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Yber · (This post was last modified: 08-06-2016, 09:08 PM by Yber.)

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Sliding
(To learn how to counter sliding, see Common Mechanics)

Sliding, while being one of the 2 main PvP mechanics in Freelancer, has a much more end-game oriented depth than boxing. It is generally accepted that a player slides when he repeatedly thrusts and engine kills. As much of a truth as this is, it’s extremely vague and borderline offensive to any well-developed, seasoned fighter pilot. Recruits are adviced to slide the entire time in their fights, unless they decide to box at certain points of these.

In order to slide, follow these steps:
1) While moving forward, whether during thrust or not, press engine kill.
2) If you were not thrusting, you’ll enter engine kill. If you were, when you release the thruster key you’ll automatically enter engine kill.
3) From this point, everytime you hold down thrust and then release it your ship will engine kill. (Can be canceled by accelerating with your mouse wheel, hitting the engine kill key or being in the blast radius of a CD).

As simple of a mechanic as sliding is, it’s the most common and used technique in Freelancer, for it easily punishes jousting and has much more flexibility than boxing, acting as followup to most moves. Because of this, properly sliding requires knowledge regarding more elaborated techniques. Before learning these most popular uses, it is absolutely mandatory that the reader realices: in Freelancer, dodging is just as important as hitting. Forgetting this can lead to lots of frustration and disapointment due to poor decision making. With this thought in mind:

Uses for sliding:
a) Earlyturning: As the name indicates, the concept is to turn earlier (before) than the opponent, gaining view of him while he tries to rotate to face you, and ideally being able to get a full salvo while he engine kills, which is generally a garantued damage. To perform an earlyturn, approach (see Sliding, Switches) the opponent and engine kill when the distance between you and him is small enough not to get hit (punished) for it, as it’s garantued damage taken. When engine killing, your mouse should be in edge of the screen while your ship rotates around the enemy, as if he was the center of the circle you’d make if you thrusted around him. This allows you to keep him on your screen .

Note that the worst case scenario is to bump on the enemy while engine killing or to reverse in front of him showing your back. To avoid this, always make sure you’ve passed the opponent, as if you had jousted, before stopping the engine kill. This will also give a safety distance in case a nuclear mine is dropped.

Depending on the angle taken when engine killing, there are 2 types of earlyturn:

1) Wide earlyturn: The opponent is able to keep you in his screen, shooting at you because you slided too much to the side when you should have been more direct. This is not a correct earlyturn and it most often leads to engine kill around a boxer. In order to avoid massive damage, once you’re sure your earlyturn was wide (the enemy is still shooting at you after you passed him) reverse and strafe to the opposite side of where you were heading (A if engine killing to the right, D if engine killing to the left), then thrust towards the opponent and quickly engine kill, this time executing a correct (sharp) earlyturn. You may also drop a mine for good messure.

2) Sharp earlyturn: The opponent is not able to keep you in his screen, being forced to thrust or keep reversing until he’s able to see you again (see Boxing- Counters when boxing, Case 1). The most general and safe followup is to thrust around/after him, shooting from his back and, if possible, performing succesive earlyturns as he tries to turn back. At this point the only danger is the nuclear mine + CD combo, therefore do not chase the enemy too close to his back. At any point, you may trade your advantage to focus on aiming, resuming jousting positions. It is adviced to save some energy to fire full salvos in the case that the enemy engine kills.

Note that the closer you are to the enemy ship when engine killing, the sharper the earlyturn is. Engine killing too late may lead to not being able to chase after him or get behind, effectively resuming jousting positions. It is also important to notice that even after lots of practice, some of the earlyturns performed will be rendered too wide by the opponent and not because of your own mistakes.

b) Switches: The safest gap closer in Freelancer, it allows the user to reduce the distance between him and the enemy safely, dodging most shots in exchange of most of the damage potential of a joust. Nevertheless, switches are an agressive move and as such, if not normally dealing direct damage, it leads to positional advantage that is translated on damage. There are 2 types of switches, the ones focused entirely on dodging and the ones focused on trading shots (mobile boxing).

1) No-reverse switches: Focused on dodging. To perform a no-reverse switch, thrust while strafing and wave with your mouse, as if you were shieldrunning in a groupfight, but towards the enemy. Generally, recruits want to draw the infinity symbol or circles with the mouse, as it allows you to shoot imprecissely at the crosshair. When close to the opponent, the best followup is to perform an earlyturn and focus entirely on hitting while chasing after the enemy.

2) Reverse switches: Focused on trading shots, it works as “mobile boxing” would. In order to perform reverse switches, thrust left and right while drawing the infinity symbol, just like before, but engine kill to either side and while doing so, focus on shooting for a short period of time (enough not to get hit), then reverse, strafe and thrust to the opposite side, engine killing and shooting again. Rinse and repeat until you’re close enough to the opponent to perform an earlyturn, which will be generally wide.

Note that it is possible to skip the reverse entirely and slide to either side, although it is less safe. Recruits are adviced not to do so.

This has been an in-depth look at sliding. Additional ingame footage may be provided by the senate on demand.
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