In engine kill, hit thrusters and release then put the cursor at the top left/right or bottom left /right of the screen. You might also want to try using sideslip while turning, eg if turning right slide slip left, doing that just after hitting thrust can speed up the turn, usually if you havent thrust before making the turn.

yup, you can turn a lot quicker like that.

Or hit his ship with your own. You could be surprised how fast that will make you turn with engine kill on.

~ DaVoid, Expert Star Diver

Hi,

I have tried to use the engine kill mode, but I was fighting against somebody who did not use engine kill and who still could turn faster than I was able to. So are there any special tricks for turning quickly without using engine kill?

Another disanvantage of engine kill is that you just floating in the same direction while turing and you might be an easy target during that time.

Bye,
Whyper

If there not in engine kill and if its not in a Modded server, then I'd expect they have edited there ship turn rate etc ie cheating

ed: hmm one question I forgot what ships where you both flying? Could just have been a Light Fighter that could run rings around an Eagle

Edited by - Pinger on 01-09-2003 23:26:27

Straifing the direction of turn doubles the turn rate, I can get my titan to turn nearly as quick as an Eagle. Well nearly

Sounds like a combination of an engine kill and strafe turn , i use this a lot, its alittle difficult to pull off but if you bleed your speed with engine kill and halfway though your "turn to bear" you hit opposite strafe to your turn, its like broadsliding in a car and doing the handbrake turn halfway though the slide.
remember that the strafe will also reduce your momentum so hit the thrusters quickly once turned, to avoid getting hit by a stray missile, mine or whatever.

Pinger has a good point. IMHO, I doubt FL is programmed to turn (rotate) faster while standing still, in engine kill, thrusting, cruise or any combination thereof. The listing of a turn rate implies this is a standalone maximum turn rate. Nothing is mentioned about authentic flying characteristics in FL by DA and programming a turn rate with other factors like forward direction would be more code than a gaming house would like to take on for a non-air flying simulation.

What I believe is the rotation rate is constant if a) you have the same ships and b) if the mouse cursor is in the same place (maximum rotation rate should logically be experienced with the cursor all the way to the left or right). It shouldn't matter whether you are moving in any forward or reverse direction.

Now perception is a different matter. It may seem you turn faster when stopped than when still moving forward or vica versa but this is an optical illusion. A good example of this is to set a playground spinning platform to a constant turn rate. Run to the middle (example of zero forward or reverse direction speed) and look outward. Then run to the edge of the spinning platform (example of thrusting or cruising, high forward direction) and look outward. When you look out you see things different because of precesion (you more scientific types, correct me if I am wrong). The point of view of the person is changing two ways, the turn rate (which theoretically hasn't changed) but also by the diameter of the spinning platform. This is because in a line through the center of the spinning platform a person's view point is changing by the radius one direction and the radius in the opposite direction, total length is the diameter.

This wouldn't be a problem if people could see just straight in one direction but our field of view is broad and the precesion adds to the our perception of what we think we see.

With that being said I have encountered some players that seem to turn too fast. There is only one way that could happen (with all other factors being equal, including no modding and my opinion of the implementation of turn rate, above) and that is they start turning sooner . I don't doubt some PvP players have mastered this technique but this is suspect when both players are firing at each other in a pass at the same time and stop firing at the same time, thus the opponent starting his turn at the same point which is face to face, yet somehow beats you at the turn to bear guns on you before you can.

While the v1.1 patch and Lancerguard can detect and boot cheaters for certain changes to a character's account, it doesn't detect everything like shield strength or cloaking. Somehow I doubt it is detecting a modification in turn rate. If it does or turn rate is ONLY based from a server side ini file, please feel free to correct me. If not it would benefit all those hard-earned skills PvP players have aquired if someone could detect this mod for servers that want no part of this cheating or any other cheating.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server