Since 2.6 went live I had some lag issues and weird video crap. I think they have a small leak in their video, which means your video cache fills up but does not properly get flushed by their software. That will impact both video and internet. Restarting your PC flushes your video cache and should correct the issue for a while. I mainly have the connection issues after playing for a while and find it helps me to flush my video cache. I run an NVidia video card with the latest official drivers. Also in the news, Netflix is in a pissing contest with many of the internet backbone providers. They are fighting over how traffic is sent thru the networks. If you happen to be sent thru one of these overburdened inter connection points, you will see a lot of latency due to that.

I had initially did an un scientific test early in the game. Today I did a more scientific test and you are correct. One odd thing is that you can run past a satellite and you get one pulse of satellite focus. That is what I mistook for focus range initially. When you run past a satellite, the green focus shield can appear around your ship when you are far away from the satellite, if you turbo past it.

Great post! I applaud the OP as well for showing his cards and thinking outside the bun! I play all types of ships. I do best on Gunships in TDM and Bombers in Domination. So I tend to use them. But I still break out my scouts and strikes to keep some semblance of skill up in them. While it can be frustrating to take on satellites with entrenched bombers, it is not impossible. That is the fun for me. As a bomber pilot, I have been on the receiving end of pilots who destroy my shields and hull in a matter of a few seconds. They are great pilots with good load outs. I have also been faced with pilots similar to the OP who shred my shields and hit me with missiles. Also very devastating. There are countermeasures to everything. Learn them. I remember when Microsoft changed their interface for office. The new ribbon interface sucked initially. Once you got over the fact that you were not going back to the old interface and learned the new skills, it was not a big deal. This is much the same. You have pilots who have adapted, pilots still in denial who will adapt in the future, and you have pilots who refuse to adapt and would rather leave the game than adapt. Which one do you want to be? Whilst many games are won in the first few minutes, there are many that are won in the last few minutes as well. I have been in many games recently where the side with 2 sats within the opening 2 minutes did not win. It usually happens when my side has 2-4 non contributors and the other side has none in a domination match with 8 players. What do you do? Let the other team get the victory, but play safe and keep your satellite? Or do you take your slow moving bomber and test the defenses of the other 2 satellites until you break one? I play to have fun and I do. In the above scenario, you can usually break one satellite. Hopefully, one of your teams scouts can defend the satellite you left until your point margin is too high to overcome. Otherwise, I hump it back to the original satellite and take it again for the win. Are there matches where there is such a huge disparity in sides that one completely dominates the other. Yes. But that is the exception and not the rule on my server. And I play thru those matches, trying out new techniques. I take my lumps and move on.

I think it is a great idea! I find it funny though when newbie fliers say they did not go thru the tutorial. Then you see them stuck at the capital ship or they run into the capital ship at the start of the match. It would help tremendously if your HUD included green triangles around your target area, showing your team mates, in addition to the red ones and the A.B C sat indicators. This would help with the "getting used to the 3D space" issue of new pilots. At least they would have an easier time finding their group. There is a lot to learn about GSF. While there is a lot of data on the internet, there is not an outstanding collection of information in an easy to read and digest format. I have culled thru much of it and found what I need to be a better pilot. That and I pay attention during matches and learn. Just the basics about the Hanger is a lot of information for a new player. Knowing which load outs are better for your play style and which crew members are best to choose. Then understanding hot keys. F1 blaster priority F2 shield priority F3 engine priority F4 normal C quick check your target. While C is held down, you will look at your target rather than in front of your ship E target the enemy under your reticle <tab> target closest enemy within 1500 clicks R target the last enemy to fire upon you You can hit a priority key (F1-F4) while coming out of hyperspace in the beginning of the match. You do not have to wait until the hyperspace graphics are complete. Once you are out of hyperspace, you can barrel role forward or use thrusters. When you hit barrel role or other engine propulsion effect, you have to re engage your thrusters if you are holding down your <space> bar. Sensor range increase does not help in locating dampened gunships. With or without sensor range increases, you will see them at around 1500 clicks. Sensor range increase will help you stay in range of satellites for capturing them. Technically, this seems to be the sensor focus range, but it is part of the sensor range increase choice. Just by choosing the crew member who increases your sensor focus range, you will have a noticeable effect on your satellite capture range. Understanding firing arc, evasion, damage reduction, hull strength, chance to hit, chance to crit, crit multiplier, weapon cool down, weapon reload, Damage per Second versus Damage per Hit, range vs damage vs frequency increases, primary versus secondary weapons, shield recharge delay, shield recharge rate, etc is a lot of numbers and info to try and crunch. For instance, damage reduction is very helpful against non-upgraded ships and turrets. Many upgraded ships bypass damage reduction, making it ineffective against most veteran pilots. Chance to hit minus evasion is your chance to land a direct fire weapon. I don't think evasion helps with missile lock. But some missiles are slow and can be outrun. Chance to hit with a direct fire weapon is based on range, weapon stats, and firing arc degree off center. The closer something is to the center of your firing arc, the greater the chance you have to hit it. So when I take shots at fast moving ships with my rail gun, if they are 5 degrees off center, I get a 20% tracking penalty to my hit chance. So taking the crewmate who gives 6% better chance to hit helps a lot in alleviating the tracking penalty with direct fire weapons.

