So, we hear plenty of people babbling about "pay to win" this and that...bla bla bla.

Any of us who are grinding it out, know this is all BS, and that the upgrades, by and large, make little difference.

So - which upgrades DO make a difference for you?

For me - thus far it comes down to 2 crucial upgrades.

1. Retro thrusters - I like these the best as far as the evasive thrusters, because at this point, most of us know that in a dogfight where one person is the pursuer, and one the pursued, that eventually two decent pilots will be boosting and then slowing to adjust to try and either get an enemy in your crosshairs, or to let your pursuing enemy blow by you. Simply hitting the retro thrusters and shooting backwards quickly not only evades missile lock, but can oftentimes put you directly behind your pursuer, and flip the tide of the dogfight.

2. The disabling probe thingy (it's a secondary weapon on scout ships, potentially other ships too - but I have only upgraded my scout) - This thing is EVIL if you can lock onto a target and get a successful hit. It basically disables the other ship and leaves it dead in the water for easy pickin's . The 1st few times opponents hit me with this thing, I was like "***?!?!" - and then I committed to earning enough ship req to unlock this magical demon spawn tool of destruction. Love, love, love this thing!

Anyway...yea, those are my two. I'd be curious to know what other people think are actually worthwhile upgrades...since so many seem to be minimal benefit, if any.

Not many people use the sabotage probe though, I just see it maybe once a day lol. Sure it seems to be OP, but is easily avoidable with scout (im playing flashfire), if he has distortion shield. Just turn all your power to shield and activate distortion shield (+75% Evasion if upgraded, makes overall 110% Evasion if activated). Not even a single laser goes through and makes sabotage probe even more useless then.

And just to clarify one thing: yeah, 110% Evasion is pretty much, but don't work against railguns probably, I'm still figuring it out.

My favorite by far is the same thing I made most use of in the old star wars flight sims. That is the directional shields. The ability to a huge wall (shields) in front of you allows you to charge head first at a gunship and take them down. Or to reset a fight when the enemy shoots out one of your shields.

Not many people use the sabotage probe though.

I use it. It's so OP.

The upgrade I have seen to have the biggest effect is upgrading your thrusters for faster turning, the scout with that is capable of some seriously nice tight flying.

It is also a rather cheap upgrade to get.

Man...I wish I had the manual dexterity to use the directional shields!!! I'll fully admit, the regular controls have me occupied enough...trying to figure out and properly direct the shields...well, let's just say I don't have enough confidence in myself to use them when they count in the correct manner.

I'll have to try the evasion upgrades out. While I do know the evasion will render the probe useless, plenty of people forget to use it when it counts....or at least, thus far that's my experience. I had a good run of killstreaks last night by using that little widget.

Keep the suggestions coming folks! I love hearing how people use the tools made available to them...oftentimes I wind up not just learning things, but understanding more about what I'm doing wrong just based upon how others use the same functionality we all have access to.

the best upgrade i got so far is the 60% shield reg under fire from the recharge shield, with energy to shields i am pretty much indestructable

What class ship do you use primarily?

Speed Thrusters - Theres a reason the faster aircraft not the one with tighter turning were the dominant aircraft in war.

Distortion Field - Evade blasters and break missile locks. Along with retro thrusters makes missile much less worrying.

Quad Lasers - Pew Pew

The upgrade I have seen to have the biggest effect is upgrading your thrusters for faster turning, the scout with that is capable of some seriously nice tight flying.

You also can get the same effect if upgrading your engines. For an example the Retro Thruster has 10% turn rate modifier as last upgrade. So you can spend your Req's in thrusters either for more engine regeneration, engine pool or engine speed. However, 20% overall turn-rate doesn't sound so bad too

The best upgrade for me on my FlashFire is the Turbo Reactor. I got overall 2.4 Seconds Shield Regeneration Delay. Combined with evasion and power to shields I can fully reg my shield in some seconds after getting hit by lasers and get back in fight.

The 2nd best upgrade which I'll get soon is the break of lock-ons with distortion shield. I think it's nuff said

What class ship do you use primarily?

the star guard with large reactors+doc as companion for 1800 shields/arc with 160 recharge/sec (90/sec under fire)

the shield delay doenst matter for me because of the recharge under fire upgrade

Man oh man....you best bet I'll be grinding all weekend for some of these upgrades!

I have been putting points into my thrusters (turning) and my blasters (extending range/damage). The probe thingy is a stop-gap on the way to bigger and better upgrades.

I was curious about the quad lasers...but if they perform well enough, then they seem to be a worthy upgrade.

God, I love this f**king game!

The best upgrade for me on my FlashFire is the Turbo Reactor. I got overall 2.4 Seconds Shield Regeneration Delay. Combined with evasion and power to shields I can fully reg my shield in some seconds after getting hit by lasers and get back in fight.

 

you should try out directional shields with the -3sec shield delay upgrade combined with a turbo reactor for 100% shield recharge without delay even under fire (using this on my flashfire )

Speed Thrusters - Theres a reason the faster aircraft not the one with tighter turning were the dominant aircraft in war.

Distortion Field - Evade blasters and break missile locks. Along with retro thrusters makes missile much less worrying.

