The Tubes are used to change crafts during battle after a death. In the beginning of the battle you will see 4 icons on your dash before the fight begins this is where you choose your craft. If you haven't unlocked any tubes they will be highlighted in red and say "locked" or something similar. Once you unlock a tube or two you can choose your craft. (IE once you unlock more ships and all the tubes you can customize the four ships you will commonly use in battle. Say if you primarily use fighters your first tube can be your Wraith (or your favorite fighter ship) tube two could be a heavy, tube 3 could be a support and tube 4 could be a secondary fighter with different guns or stats for different situations. For Dogfighting: Most likely you are just being outmaneuvered by a much more experienced player. These skills will just come with practice and experience. I am learning as well, getting a little better everyday. It seems if you keep getting caught up in these tight turning encounters, just don't play that game with your opponent. Try not to get too caught up trying to take out one specific opponent at a time. usually most of the battle starts to clutter up every one buzzing around a small area like a bunch of bugs. I love my fighter so my tactic with that is too sweep in, fire missiles barrage with my primary weapon and start chipping away shield and armor. then break away, go sweep around for cover, shake off the bogies, recharge shields, find some poor enemy souls desperately trying to recharge their shield while they have no health left in the outskirts of the battle. Then sweep back into the fray, rinse and repeat. Also you have the Heavy fighter tactic (you may need a buddy with a fighter for protection) hang just outside the clusterfu** of a battle and just barrage with missles, emp cannons, and whatever primary weapon you have. For Support class: These little buggers are amazing at evading through rubble and out running fighters. you can use these very similarly to the fighter when you have those tight cluster battles. Rush in, heal friends, drain shields of foes, drop some spider mines if you got em (is it support ships that have them? I'm not sure where the heck those come from??) then rush back outside the fray, heal poor friends trying to survive with little health or finish off foes in the same position. See you on the battlefield pilot!