Advanced piloting techniques: Difference between revisions

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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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.
-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 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.
 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.