Pilot Guide

Ok, to get started as a pilot you're going to need: a computer (duh), an internet connection (...), the Star Wars Galaxies: Jump To Lightspeed™ game and an active account of SWG: JTL™. You got all that? Good! It means your ready to embark in the adventure of your life (well, maybe not, but it will be really fun!).

When you begin you get to choose from 3 factions: Imperial, Privateer and Rebel and each faction has 3 squadrons to choose from:

Imperial: Fast and Agile. The Imperial ships normally don't have much firepower but they will outmaneuver any ship (maybe except the Rebel A-Wing). The Imperial squadrons are:
1. The Black Epsilon Squadron- Hakasha Sireen, Imp Outpost, Talus (-2183, 2259), the Imperial Elite Squadron, top-secret, top-notch and always deadly.
2. The Imperial Inquisition - Lt. Barn Sinkko, Kadaara, Naboo (5204, 6728), nothing stands in the way of the mighty Inquisition!
3. The Storm Squadron - Lt. Akal Colzet, Bestine, Tatooine (1110, -3514), get across their way and they'll strike you as a lightning bolt...
Privateer: Balanced. The Freelancer ships are normally balanced - not too much firepower neither agility. The Freelancer squadrons are:
1. The Smuggler Alliance - Mos Eisley, Tatooine (3429,-4788), be a pirate, a smuggler, elude the authorities and show your support for the Rebellion!
2. The RSF Squadron - Captain Dinge, Theed Naboo (-5497,4575), join the Naboo Royal Security Force Navy and show your support for the Empire!
3. The Corsec Squadron Sergeant Rhea, Coronet Corellia (-275,4730), join the Corellia Security Navy and join either of the sides in the Galactic Civil War!
Rebel Alliance: Slow and Strong. The Rebel ships are normally very powerful, but they lack the agility of the Imperial Ships. The Rebel Alliance squadrons are:
1. The Arkon's Havoc Squadron - Captain Kreezo, Tyrena, Corellia (-5177, -2281)
2. The Vortex Squadron - V3-FX , Moenia , Naboo (4765, -4798)
3. The Crimson Phoenix Squadron - Commander Da'la Socuna, Cantina, Mos Espa (-3000, 2200)

After you decide which faction and which squadron you most fit in, it's time to blow some stuff up!

Well, no, not yet.. You still have to talk with your trainer. If you chose from the "pilot squadron" menu that appears when you run SWG: JTL for the first time, it should be no problem in getting to the trainers because you get teleported to them, but if you don't, do not despair because I've provided the coordinates of each trainer next to the squadron names above.

After you talk with your pilot trainer you will get a beginner ship and a mission. But before you launch into space let's get familiar with the HUD (Heads-Up Display)...

1 - The H.U.D. (Heads-Up Display)

Below you can see a screenshot of the Space HUD and the legend under the screenshot.

1 (Central HUD) -You can see many things in this area of the HUD:

The blue bar on the left represents your throttle, and that defines how fast your ship goes. Ships usually have better steering rates when they are going on half throttle rather than full (it varies from ship to ship, I recommend some experimentation but it varies from 30% to 70%).
The number just below and to the right of the throttle bar is your ship's current speed.
The green bar below the throttle bar represents the current booster capacity (the "fuel" of your booster, if you have one). After you activate your booster, the green bar will slowly decrease until your booster stops working until it regenerates (the number to the left of this bar indicates the numerical value of the booster's fuel).
To the left there's a red bar the represents your capacitor's status. When you fire your weapons you use some capacitor energy, which will slowly regenerate but repeated firing will cause you to run out of capacitor power until it regenerates. You can also see the numeric reference to the capacitor energy on top.
In the middle you can see two reticules. The cross-like uncentered one represents the place where you must fire at to hit your current target (auto-leading), the middle static reticule represents the place where your weapons are currently aimed at.

2 (Radar) - The understanding of this part of the HUD is crucial to your survival. The way the Radar is done in SWG is very peculiar but also very functional and practical, unfortunatley it can be hard to understand.

Explanatory screensot of the space Radar HUD

The ships represented in this area can more quickly enter your field of view by heading down (diving).
The ships represented in this area are in your field of view already.
The ships represented in this area can more quickly enter your field of view by heading up (climbing).
These blue bars represent the current status of your shields. The frontal shield status is on the upper part while the rear shield status is in the lower one.
These red bars represent the current status of your armor. The frontal armor status is on the upper part while the rear armor status is in the lower one.
In this part of the radar you can check how many counter measures (cm) or missiles (m1 and m2) you have.
This number represents the current range of your radar, in meters. This range can be increased or decreased by clicking in the plus (+) and minus (-) signs on the upper part of the radar.

3 (Target Data) - Here you can see your target ship's status regarding its four main parts (Armor, Shields, Systems and Chassis).

