I suck at Galactic Starfighter,,,,,,,,,,,

[Agenteusa]

1 - There is a tutorial...click on the question mark when you pull up the hanger screen.

 

2 - I somewhat agree with this. We fought very hard to keep buffs and abilities out of JtL because we wanted space PvP to be more about the skill of the pilot than anything else. However, all the buffs and abilities are equal across all factions and classes so at least it's not unfair. You just need to pick which abilities suit you best.

 

3 - The HUD is pretty intuitive for those who have played similar games (I played the whole X-wing series and JtL). I can't remember if it covers the HUD in the tutorial, but if your target is not on your screen then it should be represented by a light red diamond on the edge of your HUD. Just turn in the direction of the diamond and you should find your target.

 

4 - Hell no. Auto targeting would be extremely frustrating. Use the E key to target things that are under your reticule.

 

1 - I know there is a tutorial but it really doesn't accomplish much. I got out of the tutorial completely clueless. Maybe it's just me.

 

3 - Yes but me I haven't played similar games. Trust me , it's confusing to people who are new to fast paced shooters.

 

4 - I don't mean auto targeting like that. Maybe I explained myself wrong. What I mean was, If I'm seeing the ship in front of me, I can't really fire on it without switching target cause I won't have a reticule. I'm only saying why fire at a reticule and not directly at a ship. Why targeting so you can attack a ship. I mean it's ok in "land" pvp and pve but it's frustrating in space pvp imo.

[Wainamoinen]

Why targeting so you can attack a ship. I mean it's ok in "land" pvp and pve but it's frustrating in space pvp imo.

 

Just a side note that may help with how it works.

 

You don't need to target someone to hit them - I've shot, damaged and even killed people without having them targetted, just pewpewing at them with blasters.

 

Because the shots have a travel time (no, they're not real lasers whatever their title may be), the reticule helps tell you where you need to aim to hit the opponent if he stays on his current course (that's why someone a long way away who uses boost suddenly gets this crazy-long distance between location and reticule, which snaps back when they slow or turn, because their change in direction and velocity changes their predicted location after the time it would take your shots to reach them). If he changes course, you''ll miss even if your shot was bang in the middle of the reticule. But equally, you can hit people even if they're not targetted and you wren't firing in the reticule, because they arrive at the same point as your shot. If someone's at a dead stop, you can blast away without having them targetted (though I'd usually still hit E to get them targetted anyway).

 

Missiles are different, in that they need to get a lock on, for which you need an enemy targetted and in the fire arc.

 

Both blasters and rockets also have "tracking accuracy", which seems to mean that the further off the centre of your target circle they are, ther less likely you are to hit. Get them central, more chance to hurt them. Tracking accuracy is particularly severe for rocket pods (from memory, 5% per degree as against 0.5% to 1.5% for blasters). This also means that both turning, turning, turning, trying to catch them at the edge of your target circle is not going to have a great success rate - they'll regen quicker than you hurt tthem, or someone will arrive to pop one of you while you're spinning around.

[bfrick]

I'm one of those players who got in beta, but still find it extremely difficult to follow. Opponents fly by and I can't reorient myself in order to shoot back. Lucky to get more than 2000 damage.

 

I used to play flight sims a ton and I think the lack of joystick support is the main issue with me.

 

Aside from that I think GSF has enormous potential, and look forward to Bioware integrating the two games together at some point

[AlrikFassbauer]

I can hardly ever hit enemy starfighters, they are just too fast. And you hardly ever get them in a straight line before you.

[Shoraan]

Aiming at the little circle leading in front of the enemy may not always be the best thing. Just like in the old TIE Fighter series we had to learn to anticipate the enemy fighter's movement and aim where it's going to be in a few milliseconds. Most likely the little circle only indicates where your enemy would be if he continued in a straight line at his current speed.

 

A few hints:

- Trust your instincts. Try to ignore the targeting assistance and imagine how you would throw a ball at someone who is running circles around you.

- When the enemy is till far away use your booster to close the gap, since it's easier to hit someone from 1000 meters away than it is from 4000.

