Start - Combat

The most favorite pastime for most players, is combat. you can fly big vs small, outnumbered, or fight an equal battle.

First lesson: Bigger isn't always better.

There are different ship types, each with their ups and downs. Ship types from small to large are: Scout/Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, Dreadnought, and Station. As the ship's hull size increases, its top speed will be slower, it will be less maneuverable, and its jump drive will take longer to recharge. However, in return for those downsides, you get more firepower, energy and armor.

When going into combat, it is good to decide what ships are within your power to destroy or damage. For instance when you are in a scout without any friends around you, you cannot significantly damage a dreadnought. Its best to avoid the dreadnought. But, if there are five of you flying in a scout, things will get interesting. You are all quick and nimble, you can jump out of danger and back within a minute, therefor you can stay out of something we call "effective range".

Effective ranges depends on the weaponry of the ship. Combat ships fire projectiles, staying out of their effective range means about 600 gu depending on faction. Assault ships got mainly short range beam weapons. In that case staying out of effective range is about 350 gu. Staying out of the enemies effective range means they can hardly damage you.

Knowing this, you can select your target to kill more effectively. Choosing the battle is very important in the game. If you are in a combat ship, you can fight an assault ship very nicely as long as you stay out of its effective range, but within your own effective range. That means between 350-650 gu. Fighting another combat ship, its maneuverability vs armor & firepower. The smaller combat ship will put up a good fight but usually loses, because one little mistake will be punished heavily against bigger ships. The more experienced players will beat any bigger ship though.

So how do experienced players beat bigger ships? Well, it is done by timing your weapon fire perfectly, and dodging enemy weapon fire while doing so. If you are near a planet this is generally the time where someone crashes into a planet as well because there's so many things to keep track of during a dogfight.

Dodge - steer left or right and/or speed up or slow down AFTER someone fired. If you fire a gun the projectiles calculate where they should go to impact, but they cannot factor in your reaction after the shot has been fired.

Timing weapons fire - usually someone zigzags, fire just a little before the dead point. you know, like the swing that stays still in mid air for a sec then swings the other way.

Next to assault class and combat class, there's also missile/fighter class. Don't fight these ships from range or you will die. Best way to beat these ships is to get very close and shoot it as much as you can, before it jumps out. Big danger here: if it jumps out to its own effective range, it can shoot you still and you will likely die. Fighting vs missile ships is best done with 2 players, or with a smaller ship that can jump faster. Also assault class is best to fight missile ships since they have the most close range firepower.

That means that when flying missile ship, range is your friend. A big downside for missile ships is the low ammo. you will need a supply ship, supply platforms, or a friendly planet nearby.

As a beginner the combat ship is easiest to learn. So pick a ship that has projectile weapons. What earns prestige is hulling enemy ships, the bigger the ship you hulled, the more press you gain. With a projectile ship you can keep at relatively safe distance to shoot it, while dodging its weapons fire.

Combat is hotly debated, especially regarding generally accepted tactics. We all got our own ways and styles in combat. One thing that is important, is respect and teamwork. If you say "help me I am getting killed" maybe someone responds and jumps over to help you. If you then jump out of battle 3 seconds later, your allies wont like you very much. A jumpdrive can take a very long time to recharge for some ships...

You can fire all your weapons with the spacebar (also called an alpha strike). A more effective way to shoot is with weapon groups (the numbers corresponding to the weapons). For instance on a gunboat destroyer, you could set particle cannons as group 1, torpedoes as group 3 and lasers as group 2. To fire, you'd then alternate between 1,2 and 3, but now you can time it all perfectly. Using groups is more effective because you can manage energy more precisely. Lasers use a lot of energy compared to the damage they do. When you don't have energy, your weapons wont recharge anymore. Always keep some energy in reserve!

Also meet your best friend, the emergency jump (E-jump)! when you are about to die you can activate your jumpdrive with Shift + J. This makes you jump a FIXED distance to the direction you are flying towards. If there's a planet or something in the way you still die, but if the jump route is clear, Shift + J can save your life. Just remember e-jump always makes you jump the same distance and some players know all jump distances for each ship. Shift + J isn't 100% foolproof survival at all, but can make the difference between surviving or being destroyed.

For ICC ships: rotating shields is very important, as is energy management. Next to a normal armor layer you will also have a shield layer protecting you. If someone only hits you in the rear of your ship, you can divert your shields that are 100%, to the damaged side if the ship. This way you can have up to 400% total shield at one side, so you are able to take a beating. Rotating shields is done with Numpad 8, 2, 4 and 6 (check Numlock).

In addition to that, ICC have Defense Mode, where the shields recharge extra fast but use up a lot of energy from the ship. Activate defense mode with Ctrl + S. Pressing Ctrl + S again will deactivate all shields (can be tactical at some times), and pressing it another time will bring the shields back up again at regular state. Managing shields and energy is one reason why people often agree that ICC ships are harder to fly.