Thanks for the info, that last bit there is actually the kind of stuff I'm looking for, especially that last bit about not being able to hold satellites like that anymore. I should just jump right into some games but I'm the type to try and read up as much as I can before diving in.

I'm a returning player, my experience with GSF is limited to when it was launched up until a little before bombers were released. I haven't played since then. At the time, I was an OK pilot at least, working on my Flashfire as my ship of choice, but there were few if any maxed ships around then and I'm sure the meta has evolved considerably since that time. So my question is primarily, what are the basics when it comes to dealing with bombers and how have they affected the meta compared to the pre-bomber days? I've read a lot of the beginner guides out there but they don't adequately address what I'm looking for. Thanks!

Most people who call others "bads" are douchebags. I'd say the same for those who call others carebears.

The other day the score was backwards (or I was). My team would score and suddenly I'm losing 0-1. The other team would score a couple times and suddenly I'm winning 2-1. The end result was correct, but the display was wrong as to which team had which score

Yeah, because the problem right now is there there's TOO MANY people queueing for rated, and queues pop so fast, right?

This is ignorant. You haven't faced heavy gunship games where they are decent. Yes, individual gunships aren't that hard to track down and blow up but they scale better than the scouts who hunt them down. As you add gunships to cover other gunships the people like you who think they are hot **** get their asses blown out of the sky.

Individual gunships aren't so bad but I think there might be a problem in how well they stack. They can cover each other well and be extremely difficult to approach. Yeah zigzagging towards one is a reasonably reliable way to take one out but it doesn't evade the other gunships covering the original. And when they're covering each other, they're ALL hard to approach. Especially when all they have to do is tap you with an ion railgun to set up the bigger shots. The only real disadvantage is mobility but if they're set up on a satellite they control they don't need much mobility.

Not really. I don't think many players give up as quickly as you say because most gamers are used to being owned when they are new at something. I really don't get this idea that your first time playing you should jump in and think you'll be competitive against experienced players. What do you think happens in CoD or virtually any other multiplayer game the first time you try it...you end up getting destroyed. And the learning curve in GSF is, in my opinion, not as steep as you seem to think.

In an 8v8 warzone, and when the sorc is left relatively alone then yes a sorc can put up comparable numbers. But against good teams who focus or even moderately harass, those numbers are going to drop quick. You simply can't stand still and cast in this game against decent opponents with the amount of stuns, interrupts, and knockbacks there are. In arena, this isn't even a conversation and an op is far superior.

This isn't entirely correct, is it? If it were a straight 193 cap, you could do a 78/78/37 could you not, or other such combos?

Bad play plagues all classes so is a very poor explanation for the difference in effectiveness BETWEEN classes. Op healers are vastly superior to the 2 other healer classes right now and some balancing needs to occur.

what the hell do you think this proves? DURRR WE BEAT THEM IN AN ARENA THEREFORE THEY FINE LOL. Everybody knows that op healers are far and away superior to the other healers. It's not even a debate.

Well my main is a sage healer. I don't even queue ranked because I don't want to be the reason my team loses. It's simply not fun in any way whatsoever.

Yup, this. I wouldn't want the overall uprades nerfed too much, that carrot has got to be there to motivate queueing up. It's not like you get anything that affects your character so ship upgrades damn well better be worth obtaining.

Uh huh. Most people don't even have it upgraded to 6 seconds yet. It lasts three seconds. Surely you can kill a scout in some window of time outside of those 3 seconds. I seem to be able to.

I disagree with a lot of this, but the larger point that I seem to keep repeating is that these knee-jerk "balance suggestions" are not helpful at this early stage. You are not a GSF expert, and your opponents aren't either. At a rough glance the balance is pretty good overall and that being the case the best course is to go with it for a while. "Balance" suggestions are more likely to F up what could be a good thing. Only the most egregious, glaring issues (like, IMO, the ion railgun love tap) should be corrected at this point and anybody suggesting this many changes at this detailed a level needs to take a step back and realize there's a lot they still don't know.

If their innate speed were noticeably faster, their turning noticeably better, and their hitbox smaller I might agree with you. But if I'm sitting on a gunship it hardly matters what's on the other end of my snipe - nothing is particularly hard to hit with the exception of a ship who's flying specifically to make themselves harder FOR ME to hit. It's every bit as easy to hit a scout as a gunship a lot of the time. Increase all those maneuverability innates on a scout and I might agree with you.

I think evasion is perfectly fine right now. I really don't get the argument about "strikes can't increase their accuracy as well as scouts can increase their evasion. Therefore unfair." So what? God forbid a ship type gets to be good at something without another ship having the ability to fully counter it. That's called building an advantage, and evasion is one that a scout should be expected to get. I think people grossly underestimate the abilities of strikes too, I don't feel like some slow stupid elephant when I'm flying my strike, even against scouts. People act like the scouts just fly circles around them and execute them at their leisure when that is far from reality. Do you fly straight at a gunship when it's charging a big old slug, and pointed at you? Do you wail on a sage who pops his immunity bubble for the full duration? I doubt it. You're allowed to veer off when a scout blows his cooldowns too. Last, this isn't a 1v1 format. You know what's pretty easy to hit? A scout trying to shoot down someone else. Everyone is way too worried about not being able to 1v1 every other ship at all times in all situations with their own favorite. I think the only thing that really needs to be addressed right now is the ion railgun tap. That has to be an oversight. Balance-wise, I think it's pretty good. What tweaks may need to be made should NOT be made on these knee-jerk reactions of people when the game is still in this early stage of play. That's how you ruin balance.

