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Star Wars Galaxies: Phantom Squadron and the Future of "Jump to Lightspeed"
MMORPG.com Star Wars Galaxies Correspondent Jef Reahard writes this interview with the commander of the Phantom Squadron in SOE's Star Wars Galaxies, a group dedicated to making the Y-Wing a viable and dangerous PvP craft.
Spend any time with the pilots of the Starsider server's space community and you'll no doubt hear of a crazy group of Alliance fighter jockeys known as Phantom Squadron. Headed by Jamys Farstrider, the Phantoms are famous for wreaking havoc on the server's Imperial pilot population, and doing so while flying one of the game's least popular ship models, the Y-Wing Longprobe.
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The Star Wars Galaxies version of the Koensayr BTL-A4 Y-wing "LongProbe" starfighter is pretty close to its counterpart in the Star Wars films and Expanded Universe: namely an aging heavy fighter/bomber that has seen better days and is pressed into active combat service only due to the shortage of equipment experienced by the fledgling Rebel Alliance. Galaxies' space combat favors much lighter, nimbler interceptor chassis such as the famous X-Wing, the tiny A-Wing, and the numerous Imperial TIE fighter variants. The Y-Wing was never much of a traditional dogfighter, and still has problems engaging in 'turn- fights' with quicker opponents, but the Phantoms have harnessed the chassis' durability and prowess as a missile platform to form a formidable fighting unit that is unique among Starsider's PVP pilot groups.
Recently, I sat down with Commander Farstrider to ask him about the inspiration behind the squadron as well as the future of Jump to Lightspeed.
| MMORPG.com: | First off, why the Y-Wing? |
| Captain Fastrider: | Well, at the time the Squadron was recommissioned, Starsider's Alliance forces had no real working bomber squadron. We had a few crazy people willing to fly, mostly new alumni of the Rara Avis Flight Academy run by Halyn Lance. We had a dire need and I saw a place for us to fit and the Y-wing era of Phantom Squadron was born. |
| MMORPG.com: | You guys have something of a reputation for making the Y- Wing viable in PVP. Can you elaborate on the how and why? Is it tactics? Equipment? All of the above? |
| Captain Fastrider: | Well I don't want to take credit for pioneering it, I believe that goes more to Halyn and his people. I attribute (our success) to good people, practice, great equipment, and a crazy streak a mile long since fleet balance is so poor in SWG due to the developer's inaction and incompetence. (Space combat) skews in favor of interceptor class ships, so we fight a constant uphill battle. Flying Y-wings is completely impractical unless flying en mass because of this. |
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| MMORPG.com: | What do you like best about Galaxies' space game? |
| Captain Fastrider: | Well, I love piloting as a whole. Currently its the main thing that makes logging in worthwhile for me. I love the feeling of flying in formation with my squadron and the fleet. I love how Starsider creates our own events in the face of the lack of content thanks to years of neglect from SOE, and they're more fun than really anything SOE could do anyways. |
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| MMORPG.com: | And the worst thing about the space game? |
| Captain Fastrider: | I hate the lack of content. Until Chapter 8, which is getting close to a year ago, space in SWG hadn't seen any real new content since the Rage of the Wookiees expansion (2005). That's over two years of NOTHING. Once Chapter 8 comes along, we get thrown a bone with a new space sector in Ord Mantell, new missions, new chassis, new stuff to do...it wasn't as much as we the pilots would have liked. They have told us now at best we MIGHT get more content in six months, but they refuse to give us what we want, they refuse to fix the bugged ARC-170 hit box that has been wrecked since they tweaked Chapter 8, then they fixed it and it broke again about a month later and is still unfixed. |
| MMORPG.com: | Sounds like the future is a bit uncertain. How do you see the Phantoms and the community as a whole going forward? |
| Captain Fastrider: | The devs have proven themselves to not understand space, or the wishes of the pilots that inhabit it. They also seem to be oblivious to the ticking clock that is the time left until JTL isn't the only arcade-style starfighter MMO. Or maybe they just don't care anymore, but I do. Its destroying my community in game. That I hate more than anything. |
| MMORPG.com: | So a lot of pilots are thinking of moving to Jumpgate? |
| Captain Fastrider: | Well, they SAY they are. I myself, plan on giving it a shot and I know I've seen quite a few familiar names over on the Jumpgate forums. |
| MMORPG.com: | And the Phantoms? |
| Captain Fastrider: | Phantom Squadron is breaking off from SoF (Spirit of the Fallanassi, its mother guild) as its official squadron to become an open squadron and hopefully strengthen itself and the Alliance in the process. |
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I love it they do a piece on Starsider that is practically devoid of players. No wonder they do so well there are probably only one or two imperial pilots on the server.
