With the official launch and free to play access for Galactic Starfighter only a day or so away I thought I'd throw out some quick tips for the would be pilot.

1. Don't be discouraged by defeat. It takes time to learn GSF and it takes a lot of time to get good but it's worth the effort.

2. Power management is vital. If you need speed, power to engines, if you are shooting power to weapons, you should be constantly hitting those function keys.

3. Keep moving, but not in straight line, and vary your speed. Unlock barrel roll as soon as you can and use it help move you around as well as for shaking missiles.

4. You don't need to lock break every missile. Missile locks that take a long time usually hurt the most. Save your lock breaker for those. If you hear tone try and weave through obstacles or boost away out of range rather than using a lock breaker.

5. Don't panic.

6. Avoid head to head jousting especially in a basic load out ship. Shoot at someone who is shooting at someone else.

7. There is nothing wrong with running away. If your shields are low and cool downs are gone bug out. Good places to head are your capital ships, or a well defended satellite.

8. Remember to look at the mini map and be aware of what's happening around you. If you are alone in a sea of red dots it's probably time to bug out.

7. Your contribution to the team will likely be minimal at first. Consider it a victory if you only died once or twice. Follow your team mates and shoot whatever they shoot at.

8. If you want to see who is shooting you hold down the C key. If you want to target the guy shooting you hit R.

9. Mastering piloting takes time, be patient and just practice practice practice.

I approve of this immensely.

I would also say to look at your keybindings, under Preferences -> Starfighter Keybindings. You don't need every button the moment you start- and common ones like "strafe" are kind of niche- but seeing these and playing, you'll eventually figure out good ways to use them, and then you'll want to map and practice. The combat is mostly true three space, so it will be awhile before you are comfortable with everything. Don't give up!

Also! Try to find a group of good players and practice with them, and consider playing both sides. The easy ability to play both sides compared to most of the rest of the game should let you get to know a lot of the fun players on both sides.

Here's some advice for new players:

1. Ctrl P

2. Click "Starfighter" on the left side menu

3. Check the box that says "Show Detailed Star Fighter Weapon Tooltips", then Apply/Ok

4. While in the hangar, mouse over the various weapons/components and READ the details, such as range, accuracy at range (Look beyond 500m!!!), DPS (again check all 3 range categories!!), power draw, firing arc (how big your circle is on your screen, you can fire within this circle), and tracking penalty (firing away from the center of your screen reduces your accuracy!)

4.1 Don't ignore reading about the components!

5. Read about upgrades for the various components

5.1 Upgrades that have a "split" are either/or not both at the same time

5.2 AND you can switch them (once you unlock tier 3 engines, you can select either a +10% speed or turning rate increase. You can change that between matches, but only if not in the queue)

6. Check out the "crew" tab and check out all the crew members' abilities

7. You can fly the tutorial "? top right of hangar" multiple times... Fly like a batouttahell hugging asteriods for several minutes. Learn Boost (spacebar) and regen the engines faster with F3. Shoot your guns till you run out... then watch regen... then do it again and watch regen with F1 (more weapon regen) (F2 is max shields F4 is rebalance the 3)

8. NOW try a match, maybe link up with a friend who plays! Ask questions and most importantly stay active!

Also, if you are playing Domination mode of the game, here's my tip.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=715628

1. DON'T GIVE UP! Like all PvP games, Galactic Starfighter has a learning curve. We all have to climb it if we're going to play GSF and there's no way around it. This is PvP, you WILL die.

2. Don't worry about the scoreboard for your first 20+ matches. Just do the best that you can do.

3. Don't worry about your kills. If you want to see genuine measures of improvement, look at your total damage output.

4. Spend a match mostly just exploring each map. Note the hidey holes and shortcuts (especially on Kuat Mesa!).

5. Remember that Domination is an objective-based game. Kills actually count for very little. Capturing sats and destroying turrets earn your team far more points than dogfighting in the middle of nowhere.

