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Because commanding has its ups and downs, you might decide to take a simpler approach by focusing on becoming a talented dogfighter or bomber pilot. It takes a fair amount of practice to get very good at dogfighting. The flight modeling in Allegiance incorporates a drag feature that takes some getting used to, and is especially hard to overcome if you’re playing with only a keyboard and mouse. The mouse is only used to select menu items in the game, so if you don’t have a joystick, the keyboard is your sole means of flying a ship. The difficulty lies in the number of keyboard commands required to operate the ships. For example, if you’re in hot pursuit of an enemy ship and it suddenly banks to the left and upward, you would have to keep one finger on the left-arrow key, one finger on the up-arrow key, one finger on the V key (which allows you to turn tighter), one finger on the Shift key (so your ship will roll), one finger on the Numpad 4 key (thrust left), and your thumb on the space bar (fires primary weapon). More simply put: if you don’t have a joystick, you’ll be playing Twister on your keyboard. Therefore, a joystick is mandatory for anyone wanting to get the most enjoyment out of the game. Once you get the hang of flying a ship, the game gets very addictive, and you’ll be looking for dogfights anywhere you can find them. Skirmishes will often break out between two scouts early in the game as they search for undiscovered sectors. The really fun dogfights involve several squads after the game is well underway. Teams are always on the lookout for unescorted bombers, which require a lot of work to destroy before they do any major damage. Any time your ship gets destroyed – provided you don’t get killed – you eject and fly home in a space pod.

Interface

The interface in Allegiance is a mixed bag. It gives you all the necessary information, and then some. Ships are viewable from a third-person perspective, but first-person is the best view for controlling the ships and keeping track of enemies. The heads up display (HUD) gives you information on your ship’s energy level, ammunition level, fuel level, percent of thrust, shield value, and armor value. Additionally, you’ll be able to tell how fast you’re going in meters-per-second, whether or not an enemy has spotted you, and how far away the nearest target is. Virtually everything in a sector, besides asteroids, is viewable somewhere on your HUD. Ships and far-away structures are represented by a small floating icon with a brief description. At the top of the screen is the chat area, where players in the game communicate. There are also several menus that can be called up using keyboard commands. These include the mini map (which shows you what sector you’re in), team statistics, ammunition levels of your ship, and a huge list of available voice commands which are sent to other players. All of this information is useful, but when there are a dozen ships on the screen in a mosh-pit brawl, things tend to get a little cluttered and hard to identify. You’ll see text overlapping text, and icons overlapping icons. On top of that, you need to keep track of the nearest enemy by watching a little red arrow that points in the enemy’s general direction, while simultaneously slapping away at various keys on the keyboard. Another aspect of the interface is the command center. Hitting the F3 key brings up a strategic map showing the entire sector laid out across a grid, which is helpful in basic navigation and scouting. The commander has access to every explored sector via the strategic map.