Ok, thanks. It's the class ship I'm messing with right now. I'll try repeating that starting mission till I get the controls down.
I tried GSF and scored hits but that always brought immediate retaliation and pretty much instant death. I could hit them multiple times and they were still in the fight but when they fired I died as soon as I knew I was being hit, so no time to react. If i'm running a beginning fighter with beginner skills against a tricked out fighter with veteran skills, that explains it. Also why everyone else knew where to go and what to do while I was still figuring out the objectives.
Pretty much my typical experience with PVP: Spawn, insta-die to some kid who plays this stuff all day. Re-spawn, re-insta-die. Rinse, repeat. So PVP not my fav part of most games. Imagine that.