I have said my posts are my opinion. I have not resorted to bullying. Your most recent post is more thoughtful, but some of your posts are just ignorant and punkish. Scout pod pilots seem to want bombers to give them their pods back. Yet, they upgrade their pods to do 30% extra damage whilst depleting twice as fast. Do they bother to run the numbers and see that their potential damage at full load out for pods just went from 115% (choosing plasma pods) to 65% of potential damage? No, they instead decide their pods are depleting too fast and want bombers to refill them. The argument that healing drones should not be used in combat is absurd. That some people feel that they should optimally be put on the outskirts of a fight rather than in the thick of things is silly. There are tactical reasons for placing the drones in or outside combat zones. Neither choice is the best choice in all circumstances. Stating that the lifespan of a healing drone is 10 seconds in combat is a stat plucked from the air. There is no basis for it other than supposition. If someone wants to shoot my drone rather than shoot me, go for it. They can eat my heavy blasters with a bomb chaser.

This thread has been great for me on JC. Even though my list of aces was short, I did not intend to leave anyone worthy off my list. My issue is I have partstimers. I cannot remember things part of the time. So I do not recall the names of many great players. And some great players have such f'ed up names there is no way I am going to remember them. LOL! There are lots of great players emerging on JC. I will give a shout out to Saevius (imp), cause they consistently put impressive numbers on the board. While I do agree that JC is pub heavy, I have had a few imp vs imp matches. It happened more when GSF was opened up to new players. But it still happens sometimes. I had one yesterday. Also, the impression that the win/loss is lopsided, while true, has not been as severe for me. My imp side w/l is 271/577 or 46% My pub side w/l is 166/252 or 65% And as for Grunty. I think anyone reading this post realizes he is a great pilot. Whether he is officially on the list or not. People still feel his guns in game. His name is easy to recognize. And everyone knows to respect him in game, regardless of the trash talk we make. Those close matches where we pull out a win based on tactical execution are awesome! Especially when we are outmatched in ship reqs.

LOL you scout pilots are still spewing your "my opinion is better than you and people who don't agree gimp their team and are newbie pilots." LOL! Really. Get over yourselves. Your opinion is no more valid than my opinion on this. Regardless of how many times you spam it. I prefer shield over refill. I am not a newbie. I am not gimping anything. I feel it is worthwhile. Your bullying and punk tactics will not assuage my opinions. LOL!

I am glad you feel the need to disparage rather than debate. Very classy of you. I neither gimp my team nor am self righteous in my declarations on this thread. But you seem to think your opinion is more valid than mine. LOL!

While technically true, strikes can take additional ammo, making the need to resupply low. And strike fighters do not have the rapid depletion of their missiles like the scouts with their pods. Again making the need to resupply lower than a pod scout. Anyone dogfighting around where the drone is places will benefit from the shields. Only one type of shield recharges while taking damage. Not everyone has quick charge shields and even if they have them, they do not all have them upgraded. I try to think beyond my own needs to the needs of others. It is funny to me that many people on this thread are just thinking about their own needs and extrapolating that to be the needs of everyone. We all have our opinions. I am just stating mine. I hope the diverse viewpoint makes people think more about their choices.

Ships that need reload are scouts. Which seems to be the main pilots on this thread. LOL! Of course most of the people on the thread think you should use reload. But when I look at the makeup of the teams I am on, it makes no sense to use reload when shields benefits everyone.

Yeah, I forgot to mention Riceball. He is Imp though. He terrorized me many times when playing on Pub side.

Stealth fighter.

