Advice for Winning Races

Brian Rubin · Post by **Brian Rubin** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:27 pm

So this might not be the best forum to put this in, but it makes sense to me.

After playing Mercenary for maybe 12 hours now, upgrading my ship and doing missions and such, I've decided to embark on the main quest. Yay! However, the second mission in the quest is a race...and I've never won a race in this game.

It's perplexing. I've been flying ring courses in space sims since Tie Fighter, if not earlier, and I just can't seem to win any of the competitive races because the other ship is always faster than I am. I've upgraded my engines and wings to be faster and more maneuverable, but it doesn't seem to help. Only think I can think of now is to downgrade everything, remove all of my weapons and hope even bigger engines fit on the ship.

So...anyone here have advice on how to win races? I usually avoid 'em because I've never been a fan (blame Freelancer for that), but now that I HAVE to run one, what can I do to win one?

Thanks in advance.

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:42 pm

The only thing I can suggest is to try,try,try again. I avoided racing also. I practiced with my engine on full and staying to the inside of curves and using my afterburner to power around the curves. You can also try using just the afterburner. It took awhile but I won eventually. I

have never raced again.

Good luck Brian Rubin and Welcome to the forum and the Sim. Have fun and hope to see you out there sometime.

Dave S · Post by **Dave S** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:44 pm

I found that tapping the afterburner helps keep the speed up. Beware of long bursts because of inertial as you will slide right out of the course if you get going too fast and can't maneuver. Tap the afterburner on the straightaways and stay off during turns until you get the feel for the "sweet spot" speed for the ship you are flying.

Good luck and I hope to see you out there.

Brian Rubin · Post by **Brian Rubin** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:44 pm

AB around the curves? Every time I try that I skid out of the rings, which sucks. Someone else suggested turn off inertial dampeners and apply continual thrust, then turn it back on in curves, but that feels like juggling.

I guess I'll keep trying until it clicks. Thank you.

Brian Rubin · Post by **Brian Rubin** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:58 pm

OMG, I DID IT. I basically toggled the AB on and off continually throughout every turn, trying to feel my way for when to turn it on and off. Whew. Thanks guys!

Nubarus · Post by **Nubarus** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:11 am

Actually the easy solution is to go to page 3 on the keyboard settings, assign 2 keys to increase and decrease IDS multiplier and do the race in IDS x2 mode.