Tried GSF for first time

[Kane_Ren]

I'm having major difficulties, why is the tutorial so unhelpful? I had to jump into a game to actually work out how to do stuff and I just don't get it at all. I don't think I've actually fired a missile, not a clue how to do it, I just get beeps. The handful of games Ive played consist of the opposition mostly having a full hangar and my team woefully outmatched, I wing up, but die in 2 hits from something.

I'm trying to like it, I really am. Getting wiped out and ganked is not fun and is why I have only ground pvp'd once.

I want to learn the basics properly, without mmo jargon, and have fun doing it. I haven't got time to look for a guild that does it exclusively, since I want to play casually with no pressure to play to a timetable. Is there a site that explains it properly? I want to play, but not if I'm a hinderance to the team and a mark on someones kill sheet

[Degarmo]

When you first start out it is very tough. You're going to take your lumps as you figure out how to pilot well, how to turn without overturning in a dogfight, and getting the aiming procedure down.

 

To fire a missile, you have to have the target inside the circular firing arc (outer circle) and hold down the right button. It will beep. beep, beep as four arrows (top, bottom, left and right) close in on your target. You will get a louder beep/tone when it has locked and the target box will become all red and the arrows will no longer be moving in, but locked on. This is when you release the right mouse button to fire. You must keep the person in your firing arc the entire lock-on time, and remember they have ways to break your lock. This means you will have to repeat the entire process again.

 

Also, there are many skilled pilots who wait for you to fire your missile and then can boost away without using a missile break engine ability.

 

Keep at it, try to ask questions from people online (we talk about Starfighter a lot in /2 PVP on Ebon Hawk), get your daily/weekly missions for GSF from the PVP mission terminal, and you will improve. It just takes time to get the learning curve down.

 

Also, you can try dulfy.net for starfighter builds and the like.

Edited February 9, 2014 by Degarmo

[Sangrar]

as the poster above suggested go here , that's the new player guide that Dulfy compiled to help new players get into it, as well as several other guides all of which should really help you, I know they helped me

[BarrinMarshall]

Don't worry cuz, I STILL have the Intro to GSF mission on the PVP terminal. I logged in, que'd up tried to make heads or tails of the customization, finally went into combat, played exactly 3-4 minutes and quit the WZ taking my sacred oath that I would never touch this piece of crap again in my life. I know that there's a handful of people that like GSF but it saddens me that BW is focusing their energy on it instead on content people want. Don't sweat it bro if you don't like it.

[dancezwithnubz]

ok, first up, please stick with it. the learning curve is pretty steep, but thankfully it isn't all that long.

 

I suggest you check out Suzina's video on Power Management. proper power management is key to successful flying. While you're there, look at her vid on

(and why it's a really bad idea).

 

We also have a Tips & Tricks for Nubs thread which is full of good advice (and almost no trolls!).

 

Most importantly, make some friends and fly in a group where possible. even without VOIP, you'll get priority in the queue so you'll fly more matches and build those skills.

 

Practice my friend, all you need is practice.

Edited February 9, 2014 by dancezwithnubz

[Sangrar]

Don't worry cuz, I STILL have the Intro to GSF mission on the PVP terminal. I logged in, que'd up tried to make heads or tails of the customization, finally went into combat, played exactly 3-4 minutes and quit the WZ taking my sacred oath that I would never touch this piece of crap again in my life. I know that there's a handful of people that like GSF but it saddens me that BW is focusing their energy on it instead on content people want. Don't sweat it bro if you don't like it.

 

he is asking for sites that can help man, and he says he wants to play it, at no point did he say he thought it was garbage. Also, if by handful you mean enough people for the ques to consistently pop then yes we are a handful. Lastly, if you swore an oath to never touch it again then why are you touching its forum section

[Zharik]

Don't worry cuz, I STILL have the Intro to GSF mission on the PVP terminal. I logged in, que'd up tried to make heads or tails of the customization, finally went into combat, played exactly 3-4 minutes and quit the WZ taking my sacred oath that I would never touch this piece of crap again in my life. I know that there's a handful of people that like GSF but it saddens me that BW is focusing their energy on it instead on content people want. Don't sweat it bro if you don't like it.

