mighty_joe Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) Hello all, maybe (most likely ...) it's just me overlooking something, but i cant seem to setup any sets of abilities for my ships. No matter which crew member i click i always have the same 4 abilities when in combat. abilities which i do not intend to use nonetheless. the tutorial is no help ... same result, just different abilities. is there something i am missing, like a confirmation button? Edited February 4, 2014 by mighty_joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armonddd Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 You change your active ability (button 4) under the copilot menu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luneward Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) The copilot is a little unintuitive. You build your overall crew from the four categories - Engineering, Tactical, Offensive, Defensive. These crew members provide you passive bonuses. The copilot menu is then populated with these crew members, and you choose one of these to give you your crew active ability. Each has an active ability, but it is only usable if you select that crew member to be your copilot. All of your other abilities are determined by which ship you are using, and what components you use. The default keys for abilities are usually these: 1 - Ship specific ability/component. Strikes and gunships change weapons. Scouts and Bombers use their Systems component 2 - Shield component ability 3 - Engine component ability 4 - Copilot ability - this is the only one that will change based on the copilot you selected earlier. So to change button 4, change your copilot. To change any of the others you need to purchase new components for your ship. Edited February 4, 2014 by Luneward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) i see. i will take another look. i really missed that. "a little unintuitive" is about right but i have to use abilties that dont make much sense until i grinded enough for better gear? that seems a little unintuitive as well... Edited February 4, 2014 by mighty_joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armonddd Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 i see. i will take another look. i really missed that. "a little unintuitive" is about right but i have to use abilties that dont make much sense until i grinded enough for better gear? that seems a little unintuitive as well... Yeah, the whole system is kinda clunky. Faction imbalances (from one faction getting a certain combination of passives and actives that the other cannot) are also kinda silly. Wish you got to hand pick your passives and actives. That would be much more helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luneward Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 i see. i will take another look. i really missed that. "a little unintuitive" is about right but i have to use abilties that dont make much sense until i grinded enough for better gear? that seems a little unintuitive as well... To be fair you only have to play for a match or two to buy a new piece of gear. Gear is cheap. It's the upgrades for the gear that get expensive. And it really isn't 'better' gear so much as 'different'. With a few exceptions (*coughs* charged plating, thermite torpedo *coughs*), there are few components that are actually bad. It's all about finding the combination of components that suit what you want to do with your fighter. Overall, it's actually pretty balanced. New players, unfortunately, have the roughest time of it and have to spend a bit of extra requisition buying parts they may not use later so they can experiment. Veterans can usually eyeball a new ship and come out with a good idea of what components they want for it. If you haven't done so already, go to the preferences menu - Galactic Starfighter section - and turn on detailed tooltips. This can help when looking at different weapons when gauging their different properties. And if some description or property doesn't make sense, ask away here. We were all there once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 Wish you got to hand pick your passives and actives. That would be much more helpful. that. i now have a suitable copilot ability and one standard that makes sense to me (the shield restore thing). i configured my binds almost convenient (not that easy being left handed). still 50% useless abilities in my fighter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) another thing.stupid me again...i never seem to fire any rockets. should be secondary fire button i suppose, but whatever i do, never seen a single rocket fly away from my ship. i also don't understand what this "rocket lock" is supposed to be everyone is talking about. is it the beeping sound i sometimes hear before blowing up? how do i do that myself? i really wouldnt ask this many stupid questions if there was a good handbook for this gametype. there is only the ingame tutorial and when i have time to play i dont have any inclination to click myself through walls of text...so is there an "offline handbook" sort of thing? PS: at work now, slow afternoon so time to type ... Edited February 5, 2014 by mighty_joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armonddd Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 another thing. stupid me again...i never seem to fire any rockets. should be secondary fire button i suppose, but whatever i do, never seen a single rocket fly away from my ship. i also don't understand what this "rocket lock" is supposed to be everyone is talking about. is it the beeping sound i sometimes hear before blowing up? how do i do that myself? Essentially, yes. While you have line of sight and the target is within the secondary (thin) firing arc, right click (by default; you might have it set to left click, I dunno how left handed people do these things) and hold. You'll hear five short beeps followed by a triple beep that indicates a successful lock. Release the right mouse button to launch the missile. In short: click and hold, beepbeepbeepbeepbeepBEBEBEEP, release on BE. The target can break the lock by breaking line of sight, using an engine ability, or using distortion field with a specific upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 the "hold" part escaped me before ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 (edited) so, the hints helped me a lot. got 1 upgrade, now only one useless ability left. still suck, but less so tripled my average dmg and hit rate per game, even fired a missile...got a medal, too. more questions: is there a way i can look at the maps and practice maneuvers without abandoning my team/objectives? like in the tutorial map. i need to get a feel for the maps, enemies seem to come out of nowhere. i want to find out where i can fly through and such. i thought i was queing wrong somehow, but from what i read here, it's common to have matches against enemies with 5 ships each even if your side consists only of beginners qith 2 or 3. am i doing it wrong or is it just the way this works? sorry if I sound stupid again. but i am fairly new to GSF, though i am a subscriber, just