6. DON'T GIVE UP! The learning curve is steep, but thankfully it's not very long. Stick with it and you're skills will improve, your ship will improve and you'll receive far more enjoyment.

7. See point 1.

8. Note who the Ace pilots in your faction are. Add them to your friends list and don't be afraid to contact them. Most of the Aces would like to see your skills improve and many of them are nice people. Getting into groups, with or without VOIP comms, is always a great idea, you'll get priority in the que, which means you'll play more matches, which will improve your skills.

9. You won't get better standing around on Fleet waiting for a 'fair' match. Don't ragequit or drop out before a match You are only harming yourself by forgoing the chance to get some practice in and earn some requisition.

Great tips!

...

Here's my tips:

1. Take time to look at the Hanger UI. It's not 100% intuitive at first. I have a crappy-made video on it

2. At the start of every death, hit F3 to re-route power to boosters and hold SPACE BAR to boost. Without boosting, you'll take forever to get to the battle and likely never que again. One long boost costs a lot less power than 2 quick ones. I have a video about power management

3. I want to repeat the KEEP FLYING tip a lot of people are mentioning. You are a paper-plate with a pea-shooter and Free-to-play means most of your teammates likely are too. This ONLY changes if you keep flying. I have a video about not-rage quitting which is pretty well made and funny

1) For starting out or if you have a low geared ship, go to a node that friendly are trying to cap and get as close to the node as possible. Weaving a node without dying will help you learn how to fly, while allowing you to help capture it and allow experienced players to chase gunships. Boost shields to max, and don't worry about killing enemies. Just try to get a potshot on them as you fly close to the node.

2) If the node is flashing, you are spawning in, and no friendly is there, try to head there quick. If you are by a node that is flashing.... get on it quick. Let the geared ships kill the enemy. You will get more req from capturing and defending the node than shooting at enemies. Remember... the enemy CANNOT take a node that has friendly very close to it.

3) Do not overcommit to a node. There should NEVER be more than 5 people at a node regardless of whether it is 8 or 12 man. In 8 man, 4/2/2 is a good split. There should never be more than 2 ships at a node that has less than 2 enemies. There should normally be less than 5 people at a node that is being attacked by more than 4 enemies.

Keep a cool head... This is very important. I have much better games when I'm relaxed and thinking straight. In a calm state your situational awareness is greater, it's easier to see when you take damage (I used to find this difficult), you will shoot better, you will be less likely to crash into something, you will be less likely to make silly mistakes in general.

Fix your controls - make convenient keybinds and maybe reduce mouse sensitivity.

Toggle power! So important... If I hadn't been reading Dulfy's guides prior to early access I would probably not have bothered with this. It is crucial to manage your power well. I tend to power weapons when I have a clear shot at my enemy's six, my shields when being attacked in tight quarters or defending a node, my engines at all other times - but that's just me.

Upgrade your ship to suit your playstyle, not per FOTM. You'll enjoy the game more. Don't just upgrade willy-nilly though - have a method to your madness.

Practice a lot... It takes more than 2-3 games to learn GSF. It takes a few dozen games to become at least decent (I have something like a hundred games and consider myself average at best), and many hundreds to be really good.

Don't be discouraged - some of the people you will be encountering have hundreds of hours in GSF as well as hefty upgrades. They will wipe the floor with both you and me with ease. Learn from them, upgrade your ship and bide your time.

The main tip that I have for fellow Imps is hang with it. Don't sweat the many losses or how unbalanced it is. Master a ship and life will be a little better. You still won't win much but at least you can take a few down with you.

I love the sting that I have mastered but any ship mastered will feel less like a victim albeit not much less if you are Imp. We need good pilots so please suffer through it so that we can try and balance the odds since the dev's apparently won't.

Advise to new pubs... Don't... There are to many already to the point where most of there matches is against other pubs. fly imp and help us balance the numbers and eventually the odds.

