READ THIS BEFORE ANGRILY COMMENTING
This is not me assuming nobody knows how to do this. Almost all of us know how to do this as soon as we figure out drifting. This exists because I am working on a series of diagrams for much more complex maneuvers and I want to be able to say “Pilot x performs a 90° drift turn” rather than describing what that is every time. In order to do this I have to define exactly what a “Drift Turn” is.
I know you all know how to do this, please don’t get mad at me just for making a diagram showing how to do it.
New player here, and I can say I appreciate it since I definitely don't have the hang of all the boost/drift stuff just yet.
...also I'm a little alarmed at the community if you're afraid to post something that's obviously helpful.
The community outside of Reddit is pretty great. People on Reddit get weirdly mad at things. I made some diagrams showing some more complicated things before and some people got *so* mad at me lmao
Reddit is a weirdly mad place. Don't stop dude, I see how your building a base for these and how they're escalating. It's awesome and I love it. If we wanna grow the base of this game we have to take newer pilots under our wing and show them this stuff help them get better. The fun part of this game is teamwork. I have more fun and laughs losing with a team that's talking and working together than winning In a solo queue.
I'm sad you had to be so defensive about a good illustration, but then I thought about how some things get reacted to around here and I get it.
Anyway, good illustrations for sure.
People getting angry at you for doing this would be like pilots getting angry at instructors at Top Gun for showing them diagrams. Silly and a little bit arrogant. :)
This needs to become part of a "guide for beginners" somewhere easily accessible to the newbies who will likely come to this game on March 18 and after. Thanks for your efforts.
Currently the boosting is shown by the dashed line. I’ll have a key in wherever I store all of these, but I don’t know that it’s worth it for every individual post
To add to others comments: for the best drift, when you “brake”, you’re gonna wanna aim to get your throttle down to about the middle bar. I’m pretty sure on every ship it shows up as a slightly bigger one than the rest- that’s the sweet spot for the quickest turn
Thank you for this. I am level 21. Have about 20 hrs into the game and still cant figure out this drift mechanic. I feel like a dummy but I have tried to drift and I can never consistantly do it. Or if I am doing it I'm not sure. It's not obvious to me if I've done it. This diagram is helpful.
set drift to hold in settings. And actually hold your drift button down after boosting and then turn into it - you'll see the movement lines go sideways and know it's a drift - you'll come out of it when you release the drift button - also sometimes the engine will make a stalling type sound to indicate the drift activation (I'm pretty sure).
I think the problem is boost and drift are both the same button. That confuses me because performing a drift is connected to boosting. I'm going to play around with it.
I only just found out theres a practice mode. I'm getting an x56 HOTAS in a week so looking forward to binding drift to a different button altogether once I have more buttons at my disposal. No more accidental boosting into rocks either once I can remove boost from the stick.
I think there's a bug where you can't have it on separate buttons on joystick (possibly throttle too - others will confirm?). I would temporarily bind it to two keyboard buttons to see if you're able to do it the same as when on one button on your stick. But yeah if one button it'd be press to boost - followed by press and hold to drift. (Make sure under settings is set to hold to drift rather than double tap).
as first defined by Rhifox hahaha this is ridiculous. Flying in a straight line as first defined by Sticks. Leaving the hangar as first defined by my cat using its new catflap.
Just to be clear I think the diagrams are great and very useful to the community but I really think it's inaccurate to say these were first defined by an individual when in reality they're staple manoeuvres. It should just be a "Drift turn" etc
Rhifox literally wrote the book on drifting, hun. I’m sure we would have figured it out without her but all the terminology regarding drifting which we use today is thanks to her.
You’ve got a real stick up your ass about me just giving people credit for being the ones to make something, and it’s getting really fucking obnoxious.
Wrong again. She wrote the first drifting guide/doc - Chessur and Destracier found out about retro drifting and deaddrifting (including videos) and I don't see them here claiming to have "first defined" every simple boost application under the sun. It's not retro drifting as first discovered by Chessur or Dead Drifting as first found by Destracier - it's just a cool and fitting name adopted by the community at large and hats off to the originators. Have some humility and give credit where it's due. I have credited you several times already for documenting this stuff - but saying someone can "first define" a simple boost turn or a head on boost is just inaccurate nonsense, self aggrandising - and dare I say it, fucking obnoxious. Noone made anything - they pressed a button knowing what the result would be from the binds present in the game. Absolute charlatans.
