NOOB needs combat tips to start out!!!!

After a time, you won't need to stop and look at the missile. The audio indicator (beeps faster the closer the missile gets) will be enough to let you know when to skip port or starboard.

In time it becomes second nature; I don't even think about it anymore.

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

Sometimes you manage to face the incoming missiles - it's very satisfying to shoot them with a quad light pbc...
The Storm Petrel is agile enough to strafe left or right if you miss them.
And as Shane says: keep on moving during an increasing beeprate.
Strafing left, up and forward simultaneously results in a hitrate of maybe five percent.

That's great guys,thanks a lot.

To re-cap then, strafe when the missile gets closest sounds good, and the best bet, partic for the Belrano scenario.

Another question, I've read on various sites about tapping the L key twice, assuming that this is only outside of an anti-LDS field.

What benefit does it have apart from the deceleration mentioned above. I've read about an L turn, how does this work and is it quick to do, or should I just power down the thrusters to keep my turning circle tight, then power up and give chase to blast the target's exhaust pipe through his eyeballs??????

Deceleration is a benefit:D
You may want to read the ingame encyclopedia first for detailed information about flight physics.
It will take some time, but it pays...

L-turn? Maybe a special maneuver for attacking a cruiser - including the disabeling of your flight assist?
I don't remember this term.

Follow Clays instructions and soon you'll be a successful pilot.
Get used to your ship and learn something about its abilities and its weapons. Act 0 is like a tutorial - the fun starts in Act 1.
Don't lose your patience - at the beginning it's hard to match the AI pilots, but you'll get your revenge...

The described flightstyle may be useful - but remember - your ship is not an airplane...
It's a little bit like a hovercraft in 3D;)

Tapping the 'L' key twice is an easy way to instantanously accelerate to 1000 m/s; a good thing when you've miscounted a freighter's escorts and now have a patcom blazing away at your rear. The tactic is generally called the Paris Bootlegger maneuver (but I call it a blink crossing because I'm a Gap Sequence fan).

The mechanics of missile avoidance are simple. In EoC, the faster something goes, the harder it is for it to change course (it has to overcome it's inertia). Missiles are much faster than ships, so they have a more difficult time responding to their target 'skipping to the side'.

Ships act in a similar manner. What you're looking to avoid are the 'jousting tourneys' that tend to form when taking on ships. There are many different approaches to this, and all depend heavily upon the pilot's personal style of flying. Best bet is to try new things and decide what works best for you.

Inertia can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

Advice, from my personal experiences:

You can't take much short-term punishment, but because of autorepair you can take unlimited damage given enough time, so your combats should be paced accordingly. Be quick and lethal with your attacks; be patient with your defense.

You should always be aware of when you're attacking and when you should be defending. Use max gun power when attacking and max engines when defending.

If your gun power is maxxed and your repair status is 100%, you're ready to attack. Choose a target and close on it so as to keep the other enemies eclipsed by your target. Get in close and keep your rel-v* low so your computer can aim the guns; take advantage of the low rel-v and try to maneuver behind your opponent. Your job is to maneuver; the computer's job is to fire. Since the computer aims your guns for you, you can concentrate more on situational awareness -- and the all-important decision to go evasive.

If you take too much damage (how much depends on the situation) or your tactical position is poor (nearby hostiles are not in front of you), you're defending -- or you'll soon be dead.

When you're defending the key is rel-v and delta-v, that's speed and acceleration, and you only get delta-v if you max out engine power. Also remember that your main engines are far more powerful than your strafe drive, so if you REALLY want to move your butt out of the way of something, "turn and burn".

You can get a nice "corkscrew" evasive maneuver by combining main and lateral thrusters with a roll. This keeps enemy guns off your tail (and off your nose, as well, as the "corkscrew" is a great attack maneuver) but doesn't work against missiles.

Use "flight assist" as "ref-v* null assist". Don't use it for anything else. The cool thing about flight assist is that no matter what your heading, it's firing whatever thrusters it takes to null your ref-v in a concerto of retro-rocketry. Pursuit autopilot does the same for rel-v.

NEVER have "flight assist" switched on when defending. It will kill you. "Pursuit autopilot" will kill you just as dead, but fortunately its off-switch is not a toggle, so you never have to worry about whether it's on or not when you hit the "autopilot off" key. Just always hit "autopilot off" whether you need to or not whenever you go evasive and you'll be fine.

I personally use pursuit the same way I use flight assist, as an attitude-independent thruster control. To give you some idea of the importance I ascribe these controls, I have placed them on my joystick, at buttons 2 (a/p disable), 3 (pursue), and 4 (f.assist toggle). Some people don't like pursuit, but you should AT LEAST have "flight assist" at your fingertips: you must be able to turn it off quickly.

Also remember your main engines: if you're not nulling fast enough, aim your ship roughly opposite your vector, and the autopilot computer will utilize more of your powerful main engines.

Lastly, don't forget reverse-thrust. It isn't much, but it's there. Reverse + lateral can help you turn inside one of those nimble light corvettes and bring your guns to bear, but there won't be one of those 3,000 "Battlestar Galactica" moments where the dumbfounded Cylon looks behind him as the ship he was just shooting at whizzes by on reverse and shoots him instead. Reverse thrust is most useful when small, intricate maneuvers are called for, but that situation only really comes up during some of the story-missions.

I hope some of this advice has been helpful.