Galactic Starfighter – Your Questions Answered

Soeren Kamper Galactic Starfighter

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NDA officially lifted at noon EST, so we won’t get in trouble for posting this Qand A from the beta forums. This is a great read about the upcoming expansion and will answer most of the questions the community have been asking for the last month. all credits goes to Ludwig Vancove from the Army of light guild

Check it out:

STAR WARS: The Old Republic – Galactic Starfighter

  1. Does Galactic Starfighter (GS) provide Joystick support?
  • At the initial launch of GS, there will be no Joystick support. The purpose of this is simply time vs useability. Bioware wants to offer GS in a way that all MMO players can engage in the content. There has been debate by other testers on rather or not the use of Joystick controls in space may offer a benefit to the gameplay, therefor almost making it required to purchase and use on to be on par with the players using one. There was no official Bioware response to this acquisition so I leave it to you, the reader, on opinions!
  1. Which type of maps/gameplay modes will Galactic Starfighter come with?
  • At initial EARLY ACCESS release, there will be two maps available (Lost Shipyards & Kuat Mesas) with one type of gameplay called domination. The gameplay called DOMINATION is where you will need to capture and defend control points on the map. More information about DOMINATION below
  1. What is gameplay mode Domination about?
  • Domination in GS is where there are three control points on the map that must be captured to gain points. The scoreboard has a max of 1000 points before the game is over – I never noticed an issue with the timer on PTS where it would expire before any one side won the match with 1000 points. To capture a control point, you need at least 1 player in the area and all enemies in the area defeated. Due to limitations of the NDA lift, I cannot provide screenshots or videos, however you will notice on the side of the objective points panels. If those panels are turning green, that means you side is about to obtain the area – if they are turning red that means the other side is winning the point. After a control point is captured, it can be lost – or worse! Let me explain – if the enemy side is able to destroy the protectors and/or the protectors are not near the control point, the control point will turn neutral and then after a few seconds the other faction can gain control of the area. Think of this play style as like Denova from ground PvP, but with the exception that control points can become neutral.
  1. Is any part of Galactic Starfighter PLAY-2-WIN?
  • There are no ability to purchase with cartel coins, or ingame credits, upgrades for ships – everything related to your ships skill comes from one of two types of requisition points (ship req). The other requisition points (fleet req) are solely for purchasing new ships and/or paint jobs. Note that you can convert SHIP req to FLEET req, HOWEVER you cannot convert FLEET req to SHIP req. In this manner, even though you can use cartel coins, you are only using them to convert your own requisition. Keep in mind that fleet req can only be used to purchase the initial ship or paint job – YOU CANNOT BUY UPGRADES WITH FLEET REQ!
  •     EDIT:  It is true you can, for a cc charge, convert fleet to ship and you can freely convert ship req to fleet req
  •     EDIT:  It is true you can, for a cc charge, convert ship to fleet and you can freely convert fleet req to ship req
    EDIT 2:  Here is the correct ratio – Thank you Mebell from The Ebon Hawk for helping me with this correction
    Ship -> Fleet (1 Ship : 1 Fleet, 1 CC : 10 Fleet Reqs)
    Fleet -> Ship (1 Fleet : 1 Ship, 0 CC Cost)
  1. How is the cartel market used in Galactic Starfighter?
  • Please see the post above this about being able to use cartel coins to convert one type of requisition points to another. Additionally, you can use cartel coins to unlock paint jobs as well as purchase items from the cartel market, however testers did not have access to any Galactic Starfighter items in the cartel market, so we do not know what was offered through it.
  1. How do I upgrade my ship in Galactic Starfighter?
  • To upgrade a ship that you own in Galactic Starfighter, you select your ship from the left hand side of the initial screen of the hanger (accessed either from your minimap or from terminals on the fleet and capital worlds) and then select the components tab from the main menu bar. On this page, you can go through the tabbed menus and view all of the components for the ship. To purchase components you MUST have been using said ship in PvP matches and earn SHIP requisition for said ship. Ship requisition is specific to each ship, while fleet requisition is not. So while you may have 12,000 ship req for SHIP A, you may only have 79 for SHIP B.
  • When you have selected a component, an upgrade tree will appear beneath the component’s descriptions in the right hand side of the screen. Clicking on an upgrade tier will allow you to purchase it. For tiers with 2 upgrade options you are really purchasing the entire tier. Once purchased, click on the upgrade in that tier you currently want to use (note that you can, at anytime, select which upgrade you want in tiers with more than one upgrade in it for free but you can only use one upgrade in each tier).
  1. How many ships can I have in Galactic Starfighter?
  1. How many ships can I have in Galactic Starfighter that I can use in a single PvP match?
