Galactic Starfighter still exists! Want to learn the game?

[caederon]

Hello, SWTOR players! My purpose here is twofold. First, I would like to remind you of the existence of a deep, engaging part of the game: Galactic Starfighter. Second, I am inviting you to spend an hour or so with GSF veterans in an informative chat where you can ask any GSF related questions you may have and get answers that will help you elevate your level of play.

 

There are a few things you ought to know:

• People still play GSF Some servers have more participants than others, and many GSF players travel to multiple servers to seek out matches and attend events.
  
• We want to help The majority of veteran pilots are glad to help new people learn the game. We want quality teammates that we can count on in difficult matches... people who know the tactics and choices that lead to success.
  
• We love close matches Most veterans really enjoy close, competitive matches far more than blowouts. We don't want to 'farm' new pilots, that is boring and holds no challenge. We want to see new pilots gain the skills and awareness to help make for great matches.
  

 

GSF is tough to learn. This is undeniable. It can be frustrating. The player pool is such that there are often only just enough players available to fill up a match, and so whatever skill level they have is not considered in the matchmaking process. It's tough to get a grip on all the intricacies of a game when you're blowing up and don't even really know why.

 

When played at a high level, GSF offers fast paced, tense gameplay where your decision making is tested as much as your reflexes are. To get to that level, you need practice, patience, and the knowledge that will inform your actions.

 

I'm inviting you now to attend

 

GSF School

 

Where: Harbinger impside, /cjoin GSFschool

 

When: Wednesday 5/25, 9pm-10pm EDT

 

I'll be there, to answer questions and offer advice, and will likely have some other veteran pilots around to assist in bringing you up to speed. It'd be awesome if you've already played the GSF Tutorial (click the '?' button in the upper right of your hangar) and if you like, you can even check out some great guides the community has created to get you started... but please, if you have any interest in fast-paced arcade style space combat PvP, show up and let's get you ready for battle.

 

- Despon

 

PS: It would be really great if we can keep the discussion in this thread positive and encouraging.

[SilentKitty]

You know what. I have no interest in Galactic Starfighter but I just have to come by the thread and say what an awesome thing you guys are doing. I love it when people devote time and energy to open up the game to more players. Bravo!

 

Hope you guys will have a good time and some new people will get to do a bit of flying

[DieAlteHexe]

You know what. I have no interest in Galactic Starfighter but I just have to come by the thread and say what an awesome thing you guys are doing. I love it when people devote time and energy to open up the game to more players. Bravo!

 

Hope you guys will have a good time and some new people will get to do a bit of flying

 

I'll echo this as well. It's nice to see someone trying to bring a change via positivity rather than shouting about it. Good on ya.

 

I can't do it because it makes me nauseous as all get out but I wish you guys all success.

[Greezt]

I highly recommend giving this a shot. Despon has run GSF school multiple times on different servers, and everyone can glean some info and opinions from either him or some of the other good players that arrive with him. I've been to a couple, and found them helpful and good for both beginners and more advanced players.

 

It's a great opportunity to try GSF without the frustration usually accompanying it... You might find a new part of the game you will love

[DreadtechSavant]

You know what. I have no interest in Galactic Starfighter but I just have to come by the thread and say what an awesome thing you guys are doing. I love it when people devote time and energy to open up the game to more players. Bravo!

 

Hope you guys will have a good time and some new people will get to do a bit of flying

 

Agree with this.

 

Best wishes OP hope you find a cool squadron to play with.

[Maulkat]

I can't do it because it makes me nauseous as all get out but I wish you guys all success.

 

I used to have the issue as well. My solution was just to fly a little here, so my daily and then bit more. It went from being able to do 2-3 matches, to 5-6 and then suddenly my motion sickness was gone and now I can fly for hours and not have any problem.

 

The GSF community is failing and it needs to grow again. I fly on the Harbinger server mostly, followed by TRE and then SL. If anybody wants to group to fly on any of these servers, let me know via message here and I'll group any time.

[DieAlteHexe]

I used to have the issue as well. My solution was just to fly a little here, so my daily and then bit more. It went from being able to do 2-3 matches, to 5-6 and then suddenly my motion sickness was gone and now I can fly for hours and not have any problem.

 

The GSF community is failing and it needs to grow again. I fly on the Harbinger server mostly, followed by TRE and then SL. If anybody wants to group to fly on any of these servers, let me know via message here and I'll group any time.

 

I can't do ANY matches. Just makes me ... well, it's not good. It's a pretty immediate brain-wobble.

 

Really odd because I don't get motion sickness in moving vehicles or planes or whatever. Not since I was a little kid anyway.

[MaximilianPower]

I highly recommend giving this a shot. Despon has run GSF school multiple times on different servers, and everyone can glean some info and opinions from either him or some of the other good players that arrive with him. I've been to a couple, and found them helpful and good for both beginners and more advanced players.

