I made a New Year's resolution to not respond to (and hence bump) posts like these, but I'm breaking it on the off chance that you might actually be interested in learning something about GSF. Which, granted, is a total shot in the dark. I mean, this is pretty clear:

No comments are necessary, thanks.

...but I choose to interpret the entire post as venting, borne of a situation all of us here in the GSF forum have experienced. We were all noobs once. The learning curve is preposterously steep, and the game offers very little help in that respect. Though, to be clear, there is actually a (crappy) tutorial - hit H then the "?" symbol at the top right.

Everyone's first game was probably a confusing disaster much like yours.

That said, if you can find a way to muddle through a few matches, you'll start to get the hang of things. Right now it might seem like "an absolute waste of time and effort" but make no mistake: GSF is a surprisingly deep and rewarding game-within-a-game, once you get past those first baby steps. Many of us have logged literally thousands of matches, and we haven't done that merely out of blood-lust for noobstomping. There's a lot to GSF once you scratch the surface.

To that end: if you have any remote interest in GSF, let us help you. Check out the sticky at the very top of the forum. Read the other guides linked there. Tell us where and when you play. Be sure to join your server's gsf chat channel (type "/cjoin gsf") and ask for a group, or for tips.

You'll find we're largely a helpful bunch, merely trying to foster interest in a game that the devs have pretty much abandoned.

I made a New Year's resolution to not respond to (and hence bump) posts like these, but I'm breaking it on the off chance that you might actually be interested in learning something about GSF. Which, granted, is a total shot in the dark. I mean, this is pretty clear:

 

 

...but I choose to interpret the entire post as venting, borne of a situation all of us here in the GSF forum have experienced. We were all noobs once. The learning curve is preposterously steep, and the game offers very little help in that respect. Though, to be clear, there is actually a (crappy) tutorial - hit H then the "?" symbol at the top right.

 

Everyone's first game was probably a confusing disaster much like yours.

 

That said, if you can find a way to muddle through a few matches, you'll start to get the hang of things. Right now it might seem like "an absolute waste of time and effort" but make no mistake: GSF is a surprisingly deep and rewarding game-within-a-game, once you get past those first baby steps. Many of us have logged literally thousands of matches, and we haven't done that merely out of blood-lust for noobstomping. There's a lot to GSF once you scratch the surface.

 

To that end: if you have any remote interest in GSF, let us help you. Check out the sticky at the very top of the forum. Read the other guides linked there. Tell us where and when you play. Be sure to join your server's gsf chat channel (type "/cjoin gsf") and ask for a group, or for tips.

 

You'll find we're largely a helpful bunch, merely trying to foster interest in a game that the devs have pretty much abandoned.

A more sober voice contributes. I was just the tiniest shade harsh. Right. but harsh.

You probably got unlucky in the matchmaker. It happens to all of us. There are game that are so unbalanced that the very best players can't carry the weak side if they happen to queue into it. Situation normal. You keep at it and you're going to find much more forgiving matches very soon and you'll find the ways you like to fly and things you like to do Use your one games reward of 5000 fleet req to buy a gunship and bomber and then fly all ship types and see what you like. Read the build guides and see what you might like to do in there. The first match is no indicator of the game as a whole in the slightest.

So starfighter battle popped for once. The first time that it has popped since I started queuing just to get rid of the mission. I have to say, now I understand why no one plays this crap. The controls are wonky and I couldn't find a "Hey get to know your starfighter and practice a little bit" tutorial. Nope, straight into the **** where I was just destroyed by people with better ships over and over. Just an absolute waste of time and effort. No comments are necessary, thanks.

Let's be real - this is the experience virtually everyone has when trying gsf. The controls and general interface leave a lot to be desired and new people are constantly ripped apart by people with more experience in better ships. While all forms of pvp have a learning curve, there's little to motivate a player to take those beatings repeatedly for no real reward.

It's just too bad that in all the time that this has been the case, nothing has ever been done to change it. The community does try to help but in the end it just ends up too draining and frustrating.

Let me also add in that even veteran pilots have this issue as they start a new character. while their skill and experience can allow them to contribute more in a newer ship they can still be subject to hard times in matches.