- Release the trigger when the enemy suddenly turns, thus saving energy. Don't start firing again before you have him directly in front of you. Otherwise you'll run out of energy the moment when he is where you want him to be.

[veritas_prime]

It'd be nice to have solo missions, not just a tutorial to get more familiar with the basics. My own reaction to the difficult learning curve has been to simply stop playing. Its difficult to learn things when you seem to last only a few seconds into a dogfight. Or get sniped from afar only to see the sniper retreat to the safety of his ship and pick you off from there. Still I like the starfighter concept, reminds me of tie figher, and old lucas arts game. And for people with greater patience than myself, its seems they are having plenty of fun.

[ZETA_SCORPII]

It'd be nice to have solo missions, not just a tutorial to get more familiar with the basics. My own reaction to the difficult learning curve has been to simply stop playing. Its difficult to learn things when you seem to last only a few seconds into a dogfight. Or get sniped from afar only to see the sniper retreat to the safety of his ship and pick you off from there. Still I like the starfighter concept, reminds me of tie figher, and old lucas arts game. And for people with greater patience than myself, its seems they are having plenty of fun.

 

I am trying to like GSF but I just seem to get my *** kicked every match. There was a time when I sucked at shooters but I put in a TON of time and got really good at them, knowing this I just don't think I want to put in the time to get better at GS. I'm burnt on PvP games, I'm shelving my brief GSF career (lol) until BW can create a PvE version for more casual gameplay. GSF is not a game where you can casually play for fun, you clearly have to go at it hardcore to get any good and I just have better things to to ATM. I hate giving up on things but you have to decide where you want to spend your gaming time imo.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

- Release the trigger when the enemy suddenly turns, thus saving energy. Don't start firing again before you have him directly in front of you. Otherwise you'll run out of energy the moment when he is where you want him to be.

 

Just something to add to this: never EVER fire your blasters more than a few degrees off the center point of your firing arc. Most blasters take significant accuracy penalties so that by the time you reach the edge of the firing arc you'll probably be slightly more than 50% accuracy (think of it as the difference between accuracy moving vs. standing still in an FPS). Naturally exceptions may apply such as an enemy that only needs 1-2 more hits to die so the poor accuracy is offset by the chance of ending the dogfight etc.

[Brilo]

The tutorial needs some serious work, if it was more comprehensive there would be much less trial by fire. I have to say, playing even now is nothing like playing on the first day. Some of these matches I have played over the last couple of days, particularly 6pm to 9pm PST are ridiculously intense. Learning the mechanics of missile locking and targeting while you're getting fed to the wolves is not practical.

 

Here are a couple of things I would like to see in the tutorial, along with some gameplay hints:

 

1) Be able to choose the ship that you want a tutorial on, they are all significantly different.

 

2) Some kind of run-down of the available upgrades would be awesome, especially if you could actually try them out and see how they feel. For example, the game starts your strike fighter out with a shield boost that actually cripples your shield strength, and most strike fighters are going to need to be able to take some hits without having to worry about micro-managing their shields.

 

3) Moving target practice, resettable targets moving different speeds. In-game should not be the first time you get to try your weapons out on something. Again, most of these things are about how they feel and the way you fly. This would give people the opportunity to experience certain dogfight dynamics without getting slaughtered.

Tip: You turn faster the slower you're moving (unless you are stopped).

Tip: If you're getting severely outmaneuvered in a death spiral (two ships circling each other) even when moving at the slowest speed, keep in mind that your pitch speed (turning up and down) is much faster than your yaw speed (turning sideways). Good dogfighters will often try to move off of your pitch angle to get an advantage on you.

 

4) The tutorial needs to talk about system power. Using the F keys to switch power around quickly becomes key to survival. Being able to test this in an austere environment would be helpful even to players that use it all the time, because we normally don't get a chance to pay much attention to what it actually does.

[Stanimir]

Scout up to a node and hide in a corner. Stationary dogfighting is soo much fun! Or roll a gunship and one shot people. In doing this you will discover the amazing skill it takes to do starfighter! Afterwords, come to the forums and be an elitist nob about how uber you are to legitimate criticism of system design. Edited December 15, 2013 by Stanimir

[thamightyboro]

Just find it weird is all I guess, can't fathom out why the control system couldn't be a bit more intuative you know like the bazillion arcade flight sims that have come before it.