 

I find it quite ironic that you admit that you played for 3-4 minutes... yet here you are... on the Starfighter Forums... You probably spent more than 3-4 minutes looking for a way to troll people who may have shot you out of the sky...

[Kaivers]

I might be wrong but I'm sensing that something Epic is going to take place involving GSF and the new hangar. Maybe a "world event", something like regular attacks on Fleet requiring everyone to scramble their fighters from the hangar. I'm sure there's a reason the fighters in the hangar look like they are prepped for launch...I seriously doubt this is just cosmetic. I'm also pretty sure that our Class ships are doomed, hence the escape pods that serve no purpose at the moment but are clearly meant for something.

 

If you're new to GSF don't give up just keep practicing, all the veterans experienced the same headaches. You will get annoyed and you will get frustrated but you will learn from every failure and every death. If you have concerns regarding balance speak your mind and keep the conversation going.

 

There's a lot of potential for GSF and the entire game if we give it a chance. Its probably well known that I don't like bombers, for reasons that need not be explained at this moment, but I believe we should still do our best to encourage as many people as possible to keep playing. There is no doubt that the "OP" and "Nerf" threads can be overbearing but the "L2P" and "Quit Whining" threads are just as bad, and if there's one thing I can stand its a condescending attitude because it stinks of an inferiority complex.

 

When it comes to balance there are many legitimate concerns, so if you really want GSF to be a success try to be constructive instead of adversarial. Bottom line, it will never be perfect but lets try to make the game better by helping the DEVs get GSF to a state of balance that we can all can enjoy.

 

p.s. Long Live the Wheel (aka conventional bomber combat)!

Edited February 9, 2014 by Kaivers

[Tenacity]

I'm having major difficulties, why is the tutorial so unhelpful? I had to jump into a game to actually work out how to do stuff and I just don't get it at all. I don't think I've actually fired a missile, not a clue how to do it, I just get beeps. The handful of games Ive played consist of the opposition mostly having a full hangar and my team woefully outmatched, I wing up, but die in 2 hits from something.

I'm trying to like it, I really am. Getting wiped out and ganked is not fun and is why I have only ground pvp'd once.

I want to learn the basics properly, without mmo jargon, and have fun doing it. I haven't got time to look for a guild that does it exclusively, since I want to play casually with no pressure to play to a timetable. Is there a site that explains it properly? I want to play, but not if I'm a hinderance to the team and a mark on someones kill sheet

 

To fire missiles: hold down the right mouse button. You'll hear 5 beeps, and then a rapid series of beeps after that indicating you have a lock on. After that, you can release the right mouse button and the missile will fire.

 

In order to get a lock, you have to keep the target inside your missile firing arc, which is represented by the smaller of the circles on your screen, depending on the weapons you're using.

[Kane_Ren]

Thanks for all your replies, I'll continue to make a go of it. However it seems like I'm having to close up to my target to get a missile off, close enough in fact that a simple evasive maneuver breaks the lock. Leading the target with lasers does seem to play to my strengths. I get a lot of assists, kills are still few and far between. I've not spent any points yet simply because I don't know where to spend them. 3-4 matches earn enough for an upgrade, so I'll check out some builds and throw the upgrades on the ship that suits me best.

[Sinapus]

There's a medal for 10k damage inflicted and 20k damage inflicted. I noticed I got a lot of ship comms in one deathmatch game where I maybe got 1 kill, but had inflicted over 20k points. I didn't bother dogfighting. I just took a Flashfire w/cluster missiles (shortest lock-on time) and would launch against various targets that came into range and if they got close I'd fire a burst of blaster fire at them. Then dart away.

 

Try to avoid getting into the turning matches. Hang around the edges and shoot at targets of opportunity.

[mighty_joe]

don't worry OP. i have been there a couple of days ago, same problems ... almost exactly.

