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[Cosmitz]

Chiming in, but what i've found helps a lot of people is keeping the C/Z/X key, or whichever is the one that brings your ship to a halt, down for as long as you fly. It'll remove the Newtonian flight model somewhat, ofc, giving you a disadvantage and a sore finger from keeping it down, but it does help to making sure you don't end up drifting away without wanting to.

To be ultra fair, i don't think the game has any visual indicators for the direction you're drifting in. Low-key idle/active engine FX just acting as 'trails' may help with that visual indication.

[TaLaR]

To be ultra fair, i don't think the game has any visual indicators for the direction you're drifting in. Low-key idle/active engine FX just acting as 'trails' may help with that visual indication.

I had an experimental mini-mod that among other things draws speed vector for piloted ship and target.
Own vector is especially important for skimmer ships. Target vector is huge help for finesse jump attacks with Hyperion (with how after teleport facing works, you need to jump along target speed vector behind or ahead of them).
Didn't update it from 0.81 though... http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=13363.0

[Alex]

To be ultra fair, i don't think the game has any visual indicators for the direction you're drifting in. Low-key idle/active engine FX just acting as 'trails' may help with that visual indication.

(There's a starfield or "dust" motes that move relative to your ship's velocity; it's there precisely for this purpose. It's fairly subtle, though - kind of has to or it'd be annoying.)

[Cosmitz]

*Cosmo just exiting the game* Oh wow, you're right. The things players take for granted i guess. Still, the dust (just the 'mid/top' layer?) does 'spiral' around your ship when you change heading, disorientating while you do that since the 'drift' helper mostly disappears in that case or just gets lost in the jumble.

The engine trail/wake when applying acceleration is helpful in that regard, but maybe it would help to have a tiny bit of trail or engine flare drift-active when at idle engines. Even if only for the controlled ship. (also i notice now that the wake lenght differs (smaller) in regard to whether you're applying full forward thrust or side thrust which makes sense to signal that the ship applies less 'acceleration' sidestrafing than moving forward, but given the max speed attainable is still the same, wouldn't the wake lenght be useful to be corespondent to the ship's current speed? The visual indicator would be roughly the same as the ship sidestrafing would get to 'full wake' in more time than just bursting forward. Also indeed, moving backwards has no 'wake'.)

[Megas]

(There's a starfield or "dust" motes that move relative to your ship's velocity; it's there precisely for this purpose. It's fairly subtle, though - kind of has to or it'd be annoying.)

What starfield?  The only thing that looks remotely like a starfield (to me) is the wallpaper background, which is cloudy.

[Flix]

Thanks everyone for the great tips!  I had no idea you could invert the shift function so it's always on; I will definitely try that.  I will stick with the Hammerhead for now (and possibly think about a carrier later) and will set front hardpoints and turrets to autofire as suggested.  Those two changes alone, along with a lot of practice, should help.  Onward!

I've been playing this game for 5 years and just found out you could invert the shift key. I,m not sure how I managed so far not knowing that! Welcome to a great game and community by the way. This is a nice place.

[Alex]

What starfield?  The only thing that looks remotely like a starfield (to me) is the wallpaper background, which is cloudy.

If you run a simulation and just move forward in any ship, note the dim ... stars? ... that move against the background. They look pretty much like part of the background when you're not moving. These are what I mean.

*Cosmo just exiting the game* Oh wow, you're right. The things players take for granted i guess. Still, the dust (just the 'mid/top' layer?) does 'spiral' around your ship when you change heading, disorientating while you do that since the 'drift' helper mostly disappears in that case or just gets lost in the jumble.

Hmm, not sure what you mean by "spiral". It should just continue to move opposite the direction of your absolute velocity.

[SCC]

For what it's worth, I've noticed this things long ago and while now I have to remind myself they are there, I rarely ever have issues locating my current vector. I might be using them unconsciously for that purpose.

[Thaago]

For what it's worth, I've noticed this things long ago and while now I have to remind myself they are there, I rarely ever have issues locating my current vector. I might be using them unconsciously for that purpose.

I think this is what I do at this point - the visual cues work in that I have learned to always know my vector, even when crazy stuff happens (flamed out and rammed by a burn drive ship is a fun time).

[Plantissue]

What gets me is if I am stationary and there are no other visual fixing points and there are some rocks drifting on screen, fooling that I am indeed stationary.

[diegoweiller]

Jesus... use a controller then if its so hard to pillot... all you need to do is change some settings...or rebind the damn shift to alt... ¬¬'

[angrytigerp]

Yeah, OP, I feel your pain. I'm only 28 years young and basically have my left pinkie contorted over to shift the entirety of any Starsector playthrough (I do about one a year and/or every time Alex adds a radical amount of stuff) between campaign speed up and point to cursor. By the end of the week or two and I kind of feel satisfied and/or get bored, my pinkie is killing me.

One of the things you might consider is rebinding the key to something you can more easily reach, though I see even here on page 4 people have already suggested that.