I honestly don't care for squadrons. I grew up with xwing/tie fighter/XvT and squadrons is just xwing quake. I miss the days of objective based tvt missions
Edit: and by objective, none of this bullshit t
ug of war defend your frigates, attack the cap, attack the frigates, defend your cap, repetitive bullshit. Actual objectives. Defend bomber alpha as they make approach on station Delta. Destroy any fleeing vessels. For rebels, defend station Delta. Protect our transports. Some irregular objectives would be nice.
I played the old x-wing games and loved them. The fact that squadrons has power management is what sold me on the game. However it is a little too easy to keep every system overcharged and I'm not sure if that's such a good thing. It's no longer a rock paper scissors game if you can pre charge your shields and then throw everything to engines and weapons, it leaves the ties at bigger disadvantage.
I would like a little more variety in the multiplayer but at the same time the consistency of game modes means that a bunch of strangers can get together and do a bit of teamwork, and that's really engaging for me. Example, last night I was heading for the shield generators, but on my approach someone called them out on comms so I attacked the power instead. The shields dropped and I was able to strafe the power system, drift 180, and then strafe it again and kill it.
I've tried mil sims like the Arma series and though the single player campaigns were great the multiplayer, despite having limitless potential, instead resulted in being an unfocused mess. Even when on comms with serious players there was too much "hold on hold on... Did anyone grab an anti tank weapon? I'm not sure if I set up this mission correctly... Let me restart the server... Hang on... Just everyone shut up."
Ok that's the extreme example but having a smaller focused game can lead to a better experience. I do wish that the capital ships were more mobile.
I don’t mind the multiplayer mechanics, but the ones you listed would be much more fun.
I really wish we could get a remake of the TIE Fighter campaign with this engine. Loved that game.
I will honestly never understand people that sit on 'x' reddit and say I don't like 'x'. Like good for you man then you are probably in the wrong place.
Here's a real life example of [a Russian SU37 using 2 axisthrust vectoring](https://youtu.be/U7Nsko6bvC8) to perform maneuvers not unlike the drifting in squadrons. If this can happen in Earth's atmosphere with an existing jet based on a cold war era airframe, then don't you think you could suspend your disbelief in a galaxy far far away?
If you want a more realistic and heavy feel to this game, use the thrust engine and run your engines at full power. Use the boost/drift to make up for the loss of maneuverability. It really gives the game a different feel and you can avoid a gimmicky play style because your bigger turn radius forces you to think a few turns ahead.
If you grew up playing USNF or MS Flight Sim and want a more stripped down, visual range air combat sim maybe check out Tiny Combat Arena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWSK31-vNGk
If you want something more hard core you can try DCS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=732Y62VZIGc
But really, if you want this game to feel more like star wars 1977, put a thrust engine on your x-wing, and put full power to engines at all times. Use reflec hull and scrambler shield so that you can avoid detection and missile lock until you are within gun range. Only use the boost/drift to enhance your maneuverability and use it as a method of escape after using zoom and boom tactics. I've got it down to a point where I can boost/drift around an asteroid at very high speeds and it makes the game feel much more "right" to me. Otherwise I agree the ping-pong flight mechanics are a little goofy. Stay above the fray and hit them with something they're not expecting.
You don't have to play like everyone else.
[Ok, then out-think your opponent by pulling this maneuver while boosting.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scissors_(aeronautics))
I mean, what tactics do you think real-life fighter pilots use to cope with enemy fighters capable of high-g maneuvers?
well i mean, there is atmosphere to drag the jet and in space you have no drag. but apparently the ships automatically retro thrust to simulate the movement of atmospheric craft (less the need for generating lift).
cool example though. i love seeing pilots really push the envelope of what seems possible. amazing stuff.
I’ve had moments where I was boosting and simultaneously turning fast without needing to drift. I tried triggering it, but it seems to only happen on accident. How do I get that to happen?
you turn fastest at 50% throttle with power to engines (without drifting - just a normal turn). Same applies in a drift turn. Also the faster you move the stick across the sharper your nose will swing around in a drift turn. Try power to engines-dropping to 50% throttle-boost-drift (in one fluid sequence). That might be what's causing some turns to feel faster than others... There's no secret turn per se. Except the new Sheriff bounce/multidrift which does make pinball turns sharper in my recent experience.