 

It's a great opportunity to try GSF without the frustration usually accompanying it... You might find a new part of the game you will love

 

^ this. I've participated in several of OP's sessions, and they typically contain some truly great discussion. Everyone who's tried GSF knows how preposterously steep and unforgiving the learning curve can be, and how little the game itself (specifically, the awful tutorial) prepares new pilots. The experience can be overwhelming at first, and right off the bat you're saddled with sub-optimal components (I'm looking at you, rapid-fire lasers). Though the guides posted in the GSF forum are great, the dialogue in these sessions is even more valuable.

 

Nice to see the positive reaction in this thread so far.

[Elly_Dawn]

until they do something about bombers, GSF will never be fun again, bombers completely ruined the dogfight feel it had before they were introduced... before bombers JC GSF was kickin' after bombers people slowly stopped playing, you can't dogfight against a bomber/gunship ball... Edited May 18, 2016 by Elly_Dawn

[NakodaTheJedi]

You know what. I have no interest in Galactic Starfighter but I just have to come by the thread and say what an awesome thing you guys are doing. I love it when people devote time and energy to open up the game to more players. Bravo!

 

Hope you guys will have a good time and some new people will get to do a bit of flying

 

I agree ive always wanted to do gsf but its basically dead on jedi cov. I always wondered why they still had it if no one plays

[HuaRya]

GSF'd quite a bit until I got bored of this match up being the norm:

 

Side 1 - two ship players versus Side 2 - five ship players

 

 

The two ship players were basically there for the five ship players entertainment.

[psandak]

I can't do ANY matches. Just makes me ... well, it's not good. It's a pretty immediate brain-wobble.

 

Really odd because I don't get motion sickness in moving vehicles or planes or whatever. Not since I was a little kid anyway.

 

Motion sickness stems from your brain seeing/feeling one thing and your body sensing something different. In this case, you are sitting in a chair (or maybe you are standing) and your eyes are sending extreme motion to your brain. In vehicles your body and brain are in relative sync.

 

I do have a slight motion sickness and the way I combat it in video gaming is simple - move with the motion: e.g. if I am moving left on the screen I lean to the left albeit slightly in my chair; move right on the screen, lean right; In the case of up and down (as in GSF): lean back and lean forward respectively. I am only talking about an inch or two in a given direction and it really helps.

 

Getting back on topic, count me in . I did play GSF extensively when it came out and for months after and then it just sort of faded. I tried it recently and got my butt kicked up and down. I guess it's back to the learning curve for me

[DieAlteHexe]

Motion sickness stems from your brain seeing/feeling one thing and your body sensing something different. In this case, you are sitting in a chair (or maybe you are standing) and your eyes are sending extreme motion to your brain. In vehicles your body and brain are in relative sync.

 

I do have a slight motion sickness and the way I combat it in video gaming is simple - move with the motion: e.g. if I am moving left on the screen I lean to the left albeit slightly in my chair; move right on the screen, lean right; In the case of up and down (as in GSF): lean back and lean forward respectively. I am only talking about an inch or two in a given direction and it really helps.

 

Getting back on topic, count me in . I did play GSF extensively when it came out and for months after and then it just sort of faded. I tried it recently and got my butt kicked up and down. I guess it's back to the learning curve for me

 

I know. And, nope, doesn't work for me. My MD recommended same and when it didn't work, told me that I should never hope to use anything in VR.

 

But thanks, I appreciate the attempt!

[TUXs]

until they do something about bombers, GSF will never be fun again, bombers completely ruined the dogfight feel it had before they were introduced... before bombers JC GSF was kickin' after bombers people slowly stopped playing, you can't dogfight against a bomber/gunship ball...

I could not agree more. Bombers broke GSF for me as well.

 

OP...I wish you nothing but luck in this and I commend you for doing it. It's easy to complain, it takes true courage to stand up and do something like you're attempting. I hope it helps GSF tremendously. GSF is a GREAT addition to the game...it truly is exciting and fun. I hope people take you up on this.

Edited May 18, 2016 by TUXs

[CaptRogue]

I could not agree more. Bombers broke GSF for me as well.

 

Sucks to be you! There are some of us who like the Sniper position. I being one of those.

Blame it on the FPS gamer I am. lol Trust me a well geared fighter had no problem taking me out. All too often though, when I played, I wouldn't see much action like a normal wz because you got stuck guarding.

[Storm-Cutter]

Yup GS and bomber span is a thing on occasions. - But OTOH it can be countered.

 

The community -though small- is pretty good on the Progenitor. - I can't believe we do some of the stuff we do sometimes- Not content to 3-cap, we pull back and let the opposition take a sat and defend it - I've never seen that kind of behavior in ground PvP. It's all too easy to annihilate the enemy and kill the queue, so simply steam-rolling the opposition just hurts us all. - And some of us are happy to switch factions to even out games if there's a bias one way or the other.

 

I appreciate it isn't for all, but helping newcomers, and feeling like you're part of a flying club is part of the fun for me.

 

BTW I'm possibly the only one that didn't find the basics of flying difficult to pick up. - but topping the table- well that's something I find really difficult ....

[TUXs]

Sucks to be you! There are some of us who like the Sniper position. I being one of those.

Blame it on the FPS gamer I am. lol Trust me a well geared fighter had no problem taking me out. All too often though, when I played, I wouldn't see much action like a normal wz because you got stuck guarding.

Gunships are fine...it's the mobile minefield that a couple bombers can create around your sniper that make the combo terrible for the average player.

[CaptRogue]

Gunships are fine...it's the mobile minefield that a couple bombers can create around your sniper that make the combo terrible for the average player.

 

AHH! Yep, my bad. I forgot there was a Bomber I was getting them confused with Gunships. lol

Hmm that'd be a nice combo to have...

[Maulkat]

I agree ive always wanted to do gsf but its basically dead on jedi cov. I always wondered why they still had it if no one plays

 

It's not dead on JC, just deflated. lol The gsf community as a whole is dying though. I fly around on different servers and run into the same people doing the same thing. It wasn't this way a year ago though.

[ImmortalLowlife]

You know what. I have no interest in Galactic Starfighter but I just have to come by the thread and say what an awesome thing you guys are doing. I love it when people devote time and energy to open up the game to more players. Bravo!

 

Hope you guys will have a good time and some new people will get to do a bit of flying

 

Co-signing what she said.

 

 

Best of luck OP! Me personally.... I won't touch that "chase the mouse pointer" ever again. The controls are beyond horrible imo. Now when they rework the controls to allow for controller support, I'll be first in line to play again.

 

And before someone jumps down my throat for saying the word "controller", Yea yea I know.....it's not made with a controller in mind/you'd get owned by kb/m players. Well if their kb/m option was the best for playing GSF (and the controls have been one of the biggest GSF complaints), people wouldn't have to make post like this one begging people to play.

[caederon]

Thanks to everyone for the largely positive discussion so far!

 

Part of my goal with the classes I've held is to teach the tactics necessary to counter any particular ship type. A lot of people complain about _____ being overpowered. There are definitive ways to counter ships individually. I even wrote a guide to killing gunships. I've been meaning to write a similar guide to killing bombers. Even group tactics such as the dreaded bomberball can be countered.

 

The number one counter to any enemy formation is to have a well-informed and capable team on your side. Without that, you're in trouble regardless of what's being flown against you. Knowing is half the battle. Putting that knowledge into practice is the other half.

 

If you're new to the game, or are are returning player who hasn't been around for a while, /cjoin GSF on your server and see if there are any experienced pilots around to help with questions or to group with. Try to mentally filter out the more toxic trolling that sometimes bubbles up in chat. The people who top the scoreboards in matches are generally very approachable and willing to help.

 

If you ever see me on as Despon / Desponn (imp) Beris / Beres (pub) I am happy to answer questions or offer advice on ship builds that will give you the best chance of being competitive.

 

- Despon

[caederon]

Best of luck OP! Me personally.... I won't touch that "chase the mouse pointer" ever again. The controls are beyond horrible imo.

This has always been a point of contention. There are clear reasons why they chose to go with a kb/m control scheme, the clearest of which being that it's how the rest of the game is navigated and GSF is built on the same code. It also means that it doesn't require a special peripheral to play that a large part of the customer base is unlikely to have.

 

That aside, there are also notable examples of high profile space sims with a very similar control scheme. Freelancer was made by the same guy who's now making Star Citizen, and offered a great kb/m implementation. Elite: Dangerous also offers a control scheme very similar to GSF's (even down to using the F-keys for managing your power levels).

 

It sucks that you didn't find it a great way to control your ship, but it's a legit and workable control scheme.

 

It's also way down the list of reasons the playing population has shrunk... the chief reason being lack of any new content for two years.

 

No game will please everyone, but it's my hope to help people have a better time playing GSF through giving them the tools to overcome the game's challenges.

 

- Despon

[FlavivsAetivs]

GSF isn't dead on Jedi Cov, although it's certainly sputtering. I came back and it was intermittent at prime time.

 

But this is a result of the declining server populations as a whole, not just lack of interest in GSF. Jedi Cov has half of its former server population.

 

This is a great effort Despon has put into the community. I've seen his school sessions at work and he has had some really successful ones.

 

~ Eudoxia

[casirabit]

You know what. I have no interest in Galactic Starfighter but I just have to come by the thread and say what an awesome thing you guys are doing. I love it when people devote time and energy to open up the game to more players. Bravo!

 

Hope you guys will have a good time and some new people will get to do a bit of flying

 

This as well. I am not very interested in pvp other than the few times my boyfriend can talk me into a warzone but then again he's my boyfriend but I do wish you all too luck.

[FlavivsAetivs]

We also do have events where you don't have to deal with the OP Battlescouts, Bombers, and Gunship Spam.

 

This saturday is Strike Night on The Red Eclipse. On June 25th I'm holding the Clarathon on Jedi Covenant.

 

Both these events consist purely of "non-meta" ships which makes it easier, especially since the typical aces aren't particularly skilled at Strike Fighter combat. Nights like those are typically much better for new players. It will still be really tough, but they won't be getting one-shotted from 16 kilometers by a gunship, or up against an immobile wall of bombers.

 

~ Eudoxia

Edited May 18, 2016 by FlavivsAetivs