Moving Sideways is Better than Full Steam?

[imymemy]

I found myself moving sideways a lot in fights because it felt faster, so I set up a macro (any generic keypress program seems to work, I used pyautogui) to cycle keydown for .2 seconds and keyup for .7 seconds.

After three trials each from London to Parliament and back I found that moving sideways took between .88 and .93 as much time as using full-steam and used .53 to .59 as much fuel. I have the first engine that you can get full-steam with and I have the Agravian-class Juggernaut with a fuel efficiency between .71 and .76.

These were pretty informal tests; other people might have different results. I suspect that moving sideways doesn't scale its fuel-use with your fuel efficiency. You move at least as fast as full-steam while using way less fuel and you don't have to exit full-steam mode to interact with things. Unfortunately, you look ridiculous while doing it (and the screen zooms in instead of out while traveling). Has anyone else had a similar experience (and have you found a better cycle time)?

[Du-Vu]

I heard this was a thing back when I first started playing, yeah. Seems to be true, though the way I play this game I don't really care enough to do it. Not really sure what the best fix would be -- I do like the way side-dodging feels, but I suppose increasing the base speed of regular movement/full steam would affect balance.

[A Very Kupo Guy]

Besides the zoom out and speed lines... does Full Steam actually do anything? I can't tell if it actually goes faster or not. It certainly doesn't actually outrun enemies; they tend to remain glued to your tail at the same distance until they decide to give up, as usual.