Jump To Lightspeed Archive

OK, so you want to know what JTL is like. This is just one persons experience.. namely mine. Gleen from it what you will.

Somethings to note:

- I'm not a big fan of quests so the quests I didn't like much. They where well put together although there where some general issues with them that many will hate.

- I value imagination and strategy so I can be critical of those things.

- I dont recall at exactly what points things happened. weather the mission was 2nd teir, 3rd, whatever.. The idea here is to give you a feel, not a guide.

ok, I get my Beta key and do the HUGE download and get online. Cool. All new Beta folks got nice emails telling them where to get signed up as a pilot.

-Meet up with the pilot guy, get my first ship from him. He offers me a mission.. BAH, I'll find stuff to kill and off I go.

- I hit space.. WOA!.. very cool looking! You can make out the atmosphere over the planets. The thin layer of clouds moves over the surface!! COOL!

- The space station and other ships all look nice and the colourful nebulas and asteroid fields are nice too. My little ship is nice too.Ok.. enough sightseeing. I can look at screenshots later. lets kill something.

- Kill, lag, kill, lag,kill, lag. (bout 100 xp per) Lots of factions I've never heard of but they blow up real perdy. I can target specific ship systems like engines.. COOL. that'll slowem down.

- Ahh got enough to fill a box (7400 XP).. lets go see that trainer guy..Hmm that mission he wanted me to do wasn't optional! Whadda ya mean I gotta do like 6 of em to unlock the box?! Grrrr.

- Oh well, adjust my joystick controls to improve things.. Joystick controls are really good..lots of personalization options in there.

- Off I go.. see the guy on the ground.. go do the mission.. go back and see the guy on the ground, go do the mission, etc x 5 or 6..The guy doen't live in the space port either! so you got some treking to do.

- Cool.. filled my first box.. AHH new componets.. Get some.. NOT! I have the certificate but the beginner ship can't use em. Need the ship box for a new ship. Grrrr.

- Luckily by this time I had enough points to fill more then 1 box. So go tmy new ship and stuffed some of my looted ship components in there.

- OK.. lets try this one out.. Cool I can finally hyperspace and I got extra guns.. NOT!.. hmm why is that extra gun at 100% but disabled?!

- Watch out for components. You want them but you will need to balance your available power with power utilization or things shut down in flight! You will not be warned.

- Cool.. got it all balanced out.. Kill, kill, lag, kill.. hit the trainer guy to fill my first level 2 box.. hmm hes sending me to another guy IN Nyms stronghold.

- You guessed it.. another raft of missions I need to do.. Grrrr. ok so go do the mission, see the guy, do the mission, see the guy,,do the mission.. Woops!

- That one was a time based mission and I ran out of time.. gotta do that one again.. NOT! We are starting from the very FIRST mission and doing them ALL again.. Grrrr.

- Do the mission, see the guy.. Do the mission, See the guy.. Rinse and repeat a few times.

- Cool.. finally get a level 2box trained (60,000 XP).. Get some more componets, stuff em in there. go kill some stuff.

- Kill, kill, kill, explore new sectors,, get my butt shot up... kill, kill, train an new box at Nyms, Kil, kill, kill, go get trained... Whadda ya mean more missions?!

- Do the mission, see the guy, do the mission, see the guy, do the mission, see the guy, woops...

- Whaddaya mean I gotta sit here in the middle of space waiting for a ship that spawns occasionally with 6 other guys lookin for the same ship!

- Wait, wait, disable and dock.. BOOM!.. Hey, who destroyed the target ship, I was docked and almost finished! (Docking is like fish mating, you menouver beside it automatically.. thats it)

- Wait, wait, disable, dock.. BOOM!..Darn.. not again!!!

- Wait, wait, disable, dock, GOT IT!!! only took 4 hours.. Finish the mission, see the guy, do the mission, see the guy... do the mission, WOOPS!

- Whadda ta mean I ran outa time!!! you better not mean .... Yup.. Back to the beginning.. Wait, wait, disable, dock, BOOM! darn!.. you get the idea.

- Finally finish all those missions and get another box trained.. still level 2, kill, kill, kill, go get trained.. COOL Level 2 complete. The boom it happens!!

- The next level boxes are 200K a pop and the game gods bless me with a bug! None of the points I've gathered so far have been subtracted dispite having earned the skills! I have XP for my level 3 boxes!

- Report the bug, go get trained.. Hmm hes sending me to anoher planet.. (I forget which one now) and off I go.

- You guessed it, No training, do the mission, see the guy, do the mission, see the guy, I have the XP I need for the box and can't have it.. Grrr.

