Q: What to buy/upgrade first?

[JediMinerBob]

So, I have been GSF'ing away and I have a few requisitions (four minor ship, one major ship, one fleet, and one major fleet). What should I be looking at focusing on first? There is so much it is hard to know what should be first.

 

I have found that I can control a strike fighter a little better than a scout (i.e. I self-destruct less when maneuvering around satellites), so my current preference is for that.

 

Thanks in advance. I get killed a lot, and my stats make me look like a conquest farmer, but I am plugging away at it trying! ( My high score on hit percentage is 20%. )

[Ramalina]

Well you can take a look at the guide at the top of this forum.

 

In general, the stock scout, the Mangler/Quarrel, Legion, Warcarrier, Rampart, Razorwire, Flashfire, and Sting are all very solid ships.

 

There aren't any strikes in that list, because as much as I like them, the only thing strikes are actually good at is moving a set of Heavy Laser Cannons from point A to point B faster than bomber could.

 

In a secondary tier of goodness, you have the Condor/Jurgoran and Clarion/Imperium. They're not quite as good as the ones in the first list are in ideal conditions, but they're still solid ships. They tend to reward a fairly high level of pilot skill, but if you want to fly a strike or a strike-ish ship these would be the ones to go with.

 

In general as far as components for newer pilots, I tend to recommend survivability (thrusters, engines, armor, shields, reactor) items first. Spending less time in respawn really helps learn the game faster.

 

Also remember to /cjoin GSF and ask if there are more experienced pilots that can help out. A game or two of mentoring using a voice chat program can be a tremendous help for a new pilot. So install TeamSpeak 3 and Mumble if you don't already have them on your computer (unless you don't have the permissions needed to do that).

Edited March 29, 2015 by Ramalina

[Ardaneb]

As a new player, the first purchase with your 5k of fleet requisition should be the two 2500 req ships (rampart/razorwire and quarrel/mangler). They are two of the top three ships, so it will not be a waste. The price point is best. Plus, it allows you an opportunity to experiment with all of the different ship types on your bar. Buy the ships with the fleet requisition before you cash in the ship requistion.

[Archonitek]

Components wise i usually try to get both my shields and engines to at least tier 2 (usually reducing cooldown and power usage). This keeps you alive longer =]. Also depending on what weapons you equip you will want to reach some of the early tiers asap since they give the most bang for their buck.

 

And get rid of rapid fire lasers. Like now.

 

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO!

[Verain]

Everyone above me is correct.

 

The Stasiepedia doesn't normally discuss purchase order, so the question definitely has merit. But we've been trying to get the word out pretty consistently: first you buy the type 1 gunship and type 1 bomber (Mangler/Quarrel, Rampart/Razorwire), then you probably want to look into the type 2 scout (Sting/Flashfire, you like dogfighting, it's really great at that). If you like strikes overmuch, consider the type 3 scout (Clarion/Imperium) and run support for your team, but know that if you don't have a good team to support it won't be great, and even if you DO, you could probably have helped more in another ship.

 

Also, you should buy some crewmen soon. If Empire, consider an immediate purchase of Jaesa (if you are a huge fan of lockon weapons) or Lt. Pierce (if you are all about rocket pods), who go well on many ships. Gault is also solid for railguns, though I prefer Jaesa. Alternatively, you can put this off if you have ANY offensive crewman with the "Accuracy +6%" passive talent. If Republic, consider grabbing Akaavi or Lt. Iresso early for Wingman. Basically, you should be getting to Wingman Active and the accuracy talent as soon as possible, and this means changing out for a good offensive crewman on empire (their default is the awful MZ-12) and a tactical one with wingman on Republic. You probably also want to investigate defensive crewmen with +shields/+evasion (Nadia, Vector) for almost all ships, and if you love charged plating, anyone with damage reduction will need to come in. Try to avoid the +shield regen passive as it is poor.

Of less importance, grab an engineering crewmember. The choices there are "double engine" (C2N2, Blizz) and "double efficiency" (Yuun, 2VR8). Avoid any crewmember without the engine efficiency talent (-13% cost), as it is mandatory. The starting crewmembers begin with this talent, so it's low priority.

