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I'm so pissed and no way I can retype all of that right now. It was seriously super long with so much information. GOD I can't believe that just happened and I lost everything I typed...
I will try to type it up again later for you. I don't have time right now and am too busy wallowing over losing an hour's worth of typing such a detailed response.
Thanks for your work, I'd gladly read it, if you'd try to post it again!
Lesson learned, long replies get typed to Notepad from now on.
I will definitely try to find time later to type it up again for you.
He fixed the starting place for Combat Pilots in one of the recent patches. Alliance Combat Pilots now start at the Arvoch WZ above Pearl. However, I'm pretty sure they still start with the same Civilian Talon frame, only it's configured toward combat as much as possible.
I think the reason for the price change in the starter Military frame is because it's actually a really good ship and had to be in line with the Civ ships of the same price tier. The starter Military frame in this game is the Pulsar and it's way better than the starter Mil frame (Ferret) was in Mercenary. The Pulsar starts with 10 Energy Cores, 8 Equipment Slots and 8 Secondary Weapon Slots and has really good agility and acceleration/deceleration along with good shields and decent armor. So you can deck it out with lots of good equipment, cannons and secondary weapons immediately. If the ship cost any less than 3.5 million credits it would be OP and people would acquire it too early/easily instead of equivalent Civ frames.
Also being that Military frames are locked to only a single cargo bay it is incredibly difficult to make money with one in any way except combat. Since combat is a fairly advanced task in Evochron it is not really the best or easiest way for new players to the games/series to earn money and get acquainted with the big learning curve. By starting the player with a fully configurable Civ frame (that they can do anything fairly efficiently with) the player has options available to them. If combat proves too tough to start with they can easily reconfigure their Talon frame into a miner/trader and make money other ways. Then come back to combat later on with more money and experience under their belt. I really think he intends for new players to spend the first few hours in game trading/mining and making money and familiarizing themselves with the feel of everything. Combat comes much later.
With that said, yes, the Talon starter Civ frame can be used for combat. It's certainly not a very good fighter frame by a long shot but it is totally doable starting out. While I still recommend just mining up some money real fast and then buying a better Civ frame or saving the 3.5 Mil for the Pulsar, you can make due with the Talon.
Combat with the Talon is going to rely mostly on one thing: Not getting hit as much as possible. The Talon is so frail that I don't see anyway to really stack it for defense. So play to it's strengths. Which are speed and agility. It is one of the best handling and quickest ships in the game. So the first thing you should do is sell the Repair Sys C1 equipment you start with (It's pretty worthless in actual combat) and 2 of the 4 starfire missiles they give you. Then go straight into the Shipyard at the starting station and reconfigure your Talon frame like this:
Crew Members: 0
Equipment Hardoints: 2 - Fulcrum Drive and Shield Battery X5
Countermeasure Pods: 1
Secondary Weapon Hardpoints: 2
Hull Armor Plating: 3 or 2 (Depending on Energy Core selection)
Energy Cores: 5 or 6 (Depending on Hull Armor Plating selection)
Fuel Tanks: 1
Cargo Bays: 0
Then go for 5 Resistor packs, Composite Hull Armor and Thruster Module. This will use all 60 of the Assembly Points you had available for your frame and will make your frame as agile and accelerate and decelerate as fast as possible. All key advantages you can use in combat. You could even drop the 2 secondary hardpoints for more Energy Cores or Hull Armor which isn't a bad idea at all but I do find having at least a couple of missiles available is helpful when they're needed. Or you could swap out 1 secondary hardpoint for a regular equipment slot and outfit a Cannon Relay System to your ship to help boost your cannons' usability.
Now with that all out of the way, I will try to answer your direct questions:
1) Yes, you can go anywhere in a Talon and getting to the Arvoch Warzone (Alliance Pilot) should be easy as it's just above Pearl, even if you started in the Sapphire system before he fixed the starting point for Combat Pilots. Combat Pilots for Alliance now start in the Arvoch Warzone. In terms of "can you actually run combat missions in a Warzone with the Talon?" Again the answer is yes, see everything I typed about configuring the ship for combat above.
