Abstract 

This chapter will discuss dogfighting, one of the major aspects of the game. The chapter will be split into paragraphs adressing the issues of how to do damage and how to avoid it, a paragraph which tells you what not to do and finally some stuff which is related to dogfighting on a higher level. In this manual, the standard shiptype of a CA is assumed. The intricansies of other shiptypes and dogfighting will be discussed in a seperate section.

Chapter 1: Dealing damage

1.1 Introduction

In netrek there is basically only five ways to deal damage. Phasering, torping, using plasma, detting enemy torps and exploding. Phasering and torping are good options which will be adressed individually. Using plasma is a definite don't, and will be discussed in section (3.1). Detting enemy torps is relatively complicated but an essential mechanic of the game and will be discussed in greater detail in section (1.2.4). Finally, exploding does a great deal of damage but since it uhm... kills you in the process, it is the least desirable option.

Figure 1 on the right shows the five basic ways of dealing damage. Feel free to point over the different pictures to start the animations.

1.2 How much?

So, there is all these ways to deal damage, but the next question is how much damage should I deal? To answer that question directly: it all depends on the ships you are facing. Smaller ships need less damage to be killed, heavier ships can take more. No rocket science there. For now, assume you will be mostly facing CA's (cruisers) which need a 200 damage to be killed (100 shields + 100 hull). Read on, and find out how you can rack up that 200 damage...

1.3 Phasering

Phasers are the primary weapons of your ship. They always deal damage and can not be dodged. Just point your cursor over an enemy ship, press the magic button and see how you can tattoo your name on that enemy ship.

1.3.1 Phasering distance

Keep one thing in mind when you phaser: the amount of damage you deal with your phaser depends on the distance from which you phaser.

Let me run that by you once again. The damage you deal with your phaser depends on the distance at which you phaser. This means that if you phaser from far away, you deal little to no damage, and if you phaser when close, you deal tons of damage.

Figure 2 on the right shows the amount of damage dealt for different phaser distances. As a general rule of thumb, always phaser when you can deal at least 20 points of damage. Learn that phaser range by heart!

1.3.2 The phaser cycle

Once you've tried to phaser, you'll notice that it needs 1 second to 'recharge'. In this time you can not use it. The trick is, to learn how long this 1 second actually takes, so you can immediately use it again after it has 'recharged'. Believe me, you want to be phasering every second if you get the chance, because that will bring you one step closer to your ultimate goal... humiliating your opponents in dogfights.

1.4 Torping

CA torps do 40 damage each. A CA has 100 hull and 100 shields and so require a 200 damage to be killed. This comes down to 5 torps. That is quite a lot, so you better read on to find out how you can make your torps hit.

1.4.1 Lines vs. clouds

One of the mistakes beginners typically make, is shooting torps in a straight line at their opponent. As you can see in Figure 3, it is relatively easy for O1 to dodge the torps. There is only one special situation in which shooting a line of torps is warranted, and that is when you 'buttorp'. This is one of the things you generally don't want to be doing, so you can read all about it in (4.1.3).

The best way to make your torps hit is to fire them in clouds (Figure 4). For firing a dense cloud like that keyrepeat is almost essential, however. You might do without keyrepeat, but make sure you click those buttons at lightning speed.

The destructive thing about torp clouds is that they are a) hard to dodge, and b) impossible to det. Dodging is hard because any way you move, there will always be some outer-torp hitting. Detting is difficult because the torps 'surround' you in no-time and pressing det at that time, will det them all, and hence kill you on the spot.

1.4.2 Torping range

Torping in clouds is one thing, but knowing when to torp is another. You will notice that unlike the phaser which always hits, torps need time to arrive at their destination, e.g.: your opponent. And this is exactly the weakness of using torps as your main weapon: your opponent has time to dodge them. To reduce the chance that your opponent will have the time to dodge your torps, make sure you fire your torps when you are within 20 point phaser range (as shown previously in fig. 2).

There is nothing more pathetic than a sight like figure 5.

1.5 Combining

We've covered the basics of phasering and torping, but you're no dogfighting god yet. To get better, you'll have to start combining...

1.5.1 Lines vs. dots

One of the major discussions in netrek is called "lines vs. dots". It basically comes down to the question:

What is better: phasering or torping?

To answer the question on the spot: phasers. They always hit, and do tremendous damage when used within close range. Torps have this weakness which is called uhm... dodging.

When you play, focus on your phasers. Use them. Then remember about torps: they do damage. Lots of damage if you use them in a smart way.

