2 main tricks, commonly referred to as "boost flips" , and "FA off".

Boost flip is pretty much what it sounds like. Yank the stick back and hit the boost button.

With flight assist (FA) on, set your throttle to the blue zone indicated to the right of your scanner, and wait for the speed indicator to match your throttle. Make a note of the velocity. This is your prime turning speed.

Cut your throttle, and turn flight assist off at the same time so you maintain that same speed. You can now "turn on a dime".

Use your vertical/lateral thrusters to change the direction of travel. If you boost to catch a target, use them to get back to your prime turning speed. Also works with FA on.

Combining both takes a little practice. I face planted into so many asteroids when I first started playing lol.

Do some Training scenarios. Practise combat.
You can gain a good understanding of combat mechanics by trying to tail your target for a long time, rather than destroying it right away.
Also, what to do and what not to do when you lose them and end up eating laser sandwiches.

Originally posted by funkynutz:

2 main tricks, commonly referred to as "boost flips" , and "FA off".

Boost flip is pretty much what it sounds like. Yank the stick back and hit the boost button.

With flight assist (FA) on, set your throttle to the blue zone indicated to the right of your scanner, and wait for the speed indicator to match your throttle. Make a note of the velocity. This is your prime turning speed.

Cut your throttle, and turn flight assist off at the same time so you maintain that same speed. You can now "turn on a dime".

Use your vertical/lateral thrusters to change the direction of travel. If you boost to catch a target, use them to get back to your prime turning speed. Also works with FA on.

Combining both takes a little practice. I face planted into so many asteroids when I first started playing lol.

I am no expert at all. What i try to do is keep the throttle set to the lower end of the blue zone (this is to always have some speed at least) and maneuver the ship using directional thrusters and boost.
Keeping throttle in the blue zone gives the ship the most turning speed.

The goal is to steer myself up someone's engine vents and stay there.
With a little bit of experience it's possible to tell when the opponent is about to use their boost and try to match them. NPCs are predictable.

If i try to fly the ship like it's a combat plane, i always end up doing a lot of nothing and eat tons of damage instead.

Having a good control setup helps if using thrusters directly.

Throttle back as you haul back on the stick, throttle forward (and boost if any available) as the ship's rate of turn increases (about halfway through the turn)

Flight Assist Off is a very important skill to learn for combat. Fighting is about maximising your gun's time on target and minimising the opponent's; FA Off lets you do the former while maintaining the latter by pointing your ship wherever you like while you use lateral thrusters and speed changes to evade.

Originally posted by anaris:

Flight Assist Off is a very important skill to learn for combat.

30,215 bounties claimed with FA on in more than 2000h from which > 90% was combat and I would not sign that.

Part of that is people having G5 dirty drag thrusters. Part is FA off turning. I personally don't use boost flips because it guarantees jousting matches and I like fighting close. I think the biggest boost you can gain in combat is having full thruster control. Vertical, lateral, etc. Dual sticks w/twist, or dual stick with pedal is ideal.

Originally posted by ждун:

Originally posted by anaris:

Flight Assist Off is a very important skill to learn for combat.

30,215 bounties claimed with FA on in more than 2000h from which > 90% was combat and I would not sign that.

You'll only get so good without some basic FA off skills. The only PVE combat that presents any challenge are the top Wing Assassination missions done solo and in Medium or Small ships. Anyone with enough time and one semi-working arm can crank out 30k bounties. That you did so with FA on says nothing but you have time and like flying. No insult meant.

Originally posted by EverySingleTime:

That you did so with FA on says nothing but you have time and like flying.

Well at least it means that I have enough experience to call the following statement a myth, which only comes from too little experience in combat. No offence either. I can outmaneuver eagles with a corvette, staying behind them at all times and never turning flight assist off. Doing so does not give you any advantage, but only throws you instantly into face tanking allowing the enemies to gain distance and forcing you to play their zipping game. As close range pilot you should know that.

Originally posted by EverySingleTime:

You'll only get so good without some basic FA off skills.

Its like thinking that you can brake your car shorter by skill with the brake assistence system disabled.

Keep your speed in the 'blue zone'. That's when you're most maneuverable.

The more power pips assigned to engines, the more speed/maneuverability is offered to them.

When you boost, it boosts your ship's agility altogether and not just forward/reverse travel speed, so booting while also in the blue speed zone will result in fastest maneuverability for the few seconds it's active. (More so with full engine pips).

Last thing is using the flight assist toggle button to turn it on/off in combat. One thing you can do, if your ship is particularly more tanky than your enemy, is to siphon away their speed advantages by forcing them to come at you. This means you travel in one directly, then turn flight assist off, then turn backward to aim at them. You're still moving in your original direction, but now the front of your ship is basically playing the role of a turret and is able to shoot hardpoints at the chasing enemy.

Since enemy ships only have fixed and gimballed weapons, they can only ever attack you when their nose is facing you, and by forcing them to chase you (even at slower speeds), they're forced to face tank damage. If going in reverse while also in the blue speed zone, well, you get the idea. :>

You don't have to be going very fast in reverse, either, so can only have one engine pip assigned into speed and the rest in shields/weapons. Dump as much damage as you can. In the event the enemy ship gets close to death and they suddenly bug out, be prepared to use boost and raise engine pips to chase them down and finish them off. If you're in a heavy hitting large ship, chances are they never even get to this point and will have been toasted before they could even turn around.

face tanking is inefficient as you land much less hits from the front, especially when it is a thin profile small ship that is also maneuvering when zipping. Like a viper that is zipping at you from the front most of the rounds wont land a hit and this fight will take forever. Hence, if you want to kill things fast and waste not too much ammo you better don't use FA off, which throws you into face tanking zipping scenario.

Its best to be very close (less than 500m) looking at their broad side from above or below.

-engineering helps alot
do any eingeering you can as often as you can and dont forget to pin blue prints youll use often like fsd range
-if you are on mouse and keyboard there is a bar where thrust and speed is shown. if you are defualt settings combat speed has the line showing thrust level the same color that side line to the left.
-use r and f i think it was for the vertical thrusts they are the keys that make you go up and down. its slight but noticeable for drifting the turn ive never liked disabling flight assit. it always tries to over correct when i try to fly without it. hasnt been necessary for player vs npc
-some ships just turn better then others

https://edsy.org/

you can use this to check builds including experimental.

Originally posted by ждун:

Originally posted by anaris:

Flight Assist Off is a very important skill to learn for combat.

30,215 bounties claimed with FA on in more than 2000h from which > 90% was combat and I would not sign that.

Yeah, because shooting NPCs is easy mode.

"oh i just stay behind them" means you exclusively pick on stuff where you have every advantage. If you have the manpeuvre advantage and are smarter than every opponent and the opponents can't fit turreted weapons because they're NPCs you don't need FA off but you also don't need skills or anything other than a single pulse laser and patience hahah

if we're comparing experience btw i've been dogfighting in realistic space games since 1997 but that's not relevant, what is relevant is that the consensus among elite combat pilots is that FA assist off is important.

oh and for everyone else: never do a head to head pass lol. Jousting like that is gambling your DPS against the enemy's DPS, and typically savages both of you. Turn away and come in from another angle.

Originally posted by anaris:

what is relevant is that the consensus among elite combat pilots is that FA assist off is important.

There is no such consensus. Its a myth. FA off is not only giving you no any advantage, in fact it is even contra productive in pve combat. It makes your kill rate worse in the long term. PVP is a different story, but in PVE you only shoot yourself in the leg believing those youtubers who spread the myths about FA off making you a better pilot.

Believing youtubers is generally dumb.