I liked Jump to Light Speed. While I played I never made it to ACE, though my friends did. For some reason when I was doing the quests, I got bugged and could not advance. I was told to maybe start over as a work around but I was stubborn.
It really boggles the mind to think what a few good devs could do with this game. Have you ever heard of the show, "Wife Swap". Just think if the mmo development community did a "Dev Swap". That would be something to see...
Clearly you've never been to Starsider. It's one of the more active servers in general, and the undisputed "Space Server", with events on Saturday averaging around 20v20 and anywhere from 1v1 to 8v8 pickup PvP in Deep Space throughout the week.
Too bad space combat never took off.
Just a lame redo of Origin space simulators.
X-Wing series where 100% better in terms of UI, flight dynamics, dogfight feeling, ship management.
And really I can't stand the stupid AI yelling at me when you shoot them.
Clearly you've never been to Starsider. It's one of the more active servers in general, and the undisputed "Space Server", with events on Saturday averaging around 20v20 and anywhere from 1v1 to 8v8 pickup PvP in Deep Space throughout the week.
Clearly you don''t play on Starsider. Don't play SWG much any more, but I have a station account and my occasional sojourns to Starsider where my main is located is always devoid of other players. If you call this server an active one, I shudder to see what one of the inactive ones are.
It would be good if they could make SWG a viable and playable game as well .
In space it is said nobody can hear you scream , In SWG nobody can hear you scream anywhere .
cheers
Clearly you don''t play on Starsider. Don't play SWG much any more, but I have a station account and my occasional sojourns to Starsider where my main is located is always devoid of other players. If you call this server an active one, I shudder to see what one of the inactive ones are.
I tend to play on Starsider about 6-8 hours a day, and have been PvPing in DS for the past 3-4 hours or so, with around 4v4 numbers, which is pretty typical for pickup pvp during the week.
I don't know about the ground game, because I stopped playing that after the NGE, but yes, Starsider is one of the more active ones in comparison to the other servers. It may not be much by pre-CU/CU standards, but compared to other servers it's above-average.
Regardless of the overall activity of the server though, its space scene is more active than most every other server. Last Saturday's event had about 35 Imperials and 20-25 Rebels flying (though Rebels normally outnumber the Imps). If Starsider didn't have an active space scene, I would have quit the game 3 years ago. It's the only thing I and many other pilots keep playing for nowadays.
Like SWG really matters anymore...it's all about Star Wars The Old Republic now!!! HUWAH TO SWTOR!
Yep have to praise the JTL part of the game its the main reason I've spent a few months subbed over the last year or 2 and yes starsider has an awesome pilot community its just too bad my main server and most others are slowly turning into no fly zones, I did the majority of my tier 5 rebel collection in deep space and never once saw an opposing rebel player. Nice to see those guys using a y-wing and sticking to canon of the timeline I rarely used anything but an oppie before I unsubbed.
Oh and JGE looks sweet! hope some other swg pilots move over when it releases.
Ground-game wise, Starsider IS a heavy populated server.
X-Wing and Tie-Fighter games were better in almost single aspect, compared to JtLS - except for the graphics but the why is obvious.
I loved the article - the in-character start of it, the space-game focus, it being an interview - good job!
Space was the reason I got involved with SWG many years ago....well before they ever even had space. When space added with JTL, I was excited to say the least. Made a character a Shipwright and set to the task of forming my own Squadron within our guild. But, the content was weak. The support for space was weak. The interest was weak. SWG is now more about being a PvP player on the ground....many have little clue about space because it just has no meaning in the scope of the game world. In my mind, SWG is about as dead a game as it could be.
I've always loved the Y-wing starting from the time I first watched the movies. It warms the heart to see a squad dedicated to making it a viable chassis.
The other iconic ship I enjoy flying is the Tie fighter. My toons are mostly Reb, but I do enjoy flying Tie fighters with my one Imp toon. Great for a bit a RP too (which I'm not generally into).
The one other iconic ship I'd like to try is the B-wing. Any idea if they're any good for Pvp? Viable at all or trash?
Starsider has one of the highest populations.
Starsider has one of the highest populations.
I never disputed that fact. The point is that even with one of the highest populations it is very hard to find people to play with, even at prime time. Trying to find a live vendor is another exercise in frustration too.
Weekends are about the only time there is much action going on in space and even that is sporadic.