Post by shaddarah on Nov 23, 2013 14:49:40 GMT
Now that the NDA is released I can tell you guys that I was chosen to be in the closed beta for Galactic Starfighter. Let me first tell you that because of my schedule, I was only able to participate in one full weekend and one Saturday night out of the 5 or 6 weekends that this was available. So I don't have the full details on everything.
First, let me tell you this is going to be awesome. The testing weekends were Friday, Saturday, and Sundays from 7pm to 11pm CDT on the PTS. The HUD was just about as perfect as I could imagine it. The HUD's between ships are nearly identical so their won't be much of a learning curve while switching between ships. Which is good. If you have a large screen like I do (27") running a high rez (2560*1440) with all the effects turned all the way up, you might have a small problem with motion sickness when you first start out. You'll get used to it pretty quickly, though.
The ship(s) you choose to fight with will be purely dependent on your type of play style. You'll need to be at least familiar with the 3 of the different types of ships to be effective. You can choose another type of ship to spawn with when you die so long as you have that ship in your inventory. You probably will have to switch between them during the course of a match. There is the bomber (my favorite) which is mostly defense and short range offense. You'll use this to defend the satellites you've captured. Usually no more the 2-3 per team. They are very tough and very deadly at short range, but weak to long range shooters. Next there is the Gunship. This one is kind of self explanatory. You can outfit is with various weapons both short and long range. Not a huge amount of armor. Not incredibly fast, but packs a deadly arsenal. Scouts and very fast and nimble. They can get in, capture a satellite and get out before someone can get to them. They are pretty weak defensively, but can outrun or out maneuver missiles. Last is the Strike fighter. This is your basic every day ship. It doesn't excel in any category, but is a good all round ship. This is what you start with.
Each ship can be outfitted with a fairly large assortment of weapons and upgrades. One thing to note is, you'll earn two different types of currency (Requisition points). They are Ship req's and Fleet req's. The Ship req's can only be used for buying upgrades to that particular ship. You earn these by using that ship in combat. I averaged about 4k per combat. This was beta though so I don't know how many will be in the live version. The Fleet req's can be used for anything. You earn these pretty slowly. You gain more by accomplishing more in the combat arena (capturing satellites or repairing ships, etc.) You have to be careful with this though because unlocking certain items/ships can only be done using Fleet req's. You also have to be careful because if you don't have enough Ship req's to buy something, it will take the difference from your Fleet req's. An example would be: you have 900 Ship req's and 500 Fleet req's. You want to by a ship upgrade for 1000 Ship req's. When you purchase it, you will use all 900 of your Ship req's and 100 of your Fleet req's leaving you with 0 Ship req's and 400 Fleet req's.
This is just a basic understanding of things. Feel free to ask questions. I'll answer anything I can. I'm going to put a link in to Dulfy's guide page as well. She can explain things better than me. I actually played with her several times. She is pretty damned good in the cockpit. She'll smoke your ass if you're on the opposite team.
dulfy.net/2013/11/15/swtor-galactic-starfighter-new-player-guide/
First, let me tell you this is going to be awesome. The testing weekends were Friday, Saturday, and Sundays from 7pm to 11pm CDT on the PTS. The HUD was just about as perfect as I could imagine it. The HUD's between ships are nearly identical so their won't be much of a learning curve while switching between ships. Which is good. If you have a large screen like I do (27") running a high rez (2560*1440) with all the effects turned all the way up, you might have a small problem with motion sickness when you first start out. You'll get used to it pretty quickly, though.
The ship(s) you choose to fight with will be purely dependent on your type of play style. You'll need to be at least familiar with the 3 of the different types of ships to be effective. You can choose another type of ship to spawn with when you die so long as you have that ship in your inventory. You probably will have to switch between them during the course of a match. There is the bomber (my favorite) which is mostly defense and short range offense. You'll use this to defend the satellites you've captured. Usually no more the 2-3 per team. They are very tough and very deadly at short range, but weak to long range shooters. Next there is the Gunship. This one is kind of self explanatory. You can outfit is with various weapons both short and long range. Not a huge amount of armor. Not incredibly fast, but packs a deadly arsenal. Scouts and very fast and nimble. They can get in, capture a satellite and get out before someone can get to them. They are pretty weak defensively, but can outrun or out maneuver missiles. Last is the Strike fighter. This is your basic every day ship. It doesn't excel in any category, but is a good all round ship. This is what you start with.
Each ship can be outfitted with a fairly large assortment of weapons and upgrades. One thing to note is, you'll earn two different types of currency (Requisition points). They are Ship req's and Fleet req's. The Ship req's can only be used for buying upgrades to that particular ship. You earn these by using that ship in combat. I averaged about 4k per combat. This was beta though so I don't know how many will be in the live version. The Fleet req's can be used for anything. You earn these pretty slowly. You gain more by accomplishing more in the combat arena (capturing satellites or repairing ships, etc.) You have to be careful with this though because unlocking certain items/ships can only be done using Fleet req's. You also have to be careful because if you don't have enough Ship req's to buy something, it will take the difference from your Fleet req's. An example would be: you have 900 Ship req's and 500 Fleet req's. You want to by a ship upgrade for 1000 Ship req's. When you purchase it, you will use all 900 of your Ship req's and 100 of your Fleet req's leaving you with 0 Ship req's and 400 Fleet req's.
This is just a basic understanding of things. Feel free to ask questions. I'll answer anything I can. I'm going to put a link in to Dulfy's guide page as well. She can explain things better than me. I actually played with her several times. She is pretty damned good in the cockpit. She'll smoke your ass if you're on the opposite team.
dulfy.net/2013/11/15/swtor-galactic-starfighter-new-player-guide/