 

Flew mouse in xwing v tie, jump to lightspeed, hell I even fly mouse in Battlefield 4 here the controls make little to no sense at all, it like they have changed them up a bit just for the sheer sake of it as I cannot fathom any logical reason for how they are presently.

[Costello]

Latency is a very real issue even if you don't think it is.

 

Seems that if you have your target dead on you might still miss cause of Latency and the system double checking your targeting. So if you do suffer from Latency you will miss and miss and miss no matter what you do and you will constantly lose missile lock even though you think you are doing everything.

 

Of course then there is that the people you are up against are on team speak with fully speced ships in which case you have no chance, so just chalk up the loss and be glad to be offering other people easy kills in substitute for a pve space sim game.

[Pawnsy]

This may have been covered, not in the mood to read every single post in this thread, but here's a cpl tips.

 

1) You have a tiny dot in the middle of you reticle, they have a tiny circle in the middle of theirs. You need to keep your tiny dot in their tiny circle to hit, not just your reticle over there's.

 

2) Be aware of the direction the enemy is going. I find to compensate for the very slight delay between your comp and the server you have a much better chance of hitting your target if you keep your lil dot near the leading edge of their little circle. Let's say a ship is flying past you to the right, you would want to aim for the right edge of their tiny circle.

 

3) Learn to roll your ship. Not only does this decrease your chance of suicides, but also your ship turns best on it's verticle axis (aka pitch). When chasing someone down if you keep their direction indicator at the top or bottom of your HUD you will be able to turn with them much easier. It can also make it extremely hard to hit or get a proper target lock on you when used properly.

 

4) Don't ride your "brake". Low throttle is great for quick turns or keeping an enemy in the crosshairs, but using it all the time will get you killed. Those of us who have played for a fair amount of time now have no trouble at all nuking a throttled down ship in a mere 2-3 seconds.

 

5) Hit "X" to stop. Yep, you can stop, and it can save your life or give you those cpl seconds needed to finish off that gunship, etc. You can also strafe by holding the shift key while using your a,d,w,s keys (while moving or when fully stopped). While we are on the topic of keys, make sure you learn to use F1-F4 as well (to the point that you do so automatically).

 

6) You need to earn your stripes. As it should be, upgrades matter in Starfighter. They matter alot. You'll need to put in some time being the easy target who has to work hard for their kills before your ship is a true death machine. Without such a system there would be no reason to play. No QQ on this point. Take your licks.

 

7) Upgraded ships can be a hard kill. Take a scout for example. They start with a passive evasion bonus and can have more passive evasion added with upgrades. In addition they can use a distortion field that when active (for it's short duration) gives that passively evasive ship a near 100% evasion chance (nearly 100% chance not a single blaster bolt will hit it). To top it off, distortion field can also drop target lock when fully upgraded. It takes some time to learn to just run from the scout until his buff drops off. Just one example for one ship type. There's plenty of wickedly annoying toys for all.

 

8) Choose your crew. The choices you make here can have a massive effect on your play experience. Just as one example, having the 8% reduction to secondary cooldown times on a ship using rockets is wasted stats (rockets aren't effected by cooldowns, just rate of fire). Again, just one example. Your Co-Pilot ability is another big consideration.

 

9) Don't be in a rush to spend requisition. Make your upgrade choices carefully. There's many many different routes you can take. Make sure to look fully at a "mods" upgrade tree. Think of how you want to play your ship and work towards making it the best at that role as you are able. It's a good idea to look at the differences between your ship and the others so you can see where your ship is stronger. Play to your strengths or compensate for your weaknesses. One example is a ship with a Reactor will passively shield tank with fully upgraded Quick Charge Shields better than a ship that has Armor instead.

 

10) It is a team match. While sometimes rushing a objective solo (as an example) is the right move, when that objective has 2+ people guarding (and you're in your stock or minimally upgraded ship) you are most likely just hurting your team. Dying gives points to the other team and instead of bolstering the attack/defense at another objective you are now back to respawning. Protect your teammates so they will be alive to protect you.

