[z64555]

Sound in space. The ship interpreting situational awareness makes sense, but lets remember, FreeSpace ignores physics. Since we decelerate when we stop throttling our engines, which doesn't make sense in space

Throttling down engines in space could also mean applying the brakes. "Sliding" is when the stabilizer thrusters are disengaged and you just go in the vector you where previously going.

Ah, I get it. So whenever you punch your afterburner, and it only lasts for a few seconds, your brakes kick in, to spare your ship from the non-existent friction of space. Now that makes a whole lot of sense.

I guess the control system depends on which game we're talking about... I think for most cases the "ideal" control system for using up all the afterburner would be to "slide" the craft in one vector only. Could be a bit tricky to implement though.

[Enzo03]

The problem I have with slide as of now (at least as far as I have seen) is that it seems to shut all engines off.  You can't apply thrust in one direction, turn on slide, and then apply thrust to change your direction of movement with slide still engaged. I suppose it IS in a sense better than in Freelancer where if you apply ANY thruster, you can magically lose a ton of speed (depending on your initial velocity), but at least it'd still let you maneuver at all.

[Mikes]

Known and quite relistic explaination, most people assume that it's how it works.
It's a logical and easy to implement way to enhance pilot's situational awareness, which really helps in combat.
Sound in space was explained like that in a couple of places, like Babylon 5. There's no reason it couldn't apply to FS.

aha... that even explains the cheesy sound effects shows had back in the day LOL!