I realize your being silly. Udezak flies bomber sometimes. He flew bomber a lot when they first came out. Now he flies both bomber and scout. He is one of the top 2 republic scout pilots on Jedi Covenant. He is legendary. To get to the top of the leader board with a bomber, you have to use blasters and dogfight. While you can do ok just dropping mines and drones, you will not make the top, unless the talent pool on your server is low. It does take skill to shoot down a more nimble scout or strike fighter when you are flying a slow moving boat. While you can poo poo how easy it is to click a button and drop a mine or drone, knowing the most effective times is what separates the great from the ok pilots. And the ability to use blasters in addition to your mines/drones is what pushes people to the top of the boards.

I starter GSF when it came out. I sucked. I was not used to 3D space. It takes time to get oriented. If you are a newbie, I recommend using a scout to start out. This allows you to focus on movement. The nova/blackbolt is fine initially. Use the Boost Recharge rather than targeting telemetry. This will allow you to quickly refill your engine power and move quickly across the map with afterburners/barrel roll. You want to change your crew to allow you maximum engine power with lower engine power costs. You also want to use barrel roll. When you first come out of hyperspace, barrel roll forward. Have your reticle roughly in the middle of the screen. If you have the reticle down, you will barrel roll into your capital ship. Don't be that guy! During initial barrel rolling, hit F3. This maximizes your engine regen and power. After the barrel roll, hit your after burners and head to a satellite. Hit your barrel roll again if you are after satellites A or C. After each barrel roll, you need to hit afterburners again (hold down space bar for afterburners). When you reach the satellites, hit F4 to normalize your power and practice circling the satellite under its wings. You have to be close enough for the green shield to appear around your ship. Upgrading Range Sensors helps your sensor focus range, making it easier to remain in range of the satellite. After the initial run to a satellite, go to whichever satellite your side has captured and hang close to it. Being within sensor focus range keeps the other side from capturing the satellite and it allows the satellite to spawn defensive turrets. You will die a lot while you learn 3D space flight. So just be ready to run into stuff. Just laugh it off. It is not a big deal. After you get good with movement, then focus on taking out stationary targets like satellite turrets and drones. I use light laser cannon and rocket pods. It will take a few blaster upgrades before you can easily take out the satellite turrets with one pass. Line up your shots and use the "S" key to slow down your fighter when you are in blaster range. Use both mouse buttons to shoot blasters and rocket pods. Try not to run into the satellite as you go thru the explosion. You will be blinded by the debris, so make sure your flight path does not run you into things. Those are the basics. Learn them. Most people suck at keeping the satellites. They fly out of sensor focus range or never get into range. You will get better at targeting and flying. It just takes practice. Once you learn the basics, you can better choose which ship you want to fly. But for starters, use the scout. You can use the tutorial space to learn these tactics prior to going live. When you are live, you will die a lot with elite fighters killing you very quickly. And if they do not take you out, then the mines and drones around the satellites will. Don't forget to pick up your daily and weekly star fighter quests. On the base stations they are from the PvP terminals located in the Combat Training areas.

I prefer damage over debuffs. And do not like missiles on my bombers. So go with seeker mines rather than the proton/concussion torpedoes. I prefer the missile sentry drone on the carrier. Though the blaster/missile have shorter reach than the railgun drone, I prefer the rate of fire. I also use repair done and shield power converter. For repair drone, I repair shields rather than fill up missiles. Everybody has shields. Much fewer people need missiles reloaded. For crew I maximize shields, lower the cost of using engine and blasters, and use the accuracy debuff for my crew skill (suppression). I use heavy lasers on Imp side and light lasers on republic. Light much better when not fully upgraded. I expect heavy lasers to come into their own when I can afford the 100% armor upgrade. For the mining bomber I make it a close range dogfighter with seeker mines, concussion mines, shield projector and shield power converter.

Jedi Covenant Republic Elite Fliers Grunty Udezak Battledress Lots more that are great, but not as elite. There are many up and comers. These three have been consistent since November. Imp Side I do not remember the names except for one: Eichman I had not seen him in a while but flew with him the other day. I fly Dinkeria/Dinkerus on Imp/Pub and am middle of the pack dogfighter, which means cannon fodder for these fliers listed above.

I do best with the drone ship in all situations. (more damage, more kills, more assists, more healing) But that is my playstyle. I play both types of bombers. Initially, I rationalized the bombers much as other people have, thinking the mine laying would be better at holding sats. But for me, that is just not the case. I think the mine range for activation on the AoE mines is the big issue. It is too close. IMHO, it makes the ship with mines more of a dogfighter. The drone ship can put out a drone which shoots 5k to 10k range, making them more effective in doing damage. The mines that both ships share have a good activation range, but are single target. I think it is funny that people pidgeon hole bomber pilots into not being effective dogfighters. I don't make the top of the leaderboards by just dropping bombs. I use my blasters a lot in dogfights. It is a challenge when you are piloting a boat!

