[sjackso]

Double and triple chording is part of what makes the Descent-series games (as well as Overload) so interesting.

Your ship moves freely in all directions, and your speed is proportional to the square root of the number of independent directions you're moving in. Fly forward, speed is one unit; fly forward + sideways, speed is 1.41 units; fly forward + sideways + vertically, speed is 1.73 units.

There's a long, challenging learning curve to making best use of this mechanic.