ExiIe

So, for those who don't like to read dry instructional type documentation; this may not be for you.
For those who love data, planning and simply gorge on information. Welcome!
I'll start off with the Order of Battle.

As an active military member, I have a decent amount of insight into the organizational aspects of combat. 
 
With that being said, I drew up a concept of operations in a google doc.

I'll share it with you all here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mPtnHlCnjhJC5CIDrh6AwDjBgsdfmNuguhjTnf574FI/mobilebasic
 
Secondly; and far more longwindedly; 
 
Forward   The following is a transcript of a document I created for Synergy members. I figure I might as well draw from a larger think tank and see what discussions can be added here.   Excuse the crude drawing   Preliminary Theories on combat in Star Citizen:   Any form of armed conflict has a series of stages; Perception of the threat, identification of the enemy and finally engaging the target and removing the threat.   When perception of the threat and identification of the enemy are compromised, initiative is lost and the fight is not in your favor. Therefore the latter is essential to retaining initiative; and is why we will, as often as possible, fly with at least one craft equipped with a powerful sensor package.    Luckily for us, identifying the enemy should not be a terribly difficult task since the targetting systems and computers will likely take care of that once the threat is percieved or we are under contact.   Engaging the enemy and surviving the contact will be the primary concern of this conversation.   Spacial Awareness, Initial State and Angle of Attack:   Due to the nature of our existence; humanity has a limited understanding of 6DOF space. Becoming a skilled pilot in Star Citizen will require a fluent concept in six degrees of movement. Exploiting the inherent weakness and disorientation of other pilots is a key factor in tipping the scales of combat in our favor.    After a jump, we can assume that ships will be positioned in a default state in relation to the system. The "Up" sensation will be imprinted into the average persons mind by this initial introduction to the stellar landscape.    Planets orbit suns on a plane called an Accretion disk; formed by the spinning of juvenile star system particles prior to forging of planets in the early stages of a solar systems life. The centrifugal forces flattened the material and hence the planets formed thereafter all sit on a common plane.    We can assume that ships will enter systems level with the accretion plane. With this in mind, we can assume that most pilots will consider the environment of this plane as they travel between planets; moving in a more or less two dimentional area, keeping "Up" the same orientation they had when they entered the system.    In Combat, understanding where you are in relation to a fixed location is very important; it allows the mind to comprehend a determined position and relate range and angular momentum to target objects at a glance. We too will use a default concept of what is "Up" but in understanding what the majority of people will also use allows us to exploit this as a weakness.   We'll assume that systems will be cube or spherical in nature, with distances limited to the programming of the game. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that we will have the ability to travel in the Y Axis to the same degree as we would the Z or X axes. This means that to avoid common traffic, it would be prudent to travel in the -Y axis immediately after entering a system, to create distance from the accretion plane that most people will be travelling on.   The reason we choose -Y rather than +Y is because the forces of gravity will still be a danger to pilots, especially those flying in free mode, without the computer controlling high inertial maneuvers.    The human body can take more positive G's than it can negative, which means if we are in the -Y quadrant of the system and come under attack, it is most likely going to come from above; from the accretion plane. The average person will try to maintain their "Up" orientation, and will therefore be diving toward us, incurring negative G's and moving toward redout faster than it will take us to move to blackout in a climb to meet them.    Another reason for moving into the -Y quadrant is because if we choose to attack a target, who is assuming the default Accretion flight trajectory; we will attack from below, and most preferrably from below and behind; this is called a "Cold Six" angle of attack.   Only two ships currently have weapons that can fire into the Cold Six blind spot: The Idris Corvette and the Retaliator bomber, meaning that for the vast majority of vessels, attacking from below and behind will put them in a very vulnerable position.    Furthermore, our opening posture after climbing to the angle attack should be to roll inverted in reference to the accretion plane. The enemy, after incurring initial damage or noticing the threat through sensors, will turn to meet us. Keeping their belly in our sights is a sure way to avoid their weapons and keep them in a - G scenario. When they move to engage, we will thrust ventrally, incurring positive G's while remaining "below" the target.     This is the moment where 6DOF combat breaks away from conventional aerobatic maneuvers.   If the target is in Fly-By-Wire mode; we will be able to maintain weapons on target for extended periods as he banks to reposition for another pass; as a fighter jet would in atmosphere. Meanwhile, we will be rotating around an axis with the target as its center; orbiting the target and maintaining positive G's.    If the target is in free mode; combat changes quite a bit.   The Furbal: Single Combat   Both ships will enter a rolling combat; each of them facing each other and firing weapons while jockying for positive G position.    My assumption at the moment is that  a winning loadout will be one with powerful weapons that outrange the enemy weapons and a ship that has higher velocity.    In Single Combat, the ideal situation in this rolling combat would be to outrun your enemy's weapon range while keeping him inside your own weapon range. Effectively making it impossible to hit you while you can still effectively hit him.   An alternative would be to have shorter range, but remain faster; so that you can break contact when shields are low; but come back in for another pass.    Small Unit Tactics   Understanding single combat is a necessity; however, engaging an enemy on your own should be a rarity.    Flying solo is equivalent to painting yourself with a giant bull’s eye.   The ideal ratio of manpower against an attacker is three to one. If our target location has two enemy vessels, we bring six. If they have ten, we bring thirty. This is the ratio used in armed conflict.    By this standard, the minimum flight should be a three man operation; one flight leader and two wingmen.   Communication:   When squading up with a group, one thing has to be clear: Who is the leader?    Organization and unified intent trumps individual skill. It is better to have a bad plan that is followed through than it is to break rank and lose cohesion. For this reason, a leader should be agreed upon, after which decisions are no longer questioned.    