Tobias spoke the best on this matter. Stick with it, join the gsf channel and ask for help from any veterans on at the time. I'm on Harbinger, TEH, SL, and occasionaly JC. I'm always glad to assist new pilots as I can.

That said, if you can find a way to muddle through a few matches, you'll start to get the hang of things. Right now it might seem like "an absolute waste of time and effort" but make no mistake: GSF is a surprisingly deep and rewarding game-within-a-game, once you get past those first baby steps. Many of us have logged literally thousands of matches, and we haven't done that merely out of blood-lust for noobstomping. There's a lot to GSF once you scratch the surface.

I did.

I put a fair bit more efforts than the OP. After 20+ matches I am following the OP's wise course of actions. There is literally zip I can do in this particular module. Nothing makes any difference. Not the upgrades, nor trying really hard, nor reading the guides, nor targeting different ships, nothing at all works.

The result is always the same. NOTHING.

Seeing nothing but zeroes each and every time is disheartening. That what makes this module completely unfun. That impossibility to do anything. That it never changes. That there is no tiniest indication or a sliver of hope that it will or might.

I am sure that for you, guys, it is not Just an absolute waste of time and effort. , but for me it is. I had more uplifting times on Yavin mat-gathering.

It's just hopeless, completely, utterly and totally hopeless.

 

I put a fair bit more efforts than the OP. After 20+ matches I am following the OP's wise course of actions.

It's just hopeless, completely, utterly and totally hopeless.

It took me a lot more than 20 matches before I was anything more than fodder. I still haven't forgotten how it was for me starting out and the only difference between you and I was I just wasn't willing to accept being a lousy pilot after my fond memories of tie fighter. I couldn't stand the fact that despite having some space flight "sim" experience I was just another nameless pilot all too easy to shoot down.

On the flipside I used to do a lot of ground pvp but once it became apparent that pubside was constantly going to be dominated with all the server transfers I have hardly touched it and the few times I do I'm almost always reminded why I stopped.

Even pubside ground can win when they actually have healers queue regs, and that's a far more "hopeless" situation than gsf.

I did.

 

I put a fair bit more efforts than the OP. After 20+ matches I am following the OP's wise course of actions. There is literally zip I can do in this particular module. Nothing makes any difference. Not the upgrades, nor trying really hard, nor reading the guides, nor targeting different ships, nothing at all works.

 

The result is always the same. NOTHING.

 

Seeing nothing but zeroes each and every time is disheartening. That what makes this module completely unfun. That impossibility to do anything. That it never changes. That there is no tiniest indication or a sliver of hope that it will or might.

 

I am sure that for you, guys, it is not Just an absolute waste of time and effort. , but for me it is. I had more uplifting times on Yavin mat-gathering.

 

It's just hopeless, completely, utterly and totally hopeless.

Huh, after reading your other posts I was under the impression that you were slowly picking it up.

GSF is what ground PvP used to be when they threw everyone into a level 10-50 pen and said: "Have a go at it, boyz!"

They addressed the problems of the ground PvP by introducing brackets, the (much maligned, and unfairly so) bolster and, lately, by relaxing the gearing grind to non-existent.

In ground PvP if queue does not love ya right now, you have a choice to move to another faction or to another bracket. All comms are the same color.

In ground PvP if you are not in full gear the moment you ding 65, you either did not read or followed a very simple bit of advice.

In ground PvP, the simplest gear and strats tips, and a bit of work puts you into average performance really fast. I was told: "Roll a PvP char. Roll a Tank. Gear for End. Swap Guard. Taunt. Defend Healer. Guard nodes." So I did, and that noob char back when Vg tanks was the last AC people considered sexy was earning comms, medals and MVPs from level 12 on like a champ. I was a contributor just like that. Took a little longer with a heals, and a lot longer with a DPS, but only on one class I felt it was a no go. I had 3 others to try!

In ground PvP, even if you do not win, unless you have an exceptionally bad matchmaking, you put out decent numbers, you get comms, MVPs... you PLAY.

