for one thing you can pre-align your ship to a target so that you warp instantly, even in a massive ship.  You need to move toward your warp destination and set your speed at or above 75% of your ship's max speed. Aligning and then stopping your ship does nothing.  The direction your ship is facing does not matter.  The game only cares about the direction your ship is '''moving'''.  From a stop, it will accelerate in any direction at the same speed whether that direction is in front or behind the ship.  Once aligned, if you need to warp out, you will then warp instantly since the pre-reqs of 75% of your max speed and moving within 5° of the target direction will already be met. If you are in a frigate, you tend to orbit a lot and pre-aligning might not be practical. But in a larger ship in a dangerous situation, pre-aligning might save your hull. Some people will tell you to always fight pre-aligned.
+So where does piloting come in? Well, for one thing you can pre-align your ship to a target so that you enter warp instantly, even in a massive ship. You need to move toward your warp destination and set your speed at or above 75% of your ship's max speed. Aligning and then stopping your ship does nothing. The direction your ship is facing does not matter. The game only cares about the direction your ship is '''moving'''.  From a stop, it will accelerate in any direction at the same speed whether that direction is in front or behind the ship.  Once aligned, if you need to warp out (run away), you will then warp instantly since the pre-reqs of 75% of your max speed and moving within 5° of the target direction will already be met. If you are in a frigate, you tend to orbit a lot and pre-aligning might not be practical. But in a larger ship in a dangerous situation, pre-aligning might save your hull. Some people will tell you to always be pre-aligned in combat.
-If you come out of a station in an industrial and align to something 90º away, you will have an agonizing wait while you make the turn at max velocity. This is because there are 2 ways that your ship can change speed (besides bumping).  One is from the ships engines accelerating it in the direction it is aligning. This can be boosted by an Afterburner or MWD.  The other is friction (yes eve space has friction) that slows it down when you hit stop or reduce your speed. The problem is the amount of friction increases with speed so it slows quickly at high speeds but as you slow down the rate decreases. The last bit takes a very long time to stop since friction is very low at those speeds. You just came out of the station and are moving at high speed. Now you align to something 90º away.  100% of the engine's power starts accelerating the ship in the direction of the align point and after your normal align time your ship is now moving toward the warp destination near the appropriate speed.  But the ship is also still drifting in the original direction. This means that the ship is actually moving at an angle and will not align until friction slows the ship from moving in the original direction. That process can take a long time.
+==== Undocking optimized warp ====
-There are 2 ways to fix this.  If you are in a ship that aligns quickly (like a shuttle) and there are hostiles on grid, you can hit stop ship.  As long as you do not do anything else but hit the stop ship button, you will not be able to be targeted by the hostiles for 30 seconds.  Once the ship comes to a halt, warp out.  This ends up taking about the same amount of time as simply aligning but it minimizes the time that you are targetable.
-The second way is faster. Rather than letting friction slow you down, you can double click toward the station (which makes you targetable) to let the engines stop you, then warp out once you are near zero velocity.  A slightly faster way is to double click toward the station but at an angle toward the align point then warping when the ship stops moving away from the station.  This method of using your engines to slow down then turning can be used for turning quickly in combat as well.
+If you come out of a station in an industrial and align to something 90° away, you will have an agonizing wait while you make the turn at max velocity. This is because there are 2 ways that your ship can change speed (besides bumping).  One is from the ships engines accelerating it in the direction it is aligning. This can be boosted by an Afterburner or MWD.  The other is friction (or the Power Enhanced Generator drag according to EVE Lore<ref>"Power Enhanced Generator (PEG)" EVE Fanfest 2017 - The Physics Of New Eden https://youtu.be/fqQO0vY8VMk?t=964</ref>) that slows it down when you hit stop or reduce your speed. The problem is the amount of friction increases with speed so it slows quickly at high speeds but as you slow down the rate decreases. The last bit takes a very long time to stop since friction is very low at those speeds. You just came out of the station and are moving at high speed. Now you align to something 90° away. 100% of the engine's power starts accelerating the ship in the direction of the align point and after your normal align time your ship is now moving toward the warp destination near the appropriate speed.  But the ship is also still drifting in the original direction. This means that the ship is actually moving at an angle and will not align until friction slows the ship from moving in the original direction. That process can take a long time.
+There are two ways to fix this:
+# If you are in a ship that aligns quickly (like a shuttle) and there are hostiles on grid, you can hit stop ship. Note, when you have just undocked from a station, a [[Timers#Location_Change_Timer|Location Change Timer]] is triggered that makes you invulnerable for 30 seconds or until you move. As long as you do not do anything else but hit the stop ship button, it will not be possible target you for the hostiles for 30 seconds. Once the ship comes to a halt, warp out. This ends up taking about the same amount of time as simply aligning but it minimizes the time that you are targetable.
+# The second way is faster. Rather than letting friction slow you down, you can double click toward the station (which makes you targetable) to let the engines stop you, then warp out once you are near zero velocity.  A slightly faster way is to double click toward the station but at an angle toward the align point then warping when the ship stops moving away from the station.  This method of using your engines to slow down then turning can be used for turning quickly in combat as well.
 The bottom line is that you should always be aware of how long it will take you to get to the safety of warp. Whether you’re hauling trade goods or at half structure in the middle of an enemy fleet, good warp awareness can come in really handy.
-==== Speed and alignment tricks ====
+==== Speed awareness in alignment ====
 Another point to remember is that your required speed to align is always 75% of your ''current'' max velocity. Being webbed can sometimes help you get into warp faster, since it lowers your max velocity -- if you're piloting a freighter you can speed travel up by bringing a friend (within your corp, so they don't get CONCORDed) along to web you. This is also why tacklers are taught to 'point, then web'.