The pilot is the foundation in Allegiance. At one point or another, everyone, including the commander and investor, will have to pilot a ship and take the fight personally to the enemy.

The pilot needs to understand the different classes of ships he will fly as well as their inherit strengths and weaknesses. The pilot needs to be aware of his surroundings and the current situation as well as maintain constant contact with any wingmen around to deal swiftly with any hostile threats.

As the pilot flies about in a tech tree game with a commander, he will need to pay attention to the objectives set by his commander. When a commander orders an objective, it appears in the message stream at the top the Combat HUD, and the Objective Pending icon appears in the upper-left corner of the screen.

To accept a command

To reject a pending or accomplished command

Wings

A wing is a subgroup of pilots within the overall team. Each team can support up to 10 wings. The purpose of a wing is to provide a communications channel for a specific group of ships that wish to accomplish goals such as patrols, scouting missions, defensive missions, or attacks. Pilots themselves may decide which wings they wish to join.

All ships have a wing ID. The default wing for all players upon joining a team is Wing Alpha. You can change your wing either before the game starts or during the game.

To change your wing before the game starts

Change Wing.>

To change your wing during the game

Change Wing.>

Managing Turret Gunners

If you are flying a ship that supports turret gunners -- a bomber or a capital ship -- you will want gunners manning your turrets before launching. You can fly a destroyer into battle without any turret support, but your life expectancy is only a few minutes in a hotly contested war zone.

At any time, the pilot can promote a turrent gunner (that is, swap roles with). To do so, the pilot must press Shift-Y, Shift-U, Shift-I, and Shift-O.

If you are disconnected from a turret gunner, it can take up to 2 minutes before the server recognizes the disconnection. During this time, as a pilot you will be unable to fly your ship; the gunners will be able to fire but will be unable to successfully destroy any targets. If your ship is destroyed during this time, the pilot and the gunners will take a death. Upon confirmation of the disconnection, the pilot and all turret gunners are ejected and the ship self-destructs.