Dear Readers,

Please keep in mind that these are my thoughts and reactions. They are my opinions and as such might have already been expressed in other posts by other players. Deal with it. If you are "god's gift" to all things SW:TOR then I'm sure that any comment you have to say on what I write you have already said a thousand times elsewhere, so keep it to yourself. If you have something constructive to say, then I welcome it.

Kindest regards,

Abimelech

Okay down to business.

GSF is a great new addition to SW:TOR. Space PvP has been a long time coming. It was expected by many before Beta started and many were disappointed that it wasn't in the game at launch. Now that it is finally here I find it both excellent and wanting. So first the good.

GSF is a beautiful and fun addition to SW:TOR. The maps are expertly made and I absolutely cannot wait to see the additional maps and play styles. Personally I would love to see something similar to Battlefront 2's maps where you had to attack the opposing side's capital ships.

The various ships and weapons that can be used on them are quite fun. I, for one, have learned to love the Gunships, while others have learned to loathe the Gunships. There is something so very satisfying about the explosion, when you see a Scout get demolished from one shot from you rail gun. Another great thing is that each Pilot is not forced into any specific role. The whole team can be Scouts if they wanted to be.

We each have a decent HUD that displays 90% of the needed information that each pilot needs. The 3rd person view does not truly prevent or obscure any view points. All in all this is a sound aspect of the game as a whole.

That being said, there are some issues that I have with the new expansion.

The first being that there is no way to tell if you're being hit, especially if you're getting attacked while in "sniper mode" in a Gunship. If a lucky pilot (read complete jerk) flies around behind you and starts to blast away your tail end, you have no way of even knowing about it until you blow up. There really needs to be an update where either the edges of your screen flash, or your damage flashes before your eyes much like normal PvP.

From the way that the expansion was advertised it seemed like there were a lot more options for your fighter. In fact, to me, it seemed as if you had the one "fighter" and could just change the looks, solar panels, wings, elongated cockpit vs. stub nose... etc. The game is what it is, and I accept that, but in the future more ship modifications would be great.

Controls (oh look a dead horse, lets beat it!), those of us who have played flight sims know that mouse and keyboard controls are junk. Some may even say that the pilots who use joysticks and game pads vs. mouse/keyboard have an advantage. Whatever your opinion is, that is cool with me. The controls I want to talk about are not just joystick vs. mouse/keyboard. Holding down the "W" key to accelerate makes sense. Having your ship return to 3/4 speed once you let go of the "W" key does not. We should be able to set our throttle how we want it and not have to rely on holding down a button. The mouse also does not return to center (unless there is an option that I have missed). If you make a turn with the mouse and stop moving your mouse, you will continue to turn until you return your mouse back to center. I do not know of a great work around to this but I would like to see a "snap to center" option.

Time and reward: The amount of time put into a game really seems to outpace the reward, at least at end game. I have no need for EXP, but when I play I seem to get crap for a reward even if I win (post Daily and Weekly Quests). Can we please bump this up a little?

Well there you have it folks. Regardless if you like it or not or agree with me or not.