Advanced piloting techniques: Difference between revisions

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First things first, you have to know what tools you have at your disposal.

Autopilot: The autopilot is capable of setting a route to one or more waypoint systems, and automatically flying your ship there. However it warps to all stargates at 15km, so travel time is significantly higher than manual flight. You will also be a sitting duck for gatecamps if you decide to go into low-sec space with autopilot on, so for the purposes of this guide, keep it off! Besides, the whole point of this guide is that you can pilot your ship better than the computer. I only use the autopilot in combination with 2D maps, to plan out travel routes.

'''Autopilot''' The autopilot is capable of setting a route to one or more waypoint systems, and automatically flying your ship there. However it warps to all stargates at 15km, so travel time is significantly higher than manual flight. You will also be a sitting duck for gatecamps if you decide to go into low-sec space with autopilot on, so for the purposes of this guide, keep it off! Besides, the whole point of this guide is that you can pilot your ship better than the computer. I only use the autopilot in combination with 2D maps, to plan out travel routes.

Tactical overlay: The tactical overlay button puts range markers on your solar system map so you can get a better sense of distance. One useful feature it has, is that if you mouse over one of your modules while in the tactical overlay, a bubble will appear around your ship that shows the range of the module.

'''Tactical overlay''' The tactical overlay button puts range markers on your solar system map so you can get a better sense of distance. One useful feature it has, is that if you mouse over one of your modules while in the tactical overlay, a bubble will appear around your ship that shows the range of the module.

Directional and system scanner: The system scanner recently received an overhaul and is now much easier to use. It will scan the system for Cosmic Signatures, which are a less advanced version of actual sites found with exploration. If you have scan probes fitted, they will integrate to form a much more powerful system scanner. Look for an exploration class for more details.

'''Directional and system scanner''' The system scanner recently received an overhaul and is now much easier to use. It will scan the system for Cosmic Signatures, which are a less advanced version of actual sites found with exploration. If you have scan probes fitted, they will integrate to form a much more powerful system scanner. Look for an exploration class for more details.

The directional scanner a tool on every ship that can scan a radius of around 14 AU around you. It can pick up anything seen in the overview, and you can actually use specific overview settings to filter the results. You can then narrow the direction of the scan from 360º to 180º all the way down to 5º to figure out where something is. Some good ideas are a filter for scanning for probes that are looking for you, scanning for ships at a gate from a faraway recon safespot, or looking to see if there are cans in an asteroid belt to flip (kidding). If you turn on brackets in space you will see the icons for gates and planets and stations, etc. You can then click on your own ship and use the little box to line yourself up with those places for precise scanning. There is a video and a class recording in the Library.

The Overview: The overview is the primary way you get information about what’s going on around you in space. If it’s set up properly, you should be able to play the game just by looking at overview information, and not even looking at your ship and what it’s doing. I won’t go into the details of overview settings, but suffice to say it is very important. In this guide we’ll mostly be concerned with its ability to display an object’s distance and velocity (including radial, transversal, and angular components). In addition, by looking at the ship icons in the overview, you can tell whether you have been locked onto (flashing yellow targeting box), or have been aggressed against (solid red box).

'''The Overview''' The overview is the primary way you get information about what’s going on around you in space. If it’s set up properly, you should be able to play the game just by looking at overview information, and not even looking at your ship and what it’s doing. I won’t go into the details of overview settings, but suffice to say it is very important. In this guide we’ll mostly be concerned with its ability to display an object’s distance and velocity (including radial, transversal, and angular components). In addition, by looking at the ship icons in the overview, you can tell whether you have been locked onto (flashing yellow targeting box), or have been aggressed against (solid red box).

Throttle: The velocity control (where your velocity is displayed) lets you manually choose what velocity you want to travel at, up to your max velocity. Ctrl-space will stop your ship as long as you are not in warp. If your warp drive is active, but you are still aligning, ctrl-space will work. If you use a custom throttle velocity, you'll have to set it again after you jump through a stargate, since it resets to full speed again.