did not have any time to play before. edited,,,post sounded to whiny Edited February 6, 2014 by mighty_joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainamoinen Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 In short: click and hold, beepbeepbeepbeepbeepBEBEBEEP, release on BE. The target can break the lock by breaking line of sight, using an engine ability, or using distortion field with a specific upgrade. Note that this is for missiles. There are lots of different types, with different damage and lock-on times. Generally, more damage = longer lock-on time. Rocket pods (an option for scouts instead of missiles) fire like blasters, at the target reticule. They also both have a tight firing arc and really bad "tracking accuracy" (how much less likely you are to hit as you move away from dead centre, varies with weapon, does not apply to missiles), so it's worth saving them for when you have your target in range and right ahead - then blasters and rocket pods together can cause a lot of pain, just hold down both left and right mouse buttons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XavinNydek Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 (edited) is there a way i can look at the maps and practice maneuvers without abandoning my team/objectives? like in the tutorial map. i need to get a feel for the maps, enemies seem to come out of nowhere. i want to find out where i can fly through and such. No, but it's not going to really matter if you fly around and are useless for a while, it's what most of the people do all of the time i thought i was queing wrong somehow, but from what i read here, it's common to have matches against enemies with 5 ships each even if your side consists only of beginners qith 2 or 3. am i doing it wrong or is it just the way this works? Matchmaking works, but it will start an uneven match rather than waiting forever for a potentially even match that may never come. At this point five ships doesn't mean "good" or even "experienced". Pretty much the only thing you can determine from ship count is "noob" if they only have the starter two ships. Fortunately, winning is at most 100 req over losing, so as long as you play well, you still progress. On Dominion maps focus on the objectives, kill turrets, take nodes, defend (you have to be close), and never get into a dogfight that's not right on top of a node. Edited February 6, 2014 by XavinNydek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainamoinen Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 (edited) more questions: is there a way i can look at the maps and practice maneuvers without abandoning my team/objectives? like in the tutorial map. i need to get a feel for the maps, enemies seem to come out of nowhere. i want to find out where i can fly through and such. Not really. Have a look around as you're flying in from spawn, or between nodes. There are little holes and paths, particularly on Kuat Mesa. i thought i was queing wrong somehow, but from what i read here, it's common to have matches against enemies with 5 ships each even if your side consists only of beginners qith 2 or 3. am i doing it wrong or is it just the way this works? sorry if I sound stupid again. but i am fairly new to GSF, though i am a subscriber, just did not have any time to play before. edited,,,post sounded to whiny Ideally you shouldn't get queued against people with more upgrades - think I remember a dev post saying they try to matchmake to avoid this - but as time extends the criteria get loosened, so you can face someone more experienced. I think the best advice is to try to learn what you can, collect your requisitions at the end, and then there's a new game with hopefully a more even mix. Upgrades do make ships better, but the main difference is down to practice. Experienced players on stock ships can wreck warzones (I've done it myself on alts). Learning stuff and improving is how to get there. If someone did something effective to kill you, work out how and then you can counter it or do it yourself. Have fun. Edited February 6, 2014 by Wainamoinen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Have fun. I do. and I actually had my first dogfight won last night. we fought for a minute (like forever in GSF). I always knew where he was and I finished him off with a missile (which I didnt even know how to fire until yesterday). so, to everyone who is overwhelmed by GSF: ask questions, try again, ask more questions, get better. battle record: 11 matches - 3 wins 8 losses 3 kills (i dont know how the other 2 happened) - 33 assists - 40something deaths 3 sats capped, 5 turrets destroyed most of which happened after I started asking, so thank you all for helping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoloGrinder Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 You made me smile. If you are new and enjoying it stick with it and get good it only gets better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armonddd Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Note that this is for missiles. There are lots of different types, with different damage and lock-on times. Generally, more damage = longer lock-on time. This is true. Sometimes it's beep... beep... beep... beep... beep... BEBEBEEP. However, the concept is the same -- five "progress" beeps followed by a confirmation triple-beep. And yes, rocket pods are "dead-fire" the way missiles are. I don't recommend them for new players, though. It took me a few hundred matches to get comfortable enough with my aim to try them out, but they are extremely powerful once you're comfortable with the game. Railguns and mines, of course, do their own thing. Think that covers all the secondary weapons. Glad to see you're doing better. What loadouts do you favor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 (edited) since i have now fought 15 battles, the only upgrades so far are quad lasers and barrel roll with 2 upgrades each in the standard fighter Edited February 7, 2014 by mighty_joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 (edited) 18th battle. http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3527/r45x8cjp_jpg.htm i think I got it. Edited February 8, 2014 by mighty_joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umbradomina Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 that. i now have a suitable copilot ability and one standard that makes sense to me (the shield restore thing). i configured my binds almost convenient (not that easy being left handed). still 50% useless abilities in my fighter... I feel your pain re: being left handed. I bind everything I can to the number pad, arrow keys and [insert/Home/Page Up/Delete/End/Page Down] Keys so I can reach them all easily with my right hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty_joe Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 I feel your pain re: being left handed. I bind everything I can to the number pad, arrow keys and [insert/Home/Page Up/Delete/End/Page Down] Keys so I can reach them all easily with my right hand. bought myself a lefthanded naga, 90% problems solved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts