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Thread: Help! I am standing at the Abyss of being a space newb!
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JinookPhi
Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:40 pm
#1
Ok, so I am vet of SWG but a newb of JTL. I go privateer, get my first mission, end up in combat with only pathetic lasers to fight with, and get my butt handed to me. What am I doing wrong wise JTL'rs? I tried to buy a level One ship right off the bat, but not luck. Got the chasis built and everything, but the system wont let me build as it says I can not fly it. So, HELP!
Uh, Thanks.
SharkBoy007
Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:43 pm
#2
JinookPhi wrote:
Ok, so I am vet of SWG but a newb of JTL. I go privateer, get my first mission, end up in combat with only pathetic lasers to fight with, and get my butt handed to me. What am I doing wrong wise JTL'rs? I tried to buy a level One ship right off the bat, but not luck. Got the chasis built and everything, but the system wont let me build as it says I can not fly it. So, HELP!
Uh, Thanks.
The chassis is just the first step. You need to add components to it, as well. You can either loot these, get them froma SW, or look on the bazaar and purchase them there. You can use the starship terminal and management feature to view what you need, and the amount of mass you have to work with, or you can go into your datapad, click on your ship to get the radial menu and select view components. Hope this helps you/
Mox Shehalis
Kaleborn
Thu Nov 04, 2004 12:37 am
#3
Some advice, take it or leave it depending how hardcore you are 
1. Learn the keyboard mapping and what each control does for your movement and targetting. Better yet, open Options and go to the customize keyboard section. Even if you don't rebind anything, read over every kebyind possible. You'll see right there all the things you can do for targetting and moving through space. I play with a joystick so I use it for pitch/yaw/firing and the keyboard for throttle up/down and rolling. Surrounding these basic keys are my targetting keys.
2. Throttle adjustment. If your in space your changing your speed. Constantly. Always. Never stop adjusting speed. Okay, slight exaggeration...but basically you will not succeed if you just keep your ship at 100% throttle at all times. As you fly a bit you will learn that every ship has a 'sweet spot' for where they are most maneuverable. Generally speaking the interceptor/pure dogfighter type ships can set the throttle at 60-90% and turn at their fastest. The slower bombers and heavy-hitter type craft will be most maneuverable at 50-70% or so. Meaning if you need to turn fast to keep up with a ship who's also trying to turn past you, you'll need to slow down a bit (sometimes quite a bit). Otherwise your just not turning very efficiently and you'll end up overshooting the enemy a whole lot.
Learn the "Throttle 100%" command, and consider binding "/throttle 0.50" to a key (change the 0.50 to whatever percent of full you want). Or adjust throttle up and down manually, whatever suits you best (you'll notice that from a dead stop pressing the Throttle 100% button will get you to 100% a whole lot faster than you can press the "increase throttle" button. Same for slowing down. Might make a big difference in a fight, or just save you from getting carpel tunnel... )
3.Targetting & Radar. Probably the one I use most often is "Target Nearest Enemy". Actually, it would be a tie between that and "Target Under Reticle". That one is very important (so important I mapped it to Spacebar lol). "Target *next* enemy"sounds handy as well, but I don't use it that much in the heat of combat. You end up targetting ships a long way off that you don't really care about. If your exploring a sector it's a must to see what level of bad guys may be lurking in your area... Targetting friendly ships, NPC ships and so on is also a very hand thing, so again: Review the Options/Keymap section to see what's available.
The radar is crucial as well, too bad it's really small and a pain to read. Just so you know, you'll be finding yourself doing Missions given to you by NPC trainer people on the ground. In these missions are Mission Critical ships. Example: You're assigned to escort a freighter through nearby space. You will be attacked by waves of Bad Guys during this mission. The freighter and the Bad Guys who appear to attack you are considered Mission Critical type targets. On the radar these target's have bright yellow brackets around them. So if you're ever lost and don't know where to turn, look at the radar and point your ship toward any yellow-bracketed target. It's directly related to your mission.
Those are the basics I guess. Learn how to move your ship, what speeds it turns best at, the radar, targetting... After that it's just developing your hand-eye coordination for leading target's into your blaster streams, throwing your ship around space effectively and using the various special skills and commands you can /macro or put on the function bar.
I didn't talk about building your ship and what-not. You can still fly and be effective in the starter ships, at least until your 1100 and ready to climb into something beefier. Play with the Manage interface. If you have some credits to burn try picking up some looted components off the bazaar for cheap. Between that and your loot and visiting the varous Shipyards advertised in Coronet and Theed you'll get an idea for what a 'good' item is vs 'not so good'.
Happy piloting!
K
JinookPhi
Thu Nov 04, 2004 1:17 pm
#4
Checking in... I bought a Scyk that I could build up, and loaded it up with some goodies. Problem is, I still only can use my lasers. Protons I guess are something I have to qualify for. Any ideas as to other weapons systems that I can load at the Novice Level that will do better damage? Thanks for all the posts.
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