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This is a guide to captains of multiplayer ships, such as the Nova, YT-1300, and Decimator. This may also help ship crews, in addition. This guide will talk about communications, as well as manuevers (YES, manuevers... This isn't BS, and my maneuvers WILL help) This guide will help you in piloting a ship successfuly without escorts, well beyond what most people think they can do.

Ship Possitions:

Captain:

Hopefully, this is you. You must pilot the ship, and make sure that you give good shots to your gunners, and avoid danger. Your first priority, is to avoid getting killed, while your second is for your guns to get good shots. You should have no other concerns.

Co-Pilot:

Make sure you have someone who can learn fast enough for this possition. They will opperate the droid commands. (note: if you are freelance, only other freelancers can take this job!) Make SURE you have the following commands; Reactor Overload 3, Weapons Capacitor Overload 3, Weapons Overload 3, Engine Overload 3, Capacitor to Sheilds Shunt 4. Now, make ABSOLUTELY sure that your copilot, despite the fact that three of them have the word "capacitor" in them, that they know which ones to use. It may sound silly, butI can't tell you how much time I had to put asside, trying to explain to them that they are different, and that overloadign the capacitor isn't going to give us more sheilds. It is very important that they know when to shunt, (and of coarse what it MEANS to shunt) and how to do it. This command only can be done once every 20 seconds with a good droid interface, so make sure you tell them sternly, how it works. If you don't know, it takes all of the capacitor energy, and put it to sheilds. Hence, the more capacitor energy, the more recharged. With a really great, overloaded capacitor, you could fully recharge both sheilds. But make sure that they know not to try and shunt when the capacitor is half full, or for that matter, empty! The best time to use it, is when your JUST about to lose sheilds,when there is the most possible capacitor energy,that way you wont be wasting it, as you can only do it once every 20 seconds. It's also important that they don't use it prematurely. I have had a "fun" time when I was making a bombing run on a corvette, and my co-pilot decided to shunt RIGHT before we were hit, at full sheilds, giving us no deffense on our way out, blowing us up... So, basicly, NEVER assume that they know, and ALWAYS tell them what to do.

Gunner:

You should have two gunners for your ship. Make sure that they know what targets to hit, or at least know to shoot whatever moves. There usualy isn't much to tell them, except, occasionaly the ranges that they have to shoot from. Some targets will mess up your manuevering if you shoot too soon, and ruin your whole attack run. Asside from this, gunners don't need to be told much. But make SURE they know the ranges, as gunners seem to be a bit trigger happy, (I wonder why) and won't pay much attention to orders.

Engineer:

The engineers' jobs are to fix the ship. You should have at least one on the ship, but for emergencies, when undercrew, gunners may be able to do the repairs, but won't provide covering fire for that time. Make sure that the engineers know how to repair (a given), and most importantly, WHEN to repair. Yes, you may not realize this, but sometimes when a crewman repairs, it resets your overloads. MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THIS. I always tell my engineers to only repair when theres a plasma leak... Truely, that SHOULD be the only time. I can't tell you how many times an engineer has goten bored and said, "Sir, the reactor was a little damaged, but I fixed it for you!" Then, I would notice that my capacitor isn't as high, and realize why my last sheild shunt did crap. These occurances are always followed by a four minute yelling session, at why they did that when I told them specificly NOT to. (Aren't I just a huge @ssh#le?) The engineers tend to not listen during breifings, and then, when they get bored, repair random stuff. Captains get mad at them, because the repairs resets all the overloads (that probably took a good 5 minutes to do) and most importantly, took out the capacitor overload, which makes the sheild shunt, the ships BEST line of deffense, do crap. Now, if they decided to do this just as you are being fired upon by a gunship, this could be fatal! Once again, MAKE SURE THEY KNOW.

Medical Officer:

The medical officer is basicly an engineer, who is also a medic. They don't need to be told anything more than the engineers, as their job isn't too complicated. They just need to heal the engineers, as they tend to catch on fire when plasma is leaking. The medical officer isn't in a possition where they can really screw things up.

Manuevers and Flying Tips:

Flying Straight:

It is VERY important to note that the gunners can't really aim well when you turn. Scratch that... They can't aim AT ALL when you turn. So, always keep turning to a MINIMUM. Theres always the habit of trying to tail an enemy, and putting them in the crosshairs... DONT DO THIS!!! That will make it IMPOSSIBLE for the gunners to shoot it! Remember that they can turn around their turrets! And between the two of them, they have a full range around you! They don't need your help to aim! The best I have done, is choosing a target, and trying to predict where he is going. Then, I fly on a straight path to where he is going. From a long distance, this doesn't work to well, but it will give your gunners GREAT shots at incomming fighters.

Parking:

If your fighting tier 1-3 fighters, don't bother moving. They are very slow, so they tend to not catch up with you. If you stay still, they will go on bombing runs on your ship. They should be slow enough that your gunners can nail them on thier first run.