Quad Lasers - Pew Pew

Actually, look back at WW2...the tighter the turning, the more dominant the plane. The plane with the most kills under it's belt is the one with the tightest turning radius due to the "wheel of death" dogfighters find themselves in (that and the planes that could take the bigger punishment...aka the fabled Mustangs...able to take a beating and the tightest turners above the European theater). If you hit the gas you take longer to turn...your speed amounts for nothing if you can't get your nose on the target. A full thruster upgrade against a full turning upgrade on the same class of ship? The turning upgrade is going to win due to sheer agility. Assuming same skill level of the pilots.

Modern warfare, speed matters more as you begin firing before you can even lay eyes on the target these days.

Man oh man....you best bet I'll be grinding all weekend for some of these upgrades!

 

I have been putting points into my thrusters (turning) and my blasters (extending range/damage). The probe thingy is a stop-gap on the way to bigger and better upgrades.

 

I was curious about the quad lasers...but if they perform well enough, then they seem to be a worthy upgrade.

 

God, I love this f**king game!

Quad Lasers are my favorite ones, decent rate of fire and they hit hard. They are, however, a bit of a drain on the base scout's power...which may be why I prefer the advanced scout (that and concussion missiles that lock on in just a lil over 1 sec is wonderfully terror inducing in people I am hunting).

Incidentally - if any of you are Imps and play on Harbinger, add my toon 'Gnarlus' ! If you're on the Pub side, add my toon 'Branmakmorn'.

Happy to group up for killy action!

you should try out directional shields with the -3sec shield delay upgrade combined with a turbo reactor for 100% shield recharge without delay even under fire (using this on my flashfire )

Quick question but what exactly is shield regen delay? I mean mostly when does it happen in the calculation?

you should try out directional shields with the -3sec shield delay upgrade combined with a turbo reactor for 100% shield recharge without delay even under fire (using this on my flashfire )

I was thinking about it too after I found out, that directional shield has an upgrade with -3sec shield reg-delay. But yet I'll master my flashfire as how I want it, otherwise it's a waste of requisition anyway. Still prefer distortion field yet because of the evasion to avoid frontal incoming lasers (especially when hunting gunships, who already know that I'll hunt their asses down for sure ) and as lock-on-break if retro thruster is on cooldown.

I know right, that those upgrades makes addicted to play more and more, it's just awesome and I love the space combat

Quick question but what exactly is shield regen delay? I mean mostly when does it happen in the calculation?

Assuming, you have 2.4 Seconds Shield Regeneration Delay, it counts right after getting hitted by a laser, thats the time you start regenerating your shield then. Would be interrupted if you still get hitted.

Quick question but what exactly is shield regen delay? I mean mostly when does it happen in the calculation?

You get hit, nothing happens for 4 seconds, your shield starts to regen. The setup he uses allows for there to be little to no delay, so that as soon as you take damage it starts to "heal" it.

 

Modern warfare, speed matters more as you begin firing before you can even lay eyes on the target these days.

It was the opposite in the European theater the faster Spitfire had the highest win to loss rate in engagements and the lowest attrition.

Some British pilots and commanders even believed that monoplanes would never replace biplanes as fighter aircraft because of the tighter turning before ww2. As tactics changed and battles were no longer about who could out turn each other faster planes began to dominate as we see decisively with the american jets and later the swept wing Migs.

You get hit, nothing happens for 4 seconds, your shield starts to regen. The setup he uses allows for there to be little to no delay, so that as soon as you take damage it starts to "heal" it.

Exactly, and combined with evasion and better turn rate. Nearly unkillable, except gunships in good hands, i'd fear them.

Quad Lasers are my favorite ones, decent rate of fire and they hit hard. They are, however, a bit of a drain on the base scout's power...which may be why I prefer the advanced scout (that and concussion missiles that lock on in just a lil over 1 sec is wonderfully terror inducing in people I am hunting).

Close on those Gunships with full Engines. Switch to Weapon priority Trigger your weapon boost unload with Quads and lock Concussion. They are usually dead when the missile hits. Probably the best counter to Gunships.

Close on those Gunships with full Engines. Switch to Weapon priority Trigger your weapon boost unload with Quads and lock Concussion. They are usually dead when the missile hits. Probably the best counter to Gunships.

Gunships...MEH, I F*CKED 'EM!

They sit around picking people off, and that spiffy little "power up" aura thing that happens when they're about to shoot paints a big ol' target on their ships. With enough thruster power, you can close on them before they can even squeeze off a shot....especially if you shuck and jive on the way to offing them.

2. The disabling probe thingy (it's a secondary weapon on scout ships, potentially other ships too - but I have only upgraded my scout) - This thing is EVIL if you can lock onto a target and get a successful hit. It basically disables the other ship and leaves it dead in the water for easy pickin's . The 1st few times opponents hit me with this thing, I was like "***?!?!" - and then I committed to earning enough ship req to unlock this magical demon spawn tool of destruction. Love, love, love this thing!

*Sigh* They just couldn't resist putting in a stun could they? I'm sure there's a god-mode button in there somewhere too.

Meanwhile I'm patiently working towards the ion railgun's 40% snare