Ive been trying so damn hard to get anywhere with this part of the game, Ive spent a good few hrs flying towards red blips and getting my *** handed to me and screwing up the rest of the team cos i suck so godamn hard, i dont even think i hit anything no matter how hard i throw myself at this i just have to accept it its not for me.

 

Thank you to all the pilots on DM and im sorry if i screwed up your matches i just wanted to free pilot even if its only a small area being off ther rails for me was a massive pull but after hours of trying and not hitting a godamn thing i just have to face it this bit is not something i can do.

 

thank you all for your patience

 

Kirgen

Everybody of us started to play this game mode at some point. And we all had troubles here and there getting into it, even the best. I am also convinced that anyone who actually wants to learn that gamemode can learn all the basics of it. You dont have to become a super ace to have fun and enjoy your time in GSF. If you still want to give that gamemode another try, i suggest entering the GSF discord group. There are a lot of people willing to help you and maybe even in a custom game first so you have all the time that you need to focus on the basics.

 

See you in space!

One of the biggest problems when you are just getting started is aiming. Think of the weapons in GSF as gimballed turrets ... that means the aiming/targeting reticle moves semi-independently of the ship's steering. You can move the targeting reticle in a very small circle before your ship starts to move. If you played Jump to Lightspeed on SWG you would know the difference between firing in the turrets of a POB ship like the YT-1300 versus flying in an X-wing or TIE fighter.

 

Therefore, one thing that may help you is to turn down the sensitivity of your mouse. That was one of the first things I had to adjust, and fortunately I had a mouse with a button that could change sensitivities, so I could change from the regular ground game profile to a GSF-specific one. If your mouse is too sensitive, its too easy for you to make extreme movements of your targeting reticle and be either at the fringes of your firing arc or start your ship moving in that direction.

 

Which brings me to the second point: in GSF, it is possible to be dead on target firing at a ship and still miss because of an RNG aspect called "Evasion." You should think of Evasion as analogous to the Defense Chance of ground game tanks. Its the chance a shot fired at you will miss you. Some ships have more evasion than others ... scouts and gunships tend to stack a lot of evasion, whereas strikes and bombers usually don't have a lot. You can be at 1000m away, both you and the target parked in space, right in the dead center of your firing arc, and you can still miss them because of that Evasion stat. There are shield abilities which raise Evasion and an active crew member ability called Running Interefence, but several of the missile break engine maneuvers also boost your Evasion for a few seconds after you use the maneuver.

 

Lastly, your weapon's accuracy AS A STAT, not your individual skill, can vary depending on many factors.

1) The further the distance from the target, the less likely your weapon will hit the target

2) Tracking penalty: Tracking penalty is a % off your accuracy for every degree off-the center of your firing arc you are at. If you are chasing a target in a circle, and the ship is at the edge of your firing arc, then you will suffer a very large tracking penalty. Some component upgrades reduce this penalty.

3) You can boost your accuracy either passively through a companion crew member ability called Pinpointing, or actively through the crew member active ability "Wingman."

Look at the weapon's description when you are in the Hangar interface to see the various ideal ranges for your weapons and the tracking penalties.

 

So, to summarize,

1) Turn down your mouse sensitivity

2) Try not to waste a lot of energy shooting at ships at the edge of your weapon's range or the edge of your firing arc

3) Take crew members that boost accuracy and firing arc width when you can, or use Wingman

4) Don't waste energy shooting at a target when it has its evasion buffs active

 

I hope these suggestions help.

