Space Mission Difficulties

I had the exact same problem, until the magic solution.

WASD

I didn't even know these keys maneuvered you until I read about it. Just keep randomly zigging and zagging the whole time and you should be fine. It's very stupid of Bioware to suddenly require a strategy/mechanic that's not even hinted at beforehand, but, there you have it.

Oh, past level 40 I don't even bother to do those anymore. It's this simple- the effort / work / misery ratio to reward is nonexistent. I'm not going to engage on a 6 minute mission where all my senses are strung up just to have it all destroyed at 5:90 minutes LOL. and for what?

I am quite sure they are very aware of this but regard it as super low priority ( after all "most people" hate space combat, right ?) I bet their space combat participation graphs take a 90 degree crash in participation past level 40.

God knows what you would of done with Rogue Squadron.

its not that hard... but u need some preparations.
1. purple parts on ship
2. buy "power converter module" (fleet comms)
3. buy "proton torpedos" (fleet comms)

Power converter is really useful if ya gonna take head on 10-15 fighters... otherwise they just melt you. + swing around and tab space! (barrel-roll) In situations like this -do not shoot blasters! (or ur shields wont regenarate).

Proton torpedos i find useful if u need to take down those nasty "elite" ships who can shoot light out of ther a**. Till that thing is fliyng around u will be gimped (shield regen).

pew-pew is fun, ja? but sometimes you need to take defencive position to able pew-pew later

I had same problems, learned some things and now find the missions too easy.

1) Ship upgrades, damage first!
2) Power converter - set to damage when fighting and shooting, set to shields during down time or when you can afford to just dodge stuff. STOP SHOOTING TO REGEN SHIELDS!
3) Save that jamming buff for nasty times such as flying by a destroyer (the big ones, not the frigates). Or when you ahve a heavy fighter + other stuff on you.
4) Do not let fighters get away. They don't fly in and then just disappear, they loop back on you once or twice and can overwhelm you.
5) Missiles, missles, missiles. One for everything!
6) Circle-fire for the mines in impossible sector. Aim as far away from your previous shots so the blasters don't double-down on a mine already dead.
7) Try to get all bonus missions, free 2k credits.

Upgrades are worth it IMO. 40k max for each, and they pay off in no time as the bonus missions become trivially easy.

Good luck

Honest question:

Did something about the difficulty change with the patch?
Or are the missions the same as they've always been?

Getting all the upgrades you can helps a lot. The device that you use to flip/flop the shield recharge or beam damage makes a huge difference if you are willing to micromanage it. You can get that one at 25 I think. Upgrade all your ship components via the merchant, GTN, or make the ones you can yourself if you go cybertech. The EMP Pulse is great for the two minefield missions and the ECM generator can be used in intense situations (i.e. the second defend the base from bombers mission where their tailguns shoot the heck out of you) to stay alive. You also get some upgrades via doing certain missions for the first time.

I've only done the Imperial missions and for me, and my friends that play, the Sullust Interception mission is the hardest but certainly doable. Knowing the missions layout helps a lot as well.

The very last mission is hard - the rest really aren't, but it's not just a twitch game, you also do need to have the right strategy. Regen shields as often as you can, dont shoot something any more than exactly what it needs to die and then move to next target, etc. I enjoyed the challenge frankly, after playing the 30-45 missions so many times they just became too easy anyway.

Then, the very last mission SHOULD be hard, it does give a title and all

Basically : Shooting guns = no shield regeneration

They changed the entry transitions to space missions. However, this seems to put me on the wrong "rail" in all missions. I'm farther to the right and down a little bit from the old rail. Sometimes the issue/bug has made me jump into the mission too far ahead(eg spawning inside the minefield at the start of ascendancy barrier).

The new rail does not give the same amount of time on certain targets as the old one, which has increased the difficulty of some missions.

You can correct this and go back to the original path if you die in the mission and click retry. I believe that since this acts as a reset button and does not transition you out of the area you do not encounter the entry transition wrong rail.

Side note: with the lowered exp rewards on space missions, and space bonus missions no longer rewarding money, there is less incentive to actually play through space combat now. A lot of the missions are now finish in 1-2 minutes and shield boost and play bejewelled on my ipad, or shield boost and wait 6 minutes and then finish the mission. The lack of incentive to do the bonus missions has really dampened my interest in space combat