1.5.2 The phaser cycle

Now here comes the real deal, the real treat, the real secret to winning dogfights and I'll call it the phaser cycle.

Remember, that phasers are by far the most superior weapons since they always hit and do lots of damage at close range. Their only drawback is the 1-second 'recharging time'. Keeping this in mind and having practiced a little, you should always be phasering every second, because hey, those are guaranteed hits, and hey, you want to be dealing the most damage in the shortest timespan possible.

Now, here is the deal. Instead of just waiting during that 1 second recharge time you should try to shoot torps and dodge. This is a very important concept. Let me elaborate on it.

During dogfights, you have to phaser your opponent, shoot torps and in the mean time dodge his torps. The smartest way to do all of this, is to learn the phaser recharge time by heart and always be doing your non-phaser stuff (dodging, torping) during the recharge time. Then, when the phaser is recharged, you can immediately use your phaser again.

If you do this properly, you will be dealing lots of damage in short periods of time.

1.6 Tractoring & Pressoring

Tractoring and pressoring can be a bit confusing for new players, so I'll just take a short time to explain the basics of T/P (short for Tractoring and Pressoring). After that I'll explain how you can use it to your advantage.

1.6.1 The physics

To tractor someone you need to press the tractor key (the underscore key _ by default) and move your cursor over a ship. You will be tractoring that ship, be it friend or foe. This is an important concept: you can tractor enemies and teammates alike.

Let me warn you right away though: teammates generally do not appreciate it when you T/P them because they might get pushed into torpstreams. Shoving teammates into torpstreams is a definite don't and hence, earns it place in section (3.4).

Anyway, when you tractor someone, his and your ship get closer. When you pressor someone, you and his ship move away from eachother. When you tractor someone you will move towards that ship roughly 2 warp speeds higher, and similarly, you will move away 2 warp speeds higher when you pressor. T/P does use fuel but not an awful lot. Top dogfighters are always leaning heavily on T/P, just to get that edge on dodging and making torpstreams hit.

When you activate your tractor it stays on, until you turn it off. You can do that by pressing the tractor key again, or pressing the separate "T/P off" key. It is very common to keep tractor on for a few seconds while you torp your opponent.

1.6.2 How to benefit

Tractoring and pressoring are both very important mechanics during dogfighting. It comes down to a simple rule of thumb: you want to be tractoring your opponent when you torp. That way, he'll have to accelerate to move away from you and thus, has a harder time to turn out of your torpstream.

The same goes for phasering: you want to be tractoring your opponent when you are phasering as well, because that way he will be just that little bit closer, for just that little bit of extra damage.

Remember that sometimes it can also help to push your opponent into your torpstreams. You might have miscalculated a torpstream, which therefore is a bit off: pushing your opponent at that very time might just be enough to make those torps hit.

T/P is not only a deciding factor in dealing damage, but has a major impact on dodging as well, but more on that in the next chapter (Chapter 2, "Avoiding damage").

Chapter 2: Avoiding damage

2.1 Introduction

Avoiding damage is an aspect of dogfighting which is just as important as dealing damage. Consider this: if you would never take damage, you'd win all dogfights. So you better read on to find out how you can stay alive longer, so you can keep dealing damage, and damage and damage...

2.2 Changing speeds

The most important thing to stay alive is to keep changing speeds. Why? Because it is harder to aim torps at a target which flies at varying speeds. If you aim at a target which flies with a constant speed you can smart-guess it's future positions, aim the torps there and make them hit. Aiming torps at a target with varying speeds is hard, because you'll never know exactly where your target will be. So use this to your advantage when you're dogfighting and keep changing those speeds!

You might ask yourself what this means in practice. Should you be pressing all the numberkeys at random to keep changing the speeds? Well, the answer to that question is a simple: no. The easiest and the best way to keep varying your speeds, is to force yourself to do so by changing your keymap. This basically means, mapping one key to a basespeed (let's say: warp 2) and another key to maxwarp.

Now, when you are flying somewhere and you want to fly faster you press the maxwarp key, and when you want to fly slower you press the basespeed. You'll never need the numbers in between because you are either flying somewhere (always at maxwarp), or, slowing down to dogfight, in which case you just press the basespeed key.

So far, so good. But how do you use this effectively in dogfights? Easy. The best way to use this technique is to press maxwarp like a maniac when you see the first torp of a torpstream flying towards you, and click perpendicular to the direction the torpstream is flying. (Figure 6 explains this in more detail). This way you'll dodge most streams with ease. Just make sure you map basespeed and maxwarp to easy to reach keys. And oh, remember to press the basespeed key again once you're clear from the torps, because otherwise you'll be flying at maxwarp speed to some random direction...