 

asked a couple of questions, looked at some external guides, now i'm comfortable with any battle. still die a lot because as is my nature i have not spend any time yet figuring out defensive strategies...

[-Streven-]

To the OP I say keep at it. I remember wanting to throw in the towel a bunch of times and I'm really glad I didn't as I can't believe how much fun I'm having with this game now. I have a few humble suggestions on where to start spending that req and how to build your ship. Take barrel roll as the engine component. Not only does it break missile locks it get you places quickly. Take the minor component that increases your engine power pool and take goldenrod (your c3po clone, forgot his name) as your engineering crew member. Doing this costs very little req investment so you can change it later and now you have significantly increased your ability to boost which significantly increases your ability to stay alive. Lomg boosts are more efficient than short intermittent taps. Hit F3 to keep boosters recharging at max potential.

 

Spend entire matches just learning to fly. Hugging terrain and buildings makes it very difficult for people to target you with lasers or lockons. Your engine ability (barrel roll) can break missile lock before or after a missile is in flight. Often its better to try and boost out of range or break line of sight first rather than use your engine ability to evade missiles. Spend matches doing nothing but learning how to achieve lockons. Spend matches doing nothing but focusing on lasers. Try and get very comfortable doing quick 180s.

 

Whatever you do keep playing it gets a lot easier!

[Kane_Ren]

Well been playing all day, queues popped frequently.

 

*Edit after typing a lot of stuff*

 

I tried, really did. I'm done. Game is badly balanced, both in regards to ship types and match balancing. Its totally out of whack. I also hate to say it, but its pay to win at its worst. I'd actually drop cc's on a nice looking ship if I enjoyed the game, but I don't. Another waste of time from BW. Sorry if it bothers anyone, that's my honest opinion.

[HobbesToo]

"but its pay to win at its worst."

 

After looking through my hanger on my main character and another hanger that I haven't unlocked any ships on I still fail to see where you get this "pay to win" attitude. You have to realize that there are many pilots that have been playing since Dec. Even if those pilots start another character with a basic hanger they still have all the knowledge and expertise from all the previous matches.

[DamascusAdontise]

Well been playing all day, queues popped frequently.

 

*Edit after typing a lot of stuff*

 

I tried, really did. I'm done. Game is badly balanced, both in regards to ship types and match balancing. Its totally out of whack. I also hate to say it, but its pay to win at its worst. I'd actually drop cc's on a nice looking ship if I enjoyed the game, but I don't. Another waste of time from BW. Sorry if it bothers anyone, that's my honest opinion.

 

Not to be rude but I don;t believe that you "tried enough"

 

and that's too bad, and not to repeat other people in the thread but: it takes time to learn how to play well (and this is any pvp game not just GSF). Until that time your matches will consist of getting scrapped over and over, when I first started I stopped worrying about kills and damage done and starting focusing on objectives and requisition gain. (this was before deathmatch)

 

Turned out that while getting my butt kicked I could actually manage to earn some decent req, and with that req I bought upgrades (some bad choices at first but then I read more and started making smart choices) fast forward from there a bit and I was getting kills / contributing to matches then fast forward a bit more and I was able to dogfight / engage disengage / play defensively... and ive still got a long way to go (especially accuracy, im somewhere around 25-35% most matches) but its a constant process.

 

My advice like others will always be to keep at it, with the added wisdom: keep an open mind (which is harder than it sounds). read some of the guides, try some of the loadouts. Enter into games without any preconception of how well you "think" you should be doing, and above all have patience. We have all been there at one point or another, and as unbalanced as the game seems its really not that bad. You will have many unbalanced "matches" but the game on a whole is decently balanced (some tweaks needed but nothing huge)

 

Perceived imbalances a lot of the time come from a good pilot using a good loadout, but then again any ship can seem overpowered when piloted well. Focus more on learning what you can from these people, knowledge is the first step to wisdom!

[Gavin_Kelvar]

OP what ships have you been using and what load outs?