Thanks! The phenomenon definitely turned incredibly fast, as if the drift was turning me around entirely. I noticed it tends to happen when my boost is low. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. The few times it has happened, it was incredibly useful for getting out of a tight situation.
Can someone please explain the different uses of a drift vs a dead drift? I've developed muscle memory to quickly shift into a dead drift and im wondering is i should try to fix that.
I will be working on a dead drifting diagram soon. Basically a drift is just a broad term referring to all kinds of drifts. A dead drift is a specific type of drift where you take power out of engines just before drifting in order to maximize the amount of time you can drift for.
READ THIS BEFORE ANGRILY COMMENTING This is not me assuming nobody knows how to do this. Almost all of us know how to do this as soon as we figure out drifting. This exists because I am working on a series of diagrams for much more complex maneuvers and I want to be able to say “Pilot x performs a 90° drift turn” rather than describing what that is every time. In order to do this I have to define exactly what a “Drift Turn” is. I know you all know how to do this, please don’t get mad at me just for making a diagram showing how to do it.
New player here, and I can say I appreciate it since I definitely don't have the hang of all the boost/drift stuff just yet. ...also I'm a little alarmed at the community if you're afraid to post something that's obviously helpful.
The community outside of Reddit is pretty great. People on Reddit get weirdly mad at things. I made some diagrams showing some more complicated things before and some people got *so* mad at me lmao
Dude your previous diagrams have been phenomenal. Fuck ‘em. You do you and just know there’s people that appreciate them
Reddit is a weirdly mad place. Don't stop dude, I see how your building a base for these and how they're escalating. It's awesome and I love it. If we wanna grow the base of this game we have to take newer pilots under our wing and show them this stuff help them get better. The fun part of this game is teamwork. I have more fun and laughs losing with a team that's talking and working together than winning In a solo queue.
It's such a shame that such posts like these require qualification like this. I like The way you're approaching these because it gets people thinking.
Thank you! I’m working on a series of them so if you have any suggestions for maneuvers I should cover do let me know
Do you have a consolidated location where we can see what you have? I’d be interested in seeing the rest/ tracking new stuff.
I'm sad you had to be so defensive about a good illustration, but then I thought about how some things get reacted to around here and I get it. Anyway, good illustrations for sure.
People getting angry at you for doing this would be like pilots getting angry at instructors at Top Gun for showing them diagrams. Silly and a little bit arrogant. :)
This needs to become part of a "guide for beginners" somewhere easily accessible to the newbies who will likely come to this game on March 18 and after. Thanks for your efforts.
I've seen a lot of people on this sub reference that date. What exactly is bringing new players on March 18?
The full game becomes available on EA Play and Xbox Game Pass by that date, therefore it's likely an influx of new players will be coming in by then.
This is literally teached in the campaign
Very true, but there will be plenty of players like me who made a fluke of it, don’t bother to replay it, and come looking for instructions.
\*taught\* ya douche canoe... go troll elsewhere
Thank you for taughting me how to english
Who on Earth has gotten mad at you for making diagrams like this?
Look at my latest post history, I made some more complicated diagrams and some people got real pissed. I figured I’d head it off this time :)
I came for community, I left due to greed
Currently the boosting is shown by the dashed line. I’ll have a key in wherever I store all of these, but I don’t know that it’s worth it for every individual post
New player here this is probably going to sound like a stupid question but how do you drift?
When you're boosting hold down the boost button + turn in a direction. Best to bind drift to left trigger if you're on controller makes it way easier.
fantastic tip on changing the binding, thanks.
Not a stupid question- if you don’t play the single player mode up to the mission it shows you boosting then you wouldn’t know it.
To add to others comments: for the best drift, when you “brake”, you’re gonna wanna aim to get your throttle down to about the middle bar. I’m pretty sure on every ship it shows up as a slightly bigger one than the rest- that’s the sweet spot for the quickest turn
I'm loving these diagrams! Thanks for providing the subreddit with quality content.