2) You can make decent money running combat contracts in Warzones. I generally recommend avoiding Escort and Scanning/Spy missions as they take too long and have some random factors to them that can result in failing the contracts which amounts to a waste of time. You can complete the "Kill 4 or 5 enemy" contracts much easier and faster even though they pay less per contract. My personal favorite contracts are the straight up kill enemy contracts that have multiple way points. Those contracts typically pay a bit more credits and the fact they have multiple waypoints with multiple enemies will give you a chance to get more kills and earn more Military Rank points per contract. As every waypoint cleared on a contract grants 1 Military Rank point. So a contract with 2 waypoints will give you 1 Military Rank point when you clear the first waypoint and then a 2nd Mil rank point when you clear the 2nd waypoint/finish the contract. So you earn 2 total Mil Rank points for that contract instead of just 1 point like with the rest of the contracts.
Why is boosting your Military Rank important? Because higher ranks get better paying contracts and access to better Mil frames. So money isn't your only concern initially as you also want to boost your rank up to start getting better paying contracts.
Military Rank points are awarded as follows:
Contract Completed: 1 Military Rank Point.
Waypoint Within Contract Cleared: 1 Military Rank Point.
10 Enemy Kills: 1 Military Rank Point.
Your actual Military Rank will upgrade at the following point levels:
Trainee: 0-4 points - Pulsar Mil Frame Unlocked
Ensign: 5-24 points
Lieutenant Junior Grade: 25-49 points - Shadow Mil Frame Unlocked
Lieutenant: 50-99 points
Lieutenant Commander: 100-149 points
Commander: 150-249 points
Captain: 250-499 points
Commodore: 500-749 points
Admiral: 750-998 points
Fleet Admiral: >998 points
Each new rank you are also granted access to the next level Mil frame. I think when you hit Commander rank or so, all of the Mil frames will have been unlocked. I might be wrong about that though, I haven't gotten that high rank yet. I will update this with all of the Mil frame unlocks as I achieve them in-game. Completing Military Contracts also count as normal "Paid Contracts" completed on your Pilot Profile. So they will also help raise your Civ rank as well.
3) Combat has not been changed. In a recent patch the dev did lower the screen shake from getting hit by about 50% total. Otherwise combat is unchanged.
4) I have not personally done much exploration so I do not have tips on where to find the best items, a stealth field generator or hidden planets/systems at this time.
4.2) In terms of making money I'd suggest reconfiguring your ship to have as many cargo bays as possible and then slap a mining beam on it and go mine Diamonds and sell them to systems who need Diamonds such as the Pearl or Thuban systems. If you upgrade to a bigger Civ frame with more configuration points you could even add a 4th equipment slot for a Fuel Converter and an extra fuel tank and then go mine diamonds from asteroids that are inside Nebulas. You will automatically mine fuel from the nebula while mining the diamonds. You can then sell both the diamonds cargo and the extra fuel you earned to augment your mining profits. Although Fuel prices did just get reduced a lot in the recent patch so it's not as profitable anymore.
Commodity trading is viable for money but the commodity values fluctuate over time so no specific trade routes will always be viable. You kinda have to just check the Nav Map Quadrant view and see what systems need what at that time. I found mining to be way more profitable, faster.
4.3) Here is where we come back to combat and outfitting that starter Talon to actually be useful. Choosing which cannons to go with can be tricky as you don't necessarily always want to just buy the strongest cannons. Stronger cannons generally consume much more energy. Being in a starter frame your energy is very limited. So attaching really powerful cannons to the Talon with it's weak Energy is going to result in a situation where you can only fire your cannons very briefly before running out of energy and not being able to shoot. Which is one of the worst case scenarios you can be in during combat.
It actually works much better to buy more energy efficient cannons or use the starter ones provided with your Combat Pilot role. Having cannons that can fire for longer durations, even though they do less damage per hit is way more useful in combat than having powerful cannons your ship can only fire for a couple of seconds before you're depleted of energy.
5) See what I typed under Number 2 for information about which contract missions I think are best. Generally any of the contracts that are for straight up killing enemies, especially ones with multiple waypoints, are the way to go for money and rank. Some of the other contracts are a lot of fun to do but they are slower and have more chance for failure.
**Continued in next post below**
General Combat Tips (Especially for fighting in a Talon)
- Speed & Agility are your advantages! Use them!
The Talon can accelerate and decelerate very quickly. So I'd recommend staying in IDS X3 or X4 right around 2,000 speed. Watch your targets distance and velocity as you close in on them and fight with them. The enemy A.I. in this game will try to use your current velocity against you. If it can tell you're coming in on it really fast it may slam on it's brakes and try to flip around backwards and zoom back past you the opposite direction leaving you to make a long, wide, slow turn which is going to give the enemy time to recharge all of it's shields and wipe out the progress you made damaging it. Which brings us to...