If your flight is on route to destination and there is no threat; diplomacy and discussion is not discouraged. Work together and build a plan that everyone agrees on. However, once the weapons are firing, there needs to be only one single vision; one single voice that all others comply with and follow. The alternative is a shitshow of lone wolves more concerned with their personal goals than the objective.   Formation   Historically formations existed for several reasons: Instil discipline, encourage precision in habitual flight, deceiving radar, maintaining eye contact for hand gestures and most importantly: situational awareness and overlapping cover of each other during combat.   Vee formation is pretty near an international convention used among nearly every air combat unit in the world; and we’re no different. It’s simple, effective and proved itself in WWII and other theatres.    The concept is as follows: The Flight lead is up front with his wingmen slightly rear to both sides. The flight leader is the primary offensive craft, while the first (right) wingman wears two hats; joins the flight leader in offensive action when under low threat; or joins the third wingman in defensive action when there is heavy opposition.    The formation should be as tight and clean as possible while in low-threat areas; mainly as a show of professionalism and discipline. We market Synergy at all times.    In a threat area however, the formation loosens; allowing each craft maximum visibility and freeing them from concentrating on the formation itself. Ideally, weapons range would effect the spread of the formation; each ship must have overlapping archs of fire. Being as spread out as weapons range allows will also extend sensor range so that the enemy can be identified more quickly.    When a flight is comprised of three skilled pilots who all know each other well; an alternative form of leadership can be used.    In this fluid formation, the flight leader position shifts between each pilot based on who was first to identify the threat; the logic being that this person has the most situational awareness at the given moment. Instead of relaying information for the flight leader to act upon, and losing precious time in the process, the individual pilot who first identifies a target becomes the flight leader for the duration of the engagement and directs the wingmen as required.    During combat, the formation must be held; meaning if the flight lead is rolling over and burning ventral to remain under his target; the two wingmen are doing the same. With the loose formation during combat, enemies will likely target the lagging wingman; which will require the formation to shuffle so that the targeted vessel is no longer in the rearguard, and covered by the second wingman; all the while the offensive against the original target remains the primary focus.    Even with enemy on your tail, you maintain formation with the flight leader until his target is dispatched.    Never break away to engage a target solo.   Never break formation at all for that matter.    If the threat is overwhelming, the flight leader will call a tactical withdrawal.   Withdrawal   A tactical withdrawal would involve each craft taking turns rotating on their axis, firing at the enemy and exposing themselves to enemy fire while the other two gain distance and recharge.    After expending all ammunition/missiles/energy, the lagging craft will afterburn to the front of the formation and his position will be taken by the second ship. This ship will then do the same; maintaining angular momentum in egress while firing to the retrograde until all ammunition/energy/missiles are expended and then rotate positions again.   This allows maximum firepower while the two other craft recharge energy and shields for their turn to suppress the enemy.   This continues until contact is broken.    The only time a withdrawal would occur is if initial assessment of the threat was grossly underestimated and the flight is found to be outnumbered. This is why assessment should always be made with the three to one ratio in mind. If you are three pilots, you should only be engaging a solo target.   Large Scale Operations   Our current fleet only has a few pilots, but we have many ships at our disposal, a lot of them with specific roles. It’s reasonable to assume that in the future, we will be able to field a squadron of large ships supported by fighters to undertake large scale operations against other large ships.    The Idris is a big ship, the largest we have at the moment, however the role of each ship should never be ignored. Bombers will never be good against fighters, and nor will ships like the Idris.    The Idris is an anti-cap ship and a command and control vessel designed as an HQ for larger operations, which is what we will use it for when undertaking such operations.   Squadron composition during a large scale operation based on our current fleet will likely be comprised of:    The Idris as command and control/awacs with a flight of two fighters as escorts (probably my 2 Avengers manned by AI);    Two Retaliators and any Gladiators as anti-cap would act as flight lead for two fighters in escort(probably AI again if we don’t have the numbers);    Our main offensive forces would be comprised of two or more Constellation as the flight leader of the offensive flight, with two fighters in support as wingmen, not including the P52’s.    Finally, we would field any other fighters in three man flights.    The Idris would remain in the rear, using information collected from sensor packages installed on vanguard flights to coordinate the battle.    The Retaliators and their fighters, would remain with the Idirs in anticipation of capital ships; other Idris Corvettes or large vessels that they can engage effectively.    The offensive flights with Constellations would move forward under commands from the Idirs’s crew coordinating the battle.    Depending on the types of enemy vessels, we would either send one flight of three ships against an individual target, or two or more flights of three ships against a single large target.    A given flight will never undertake more than a single target at any time. Three ships, two of which would most likely be in offensive action, will bear down on a single vessel, concentrating fire until it is destroyed and then moving on to the next. The third wingman will be lagging in defence; jockeying with the second wingman when under enemy pressure.     On AI and the nature of Instanced Gameplay   Due to the nature of instanced gameplay, using AI pilots for our escorts and in gunner positions will be a necessity; and a tactical advantage in terms of being able to field more ships in a single engagement.    It’s assumed that instance slots will be based on player connections, not on ship numbers; therefore if we field ten players with two AI wingmen each, we can easily field a large amount of fighters with fewer slots taken up by our organization.    Maxing our personal number of members in an instance with AI wingmen could potentially allow us to greatly outnumber an opposing force who fields their entire number of ships all piloted by player characters with no AI wingmen.   This, however, is mainly conjecture; we are not yet certain about what will be considered occupying an instance slot; be it players or ships.

