Progress.. some anyway..

I've changed the control system. Now it plays more like Abuse than the original Guns.

Keys [Up] for Thrust [left][Right] for fly left/right [down] for shields.
All aiming is done via the mouse now.
Right click places the user in free look mode to explore the mission.
It's actually a lot easier to fly/control now.

I've still got some bugs to iron out in this mode, but it's looking promising.

I had a little bit of a play with some different effects for the fire and explosions. I'm using a tool called ExGen, which I've purchased as it exports to a format compatible with my CBCFoundation animation classes. i.e. 4 cols by 6 rows..So far all the apps I've seen only export as either individual images which I'd have to crop by hand or they only export movies.. not really useful.