[JediMinerBob]

Thanks all for the information. I started by buying a Sting with my first Fleet Req and then started playing around with switching out the crew using a lot of my own (I run a Sith Juggernaut).

 

A beginner's observation: I just noticed that each ship has a different number of ship requisition points available to it. I have never noticed that before. That implies that the more you fly a model the more you earn with it. Or is there some algorithm to spread the wealth around among all of the ships you own?

 

I started focusing on my Sting, so as I noticed that I had 4K in ship reqs on it I decided to try out Quads and Pods. Don't know if that is a bad mix for a Sting (I read about them being on Scouts...), but I am willing to try. This is my first character to really try out GSF, whereas with all of the others I simply played one mission to get the Intro bonus. So I figure I am going to make a few purchase mistakes along the way, which is okay.

 

I do have Pierce - it does not seem I had to buy him; I have him as a companion - so I put him on offense. From what you were saying it sounds like I want to make Malavai Quinn (that treacherous b@st@rd!) my co-pilot, as he has Wingman? I have him so will do. (He is in the Tactical spot also.)

 

"If you love charged plating, anyone with damage reduction will need to come in." I put Broonmark on Defensive. He has +shield regen and +damage reduction. But the question that begs to be asked is: should I love charged plating? And if so, why?

 

I had already chosen 2V-R8 as my engineering crew member, so it sounds like I guessed right.

 

One last question: why the signature "The most despicable person on the GSF forum."?

 

Thanks in advance, as always. And I never enjoyed getting my *** kicked in a game so much. It is actually less frustrating than ground PvP (which I still enjoy immensely).

 

Dale

[RickDagles]

All great advice. I'd also recommend getting a Bloodmark/Spearpoint with tensor field; a Legion/Warcarrier with repair drone, railgun drone, and seeker mines; and a Rampart/Razorwire with hyperspace beacon. As a beginner player in a "pro" game you can be extremely useful for your team with these ships and really turn the tide of the battle even without a lot of skill.

 

So yea, I'd recommend your bar of 5 ships be: Sting, Bloodmark, Legion, Razorwire, Mangler. Get the 2x bonus on those every day and you will be an asset to your team soon enough.

Edited April 1, 2015 by RickDagles

[Verain]

I started by buying a Sting with my first Fleet Req and then started playing around with switching out the crew using a lot of my own (I run a Sith Juggernaut).

 

That you have a levelled character is important. I give my advice generically for someone starting a brand new character. If you have warrior companions, then you'll definitely want Lt. Pierce if you are running pods, and Jaesa if you are not, as offensive (you can even consider running Lt. Pierce as copilot). For defensive you can use the default until you unlock Vector. For tactical, you can continue running Quinn, but you also have Salana Rok. The only difference is the voice and the passives. For engine, use 2VR8.

 

A beginner's observation: I just noticed that each ship has a different number of ship requisition points available to it. I have never noticed that before. That implies that the more you fly a model the more you earn with it.

 

Nailed it. As you accomplish objectives and win matches, you'll get "ship requisition". The total ship requisition also determines how much fleet req you earn. Check your chatlog to see req earned.

 

You also earn requisition when you pop tokens.

 

Or is there some algorithm to spread the wealth around among all of the ships you own?

 

The tokens mostly do this, but there's a soft bribe- look for the little "x2" that's on the ships (at the start of the day, they all have the x2, but the graphic won't update until you play a match). You gain extra req up until a fixed amount. I think it used to double your req until you had earned an additional 500 on a given ship, but I'm not really sure these days.

 

I started focusing on my Sting, so as I noticed that I had 4K in ship reqs on it I decided to try out Quads and Pods.

 

Very solid burst build.

 

"If you love charged plating, anyone with damage reduction will need to come in." I put Broonmark on Defensive. He has +shield regen and +damage reduction. But the question that begs to be asked is: should I love charged plating? And if so, why?