Gunship Stalking:

When you are taking down a gunship, the most reliable, and most safe way is to use the gunship stalking method. This is the best method for taking down gunships in close formation, such as in Deep Space. What you do, is get behind one, and trail it for a while, making sure you are directly behind it. Try to get in a range of 550-520m away from it, and match speed. I find, that going at it with full speed until I reach 950m of it, then matching its speed will get me right around there. If matching the speed doesn't keep the distance steady, just keep flickering from above speed, to below matched speed so it's within the range. And, make SURE that your gunners only fire WITHIN the range of 550-520. Gunners don't tend to listen to this. If they shoot prematurely, the gunship will turn on you, closing the gap real fast, and tearing through your sheilds like tissue paper. Also, make sure they don't shoot too close, like if you accidently get to the 400 or below range, when your pretty much dead if they agro you. Keep on steady on the ship, and when you break through the armor, tell the gunners to target engines. If if seems to be going down real fast, slow down to 0 speed. If its going rather slow, then make sure you kill your engines, so that when its engines are blown, you are at a full stop, and within the 550-520m range. If your too close, the gunship will tear you a new one. If you are too far away, just gently move into the range again. Now that its crippled, your gunners are free to blow it up! Tell them to ignore shooting at the guns, because now that its crippled, and your out of range of its fire, it really doesn't matter if its got guns or not! Tell them not to target anything, that way they will go for its chasis, getting the quicker kill. Keep them firing until it's dead.

Bombing Run:

This is a flight plan that is designed to take out gunships, but isn't as safe as the Stalking manuever. DO NOT use this agaisnt a group of gunships. You will be blown to pieces if you try it. Fly around your target, so that you are in front of it, (not DIRECTLY in front of it! lol) then fly right at it, but off to the side a bit. Keep a straight line, and tell your gunners to make fireworks up there. When you are just about to pass over the ship, hit your boost. You will get a fast escape. While the ship generaly isn't very prepared when you come in full force, it sure will be when your trying to get away! It is very important that you are facing it head on when you do this, because by you going in opposite directions, you retreat and frontal assault will be shorter, keeping your sheilds safe. Just keep repeating this until your target is dead!

Han Solo Move:

I call this the Han Solo move, because it is something he would do. This, isn't complicated, it's just a reminder to give BOTH gunners a good shot at your target. This involves rotating your ship about 90 degrees, at your target, as to give both gunners a great shot at your target.

Last but not least, my creation, and the MOST EFFECTIVE way to take down snub fighter squadrons:

The Guillemette Manuever:

There are times, when you have full squadrons of fast fighters on you. Don't panic! Most people think that the big ships can't take these down, but they're wrong! Heres how it works: Make sure you have a good copilot doing the shunting (actualy, I've used this before when I couldn't find a copilot, so I had to run from pilot seat to copilot seat really fast, back and forth, shunting when I could... And I STILL took them all down) Usualy, the squad of agro fighters will come at you all at once. This is where you take advantage of this. First off, DON'T try and take them head on. They are too fast, and your gunners will never hit them. The trick, is to get them from behind! Make sure your camera is zoomed out for this. Find your average target, and match their speed... Then, go at about 75% of this. Now, your targets, will come at you, go behind, and then come back at you from the back, and will gain on you. Now, press "delete" and hold it. You will see behind you! Find a target that is coming towards you, and line him up RIGHT behind you (this takes a bit to get used to, as the y-axis is inverted, while the x-axis isn't!) then, when your enemy is just about in attack range, match his speed... You have him trapped now. Right now, his is right behind you, within range of your guns, going at the same speed, in a straight line. He can't fly past you! Your gunners will have a great, stationary shot that will last as long as it needs to to blow him out of the sky! As long as your co-pilot keeps shunting at the right times, you will eventualy kill the whole squad! You can EASILY wipe out a squad of Tier 5 Deep Space TIES with this! Now, with this manuever in mind, you are no longer vulnerable to these big squads.

I hope this guide is useful, and that it will help pilots everywhere out there have more fun! If you have more manuevers, add to this list, as they do help. Thank you!

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nice guide - though a few additions:

gunners can use droid programs and some of their skills.

so the co-pilot position doesnt need to be manned.

piloting. by flying straight and keeping turns to a minimum youre not able to use your ordance.

when you tail a target (yes - works after a bit training) and tell your gunners to fire forward you concentrate your firepower on a pilot choosen target that is in both firing arcs and you get the opportunity to fire a missle or two.

maneuvering also lets you dodge a lot of fire what is handy when fighting larger groups of fighters.

parking under attack is suicide imo. at least when fighting tier5s.

another tactic for fighting lone imp gunboats is to park under them and give em hell.

Actualy, gunners can't use droid commands anymore. So the co-pilot is neccesary. And, I said that you should only use parking if you're up against tier 1-3's. And as far as piloting trying to use ordnance, I beleive it shouldn't be relied upon, becuase it is too finite. It's better to rely on gunners, so you can really go for the long haul!

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