So, for those who don't like to read dry instructional type documentation; this may not be for you.
For those who love data, planning and simply gorge on information. Welcome!
I'll start off with the Order of Battle.

As an active military member, I have a decent amount of insight into the organizational aspects of combat. 
 
With that being said, I drew up a concept of operations in a google doc.

I'll share it with you all here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mPtnHlCnjhJC5CIDrh6AwDjBgsdfmNuguhjTnf574FI/mobilebasic
 
Secondly; and far more longwindedly; 
 
Forward   The following is a transcript of a document I created for Synergy members. I figure I might as well draw from a larger think tank and see what discussions can be added here.   Excuse the crude drawing   Preliminary Theories on combat in Star Citizen:   Any form of armed conflict has a series of stages; Perception of the threat, identification of the enemy and finally engaging the target and removing the threat.   When perception of the threat and identification of the enemy are compromised, initiative is lost and the fight is not in your favor. Therefore the latter is essential to retaining initiative; and is why we will, as often as possible, fly with at least one craft equipped with a powerful sensor package.    Luckily for us, identifying the enemy should not be a terribly difficult task since the targetting systems and computers will likely take care of that once the threat is percieved or we are under contact.   Engaging the enemy and surviving the contact will be the primary concern of this conversation.   Spacial Awareness, Initial State and Angle of Attack:   Due to the nature of our existence; humanity has a limited understanding of 6DOF space. Becoming a skilled pilot in Star Citizen will require a fluent concept in six degrees of movement. Exploiting the inherent weakness and disorientation of other pilots is a key factor in tipping the scales of combat in our favor.    After a jump, we can assume that ships will be positioned in a default state in relation to the system. The "Up" sensation will be imprinted into the average persons mind by this initial introduction to the stellar landscape.    Planets orbit suns on a plane called an Accretion disk; formed by the spinning of juvenile star system particles prior to forging of planets in the early stages of a solar systems life. The centrifugal forces flattened the material and hence the planets formed thereafter all sit on a common plane.    We can assume that ships will enter systems level with the accretion plane. With this in mind, we can assume that most pilots will consider the environment of this plane as they travel between planets; moving in a more or less two dimentional area, keeping "Up" the same orientation they had when they entered the system.    In Combat, understanding where you are in relation to a fixed location is very important; it allows the mind to comprehend a determined position and relate range and angular momentum to target objects at a glance. We too will use a default concept of what is "Up" but in understanding what the majority of people will also use allows us to exploit this as a weakness.   We'll assume that systems will be cube or spherical in nature, with distances limited to the programming of the game. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that we will have the ability to travel in the Y Axis to the same degree as we would the Z or X axes. This means that to avoid common traffic, it would be prudent to travel in the -Y axis immediately after entering a system, to create distance from the accretion plane that most people will be travelling on.   The reason we choose -Y rather than +Y is because the forces of gravity will still be a danger to pilots, especially those flying in free mode, without the computer controlling high inertial maneuvers.    The human body can take more positive G's than it can negative, which means if we are in the -Y quadrant of the system and come under attack, it is most likely going to come from above; from the accretion plane. The average person will try to maintain their "Up" orientation, and will therefore be diving toward us, incurring negative G's and moving toward redout faster than it will take us to move to blackout in a climb to meet them.    Another reason for moving into the -Y quadrant is because if we choose to attack a target, who is assuming the default Accretion flight trajectory; we will attack from below, and most preferrably from below and behind; this is called a "Cold Six" angle of attack.   Only two ships currently have weapons that can fire into the Cold Six blind spot: The Idris Corvette and the Retaliator bomber, meaning that for the vast majority of vessels, attacking from below and behind will put them in a very vulnerable position.    Furthermore, our opening posture after climbing to the angle attack should be to roll inverted in reference to the accretion plane. The enemy, after incurring initial damage or noticing the threat through sensors, will turn to meet us. Keeping their belly in our sights is a sure way to avoid their weapons and keep them in a - G scenario. When they move to engage, we will thrust ventrally, incurring positive G's while remaining "below" the target.     This is the moment where 6DOF combat breaks away from conventional aerobatic maneuvers.   If the target is in Fly-By-Wire mode; we will be able to maintain weapons on target for extended periods as he banks to reposition for another pass; as a fighter jet would in atmosphere. Meanwhile, we will be rotating around an axis with the target as its center; orbiting the target and maintaining positive G's.    If the target is in free mode; combat changes quite a bit.   The Furbal: Single Combat   Both ships will enter a rolling combat; each of them facing each other and firing weapons while jockying for positive G position.    My assumption at the moment is that  a winning loadout will be one with powerful weapons that outrange the enemy weapons and a ship that has higher velocity.    In Single Combat, the ideal situation in this rolling combat would be to outrun your enemy's weapon range while keeping him inside your own weapon range. Effectively making it impossible to hit you while you can still effectively hit him.   An alternative would be to have shorter range, but remain faster; so that you can break contact when shields are low; but come back in for another pass.    Small Unit Tactics   Understanding single combat is a necessity; however, engaging an enemy on your own should be a rarity.    Flying solo is equivalent to painting yourself with a giant bull’s eye.   The ideal ratio of manpower against an attacker is three to one. If our target location has two enemy vessels, we bring six. If they have ten, we bring thirty. This is the ratio used in armed conflict.    By this standard, the minimum flight should be a three man operation; one flight leader and two wingmen.   Communication:   When squading up with a group, one thing has to be clear: Who is the leader?    Organization and unified intent trumps individual skill. It is better to have a bad plan that is followed through than it is to break rank and lose cohesion. For this reason, a leader should be agreed upon, after which decisions are no longer questioned.    If your flight is on route to destination and there is no threat; diplomacy and discussion is not discouraged. Work together and build a plan that everyone agrees on. However, once the weapons are firing, there needs to be only one single vision; one single voice that all others comply with and follow. The alternative is a shitshow of lone wolves more concerned with their personal goals than the objective.   Formation   Historically formations existed for several reasons: Instil discipline, encourage precision in habitual flight, deceiving radar, maintaining eye contact for hand gestures and most importantly: situational awareness and overlapping cover of each other during combat.   Vee formation is pretty near an international convention used among nearly every air combat unit in the world; and we’re no different. It’s simple, effective and proved itself in WWII and other theatres.    The concept is as follows: The Flight lead is up front with his wingmen slightly rear to both sides. The flight leader is the primary offensive craft, while the first (right) wingman wears two hats; joins the flight leader in offensive action when under low threat; or joins the third wingman in defensive action when there is heavy opposition.    The formation should be as tight and clean as possible while in low-threat areas; mainly as a show of professionalism and discipline. We market Synergy at all times.    In a threat area however, the formation loosens; allowing each craft maximum visibility and freeing them from concentrating on the formation itself. Ideally, weapons range would effect the spread of the formation; each ship must have overlapping archs of fire. Being as spread out as weapons range allows will also extend sensor range so that the enemy can be identified more quickly.    When a flight is comprised of three skilled pilots who all know each other well; an alternative form of leadership can be used.    In this fluid formation, the flight leader position shifts between each pilot based on who was first to identify the threat; the logic being that this person has the most situational awareness at the given moment. Instead of relaying information for the flight leader to act upon, and losing precious time in the process, the individual pilot who first identifies a target becomes the flight leader for the duration of the engagement and directs the wingmen as required.    During combat, the formation must be held; meaning if the flight lead is rolling over and burning ventral to remain under his target; the two wingmen are doing the same. With the loose formation during combat, enemies will likely target the lagging wingman; which will require the formation to shuffle so that the targeted vessel is no longer in the rearguard, and covered by the second wingman; all the while the offensive against the original target remains the primary focus.    Even with enemy on your tail, you maintain formation with the flight leader until his target is dispatched.    Never break away to engage a target solo.   Never break formation at all for that matter.    If the threat is overwhelming, the flight leader will call a tactical withdrawal.   Withdrawal   A tactical withdrawal would involve each craft taking turns rotating on their axis, firing at the enemy and exposing themselves to enemy fire while the other two gain distance and recharge.    After expending all ammunition/missiles/energy, the lagging craft will afterburn to the front of the formation and his position will be taken by the second ship. This ship will then do the same; maintaining angular momentum in egress while firing to the retrograde until all ammunition/energy/missiles are expended and then rotate positions again.   This allows maximum firepower while the two other craft recharge energy and shields for their turn to suppress the enemy.   This continues until contact is broken.    The only time a withdrawal would occur is if initial assessment of the threat was grossly underestimated and the flight is found to be outnumbered. This is why assessment should always be made with the three to one ratio in mind. If you are three pilots, you should only be engaging a solo target.   Large Scale Operations   Our current fleet only has a few pilots, but we have many ships at our disposal, a lot of them with specific roles. It’s reasonable to assume that in the future, we will be able to field a squadron of large ships supported by fighters to undertake large scale operations against other large ships.    The Idris is a big ship, the largest we have at the moment, however the role of each ship should never be ignored. Bombers will never be good against fighters, and nor will ships like the Idris.    The Idris is an anti-cap ship and a command and control vessel designed as an HQ for larger operations, which is what we will use it for when undertaking such operations.   Squadron composition during a large scale operation based on our current fleet will likely be comprised of:    The Idris as command and control/awacs with a flight of two fighters as escorts (probably my 2 Avengers manned by AI);    Two Retaliators and any Gladiators as anti-cap would act as flight lead for two fighters in escort(probably AI again if we don’t have the numbers);    Our main offensive forces would be comprised of two or more Constellation as the flight leader of the offensive flight, with two fighters in support as wingmen, not including the P52’s.    Finally, we would field any other fighters in three man flights.    The Idris would remain in the rear, using information collected from sensor packages installed on vanguard flights to coordinate the battle.    The Retaliators and their fighters, would remain with the Idirs in anticipation of capital ships; other Idris Corvettes or large vessels that they can engage effectively.    The offensive flights with Constellations would move forward under commands from the Idirs’s crew coordinating the battle.    Depending on the types of enemy vessels, we would either send one flight of three ships against an individual target, or two or more flights of three ships against a single large target.    A given flight will never undertake more than a single target at any time. Three ships, two of which would most likely be in offensive action, will bear down on a single vessel, concentrating fire until it is destroyed and then moving on to the next. The third wingman will be lagging in defence; jockeying with the second wingman when under enemy pressure.     On AI and the nature of Instanced Gameplay   Due to the nature of instanced gameplay, using AI pilots for our escorts and in gunner positions will be a necessity; and a tactical advantage in terms of being able to field more ships in a single engagement.    It’s assumed that instance slots will be based on player connections, not on ship numbers; therefore if we field ten players with two AI wingmen each, we can easily field a large amount of fighters with fewer slots taken up by our organization.    Maxing our personal number of members in an instance with AI wingmen could potentially allow us to greatly outnumber an opposing force who fields their entire number of ships all piloted by player characters with no AI wingmen.   This, however, is mainly conjecture; we are not yet certain about what will be considered occupying an instance slot; be it players or ships.