If you want to disable a ship, you must target either the ship's Engine or Reactor (I recommend the reactor, since that will also disable the target's weapons which can be lethal even after the engines are disabled). To target those sub-systems you must press either the [ or the ] keys in your keyboard while you have a ship targeted.

Also, be sure not to shoot too much at a ship if you want to disable it, as you can disable the reactor or engine and then kill the ship itself if you aren't careful.

Targeting the ship's weapon systems can be also useful against big ships (like Corvettes or Cruisers) that have many weapons that WILL kill you in few shots if given the opportunity.

2 - Advancing to Master

After you've mastered the HUD you can start your real adventure as a Pilot. Life as a pilot will be difficult if you don't have the propper relfexes and skill, because in space it's all up to you, not your character (well, as you progress in the pilot profession you will get certain abilties that can be usefull but you can't rely on them to win).

As you progress in the pilot profession you will face two kinds of skill advancement - the XP+Quest advancement (like regular professions, where you gain XP and talk with a trainer which gives you a quest you have to complete before you can get a new skill box), and the Quest Advancement where you must finish quests to get the new skill boxes with no regard for XP.

The Tier 1, 2 and 4 skill boxes require XP and Quests while the Tier 3 and Master Boxes only require Quests. These tiers I'm refering to represent your current progression in the pilot profession (actually any profession, but let's focus on the pilot profession ^^). In all professions in SWG™ have 4 sets of skills that you have to advance in order to become a Master. If you had the whole bottom row filled, you'd be a "1111" pilot where the numbers represent the current status of progression in those 4 sets. Let's say that you have reached level 2 in the first box but the rest are still level 1, then you'd be a "2111". In the Pilot profession your tier is represented by the level of your highest leveled box, for example - if you are a Novice Pilot only (with no other pilot skills), you will be Tier 0, if you are a 1000 pilot, you will be Tier 1 and if you are a 2111 pilot you will be Tier 2 (I think you got the point). A Master Pilot is Tier 5.

To get XP more easily you can get Duty Missions from your trainer. These missions will continually spawn enemies for you to kill, facilitating the grind. As you advance in the pilot profession you get access to more powerful chassis and components which will help you building even better ships.

You can get more information about ship components in the following websites:

After you get all the last four boxes of the piloting you will be ready to get your Master box. This box is obtained by doing two quests:

In the first quest you must head to Kessel and kill a big number of a certain type of ships (it varies from faction to faction so I can't tell for sure, but the trainer tells you).

In the second quest you must destroy a Corellian Corvette located in Kessel. This can be a hard thing since the Corvette only spawns from time to time and it's tough to kill. For more information regarding the Corvette please read this guide from the Official SWG Forums, written by ZinaTheMaker.

After you kill the Corvette, just head to your trainer and voilá! You get your Master Badge and your Master Helmet.

3 - Pilot Abilities and Droid Commands

As you advance in the piloting profession you will gain new abilities and also new droid commands. The abilities are exclusive for each faction but you can get the droid commands from other factions by having a member of the faction to burn a chip with the desired droid command. You don't need to burn chips with your own droid commands.

To get the droid commands in your droid or flight computer you will need to go to your datapad, click on the droid / fight computer and click on "Program Droid".

This menu appears:

Then you move the droid commands you want in the ship from the left side to the right side of the menu and then press "Commit".

A confirmation dialogue will appear and you will have to confirm your choices.

There's a complete list of droid commands here but not all are good. What I recommend you to use (the best ones):

Reactor Overload 4
Engine Overload 3 (don't use 4 unless you have an awsome reactor or it will turn off all your ship's components)
Weapons Overload 3 or 4 (choose depending on your reactor - read above)
Capacitor to Shields Stunt 4

You can't have all these droid commands with one pilot faction, so ask one of your friends to burn you some chips with the commands you like (you can buy chips from Droid Engineers).

4 - Tips

Here are some tips for all you pilots or pilot wannabes:

If you have missiles locking on into you wait a bit before launching the countermeasures.
In PvP always try to get behind the enemy ships, they won't stand a chance.
Don't engage in combat while in Cruise Speed (max speed), try to find out the speed where your ship is the most manouverable. It's normally around 50% throttle.
To switch from Cruise to Combat Speed really fast, use the following command - /throttle [speed]. If you want to set your speed to 100% you do /throttle 1. For 60% speed you do /throttle 0.6 . Figure out your Combat Speed and make a macro with the command to set it and put the macro in the toolbar.
In PvP to trick your enemies, target them and use the /launchMissile command. It will send a fake missile and make them waste Counter-Measures.
If you wan't to abort an Hyperspace Jump just use the /aborthyperspace command. You will experience a cool-down period before you can try to jump to Hyperspace again.
During quests (specially the ones that came with RoTW), you can use /comm with the escorts to get to know more stuff about your mission.

For now that's all, but if you have information about the Pilot profession that you think that would improve this guide, please send a email to demio@lqgaming.com so I can make this guide more complete.