- Don't be afraid to use your brakes!
As I was saying, watch the distance of your target at all times. If the distance starts closing rapidly that means he's hitting his brakes and is gonna try to flip backwards past you. Slam on your brakes (assuming you don't have an enemy on your 6) and keep your target in front of you. Keep hammering away on him with your cannons. He will quickly realize you didn't fall for his trick and probably try to speed back up and afterburn away. Just keep your cannons on him at all times and...
- Don't be afraid to use your Afterburner!
Your ship with 1 fuel tank has 499 fuel. Which in terms of running combat contracts just outside of the station in the Warzone, is a lot. You don't want to burn tons of fuel as it will dent your profit earnings by refueling often. But you certainly shouldn't be worrying about conserving it either. If you need speed to continue pursuit of an enemy do not hesitate to slam your afterburners and keep on him. You always want to keep your enemy around 500-1,500 meters away from you. Your cannons max out around 1,500m so any further and you won't be able to hit him. Any closer than 500m and he can easily give you the slip and try to get away. Leave yourself distance to react to his actions.
This goes back to my first tip about the Talon being agile for tight turns and being able to accelerate and decelerate fast. Those advantages will allow you to shake your enemies' defensive manuevers and keep on their tail at all times, if you pay attention and recognize that they're about to happen. Which is where we get to...
- Situational Awareness! Use your eyes and HUD data!
This may seem like a no brainer but it's actually pretty nuanced and important. When you first decide which enemy you're going to target you need to immediately do a full assessment: How far away is the target? Are their Shields up? If so, are they full green? How much hull damage do they have if any? What direction are they currently moving? Are there any other enemies close to your target that could attempt to get on your 6 and gang up on you when you move in on your target?
These questions and being able to quickly identify the answers to them are paramount to your survival and putting yourself in the best position to have a huge advantage over your target. So you've targeted your enemy and assessed the situation. Now it's time to move in for the attack.
- This is not an arcade game or even an aerial combat sim!
This is a newtonian physics based space sim. Do not approach combat in this game as you would in an aerial fighter game, that stuff does not work here. Never, ever fly in a straight line toward your targets. Never get into head on strafing runs with an enemy target. Nothing good will result from them, especially if you're in a very weak frame like the Talon. You ALWAYS want to approach from the outside in. Choose a target that is behind the rest of the enmies and perferably floating out to the side more. Go out even wider than that and then arc your way in a circular motion. You always want to be curving and circling past or around your target. NEVER move toward them directly or in a straight line. You wll just be asking to be shot down head on and since your ship (Talon) is much weaker than theirs, that is exactly what is going to happen.
Your ability to win fights against these more powerful enemy ships is predicated on getting behind them and staying behind them and not ever giving them a chance to line up their gunsights on you at all. So you get safely behind or around your target and get into firing range, it is now time to...
- Use your cannons properly!
This is a HUGE one. The game by default ties both of your cannons to a single button. Generally either Left Ctrl, Mouse 1 or Joystick 0. That is really not desirable. You generally never want to fire both cannons at the same time as they each perform a different and specific task and by firing them together you are just burning extra energy with minimal results returned. Especially being in an energy strapped frame such as the Talon, this is massively important.
You can toggle your weapons system to only fire one type of cannon at a time or both at the sametime with the N key. However, trying to manage yet another toggle in the midst of combat is too much and cannon selection is not something you should have to think about and fiddle with a toggle for. So simply put, don't bother with the N key toggle. Instead go into the options menu and map 2 separate keys for Particle Cannons and Beam Cannons. Now you can fire your cannons independently by simply pressing either button you mapped them to. No more toggling or having to think about which cannon you currently have selected.
The reason for this is simple. Beam Cannons are meant to take down your enemy's shields and Particle Cannons are meant to do the real damage to the hull and actually score the kill. Beam Cannons can do hull damage and Particle Cannons can do shield damage but in both cases it is so minimal that it does not warrant firing both cannon types at the same time. Beam cannons use very little energy to fire a lot. And in most engagements you're going to be engaging an enemy who still has their shields up, most likely full shields. So when you make initial engagement you need to check the state of your target's shield levels, which of their shields are up or down and what their hull damage is at.