'''Throttle''' The velocity control (where your velocity is displayed) lets you manually choose what velocity you want to travel at, up to your max velocity. Ctrl-space will stop your ship as long as you are not in warp. If your warp drive is active, but you are still aligning, ctrl-space will work. If you use a custom throttle velocity, you'll have to set it again after you jump through a stargate, since it resets to full speed again.

Double-click: Double clicking in space, basically makes your ship go to where you clicked. If you imagine, from the perspective of the camera, a vector shooting out from the middle of the screen, the horizontal and vertical angles are determined by where you click on the screen, and the depth component is determined by which way the camera is facing. Then the ship aligns to that vector.

'''Double-click''' Double clicking in space, basically makes your ship go to where you clicked. If you imagine, from the perspective of the camera, a vector shooting out from the middle of the screen, the horizontal and vertical angles are determined by where you click on the screen, and the depth component is determined by which way the camera is facing. Then the ship aligns to that vector.

Approach: The approach button simply aligns your ship in the direction of the selected object and increases your velocity to the velocity you’ve set in the throttle. This maximizes your radial velocity and minimizes your transversal velocity. This is the same as the “align to” command, but “align to” is used for objects at warp distances, and approach used for objects at subwarp distances (less than 150 km).

'''Approach''' The approach button simply aligns your ship in the direction of the selected object and increases your velocity to the velocity you’ve set in the throttle. This maximizes your radial velocity and minimizes your transversal velocity. This is the same as the “align to” command, but “align to” is used for objects at warp distances, and approach used for objects at subwarp distances (less than 150 km).

Orbit: The orbit button tries to put your ship in a circular orbit around the selected object. The value can be set by right clicking and manually entering a default orbit distance, or by right-clicking the object in the overview and choosing from some preset distances. Orbiting maximizes your transversal and angular velocities, and minimizes your radial velocity.

'''Orbit''' The orbit button tries to put your ship in a circular orbit around the selected object. The value can be set by right clicking and manually entering a default orbit distance, or by right-clicking the object in the overview and choosing from some preset distances. Orbiting maximizes your transversal and angular velocities, and minimizes your radial velocity.

Your ship’s agility will determine your orbit speed: the better your agility (lower agility modifier), the closer your orbit speed will be to your maximum linear velocity. Depending on your agility and the relative speeds of you and the target, your orbit may drop from circular to elliptical, or even to the point where you can’t maintain a stable orbit if the other object is moving too fast.

Keep at Range: This draws a line between your ship and the selected object, and adjusts your ship velocity to move you backward or forward along that line in order to maintain the selected range. Like orbit, the default value can be set by right clicking the icon, or you can choose from presets in the right-click menu. Keeping something at range will minimize your radial, transversal, and angular velocities.

'''Keep at Range''' This draws a line between your ship and the selected object, and adjusts your ship velocity to move you backward or forward along that line in order to maintain the selected range. Like orbit, the default value can be set by right clicking the icon, or you can choose from presets in the right-click menu. Keeping something at range will minimize your radial, transversal, and angular velocities.

Warp: Starts the process of warping to the selected object greater than 150 km away. To warp to something it must be an object in space, or a ship in your fleet. You can adjust how far you will land from your target when you come out of warp, from 0 to 100 km. Again the default value on the button can be changed by right-clicking and presets can be found in the right-click menu. For example, warping to something 150 km away within 100 km will move you inline toward the object 50 km.

'''Warp''' Starts the process of warping to the selected object greater than 150 km away. To warp to something it must be an object in space, or a ship in your fleet. You can adjust how far you will land from your target when you come out of warp, from 0 to 100 km. Again the default value on the button can be changed by right-clicking and presets can be found in the right-click menu. For example, warping to something 150 km away within 100 km will move you inline toward the object 50 km.

