Manual piloting is one of the most important tools for any PVPer. In most cases, manual piloting will win or lose you the fight. While brawling you use manual piloting to control the distance you start the engagement at and for transversal control. When kiting you use manual piloting to stay out of web and scram range of your target and often their friends while in range to point and apply damage

The Basics

Point your camera in the direction you wish to move, with your ship as a crosshair, then double-click in space close to your ship. Make sure you don't actually double-click the ship itself, as that will open your cargo hold. You're now moving in a straight line with your ship's thrusters facing the camera. Next, find a stationary objective

– like a planet

– away from the center of your screen. Double-click in empty space close to the object's icon, but not on it, as that will fire off the align or approach command (cheater!). Adjust your camera behind your ship and you'll see you're now aligned towards that object. Play around and get confortable with these mechanics for the next part.

The Orbit

For this you'll need a frigate with a 10m3 drone bay and 10mbit/s of drone bandwidth. The Tristan, Breacher, and Tormentor are perfect for this. Fit your frigate with one Hammerhead I, a 5MN Microwarpdrive, a Warp Disruptor II, a Nanofiber Internal Structure II or two, and enough Cap Rechargers or Capacitor Power Relays to be stable with everything running. You'll also need tactical overlay enabled and the Distance, Velocity and Radial Velocity* columns on your overview. Once you've got everything sorted, find a place with nothing on grid, such as a safespot or an empty moon. Deploy your Hammerhead I, right-click on it and click Abandon Drone. Your drone will be what you'll practise your manual piloting on, so make sure you can see it on your overview. Now for the actual manual piloting.

With your camera horizontal, double-click in space so you move away from the Hammerhead I. Once you get some distance, right-click on it and Keep at Range at 20km. As your ship stops, m

ake sure you're not too far above or below the drone . Select the Hammerhead I so you see a line going from you to it. Move your camera so the line is 90º to the left from a top-down view. Next, move your camera in a straight line down until the tactical overlay is just a line. Double-click next to your ship with your microwarpdrive off, wait around five seconds, then stop your ship. While you're moving, look from a top-down view where your ship is going and keep an eye on your radial velocity and distance. Repeat this process a few times. If your ship is moving away from the drone, either double-click somewhere to the left of your ship, or have the line from the drone be <90º in the top-down view. If you're moving towards the drone, either double-click to the right of your ship or have the line from the drone be >90º. With that in mind, repeat the process until you're confident in your ability to make a full orbit this way.













At this point you should be able to do full orbit by stopping, adjusting your camera, then moving. How about we eliminate the stopping part? Try to do what you did above, but this time adjust the camera on the move. Keep a very close eye on your radial velocity and adjust accordingly. When you've mastered this, try with your Microwarpdrive on. You'll want to manually set your speed to 1km/s as you start, then slowly increase your speed as you master it. Eventually as muscle memory takes over, you should also be able to mostly eliminate the top-down view. Once you're confidently orbiting at full speed, the fun begins. Right-click on your capacitor and Reconnect to Lost Drones. Lock up your now moving Hammerhead I and activate your Warp Disruptor II on it. Finally, tell the drone to return to drone bay while you kite it around. See how long you're able to keep it pointed while you stay outside 13km (overheated Stasis Webifier II range).





Congratulations! You now know the basics of manual piloting and kiting. You can practise with a friend or go out guns blazing with a kiting ship of your choice. Keep in mind this guide didn't go over topics such as slingshotting or brawling in general, as that would require two players and this guide was designed for solo players. I'll make other guides in the future to cover those topics.