 

Charged plating works by increasing your "hull damage reduced" stat for awhile. You can make this value reach 99% reduction in some cases, or 95% in others. This makes you essentially immune to mines, enables you to boost powerfully versus walls and reflect off them unharmed (changing direction), and allows you to ignore many weapons. It even gives you bonus shields. It sounds great... but the downside is that your shields gain "bleedthrough" (some of the damage hits the hull instead of the shield), and also many of the good weapons fully ignore damage reduction (some call this "armor"), meaning that you'll get 0% reduction versus those weapons. That includes rocket pods, burst laser cannon, slug railgun, and heavy laser, along with proton torpedo, thermite torpedo, railgun sentry drone, and concussion missile. These weapons will tear you apart.

 

Charged plating is available and amazing on the Razorwire (type 1 bomber) and very good on the Imperium (type 3 strike). It's good-ish on the Quell (type 2 strike). It's terrible on the Rycer (type 2 strike) and the Decimus (type 3 bomber).

 

Here's the trick with plating: You take "deflection armor", which gives 20% damage reduction. You take a damage reduction companion, which gives you 9% damage reduction. Bombers reduce hull damage by 10% passively, and strikes and gunships by 5% passively... for whatever reason, these things add together. So on a razorwire, this base reduction is 39%. On an imperium or quell, it's 34%. The Decimus and the Rycer lack the "armor" component, and can't get the 20% baseline. When plating is active, it gives you an additional 60%, raising the Razorwire to 99%, the Imperium and quell to 95%, and leaving the others at 75%.

 

So, you should only love charged plating if you play one of the ships that does it correctly. As you'll notice, each point of damage reduction is worth more than the last. A sting has a base 0% damage reduction- the highest DR you can ever get is 29%, and it can't get charged plating.

 

 

Anyway, purchase Vector when you can.

 

One last question: why the signature "The most despicable person on the GSF forum."?

 

Some of the debates get a little heated around here at times. Someone called me that one time and I was like "ok, keep."

 

 

 

 

Good luck! If you have questions you can swing by Drako's stream too, or cjoin GSF as was suggested above.

[Zoom_VI]

Always upgrade the paint scheme first.

 

looks > everything else.

[JediMinerBob]

You also earn requisition when you pop tokens.

 

The tokens mostly do this, but there's a soft bribe- look for the little "x2" that's on the ships (at the start of the day, they all have the x2, but the graphic won't update until you play a match). You gain extra req up until a fixed amount. I think it used to double your req until you had earned an additional 500 on a given ship, but I'm not really sure these days.

 

<snip>

 

Good luck! If you have questions you can swing by Drako's stream too, or cjoin GSF as was suggested above.

 

Thanks for the explanation on the x2. That was going to be my next question, actually. I just kept forgetting to ask what it meant. Too bad it is bugged until you get into the game. It seems like it would be useful for planning.

 

Thanks for all the help. The largest problem I have with the forum is the slang, so I will probably be asking more questions.

 

Regards,

 

Dale

[Verain]

You can absolutely plan around it. The first game you play in a day has whatever the end result was of yesterday. Basically, the rule is, it updates accurately after every game, but it doesn't update when the day passes and stuff resets.

 

So on your first game of the day, everything has full x2, and ignore the graphics. On every other game, the graphics are correct.

[Danalon]

I usually get the 2 cheap ships - T1 Bomber & T1 Gunship - first. Eventhough I have an active subscription I don't get the T1 Gunship free, because I wasn't subscribed early enough. After that I buy the T2 Scout and then T2 Bomber and T3 Gunship.

 

For components it's helpful to know if there is an upgrade which has significant impact on the usefulness of the component. An example of an upgrade that has significant impact is the right T3 upgrade for distortion field.

Then there are upgrades that don't drastically change gameplay but are helpful. Examples for this are 100% armor penetration for HLC and BLC, or the lower cooldown and lower energy cost for engine maneuvers and also reduced cooldowns for deployables and reduced lockon times for missiles.