In GSF, I started with 1 kill, <4 assists, <10K damage, <10% hit, <2 medals, and I continue getting the same 1 kill, <4 assists, <10K damage, <10% hit, <2 medals.

I found the cheevo that counts the GSF matches won/participated. It ended at 31 at the time of the 20ieth editing of this post. The highlight of my entire carrier was sneaking through the latticework to shoot two defensive turrets (!) before I died for the whatever time. Oh, wow. Two medals! I might just get 20 comms for it towards some 100K I need!

As for the matchmaking, I am going laugh at anyone who types complaints about the premmies in ground PvP so hard. Try GSF's 'matchmaking' for size. The full teams of battle-cruisers headed by the Admiral, versus the guys that were about to go for a swim on a tube with half a broken paddle between them for a weapon.

GSF is light year behind, right in the age of those hard-core MMOs where the old boys went and repeatedly beat the 1 penny out of the guy who's just created his toon 5 minutes ago. I can't believe Bio did not fix it so that the old boys can take all those awesome 23 comms you've been saving up, so the whole hard-core crowd can have their hard-core game of the hard-core hill-climbing.

It is amusing that the selling pitch is: "Bad experience? Pish-tosh! You have not had nearly enough bad experience to get to the part where it might or might not be a not-quite-so-bad experience!!! A few hundred more tries, a few hundred more dips in butter, my Wee Green Pea, and you might just dodge the Fork!" Signed, Fork.

GSF is what ground PvP used to be when they threw everyone into a level 10-50 pen and said: "Have a go at it, boyz!"

 

They addressed the problems of the ground PvP by introducing brackets, the (much maligned, and unfairly so) bolster and, lately, by relaxing the gearing grind to non-existent.

 

In ground PvP if queue does not love ya right now, you have a choice to move to another faction or to another bracket. All comms are the same color.

 

In ground PvP if you are not in full gear the moment you ding 65, you either did not read or followed a very simple bit of advice.

 

In ground PvP, the simplest gear and strats tips, and a bit of work puts you into average performance really fast. I was told: "Roll a PvP char. Roll a Tank. Gear for End. Swap Guard. Taunt. Defend Healer. Guard nodes." So I did, and that noob char back when Vg tanks was the last AC people considered sexy was earning comms, medals and MVPs from level 12 on like a champ. I was a contributor just like that. Took a little longer with a heals, and a lot longer with a DPS, but only on one class I felt it was a no go. I had 3 others to try!

 

In ground PvP, even if you do not win, unless you have an exceptionally bad matchmaking, you put out decent numbers, you get comms, MVPs... you PLAY.

 

In GSF, I started with 1 kill, <4 assists, <10K damage, <10% hit, <2 medals, and I continue getting the same 1 kill, <4 assists, <10K damage, <10% hit, <2 medals.

 

I found the cheevo that counts the GSF matches won/participated. It ended at 31 at the time of the 20ieth editing of this post. The highlight of my entire carrier was sneaking through the latticework to shoot two defensive turrets (!) before I died for the whatever time. Oh, wow. Two medals! I might just get 20 comms for it towards some 100K I need!

 

As for the matchmaking, I am going laugh at anyone who types complaints about the premmies in ground PvP so hard. Try GSF's 'matchmaking' for size. The full teams of battle-cruisers headed by the Admiral, versus the guys that were about to go for a swim on a tube with half a broken paddle between them for a weapon.

 

GSF is light year behind, right in the age of those hard-core MMOs where the old boys went and repeatedly beat the 1 penny out of the guy who's just created his toon 5 minutes ago. I can't believe Bio did not fix it so that the old boys can take all those awesome 23 comms you've been saving up, so the whole hard-core crowd can have their hard-core game of the hard-core hill-climbing.

 

It is amusing that the selling pitch is: "Bad experience? Pish-tosh! You have not had nearly enough bad experience to get to the part where it might or might not be a not-quite-so-bad experience!!! A few hundred more tries, a few hundred more dips in butter, my Wee Green Pea, and you might just dodge the Fork!" Signed, Fork.