Assuming they have their shields up (as most encounters will be) you want to get into position to fire on them and use your Beam Cannons only until their shields are wiped out. Your beam cannons shouldn't drain your energy too badly by themselves and you should be able to continue to fire on them as needed to drain their shields. If you feel your energy is depleting quickly then tap bust your Beam Cannons or use short pauses in between firing. Your enemy's shields do not regenerate that fast so you do not necessarily need to have a constant stream of Beam Cannons on them. It is always better to do continual damage over longer periods of time than it is to slam your cannons full on and try to do all of the damage at once. That principal applies to both Beam Cannons when whittling down shields and also Particle Cannons while destroying their hull for the kill.
So use only your Beam Cannons until the shield you are currently attacking is completely red colored and dropped out on your Target HUD. Once their shield is out, it's time to stop Beam Cannons and let your Particle Cannons rip. Particle Cannons hit hard and fast but they have to be aimed. They also consume a ton of energy. Which is why you were not firing them until the enemy's shield was gone. Since you only used Beam cannons to drop their shields out, you should in most cases, still have energy left for your Particle Cannons to do some hull damage.
- Use your targeting reticle's information!
When an enemy is within cannons range (1500m or less) your targeting system will lock on and MDTS will land your Beam Cannons right on your target. Just keep the target within your Targeting reticle circle. However, Particle Cannons do not move at the speed of light and have to be aimed, hence the term "lead shots". What this means is that you have to aim where your enemy is going not where they are. Thankfully your Targeting Reticle shows you where to aim and basically it does it for you. You just have to point your targeting reticle to the right vicinity. If you look at the enemy you are targeting and see the direction they are moving, look slightly in front of them and you will see a little purple triangle target floating there. That is the target point for your Particle Cannons.
It is possible that the enmy will be close enough or moving fast enough that the Particle Beam cannon triangle marker will actually be outside of your large targeting reticle circle. What that means is that your target guidance system will not land it's Particle Beam shots on the enemy even if you have them inside your large reticle circle. You have to have the little purple target triangle inside your large reticle circle, not the enemy ship for Particle Cannons to land. So when you let the Particle Cannons rip, keep this in mind and change your aim from the actual ship to the little purple triangle in front of your target.
In short, Beam Cannons aim directly at the target enemy, keep their ship inside your large reticle circle. For Particle Cannons aim for the purple triangle target inf ront of your target and keep that inside your large reticle circle, not the target ship.
If your Particle cannons burn out your energy and the enemy still has Hull left they aren't gonna be dead yet obviously. Don't panic though. Just stop firing your Particle Cannons for a moment so your power starts recharging and gently tap the Beam Cannons every second or so. What you're doing is keeping their shields down while you give your Particle Cannons time to recharge so you can finish them off. Stay on your enemy and don't let them slip away and just gently apply Beam Cannons only as needed to keep their shields red and then once your weapons have recharged a bit, let the Particle Cannons rip again. Also, as before with the Beam Cannons, don't be afraid to fire Particle Cannons in short burts or tap shots with short pasuses between each shot to keep a constant energy reserve available. Speaking of energy management that leads us to the next point.
**Continued in next post**
- Manage your ship's energy!
This is so critical in a fight and will often be the difference between scoring a kill or not. Or getting shot down or not. You can use the bracket keys [ ] to adjust your ships power between Shields and Weapons on a scale of +5S (Shields) and +5W (Weapons). By default power will be even at 0S/0W and moving the power to either shields or weapon will decrease the power given to the opposite. So +5S is going to heavily boost your shields but make your cannons incredibly weak. Vice versa, having +5W will make your cannons very powerful but cause your shields to be very weak and they will go out after being hit just a few times.
This may lead player's to think staying at 0S/0W is best since it provides decent shields and weapons damage but really you need to be constantly switching power to one etxreme or the other to really maximize your combat effectiveness. As I said at the begining of this the Talon ship is very frail and your best defense is going to be not getting hit at all. So with that idea in mind you typically want to keep your power set to +5W (weapons) most of the time. You're gonna have a really hard time taking enemies down in a Talon with your power level set to anything but +5W. That however, does not mean to always stay at +5W.
