Build Optimization: Pitch, Yaw, Roll

[Warrax]

I searched the forums and did not hit on any discussion on Pitch, Yaw & Roll optimization.

 

To start off the conversation, i'd just like to mention my "build goal".

 

For a fresh build, i usually strive for:

    Pitch:  2.0

    Yaw:  2.0

    Roll:  2.0

 

What about you?  Would also like to hear your ideas for Thruster placement.

 

Cheers

[Ohm is Futile]

I find those values to be higher than necessary for most purposes.

 

That said, in the current beta branch builds, the easiest way to achieve high rotation speeds is to use directional thrusters facing the most advantageous way as far as possible from your center of mass.

 

This usually means that I begin building my ships by putting down the core blocks I need for the main features of the ship near the expected center of mass and leave a various amount of space in my predicted hull shape around the edges.

 

As a rule of thumb:

Yaw: mirrored forward-facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass on the sides as far as possible. Also possible is side-facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the front or back. Again, the farther, the better.

Pitch: up-down facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the front or back. Forward-facing thrusters in-line with the center of mass from the top of bottom.

Roll: up-down facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the sides. Side-facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the top or bottom.

 

This is the most efficient way to do it currently.

[Blondersheel]

I find those values to be higher than necessary for most purposes.

I totally agree. I also like larger ships to "feel" larger by having lower maneuverability so I plan accordingly.

 

For smaller ships I generally target somewhere In the ~0.5-1 range (0.6 equates to about a 5 second turnaround time). For larger ships I shoot for 0.2-0.5 depending on how large the ship is. 0.2 equates to a ~16 second turnaround time so any slower than that and I find the ships feels too combersome.

 

I would only consider going up to ~2 for fighter-sized ships

[Thundercraft]

I strive to optimize Pitch and Yaw on all my ships, even freighters. It really makes a difference in combat. Appearance is secondary. Roll, I don't usually care much about. Though, I don't want it to be in the red or yellow.

 

For my experience and theories on thruster placement and effectiveness, see my Thruster Nacelles & Leverage Arms post in my Ship Parts topic. Click the spoiler tags to read about it.

 

For even more details, see my rant here in "The Cube Meta" topic.

[cy414]

depends entirely on the ship, and the things a want to shoot with said ship.

 

my mining ships are always mostly iron with "durable enough" strips to put turrets on, with low pitch & yaw and no consideration to roll at all.

fighters/scouts, will be very high, with extra emphasis on pitch & roll to aid evasion and minimising profile.

 

[Thundercraft]

fighters/scouts, will be very high, with extra emphasis on pitch & roll to aid evasion and minimising profile.

 

You emphasize Pitch and Roll in your fighters? :o Pitch, I can understand. But how do you even take advantage of Roll in combat?  ???

 

Using Roll requires pressing the "Z" and "X" buttons. Myself, I barely find myself using strafe like "Q" and "W", but never roll.

 

And what about Yaw? Do you consider that important? That's left and right. Granted, one can get by with either a high Yaw or a high Pitch, but I think having high Yaw and Pitch is better. It allows much more freedom of movement.

 

As for minimizing profile, I think many players put too much emphasis in this. For most ship designs, I doubt it has as much impact on combat as they think it should. (See my post here in The Cube Meta about that.)

 

To be fair, having a small profile is an advantage. And, as some have pointed out, those really narrow "mace"-style or pole-shaped NPC ships are quite hard to get clean hits on. However, those NPC ships use a very extreme example and I just don't see players using that kind of shape. It would be too fragile.

[cy414]

rarely fighting one target outside of clean-up.

pitch keeps my profile low against the front or rear target since am flying at or away from it.

roll keeps my profile low against ships im flying past.

 

typically my fighter/scout ships are flat like an aeroplane, rather than tall, so more area to put thrusters on the dorsal and ventral sides.

the bonus to this is my Y axis (up/down)acceleration is also pretty good.

 

i could give a stuff about the cube meta. i find it fun buzzing around too far away for lasers to hit me, and low proflie enough that 90% of shots just fly past me.

 

cube meta could be broken instantly by 2 things. npcs/players that could cloak. npcs/players exploiting soft/blindspots in firing arcs.

and if the two could be combined, it'd make cube meta dumber than voyager borg.

[Ohm is Futile]

fighters/scouts, will be very high, with extra emphasis on pitch & roll to aid evasion and minimising profile.

 

You emphasize Pitch and Roll in your fighters? :o Pitch, I can understand. But how do you even take advantage of Roll in combat?  ???

 

Using Roll requires pressing the "Z" and "X" buttons. Myself, I barely find myself using strafe like "Q" and "W", but never roll.

 

And what about Yaw? Do you consider that important? That's left and right. Granted, one can get by with either a high Yaw or a high Pitch, but I think having high Yaw and Pitch is better. It allows much more freedom of movement.

 

As for minimizing profile, I think many players put too much emphasis in this. For most ship designs, I doubt it has as much impact on combat as they think it should. (See my post here in The Cube Meta about that.)

 

To be fair, having a small profile is an advantage. And, as some have pointed out, those really narrow "mace"-style or pole-shaped NPC ships are quite hard to get clean hits on. However, those NPC ships use a very extreme example and I just don't see players using that kind of shape. It would be too fragile.

1. Bind Q and E to roll.

2. Have high roll and only bother about one of the other axis.

3. Roll and use your fastest rotation axis to turn.

4. ???

5. Profit!

 

Dead meme aside, I find roll more useful than having two different axis to strafe with that I can access quickly. Rolling also gives me fine control over strafing in the sense that if I roll first, I can strafe on any axis instead of only up/down/left/right.

[Warrax]

I find those values to be higher than necessary for most purposes.

 

As a rule of thumb:

Yaw: mirrored forward-facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass on the sides as far as possible. Also possible is side-facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the front or back. Again, the farther, the better.

Pitch: up-down facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the front or back. Forward-facing thrusters in-line with the center of mass from the top of bottom.

Roll: up-down facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the sides. Side-facing thrusters placed in-line with the center of mass from the top or bottom.

 

This is the most efficient way to do it currently.

 

Thanx Ohm.

 

And i am finding that, yes indeed, as i am getting into the larger ship-builds (finally), i have down-graded by desire for higher pitch yaw and roll.

 

Still, with all my guns in the "frontal arc" to achieve concentrated fire, i enjoy being able to swing around to kill that pirate shooting at my engines after i just killed his wingman.

 

Fun game !!

Great discussion (thank you, everyone :) )

 

Cheers