Hi. Interesting to see these topics still repeating. GSF alive and well? I wonder how much rust has accumulated.

Yes, it's group content, but It's not "friendly" to the groups that want to do it. From what I've seen... the bosses don't spawn in the same location and if I was informed correctly, only a handful of the total spawn period. To top it off, you have to wait for one side in DvL to be victorious (and here's hoping that dark side and light side have equal wins). And to throw one last monkey wrench in things... if anybody pulls the boss and fails to finish, they de-spawn - so one wipe, or one oblivious passer-by, or one troll and the assembly of said group becomes wasted. No, not everything should be simple and easy... but making things inconvenient to access decreases the odds that the content will even be pursued. It'll take a lot of diligence and patience to kill these bosses and I can only hope that the rewards for such are worth it to the folks who follow through. EDIT: What that guy (Jon) said... ... ...

And you've just lost your Star Wars Fan Card... Darth Vader couldn't use lightning because it would fry his suit. Palpatine lamented over this issue at points. And this is before ever getting into the philosophy for a Sith between master and apprentice which aims for the apprentice to be stronger than the master by the end, etc. etc.

It was me! You dirty pubs. ... ...

We're not likely to agree. I found the disabling of the turrets to be a short circuited and short sighted "fix" that gave newbies little recourse when it was first implemented. And unfortunately the theories over what could happen did, albeit in grossly lopsided matches only. I like finding the compromise, and rationalized a gap variable would bring it while not changing the outcome of a match. Other than offending the occasional scout pilot and messing up the k/d of stat farmers, what was there to lose other than some additional time? Also, 10 was just an example, the variable could be much larger... say "25" instead - a difference in 25 in TDM is substantial and a good indicator that one team is getting pummeled. How about larger 30?... even more so, and would likely mean the turrets aren't active except for those TDMs where the score ends 50 - 1. Heck the turrets themselves could even be tweaked to have less accuracy (they can be evaded already) and do less damage (although they don't one shot most ship builds with full hulls and shields). I guess what I'm saying... is that the devs took a very lazy way out and did not actually didn't solve any issue other than eliminating the complaints of pilots that couldn't perform abject slaughter from start to finish, and eliminating the (super?) rare scenario of a team hiding behind cap ships to protect their lead. The folks that suffered from the "fix" were those new pilots that got frustrated and quit altogether. I've gotten to witness that frustration on occasion.

At the time, I had suggested a fix of turrets activating based on the score and lead. Basically the idea was that if the losing team was losing by some variable or greater - the turrets for their ships would be active. So as an example, if the variable is 10, then if the score were 10-20 or worse, the losing team's turrets would be active. Once the gap becomes less than the variable, the turrets would shut off. I liked this idea for obvious reasons that it eliminated your concerns Drako while also providing a push back off the spawn in those games that get out of control while also making the turrets a non-factor in actually getting a win. Unfortunately, the more common complaint on turrets I saw and read of wasn't the "get a few kills and hide" strategy, but rather the "omg - they're going to lose anyway so stop hiding behind the turrets". I saw far more complaints by the winning team over turrets because the turrets slowed their pace and/or the team getting crushed was reluctant to move out far or at all from cap ships. The complaint was hilarious in its own right because the win would come regardless - but understandable because time is precious and waiting for a match to end by timeout would suck. So at the time of the grand turret debate - I threw out the idea of a mercy rule once the gap in the score had exceeded some point. Anyway, can't make everybody happy - but I have a strong opinion that the current "fix" sucks and that the only reason it isn't an issue is due to the failings and small population of players. PVP typically and should provide the ability to safely spawn to which the current "fix" doesn't do. Some games (like the ground game in this one) provide a locked off spawn location (with a one-shot kill on intruders), others provide a short term invulnerability; I wouldn't mind if our ships spawned invisible and became visible after a short duration or after the first shot, and/or opposition mines dropped within distance X of a cap ship were destroyed - to spit ball choices that would be better than this "fix". Mute point all around regardless, since the odds of anything changing are worse than the odds of Hillary and Trump dropping out of the election.

To be clear, this style of spawn camping was rare... very rare and only really occurred with any intent by coordinated groups shortly after turrets were turned off, "fixed". It's long since passed and isn't much of a thing beyond some inevitable grudge/revenge killing - I'm looking at you Keenz. I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment but I do disagree with the fix as implemented because it creates the (albeit now rare) inability to spawn safely into the match before being engaged. I've had the grand pleasure of spawning into minefields or to be shot from behind at spawn. But it's a mute point... the community threw out a whole lot of different ideas on how to make a fix that accomplished the ability to safely spawn and reduce the ability to spawn camp - GSF just never warranted that level of attention from the developers. Of course... that's an issue that none of us will fix at this point. So it is what it is, and fortunately or unfortunately the small player base has more or less rendered the aforementioned behavior a mute point. Were GSF ever revitalized though - I'd contend that this issue would have to be reviewed and tweaked.