Just something to know, Medals do not determine the amount of Req you get in Star Fighter, what does is "participation" being near a satilite (capping or keeping it from being capped). Kills and Assists grant you req (at the same rate mind you). So basically as long as you are participating, whether doing good or bad you are getting req. Though the lack of req/ gear isnt the only problem if 10% accuracy unfortunately, wish I could know what was going on, and where the miss communication is with new players on how to use there abilities better so they can improve with out hundreds of games, because gear doesnt mean QUITE as much in space as it does on ground (it still means something just not as much.) Targeting the person and shooting at the LEAD reticule, not at their actual ship. Using something that DOESNT have Rapid Fire lasers (you were mostly flying the black bolt which starts with nothing BUT rapid fires) which are litterally the worst weapon in the game for doing anything. Learning how to pitch instead of yaw. Learning to manage your power settings, learning to use CD's at the right time. Learning to fly defensive when neccisary and aggressive when neccissary. There is so much to learn and to be taught, its hard to know where to start with out proper communication. DId you turn on detailed tool tips and read all the tool tips? Do you know what tracking penalties are?

Edit: essentially, we can not tell you what you dont know that you dont know.

I put the detailed tooltips on.

I switched the weapon to the Lazer/Pods immediately with Fleet Comms, so I did not flew with rapid. I've unlocked as much as I could in Dampening, Range and Thrusters, while equally distributing between everything else.

I shoot at the heading not the body unless I am only in range for the secondary

I don't know what the tracking penalty is

I switch between 3 power settings continuously, Engines when hauling or running, Shields when I am about to LoS with the 1 and 2 buttons, and switch to Weapons and button 4 once I am in range.

I pull hard up and rock the ship when red flashes, barrel roll if there is nothing around me and hit Wingman when available for accuracy.

I tab furiously to see if any gunship is within 15K.

When I start shooting most targets move out of my targeting far too fast for me to keep following them without slowing down and turning the ship around or my weapon power runs out, and then what.

I try to fly high and go from above to the ships below.

In death matches I usually got one-shotted before I can close in range, so I just hide and tab range and run away some more, while my team gets that awesome 50:1 beat-down.

They addressed the problems of the ground PvP by introducing brackets, the (much maligned, and unfairly so) bolster and, lately, by relaxing the gearing grind to non-existent.

You only need to buy upgrades once in GSF, which makes the grind completely nonexistent after you mastered a ship with the right components. I honestly don't see much of brackets when playing maxlevel unranked PvP - which is roughly the equivalent to GSF (everyone starts at somewhat useful gear but might encounter someone who's fully geared).

GSF is a shooter and it's far less gear dependant than the usual PvP in MMORPGS. It doesn't need bolster.

Just by my personal feeling I'd have to say the difference between a maxlevel character in blue-ish quest gear and a fully BiS geared and augmented character is around the same as the difference between a stock GSF ship and a fully upgraded one.

Planetside 2 is comparable to GSF. It's a free to play MMOFPS, where only cosmetics cost real money and where players of all skill levels are on the same map. New players lack some weapons/gear which is important to deal with some situations but overall they're not much weaker than veterans. What kills most new players is the lack of experience. They don't know the layout of common buildings. They don't know some of the tricks veterans do. They're not used to their weapons behavior.

Basically the same reasons why veterans are superior to beginners in GSF.

While Planetside has a better tutorial and even a beginner zone the main problems stay the same - it's impossible to put hundreds and thousands of hours of practice and experience in a tutorial and fighting other new players is not comparable to fighting veterans.

It is amusing that the selling pitch is: "Bad experience? Pish-tosh! You have not had nearly enough bad experience to get to the part where it might or might not be a not-quite-so-bad experience!!! A few hundred more tries, a few hundred more dips in butter, my Wee Green Pea, and you might just dodge the Fork!" Signed, Fork.

If you want to play PvP, you need to accept that you'll get killed a lot. You also need to accept that if you're a beginner, almost everyone is either better geared or more experienced than you - sometimes both. So yes, you will have bad experiences in the beginning, maybe hundreds of them.

Another example from Planetside. Back when I started I didn't know anything about the game and also I were just an average shooter player back then. Guess at what number my total K/D reached 1 - probably guessed wrong. I died over 3300 deaths before my total amount of kills surpassed that number.