- Finally complete all teh missions and train up half the boxes in one sitting. Re-report the bug. Get a new ship.. COOL.. finally an X wing. Looks cool and the wings seperate to fire! Very cool. So much for toys.

- Guess what, I got more missions to do.. do the mission, see the guy, do the mission, see the guy.. Cool.. I can finally train these last boxes up.

- Get some more components.. by now my inventory, bank, back pack are all stuffed with components. Do some mix and match and we are powerful.

- OK.. Master box and only 7.5 million XP to go. Im not jokeing here.. 7.5 million!! Best high value kill. 5K xp.. best fast kill, 2.5 - 3K xp. 2 hours per million at a camped site I found if noone was there. pfft!

- Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. hmm should check out what missions they're gonna hit me with.

- Go to Kessel (Forced PVP Sector) and kill a mess of high value tie fighters. *GULP*

- Whew secotr is void of other players.. cool.. kill, kill, kill, kill, go see the guy..

- Hmm gotta go back and destroy some corvette in Kessel that only shows up occasionally and I gotta patrol for this thing,

- Patrol, patrol, patrol, make up an efficient patrol route that allows me to patrol the entire sector in abut 15 - 20 minutes (Sector is only something like 16000m x 16000m x 16000m.

- Day 2 on this single mission. Patrol, patrol, patrol, Patrol.. Woohoo, the Beta gods have blessed me and I can now get master Pilot, the only box left, from the blue frog. COOL, Falcon here I come. NOT!

- Falcon (YT-1300) is a neutral ship.. I'm reb.. I get the YT-37. AHh heck its multi player so just as good.

- OK,, only 2 ships allowed so stip others of parts and blow em away. Buy my B-wing fighter and my YT-37. Set them up and try em out.

- B-wing is sweet and lots-o-weapon power. Little winglets open up and everything.. cool. NICE Graphics.

- YT-37 is a very cool looking ship. corridors inside, ladder for upper and lower turrets, Big room with storage box and windows and another big closed in room. I can put my crafting stations, furniture.. COOL!

- Just one tiny problem.. Dont fly it alone cause the pilot seathas NO GUNS! hehe running duck!

- So, here I am with a multi player ship.. grab some guys and lets kill stuff.

- We all run around in the ship checkin stuff out then hit the turrets to kill stuff.

- Lag, lag, shoot, lag, shoot, lag, crash. Reload, lag, lag, shoot, crash.. well it is Beta after all.. they may have this fixed by release.

- Ok so that was a bust lets check out the other multi player ships. So I team up with a neutral and check out his ship.

- The YT-1300 (Falcon) is really neat looking.. The rounded corridors are nice and the interior is appointed similarly to the one from the movie. Things are considerably more cramped though then on other ships. AS with all the muli-player ships, she has 2 cannon turrets.

- So I team up with an Imp and check out his Decimator! This thing is great. Even the bridge looks imposing and it looks like a major bridge. Tons of room in the lower decks and a huge circular window that looks out to the front. This is the roomiest of them all in my opinion.

- So now I move some furnature and crafting stations in my YT-37 and I sit in space and Craft because well... without a group theres nothing else to do with the multi player ship. I could pull out my B-Wing and go kill stuff but been doning tons of that .. Blah!.. Could go do some PvP but I'm alone and you know the smart fellows will be in a squad.. Blah!..

- So I sit in space and I craft. Looks purdy though.

So there ya go.. My climb though the Pilot tree. I've tried to give you just a taste of the experience, a Taste of the requirements, a feel for what your in for.

- The graphics are spectacular. A ride with someone in their SoroSuub will show you that. The view holds value for the first couple days.

- Some of the missions they give are wave after wave after wave until YOU'VE had enough. I mean the mission is complete after the first wave but it keeps em comming so you can earn points. And they dont stop till you leave the area. so those missions can be welcomed but they're draining. Especially since killing random spawns can be very slow.

- The quests all have a continuous thread so for quest lovers, you'll be in seventh heaven.

- For PvP well you can configure your ships somewhat differently for varying effect, but the overall value there is limited. Shifting power to forward or aft shileds will add some excitement and managing VERY limited missile & missile decoy stores will be a callenge but aside from that, its all about who can hit the other more times over time (Shields regenerate). This is very much "Shoot'em up"

- If you get all beat up you can go get repaired. I suspect there may be a difference comming between Beta & Production on this sincein Beta wecould self distruct, get repairs and be back in business. I suspect life wont be that easy in production.

Now about the things comming.. Beta players made tons of great suggestions. Ships as camps for ground based integration, mining asteroids, all kinds of good stuff. Then the hammer fell and we were (Ahum) reminded that this was Beta! Apparently we were barbarding them with too many suggestions.

Enjoy