GSF first Impression, Please Share.

[Arkerus]

First off, I think its an awesome addition. I am having so much fun in GS.

 

The controls take some getting used to. I would have liked an option to control the ship and the reticule separately but I understand the design.

 

The scout just dies and dies and dies. I don't like it as much as the other two ship types.

[DreadtechSavant]

Go to the customer service forum so we can have you run some tests.

 

Which topic as there seems to be a few blank screen ones or do I need to start a new thread?

 

Never mind started new thread, I cannot be the only member who is having issues.

Edited December 3, 2013 by DreadtechSavant

[Kraylok]

Somewhat dissapointed with this. Was hoping to enjoy some free flight star wars dogfighting again.

 

However this is not the case....

 

The controls are so twitchy, the slightest movement and I'm heading off at random!

 

Also why on earth do my weapons steer faster than my ship, I need to lock them forward, and the whole thing needs slowing down so that we can manouevre around each other. I can't seem to turn fast enough to target an enemy in any of the stock ships. The predictive sight should trail the weapon direction as i turn and not precede it surely to show where the shots will go at a set range. For some reason my guns are in little turrets and steer ahead of my turn.

 

I'm sure not going to be the best player out there, and I don't have the reflexes of an 18 yr old, but I can manage World of Warplanes OK, which has a similar control setup, but in this I'm all over the place. I would have thought I could at least target and shoot at something, the only thing I can manage to hit is the turrets and that's hard enough!

 

I was hoping for something along the lines of X-Wing/Tie Fighter franchise (I could manage that....) but sadly this is not for me.

[GoldenHornet]

Folks,

What do you guys think?

 

My thoughts?

 

Meh.

[AlrikFassbauer]

- Playing on the Imps side Rep seems to always win.. Not sure it has any balance issue or just that the GSF Reps are really good players!!

 

What server are you on ? Because I currently experience the exact opposite !

(It's Vanjervalis Chain where I play.)

 

I'm sure not going to be the best player out there, and I don't have the reflexes of an 18 yr old, but I can manage World of Warplanes OK, which has a similar control setup, but in this I'm all over the place. I would have thought I could at least target and shoot at something, the only thing I can manage to hit is the turrets and that's hard enough!

 

Try the Gunship. It really gets better that way.

Edited December 3, 2013 by AlrikFassbauer

[Zardac_the_Great]

I expected this to be rather blah. I figured I'd try it, then get back to doing something else.

 

It's won me over, though. I actually do like it. And the Republic actually has some halfway decent looking fighters, too. I still think it would have been a better idea to let us use our ships, but this is fun too.

[vbmdsm]

I quite like the expansion as a whole, but I do have to say that I won't be playing it much as I have trouble seeing the RED indicators etc - yes I'm colour deficient in Red/Green so all the Red information causes me issues. It would be great if a Colourblind mode were introduced - like in World of Tanks where the Red enemy in colourblind mode is Blue.

[Delta_V]

Well, not really my "first" impression since I was on the PTS, but...

 

1) Am I playing against the Battlefront 2 AI again? (yes, the Imps on Harbinger are really that bad )

 

2) I normally stick to PVE, but holy crap is this fun. I've tried out the default Scout, Strike Fighter, and Gunship Each is fun in its own way, and I've managed to top the scoreboard with each one, so nothing is terribly underpowered.

 

3) Gunships are going to be really annoying in the hands of people who actually know what they're doing. Sensor-damped Gunships might be the only serious balance issue in GS at the moment.

[AlrikFassbauer]

1) Am I playing against the Battlefront 2 AI again? (yes, the Imps on Harbinger are really that bad )

 

On Vanjervalis Chain it's the direct oppositre ... And I'm a sworn Republic player ...

[ptwonline]

On Vanjervalis Chain it's the direct oppositre ... And I'm a sworn Republic player ...

 

Both sides are bad/inexperiened right now. On both sides I've been able to capture the center point at the start of the game every time...in a Strike Fighter.

[archifikoss]

General sentiment: I enjoyed it a lot! I generally loathe PvP but I still had a lot of fun. It takes a bit of getting used to even if you're experienced with space sims, but you can grasp it quickly. I played Imp side, 5 matches, won 4, with only a few kills but a good number of assists and objective captures.

