Vanduul Swarm, How To Win

Do you find yourself flying past your targets, bumping into them or having difficulty lining a consistent line of fire? I'm going to give you some key tips on how to simplify your game by using just two simple in game functions.

This is just an observation, but one thing I have noticed is that many pilots in Vanduul Swarm just can't keep up. While I'm busy lining up a target and making it go boom, most are bumping into asteroids, overheating their weapons, flying way too fast to get a solid hit in or getting torn to bits by the Vanduul on their six. Although I'm certainly not the best pilot I've found that by equalizing speed and taking advantage of thrust while edging a fancy U-Turn my fly game has increased significantly. Those ace pilots still best me in rankings but I'm not too far behind them and that could be hardware or perhaps a little more practice is needed. I'm using a simple mouse and keyboard configuration. Matching target velocity is an in game function which is by default bound to "m" on your keyboard as of alpha version 2.5. While using this feature I found it vividly helpful for creeping up on my target and matching my targets speed almost perfectly. What I found however is that I was having to take my hand away from my mouse which was causing precious seconds of weapons fire away. Any pilot knows that this means the difference of a direct hit or a complete miss. To compensate for this I bound the default "m" key to match target velocity to my side mouse button. Now I can conveniently and comfortably lay down a consistent line of fire while matching my targets speed on a dime. This is almost necessary as you will see from trying it that you will no longer pass right by your target, you will bump into the target significantly less and you will no longer fall too far behind as you speed adjusts automatically. In essence you can rush up to your target at full speed and match it's velocity at just the right distance to destroy it in just a few shots. The distance at which you match speeds will vary from person to person and from ship to ship. I found approximately 1500 KM to work well with most small fighter style ships.

The second in game function is the boost or afterburner which on a mouse / keyboard configuration defaults to the left shift key.

This function when coordinated with matching your targets velocity will put you on the Vanduul six in a quick and easy maneuver. It works well with pirates and crusader security as well if you just so happen to be a pirate. I use the afterburner when the target isn't flying a straight line and I need to angle the nose of the ship to center the sights. Take care when using your afterburner or you may very well black out in the pilots seat, or cause dim vision due to a near blackout. The afterburner will give you a noticeably harder turn lining a sight while you get just close enough and match the speed of that same target you'll find missing to be the new challenge.

This style of play works well against most NPC ships and it has its moments while in Battle Royale or Squadron Battle. Due to the unpredictability of player movements however it is a little harder to use player vs player. I have found this style of targeting and chase to be useful when engaging a player initially and toggling coupled mode to off once they become aware and start shooting back.