Except the games where this actually occurred were rare... very rare, so much so that despite playing a lot during that time period I never experienced such a match on JC nor caught wind of it happening from other pilots there or in these forums. The reality of it - what actually was occurring on a more regular basis was that one team over powered the other and pushed/trapped them at their spawn. And then... because of cap ships... the dominating team (non gunships) died and complained about how unfair it was. So the "fix", and I use that term lightly, was to add in two more spawn points and randomized spawning (till a point was manually selected) and turn off the turrets. The real issue and cause of this issue was never tackled - one team grossly dominating the other. And thus with the "fix" the dominating team continued to do so unabated with the added bonus of there being no safe place to spawn for the opposition in the worst of these matches. Although this too is rare, there are actually screenshots, and accounts of spawn camping with various setups at all three spawn points in TDM post the turrets being turned off where by contrast there weren't nearly as many or any accounts of the other issue. This isn't much of a thing anymore because the community simply doesn't handle it well (at least on JC). One good spawn camping match of TDM kills the que, basically.

Took me roughly 5 weeks to achieve Legendary. I likely averaged roughly 2-3 hours nightly over the span. If you aim for Eternal... there should be zero issue. If you aim for Legendary then hopefully you've got an active guild to lean on or are a well versed tank (for the pops). Another tip... more so for Legendary than Eternal - is to consider getting multiple toons started and to level 30ish (not a hard feat if you use the PVP dailies and plentiful exp boosts). Park these toons in a Rest Area and enjoy the benefit of Rested XP gains when you get back to them. The more toons you can get started and into their 30s and rested, the more efficient and productive your leveling will be. Oh... and make sure you hit up these events, it doesn't take much to get their respective achievements.

Irony is Pandora starting up The Bad Touch (The Bloodhound Gang) with the ads on the page being for Match.com... There, I'm sharing. In other news, to my dismay I saw Oscar and he saw me, and then he was like all happy go-lucky and giddy as if there had been a memo sent out announcing my death, departure, or similar. I think Oscar may like me or something. Unfortunately, this good news was proven to be falsehood, much to Oscar's delight. Big -shoot- out to Siddain for being himself the other day. And here I was afraid I had become respectable, and reputable, and fashionable, and <insert -able word>. Anywho, good luck and stuff, and yeah... I still pop in and fly a match, even with it being harder and harder to get a weekly done on the server.

... Things have gotten weird.

Shut up... the pie is for tenured imperialists. It's not to be rationed out willy-nilly to those sticking a toe into the water or onto our fleet's clean floors.

But the clean, polished floors man... And the cookies.

The nail that sticks up... or the pros and cons of living a public life... in the sense of the game. Anyway... You should have given up on that dirty fleet on pub side and joined the side with polished floors, cookies, and stuff. More importantly, it's worth noting that running away usually never solves anything either.

Verain hit all the highs and lows of this thread already. Fly what you want, but the least we can do with one another is be honest about the reality of strikes. And now we've entered the twilight zone. Extreme conjecture. ... Strikes are mediocre, strikes underwhelm... strikes only find success on strike night and when the skill level of the strike pilot is beyond that of the competition. To parrot Verain, if the goal is to win... then flying a strike is in contrast to that goal in situations where the skill level of the competition is close to, equal to, or greater than that of your team. To each their own, and fly what you want... and for what it's worth, since launch, I can count the number of times I've been witness to a person telling another what to fly without taking my shoes off. So is this really a thing? or just the behavior of one person on one server?

Even a monkey banging on a keyboard will eventually spell a word. Anyway Zuck... I found the other other night's pub-style to be disheartening considering how many vets (you included) were dead set on the meta slaughter of imp newbies. Choque left without a word after the aforementioned TDM, and that was the end of any competition, as evident by the subsequent matches. I got to enjoy being chased around by multiple pilots from there forward as my teammates were either flying around aimlessly or waiting for respawn. I stopped after the third TDM when the mini-map featured a green arrow with a stream of red behind it ... at the imp spawn no less with no other imps in sight or on the map. Kudos to Oscar for flipping sides after so many slaughters, but by that point... imp-side had already flat-lined for good reason. I don't even know how long it was before the next pop came - but it was a good a long wait. That now said, I know I may be a super villain and scary to some or whatever... but don't punish the 7 newbies with me because of me. If its a dom match... perhaps lay off on flying 4 bombers... if its a TDM, perhaps avoid starting off in so many gunships - you all will likely win if that's all I've got for a teammates, so why not get the ebb and flow and if it gets too close for comfort, then unleash the slaughter. Sure, it's like playing with your food, but if you do it well enough... the food doesn't know it till its over.