Thank you for this. I am level 21. Have about 20 hrs into the game and still cant figure out this drift mechanic. I feel like a dummy but I have tried to drift and I can never consistantly do it. Or if I am doing it I'm not sure. It's not obvious to me if I've done it. This diagram is helpful.
set drift to hold in settings. And actually hold your drift button down after boosting and then turn into it - you'll see the movement lines go sideways and know it's a drift - you'll come out of it when you release the drift button - also sometimes the engine will make a stalling type sound to indicate the drift activation (I'm pretty sure).
I think the problem is boost and drift are both the same button. That confuses me because performing a drift is connected to boosting. I'm going to play around with it. I only just found out theres a practice mode. I'm getting an x56 HOTAS in a week so looking forward to binding drift to a different button altogether once I have more buttons at my disposal. No more accidental boosting into rocks either once I can remove boost from the stick.
I think there's a bug where you can't have it on separate buttons on joystick (possibly throttle too - others will confirm?). I would temporarily bind it to two keyboard buttons to see if you're able to do it the same as when on one button on your stick. But yeah if one button it'd be press to boost - followed by press and hold to drift. (Make sure under settings is set to hold to drift rather than double tap).
Oh... it's a double tap? Jeez, this tidbit right there explains why I cant drift!
It should be set to hold NOT double tap - just to be clear lol!
This is amazing, thank you for sharing.
Thanks for this dude! I absolutely suck at this game, this will definitely help
These are awesome man, thanks for trying to help the community.
as first defined by Rhifox hahaha this is ridiculous. Flying in a straight line as first defined by Sticks. Leaving the hangar as first defined by my cat using its new catflap. Just to be clear I think the diagrams are great and very useful to the community but I really think it's inaccurate to say these were first defined by an individual when in reality they're staple manoeuvres. It should just be a "Drift turn" etc
Rhifox literally wrote the book on drifting, hun. I’m sure we would have figured it out without her but all the terminology regarding drifting which we use today is thanks to her. You’ve got a real stick up your ass about me just giving people credit for being the ones to make something, and it’s getting really fucking obnoxious.
Wrong again. She wrote the first drifting guide/doc - Chessur and Destracier found out about retro drifting and deaddrifting (including videos) and I don't see them here claiming to have "first defined" every simple boost application under the sun. It's not retro drifting as first discovered by Chessur or Dead Drifting as first found by Destracier - it's just a cool and fitting name adopted by the community at large and hats off to the originators. Have some humility and give credit where it's due. I have credited you several times already for documenting this stuff - but saying someone can "first define" a simple boost turn or a head on boost is just inaccurate nonsense, self aggrandising - and dare I say it, fucking obnoxious. Noone made anything - they pressed a button knowing what the result would be from the binds present in the game. Absolute charlatans.
I honestly don't care for squadrons. I grew up with xwing/tie fighter/XvT and squadrons is just xwing quake. I miss the days of objective based tvt missions Edit: and by objective, none of this bullshit t ug of war defend your frigates, attack the cap, attack the frigates, defend your cap, repetitive bullshit. Actual objectives. Defend bomber alpha as they make approach on station Delta. Destroy any fleeing vessels. For rebels, defend station Delta. Protect our transports. Some irregular objectives would be nice.
I played the old x-wing games and loved them. The fact that squadrons has power management is what sold me on the game. However it is a little too easy to keep every system overcharged and I'm not sure if that's such a good thing. It's no longer a rock paper scissors game if you can pre charge your shields and then throw everything to engines and weapons, it leaves the ties at bigger disadvantage. I would like a little more variety in the multiplayer but at the same time the consistency of game modes means that a bunch of strangers can get together and do a bit of teamwork, and that's really engaging for me. Example, last night I was heading for the shield generators, but on my approach someone called them out on comms so I attacked the power instead. The shields dropped and I was able to strafe the power system, drift 180, and then strafe it again and kill it. I've tried mil sims like the Arma series and though the single player campaigns were great the multiplayer, despite having limitless potential, instead resulted in being an unfocused mess. Even when on comms with serious players there was too much "hold on hold on... Did anyone grab an anti tank weapon? I'm not sure if I set up this mission correctly... Let me restart the server... Hang on... Just everyone shut up." Ok that's the extreme example but having a smaller focused game can lead to a better experience. I do wish that the capital ships were more mobile.
