They aught to pool players for Starfighter from all the servers.

Oh, and yet another angle. Early in a match I'll speed to a node and often capture it, either because the other team is slow or they just went somewhere else. I think then it's clearly better to immediately boost out to a neighboring node where the action is hot, or to intercept any late comers before they reach the node I just took. Letting them come in and hump the satellite isn't nearly as effective in my experience.

I don't think that's so clear. Gunships are typically 15k away and you can't just ignore them, plus the good ones will Barrel Roll away and quickly be ~30k from the node... Yet it still often makes sense to keep on them until their Thrust runs out. So, put another way, good luck capturing nodes if you let Gunships just sit at 15k. Very often it makes sense to boost out and gun them down, then return to the satellite. Similarly, if the other team has a pilot that's just dominating I'll keep on them when I get a chance, regardless of distance from a node. Conversely I hate it when someone does this to me; perhaps they're not "winning" directly, but if they stop me from getting 50k+ damage that definitely makes a difference. You get double Req for winning, which matters more than how many satellites you capture or foes you smoke. A more important angle I think is what to do when you die. Generally I try to head off to a a 3 turret node. Typically simply hugging the satellite after popping turrets isn't enough -- you'll have to gun down whoever is there first.

Good point! Pretty much every match I burn a couple of green pilots head on while popping Distortion Field (or Directional Shields) simply because they don't yet understand what's going on. Retro Thruster can be a rude surprise in such a situation too.

Good luck capturing satellites if you don't shoot people down. :-P

Light Lasers are higher DPS and better at mid-long range gunning, and especially chasing. Burst Lasers are more accurate in turning battles and around nodes, with chunkier damage that can catch people by surprise, plus an option of either shield pierce or ~double damage to turrets. If you like Rapid Fire I'd guess you'll like Lights. They're like Rapid Fire but better in every regard except power draw.

Rocket Pods have exactly the same hit mechanic as blasters, only with much worse accuracy loss per degree of off angle. Apparent travel time to target is reflected by this, but has no actual effect otherwise. I hit non-stationary targets at 5-6k all the time, typically when they're running and I'm boosting after them. Helps to have an accuracy boost like Wingman.

*shrug* I wasn't talking in theory, but in practice. I do worse in my Star Guard than my other ships, but that's due to other factors and I still top the leader boards with it from time to time. Distortion Field is just something you learn to deal with. With Heavy Lasers you can open up well before they can; if they're not taking damage you just jink and boost so neither of you can hit well, then come around for another pass after Distortion Field is on cooldown. You can still hit well at max range should they try the same as this defense only provides enough arc and closure to work up close, which combined with your Direction Shields is what gives you the jousting edge. I blast even good pilots this way. I play the flip side as a Scout using Distortion Field too, and while it's a great against the many pilots who do just fly straight at you it's much less useful against experienced pilots who just stall it out. I get blasted as a Scout by good Strike Fighter jousters too, and so I'm careful to avoid jousting if I recognize the pilot. Well, I'll still take a crack if I have Distortion Field ready. ;-) As I play more I'm beginning to like Distortion Field less as it's so easy to avoid, though that base +15% Evasion is nice. I might actually switch back to Quick Charge Shields! I'm also considering Engine Power Converter combined with swapping Thruster Regen -> Sensor Beacon.

STAR GUARD - Heavy Lasers: These are brutally accurate at range, and deadly even without the Shield Piercing upgrade - Ion Cannons: You need something for up close, and these are better than Rapid Fire. - Concussion Missiles: Best all around missile, hands down. - Directional Shields: Gives you massive shields, and are good for jousting which is your strength. - Barrel Roll: Let's you switch field, escape, and chase. Get the +speed upgrade, +turn is overkill. - Frequency Capacitor: Great with Heavy Lasers. - Regeneration Extender: So you get better use out of Frequency - Large Reactor: I like the larger buffer, but am not terribly tied to them. - Turning Thrusters: Crucial for satellite humping. CREW - Offense: B-3G9. Faster reloads and +accuracy are just what you need. Hydrospanner too. - Defense: Doc for the best shields you can get. - Tactical: Akaavi Spar for Communication to hopefully attract allies, and the option for Wingman. - Engineer: Yuun to maximize Engine and Blaster efficiency. This plays much different than the Pike, as an opponent who escapes and evades well will be able to evade again before Concussion Missile coolsdown. You likely won't put up numbers as high as a result, but it's tough and good at actually defending satellites. It definitely has some strengths: - While it's only OK at dogfighting it's great at jousting -- Barrel Roll to open the range after crossing, then put Deflectors double front and open up with Heavy Lasers and Concussion. - It's great at satellite riding, just be careful with the directional shields. +10% turn and +10% speed is the best combo for chasing people around a satellite. Don't boost, just direct power to thrusters and go 100%. - It's a strong ship one on one, and the foe I most fear to face when nobody else is around. - Works great in pairs, as it effectively lets you break a turning stalemate. - Ion Blasters up close will often make foes run, which is a great lead in to Heavy Lasers. Offset by several crucial weaknesses: - It's bad at setting the terms of engagement, and good foes will usually get the drop on you. - It doesn't have potent abilities like Blaster Overcharge or Distortion Field. Be careful to bait then stall these abilities out! - Damn hard to escape in. Often you can Satellite Hug to stay alive, but good foes will dig you out.