I hope you don't quit. I've only been playing a few months, so don't have tips like the others. But what I will say is it's worth bashing your face against the wall for just a bit longer. I was constantly dying before I could get a shot off, bottoming out the scoreboard, and a complete detriment to my team and felt so guilty. But then I started looking at the individual problems instead of the overall suckage, like I needed to try longer range weapons so I don't die before I get in range, or I just cannot get my head around directional shields so should use different shield types, or a bunch of other stuff. So I unlocked other ships, swapped out from the default options, and suddenly I found things that made me suck slightly less, and once I knew where my (admittedly weak) strengths lay, I came up with load outs that I could be sorta-meh at rather than trash. Getting a chance to actually hit things and live longer let me practice the proper stuff like not flying straight down a charging railgun or breaking line of sight on a missile lock or spotting when I'm getting baited into a bomber nest. I'm now pretty OK, occasionally decent, and actually feel like I'm contributing to my team. Still not great, and a loooong way to go, but I spend more time enjoying myself than stressing that everyone hates me, all while getting req to upgrade those ships more and practicing the other options to see what I suck less with now my skills aren't as bad.

 

You'll get there, just zero in on what you're struggling with and experiment with alternatives for each thing in turn until you find something that clicks for you. And don't fret about other people being annoyed: the conquest farmers who just fly into walls repeatedly are annoying, someone trying but not succeeding is part of a non-premade team game and totally fine.

First of all: please don't quit! It's hard for almost everyone at first, especially if you have no one helping. I have a few recommendations that might help.

 

First: Despon's very helpful GSF School channel and his Basic Training playlist:

 

 

Most of these are very short videos that should explain and demonstrate some of the things you're struggling with.

 

Second, consider joining us either in the unofficial GSF Community Discord (https://discord.gg/2gxt5c9) or your server's GSF channel (/cjoin gsf). Most of us are all too happy to help someone new learn how things work. I hope to see you there!

 

Third, keep at it. I know it's rough at first, and I know that can be frustrating, but I promise that so long as you're trying no one who's any good at the game is going to be upset with you. We all understand that this isn't the most intuitive game mode, especially in an MMO.

Edited April 22, 2021 by DakhathKilrathi

Ive been trying so damn hard to get anywhere with this part of the game, Ive spent a good few hrs flying towards red blips and getting my *** handed to me and screwing up the rest of the team cos i suck so godamn hard, i dont even think i hit anything no matter how hard i throw myself at this i just have to accept it its not for me.

 

Thank you to all the pilots on DM and im sorry if i screwed up your matches i just wanted to free pilot even if its only a small area being off ther rails for me was a massive pull but after hours of trying and not hitting a godamn thing i just have to face it this bit is not something i can do.

 

thank you all for your patience

 

Kirgen

 

 

 

Dude, it takes months, if not over a year to get decent enough to be noticed. its a very steep learning curve.

 

Dont be discouraged by a few hours of getting zoinked.

 

Extend it for a while....

 

Just kidding.

 

Bu tyeah, it takes a good while.

 

Maybe come back after a bit and try again for a good solid month.

GSF was so hard to me when I started. I remember playing for a few months before I started to see regular kills. Even then it was only a few. I used to be stoked with 4 kills, 4 deaths. But, I had no one to help me in those early days. Not meaningful help anyway. Now, I could point you in any number of directions to find strong decent help that can accelerate your progress much faster than it was for me. GSF is not easy - it requires skill - but it also rewards skill much more than any other content in Swtor. GSF is the only mode where one strong player can carry a bad team. All it takes to succeed is a little determination and a sprinkling of tenacity.

So i just wanted to come and say thank you to you all

 

THANK YOU!!!!!!

 

The advice and encouragment you have given has been awesome, I still suck lol but i now at least am not consistantly bottom of the list, I can genrally get at least 2/3 assists and i even got a kill the other day (at which point my neighbers thought id won the world cup or something) i havent had one since but im gonna keep plugging away with this

 

the help and advice from you guys is paying off and i still feel guilty when we lose but i know im learning a few tactics too now and even if i suck at shooting on some maps i can help out just defending/capturing an objective and im slowly learning not to charge the lone red dot towards the 5 red dots waiting for me to get in range lol

 

and tbh im not going mental at it this time im doing 1 mabie 2 matches during a playsession not throwing myself at it for hours and im definatly not hating it.

 

Thanks guys

 

Kirgen