 

Perhaps some of your problems and perceived balance issues are that you're not flying the ship with the right tactics (and to be fair we've all done that starting out).

[Kane_Ren]

OP what ships have you been using and what load outs?

 

Perhaps some of your problems and perceived balance issues are that you're not flying the ship with the right tactics (and to be fair we've all done that starting out).

 

the scout and strike fighter are utter garbage, made of paper and wet cardboard respectively. I bought a minelayer with a few upgrades to the mines and to be fair, its not bad at all. It came second in my first game with 6 achievements 9 kills and 12 assists despite a loss. The matchmaking is grossly unfair since the imps are always on the back foot before the match starts. At least 3 quarters of matches have premades with heavily kitted out gear, the other matches are against you to a lesser extent. The only good game I had was the one I scored well in and it was the ONLY one with a fair setup. There has yet to be a match setup in the imps favour in all the games I played so far.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Kane_Ren

[Gavin_Kelvar]

the scout and strike fighter are utter garbage, made of paper and wet cardboard respectively. I bought a minelayer with a few upgrades to the mines and to be fair, its not bad at all. It came second in my first game with 6 achievements 9 kills and 12 assists despite a loss. The matchmaking is grossly unfair since the imps are always on the back foot before the match starts. At least 3 quarters of matches have premades with heavily kitted out gear, the other matches are against you to a lesser extent. The only good game I had was the one I scored well in and it was the ONLY one with a fair setup. There has yet to be a match setup in the imps favour in all the games I played so far.

 

From what I gather the Imps just aren't normally as good as pubs in most games on most servers be it due to premades, better pilots or a combination of both.

 

As for strikers I fly the Type 1 almost exclusively and it can be quite formidable when used well.

 

I run with the directional shields and the large reactor to get maximum shield strength (while quick charge shields have their uses I also found that the -30% shield strength somewhat undesirable when learning the ropes; note you MUST buy the first tier unlock for directional shields if you intend to use them). Even if you never transfer power between shield arcs not having a penalty to shield strength can really help make the Type 1 strike more forgiving.

 

Right now I've been toying with heavy cannons and ions but, IMO the default set up of heavies and rapids is quite serviceable. I would personally recommend primarily using heavies as they are one of the best blasters Type 1 strikes can use and only switching to rapids when you're forced into a point blank fight. You can also swap the rapids for quads as those are also very good guns.

 

Concussion missiles are also, IMO, the best missile Type 1 strikes have and thankfully they're a default component.

 

Koiogran turn is good as a default engine component although you might consider swapping it for retro thrusters or barrel roll once you get the hang of using engine maneuvers (IMO this is the best starter engine since it is least likely to launch you straight into a wall).

 

For the thruster component I would strongly suggest getting turning thrusters to improve the Type 1's average handling.

 

With the capacitor I would swap it out for the damage capacitor so you're weapons do a little more damage without draining extra power. Once you get the hang of shooting stuff you can swap it for the frequency capacitor for more of a DPS boost at the cost of draining more power (because it drains more power I don't recommend using this until you're a decent shot or else you'll run dry very often). IMO the default component (range capacitor) isn't that great but I understand that some people find it effective.

 

Magazine component isn't really that important or useful so I wouldn't worry overly much about upgrading this component until much later as upgrading the components mentioned above will have much more of an impact on your performance.

 

Overall with the Type 1 strike the key is getting a feel of your primary weapon's strengths and knowing when to swap between the two. To be fair this takes some getting used to as you have to get both a feel for the weapons and which ones fit your playstyle best.

 

The other key is to try to keep fights to 3,000 meters or further as the striker is not well suited to point blank turning dogfights. This is in part due to the scout class being able to outmaneuver them and that their best weaponry have powerful tracking penalties (blasters) or long lock on times (missiles).

 

In case you don't know what tracking penalty means (please understand that this isn't meant as a criticism, I'm just trying to be helpful): blaster weapons have a base accuracy and a tracking penalty is applied that lowers the accuracy of your weapons. The best way to avoid a tracking penalty is to have your crosshairs as close to dead center in the lead indicator as possible and, ideally, be firing close to the center of your firing arc.