When you press the warp button, first you have to align to the target. There are two steps to aligning which happen at the same time: lining up the target with your ship’s movement direction within 5º, and increasing ship velocity to 75% of the maximum. How fast this process takes depends on your ship agility. Once you are aligned you will see your normal engines cut out, your warp engine will turn on and you will no longer be able to stop the ship until the warp bubble collapses. Until your warp engine actually turns on, you can still be locked and fired upon.

Jump: Pretty self-explanatory, you jump through the stargate if you are within 2500 m. In order to jump instantly you can spam the button starting half a second before you drop out of warp (you can see your engines slowing down). You may also want to set a keyboard shortcut to turn the autopilot on midwarp, which will then jump instantly for you if you are following a route. If you do that, be sure you disable the autopilot immediately after the jump.

'''Jump''' Pretty self-explanatory, you jump through the stargate if you are within 2500 m. In order to jump instantly you can spam the button starting half a second before you drop out of warp (you can see your engines slowing down). You may also want to set a keyboard shortcut to turn the autopilot on midwarp, which will then jump instantly for you if you are following a route. If you do that, be sure you disable the autopilot immediately after the jump.

Look At: This changes your camera’s anchor point from your ship to the selected object. This can be useful for visually determine what kind of weaponry the target ship has equipped – yes you can tell the type, size, and amount of turrets on a ship just from looking. Unfortunately missile launchers don’t show up, nor do smartbomb launchers. One example of what you would use this for is to see if a battleship you’d expect to have turrets, actually has any showing. If they don’t, they might have 8 smartbombs.

'''Look At''' This changes your camera’s anchor point from your ship to the selected object. This can be useful for visually determine what kind of weaponry the target ship has equipped – yes you can tell the type, size, and amount of turrets on a ship just from looking. Unfortunately missile launchers don’t show up, nor do smartbomb launchers. One example of what you would use this for is to see if a battleship you’d expect to have turrets, actually has any showing. If they don’t, they might have 8 smartbombs.

Using this button to ogle other people’s ships is also a good way to pass the time while waiting for uni fleets to get going.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 First things first, you have to know what tools you have at your disposal.
-Autopilot: The autopilot is capable of setting a route to one or more waypoint systems, and automatically flying your ship there. However it warps to all stargates at 15km, so travel time is significantly higher than manual flight. You will also be a sitting duck for gatecamps if you decide to go into low-sec space with autopilot on, so for the purposes of this guide, keep it off! Besides, the whole point of this guide is that you can pilot your ship better than the computer. I only use the autopilot in combination with 2D maps, to plan out travel routes.
+'''Autopilot''' The autopilot is capable of setting a route to one or more waypoint systems, and automatically flying your ship there. However it warps to all stargates at 15km, so travel time is significantly higher than manual flight. You will also be a sitting duck for gatecamps if you decide to go into low-sec space with autopilot on, so for the purposes of this guide, keep it off! Besides, the whole point of this guide is that you can pilot your ship better than the computer. I only use the autopilot in combination with 2D maps, to plan out travel routes.
-Tactical overlay: The tactical overlay button puts range markers on your solar system map so you can get a better sense of distance. One useful feature it has, is that if you mouse over one of your modules while in the tactical overlay, a bubble will appear around your ship that shows the range of the module.
+'''Tactical overlay''' The tactical overlay button puts range markers on your solar system map so you can get a better sense of distance. One useful feature it has, is that if you mouse over one of your modules while in the tactical overlay, a bubble will appear around your ship that shows the range of the module.
-Directional and system scanner: The system scanner recently received an overhaul and is now much easier to use. It will scan the system for Cosmic Signatures, which are a less advanced version of actual sites found with exploration. If you have scan probes fitted, they will integrate to form a much more powerful system scanner. Look for an exploration class for more details.
+'''Directional and system scanner''' The system scanner recently received an overhaul and is now much easier to use. It will scan the system for Cosmic Signatures, which are a less advanced version of actual sites found with exploration. If you have scan probes fitted, they will integrate to form a much more powerful system scanner. Look for an exploration class for more details.
 The directional scanner a tool on every ship that can scan a radius of around 14 AU around you. It can pick up anything seen in the overview, and you can actually use specific overview settings to filter the results. You can then narrow the direction of the scan from 360º to 180º all the way down to 5º to figure out where something is. Some good ideas are a filter for scanning for probes that are looking for you, scanning for ships at a gate from a faraway recon safespot, or looking to see if there are cans in an asteroid belt to flip (kidding). If you turn on brackets in space you will see the icons for gates and planets and stations, etc. You can then click on your own ship and use the little box to line yourself up with those places for precise scanning. There is a video and a class recording in the Library.
-The Overview: The overview is the primary way you get information about what’s going on around you in space. If it’s set up properly, you should be able to play the game just by looking at overview information, and not even looking at your ship and what it’s doing. I won’t go into the details of overview settings, but suffice to say it is very important. In this guide we’ll mostly be concerned with its ability to display an object’s distance and velocity (including radial, transversal, and angular components). In addition, by looking at the ship icons in the overview, you can tell whether you have been locked onto (flashing yellow targeting box), or have been aggressed against (solid red box).
+'''The Overview''' The overview is the primary way you get information about what’s going on around you in space. If it’s set up properly, you should be able to play the game just by looking at overview information, and not even looking at your ship and what it’s doing. I won’t go into the details of overview settings, but suffice to say it is very important. In this guide we’ll mostly be concerned with its ability to display an object’s distance and velocity (including radial, transversal, and angular components). In addition, by looking at the ship icons in the overview, you can tell whether you have been locked onto (flashing yellow targeting box), or have been aggressed against (solid red box).
-Throttle: The velocity control (where your velocity is displayed) lets you manually choose what velocity you want to travel at, up to your max velocity. Ctrl-space will stop your ship as long as you are not in warp. If your warp drive is active, but you are still aligning, ctrl-space will work. If you use a custom throttle velocity, you'll have to set it again after you jump through a stargate, since it resets to full speed again.
+'''Throttle''' The velocity control (where your velocity is displayed) lets you manually choose what velocity you want to travel at, up to your max velocity. Ctrl-space will stop your ship as long as you are not in warp. If your warp drive is active, but you are still aligning, ctrl-space will work. If you use a custom throttle velocity, you'll have to set it again after you jump through a stargate, since it resets to full speed again.
-Double-click: Double clicking in space, basically makes your ship go to where you clicked. If you imagine, from the perspective of the camera, a vector shooting out from the middle of the screen, the horizontal and vertical angles are determined by where you click on the screen, and the depth component is determined by which way the camera is facing. Then the ship aligns to that vector.
+'''Double-click''' Double clicking in space, basically makes your ship go to where you clicked. If you imagine, from the perspective of the camera, a vector shooting out from the middle of the screen, the horizontal and vertical angles are determined by where you click on the screen, and the depth component is determined by which way the camera is facing. Then the ship aligns to that vector.