My favorite fighter is the Nova Dive, but I do well with a Pike and to a lesser extent Star Guard too. PIKE - Quad Lasers: Good middle of the road option, though I might switch to Heavy Lasers. - Proton Torpedos: The entire point of playing a Pike. Get double speed protons as fast as you can! - Concussion Missiles: Good synergy with the Protons. Clusters are too low damage, and you don't want to be close anyway. I'd take double Concussion Missiles if I could! - Quick Charge Shield: The increased Thruster regen is often overlooked but key. - Barrel Roll: Obvious choice for the strategic mobility. Upgrade quickly for either +Turn or +Speed. - Deflection Armor: A bit of a lark, but it works better than I expected! Effective against your biggest threats, Scouts. - Damage Capacitor: Could go range. Probably would go Frequency with Heavy Lasers. - Munitions: Otherwise you risk having to suicide to reload! - Turning Thrusters: Crucial to retain lock. CREW - Offense: B-3G9 for faster reloads, more accurate blasters and Hydro Spanner. Corso is tempting too, but I like Hydro Spanner here. - Defense: Bowdaar for increased blaster resistance and synergy with Hydro Spanner. - Tactical: Akaavi Spar to make foes find you a bit slower, and Communication to hopefully attract allies. - Engineer: C2-N2 as you need all the engine power you can get. T7-01 is tempting so you can take Corso on offense, but is just too slow. The Pike is all about staying at range in the open, and alternating Protons and Concussion. Ideally you find a target who's just popped his evade, but even if they do evade you just switch missiles and relock. Generally I start Proton, cautiously close to Concussion Range for the second shot, then pursue with Blasters. Helps if you find a foe who's pursuing an ally and so low on Thrust. If you're jousting with another ship learn to open the range up with a properly timed Barrel Roll. Then missile them as you re-engage. Works against weak-mid players but good players can wreck you, in which case you abort and haul ***. If they pop Distortion Field, just jink then come back for another pass. The Pike also does a surprisingly good job holding Satellites as it's so tough against Blasters. Not really where you want to be though, even if sometimes it's necessary to stay alive.

The trick is that Gunships are so deadly than any experienced player who sees one immediately switches to hunting Gunships, and some of them are really good and have tricked out starships specifically for hunting Gunships. Nemarus's basic advice for Gunships is all good, but even the best Gunships die a lot. The most effective way to stay alive in one is to join a Gunship wolfpack and cover each other. Even when it's an ad hoc arrangement it's much more difficult for opponents to run you down, as you can sprint/stop away and when foes slow down to shoot you they're easy targets for the rest of your pack. Pairing with someone armed with Concussion or Proton missiles can work too.

Some practical advice and info: - Ships of a given class are identical, except for which components they have available. - Aiming consists of two parts: Getting your mouse crosshair over the lead indicator, and how close the two combined are to the middle of the screen. This distance from center is the "angle" listed in blasters' tooltips. - Power settings affect weapon/shield/engine power and not just energy regeneration rate. - Sensor range is 15km minimum, so sensor dampening isn't as useful as it at first looks. - Understanding that Distortion Field effectively gives 3-6s of immunity to blasters can avoid a lot of frustration. Learn to recognize what it looks like if you plan on jousting! - Turn on the advanced info in the options; it's a separate flag for starfighter. - It helps to rearrange your UI so important data (e.g. power cooldowns) isn't at the edge. You can find this under the normal screen UI controls, just select Starfighter out of the drop down menu. - Remap your power conversion keys. F1-F4 are too far away for how often you want to use them. I recommend z-x-c-v. - Wingman and Bypass are the most useful Copilot abilities. - Upgraded Barrel Roll lets you travel for less thurster energy than afterburning.