 

11) The person who makes the kill and everyone who assisted in the kill get the same requisition. Medals can reflect how much requisition you earned in match but they are completely seperate from it. Kills/Assists/Time Attacking/ Time Defending, that's where your req comes from. I also have a sneaking suspicion, based off experience, that your deaths play into it as well. Remember #10.

 

12) It is a 3D world. Don't be afraid to fly above or below an objective while another member of your squad chases that ship around trying to keep them from capping. The biggest mistake many new players make is simply joining in this chase without realizing your squadmate is primarily trying to prevent the cap, not hugging the big satellite while risking a suicide because that's the most effective means to kill the enemy ship. Get above or below and show him how your missiles/blasters taste.

 

Just a few tips garnered from a few hundred matches of starfighter. Hopefully it will help a few people out. Like anything worth doing it takes time to get good at SF, but once you do your enjoyment of this new game feature will increase ten fold. We can only hope Bioware/EA decide to actually polish this into a gem instead of just throwing new content at us like it fixes the issues many have with it.

[SammyGStatus]

One of the problems is that, unlike PvE, the hit box for starfighters is the size of the ship and not the bubble around it, meaning you can aim for the bubble like you're supposed to and still miss. I personally can't hit crap on the little ones and am going to be sniping until I get the req for the Sting.

 

I think this aspect of the game, like the rest, will require some fine-tuning. The lead bubble rarely works, the hit boxes are all tiny and personally I'd like to be able to zoom out farther.

 

You probably can't hit crap because of the distortion shields increasing evasiveness. On an evasive spec'd scout, there are moments where they are impossible to hit. If you can't hit them, fly away, then go back at them after like 5 seconds. Once that shield drops, he goes back to being light armored and easy pickings.

 

With the lead buble again, make sure that the enemy has no evasive buffs, and that you have a high accuracy. Also, check your ranges. If the ship is greyed, you can't hit them

[Zharik]

One of the problems is that, unlike PvE, the hit box for starfighters is the size of the ship and not the bubble around it, meaning you can aim for the bubble like you're supposed to and still miss. I personally can't hit crap on the little ones and am going to be sniping until I get the req for the Sting.

 

Absolutely untrue. The "hitbox" for each ship is the lead target marker (circle with a line that leads your target). They are the same size for all ships. Laser animations (missiles too) that hit or miss mean nothing... the numbers bleeding off their shields/hulls are what indicates a hit vs a miss, and that happens before the animations of the hit or miss.

 

There is an exception to this, and I honestly hesitate to name it on the forums. Does anyone know of a venue to report a serious flaw in the mechanic to the devs without the rest of the population seeing (and start using it) before it can be fixed?

[SammyGStatus]

Absolutely untrue. The "hitbox" for each ship is the lead target marker (circle with a line that leads your target). They are the same size for all ships. Laser animations (missiles too) that hit or miss mean nothing... the numbers bleeding off their shields/hulls are what indicates a hit vs a miss, and that happens before the animations of the hit or miss.

 

There is an exception to this, and I honestly hesitate to name it on the forums. Does anyone know of a venue to report a serious flaw in the mechanic to the devs without the rest of the population seeing (and start using it) before it can be fixed?

 

type /bug in chat

[Zharik]

type /bug in chat

 

I'll try that thank you.

[Ren_simp]

It's all about the A& D keys

[-Streven-]

For two weeks I felt like quitting. I was terrible and didn't feel like I was improvong. After getting some experience and getting comfortable with the controls things started to click but it was a slow, painful process. Now i feel i hold my own...most of the time. The team you are on makes a huge difference.

 

-If your team is losing badly dont run off on your own. Stay with a wingman at all times when new.

-Let A good teammate start the engagement then come in on the enemies tail of you can.

-Sit back and choose your targets.

-Wait for enemies to stop boosting and try to get them flying straight before firing.

-Don't always chase the tageting pip. If they're running and being squirrelly just follow and wait for a good shot. Just because your cursor is over the targeting pip it doesnt mean you should be shooting.

-Learn about evasion and accuracy.