 

Usually the first components I upgrade are defensive ones (shield, engine), then if necessary some passives (energy regeneration, armor). After that I upgrade components based on usefulness/price. For example I like upgrading faster lock on time on clusters, but don't upgrade them further contrary to HLC/BLC where I upgrade until T4 for armor penetration and do the T5 upgrade later. For bombers I usually buy reduced cooldowns on all deployables first and then start upgrading them. For gunships I upgrade railguns first.

[Linuxizer]

There is no need to hoard the introductory and weekly fleet requisition awards. Use them and start buying ships. The Razorwire and the Mangler give you the best bang for your buck. Consider saving for them next since you already bought the mighty Sting.

 

You may want to hoard some of the daily and weekly ship requisition awards until you have more ships. With that in mind and assuming you don't play 20 battles a day, some of the suggestions others have mentioned are for a bit later. Distortion Field Level 3 is excellent but will cost you 13,500 requisitions in the Sting and 15,000 in the Blackbolt, or about 10 battles.

 

Rapid laser is poor, but on the Blackbolt the first upgrade should be rocket pod level 1. I like barrel roll at level 2 or 3 but not at level 0 or 1, so either upgrade or change to power dive fairly early. Regeneration thrusters L0, L1 and L2 are also a priority. Then replace the rapid laser.

 

On the Rycer, just use heavy lasers at 2000m - 6000m range and rapid lasers at 0 - 3000m range for now. Buying another laser is very low priority. My first upgrade would be cluster missile L0. Getting heavy laser to L4 for armor-piercing is pretty important but expensive, so add one or two levels to the thruster, reactor, capacitor and magazine first. Level 0 Koiogran turn is not as bad as L0 barrel roll so I would leave it until later.

 

On your Sting which already has rocket pods, get rocket pod L1, some regen thrusters, targetting telemetry L1 and distortion field L1 for cheap. Then start worrying about distortion field L2, L3.

[StrixHiraeth]

In my opinion, it's best to upgrade components that increase survivability first, and then upgrade weapons. If you focus on upgrading your engine, shield component, systems ability (depending on the ship), armor (if available), reactor (if available), thruster (if available), and unlocking the best defensive crew members, you will be able to live longer, which will improve the quality of your GSF experience. With most of the weapons (with the exception of rocket pods) you have to upgrade several tiers before they significantly increase your quality-of-life. Edited April 7, 2015 by Ymris

[RickDagles]

To any new players reading this post: also make sure you get co-pilot Wingman right away. That might be the single most important upgrade you can get. It should be top priority for most ships IMO. Edited April 7, 2015 by RickDagles

[Verain]

To any new players reading this post: also make sure you get co-pilot Wingman right away. That might be the single most important upgrade you can get. It should be top priority for most ships IMO.

 

1- Wingman is not that important for new players, who spend little time actually taking shots that COULD hit. It's still correct to get it, but your advise is for veteran rerolls, not actual noobs. Noobs deal almost all their damage with lockon missiles or mines, and only learn to target blasters later.

2- Empire just starts with wingman. All they have to do is make Salana Rok the copilot, and, of course, they should. Meanwhile, empire has the awful MZ-12, who gives a -6 to hit- over a quarter of wingman, gone, all the time. Empire's first crewman should be any offensive character with the 6% accuracy talent, likely Jaesa (Lt. Pierce for rocket pods, and arguably the rapid reload / accuracy guy for gunships if that talent is your thing).

3- Republic should use running interference if a new character until such time as they can grab Iresso or Akaavi. Again, it's normally less important for a new player.

[StrixHiraeth]

Read this entire thread and it made me smile. Taken in its entirety, this thread answers the question, "Which components should I upgrade first?" with "All of them." Welcome to GSF.

[Imgawna]

a very important upgrade when starting out is, if using any locking missles, get the reduced lock on time (usually 1st or 2nd tier). after that get 2 tiers in majors, then max minors. some ships i will max 1 part right away. ie spearpoints tensor. DF is a good one to max early too.

[RickDagles]

1- Wingman is not that important for new players, who spend little time actually taking shots that COULD hit. It's still correct to get it, but your advise is for veteran rerolls, not actual noobs. Noobs deal almost all their damage with lockon missiles or mines, and only learn to target blasters later.