When you are approaching your target you should probably be in +5S and then when you are in range to start firing, quickly adjust your power to full +5W weapons and do your damage. If at any point you disengage or get an enemy on your 6 or hitting you from any angle, IMMEDIATELY pump full power to shields +5S and afterburn away from the enemies as fast as possible. Your Talon frame cannot stand taking hits even with full power to shields. It is ALWAYS better to run away, recharge and come back for another pass or engagement than it is to stay in a risky situation where you can be hit. Just don't forget to toggle power back to your weapons +5W before you start attacking again. Firing your cannons with power to shields +5S is just a waste of effort.
- Manage your ship's shields!
In conjunction with managing your power balance between shields and weapons it is absolutely critical to manage the power between your shield arrays. You ship has 4 directional shields - Front, Both sides and Back. As you take damage it will come from a certain direction and impact your ship in one of those 4 shield locations. Repeated hits to the same shield will very quickly drop that shield to red level which basically means the shield is gone and you will start taking hull damage and be blown to dust in no time.
By default the shield arrays are bound to Numpad 8 - Front shield, Numbad 2 - Back shield, Numpad 4 - Left shield, Numpad 6 - Right shield and Numpad 5 - Auto Balance remaining power between all 4 shields.
You need to quickly asses where you are getting hit from, which shield is taking those hits and slam the corresponding Numpad key to route all power to that shield. You should have already toggled your power over to +5S as soon as you were getting hit and then your next step is to balance that power to the correct shield array. As you're balancing your shield array power the only thing you should be doing is railing the Afterburner and getting as far away from the enemy shooting at you as possible. Usually once you hit about 4,000 speed and get about 2,000m away from the enemy they will most likely disengage from you and go after something else. Giving you ample time to recharge your shields, balance power back to +5W and come back in for another pass or engagement.
Under NO circumstances should you try to do anything else while being hit but put full power to +5S, balance shield arrays toward impact and afterburn far away, all at the sametime, at the first sign of danger or enemy fire hitting you. Even if you're about to kill a target you have been working hard at bringing down, you must break off and run and recharge as soon as you're attacked. Your Talon frame will not last taking hits.
- Do not rely on missiles!
Missles cost about 5k per and are really not necessary to bring enemies down. You can easily take out enemy fighters with just your cannons. Missiles generally just make that a bit easier or faster. I could make a strong argument for not having any secondary hardpoints on your starter Talon ship in favor of more energy cores, equipment or hull armor. However, having 1 or 2 missiles doesn't hurt but don't get in the habit of relying on missiles to score your kills. It is imperative you become as good as possible at taking enemies out with your cannons. With that said...
- Don't be afraid to use your missles if you have them!
While you don't want to rely on missiles they can be extremely useful when used in the correct situations. Missiles are heat seeking. So the best time to use a missle is when you have an enemy damaged and on the run. Often ships that you are hammering on will realize they're going down fast and will try to afterburn away from you as fast as possible and play a chase game with you. This will make it very hard for you to land cannon shots on them and you will not be recharging energy quickly as you will be engaging your afterburner to stay on the enemy. Using your afterburner slows your ships energy recharge rate. So if their shields are already down and you've done some hull damage and they try to run, afterburn after them, use Beam Cannons gently to keep their shields down and let loose a missle on em. Since they are burning so hot to get away from you, the missile is VERY likely to stay on them and ignore the countermeasures they deploy. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to watch your missle slowly streaking up behind an enemy running away on full afterburners as they franctically dump counter measures that the missle totally ignores and then BOOM turns them to space dust.
Another OK time to use a missle can be if you get stuck into a head on attack against someone. As much as you try to avoid it, these enemy A.I ships can be a bit hard headed and suicidal and will come at you head on. So if you get a missle lock and they are bearing down on you straight ahead, let that missile rip, it may just save your life. At the least it should hit them head on and knock them around a lot and buy you time to get afterburning past them and fly out for a recharge and return.
In short, use missles only when you have put your enemy in a perfect situation where they won't be able to avoid it. Ideally when they're hurt and on the run afterburning. More heat = better chance the missile hits them. Or if you are in a dire defensive situation such as when an enemy is coming at you head on and you have no way to avoid it.
- Know how to avoid enemy missiles!