I still think it's too early for people to be acting like they know all the ins and outs of GS, and so aren't qualified to be suggesting buffs/nerfs. Seriously, people think they're experts in a couple weeks, playing against mostly complete noobs?

Good lord people, GS has been out what, 2 weeks now? It's still in its infancy and despite how leet and wise you think you are you're playing in an undeveloped metagame. Most pilots are pretty bad, most ships don't have many upgrades, most teams don't work together, and those that do haven't been doing so for long. It's a little early to be screaming for nerfs. At most we're still in the early impression stage. But go ahead and cry because on day 1, gunships or scouts or whatever feel OP. My current impression is that the balance is great, but it's still early. Give it some damn time.

One of the big drawbacks that some people see in Galactic Starfighter, despite it being fun, is that it has no real connection to your character beyond earning some xp at the end. Whether you fire it up on your main, an alt, a brand new level 1, the character you're on doesn't matter at all and there's no impact on that character. It's an entirely separate, unrelated game within SWTOR and its not that easy to be motivated to play it on more than 1 character. So, a few suggestions: 1. Let us earn Fleet Commendations in addition to the regular rewards. Fleet comms already have a function with the fleet comm vendor, and this provides another reason to play GS and ties it back to your character. You can leave the vendor the same, add stuff, whatever...but it has stuff for your actual character. and/or 2. Revamp the old style space missions to use the GS ships, and create some new, single-player "off rails" missions. Just trash the "on rails" missions entirely (or leave them as an additional option). Who wants to play them now that we're flying ships in GS? This way the players who are turned off by the PvP aspect of GS can enjoy it more and people will be more motivated to earn upgrades for their ships. This also would allow you to keep fleet commendations strictly in the single-player space combat like it is now, but remove the total isolation of GS from your character since the requisition you earn in pvp GS will uprade your ship for the single player missions as well. I think GS is fun, but like I said, it's basically a totally independent game within SWTOR separate from your character and that is a problem for some people. Please better connect it to the character. Thank you

Yeah, I'm not going to spec out of what I want to play. I'm just not going to queue ranked anytime soon. Geared up, as long as I perform OK in unranked that's acceptable to me until, hopefully, they fix sages. The state of sages is exactly why I am "overthinking" this since when I step into a warzone, even unranked, I don't want avoidable gear mistakes affecting my performance.

So I'm currently playing a sage healer who will hit 55 pretty soon. I have access to a cybertech/artifice to construct whatever orange gear I like. I have read every thread I can find on bolster and still confused as to exactly which combination of mods is as strong as possible without being "too high" so as to hurt bolstered expertise. Please correct me where I'm wrong. Earrings & Implants: Crafted level 54 purples are great to start with and bolster well. Correct? Relics: Getting Obroan relics seems to be a good place to start, though I have read that the level 50 Matrix Cube bolsters up well too. I am not sure how they compare but it sounds like you are in reasonable shape with either 2 pvp relics as early purchases, or 1 pvp relic and a matrix cube. Correct me if the matrix cube is no longer a strong choice. Wrist & Waist: Armoring: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Resolve Armoring 28 (66) Mod: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Aptitude Mod 28A (66) Is this too high? If so, what needs to be reduced, and to what? Chest, Legs, other armor spots: Armoring: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Resolve Armoring 28 (66) Mod: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Aptitude Mod 28A (66) Enhancement: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Adept Enhancement 28 (66) From what I have read, this is too much but I have read conflicting reasons/solutions. Does the armoring need to be changed to the blue version? Does the level of the mod or enhancement need to be reduced? What specifically needs to change from the straight up 66-66-66 purple setup? Weapon: Crystal: Purple level 50 - Advanced Yellow Hawkeye Crystal (+41 Power) Hilt: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Resolve Hilt 28 (66) Mod: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Aptitude Mod 28A (66) Enhancement: Crafted level 53 purple - Advanced Adept Enhancement 28 (66) Again, I've read that this is too much but the solutions have been somewhat unclear especially if this is the best hilt I have to start with. So what needs to be reduced, and to what? Thanks in advance. I hate bolster.

I just want to chime in and agree with the OP. I am in no way motivated to play GSF on more than one character. It's different in real pvp because you are actually using your character in ground pvp. In GSF it's just the exact same carbon copy ships and there's no reason whatsoever to do it on multiple toons when it has no impact on your character.

Maybe I'm blind, but where exactly does this number display? I look at my gear and all I see is the item rating (mostly 132's atm), the numbers next to the mods (mostly blue and purple 58's), and the item level requirement (50). There is no 63, 66 or any other number. Where exactly is it supposed to be? When I mess around on askmrrobot I see an item level clearly displayed to the left of the item name, but this number does not show up in-game. And playing on the website doesn't help either because that item level doesn't seem to change as I change the mods, I don't know if I need to log in and "save" the character for that to update or what. I took a "item rating" 8 orange lightsaber, added in all the level 53 mods I plan on using, but the item level still says 8.