It's not unlikely that you might need a hundred games to get average in GSF, maybe two or even three hundred.

I don't know how many games it took for me to get good at GSF, however I do know it got better when I unlocked a T2 Scout after some games where my pug and I got farmed by a team of two T2 Scouts.

I don't know what the tracking penalty is.

The more centered your mouse is when shooting, the less tracking penalty (zero penalty for a shot at the exact center of your screen). Vice versa: the closer to the edge of your firing arc, the more penalty.

In death matches I usually got one-shotted before I can close in range, so I just hide and tab range and run away some more, while my team gets that awesome 50:1 beat-down.

You can't tell me that each and every one of your 30ish games was like that. If it was, there were some people offering to fly with you. Flying with experienced pilots usually reduces the stress in a match, so it's easier to practice.

I shoot at the heading not the body unless I am only in range for the secondary

In case you're flying with pods: Pods work exactly like lasers, they all need to be targeted at the lead indicator. Pods just have a smaller firing arc.

I feel compelled to point out that the quality of your team can have a drastic impact on how you do in GSF when starting a new character. I have my share of wins and losses. On my "main" on Harbinger I have a couple of ships mastered (one scout and one strike fighter.) Trying to start out a new character on a different server was extremely exasperating. It started to devolve into "oh look by the time I got to the objective, everyone else on my team was already dead and respawning. So now it's me vs. 5 and I die." Wash, rinse, repeat.

A system could be implemented that matches up players based on their upgrades. So the folks going into the queue with a gunship with everything maxed out would only come up against opponents with everything maxed out. But there aren't enough players that the queue would ever pop.

I feel compelled to point out that the quality of your team can have a drastic impact on how you do in GSF when starting a new character. I have my share of wins and losses. On my "main" on Harbinger I have a couple of ships mastered (one scout and one strike fighter.) Trying to start out a new character on a different server was extremely exasperating. It started to devolve into "oh look by the time I got to the objective, everyone else on my team was already dead and respawning. So now it's me vs. 5 and I die." Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

A system could be implemented that matches up players based on their upgrades. So the folks going into the queue with a gunship with everything maxed out would only come up against opponents with everything maxed out. But there aren't enough players that the queue would ever pop.

The matchmaker already tries to do this. On Jung Ma, my home server, I can't get a queue pop on either of my mains unless I group up with someone else. Mastered ships + low population = no queue pops for Ramalina if Ramalina is not in a group. Alts without much requisition are fine, or at least a fine as one gets in the unpopulated wilderness.

Domi, this is meant for you.

How is it that you are still getting the same accuracy percentages, and assist/kills after so many matches? Sorry, but not everything you've listed is a problem with GSF.

I posted the original thread on the general forums (The one you commented on, if I recall, that improving GSF was "throwing good money after bad") in order to get a developer to MAYBE (yes, I was hopeful) see it and give an itinerary for GSF. You come here, after trying out a game we are all aware is riddled with bugs and imbalances, after you oppose the very idea of fixing it, and complain about the game being problematic...

As for your actual complaints: Matchmaking is a problem in GSF as it is in PvP. The difference is that PvP has a larger player pool, so your chances to be slaughtered again and again are quite a bit smaller. Please don't say that PvPers don't complain about premades murdering them, we both know that the forums are FULL of threads whining about premades in regs.

Gear: if you decided to PvP from the beginning, you'd have full gear at level 65. if you decided to start PvPing at 65, you're screwed. In GSF, everyone starts on the same level. So essentially, you're saying "if you want to PvP, you'd better start out young". Well, guess what? If you want to be good at GSF, you're better start out young too - but you can start at level 65, and do just as well. Gear is less of a worry in GSF, as you can easily see by looking at this, or

Contribution: You can contribute just as quickly in GSF as you can in PvP. The fact that your aim didn't improve after so many games says more about you than about the game, and I suspect you were simply not interested in improving. I've had a large amount of guildies try GSF since I've started it, I can't remember a single one that still got <10% accuracy after three games, including those that only played to humor me.

Your closing statement says it all... You aren't interested in learning. I find it amusing that you, who have been running a thread for who knows how long on the PvP forums in an attempt to become a better PvPer, suddenly gives up after a measly 20 games or so...