Why not makes bombers actually be bombers? Fairly useless against Scouts and Strike Fighters, maybe with some dangerous if you're not careful automated turrets out the back, but essentially their role would be damaging large ships. Fighters could fly escort or intercept. That's a time honored and effective approach, and avoids the healer/tank MMO-isms in favor of something closer to the WW2 aesthetic that Star Wars starfighting draws its power from. Of course this would require a new game mode aside from Satellite Humping, but wouldn't that be a good thing?

ELO, of course.

The difference between ships of the same class is the equipment available in each slot. The fleet requisition ships have different options. For example the base Strike Fighter has 2 cannons, while the Fleet Req one has 1 cannon but 2 missile slots.

The sensor boosting is only a secondary effect. The main benefits are the accuracy boost/penalty, the increased difficulty opponents have tab targeting over to you, and the surprisingly large chance they have of at least temporarily mistaking the beacon for you.

It was a joke. ;-) I hadn't noticed the Imperials doing noticeably worse on average, and often have had much easier matches when it's Republic vs. Republic, and done just fine moonlighting as an Imperial. I've been away over the holiday though, and now the balance does seem substantially worse than it was, with a surprising number of fly-straight-while-getting shot Imperials, a few Imperial aces, and not much in between. Seems to depend on the time of day to some extent. Hopefully a bit of organization will turn this around!

Pretty sure only damaging hits count as "hits". If you want that achievement I'd recommend either flying a Gunship, or exclusively turret hunting. Maybe both.

Jumping in a bit late but to me Distortion Field is fine, although perhaps my opinion will change once I've got it upgraded from 3s to 6s. Basically it makes you invulnerable for a short period, and is good for taking out targets who sit still like a turret. It's great for gunship hunting, but other than that it's hard to time right and the duration is short. Don't get me wrong, it's good! But not so good I'd nerf it. Instead other defensive abilities could be boosted a bit. Hell, I don't even think it's the best defensive ability, that's Sensor Beacon which aside from it's nice bonuses means people often tab-target to it rather than you. Second place is Booster Recharge so people can't catch you. There's also a subtle weakness to Distortion Field -- Quick Charge Shields gives you a boost in "recently used" thruster regen. It's hard to quantify but significant, and I definitely feel it when I use Distortion Field without Booster Recharge. On my Flash I now use Quick Charge Shields instead as I prefer to use Blaster Overcharge in lieu of Booster Recharge. A bit of an aside, but for Charged Plating, maybe it gives 1/(1+DR%) protection, rather than 1-DR% protection? That'd explain why it's not so sexy as it appears on paper against non-AP damage..

Oh, and I should mention that I do often fly with a buddy of mine, who's a good shot. Having a teammate nearby really puts a crimp in the style of anyone who likes to stop in open space.

Honestly, I find "look at target" to be pretty handy. Generally when I'm dogfighting though I just prefer to not let my opponent get out of screen, and usually I can stop behind somebody who X-stops even if sometimes I'm too close to shoot. As for the missile lock, that's for a ship with longer range, e.g. Concussion Missiles and Heavy Lasers. Generally the (non-Gunship!) turret players can't deal with that. Even better are Protons. And yes, I do presume that (Non-Gunship) pilots who are just camping out fully stopped are noobs. They're easy to take out. Good players will stop and go, taking advantage of the buggy point blank fire, but it's not something I have much problem with as I generally keep the range open a bit. Worst case I just boost out of sensor range and come back from another angle -- something a stopped player can do nothing about. Honestly, the stopping players are not the ones I have problems with. It's the ones who are good at weaving around nodes, slippery when boosting away, or good at working in pairs.

Nooooo.... Curse your foul plans, Imperial! It's much better when the Imperials aren't organized!

Stike Fighters pop about as fast as Scouts if you use Bypass. Often faster, since they generally have less Evasion.

Meh. You're overselling the effectiveness of this tactic: - You can readily tell whether someone a bit off screen has stopped by using the convenient "look at target" button. Though I'll agree a "target speed" HUD indicator would be nice. - Get someways out and missile lock them, then they have to move. - Gunships paste such still pilots. - Run straight at them, pop Distortion Field, and waste them with blasters and rockets. - Since they're still it's easy to wait their Distortion Field out. - Stop behind them and blast them, which is somewhat hamstrung by the bug I outline above, but often still works. Such predictable pilots are by far the easiest for me to shoot down.

Hahaha, no. Might want to think that one through, maybe pick up that Physics book that's clearly been dusty far too long.