My advice to anybody trying to play or kill a gunship: HUG THE F*CKING OBSTACLES! GSs are pretty bad at aiming if they don't master their railguns, so they often hit the object you're on top of.

As for the GS pilots: If you hug the asteroids, you can quickly hide when missiles lock, and possibly even get the enemy pilot to crash.

The main tip that I have for fellow Imps is hang with it.

so far so good! Nice opener, good advise!

Don't sweat the many losses or how unbalanced it is. Master a ship and life will be a little better. You still won't win much but at least you can take a few down with you.

This has the distinct ring of a L2P issue...

I love the sting that I have mastered but any ship mastered will feel less like a victim albeit not much less if you are Imp. We need good pilots so please suffer through it so that we can try and balance the odds since the dev's apparently won't.

Sadly, you resort back to your personal agenda here. Give it up man. Your cries of 'the factions are imbalanced, DEVS HELP!' are unfounded, and the devs aren't going to 'fix the imbalance' because:

1. The only imbalances are skill and organization.

2. Being more skilled/organized than someone is a fair way to beat them.

Advise to new pubs... Don't... There are to many already to the point where most of there matches is against other pubs. fly imp and help us balance the numbers and eventually the odds.

The last quote here is why I responded at all (I figure if you are ignored for long enough, you'll go away), because you're advise to new pubs really pissed me off.

Your best advise to republic exclusive players who want to get into GSF is "Don't"?!

Seriously?!

Is it possible to read that and respect your opinion at all (excluding your imagined imbalance that you feel the devs should fix)? I think not.

The main tip that I have for fellow Imps is hang with it. Don't sweat the many losses or how unbalanced it is. Master a ship and life will be a little better. You still won't win much but at least you can take a few down with you.

 

I love the sting that I have mastered but any ship mastered will feel less like a victim albeit not much less if you are Imp. We need good pilots so please suffer through it so that we can try and balance the odds since the dev's apparently won't.

 

Advise to new pubs... Don't... There are to many already to the point where most of there matches is against other pubs. fly imp and help us balance the numbers and eventually the odds.

Please take your server's issues to your server's forum. Thanks.

so far so good! Nice opener, good advise!

 

 

 

This has the distinct ring of a L2P issue...

 

 

 

Sadly, you resort back to your personal agenda here. Give it up man. Your cries of 'the factions are imbalanced, DEVS HELP!' are unfounded, and the devs aren't going to 'fix the imbalance' because:

 

1. The only imbalances are skill and organization.

 

2. Being more skilled/organized than someone is a fair way to beat them.

 

 

 

The last quote here is why I responded at all (I figure if you are ignored for long enough, you'll go away), because you're advise to new pubs really pissed me off.

 

Your best advise to republic exclusive players who want to get into GSF is "Don't"?!

 

Seriously?!

 

Is it possible to read that and respect your opinion at all (excluding your imagined imbalance that you feel the devs should fix)? I think not.

There are 2 imbalances and you are not wrong about skill being one of them. An overwhelming amount of skill on one side leading to easy victory, kills, and upgrades makes it a skill + upgrades problem actually and that is just the first imbalance. That one is not why intervention needs to happen.

The second imbalance is a direct result of the first however. The second imbalance is the one that is dangerous to GSF's success. It is in player population in GSF. Most imps have walked away from GSF because they can not win or they have switched to the republic so they can win. This leads to a majority of the republic matches being against other republic teams. This leads to an unsustainable imperial side with wait times in excess of an hour because they don't have enough imps to form a team. as it snow balls the wait times make more people give up on it or switch to the republic side. I have waited more than an hour on many occasions due to this.

They should get rid of the "war game" same side matches and that would help with the second problem but the greater issue is the massive amount of people being turned off by it. The Empire needs more pilots and more pilots that stick it out and become skilled or this will soon be a pub only game mode. Deny the problem if you want inevitability is inevitability and if you choose to farm noobs until the end that's exactly what will happen as the end will come inevitably on the current course.