 

Situational awareness is also critical for strikers as they lack the mobility of scouts to easily escape from a bad situation. The best way I've found to do this is to get companions that buff sensor radius and/or comm radius (use your minimap to ID inbound fighters and potential flankers) and to also cycle through all nearby enemy targets before charging into the fray. If you see a gunship focus on that first as they're likely letting scouts/strikers distract the enemy while the gunships pick them off. Otherwise use your judgement to identify what you should target first (be it a player you know is good, fighters currently on the six of an ally, or an critically damaged enemy who you can help finish off).

 

Now this all being said every pilot isn't going to be equally good with every fighter. I can fly scouts well enough but honestly I do better flying a striker; my performance has nothing to do with the scout being a bad fighter and every thing to do with the striker being more compatible with my piloting style. So if you do well in bombers stick with them.

[DanNV]

The matchmaking isn't working, isn't turned on or doesn't truly exist. Doesn't really matter why, as far as I can tell there is no matchmaking going on.

 

You'll find GSF is heavily dependent on gearing your ships. I do well in my strike with most things about 3/4 of the way up the mod trees. Same for my basic scout. My flashfire either does really well or dies a lot even with a lot of mods, it packs a good punch but truly is made of tissue paper. The basic ships get trashed by ships with a lot of mods. (Why they made it so gear dependent is beyond me.) Think of taking an unmodded ship out as taking a level 10 character into Outlaw's Den against a 50+. It won't be pretty. However, once you get some decent mods in your ship, they'll start doing better.

 

The learning curve is really steep. It'll take you 2 or 3 good days of flying to really get the hang of it. Stick with it a bit and you will probably find you have fun.

 

And as to buying ships, They are the same capability as other ships you get with reqs and don't come modded. They just look different.

[Luneward]

(Why they made it so gear dependent is beyond me.)

 

Except... that it really isn't. There are definitely some component upgrades that are overpowered (AoE Ion Rail), and some combinations that are truly nasty (Flashfire/sting with burst lasers and blaster overcharge), but even in those cases the pilot has to know how to use them and how to get into position. It's not the gear - which generally provides about a 25% increase in effectiveness. It's the practice that comes with it, and coordination with your group mates.

 

It's a somewhat backwards way of thinking. The pilots aren't wiping the floor because they have the gear. They have the gear because they've gotten the practice in to wipe the floor with people. They know their ships and components inside and out. They've found the component combination that works for them. And either they know their primary ship very well, or they are very adept at selecting the right ship for their hanger based on what their allies and enemies have chosen.

[-Streven-]

When talking about the impact of skill vs gear I'd say it's about 10% gear and 90% skill/exp. The only time gear comes much into play is when you joust, i. e. fly straight on head to head with an opponent. Then having that extra little burst can make the difference. Having said that you should probably stay out of those situations as much as possible.

 

I think it might help to explain what is meant by "skill". The more you play and the more experience you gain the more you recognize patterns for success and failure. I know that seems like an obvious statement but the reality is most new folks have no idea how to stay alive. This past weekend I saw countless two ship imps flying in slow straight lines and quite often would never react to damage they were taking. They would stay tunnel visioned on their current objective and thus made for easy kills. I felt bad for them but thats how most of us started out.

 

You will really start making progress in the game when you figure out how to prioritize targets and learn how to not take damage. Every ship in the game, except bombers, can be easily killed in just a few seconds so the key to survival is to not give your opponent an easy target. Here's a tip don't fly straight into heavy lasers or burst lasers and whenever you take any damage from an unknown enemy immediately begin evasive maneuvers.

 

Once you figure out this part, the game will then become about power management. Components are important for establishing your playstyle but that's about it.

Edited February 10, 2014 by -Streven-

[mrleku]

Most people don't like GSF but some do. Who thinks there should be a pod/swoop race gameplay? Race your friends lol