So, for those who don't like to read dry instructional type documentation; this may not be for you.
For those who love data, planning and simply gorge on information. Welcome!
I'll start off with the Order of Battle.

As an active military member, I have a decent amount of insight into the organizational aspects of combat. 
 
With that being said, I drew up a concept of operations in a google doc.

I'll share it with you all here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mPtnHlCnjhJC5CIDrh6AwDjBgsdfmNuguhjTnf574FI/mobilebasic
 
Secondly; and far more longwindedly; 
 
Forward   The following is a transcript of a document I created for Synergy members. I figure I might as well draw from a larger think tank and see what discussions can be added here.   Excuse the crude drawing   Preliminary Theories on combat in Star Citizen:   Any form of armed conflict has a series of stages; Perception of the threat, identification of the enemy and finally engaging the target and removing the threat.   When perception of the threat and identification of the enemy are compromised, initiative is lost and the fight is not in your favor. Therefore the latter is essential to retaining initiative; and is why we will, as often as possible, fly with at least one craft equipped with a powerful sensor package.    Luckily for us, identifying the enemy should not be a terribly difficult task since the targetting systems and computers will likely take care of that once the threat is percieved or we are under contact.   Engaging the enemy and surviving the contact will be the primary concern of this conversation.   Spacial Awareness, Initial State and Angle of Attack:   Due to the nature of our existence; humanity has a limited understanding of 6DOF space. Becoming a skilled pilot in Star Citizen will require a fluent concept in six degrees of movement. Exploiting the inherent weakness and disorientation of other pilots is a key factor in tipping the scales of combat in our favor.    After a jump, we can assume that ships will be positioned in a default state in relation to the system. The "Up" sensation will be imprinted into the average persons mind by this initial introduction to the stellar landscape.    Planets orbit suns on a plane called an Accretion disk; formed by the spinning of juvenile star system particles prior to forging of planets in the early stages of a solar systems life. The centrifugal forces flattened the material and hence the planets formed thereafter all sit on a common plane.    We can assume that ships will enter systems level with the accretion plane. With this in mind, we can assume that most pilots will consider the environment of this plane as they travel between planets; moving in a more or less two dimentional area, keeping "Up" the same orientation they had when they entered the system.    In Combat, understanding where you are in relation to a fixed location is very important; it allows the mind to comprehend a determined position and relate range and angular momentum to target objects at a glance. We too will use a default concept of what is "Up" but in understanding what the majority of people will also use allows us to exploit this as a weakness.   We'll assume that systems will be cube or spherical in nature, with distances limited to the programming of the game. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that we will have the ability to travel in the Y Axis to the same degree as we would the Z or X axes. This means that to avoid common traffic, it would be prudent to travel in the -Y axis immediately after entering a system, to create distance from the accretion plane that most people will be travelling on.   The reason we choose -Y rather than +Y is because the forces of gravity will still be a danger to pilots, especially those flying in free mode, without the computer controlling high inertial maneuvers.    The human body can take more positive G's than it can negative, which means if we are in the -Y quadrant of the system and come under attack, it is most likely going to come from above; from the accretion plane. The average person will try to maintain their "Up" orientation, and will therefore be diving toward us, incurring negative G's and moving toward redout faster than it will take us to move to blackout in a climb to meet them.    Another reason for moving into the -Y quadrant is because if we choose to attack a target, who is assuming the default Accretion flight trajectory; we will attack from below, and most preferrably from below and behind; this is called a "Cold Six" angle of attack.   Only two ships currently have weapons that can fire into the Cold Six blind spot: The Idris Corvette and the Retaliator bomber, meaning that for the vast majority of vessels, attacking from below and behind will put them in a very vulnerable position.    Furthermore, our opening posture after climbing to the angle attack should be to roll inverted in reference to the accretion plane. The enemy, after incurring initial damage or noticing the threat through sensors, will turn to meet us. Keeping their belly in our sights is a sure way to avoid their weapons and keep them in a - G scenario. When they move to engage, we will thrust ventrally, incurring positive G's while remaining "below" the target.     This is the moment where 6DOF combat breaks away from conventional aerobatic maneuvers.   If the target is in Fly-By-Wire mode; we will be able to maintain weapons on target for extended periods as he banks to reposition for another pass; as a fighter jet would in atmosphere. Meanwhile, we will be rotating around an axis with the target as its center; orbiting the target and maintaining positive G's.    If the target is in free mode; combat changes quite a bit.   The Furbal: Single Combat   Both ships will enter a rolling combat; each of them facing each other and firing weapons while jockying for positive G position.    My assumption at the moment is that  a winning loadout will be one with powerful weapons that outrange the enemy weapons and a ship that has higher velocity.    In Single Combat, the ideal situation in this rolling combat would be to outrun your enemy's weapon range while keeping him inside your own weapon range. Effectively making it impossible to hit you while you can still effectively hit him.   An alternative would be to have shorter range, but remain faster; so that you can break contact when shields are low; but come back in for another pass.    Small Unit Tactics   Understanding single combat is a necessity; however, engaging an enemy on your own should be a rarity.    Flying solo is equivalent to painting yourself with a giant bull’s eye.   The ideal ratio of manpower against an attacker is three to one. If our target location has two enemy vessels, we bring six. If they have ten, we bring thirty. This is the ratio used in armed conflict.    By this standard, the minimum flight should be a three man operation; one flight leader and two wingmen.   Communication:   When squading up with a group, one thing has to be clear: Who is the leader?    Organization and unified intent trumps individual skill. It is better to have a bad plan that is followed through than it is to break rank and lose cohesion. For this reason, a leader should be agreed upon, after which decisions are no longer questioned.    If your flight is on route to destination and there is no threat; diplomacy and discussion is not discouraged. Work together and build a plan that everyone agrees on. However, once the weapons are firing, there needs to be only one single vision; one single voice that all others comply with and follow. The alternative is a shitshow of lone wolves more concerned with their personal goals than the objective.   Formation   Historically formations existed for several reasons: Instil discipline, encourage precision in habitual flight, deceiving radar, maintaining eye contact for hand gestures and most importantly: situational awareness and overlapping cover of each other during combat.   Vee formation is pretty near an international convention used among nearly every air combat unit in the world; and we’re no different. It’s simple, effective and proved itself in WWII and other theatres.    The concept is as follows: The Flight lead is up front with his wingmen slightly rear to both sides. The flight leader is the primary offensive craft, while the first (right) wingman wears two hats; joins the flight leader in offensive action when under low threat; or joins the third wingman in defensive action when there is heavy opposition.    The formation should be as tight and clean as possible while in low-threat areas; mainly as a show of professionalism and discipline. We market Synergy at all times.    In a threat area however, the formation loosens; allowing each craft maximum visibility and freeing them from concentrating on the formation itself. Ideally, weapons range would effect the spread of the formation; each ship must have overlapping archs of fire. Being as spread out as weapons range allows will also extend sensor range so that the enemy can be identified more quickly.    When a flight is comprised of three skilled pilots who all know each other well; an alternative form of leadership can be used.    In this fluid formation, the flight leader position shifts between each pilot based on who was first to identify the threat; the logic being that this person has the most situational awareness at the given moment. Instead of relaying information for the flight leader to act upon, and losing precious time in the process, the individual pilot who first identifies a target becomes the flight leader for the duration of the engagement and directs the wingmen as required.    During combat, the formation must be held; meaning if the flight lead is rolling over and burning ventral to remain under his target; the two wingmen are doing the same. With the loose formation during combat, enemies will likely target the lagging wingman; which will require the formation to shuffle so that the targeted vessel is no longer in the rearguard, and covered by the second wingman; all the while the offensive against the original target remains the primary focus.    Even with enemy on your tail, you maintain formation with the flight leader until his target is dispatched.    Never break away to engage a target solo.   Never break formation at all for that matter.    If the threat is overwhelming, the flight leader will call a tactical withdrawal.   Withdrawal   A tactical withdrawal would involve each craft taking turns rotating on their axis, firing at the enemy and exposing themselves to enemy fire while the other two gain distance and recharge.    After expending all ammunition/missiles/energy, the lagging craft will afterburn to the front of the formation and his position will be taken by the second ship. This ship will then do the same; maintaining angular momentum in egress while firing to the retrograde until all ammunition/energy/missiles are expended and then rotate positions again.   This allows maximum firepower while the two other craft recharge energy and shields for their turn to suppress the enemy.   This continues until contact is broken.    The only time a withdrawal would occur is if initial assessment of the threat was grossly underestimated and the flight is found to be outnumbered. This is why assessment should always be made with the three to one ratio in mind. If you are three pilots, you should only be engaging a solo target.   Large Scale Operations   Our current fleet only has a few pilots, but we have many ships at our disposal, a lot of them with specific roles. It’s reasonable to assume that in the future, we will be able to field a squadron of large ships supported by fighters to undertake large scale operations against other large ships.    The Idris is a big ship, the largest we have at the moment, however the role of each ship should never be ignored. Bombers will never be good against fighters, and nor will ships like the Idris.    The Idris is an anti-cap ship and a command and control vessel designed as an HQ for larger operations, which is what we will use it for when undertaking such operations.   Squadron composition during a large scale operation based on our current fleet will likely be comprised of:    The Idris as command and control/awacs with a flight of two fighters as escorts (probably my 2 Avengers manned by AI);    Two Retaliators and any Gladiators as anti-cap would act as flight lead for two fighters in escort(probably AI again if we don’t have the numbers);    Our main offensive forces would be comprised of two or more Constellation as the flight leader of the offensive flight, with two fighters in support as wingmen, not including the P52’s.    Finally, we would field any other fighters in three man flights.    The Idris would remain in the rear, using information collected from sensor packages installed on vanguard flights to coordinate the battle.    The Retaliators and their fighters, would remain with the Idirs in anticipation of capital ships; other Idris Corvettes or large vessels that they can engage effectively.    The offensive flights with Constellations would move forward under commands from the Idirs’s crew coordinating the battle.    Depending on the types of enemy vessels, we would either send one flight of three ships against an individual target, or two or more flights of three ships against a single large target.    A given flight will never undertake more than a single target at any time. Three ships, two of which would most likely be in offensive action, will bear down on a single vessel, concentrating fire until it is destroyed and then moving on to the next. The third wingman will be lagging in defence; jockeying with the second wingman when under enemy pressure.     On AI and the nature of Instanced Gameplay   Due to the nature of instanced gameplay, using AI pilots for our escorts and in gunner positions will be a necessity; and a tactical advantage in terms of being able to field more ships in a single engagement.    It’s assumed that instance slots will be based on player connections, not on ship numbers; therefore if we field ten players with two AI wingmen each, we can easily field a large amount of fighters with fewer slots taken up by our organization.    Maxing our personal number of members in an instance with AI wingmen could potentially allow us to greatly outnumber an opposing force who fields their entire number of ships all piloted by player characters with no AI wingmen.   This, however, is mainly conjecture; we are not yet certain about what will be considered occupying an instance slot; be it players or ships.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see. 

I really hope not. 

Good job on the win man.

I agree with the requirement for B-Betty to get muzzled a bit. 

 

And regarding Betty I hope they'll replace half of her beautifully pronounced sentences with simple chimes. She has so much talking at this point that she's always 20 seconds late.

I agree 100%
I think the only real threat to LTT is Imperium, not only in terms of numbers; but in terms of ideology.

Why not? 
I put three thousand dollars into this project.
That's pretty serious. 

LOL @ Artofinca! 

Love that image.

Back on topic: 

I'm looking forward to see how they react to our first impressions, but in the end I really do need them to "fix" the IFCS.

Haha! That's hilarious.

All bitching aside. I'm still digging it. 

Even if they don't "fix" the way the IFCS works; I'm still going to play the shit out of this game. 
 
and Elite

Alright. 

Sorry for the double post.
 
So 6DOF is on hold until the IFCS gets fixed and control schemes are bindable by the user.   However; there's still something to be learned here.   Removing G-Lock and ConStab is a necessity. They're training wheels and we don't need them.

Here's what I've got so far, ad-lib, right off the top of my head.     This is for AI only; as they are predictable etc.    Currently; my functioning tactic goes right back to basic aeronautical combat; just with more drift.   Guns only:

The main concept I'm using at the moment is to close in; get as close as I can and then fandangle the hell out of the Throttle; going from Full throttle+Boost, to cutting it right back to zero. This affords me an incredible turn radius that nearly resembles the 180 spin and fire that the Decouple mode was originally designed to enable.    Similar to a Scissor maneuver, from basic atmospheric combat; I cut into the AI's counter, killing speed to turn quickly, then boosting to catch up; firing on the cross and then repeating until the AI decides to stop zig zagging and tries a turning battle.     On the loop, I just cut throttle and stay on the inside; firing at the AI as it circles me.      Note that I don't need to climb to lose speed. The upward motion of the loop maneuver is replaced by cutting the throttle.    If it gets too tight I boost away; 180 and the whole dance begins with the Scissor again.   Tip: Save your missiles for the elites. The high end Vanndul tend to ignore your wingmen and come hunting straight for the Player character. Cycle your targets when they first spawn, find the elite and put a missile right into his canopy as they're on their way toward you. Flares drop from behind, so they tend to be a little useless since the AI doesn't really maneuver to avoid the missile.    Looking forward to combat against real people.

Haha! That's hilarious.

All bitching aside. I'm still digging it. 

Even if they don't "fix" the way the IFCS works; I'm still going to play the shit out of this game. 
 
and Elite

So, for those who don't like to read dry instructional type documentation; this may not be for you.
For those who love data, planning and simply gorge on information. Welcome!
I'll start off with the Order of Battle.

As an active military member, I have a decent amount of insight into the organizational aspects of combat. 
 
With that being said, I drew up a concept of operations in a google doc.

I'll share it with you all here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mPtnHlCnjhJC5CIDrh6AwDjBgsdfmNuguhjTnf574FI/mobilebasic
 
Secondly; and far more longwindedly; 
 