My agenda is lets fix whats wrong so this expansion won't fail. If you like GSF it should be your agenda too but farming noobs is more fun huh? As far as pissing you off I intend to campaign for a resolution to this very real problem until they fix it or do nothing and let it kill GSF, As often and as loud as I can with as much help as I can gather because I want to be a part of the solution . Another-words If you are the problem I will piss you off but rest assured I take pride in it.

Please take your server's issues to your server's forum. Thanks.

It's a GSF issue and I'm on the GSF forum but thanks.

A couple of late tips to get us back on track.

1. Skill matters more than upgrades, you can win without a mastered ship so don't think you need better gear to do better, what you need is practice. I have flown 600+ matches mostly solo and still have yet to fully master a ship. I have ships on about 7 different toons both imp and Pub and I do fine with barely any upgrades.

2. Don't be discouraged if everyone on your team has only 2 or 3 ships and the opposition is all 5's I've won matches like that and they have often been some of the best and closet games I've played.

3. If you find yourself on the wrong side of a turkey shoot dont quit - try and get away from the main slaughter and take out a turret or two or attack a loner on his way back to the front, dont keep repeating an action that got you killed, attack a different target, fly a different ship, approach from a different angle until something works.

A couple of late tips to get us back on track.

 

1. Skill matters more than upgrades, you can win without a mastered ship so don't think you need better gear to do better, what you need is practice. I have flown 600+ matches mostly solo and still have yet to fully master a ship. I have ships on about 7 different toons both imp and Pub and I do fine with barely any upgrades.

2. Don't be discouraged if everyone on your team has only 2 or 3 ships and the opposition is all 5's I've won matches like that and they have often been some of the best and closet games I've played.

3. If you find yourself on the wrong side of a turkey shoot dont quit - try and get away from the main slaughter and take out a turret or two or attack a loner on his way back to the front, dont keep repeating an action that got you killed, attack a different target, fly a different ship, approach from a different angle until something works.

quoted for truth.

The second imbalance is a direct result of the first however. The second imbalance is the one that is dangerous to GSF's success. It is in player population in GSF. Most imps have walked away from GSF because they can not win or they have switched to the republic so they can win. This leads to a majority of the republic matches being against other republic teams. This leads to an unsustainable imperial side with wait times in excess of an hour because they don't have enough imps to form a team. as it snow balls the wait times make more people give up on it or switch to the republic side. I have waited more than an hour on many occasions due to this.

Then I feel like you should be trying to rally and/or recruit imp pilots instead of looking to the devs for an intervention.

They should get rid of the "war game" same side matches and that would help with the second problem but the greater issue is the massive amount of people being turned off by it. The Empire needs more pilots and more pilots that stick it out and become skilled or this will soon be a pub only game mode.

I agree with you that getting rid of the same faction war game mode would help a great deal.

My agenda is lets fix whats wrong so this expansion won't fail. If you like GSF it should be your agenda too but farming noobs is more fun huh? As far as pissing you off I intend to campaign for a resolution to this very real problem until they fix it or do nothing and let it kill GSF, As often and as loud as I can with as much help as I can gather because I want to be a part of the solution . Another-words If you are the problem I will piss you off but rest assured I take pride in it.

I never said (or implied) that farming noobs was fun, because in fact I don't think it's fun at all. My best memories of GSF are the 1000 - 900+ games (win or loss) where sats traded control until the very end. I believe the matchmaker isn't working right (or at all) due to the fact that the game hasn't fully launched.

What pissed me off was instead of being a figurehead for the imp side and doing all you can on here (and in game, though I don't know what you've done in game to this end, so I won't assume you've done nothing) to rally/recruit them and/or get pub pilots to play on the imp side IN ADDITION to the pub side, you simply told them not to play, or to only play imp.

A couple of late tips to get us back on track.

Stay on target!!