Um...there's no real reason a ship should be able to go backwards faster than other ships can go forward. I suggest that a ship should only be able to go backwards at a certain % of its top speed going forward. For example, if a ship can go 65m/s going forward(no turbo) then it should not be able to go 65m/s backwards!

This has been suggested before. The problem is that it would make rockets overly effective.

Ships should not be able to go vertically or horizontally at the same velocity as their forward allowance either. But as Strat said, the fiction is maintained for the sake of gameplay.

How so? I never use backwards when dealing with rockets. It would not have any effect on me.

EDIT: Well I'm not talking about taking away reverse thrust. I'm just talking about taking a few m/s off its top speed. Enough so someone cant reverse faster than someone in a fast(or faster) ship from catching them going forward(no turbo). You would still be able to go backwards and move out of the way of rockets.

switching to reverse gives you a little more time to evade an incoming flare rather than just strafing to the side. To be consistant with your op, side and vertical strafes would need to be nerfed as well minimizing a players ability to evade flares even more. If this were implemented, I would simply refuse to engage any flare pilot voluntarily or otherwise.

For your EDIT, I would oppose this because it reduces the ability for players to use distance control. While some players would prefer every fight to be a circling dog fight, I prefer the variety the current setup offers. If I'm up against someone with flares, gt or guass, then I want to be able to stay at about 200m and pick them off with my neuts. If I can't maintain that distance, then the player with those weapons has an advantage, assuming skill being equal.

Theres a difference between backrolling and distance control. You will still be able to distance control, you just wont be able to backroll so fast that the person fighting you has to turbo to catch up to you(assuming that the ships are close in top speed), in fact if your ship is faster than your opponent and the nerf is small enough then you will still have the ability to backroll to the point its annoying and the opponent is forced to leave the fight and never want to fight you again. As for nerfing the side thrusts, I think being able to side thrust at the same speed is more plausible than reversing at the same speed. Especially since you have more ship area on the sides of your ship than on the front where control thrusters could be placed!

I hate backrolling as much as you do, Jmvcilus, but imagine what it would be like for all-energy users to have to fight flare guys with slower ships. It would be like an all-energy pilot fighting a flare pilot with the all-energy pilot in a vult3 and the flare pilot in a corvult. Even someone like Maalik has trouble dealing with flares if he's in a slower ship.

-1.

I really don't care if Maalik can't flare dodge. That's not my problem. My problem is that ships shouldn't be able to go backwards as fast as they go forwards. They can still reach top speed backwards just as fast, I really don't care. But they shouldn't be able to maintain a top speed backwards faster than a ship thats at least as fast going forward. For instance, I should never have to turbo in an x-1 to keep someone in a vult of anykind within energy distance if all hes doing is reversing. As for regular PvP and not backrolling, as long as you can still attain top speed as fast then it really wont effect you cause you can still effectively strafe as fast as before. Unless your holding down reverse for like 10seconds in which case you are backrolling and I nolonger want to fight you.

"Unless your holding down reverse for like 10seconds in which case you are backrolling and I nolonger want to fight you."

I'm done arguing the op of this thread,however, I will take exception to this comment. If you are constantly moving towards me and I want to maintain a distance of x, then my constant reversing is not backrolling, it is distance control. If you stop and I proceed out to a distance of 800+ m rather than adjust to maintain my preferred distance, then perhaps you have a case.

Perhaps you should 1) find more obliging opponents or 2) stop chasing and let your opponent fly back into your weapons fire.

Actually, although flare users must go forwards against most opponents, there are also scenarios where they must go backwards to do any damage, at all. This would make it a lot easier to stay at close range and inside flare safety fuse range... Generally, however, I would prefer it if flare proximity range ramped upwards based on how long it has been in flight past the safety fuse time to eliminate all the balance issues that prevent us from measures to speed up fights like this, but that's a different topic. Point still stands, though... experienced energy users should have no problem fairing against flares if this is implemented.

Edit: to clarify, the way I see this suggestion is a measure to prevent combat where one opponent is locked in a reverse mode and the other in a forward mode throughout the entire fight. Fights should either be fast and close range, or alternate between forward and back. If you have the dominant pressure on your opponent, you should be the only one to decide when to take a breather.

Edit 2: it would be best, for gameplay balance reasons, to keep strafe speed the same.

Fair point Shank. I would say side and vertical would have to be nerfed as well, but I'm not going to argue the point. What about vs guass or gt opponents? Do you think an all energy fighter is going to fair equally well in these situations?

Gauss is basically the entire reason why I suggest strafe speeds should stay the same. GT is weird, though... most GT-weilding ships are generally pretty heavy, and on some occasions I have managed to get in close and actually stay behind a gat ship and pound away on it, but that is likely because of my advanced ship. The biggest worry, I suppose, is of ships like the WTD that can carry a gat and still maneuver at an okay rate. Things like this make weapon balance a difficult thing to talk about at some point, it would be better to implement a test balance and see how it works out.

1, Space friction varying by the direction a ship happens to be facing is super ugly.

2, Forcing pilots in this way to constantly mash into one another takes much of the elegance and variety (as Death Fluffy said) out of combat. Plus a major change like this would inevitably necessitate the rebalancing of weapons. It's a lot of work for uncertain gain.

3, I don't understand the desire for this. I never have trouble hitting people who are a threat to me. Some people choose to not really fight. So what? Some people create setups that are only deadly at close range and then act surprised when people choose to not fight them at their point of strength. Whose fault is that?

4, Do we really have to talk about this again?

"Um...there's no real reason a ship should be able to go backwards faster than other ships can go forward."

There is also no reason that energy weapons, missiles or rockets have less velocity than an air rifle.

There is also no way the entire population of UIT fits on stations of such small sizes.

There is also no reason for capitol ships or stations to be able to accommodate an infinite amount of ships in the docking bay...(assuming the bay was not built on Gallifrey).

There is also no reason to bring this topic up again and again and again and again.

There is no logical reason for a great many things in VO. Deal with it.

There is no backward turbo.
Just use yers and problem is solved : )

there are also numerous ways to "trick" a reversing player into coming forward that are fairly easy to utilize... if he goes so far out of range then hes running and youll have to turbo to get him anyway.... otherwise... if im barrelling in at an opponent...like maalik for example.... hes GOING to go backwards... i use close in setups, he knows that. Rather then just go straight at your enemy... try not using forward or backward thrust... let them go back.... they'll start to come forward to get at you...all you have to do is burst forward and engage... If you havent developed tactics to counter a Distance controller... then you have to work on your abilities.. if youre facing a real honest to god backroller.. then either tap your turbo to get in... or tell him to fuck off. You cant expect your enemies to fight the way YOU want them to and you cant force everyone to adopt your style of PvP just cause you dont like getting pwned by someone that wont let you in close. I fly proms against corvults all the time..i manage to get in and deal damage..its just a matter of experience

LOL, ok fine. You guys can keep your stupid backrolling! I'm not going to argue in circles with you about everything that I'm already doing but don't think is right. You WIN! Peace I'm out!

BT +1

Maalik +1

Jmvilcus: the more possible maneuvers provides the game engine, the more interesting gameplay. Backrolling isn't really problem to cry about, moreover it's one of the most successful and reasonable retreating/defending/"last chance" tactics.

Plus VO ships don't use thrusters. They use graviton engines or some crap, hence being able to go in all directions at full combat speed. The suggestion would require a re-write of the backstory, just learn to spray with AA off, and backrollers are no longer an issue!