As a side note, you certainly can't contribute that much after a small amout of games in PvP. It took me well over 200 games to finally hit 1.5mil damage on my shadow, and even today I'm reliant on my team to do high DPS . Yes, you can do some small amounts (~300k) from the start, but just like in GSF you won't be pulling off high numbers for a long time. So unless you mean "feels like you contribute", your contribution will be about the same in either game.

I switched the weapon to the Lazer/Pods immediately with Fleet Comms, so I did not flew with rapid.

You should NOT have used fleet req (which is what I assume you meant) to upgrade the blackbolt. While it was correct to switch away from RFL, using fleet comms to do it was not a wise course of action.

Honestly, the problems you are facing is due to the ship you are using. Even very experienced and mastered players have trouble utilizing a blackbolt effectively, even on a game which isn't matched against you. Why they made it a starting ship is beyond me, baptized in fire perhaps? The ship requires a very niche type of flying style which is MUCH more reliant on teamwork than other ships which can carry their weight alone. Pods are a difficult to use (yet can be very powerful) weapon, and very frustrating when you don't have experience.

Switch your ship.

Gear: if you decided to PvP from the beginning, you'd have full gear at level 65. if you decided to start PvPing at 65, you're screwed. In GSF, everyone starts on the same level. So essentially, you're saying "if you want to PvP, you'd better start out young". Well, guess what? If you want to be good at GSF, you're better start out young too - but you can start at level 65, and do just as well. Gear is less of a worry in GSF, as you can easily see by looking at this, or this. Both these guys are good players (much better than me), and as you can see gear only mildly hinders them at best. As for ground game bolster, it'll make a good player chew twice instead of once while feeding on you.

But you can't start young in GSF.

In ground PvP, you have the following options at hitting 65:

1. Use a low-level character to earn comms and transfer.

2. Put the character in level 60 gear and spend a few hours to have a full set of gear.

In ground PvP you can play in the lowbies as many times as you need to play at a lower speed of combat with less abilities to get used to the AC or to the map or anything you want. Some imbalances are non-existent in the lowbies.

Lowbies and midbies you have much less premmies, so you play plenty of pug vs pug games, that are close.

Ground PvP offers options to escape the bad match-up when a premmie farms a particular bracket. In GSF, there is really no options but to queue up against the same premmie again to get your daily done. No, not all my games were a spawn camp of 50:1, but when I got one of those, got another pop and saw the same premmie, I got why the Tips for Beginners said: "oh, btw, it's not Okay to smash yourself against the rocks!"

If I started on a new character, I would have put down the 5K comms to get the T2 scout immediately. But I have not tried the other ships, so I picked up a Gunship instead.

I spend the Fleet comms to switch components on the T1 scout because all the guides say that the initial components lay-out is really bad, and after trying the Gunship I did not like the scope.

I've looked at the guides trying to find out why my hit percentage is low, but the Beginner Tips said: Well, that's something you need to work on.

I do not understand why I am not hitting. I really tried to keep my spirits up, and try harder, and do a few games a night, but I am not hitting. When I have a problem in ground PvP, I know what I am doing wrong. But in GSF, I don't even understand why.

I've looked at the guides trying to find out why my hit percentage is low, but the Beginner Tips said: Well, that's something you need to work on.

 

I do not understand why I am not hitting.

TL;DR version:

Your choice of targets and how far off-center your aim is are probably determining this. Try to center your shots and pick Strike Fighters, Gunships, or Bombers to shoot at. Or better yet, turrets.

Full version:

One of the core game mechanics in GSF is the interaction between two statistics: Evasion and Accuracy.

Each ship has an Evasion rating expressed in a percentage. Bombers and Gunships have the least base Evasion (0%), Strike Fighters have a bit (5%) and Scouts have the most (10%). This base evasion granted by the ship class can be augmented via various passive and active component / ability choices. Scouts, particularly, can stack a lot of Evasion.

When you fire at a ship that has a lot of Evasion, you have a high percentage chance for your shot to miss even if it is perfectly aimed.