Solo - because apparently I'm already hated enough on my home server.

Don't drag me into whatever crap fest you're getting started here, especially when you run around calling me an *** whenever the urge hits. Not interested. ... And Despon, you're free to come sling around JC with me when the urge hits. I don't do it anymore, but I'd make an exception and party up with you for giggles whenever you're feeling frisky on JC. I suck at being social and am a glorified ***, but I can shoot straight... most of the times.

Curious Eudoxia... Have you flown on any server other than JC on more than just an occasion or two? All this JC love is nice, but the reality is that Harbinger is not that different in respect to community. Sure... there is an increased likelihood of encountering premades and veteran fliers during certain time periods, but isn't that a healthy sign compared to the lack of groups and veterans on JC. You, very regularly, group with folks and fly on JC slaughtering newbies with the best of them... but what's the value or point? Basically, you're breaking the proclaimed culture of JC by grouping up, but I would rationalize you group up because they're your buddies and/or it increases the ability for you to avoid using the meta ships you dislike since your group's skill level is likely greater than that of the opposing team. All in good fun, but if you don't have any healthy amount of time logged on other servers... I would surmise that you'd have a difficult time comparing and contrasting the communities of servers. ... That said, I'm fine with a megaserver... one for all of the continental United States would be fine too. Unfortunately, while I think the view that a surge in players initially is accurate... I also see the player base diminishing in much the same fashion it has on virtually every server after the merge for all the various reasons folks have mused about since GSF's decline began. To revitalize GSF, I think most of us would agree that it needs attention from the developers... to fix bugs, expand the game with maps and/or ships, and improve the vector of both learning to play and catch-up (requisition gain) of new players.

Eh, I didn't really need to do much that particular match, so I didn't. There was some gunship popping folks as the putted around between B and C making a minefield in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, to the point on solo queing. I have around 2200+ matches played but haven't had any real issue on most nights getting pops. But this is also a consequence of playing imp. From what I've seen, pubs are typically fielding more pilots in que than the imps and so I figure I'm getting a spot just from a lack of imp pilots in que. And to be clear, since typed language lacks the context of body language and tone to a degree; I'm not trying to rain on anybody's parade or admonish you all for grouping up. My commentary is more or less around the notion that if you've so many people interested in GSF, that spreading the wealth around the factions may actually help bolster the que rolling rather than draining the opposing faction of participants forcing only wargames.

I have a hard time believing that there is any real competition to be had when folks are running premades on JC, short of when there is an obvious lack of veteran pilots on the side you form your group on while the other side is still flush with talent. That said, if grouping is a person's thing and they want an actual challenge over using meta ships to dust newbies with a smattering of veterans... then there is the Harbinger which is notorious for premades throughout certain timeslots. The competition isn't vastly different from JC, but you're more likely to find an average to strong grouping of folks there to play against than on JC. That said, if there is so much interest on running groups around on JC, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try to coordinate a little to see if you all can't induce a bit more competition locally. While I don't fly in a group, I wouldn't be against participating in this scenario.

You're better off sticking with the Harbinger. Come back and fly a new toon if you'd like, but there isn't much left to challenge folks on JC as most matches are being decided by match maker and incompetence. And the matches that are "close" aren't really decided because of equal play from both teams but an average/good team going against a bad team with a couple of vets trying to carry them to victory. It is what it is, and it can be challenging ... frustrating ... or whatever trying to figure out how to take a satellite alone against a few bombers with teammates out in the middle of nowhere chasing a single enemy. Though this isn't exactly an issue the Harbinger is free of either, you're just more likely to have a better overall match there than here.

The Hux-ster, as I walk and fart. Sup Duder?

I'll add... More often than not, pride gets in the way and when a new player has been beat, and thus the reaction is not a positive one. For example, a match this weekend ended with mostly the slaughter of my team. A player asked how is it the other team is so much more powerful. I said, that they weren't (that much more powerful) and that individually each of the players on the opposition was actually rather pedestrian. Another on the team simply said, they're cheating or hacking. Despite my protest against such a claim, that was ultimately what they verbalized agreement with. Not that half of our team had less than 10% accuracy, or that 3 of the team would fly alone against the other, etc. Hacking. Following the matches conclusion, I attempted one more shot at righting the ship and was promptly called an ******. I don't feel encouraged to volunteer because of encounters like this. Should a person decide to ask me questions following a match, I'll gladly answer. But 9 times out of 10 anymore, newer people who are flying don't care and don't want to read anything critical. Add in newer players who don't really have a clue giving advice and strategy to other new players over the protests of folks that may know something actually useful (yes, this happens)... well, it's an uphill battle that my lazy *** has already thrown the towel in on.

Mehano flies very very... very rarely, or so I've taken note over the past few months. It feels as if I'm not flying much anymore either way, so take that all with a grain of salt.