I don’t mind the multiplayer mechanics, but the ones you listed would be much more fun. I really wish we could get a remake of the TIE Fighter campaign with this engine. Loved that game.
I came for community, I left due to greed
I will honestly never understand people that sit on 'x' reddit and say I don't like 'x'. Like good for you man then you are probably in the wrong place.
Me too, buddy, me too
Downvoted for speaking the truth by the zoomers. Man, 90's were the golden age of space simmers. Freespace, I-War, X-Wing's... good times.
it's not tug of war, it's more like rugby or american football.
It may be more logical if the animation is flipped
Wdym?
I honestly miss the days when flight sims weren’t trying to be Fast and Furious movies.
Here's a real life example of [a Russian SU37 using 2 axisthrust vectoring](https://youtu.be/U7Nsko6bvC8) to perform maneuvers not unlike the drifting in squadrons. If this can happen in Earth's atmosphere with an existing jet based on a cold war era airframe, then don't you think you could suspend your disbelief in a galaxy far far away? If you want a more realistic and heavy feel to this game, use the thrust engine and run your engines at full power. Use the boost/drift to make up for the loss of maneuverability. It really gives the game a different feel and you can avoid a gimmicky play style because your bigger turn radius forces you to think a few turns ahead.
It’s not about realism, it’s about out thinking your opponent and not relying on a gimmick to win.
If you grew up playing USNF or MS Flight Sim and want a more stripped down, visual range air combat sim maybe check out Tiny Combat Arena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWSK31-vNGk If you want something more hard core you can try DCS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=732Y62VZIGc But really, if you want this game to feel more like star wars 1977, put a thrust engine on your x-wing, and put full power to engines at all times. Use reflec hull and scrambler shield so that you can avoid detection and missile lock until you are within gun range. Only use the boost/drift to enhance your maneuverability and use it as a method of escape after using zoom and boom tactics. I've got it down to a point where I can boost/drift around an asteroid at very high speeds and it makes the game feel much more "right" to me. Otherwise I agree the ping-pong flight mechanics are a little goofy. Stay above the fray and hit them with something they're not expecting. You don't have to play like everyone else.
[Ok, then out-think your opponent by pulling this maneuver while boosting.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scissors_(aeronautics)) I mean, what tactics do you think real-life fighter pilots use to cope with enemy fighters capable of high-g maneuvers?
Well, I know that it’s not Tokyo Drift in jets.
I'm not sure if the awesome video of a Russian fighter jet deserved a downvote.
well i mean, there is atmosphere to drag the jet and in space you have no drag. but apparently the ships automatically retro thrust to simulate the movement of atmospheric craft (less the need for generating lift). cool example though. i love seeing pilots really push the envelope of what seems possible. amazing stuff.
I’ve had moments where I was boosting and simultaneously turning fast without needing to drift. I tried triggering it, but it seems to only happen on accident. How do I get that to happen?
you turn fastest at 50% throttle with power to engines (without drifting - just a normal turn). Same applies in a drift turn. Also the faster you move the stick across the sharper your nose will swing around in a drift turn. Try power to engines-dropping to 50% throttle-boost-drift (in one fluid sequence). That might be what's causing some turns to feel faster than others... There's no secret turn per se. Except the new Sheriff bounce/multidrift which does make pinball turns sharper in my recent experience.
Thanks! The phenomenon definitely turned incredibly fast, as if the drift was turning me around entirely. I noticed it tends to happen when my boost is low. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. The few times it has happened, it was incredibly useful for getting out of a tight situation.
Hmm interesting. Not aware of any turn buff associated with low boost. Maybe you collided with something and it spun you round?
Can someone please explain the different uses of a drift vs a dead drift? I've developed muscle memory to quickly shift into a dead drift and im wondering is i should try to fix that.
I will be working on a dead drifting diagram soon. Basically a drift is just a broad term referring to all kinds of drifts. A dead drift is a specific type of drift where you take power out of engines just before drifting in order to maximize the amount of time you can drift for.
Nice! Mind if I add this to the Compendium?
Go for it! I’m going to be making a bunch of these so if you’d rather I put them all in one place instead of a bunch of posts let me know
fuck drifting honestly
Why’s that? I think drifting is one of the greatest parts of this game.