Countering Evasion is Accuracy. Each weapon has an Accuracy rating that is influenced by the range at which you are firing it. The standard Laser Cannon found on the Blackbolt, for example, has an Accuracy of 110% at Close Range, 95% at Mid Range, and 90% at Long Range. Accuracy is further decreased by Tracking Penalty, which measures how far off of dead center the aiming cursor is when you're firing. In the case of Laser Cannon, it's -1.20% chance to hit per degree off-center you are aiming. Complicating this a bit more is that when you are at very close ranges, latency can cause misses particularly in cases when you are aiming off-center.

All is not lost, though. The Blackbolt has both a System ability that increases your Accuracy (Targeting Telemetry) and your choice of crewmen can grant you both a passive +6% Accuracy and increase the size of your targeting area by 2 degrees, thereby mitigating the Tracking Penalty some. There is also the very useful active copilot ability Wingman, which grants you a whopping +20% Accuracy for 20 seconds, with a 60 second cooldown.

To land more shots:

- Focus on choosing the boosts to Accuracy

- Avoid firing at high-Evasion targets

- Center your shots as much as possible

- Find the 'sweet spot' range for your chosen weapon and fire from there.

Despon

But you can't start young in GSF.

 

In ground PvP, you have the following options at hitting 65:

 

1. Use a low-level character to earn comms and transfer.

2. Put the character in level 60 gear and spend a few hours to have a full set of gear.

 

In ground PvP you can play in the lowbies as many times as you need to play at a lower speed of combat with less abilities to get used to the AC or to the map or anything you want. Some imbalances are non-existent in the lowbies.

 

Lowbies and midbies you have much less premmies, so you play plenty of pug vs pug games, that are close.

 

Ground PvP offers options to escape the bad match-up when a premmie farms a particular bracket. In GSF, there is really no options but to queue up against the same premmie again to get your daily done. No, not all my games were a spawn camp of 50:1, but when I got one of those, got another pop and saw the same premmie, I got why the Tips for Beginners said: "oh, btw, it's not Okay to smash yourself against the rocks!"

 

If I started on a new character, I would have put down the 5K comms to get the T2 scout immediately. But I have not tried the other ships, so I picked up a Gunship instead.

 

I spend the Fleet comms to switch components on the T1 scout because all the guides say that the initial components lay-out is really bad, and after trying the Gunship I did not like the scope.

 

I've looked at the guides trying to find out why my hit percentage is low, but the Beginner Tips said: Well, that's something you need to work on.

 

I do not understand why I am not hitting. I really tried to keep my spirits up, and try harder, and do a few games a night, but I am not hitting.

To answer your accuracy question, accuracy is composed of the ratio of shots fired on target to total shots fired. So basically, if you only shoot within range (5250m for lasers without a range capacitor) within your target's lead reticule, you'll have 100% accuracy (regardless of how many shots actually miss due to evasion/accuracy).

In practice, blasters with higher fire rates (rapid fire lasers, light lasers) generally yield lower accuracy than guns with lower fire rate (burst lasers, heavy lasers). This is because you fire less shots at a time with the lower fire rate ones, and so miss less shots when your target inevitably moves.

In order to achieve a high accuracy rating at the end of a match, lasers with low fire rate are recommended, so if you want to improve your accuracy, you might wants to start out with damage capacitor instead of frequency. Also, shooting only once your target is within range is another important factor. If you start shooting before you reach them, obviously all shots before you'll enter range will count as missed.

Another thing is to make sure your target isn't behind cover. If they are, don't shoot. This sounds obvious, but many new players try shooting from way out of range or at a target behind a rock.

Additionally, if your target moves, stop shooting and re-position your aim. No need to keep on spraying while you're not on target, you;re wasting blaster power and reducing your accuracy.

Do all these things, and you should easily hit the 30% accuracy mark.

As for your spirits - if you want to play the game, you'll always find someone here willing to help you out. I KNOW that the GSF community is kinder than the PvP one, because I do both. I know you've probably heard this a million times, but still: ask for a group on the GSF chat. Maybe ask for a group on these forums. one of the two is bound to get you someone to play with (even only for one day), and they can give you pointers first hand, just like the occasional PvPer might.