Forward   The following is a transcript of a document I created for Synergy members. I figure I might as well draw from a larger think tank and see what discussions can be added here.   Excuse the crude drawing   Preliminary Theories on combat in Star Citizen:   Any form of armed conflict has a series of stages; Perception of the threat, identification of the enemy and finally engaging the target and removing the threat.   When perception of the threat and identification of the enemy are compromised, initiative is lost and the fight is not in your favor. Therefore the latter is essential to retaining initiative; and is why we will, as often as possible, fly with at least one craft equipped with a powerful sensor package.    Luckily for us, identifying the enemy should not be a terribly difficult task since the targetting systems and computers will likely take care of that once the threat is percieved or we are under contact.   Engaging the enemy and surviving the contact will be the primary concern of this conversation.   Spacial Awareness, Initial State and Angle of Attack:   Due to the nature of our existence; humanity has a limited understanding of 6DOF space. Becoming a skilled pilot in Star Citizen will require a fluent concept in six degrees of movement. Exploiting the inherent weakness and disorientation of other pilots is a key factor in tipping the scales of combat in our favor.    After a jump, we can assume that ships will be positioned in a default state in relation to the system. The "Up" sensation will be imprinted into the average persons mind by this initial introduction to the stellar landscape.    Planets orbit suns on a plane called an Accretion disk; formed by the spinning of juvenile star system particles prior to forging of planets in the early stages of a solar systems life. The centrifugal forces flattened the material and hence the planets formed thereafter all sit on a common plane.    We can assume that ships will enter systems level with the accretion plane. With this in mind, we can assume that most pilots will consider the environment of this plane as they travel between planets; moving in a more or less two dimentional area, keeping "Up" the same orientation they had when they entered the system.    In Combat, understanding where you are in relation to a fixed location is very important; it allows the mind to comprehend a determined position and relate range and angular momentum to target objects at a glance. We too will use a default concept of what is "Up" but in understanding what the majority of people will also use allows us to exploit this as a weakness.   We'll assume that systems will be cube or spherical in nature, with distances limited to the programming of the game. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that we will have the ability to travel in the Y Axis to the same degree as we would the Z or X axes. This means that to avoid common traffic, it would be prudent to travel in the -Y axis immediately after entering a system, to create distance from the accretion plane that most people will be travelling on.   The reason we choose -Y rather than +Y is because the forces of gravity will still be a danger to pilots, especially those flying in free mode, without the computer controlling high inertial maneuvers.    The human body can take more positive G's than it can negative, which means if we are in the -Y quadrant of the system and come under attack, it is most likely going to come from above; from the accretion plane. The average person will try to maintain their "Up" orientation, and will therefore be diving toward us, incurring negative G's and moving toward redout faster than it will take us to move to blackout in a climb to meet them.    Another reason for moving into the -Y quadrant is because if we choose to attack a target, who is assuming the default Accretion flight trajectory; we will attack from below, and most preferrably from below and behind; this is called a "Cold Six" angle of attack.   Only two ships currently have weapons that can fire into the Cold Six blind spot: The Idris Corvette and the Retaliator bomber, meaning that for the vast majority of vessels, attacking from below and behind will put them in a very vulnerable position.    Furthermore, our opening posture after climbing to the angle attack should be to roll inverted in reference to the accretion plane. The enemy, after incurring initial damage or noticing the threat through sensors, will turn to meet us. Keeping their belly in our sights is a sure way to avoid their weapons and keep them in a - G scenario. When they move to engage, we will thrust ventrally, incurring positive G's while remaining "below" the target.     This is the moment where 6DOF combat breaks away from conventional aerobatic maneuvers.   If the target is in Fly-By-Wire mode; we will be able to maintain weapons on target for extended periods as he banks to reposition for another pass; as a fighter jet would in atmosphere. Meanwhile, we will be rotating around an axis with the target as its center; orbiting the target and maintaining positive G's.    If the target is in free mode; combat changes quite a bit.   The Furbal: Single Combat   Both ships will enter a rolling combat; each of them facing each other and firing weapons while jockying for positive G position.    My assumption at the moment is that  a winning loadout will be one with powerful weapons that outrange the enemy weapons and a ship that has higher velocity.    In Single Combat, the ideal situation in this rolling combat would be to outrun your enemy's weapon range while keeping him inside your own weapon range. Effectively making it impossible to hit you while you can still effectively hit him.   An alternative would be to have shorter range, but remain faster; so that you can break contact when shields are low; but come back in for another pass.    Small Unit Tactics   Understanding single combat is a necessity; however, engaging an enemy on your own should be a rarity.    Flying solo is equivalent to painting yourself with a giant bull’s eye.   The ideal ratio of manpower against an attacker is three to one. If our target location has two enemy vessels, we bring six. If they have ten, we bring thirty. This is the ratio used in armed conflict.    By this standard, the minimum flight should be a three man operation; one flight leader and two wingmen.   Communication:   When squading up with a group, one thing has to be clear: Who is the leader?    Organization and unified intent trumps individual skill. It is better to have a bad plan that is followed through than it is to break rank and lose cohesion. For this reason, a leader should be agreed upon, after which decisions are no longer questioned.    If your flight is on route to destination and there is no threat; diplomacy and discussion is not discouraged. Work together and build a plan that everyone agrees on. However, once the weapons are firing, there needs to be only one single vision; one single voice that all others comply with and follow. The alternative is a shitshow of lone wolves more concerned with their personal goals than the objective.   Formation   Historically formations existed for several reasons: Instil discipline, encourage precision in habitual flight, deceiving radar, maintaining eye contact for hand gestures and most importantly: situational awareness and overlapping cover of each other during combat.   Vee formation is pretty near an international convention used among nearly every air combat unit in the world; and we’re no different. It’s simple, effective and proved itself in WWII and other theatres.    The concept is as follows: The Flight lead is up front with his wingmen slightly rear to both sides. The flight leader is the primary offensive craft, while the first (right) wingman wears two hats; joins the flight leader in offensive action when under low threat; or joins the third wingman in defensive action when there is heavy opposition.    The formation should be as tight and clean as possible while in low-threat areas; mainly as a show of professionalism and discipline. We market Synergy at all times.    In a threat area however, the formation loosens; allowing each craft maximum visibility and freeing them from concentrating on the formation itself. Ideally, weapons range would effect the spread of the formation; each ship must have overlapping archs of fire. Being as spread out as weapons range allows will also extend sensor range so that the enemy can be identified more quickly.    When a flight is comprised of three skilled pilots who all know each other well; an alternative form of leadership can be used.    In this fluid formation, the flight leader position shifts between each pilot based on who was first to identify the threat; the logic being that this person has the most situational awareness at the given moment. Instead of relaying information for the flight leader to act upon, and losing precious time in the process, the individual pilot who first identifies a target becomes the flight leader for the duration of the engagement and directs the wingmen as required.    During combat, the formation must be held; meaning if the flight lead is rolling over and burning ventral to remain under his target; the two wingmen are doing the same. With the loose formation during combat, enemies will likely target the lagging wingman; which will require the formation to shuffle so that the targeted vessel is no longer in the rearguard, and covered by the second wingman; all the while the offensive against the original target remains the primary focus.    Even with enemy on your tail, you maintain formation with the flight leader until his target is dispatched.    Never break away to engage a target solo.   Never break formation at all for that matter.    If the threat is overwhelming, the flight leader will call a tactical withdrawal.   Withdrawal   A tactical withdrawal would involve each craft taking turns rotating on their axis, firing at the enemy and exposing themselves to enemy fire while the other two gain distance and recharge.    After expending all ammunition/missiles/energy, the lagging craft will afterburn to the front of the formation and his position will be taken by the second ship. This ship will then do the same; maintaining angular momentum in egress while firing to the retrograde until all ammunition/energy/missiles are expended and then rotate positions again.   This allows maximum firepower while the two other craft recharge energy and shields for their turn to suppress the enemy.   This continues until contact is broken.    The only time a withdrawal would occur is if initial assessment of the threat was grossly underestimated and the flight is found to be outnumbered. This is why assessment should always be made with the three to one ratio in mind. If you are three pilots, you should only be engaging a solo target.   Large Scale Operations   Our current fleet only has a few pilots, but we have many ships at our disposal, a lot of them with specific roles. It’s reasonable to assume that in the future, we will be able to field a squadron of large ships supported by fighters to undertake large scale operations against other large ships.    The Idris is a big ship, the largest we have at the moment, however the role of each ship should never be ignored. Bombers will never be good against fighters, and nor will ships like the Idris.    The Idris is an anti-cap ship and a command and control vessel designed as an HQ for larger operations, which is what we will use it for when undertaking such operations.   Squadron composition during a large scale operation based on our current fleet will likely be comprised of:    The Idris as command and control/awacs with a flight of two fighters as escorts (probably my 2 Avengers manned by AI);    Two Retaliators and any Gladiators as anti-cap would act as flight lead for two fighters in escort(probably AI again if we don’t have the numbers);    Our main offensive forces would be comprised of two or more Constellation as the flight leader of the offensive flight, with two fighters in support as wingmen, not including the P52’s.    Finally, we would field any other fighters in three man flights.    The Idris would remain in the rear, using information collected from sensor packages installed on vanguard flights to coordinate the battle.    The Retaliators and their fighters, would remain with the Idirs in anticipation of capital ships; other Idris Corvettes or large vessels that they can engage effectively.    The offensive flights with Constellations would move forward under commands from the Idirs’s crew coordinating the battle.    Depending on the types of enemy vessels, we would either send one flight of three ships against an individual target, or two or more flights of three ships against a single large target.    A given flight will never undertake more than a single target at any time. Three ships, two of which would most likely be in offensive action, will bear down on a single vessel, concentrating fire until it is destroyed and then moving on to the next. The third wingman will be lagging in defence; jockeying with the second wingman when under enemy pressure.     On AI and the nature of Instanced Gameplay   Due to the nature of instanced gameplay, using AI pilots for our escorts and in gunner positions will be a necessity; and a tactical advantage in terms of being able to field more ships in a single engagement.    It’s assumed that instance slots will be based on player connections, not on ship numbers; therefore if we field ten players with two AI wingmen each, we can easily field a large amount of fighters with fewer slots taken up by our organization.    Maxing our personal number of members in an instance with AI wingmen could potentially allow us to greatly outnumber an opposing force who fields their entire number of ships all piloted by player characters with no AI wingmen.   This, however, is mainly conjecture; we are not yet certain about what will be considered occupying an instance slot; be it players or ships.