 

The good

- Highly fun and addictive gameplay, I don't have the gunship but the Scout felt much better than the Strike fighter to me. I am going to make a beeline for the 2nd variants for either ship because I think they will suit my playstyle better.

- Lots of unlocks and customization, should keep me busy for quite a while though I felt that I could hold my own even in my very basic default ships (moreso in the Scout)

- Looks and sounds good!

- I didn't encounter (or didn't notice) any outstanding bugs that dampened the experience.

 

My gripes

- The controls don't feel as smooth as I was hoping - Freelancer felt smoother back in the day

- I feel that joystick support would enrich the experience

- Cokpit view would be cool (but this is just a small detail)

- The UI - maybe I just need to get used to it, but I felt that it didn't convey important info well enough. I need to play more for better feedback on the issue though.

- Holding R mouse to missile lock feels rather clunky.

- No collision detection on ships/turrets

- More maps and game modes are needed - I know they're in the pipe, five by five (Aliens reference ) but I fear that once the novelty wears off people will drop GS quickly without regular updates.

 

I know that my gripes are more than my likes - but despite how it may seem my view is positive! I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to more play tomorrow, when I'm more awake

 

Thank you Bioware for GS - may it be expanded on and given the love it deserves!

Edited December 3, 2013 by archifikoss

[UncelSam]

They gave us a free download archade game( with superbad Controls) from the 90's.

 

Are there any devs left working on BW at all?

[AlrikFassbauer]

Both sides are bad/inexperiened right now. On both sides I've been able to capture the center point at the start of the game every time...in a Strike Fighter.

 

I have won only 3 or 4 out of 15 games now - and in most games the Imperial faction was able to capture AND HOLD all 3 sattelites until the end ...

[Arkerus]

They gave us a free download archade game( with superbad Controls) from the 90's.

 

Are there any devs left working on BW at all?

 

Please find and display the 90s space fighter that played like this and looks this good.

 

 

Oh wait, you can't because what you said has no actual reference. Next.

[UncelSam]

Please find and display the 90s space fighter that played like this and looks this good.

 

 

Oh wait, you can't because what you said has no actual reference. Next.

 

So you buy anything as long it just have good Graphics? Hmm sounds intelligent. Ohh, look over there!! Its the sunrise!!! In real nice colors!! Run over there and stare at it. off u go!

[Alphasgimaone]

Please find and display the 90s space fighter that played like this and looks this good.

Looked? Perhaps not. Played? Should we limit the list to those with a Star Wars license?

[BadOrb]

I have not played yet, but other posters have mentioned that there is one hidden in the Options -> Preferences.

 

Yeah thanks I found it , but as soon as I changed it , i crashed lots into the capital ship lol. So I changed it back , mind you it is okay as it stays the same as the ground game so no worries:).

 

Cheers,

 

BadOrb.

[Logannx]

I feel like I'm fighting the controls more than anything. Kind of frustrating. I would also much prefer a joystick for a game like this. Maybe that's the source of my trouble I dunno. Looks great and its kinda fun minus the bad control.

[Ramalina]

Well, this has been hugely better than what I feared it might be.

 

That said:

 

Roll rate is incredibly slow, like garbage barge slow. If the nose of the spacecraft is the X axis, then angular acceleration when rotating about the X axis is TERRIBLE. I'd say increase it to double or triple what it currently is on the tutorial craft (it might be ok for gunships and bombers, but it's way to slow for scouts and strike fighters). I'd have to fire up one of my flight sims to check, but I think aiming for 180 to 360 degrees/sec would be a reasonable range to aim for, with very rapid acceleration from zero roll if you have maximum stick deflection in the direction of roll.

 

 

Yaw as a primary control direction is incredibly bizarre. The flight model is basically a really bad aerodynamic flight model. In any normal flight sim model your primary control directions are pitch, roll, yaw, and thrust in approximately that order of responsiveness. An option to have the primary mouse controls be pitch/roll instead of pitch/yaw would be a huge improvement in terms of feeling like I'm flying a fighter instead of driving a landspeeder with really funky controls. Also see first comment about poor roll rate. We won't go into what a real space combat sim would look like because the movies use an aerodynamic flight model, but if we're using an aero based model keep in mind that normal behavior is to first roll, then pitch up, with yaw used for fine target adjustment or unusual flight regime situations stemming from flight dynamics that are way beyond the scope of a StarWars franchise game in terms of flight model realism.

