Gameplay Tips
Ship Classes
• Freespace’s capital ship class system is a little nuts, and it may seem confusing and counterintuitive, especially if you have played Wing Commander, Homeworld, watched Babylon 5 etc. In ascending order (smallest to largest) they are;
• ‘Gunboats’ (Cretheus, Custos etc.) #C. Note that this is a non-retail classification and they are sometimes simply called light cruisers.
• Light cruisers (Fenris, Aeolus, Cain, Rakshasa etc.) #C
• Heavy cruisers (Leviathan, Lilith) #C
• Corvettes (Deimos, Sobek, Moloch #Cv
• Frigates (Iceni, Karuna) #Fg
• Destroyers (Orion, Typhon, Hatshepsut, Demon, Ravana etc.) #D
• Super destroyers (Lucifer) #SD
• Juggernauts (Sathanas, Colossus) #J
• Note their suffixes, where the # indicates the faction and the letter indicates the unit class. For example - GTC Aeolus, SD Demon, PVCv Sobek etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ETS System• Use the ETS system to its fullest! Ensure the key binds are easy to use, this includes the equalise energy settings key bind.
• Shifting energy to weapons will not make them more powerful, but it will make you able to use them for longer before they have to recharge. Low energy use weapons, such as Avengers (FS1) Subachs and Mekuhs (FS2) can usually be fired continuously without running out of charge on default ETS settings.
• If using low energy use weapons, you may be able to allocate some of their energy to shields and engines to receive small boosts to both - without a firepower penalty.
• High energy use weapons such as Banshees (FS1) or Maxims and Kaysers (FS2), may require you to shift energy to guns. This is especially true for ships with lots of guns such as the Erinyes.
• ETS settings do not affect secondary weapons (missiles, bombs, rockets etc.)
• Shifting energy to shields will cause them to recharge faster – handy for recharging your shields quickly in the lulls in combat.
• Maxing out engine power will increase top cruising speed and allow you to use the afterburner for longer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flying• To cover distance more quickly – or to beat an opponent in a race – ‘pulse your afterburner’. This means tapping the afterburner to use lots of short bursts. This will cover distance more quickly than using your afterburner constantly to the point it runs out and you then have to wait for it to recharge. Combine this with maxing engine power for best results.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• If your craft has the glide ability there is a slightly cheaty way of travelling long distances quickly. Simply increase your speed to maximum and hit the afterburners. As soon as you reach your craft's top speed, engage glide. You will now coast along at this speed without using any energy. You can even divert power to weapons and shields without losing speed. Just remember to equalise the ETS setting once you come out of glide again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• When you turn left or right you roll slightly too. You may need to correct for this by rolling after your turn if you wish for things to remain ‘level’.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Rolling your fighter left or right can help you to line up shots against enemies with thin profiles, and to compensate for some fighters’ widely spaced guns.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Think of ‘increase thrust’ as your accelerator, ‘decrease thrust’ as your break and ‘afterburner’ as your nitro booster, and act accordingly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• You turn faster if you come to a halt. This can be useful in dogfights against agile opponents. Just remember to speed up again afterwards.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Auto-matching speed is extremely useful. Remember that you can still manually override this by pressing the accelerator, brake or afterburner. You will then return to matching speed once you stop pressing these buttons.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Most FS ships do not have a ‘reverse gear’, so cannot fly backwards. Bear this in mind when close to capships, bases etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Note that it takes time to slow down, so be careful not to crash into something.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• The ‘Shelton slide’ or ‘slide by shooting’ from Wing Commander sort of works in FS, although not quite as effectively as FS’s inertia is different. To perform one;
• Afterburn towards but slightly off axis to an oncoming fighter.
• Then as you pass them, slam on the breaks while turning inwards to face them.
• Momentum will carry you a short distance along the vector you were travelling, so you should end up somewhere in their rear 60 degree cone, perfect for shooting them up their tailpipes. Unfortunately, this will probably mean having to shoot what will probably be a full strength shield quadrant.
• The ‘Glide’ feature used in some campaigns arguably makes this even more effective than in Wing Commander, as it allows you to move a near unlimited distance independent of what direction your fighter is facing.
• Glide can make obtaining scans of moving capships easier too. (Fly parallel with it at a range of 150m or less from the subsystem you need to scan, match its speed, press glide, face towards the subsystem and it should scan automatically. Rinse and repeat as necessary.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