2- Empire just starts with wingman. All they have to do is make Salana Rok the copilot, and, of course, they should. Meanwhile, empire has the awful MZ-12, who gives a -6 to hit- over a quarter of wingman, gone, all the time. Empire's first crewman should be any offensive character with the 6% accuracy talent, likely Jaesa (Lt. Pierce for rocket pods, and arguably the rapid reload / accuracy guy for gunships if that talent is your thing).

3- Republic should use running interference if a new character until such time as they can grab Iresso or Akaavi. Again, it's normally less important for a new player.

 

True, so Republic players need to get Akaavi right away and Imp players need to get either Pierce or Jaesa right away if they plan on learning scout, gunship, or t3 strike (not a bad beginner ship imo). I don't think it's a good idea to get new players practicing skills that aren't going to be helpful against new players (i.e. any missile that's not a cluster). You are probably right about mines/bombers being the best noobie choice though.

 

This brings up a good question for discussion - what are the best beginner ships? Sure, we recommend new players buy the Rampart/Razorwire and the Quarrel/Mangler because they are 2 of the best ships and only 2500 points. But would they have an easier time flying a Clarion/Imperium? That can be a pretty forgiving ship with repair probes. And they could pick K-turn instead of the advanced power dive. With wingman I think they would find it fun and rewarding landing shots with quads, and that would teach them the most important game skill (accuracy with blasters). Quads and regular lasers are also probably the easiest blaster in the game to use. Alternatively I think they might benefit from flying an evasion Battlescout with Quads/Clusters. I think that's a ship a lot of us learned to fly with back in the day. The ranges line up nicely, you don't get hit very often, and the sense of speed is fun.

Edited April 9, 2015 by RickDagles

[Ramalina]

Survivability for the total newb?

 

A T1 scout with laser cannons, distortion field, and regeneration thrusters swapped out from the stock components, plus Mako or Tanno for copilot and C2-N2 or Blizz on the crew is a pretty solid pick.

 

The nice thing is that you can always outrun everything. For pretty much the whole game if you need to.

 

You can also hang out 20 km from the battle, zoom in and shoot at something, and zip right back out of range before they start returning fire.

 

In terms of a ship that you actually fly, rather than a ship that you sit around in and hope that no one who knows what they're doing notices, it's about as survivable as it gets. If in doubt, boost.

 

With bombers and the T3 strikes you can be very tanky, but that survivability is more complex than, "hit spacebar and try not to run into an asteroid."

 

The damage done is likely to be low to nonexistent, but if you want active flying as a newb where you get to 0-3 deaths per match a high mobility T1 scout is probably the best bet. You do have to know about the hit and fade style of flight though, wade in and try to mix it up and the T1 is a recipe for disaster.

 

For those unable to resist the temptation to get close to the action I'd probably take a T3 strike as the top survivability pick. T3 bombers might also be a good choice. Of course, for either of those to be really good, the pilot first has to figure out the details of what distinguishes Power Dive from Power Die.

 

The reason I'm not mentioning the gunships, T2 scout, and other bombers is that they're more sensitive to loosing survivability if you're not doing a good job with LOS and cooldown management. I suppose the T3 GS is the one to go with if you want to ease into gunship survivability practice.

[RickDagles]

Right, but those are pretty advanced tactics that take awhile to hone. Power dive is definitely not where a pilot should start learning. They will have enough trouble managing their power between F1/F2/F3 and hitting buttons 1-4 to worry about power diving.

[Imgawna]

i have my new pilots go with hydro spanner and shield recharge. this helps them stay alive longer when 1st starting out. once you get the hang of it then switch to a more advanced setting.

[RickDagles]

That's a good idea against most players, but it won't help at all against aces flying battlescouts. You need max evasion or max shields to prevent insta-melt against good players. And you need TT, wingman, clusters, railgun drone, or mines to have any hope in hell to hit them. Perfectly centered railguns or HLC are great too, but that's a bit advanced. Close up BLC shots - again great but very advanced skill. Edited April 11, 2015 by RickDagles