First time playing "Starfighter battle"

[DomiSotto]

Gunship is my least favorite ship so far, because it works okay in an even match, but gets shot down too fast when we are facerolled, and by the time the gun charges when my side facrolles, the guy is already dead. And, frankly, the number of even matches I have seen in GSF is very few Edited February 14, 2016 by DomiSotto

[Danalon]

Practice makes perfect. The first time I tried Gunships, I got killed so often and so fast, I stopped using them at all. I focused on my T2 Scout instead. When the T3 Gunship was added, I gave it another try, because the T3 Gunship is basically a slower version of a T2 Scout with a railgun attached. I practiced sniping, while I still had the option to dogfight (and win against most pilots). I started using the T1 Gunship when I wanted to finally do the assist MVP achievement and figured the Ion Rail would do that job the best. I'm now relatively good in a T1 Gunship, even if I didn't like sniping in the beginning.

 

You'll barely see even GSF matches. Sometimes a single pilot can have enough influence on a match, to completely turn it around. Also, small differences can make a huge impact on the outcome of a match, making otherwise close games seem like a stomp.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Danalon

[SeCKSEgai]

Gunship is my least favorite ship so far, because it works okay in an even match, but gets shot down too fast when we are facerolled, and by the time the gun charges when my side facrolles, the guy is already dead. And, frankly, the number of even matches I have seen in GSF is very few

 

I myself rarely enjoy using a gunship - despite this I still put in the time to develop my abilities with them. I was just shy of dead weight on a gunship for a long while, and that ends up being the reality for most newer pilots as well.

 

As such I find there are times where I need to fill the role, whether it because the enemy team has mines galore or team is lacking in long range support fire.

 

Regardless, the more you learn about other ships the more effective you can become in destroying them as you develop more comprehensive knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses.

[DomiSotto]

Oh, I fly every ship, since each has bonus comms. Hey, I was sent today to do the bomber thing, and assured that flying in circles and spamming on CD is fine.

 

But I suck with much more enthusiasm on the Scout. I really like the missiles on the Sting. Weeeeee! Sure, I forget the wingman thinggie, but hey, it's the FOURTH button! Fourth, I tell you, that's where it gets complicated. Seriously, the legendary Conan the Barbarian was thwarted at that stage, what do you expect from me!

 

And, I've finally got the Hyperspace beacon on the RW. Next time I won't just fly in circles, I will also put down a beacon, 'cause that's pro.

 

Now, I just need to stash the comms for the healing ship.

Edited February 17, 2016 by DomiSotto

[Danalon]

Oh, I fly every ship, since each has bonus comms. Hey, I was sent today to do the bomber thing, and assured that flying in circles and spamming on CD is fine.

 

But I suck with much more enthusiasm on the Scout. I really like the missiles on the Sting. Weeeeee! Sure, I forget the wingman thinggie, but hey, it's the FOURTH button! Fourth, I tell you, that's where it gets complicated. Seriously, the legendary Conan the Barbarian was thwarted at that stage, what do you expect from me!

 

And, I've finally got the Hyperspace beacon on the RW. Next time I won't just fly in circles, I will also put down a beacon, 'cause that's pro.

 

Now, I just need to stash the comms for the healing ship.

 

I was using Hydrospanner for the first year of my GSF career on my T2 Scouts because "it repairs like 25% ot the hull". Forgetting the copilot ability sometimes won't stop you from getting better over time.

 

I see your sarcasm there but flying a Bomber is not just "flying in circles", I see a lot of people do that on satellites. They just keep flying below the disk part with no active evasion whatsoever. As a Bomber you'll need to learn where to place your deployables and how and when to place them. Also it's crucial to learn how to fly to avoid getting hit, which includes getting a feeling for the behavior of other players.

[ALaggyGrunt]

If you fly in circles, you're an easy target. Be aware of where the threats are and what you can put between your ship and things which can kill it.

If you're good, you will be effectively immune to torpedoes when you get on the sat, not that most people will be throwing them around.

[DomiSotto]

I get that. I just did not figure out where the placement will be the best, save for, well, maybe I should put slow-downs in the direction of the likely attack, from the center satellite, and my mines on the approach to the turrets.

 

I know that developing each weapons reduces the CDs of the mines, so I will be able to cloak the area thicker, I presume.

 

Of course I am watching out for things, on the balance I prefer to be more alive than dead.

[Danalon]

I know that developing each weapons reduces the CDs of the mines, so I will be able to cloak the area thicker, I presume.

 

The amount of mines/drones deployed at the same time is limited. Upgrades can get you an additional mine/drone for some of them. The reduced cooldown is helpful when there's a lot of action and your mines trigger (or get destroyed) all the time.

[Lendul]

I get that. I just did not figure out where the placement will be the best, save for, well, maybe I should put slow-downs in the direction of the likely attack, from the center satellite, and my mines on the approach to the turrets.

 

I know that developing each weapons reduces the CDs of the mines, so I will be able to cloak the area thicker, I presume.

 

Of course I am watching out for things, on the balance I prefer to be more alive than dead.

As general rule of thumb you want to watch your cool-downs. Drop 1 mine once it reachs half way on it's cool-down drop the other. Remember I suggested the bomber when you brought up the Guardian Tank role for ground PvP because they are comparative. They are not sexy, but it is easier to contribute.

[DomiSotto]

Awesome, looking forward to that

[DomiSotto]

Starting to appreciate being able to switch between the ships on the same toon. It really put me off when I started that there were multiple ships, but now I like the flexibility build into the system for each battle. On one hand, it makes it harder to get into GSF, but on the other - it works well with what I prefer to do, and that is having a dedicated GSF alt. It also will work well for the folks with a strong main character.