This kinda goes without saying but if enemy cannon fire can shred your little Talon frame quickly then missiles will utterly devastate you. Anytime you are given a "Missle Inbound" warning from your computer you must immediately stop everything else you're doing, look at your reticle for the yellow bar showing where the missle is coming from and immediately afterburn in the opposite direction. As soon as you get up over 2,000 speed, kill all engines and flip to INTERIAL mode. If the missle is still bearing down on you, you can either: Wait until the missle warning icon turns red and then slam multiple countermeasures and hope for the best OR spin your ship around while costing away in INERTIAL mode and attempt to shoot the missle down manually with your Particle cannons. (I don't think Beam Cannons can damage missiles)
You can also flat out outrun the missile by going over 2,000 units of speed and just keep on afterburning. Once you get about 2,000m away from the missle it will just explode on empty space and you can recharge, turn around and re-engage.
Simply put, drop everything and RUN when you get missile locked. That is all the weaker frames can do against missiles really. Luckily most fighter enemies don't usually fire very many missles.
- Learn to fly and control your ship in INERTIAL mode!
This is definitely a more advanced combat tactic and why I saved it for late in the guide here. But if you can get good at drifting and controlling your ship in INERTIAL mode you will have a hude advantage in combat. This game's space combat is all about using your directional velocity to curve, circle and rotate around your enemy while always keeping them in front of you so you can shoot them and they have a hard time returning fire. Since IDS mode typically keeps you flying where you're pointing it tends to result in straight line flying and combat. If you can learn to toggle into INTERTIAL mode and use manual thrusters to drift and curve your approaches and turns you will be able to coast and curve around enemy targets and hammer on them with your cannons whilst keeping yourself relatively safe from return fire or enemies getting on your 6.
A great way to practice that is to find an asteroid anywhere in space with room around it and try to drift/rotate your ship around the asteroid at about 500-1,000m in front of you at all times. That asteroid is essentially representing an enemy target and you're practicing drifting around it while keeping your cannons trained on it and within firing range.
- In closing, the best tips I can give is to always be aware of everything going on, what you're doing, what your enemy is doing and try to react 2-3 steps ahead of your enemy. Don't be afraid to break off, recharge and come back. Use your speed to an advantage but also don't go too fast either. You have to strike a balance between knowing when to slow down for tight manuevering to stay on an enemy and when to speed up to not let them slip away or avoid danger yourself.
And of course, management, management, management! Understanding your ship's systems and managing those systems as described above is key to scoring kills and slipping through death's boney fingers!
The combat in this game is tough! You're going to get shot down and have epic fights that end in unhappy ways. But don't get discouraged! Learn from your mistakes, try something different next time and just keep practicing. As you get used to, and good at, the flight model, physics and managing your ship's systems, those things will become 2nd nature to you. And before you know it your kill count will climb and you will hardly ever get shot down. As your Military Rank and Money stocks grow, visit the Carriers in your Warzones to upgrade to Military Frames. Fighting in a Mil frame will make things sooooo much easier. Hopefully these tips will help you get to the 3.5 million credits needed to buy your first Mil frame via combat if that is the path you wish to take.
Happy hunting and best of luck to all the fresh Combat Pilots out there! I will try to turn this into a full blown Combat Guide to post on the forums and in the Guides section here on Steam. And hopefully I can get my recording software setup again and I will try to record some videos showing some of this stuff off in action to better show what I mean by all of it.
However, this whole guide and your questions have compelled me to start a new Combat Pilot and try to make all of my money via combat with the starter Talon. I know it's doable and now your thread has motivated me to make it happen. Best of luck to you out there!
-One thing I do that I personally find essential is to change the S and W keys from throttle up and down to inertia forward and reverse (normally , and . keys) and just use the top row of numbers to set IDS speeds.
-I much prefer the view from behind the ship compared to the view from in the cockpit, or just the HUD view, for combat. I use the position of my ship on the screen to tell me more about what is going on and how my ship is moving through space.
-you can earn a lot more money as a fighter playing in multi-player when you play with high ranked players because everyone that does the mission jointly gets the rate of the higher ranking player that accepted the mission.
-You can join up with another player online as their gunner and fire 360 degrees around the ship that you are linked to (a lot of fun and a good way to see how a good fighter pilot flies)
-set a way-point and try to fly sideways in circles around it keeping the same distance to practice flying in inertia mode
-I think it is best to learn first how to stay alive with many enemies around you instead of at first just trying to blow the enemies up. If you happen to get close and can get some shots off do it, but when learning do not worry if you do little damage with your passes. After getting an idea of what is safe and what is not then slowly start shooting them out of the sky. It takes a different approach then what is common for most arcade games.