  • When you access your hanger screen, you will notice at the bottom of the “LAUNCH” tabbed menu a 5 slot hotkey looking bar – this is called a “Load Out”. You can assign any 5 ships that you own to this bar and thus making each ship there available for selection during a PvP match. Any time after you die or spawn in a PvP match, you can change which ship you want to use so you can always adjust to what is needed!
  1. How is Galactic Starfighter different than ground PvP? Does Galactic Starfighter and Ground PvP (the normal PvP queue) share the same queue? Can you queue for both at once?
  1. Is there ranked Galactic Starfighter PvP?
  1. What level must I be to access Galactic Starfighter?
  • This is one of the greatest things about the expansion – you can play Galactic Starfighter as soon as you finish creating your character and load on your starter world! A level one sage who just started playing Galactic Starfighter will be matched with a level 55 player who also just started – the level progression in Galactic Starfighter is completely different from the SWTOR player leveling system!
  1. Is there “progression” in Galactic Starfighter?
  • Currently there is not a numerical scale of leveling however you can “level” by doing GS and upgrading! Progression is much like that of PvE progression, sort of…
  1. Other than early access and the ship models/pets, are there other benefits for subscribers in Galactic Starfighter?
  • Yes! Subscribers have an additional % (percentage) gain from each Galactic Starfighter match! The scoreboard at the end of the match shows what you would have made as a F2P player vs what you actually made as a subscriber!
  1. Do I need to play the other space missions in SWTOR to play and/or have a leg up in Galactic Starfighter?
  1. Unlike the old space game, is the social center (i.e the chat window) viewable in Galactic Starfighter?
  1. Is Galactic Starfighter completely off the rails?
  • Yes! You can do almost anything in Galactic Starfighter! Get creative and evade your enemies by hiding in the middle of imperial fleet ships! Dodge and go through asteroids! FLY UPSIDE DOWN!
  1. Does Galactic Starfighter contribute to your PvP rank?
  1. How large are the groups in Galactic Starfighter?
  1. Is there a daily and weekly for Galactic Starfighter?
  • Yes! They are available from the PvP terminal!
  1. How to paint jobs in Galactic Starfighter work?
  • Paint Jobs in GS are all done via the tab called “Cosmetics” and works exactly (well not EXACTLY) like how you would upgrade your ship components. What you want to do is select the ship you wish to apply cosmetic changes to from your ship list on the left hand side of the Hanger menu and then click the Cosmetics menu tab from the top of the Hanger screen. In the cosmetics screen, you can apply special paint jobs to all sorts of areas on your ship – my favorite being you can control the color of your “jet stream” (basically the fire coming out of your starfighter! Go fancy colors!). Some paint jobs are free, some come from the Early Access grants (not confirmed on PTS however we know it is coming), and also spending comms/cartel coins. I did not fully test the cosmetic system as I was more intrested in finding bugs/exploits in combat itself to report to the developers
  1. Power controls in Galactic Starfighter – what are they and what do they do?
  • In combination with your ships abilities, there are also 4 settings in GS that allow you to power certain aspects of your ship – however increasing the power of one aspect lowers the power of others. There are three modifying abilities defaulted bound to the F1, F2, and F3 keys – (cannot remember exact order or names) – Boost Blasters, Shields, Speed (actually I think that is the order). Pressing F4 will make all 3 equal. So for example, say I need to get across the entire map quickly. I would press F3 to put most of my power to my Engines so that I can travel further/faster when using the speed boost hot key. This will also quickly charge up your speed boost so you can use it again! Basically, this will do the same affect to the other items relating to power. Be advised that boosting one aspect will lower the efficiency of others. You will need to pay attention and quickly change power to shields if you are traveling and a missile is locked on you from an enemy player.
  1. Change I change the keybinds of Galactic Starfighter?
  • Yes you can program any keybind to your mouse and/or keyboard – you may not program a joystick as mentioned above
  1. Crew in Galactic Starfighter – what use are they and how do they function?
  • This question has a couple of parts to it actually. Before explaining, it will be worthwhile to you that you have ALL companions unlocked on each character you have, make sure you have 100% affection, and get Treek and HK for additional crew members and bonuses. There are two types of crew members – each crew member has unique passive buffs that will help your ship. This post does NOT go specifically into which crew member gives you. but rather how the system works.
  • Support Crew: Provides your ship with passive bonuses related to their position; One person per Support Crew Slot (4 slots)
  • Copilot: Provides an additional active ability that can be used in combat as well as the voice of your ship (so choose wisely – who’s voice do you want to hear?) (1 slot)
  • All companions are available crew member as well as 3 additional Starfighter crew members that each faction is given
  1. Other than the launch of the Galactic Starfighter, what else can I expect to see at the launch of the Early Access patch?