 

All and all, I wish I had more time for GSF, and, well, better queue times.

 

Does anyone know how GSF is on the Hawk?

[Lendul]

 

All and all, I wish I had more time for GSF, and, well, better queue times.

 

Does anyone know how GSF is on the Hawk?

If the queue times on The Harbinger are not satisfactory then you will not be happy with any of the other servers.

[Greezt]

If the queue times on The Harbinger are not satisfactory then you will not be happy with any of the other servers.

 

Maybe it's the time zone?

 

Or maybe it's friends.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Greezt

[DomiSotto]

The time zone. I play closer to prime on the East Coast Servers. On the other hand, Harbinger has activity whenever, if not as fast as during the Prime. But the reason I was asking was because I wanted to level a character faster on the Hawk, and thought to try to fly there for XP boost.

[catsi]

GSf on TEH is fairly solid pop wise competition is good but can sometimes swing wildly depending on if Eclipse Squadron is flying in force.

[DomiSotto]

Great, thank you. I'll give it a shot there, to see if I can boost my character a little.

[DakhathKilrathi]

Great, thank you. I'll give it a shot there, to see if I can boost my character a little.

 

Which faction are you planning to play on TEH? I play both and I'd be more than happy to play a few with you. I can't promise a win, but I can promise to help out!

[ALaggyGrunt]

Which faction are you planning to play on TEH? I play both and I'd be more than happy to play a few with you. I can't promise a win, but I can promise to help out!

 

You just want all his kills

[Archonitek]

Get to see you still flying Domi!

[DomiSotto]

You just want all his kills

 

My kill-wha-ah-ha-ha-hah! Ah-ha-ha-ha! Funny, very funny Dr. Jones.

 

I got 4 kills one match, but the stars must have been in one in the millennium alignment or something.

 

I would likely try it on Last'shot, pub-side, and possibly Last'seen on the Imps. All my characters on the Ebon Hawk start with Last'

 

Also, not sure how to say that without being obnoxious, I, uhm, I am a she-gamer

Edited February 23, 2016 by DomiSotto

[Maulkat]

Nice to have another female in the skies

Anyway, to topic, I fly on most NA servers and the most consistant pops happen on Harb. For me, it can be difficult to get a pop there if I'm solo (which I do on alts). Six and Lucky are fully mastered with 1000s of flights, solo just doesn't happen. One reason, I'm always grouped.

I was flying around lastnight and got my dailies done on TEH by around 930. An hour for two flights. Went to SL (imp side), waited 20 mins for a pop and then never got one pub side after my daily on imp side. I wanted in queue for over 40 mins and this was just after 10pm cst. That's also about the time the queue dies on TEH.

Went to Harb and got pops for the next two hours or so before having to go to bed.

[Danalon]

I always have the feeling that there are less pops on mondays, especially after a GSF-heavy conquest week. Maybe it had something to do with it.

[DomiSotto]

Well, with the certain rumors going around, I don't know what to do! So, I will just stick to the Binger Fingers crossed I can play a bit. So many things going on!

[ALaggyGrunt]

My kill-wha-ah-ha-ha-hah! Ah-ha-ha-ha! Funny, very funny Dr. Jones.

 

I got 4 kills one match, but the stars must have been in one in the millennium alignment or something.

 

I would likely try it on Last'shot, pub-side, and possibly Last'seen on the Imps. All my characters on the Ebon Hawk start with Last'

No, seriously. If you are put on a team which kills everything before you get close to it, you don't learn how to kill things very effectively. You might learn how to set up the kill, but not how to seal the deal.

Also, not sure how to say that without being obnoxious, I, uhm, I am a she-gamer

This is the Internet, where we assume everyone is male until proven otherwise. I'm about 80% sure someone in comms has fooled the people I fly with. Long story short, a simple MtF voice filter probably works like this:

Male and female speech are an octave (2x frequency) or two (4x frequency) apart.

So, perform FFTs (Fast Fourier Transforms) on your input stream, take the data which correspond to the frequencies of male speech, kick them up to the frequencies of female speech, and inverse-FFT, and you've got what sounds like a woman talking. It's going to be distorted, though: the background noise our ears normally filter out are caught and kicked up in frequency too, so your ears will notice those. Also, going up exactly an octave in frequency means there is now half the duration of sound (insane stutter if you try to transmit that in realtime, insanely fast talking recorded), so the software has to have some way to spread out the sound so it sounds like natural speech, and that usually makes noise of its own.

 

Another game I play had an integrated voice chat feature which included sound filtering. It was crazy unreliable, but when I heard it work, my second thought was: "Hey, I've heard that before!"

 

Not like it matters much. Power to weapons!

Edited February 24, 2016 by ALaggyGrunt

[Lavaar]

The Harbinger is a really good server to play on where you can get pretty consistent games at most hours. I notice an entirely different group playing in the morning than the group at night, so it opens up a lot of options for pilots flying at any time of the day.

 

The only thing to be aware of on the Harbinger is something my guildmates and I refer to as the "harbinger shuffle". The Harbinger shuffle is when the best players tend to fly on one faction at any given time, and switch back and forth as a group. When one side is winning, the losing side's players tend to switch factions quickly as opposed to bucking down for rematches, exacerbating the problem. While having toons on both sides is strongly encouraged, sometimes it can be a bit unnerving to be on the wrong side of the shuffle, especially alone and without properly equipped ships (you can do well stock, but you can't carry a team stock). The shuffle is named after the harbinger as it happens there the most consistently and obviously compared to other servers, where it happens but is done with a little more subtlety.

 

This is not a bad thing necessarily, as it allows for some really fun and challenging games if you bring a group to fight against the tide and come prepared.