2.3 Basespeed 2 vs. 3

As soon as you are struck by the beauty of varying speeds you'll definitely want to be changing your keymap. This will involve making an important decision: use warp 2 or warp 3 as a basespeed?

In practice there is no straight answer to this question. Both basespeeds are being used by a variety of good dogfighters. In practice, the main difference between the two are, that using warp 2 is easier because you can immediately enter orbit on a planet without having to slow down, and the advantage of warp 3 is that since you are at a higher warp it will be relatively easier to dodge incoming torps. Fighting at a higher basespeed also means that you drain more fuel though.

For now, stick to warp 2 because being able to orbit planets in a split second is a good thing™. Later on, you can always try using warp 3 and see how that feels.

2.4 Dodging

Now we arrive at the main thing of avoiding damage: dodging! Dodging is a skill which relies on many principles, but for now the three most basic ones will be explained.

First of all, in general, you want to turn away from your opponent when the torps are incoming. That way you'll have more time to try to find an angle to dodge them. Over time torps always spread out so if you move away from them, at some point you might get lucky and slip through them unharmed.

Secondly, varying speeds is your friend. As explained in the previous paragraphs you should always use your maxwarp key to accelerate away from torps, so you have more time to dodge.

The third way of dodging involves using tractor and pressor beams and is a very important way of dodging. This will be adressed in the next paragraph in more detail.

There are more ways of avoiding damage, but these will be discussed in the advanced section. For now, master these ones and you'll be one step closer to becoming a dogfighting-god.

2.5 Tractoring/Pressoring

Tractoring and Pressoring has been mentioned in the dealing damage section, but also earns it place in the avoiding damage section.

In general, you can tell the difference between twinks and clue in their use of tractors and pressors (T/P). You can safely state, that someone who does not use T/P during dogfights will always lose to someone who does. Now, why is T/P so important?

Well, using Tractors and Pressors can basically give you a momentarily speed-boost of relatively 2 warps. Combined with hitting the maxwarp key at the right time and clicking the right direction to dodge to, this will get you out of hairy situations 99% of the time.

When you use T/P to dodge you can either push or pull friend or foe in order to make your ship move in the desired direction. Remember to be wary of T/P'ing teammates though, because while you might skillfully dodge that incoming stream using your buddy as a pressor point, he will likely be pushed into someone elses torps and die. That is a definite don't, but you can read more on that in the next chapter (Chapter 3, "Things not to do").

Chapter 3: Things not to do

3.1 Plasma

When your ship has two kills, you can refit to a new ship and get plasma. (This can be done by refitting to CA, DD or BB, but this manual assumes that you'll only fly CA, which is the superior ship to dogfight in). Plasma's are 'special' weapons and are very popular under inexperienced players. They are basically big torps which deal 100 damage when hitting. You can only have 1 plasma in the air at a time.

OK, the bottomline here. Do not use plasma if you are seriously trying to become a good dogfighter. To put it even more extreme: do not ever use plasma, if you ask me. Why? Because plasma uses a lot of fuel, rarely hits and can explode near you when phasered (dealing damage to you and your buddies in the process).

To fire a plasma you need 3000 fuel, which is the equivalent of 10 torps, or 4 phasers. Now, when you either miss your plasma, or your plasma gets phasered (probably hurting you in the process), you basically missed 4 phasers. Missing 4 phasers in a dogfight is a bad thing™, and is a 99% guarantee to losing the dogfight. Look at the animation in fig. 7 and see how easy it is to dodge a plasma.

The chance that your plasma misses or gets phasered is very high. Plasma can be dodged like torps and phasering them is just a matter of pointing at them and clicking the mousebutton. Consider people who phaser your plasma: you just wasted 3000 fuel on it, while they just blow it up with only 700 fuel and probably hurt you when doing so. Watch the animation in fig. 8 to see someone get maimed by his own plasma.

Plasma deals damage to all ships nearby when it explodes. This means, that if someone would phaser your plasma at the very moment you fire it, it would explode near you and deal 100 damage to you, or worse, to you and your teammates who might happen to be near you at the same time. Your teammates do not appreciate that.

To summarize, plasma wastes a lot of fuel, rarely hits, can be easily phasered and hence rendered useless, and even worse, can explode on top of you or your teammates. Tip of the day: stay away from plasma. It is what makes the difference between twinks and clue.