Hmmm... I've read through all of the posts in this (lengthy) section, I was quite excited on first hearing of a free-flight space model but to be honest on gleaning all that I can so far I'm not feeling that stoked about it.
Of course I will give it a blast when it hits but being a pvp only part of the game I don't think I will last long. I've never been a big pvper in fact I have stayed away from it in every game I played.
In my whole life I haven't been a huge "competitor" I like to progress through hard work and the instantanous gratification that most people get from pvp just doesn't hold up for me.
Horse for courses though and some people thrive on it....
The idea that it's 12 v 12 now... I'd be interested to know if that's an absolute.. ie if there aren't 24 guys to play in the game it won't start?
I have never been a queuer so joining a queue to get into a game just seems to me a waste of my time. I am getting on a bit now, retired and marching quickly to that hole in the ground so I don't have "spare" time to wait for games to start, I want to be in and playing... my gaming time is restricted by family life anyway and firing up the game just to sit waiting to get into the action I don't do anymore.
I know people will say go do something else while the queue runs down but my mindset is such that if I have a goal then I can't just "fiddle" with something else while I wait to get on with it.
Also, will you just queue then drop into a game? Personally I'd like to get to know the ship, controls and game model before being asked to fire the weapons in anger... I can't see joysticks/gamepads being in the game as the whole MMO ethos is that you can sit down at any PC with no added peripherals and just play, but it would be nice if support for these was considered as an addition at some point. For me space flight (albeit the airplane model we know comes with the Star Wars idea) isn't the same if you haven't got your hands on a joystick and at least attempting to emulate some realism.
I suppose I'll have to wait till it launches to answer some of these questions but if I'm brutally honest I can't see me personally being in there much, I am waiting for Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen to be released for a better space flight/combat experience, hopefully this "expansion" will be a decent game-within-a-game... we'll just have to see in a couple of months how it pans out.