-If you get targeted use your defensive cool down and focus on your attacker. If you cant find him or are getting teamed up on run.

-Use cover to break off attackers, find friends and boost to them.

-NEVER go alone if you can help it.

-Remember whenever you stop moving or are flying straight you are an easy target. Try to be unpredictable when getting focused on.

-Spend a few rounds just working on defense. Let an attacker focus on you and work on your evasion skills without trying to get a kill.

-Know when to fold em, know when to hold em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

-Stopping can win one vs one dogfights but with other enemies around it's deadly.

-As you get comfortable lining up shots and start getting some kills under your belt you'll want to start to focus on resource management.

-Dont get hung up on kill count. Sometimes being the bait for enemies to chase allows your teammates (especially snipers) to clean up the kills.

-Stay with your team.

-Did I mention staying with your team.

When you get the flashfire get burst lasers, blaster overcharge and bypass. Then lay waste to any camping gunships you can get the drop on them.

-70% of kills come from laser damage in my opinion.

-Think of missiles as a nice bonus when you actually get a hit but they are really secondary weapons that are easily avoided. Observe how enemies respond to them and use that knowledge to figure out how to line up your next laser barrage.

-Figure out how many gunships are launching against you at the beginning of the round. They will be easy first kills if not escorted and at the very least you want them harassed and not able to sit still lining up shots.

-MOST times when you lose missle lock its due to a defensive cooldown ability. However latency does seem to play into it as well and the best advice I can give about that is to keep your target sqaure in the middle of your sites and stay close to him. Don't let him range you. I pretty much give up on trying to laser while holding a lock unless the dude is flying straight towards or away from me. You need to target past the guy to keep your ship lined up properly to maintain lock on. In other words stay centered on him as opposed to keeping just the aiming reticle on him.

These are all general tips. Situations will dictate tactics and sometimes doing the opposite thing will be whats right...but not often. So that's what I've figured ot so far.

Edited January 23, 2014 by -Streven-
Add new idea.

[Alekerro]

Who darn decided to make such a fail...

Even another cosmo-sims and online ones are pretty good at controls and system. But SWTOR galactic starfck are ugly as ex. 2 nd Epic fail since f2p model

[mattycutts]

Who darn decided to make such a fail...

Even another cosmo-sims and online ones are pretty good at controls and system. But SWTOR galactic starfck are ugly as ex. 2 nd Epic fail since f2p model

 

this is someone asking for help not a thread to blast what i guess is u tried one or two games and died alot and hit very little sorry but it takes time to get into it and learn everything and u sir are in the few that hate gsf since so many play it even alot of pve players and pvp queue times got longer and gsf ones get shorter.

 

This GSF is not a space flight sim made game its a "add on" not the main focus and personally think they did a damn good job of it. too many people try comparing to other flight designed games and forget this is not a flight designed game. good work bioware keep the gsf updates comming and do a better tutorial thats more interactive than reading.

[Nethgilne]

I hate to admit it, but gear does make a difference. Going to an unkitted strike fighter I find myself constantly running out of booster juice waiting for what seemed like an ETERNITY for my engine maneuver to cooldown.

 

Fortunately, its a relatively quick grind to get to mid tier upgrades when you really start to feel your ship and play-style come into its own.

[TomasJohnsen]

It doesn't matter how long you've been playing, you will die. Galactic starfighter is a bad setup for several reasons. One = they put you, with no skill or ship upgrades, against the best people with all the upgrades. All of the people with upgrades still loose almost as much as they win, woopie! The grinding for req takes weeks, during which you will suck terribly. There are only like two boards, so much fun! How hard is it to make a space board guys, come on. It's infuriating because I want to like it, it's neat to fly around and shoot and all but this system is terrible and absolutely no fun. I hear constant qq about it, which means it's broken. Is something isn't done it'll fade.

[TomasJohnsen]

I found a way to make it fun. Just completely avoid the battles and fly around. You will have so much more fun than if you tried to kill something. It's now an accurate space sim!

[Flixx]

i found a way to make it fun. Just completely avoid the battles and fly around. You will have so much more fun than if you tried to kill something. It's now an accurate space sim!

 

hahaha!!