Daedahl Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I'm an average (or maybe slightly below average) player, but I do enjoy playing GSF, and I'm looking for some advice on ships. Specifically, should I focus on flying one ship until I get pretty good at it or should I split my time amongst several ships? I've got 8 ships in my hangar, but I've never flown the gunship in battle. I generally fall back to the battlescout in domination and split time between it and the dronecarrier in TDM. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caederon Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) I'm an average (or maybe slightly below average) player, but I do enjoy playing GSF, and I'm looking for some advice on ships. Specifically, should I focus on flying one ship until I get pretty good at it or should I split my time amongst several ships? I've got 8 ships in my hangar, but I've never flown the gunship in battle. I generally fall back to the battlescout in domination and split time between it and the dronecarrier in TDM. Thoughts? My suggestion is that you try out the other ship types, eventually. Each ship has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and each offers a different playstyle. The T2 Scout (Sting / Flashfire / Ocula) and T1 Gunship (Mangler / Quarrel / Mailoc) are definitely the most powerful, but every ship can be flown to deadly effect, or in strong support of your allies (except for the T2 gunship, which is ridiculously awful in nearly any situation). The T1 Scout (Blackbolt / Novadive) is a great example of a ship that is often dismissed by newer pilots, since it starts out very fragile and underpowered. It has a very poor default laser, Rapid Fire Laser, which you should immediately replace with the longer range, harder hitting Laser Cannon. Its default secondary weapon, Rocket Pods, are not beginner friendly... but they do have the very useful ability to pierce armor, and so are great against bombers. They also have no warning that they are about to hit, making them awesome against gunships (which must remain stationary when they shoot their railgun), The default shield is bad, and should be swapped to Distortion Field, which at the third tier talent grants a missile lock break, and even before that adds considerable evasion at your command. So, when you make some changes to the default loadout and learn some tactics about how to best utilize your weapons, it becomes a very effective ship. Trying out the different ship types will give you a greater understanding of the game, and a feel for what to expect when you see those other ships being flown against you. Certain ships are also more useful on particular maps than others (for example, I prefer T2 Scout on Kuat Mesas Domination, but T1 Gunship on Lost Shipyards Domination. T1 Scout can be very effective on Denon Domination. Bombers are useful on all three.) You should watch Drakolich's Twitch stream (you can find links in other posts, he streams frequently) and check out Stasie's Galactic Starfighter Guide which is stickied at the top of this forum. You'll get ideas for ship configurations and see how they can be used to great effect. Ask pilots in game who you see performing well for ideas on how you can improve, too. Most veterans are very willing to help! Having more good teammates is always a plus. - Despon Edited March 18, 2015 by caederon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyRay Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 There are others with WAY more experience than I have. But I'll say that what I've done is basically focus on three ships for now. I have 2 bombers and a gunship that I'm building. My reasoning being that I want to really max out the builds on those ships first. Also, it lets me get used to some things about how those ships fly. How fast they are, how quickly they can turn, etc. When I am forced to play a scout to go gunship hunting, it is disorienting at first how differently it moves from the stately soaring that my Rampart does. After my first couple of weeks, I also started to try to focus on a particular area of learning as I'm flying. On my bombers I'm focusing on trying to put my mines and drones right where I want them to be, and on how to weave around the sat better. On my gunship it's mostly about increasing my awareness, not being so sniper visioned. Once I have a handle on these types, I'll branch out more into my scouts then strikes. In my five I can bring with me, I have one scout, two gunships, and two bombers. I keep the scout for those times when the enemy has an overabundance of gunships which need to be annoyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThutmoseV Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I would start with the ship you enjoy playing the most, and try to get good at that. Then try out the other ship types, maybe depending on the opposition and map. I think most people have a preferred ship that they fly if the opposition looks very difficult. The one thing is if the opposition is flying a lot of bombers, gunship is probably the best counter. Get the ion slug aoe improvement for attacking satellites with heavy bomber defenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verain Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I'm with Nem that you should try out the other ship types. It's a decent number of games or days until mastered, but just a little bit of req gives you a large percentage of the power. Playing a few games on some other ships (or at least flying them a little) will give you a broader experience, and you'll learn about the capabilities of the enemy ships that you are flying against. Flying the ship you like is good advice, but do remember that some ships aren't really able to contribute as much, or require niche situations to be effective. The type 2 gunship nem brings up still brings the great slug railgun and the excellent heavy laser cannon, but it simply isn't able to fight like the other gunships- if you really like the playstyle of that ship you'll enjoy it, but understand it will never be the smarter pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemarus Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) I'm with Nem that you should try out the other ship types. It's a decent number of games or days until mastered, but just a little bit of req gives you a large percentage of the power. Playing a few games on some other ships (or at least flying them a little) will give you a broader experience, and you'll learn about the capabilities of the enemy ships that you are flying against. Flying the ship you like is good advice, but do remember that some ships aren't really able to contribute as much, or require niche situations to be effective. The type 2 gunship nem brings up still brings the great slug railgun and the excellent heavy laser cannon, but it simply isn't able to fight like the other gunships- if you really like the playstyle of that ship you'll enjoy it, but understand it will never be the smarter pick. That was Despon, not me. Edited March 18, 2015 by Nemarus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardaneb Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 If you like flying the battlescout, I think you can pretty much just keep flying it. There is only one real exception. You need to learn how to fly the gunship with the tier 4 ion rail AOE upgrade. The best counter to the battlescout is bomber stacking, and the ion rail is the most flexible way to clear it out. It should always be on your bar. One more reason: by practicing the gunship, you will learn better ways to attack the gunship. Other niche builds are definitely worth exploring in the long run, but I would wait until after you feel confident in your battlescout play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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