 

Steal/copy the 1990's X vs TIE franchise style situational awareness displays. Two circular displays, one in top left and one in top right showing a projection of other spacecraft and missiles within 5-10 km. One is forward hemisphere, one is rear hemisphere. Enemies red, friendly green, neutral/unidentified blue, missiles tracking you yellow. Centers of the display circles were the + and - X axis, edges of the display were the intersection of the globe of monitored space with the YZ plane. The current HUD is not bad for the other information it displays, but it's not very good at giving, "where is my opponent in relation to where I am" information. Unless there are copyright issues, steal the X vs TIE style display, it was so good that it actually blows modern Gen 4/5 fighter avionics out of the water (Boeing only wishes it could have situational awareness displays that good in the F-22). It didn't have range information, but it did instantly tell you all the information you needed to know, "where do I want to point the nose of my fighter," and even better it let you know where in the rear hemisphere any hostiles were. This would be particularly nice since the camera system does not lend itself to rapid and easy visual target scanning. Given the pace and range of combat, even a complete camera system rework with TrackIR support would be at best marginally adequate, so go for the situational awareness displays.

 

An in cockpit camera view would be nice, the parallax from the default view is incredibly annoying when trying to lead a target with cannons (at least I find it to be, especially if taking snap shots at something other than your currently selected target).

 

Plug and play joystick/HOTAS support. Apparently on the to-do list, but can't come soon enough for me.

(needs to support variable/analog PITCH, ROLL, THRUST, yaw(optional), with button support for fire primary, cycle weapon system and/or fire secondary, targeting functions, shield balancing, and afterburner).

 

I'd like more battlefields/mission types. Escort/convoy-destruction perhaps?

 

Summary: Definitely not perfect, but maybe within a stone's throw of being truly awesome. That's coming from a bit of a flight sim snob, so pretty damn good for an MMO mini-game.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Ramalina

[Ramalina]

Oh, forgot one thing, the tutorial mission.

 

Deficiencies:

 

Can't choose which ship/upgrades you fly in it (or if you can I couldn't find the UI option to do so).

 

Lacks ship targets so you can practice against something moving.

 

Lacks targets that shoot back so you can practice realistic shield and evasion mechanics.

 

Another note, I didn't see a shields front/back/balanced control in the tutorial lessons (though it's possible I missed it, I'll check my keybinds later). If it's not just that I skipped over it in my haste to get flying then the shield balancing controls should be implemented.

[BuckeyeChris]

My first impression is that the Scout is not very good. The speed difference doesn't make up for how damn weak the ship is. I'm sticking to the Scout and have a number of upgrades for it but the other ships feel so much better. I think it should be a lot harder to get a missile lock on it for starters, 1 missile and you're basically toast. Yes you can sometimes outrun them but Scouts should be able to do something other than RUN AWAY constantly.

[Aiobhill]

Well, this has been hugely better than what I feared it might be.

 

That said:

 

Roll rate is incredibly slow, like garbage barge slow. If the nose of the spacecraft is the X axis, then angular acceleration when rotating about the X axis is TERRIBLE. I'd say increase it to double or triple what it currently is on the tutorial craft (it might be ok for gunships and bombers, but it's way to slow for scouts and strike fighters)

 

 

Yaw as a primary control direction is incredibly bizarre. The flight model is basically a really bad aerodynamic flight model. In any normal flight sim model your primary control directions are pitch, roll, yaw, and thrust in approximately that order of responsiveness. An option to have the primary mouse controls be pitch/roll instead of pitch/yaw would be a huge improvement in terms of feeling like I'm flying a fighter instead of driving a landspeeder with really funky controls. Also see first comment about poor roll rate.

 

Steal/copy the 1990's X vs TIE franchise style situational awareness displays. Two circular displays, one in top left and one in top right showing a projection of other spacecraft and of missiles within 5-10 km. One is forward hemisphere, one is rear hemisphere. Enemies red, friendly green, neutral/unidentified blue, missiles tracking you yellow. Centers of the display circles were the + and - X axis, edges of the display were the intersection of the globe of monitored space with the YZ plane. The current HUD is not bad for the other information it displays, but it's not very good at giving, "where is my opponent in relation to where I am" information. Unless there are copyright issues, steal the X vs TIE style display, it was so good that it actually blows modern Gen 4/5 fighter avionics out of the water (Boeing only wishes it could have situational awareness displays that good in the F-22). It didn't have range information, but it did instantly tell you all the information you needed to know, "where do I want to point the nose of my fighter," and even better it let you know where in the rear hemisphere any hostiles were. This would be particularly nice since the camera system does not lend itself to rapid and easy visual target scanning.