-Approach: The approach button simply aligns your ship in the direction of the selected object and increases your velocity to the velocity you’ve set in the throttle. This maximizes your radial velocity and minimizes your transversal velocity. This is the same as the “align to” command, but “align to” is used for objects at warp distances, and approach used for objects at subwarp distances (less than 150 km).
+'''Approach''' The approach button simply aligns your ship in the direction of the selected object and increases your velocity to the velocity you’ve set in the throttle. This maximizes your radial velocity and minimizes your transversal velocity. This is the same as the “align to” command, but “align to” is used for objects at warp distances, and approach used for objects at subwarp distances (less than 150 km).
-Orbit: The orbit button tries to put your ship in a circular orbit around the selected object. The value can be set by right clicking and manually entering a default orbit distance, or by right-clicking the object in the overview and choosing from some preset distances. Orbiting maximizes your transversal and angular velocities, and minimizes your radial velocity.
+'''Orbit''' The orbit button tries to put your ship in a circular orbit around the selected object. The value can be set by right clicking and manually entering a default orbit distance, or by right-clicking the object in the overview and choosing from some preset distances. Orbiting maximizes your transversal and angular velocities, and minimizes your radial velocity.
 Your ship’s agility will determine your orbit speed: the better your agility (lower agility modifier), the closer your orbit speed will be to your maximum linear velocity. Depending on your agility and the relative speeds of you and the target, your orbit may drop from circular to elliptical, or even to the point where you can’t maintain a stable orbit if the other object is moving too fast.
-Keep at Range: This draws a line between your ship and the selected object, and adjusts your ship velocity to move you backward or forward along that line in order to maintain the selected range. Like orbit, the default value can be set by right clicking the icon, or you can choose from presets in the right-click menu. Keeping something at range will minimize your radial, transversal, and angular velocities.
+'''Keep at Range''' This draws a line between your ship and the selected object, and adjusts your ship velocity to move you backward or forward along that line in order to maintain the selected range. Like orbit, the default value can be set by right clicking the icon, or you can choose from presets in the right-click menu. Keeping something at range will minimize your radial, transversal, and angular velocities.
-Warp: Starts the process of warping to the selected object greater than 150 km away. To warp to something it must be an object in space, or a ship in your fleet. You can adjust how far you will land from your target when you come out of warp, from 0 to 100 km. Again the default value on the button can be changed by right-clicking and presets can be found in the right-click menu. For example, warping to something 150 km away within 100 km will move you inline toward the object 50 km.
+'''Warp''' Starts the process of warping to the selected object greater than 150 km away. To warp to something it must be an object in space, or a ship in your fleet. You can adjust how far you will land from your target when you come out of warp, from 0 to 100 km. Again the default value on the button can be changed by right-clicking and presets can be found in the right-click menu. For example, warping to something 150 km away within 100 km will move you inline toward the object 50 km.
 When you press the warp button, first you have to align to the target. There are two steps to aligning which happen at the same time: lining up the target with your ship’s movement direction within 5º, and increasing ship velocity to 75% of the maximum. How fast this process takes depends on your ship agility. Once you are aligned you will see your normal engines cut out, your warp engine will turn on and you will no longer be able to stop the ship until the warp bubble collapses. Until your warp engine actually turns on, you can still be locked and fired upon.
-Jump: Pretty self-explanatory, you jump through the stargate if you are within 2500 m. In order to jump instantly you can spam the button starting half a second before you drop out of warp (you can see your engines slowing down). You may also want to set a keyboard shortcut to turn the autopilot on midwarp, which will then jump instantly for you if you are following a route. If you do that, be sure you disable the autopilot immediately after the jump.
+'''Jump''' Pretty self-explanatory, you jump through the stargate if you are within 2500 m. In order to jump instantly you can spam the button starting half a second before you drop out of warp (you can see your engines slowing down). You may also want to set a keyboard shortcut to turn the autopilot on midwarp, which will then jump instantly for you if you are following a route. If you do that, be sure you disable the autopilot immediately after the jump.
-Look At: This changes your camera’s anchor point from your ship to the selected object. This can be useful for visually determine what kind of weaponry the target ship has equipped – yes you can tell the type, size, and amount of turrets on a ship just from looking. Unfortunately missile launchers don’t show up, nor do smartbomb launchers. One example of what you would use this for is to see if a battleship you’d expect to have turrets, actually has any showing. If they don’t, they might have 8 smartbombs.
+'''Look At''' This changes your camera’s anchor point from your ship to the selected object. This can be useful for visually determine what kind of weaponry the target ship has equipped – yes you can tell the type, size, and amount of turrets on a ship just from looking. Unfortunately missile launchers don’t show up, nor do smartbomb launchers. One example of what you would use this for is to see if a battleship you’d expect to have turrets, actually has any showing. If they don’t, they might have 8 smartbombs.
 Using this button to ogle other people’s ships is also a good way to pass the time while waiting for uni fleets to get going.