Yeah the wingmen are pretty useless. It's sometimes beneficial to cover them though, so that you don't become the only target.

So, I've remedied my connection issues and have tried out the pre-alpha.

I'm thoroughly disappointed.

The "decoupled" mode is completely broken. It maintains whatever vector you had when you hit the button; any vector inputs you make thereafter don't add up to your angular momentum. They temporarily change your vector based on the original angular momentum when you hit the CapsLock key. Once you stop providing that given input, the craft returns to its original vector.

Basically it's like changing lanes on a straight freeway; and makes all my hypothesis useless. 

At least my tactics work in Elite Dangerous; where the Flight Assist Off actually works with proper physics.

I'm pretty upset about this, since I invested so heavily into this game.

They'd better get their shit together. 
 
[EDIT]
 
All that being said; joystick "wiggle" and all. It's still pretty fun; and I'm actually quite surprised at how versatile the Aurora is turning out to be. 

I made it through most of Vandul swarm without dying except for when I was suicide rammed by the Elite fighters 'a la BF4'

I love the Monty Python references in this forum  

I love the Monty Python references in this forum  

Well, unfortunately I haven't been able to do much since I keep getting connection issues. 

However; blasphemy aside, I've been enjoying the Elite Dangerous premium beta in the interim. It runs very well; and is actually quite fun. *Cringes for shouts of heresy*

Single Player Arena Commander is out.

Time to configure the X52 and put theory to practice.

I agree with the space time expansion concept, but in the end; it could still be considered speed in the sense that if person A flew a craft just outside of the milky way and stopped in relation to the center of the Universe, then after any given amount of time; the milky way would be "further" from it than it was before. Therefore; from the perspective of the people on the ship, the milky way is moving away at a given speed.
However, from the perspective of the Milky Way in relation to Space Time; we're stationary, but space time around the milky way is "stretching" or expanding.
This, nevertheless, is just a theory (as is everything really). So we could both argue until we're blue in the face. Unfortunately for me; I like arguing until I'm blue int he face
 
Also,
Love this: 
 
   

Though I would love for Star Citizen to implement proper orbit paths and spacial body physics; I don't think we'll have to worry about our orbits around planets, or our interactions with spacial body gravitational influences. That's a good thing in the sense that it would then become a true space flight simulation which many people wouldn't be able to handle considering the nuances and eccentricities of traveling through REAL space. 
Kerbal fans will know exactly what I mean.
Nevertheless, the concept of orbiting your enemy during combat is something of an axiomatic truth in terms of zero-G combat philosophy.
There are two possibilities to combat in Zero-G. Once the engagement begins; you'll either continue in a specific direction, or turn to meet your attacker.
For the sake of demonstration we'll consider a cartesian coordinate system with Z axis as height.

 
If a defending craft  is traveling at best speed from the origin point in the Y vector at speed X; upon engagement, they can continue their path toward Y at speed X and simply shift in any of the other vectors in order to avoid incoming fire/missiles etc, which would create a more or less sinusoidal trajectory; where the angular momentum of the craft is maintained in a single direction. This would be an escape or kite tactic which could be used to either outrun the attacker or lure them into a specific location. In laymen; it's like sticking your hand out the window of a moving car, you can move your hand around; but ultimately you're continuing in the direction your vehicle is going. Chiefly I'd assume that, unless you have turrets, you'll be spinning 180 to face the tailing craft and firing all main weapons backward; while maintaining your original vector with retro-thrusters. This means that even this tactic requires the pilot to be in decoupled mode.

The second choice is to alter angular momentum in any of the other vectors in order to close with and destroy the enemy; meaning one's momentum would change greatly enough to alter the direction of travel and decrease speed X in reference to the enemy craft to the point of bringing them into an intercept course. This tactic will always take on the outcome of turning battle when the assailant overtakes the defender. Once the defender is overtaken by the attacker ; their scheme of maneuver becomes helical in reference to the Origin point, since each craft will be fighting inertia in their original direction and momentum, while jockeying to avoid fire and maintain weapons range. 

The length of the helix would be the angular momentum of travel in reference to the origin point of the cartesian coordinates system; whereas the rotation is occurring in either or all of the other axes. For instance; it won't always look like a pretty helix. The concept is that it will become a turning battle; but the actions taken by either pilot will change the direction and angular velocity of the actual battle as it takes place.
A cute example would be to watch two kittens beating the crap out of each other. They go up, they go down and they fight with each other all over the room. Now imagine them tied by a string; the string being a physical embodiment of the weapons range we have in Star Citizen; and now throw them on ice; to simulate frictionless space.
Don't call the SPCA on me. plz.
Just to add a note:
Speed, direction, velocity and vectors in general are only understandable in terms of a reference observer. Right now, you're sitting at your computer reading this; god forbid you're reading it on your mobile. The point is, you're stationary from your perspective in reference to the earth and other objects around you.
However in reality, you're rotating on the earths surface as it spins on its axis; furthermore, you're hurtling through space as the earth itself rotates in its orbit around the sun. The sun itself, is careening through space as it orbits the massive black whole at the center of the milky way; and lastly; we're all travelling at break neck speed through the inter-galactic medium as the universe itself continues to expand and the Mikly Way flies deeper into infinity, propelled by the initial blast of the Big Bang.
Perspective is everything.

Actually, that seems like a pretty good idea.
I suppose what could happen is that this tactic would have some code name; like "Piece the pie" or what have you, and so if the flight is dealing with a single enemy vessel; instead of having the two wingmen remain with the lead; they would each take up a quadrant of the orbit as equidistant from each other as possible in order to each be hitting a different shield section; effectively nullifying the re-allocation of energy to shields (since they're all under attack simultaneously).
 

Thanks for the positive feedback. 

I hope some good conversations about tactics themselves can also come out of this later one; once we've wet our appetites a bit on DFM's release.
 
As for RSI Chat, I was once a regular there in the earlier days. I suppose I could get on there more often.