This is a suggestion to traders who feel helpless against fast ships, Orion Rev C's, SVG's, etc...

DON'T PANIC!

If someone comes up on you, turboing is probably not your best option. It may get you away, but then you turn it into a game for the light ship pilot, if they're good at that game, you will probably die.

The Centaur is not helpless. Far from it, the thing can almost stand even with a prom, you just have to know how to fly it, and if you want to get away, there are several ways that you can introduce tactics of your own.

Mines, for example, are great, but if you are boosting while dropping, you:
A) don't have a great eyeball on where they are.

B) can be beaten by a pilot who flies parallel, and then attacks from an angle.

so, instead of turning away from them, turbo as far as you can, until they get to about 600 m, (400 m is the distance when their weps will start being effective) and then TURN AROUND! and hit FULL REVERSE. This will allow you a number of other weapons at your disposal, and while it may take a bit longer to get away, you almost certainly can.

Suggested layouts:

Centaur (preferably mk III or Aggresso)

Gatling turret+ rockets (Jacks are probably better on defense, if you're really good, maybe screamers, but they work against your gatling turret, since they use energy)

or Gatling turret + Mines(preferably lightning mines, but I spose any would work) As you back up, the mines will become projectiles with a HUGE proximity radius. (the small port can be used for flares, but be careful not to fire both mines and flares at the same time, the flare will hit the mine, and you'll be very unhappy)

I feel VERY sorry for the light fighter that enters this situation. They won't be able to outmaneuver you, and if they try to get close, the Gatling turret will annihilate them, if your rocket nets or well placed mines don't scare them enough first.

I've been flying a Centaur, bird of prey style, for the last good while, and its a brutal beast. Not a mere trader by any means. It can dodge, though you have to practice (it won't take you anywhere you want to go like a centurion)

The current centaur is what I believe the prom ought to be. Heavy, you can feel the weight, but at the same time, incredibly powerful, it loses to proms by virtue of 7000 less armor, not because of its lack of maneuverabillity.

It is a TRUE heavy, powerful, very scary, but with a few weaknesses. Take hold of the reins traders, you own a monster.

There is one way to render any Centaur helpless.

Geminis.

Instead of going for the twin neuts on your rev C, go one neut and a gemini seeker. Homing missiles are a critical weakness of heavy ships, and a laden centaur cannot boost away from them very easily at all.

If you ARE going to stand and fight, jettison your cargo, or you'll move like a complete slug. At the very worst you'll lose 2-4 widgets as the assailant runs away, at best you can destroy them, pick up your cargo and run the hell away.

Actually, missiles are awful chaser weps... And a pirate can't fly with them, cuz there's just no guarantee the player will stand and fight.

Furthermore, a centaur dodges gems fine. it does have a bit of an issue with swarms, but I can't think of any chasers who would conceivably use them. There just aren't any good platforms.

NOT TO MENTION, that a rev C that tried to fight a centaur using gems, would be wasted FAR too fast by the rockets and AGT. I encourage you to try out the validity of this statement against my centaur, I was fighting wraiths today, AGT+ dual gems. AGT worked fine, gems were a waste of space.

I'm also not advocating, "Stand AND Fight" tactics. I'm advocating using a disengaging method of fighting to get away. That being the case, you can keep ALL your widgets, they shouldn't make a huge difference, (just fire a rocket or few every time they try to get close)

But don't start a fight in a disengaging way. Try to run first, traders. Blow them to smithereens anytime they come close. If they're staying a ways back, do run with your cargo.
Rocket nets is one of my best tools. I don't know if I invented it, but I sure haven't faced it. If you can pick up this tactic from me, I'll make sure to stay one step ahead.

What horrible advice.

If you want to get away from some, just boost away. The only trick you need to know is to change direction of yer boost every few seconds. Just make sure you're going faster than 150m/s at all times and that you're not changing direction into a stream of shots.
Congradulations! There is absolutely no way anyone can hit you now.

I find that running away while dropping hoards of mines works great hehe ;)

Don't forget you can turn on mouselook while boosting and look backwards!

I run dual proxmine launchers or sometimes 1 Lmine and one concussion (to shake them off) launcher. Then i just have geminis in the small port to scare people off and give me time to escape if they get too close

I think Shape has a good idea. As a pirate my self I fly a Rev C as nothing can really out run it. genkas advice my sound good but let me tell you, try some thing like that with me and I'll tear you up. Now doing what Soulless1 suggusted may work, but wiht me you'd only hit me once or twice before I started being more carfull. Traders I don't care what you do I'll find a way to kill you but teast things out a bid first just cuz some hacks on the forums said this will work does not mean it will.

Do concussion mines work against boosting targets? I never tried them.

Conc mines just move you around abit, they do damage. All in all they will just slow your pursuer down alitte bit.

Which is really all you need.. an extra second or two to get to 3000m then begin the dance through the empty sectors that no pursuer can follow and go on your merry way.

"Which is really all you need.. an extra second or two to get to 3000m then begin the dance through the empty sectors that no pursuer can follow and go on your merry way."

Amen, Starfisher.

Genka, I find people who fly like that all the time, the problem is, that it lets the Rev C recharge its battery. Someone who's moving like that isn't too hard to hit with N3's, the only issue is running out of energy, which you fix for them by doing that.

Concussions are great for people boosting after you, cos it spins them around and everything, and they then have to stop and realign themselves to start chasing again. Also if you drop an Lmine with the concussion or slightly after, they will be going slower and so will stay in the Lmine's area of effect for longer.

And dual prox launchers just rock for making people decide to go the other way :P

Its very effective when they're not expecting it, which was how i managed to get shape with them the other day. If they're expecting it then yeah they try to flank you and stuff, but generally the idea of the mines is to make them have to work to get to you, and delay them long enough for you to get that extra couple of hundred metres, so if they're having to go the long way around towards you, then the mine launchers are doing their job.

great thread shape.

the only thing i want to add is reassurance to traders that the centaur is formitable. i myself fly it as my ship of choice and also like it more then the prom. for those traders that doubt our words.... seek me out in sedina >:D

Aye, this is all well and good, but nobody's yet mentioned the supreme effectiveness of the most potent anti-pirate weapon: The Mineral Scanner! I keep one of those things with me at all times. If a pirate comes along, I just shine that glaring green beam into their cockpit, blinding them long enough for me to escape. If they're unlucky, they won't be regaining vision until they're under 10m from a rock, and rocks are the one true enemy of all pilots.

Evil, nasty, naughty rocks... I'm gonna mine them into oblivion! *wanders off ranting about the Asteroid Conspiricy*

Public enemy #1: The large asteroid in Divinia N-13 directly in front of the jump exit from O-11. It's the dark side of the 'roid, so it's next to impossible to see, and it's also directly in line of the exit point. Escorting a CtC convoy, get caught in an Ion Storm, ram this 'roid, hope you weren't in a Vulture.

This is great advise Shapenaji.

Escaping is always my first choice. Not always possible with a ship full of heavy cargo. Jettisoning the load is not a players first reaction to an enemy speeding toward them. Believe me, if you let the cargo go, you have a much better chance escaping or fighting if they do catch you. Your going to loose it anyway being killed!

You are right on about Gatling Turret. I was able to chase away a wanna-be pirate in a Valk, as soon as he got a taste of the turrets devastating accuracy.
Wasn't so successful when 2 pirates ganged up on me.