 

An in cockpit camera view would be nice, the parallax from the default view is incredibly annoying when trying to lead a target with cannons (at least I find it to be, especially if taking snap shots at something other than your currently selected target).

 

Plug and play joystick/HOTAS support. Apparently on the to-do list, but can't come soon enough for me.

 

I'd like more battlefields/mission types. Escort/convoy-destruction perhaps?

 

Summary: Definitely not perfect, but maybe within a stone's throw of being truly awesome. That's coming from a bit of a flight sim snob, so pretty damn good for an MMO mini-game.

 

As another flight sim nut, this post expresses my feelings much better than I could have. Some minor issues, mostly I miss the ability to adjust my mouse sensitivity for GSF without affecting the rest of the game, but overall lots of fun and much much better than expected.

[ImmortalLowlife]

Tried it....not impressed. Don't get me wrong, it looks great & I think I could really get into it, but the controls SUCK! I now add my voice to the masses asking for joystick/controller support

[Alphasgimaone]

If I had to categorize this, as of right now, I'd say it's "so close and yet so far". The core concept is good and it still has its moments of fun, but the execution is so haphazard.

 

The controls are the biggest problem. They're clunky and often times confusing. A game like this should be naturally intuitive. But, if there's one big indicator it isn't, it's the number of times "So and so has self destructed," appears on my screen because people are smashing into things. I think the problem is they tried it make it more than it needed to be. They clearly tried to wedge a dogfighter, with spacey, arcade accoutrements into a RPG wrapper. There are just too many different things going on.

 

The basic controls should not be anything beyond pitch, roll, and yaw. And they could have even left out the yaw. Those things could have all been handled by the keyboard. Ideally, you'd want roll to be controlled with analog sensitivity, but it's really hard to do that with lateral mouse movement--hence why a people are already asking for joystick or gamepad compatibility. PC games have achieved this with varying degrees of success.

 

I think the real issue comes from how they directly tied the reticule into that funky attitude control on the mouse. It can be really cumbersome at times and ridiculous at others to the point where I feel like I'm the cat chasing the laser pointer. It certainly isn't anything like what I'd expect flying a pseudo spaceship aircraft would be.

 

This leads to the problem I have most with it: the inability to do any real combat maneuvers. While some my scoff at the idea of doing something like that in a space environment, there are skills that do them for you. You can literally press a button and execute an Immelmann. I spent a considerable amount of time mucking about in the tutorial area trying to pull one (or a split-S) on my own, but mostly just crashed into things. Full loops seem useless, and I would even know were to begin to even try something like a Cobra or hammerhead.

 

The other big issue is the HUD. The layout is abysmal. Two things that are missing that would both be hugely helpful are an actual horizon and a radial compass. Again, some with scoff and say "but it's space," but it's executed on a four directional map over a horizontal plane. The games are essentially air superiority snatch and holds. "A, B, and C" could just as easily be oil fields or airbases.

 

The information that is on the HUD gets so cluttered and lacks so much detail that it's almost arbitrary at times. It's really hard to orient yourself sometimes. And have to take time to open the large map and figure which way is up. This information should always be at hand in this kind of game.

 

I just don't know why they could have made this a full-on dogfighter with a few MMO elements. Star Wars combat has always been this. As most know, Georgie choreographed Yavin with WWII footage. And the whole scene plays out as such. I don't know where they need to make it more spacey (without really doing so) came from.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Alphasgimaone

[LegoUniverseBC]

My first impression is that the Scout is not very good. The speed difference doesn't make up for how damn weak the ship is. I'm sticking to the Scout and have a number of upgrades for it but the other ships feel so much better. I think it should be a lot harder to get a missile lock on it for starters, 1 missile and you're basically toast. Yes you can sometimes outrun them but Scouts should be able to do something other than RUN AWAY constantly.

 

Haha, the scout is very OP if you use it right.