Protective maneuvering and orientation.
Proper orientation of a ship relative to a potential adversary in many cases can be the key to victory. If your ship has a bow armour and good angles of skin tilt there - a strictly nose-to-enemy orientation can help ricochet most enemy shells, and the remaining ones will have a hard time piercing your armor. Knowing the design features of your ship will help you make the right decisions in case the attack comes from several directions.
In order for the orientation of the ship to be correct, there must be a serviceable orientation system and / or maneuvering system. The orientation system can have different technical solutions, but its function is always the same - to act on the axis of rotation of the ship. At the same time, the maneuvering system is responsible for moving along the axes. The maneuvering system can act as an orientation system if the module has this function.
Defensive maneuvering - alpha and omega to avoid enemy hits. It can be carried out both automatically and completely manually.
It is important to understand that any maneuver of the ship wastes fuel. How much fuel is spent and what its supply depends on the design and intensity of the maneuvers.
Why do you need to maneuver? Suppose the enemy fired a shot at you with perfect accuracy. The only way to avoid hitting is to get off the trajectory of the projectile. You need to shift half the projection of your ship at right angles. The distance is 100 km, the speed of the projectile is 1 km / s, you have 100 seconds to hit. Suppose that the projection of your ship is a square on the long side of 20 meters. So you need to move to the side by more than 10 meters. So if you give a lateral velocity of 11 centimeters per second, in 100 seconds you will veer away by 11 meters and the projectile will fly by. Suppose your ship weighs 1,000 tons and the maneuvering engines run on hydrazine. You will spend 55 kilograms of hydrazine to get this speed, assuming the velocity of gases from the engines is 2000 m / s.
But the situation described above is very conditional for simplicity of understanding. The projectile has a scatter, you may not know about the shot, there may be several shots. Rockets can change trajectory. Undoubtedly, standard technologies greatly limit the number and duration of maneuvers, but there are ways to achieve large pulses with the same mass reserves. For example, when using lithium / hydrogen / fluorine, the consumption will be only 20.6 kg.
The maneuvering will force the missiles to change their trajectory, turn on their engines and thus allow their early detection.
Defensive maneuvering involves a pseudo-chaotic change in perpendicular velocity relative to the intended adversary. In addition to fully manual control, the player can choose from several ready-made protocols that control movement, as well as determine intensity, speed, percentage flow, and a number of other parameters. Maneuvering can also be carried out by the main engine, if installed. Not to be confused with traction, which does not function in a modified space.