Just want to chime in on the Accuracy a bit quickly. The Hit% stat at the end of a game is your Manuel accuracy.

Meaning if you center a shot fire and it misses due to evasion the game still calculates that as a hit on the scoreboard at the end. This also means that Domi is actually only hitting 10% of the shots he clicks.

Just want to chime in on the Accuracy a bit quickly. The Hit% stat at the end of a game is your Manuel accuracy.

 

Meaning if you center a shot fire and it misses due to evasion the game still calculates that as a hit on the scoreboard at the end. This also means that Domi is actually only hitting 10% of the shots he clicks.

Hm. Good point.

Try this: at the beginning of a match, look at the enemy players' ship selections. Identify any players that have 2 ships in their hangar, and have selected a Strike Fighter as their ship in the match. They are most likely new to the game. Your goal is to get behind these players and shoot them from a trailing position. It is very common for inexperienced players to react slowly (or not at all) to being shot up. In Domination matches, they will often fly right past you without paying attention to threats in an attempt to attack a satellite. Get behind them and open fire from mid-range. Chances are they will continue flying in a straight line for some time until they eventually die.

Avoid engaging scouts. They are fast, move erratically, and you'll have a tough time lining them up for good shots.

Despon

Just want to chime in on the Accuracy a bit quickly. The Hit% stat at the end of a game is your Manuel accuracy.

 

Meaning if you center a shot fire and it misses due to evasion the game still calculates that as a hit on the scoreboard at the end. This also means that Domi is actually only hitting 10% of the shots he clicks.

I am personally a little skeptical of this, I know where the info comes from, but remember we have had times where we have shot, the thing has "registered" a hit, but the bolt has not registered travel and damage yet do to lag. I know this comes from having 100% accuracy but 0 damage after a quick end, but remember we have actually killed people and seen 0 damage pop up as the damage dealt for the kill, its just as possible as the game registered the hit with accuracy and evasion taken into account, but did not register the damage until the game was already over.

To Domi

Also as some pointed out, if you have only tried the black bolt remember 1 ship does not GSF make. Unlike others I actually SUGGEST using the Strike fighter to begginner players and here is why, the black bolt starts out with very bad weapons, terrible shields for itself like the worst shields in the game for it, has no access to reactors, starts out with Power thrusters (which are a trap super bad thruster) and Range capacitor, which again on most of your weapons there is honestly not that helpful or good, AND a system ability that isnt that good, and even upgraded its still just a worse version of the Sting who's only job that it can even half way do well is chase gunships and strike fighters even when its fully upgrade.

Vs the Strike which starts out with the same terrible weapon, but it has another Weapon which is probably one of the best weapons in the game for it (and emphasises even harder that you want to be either directly in front of or directly behind the target cus of the HEAVY tracking penalties.) allowing you to instantly contribute with out changing weapons (beyond using your system ability at the beggining of the game to swap weapons) the secondary is easy to use and understand for any one that has done the tutorial, even if it almost always misses do to missile breaks. Its engine is aweful, but its shields are the same as the scouts, but work MUCH better on a Strike, and makes you live longer. It has a reactor so you can easily pick up large reactor and very much change your survivability much faster. Unfortunately still has craptastic Large reactor thrusters, and Craptastic Range capacitor (but its actually probably a little more useful on a strike) and it replaces craptastic sensors for regen capacitor on the magazine.

Honestly if some one wants to truly learn GSF, they need to try out all of the ships, not just one. (which is why the first suggestion is buy the Gunship and the bomber). Finally, you should never be running out of weapon energy if you are firing at a target that you can actually hit before he dies any way. The accuracy you have suggests heavily that the reason you are having issues is because you are letting your weapons rip while either A you are not in power to weapons, and/or B you are firing at a target that is boosting away from you/ boosting accross your screen/ at the very edges of your firing arc essentially pissing your weapon energy away instead of waiting till you have them in your dead center and unleashing. See

TL ; DR If the Lead reticle is far away from the persons ship... dont shoot.... if its far away from the center of your screen... dont shoot. You will miss and you will waste weapon energy. Patience.