I love GSF! Yes. I am a fan boy now! Here is my balanced perspective on GSF. For people not used to flying in 3D space, it can be frustrating at first. It gets easier! See below! I do not know if it is design or dumb luck, but GSF has something for almost any type of player. What I mean by that is...you do not need to be young and have an awesome twitch and reflexes to do well. There are ships for all types of players. It gives aging and older players a great way to add to the force and not just be cannon fodder for the overloaded blaster scout pilots, some of whom are now pissed that the game is not so easy for them anymore. If you are a new player, then I recommend reading and learning about the mechanics of GSF. Learn the controls. And more importantly, learn how to take and keep a control point. Hint: You need to circle close to the satellites in order to activate them and in order to activate their defense turrets. How close? It depends on your sensor focus range, but when you are close enough, you see a green shield around your ship. Here are some of the controls: F1: power to blaster increases direct fire weapon damage and weapon power pool at the expense of shields and engine F2: power to shields increases shield power and regen at the expense of weapons and engines F3: power to engines increases engine power and regen at the expense of weapons and shields F4: normal power to all systems C: quick check at your target. This changes your view to look at your target while the "C" key is pressed. R: target the last enemy that fired at you <tab>: cycle thru the closest targets E: target what is close to reticle X: brings you to a complete stop When starting out, learn to fly in 3D space by circling the satellites. You need to hug them in order to capture them. Sensor focus range seems to increase the range with which you interact with them. When you are comfortable zooming all around the satellites, then learn to kill their turrets; Stationary targets are much easier to hit than moving. Learn about your crew. Crew selection is almost as important as your loadout selection. The different ships provide different challenges to the pilot. I highly recommend playing them all and see which fit your playstyle. If you love to dogfight, then a strike fighter, scout or bomber is for you. If you are ok with direct fire but not that great, then strike fighter may be your ticket with their missiles and blasters. If you like lining up circles and getting blown up when people notice you, then a gunship might be for you. And if you are horrible at direct fire, don't mind being a sitting duck for roving scout squadrons as you travel between satellites, then a bomber might be your choice, as you can drop bombs and provide support without having to shoot straight. Watch some youtube videos. None of them are awesome IMHO, but they do provide you with some insight. Dulfy has some of the best videos overall and her site is awesome with information. I have played all types of ships. I have fully upgraded scout and gunship. Working on the other ships. I play on Jedi Covenant under Dinkeria/Dinkerus for Imp/Pub respectively.

Most of the complaints I see on this post are one thing. I liked how GSF was before 2.6. Why did they have to change it? They added new tactics, which I think make it more compelling. They added EMP missiles and PBAoE blasts to different ships to help balance. When 2.6 first came out, my bomber was doing great cause people did not know how to respond. Now people are learning new tactics and it makes it a lot more challenging. The great part is, I can change which ships I play to fit the new GSF. Adapt. There is plenty of fun to be made in GSF. Spread your wings, learn new tactics. Have fun!

The other issue since 2.6 is lag. That is what impacts me the most with my gunship.

My lag issues in GSF started with 2.6. They were pretty bad the first week. Monday's patch/maintenance corrected the worst of it, but lag is still an issue. I would guess that GSF servers did not expect so much use. So as people get frustrated and stop playing GSF, then simultaneously SWTOR will be increasing their bandwidth for the servers and everything should come back into parity. I blame it on a successful launch of GSF with 2.6. Unfortunately while you can predict bandwidth needs, you cannot always meet the spikes that come. And if the lines were not commissioned for the proper bandwidth needs, you will get lag.

It is more difficult the older you are. Your reflexes diminish, making it more difficult to twitch. To add on: F1: power to blaster increases direct fire weapon damage and weapon power pool at the expense of shields and engine F2: power to shields increases shield power and regen at the expense of weapons and engines F3: power to engines increases engine power and regen at the expense of weapons and shields F4: normal power to all systems C: quick check at your target. This changes your view to look at your target while the "C" key is pressed. R: target the last enemy that fired at you <tab>: cycle thru the closest targets E: target what is close to reticle When starting out, learn to fly in 3D space by circling the satellites. You need to hug them in order to capture them. Sensor focus range seems to increase the range with which you interact with them. When you are comfortable zooming all around the satellites, then learn to kill their turrets; Stationary targets are much easier to hit than moving. Try lots of ships. Play the ones you like the most.