SInce it's a double XP weekend, can you tell us what composition to avoid?

I think this happens more often than people know. I've seen missiles I fire completely miss from people barely moving out of the stated range of the missile when they look in range on my screen or they lag jump. I've also seen my missiles appear to travel longer than their stated range to hit. All I can think is it's my lag factor and the video is not keeping up with the commands.

While going kamikaze in your NovaDive to fire off EMP does help, it doesn't pack the power necessary to take out all the drones, mines, and the bomber when they are at full health. You need help from your friends. Going kamikaze in TDM would be bad in many cases because you'd die so much. Going kamikaze in domination, you still die but you can catch the bombers before they get to the satellites. Your stats might look horrible but you get the win. Going kamikaze with a gunship and/or striker (preferably pike with long range missiles) watching your back is great. This doesn't work so well in a match where the opposing team stacks bomber and gunship pairs.

Nope...that's not what I'm saying. I'm sorry you read it that way. My schedule has nothing to do with my comment. I was trying to point out that more than one session is necessary to effectively kick the tires. It also helps if more than one time of day or day of the week is set up due to varying time zones and work schedules.

Oddly enough, not everyone can be around for just ONE available session. You get a larger test population with a broader range of experience if there are matches consistently spawning daily. This is why PTS is available for more than a couple hours on a Saturday every time it is updated. A couple hours isn't enough data to provide a real test. Here's a couple of questions for you: Why download PTS for just a couple hours of testing? Why not forget flying on the live servers and log into PTS for your daily flying for the whole weekend or even a week or so? What's it going to hurt?

That's just it. As a "team" you need highest or almost highest stats across the board. In a close match, a good wingman can do more than enough damage with high assists to push your team ahead. In domination, the win goes to capturing and holding the objectives the longest. High damage and kills come only in a highly contested match. You can farm lower level pilots, if that's your thing, but you won't really rack up large damage numbers that way since their ships tend to have a lower HP. In TDM, the win goes to most kills. A wingman who captures a lot of assists but is ranked 3 to 5 on the damage chart, depending on the mix of the teams, works just as hard for that win and flies just as well as the obvious "ace." Is a wingman in a TDM who gets 15 or more assists not flying well? He helped in more than 30% of the kills, probably significantly in half or more of those if his damage was good. You can check the same stat in other map types but it's easy in TDM. With the stats that are easily available, there is no way to count someone an "ace" without being biased to a particular ship or stat. If you count solo kills, a ship that can consistently kill in just a couple shots has an edge. If you count total kills, ships that can stand off a bit and easily pick up the next ship in their targets has an edge. If you count total damage, it's about having a ship that has high damage and accuracy weapons with an ability to quickly target the next ship or to target multiple ships. The interesting point is that the same ships that can easily capture high damage can also easily capture high assists which further masks a fighter pilot flying well as a wingman. If you take the players listed as aces on the various servers and categorize them by ship flown the most, I think you will see that the current method used is biased to specific ships. As a result, you're relegating "aces" to those specific ship types. For argument's sake, one solo kill on a NovaDive or Blackbolt does not equal one solo kill on a gunship. A ND or BB pilot with 4 solo kills in a match is much more extraordinary than a gunship pilot with 4 solo kills even though the gunship pilot has highest damage, highest kills, and highest assists, etc. - especially in an even match. If you consider base damage and accuracy per shot, the NovaDive pilot is likely to be hitting on a lot more shots for those kills which requires more work. For all we know, 4 solo kills on a ND or BB is equivalent in skill to 20 solo kills in a gunship. I realize the method of designating an "ace" will probably never change because people can't get past those two or three obvious stats. I'm smart enough to recognize its failings though. IMO, you shouldn't need to fly the highest damage killing machines to be recognized as a team player or as an "ace."

Someone who is actively flying as a wingman will often get way more assists than they do kills and can have medium to high damage depending on the expertise and luck of who they are flying with when you look at the charts at the end of the match. Most people never pay them any mind or give them a shout out because what almost everyone is saying qualifies as doing a good job or being an 'ace' is highest kills and damage. Sorry, I just don't agree with using just a couple of the stats to gauge expertise. If that's what you're doing, you are ignoring a part of the population.

This is the one thing I do not believe. I'm a mid-range, maybe upper mid-range pilot. Sometimes I'm top of the charts, sometimes middle of the charts. It depends on time of day, day of the week, whether I'm queuing with others, and whether I CHOOSE to take a supportive role or play around with components. In addition, and I know this may be a shock to some of you, some players have a real life and don't always fly.

If engines are tweaked in upcoming updates, it might result in what you are looking for with the gunships running for cover better than moving the cap ships further out. I have one other idea though. The lore and movies don't have capital ships one-shotting every fighter that comes within range. Leave the cap ships where they are. Turn the power down to the level of heavy lasers or satellite turrets. Remove the automatic one shot kill from cap ships. Give cap ships heavy lasers or turret lasers with the same range the ships have currently effectively reducing their hitting power Fighter has to be in the firing cone of the battery to get hit by it A single battery can target one ship at a time Give us the ability to see with our sensors the laser powering up to shoot at us [*]Overwhelming numbers of fighters can cripple a cap ship Give cap ships super heavy directional shields so the weapon used against their turrets needs to be shield piercing or draining until the shield is gone Newly spawned ships are protected behind the cap ship's shields (unless the shields have been disabled) until say... 5 secs after they start moving This would make it possible to survive going into the cap ship's range of fire but you can't stay there indefinitely unless your squadron is making a coordinated attack on the capital ship. Pilots could still run to it for protection but the protection wouldn't be foolproof. People running into range without looking would start getting hit for being silly enough to run into the cap ship's range. Newly spawned ships have some protection. A lopsided match could turn into a coordinated attack on the capital ship. Just turning the cap ship's laser batteries into heavy lasers so you are no longer one shot would make a huge difference in the game.

You like the turrets turned on back the way it was with no changes?

Yep, but I don't think that's likely to happen any time soon.

In another thread,http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=725454, Zharik suggested: This is an interesting idea. Does anyone know if the exhaustion zone in GSF reduces health like it does in the ground game? If so, I don't see this as viable. If not, I still do not think this prevents gunships or anyone else from sitting right outside the spawn area/exhaustion zone and picking people off.

Fair enough. I think the more concerning issue might be system or program limitations for something constantly going on and off. This could be mitigated by implementing a minimum time for both on and off. If the limitation is there, I'm not sure how practical it is to try it.

There is datamined info on the 2.7 release out there. If they open up PTS for testing with 2.7 this weekend the changes might be visible there. I'd rather not post a link in this thread so it doesn't get derailed. PM me if you would like to know where.

This may no longer be an issue with the supposed changes coming to the engine abilities. It might be better to wait and see.

This could work. I'd like to see how it pans out in practice if it's doable.

Playing devils advocate, let's go through a couple scenarios. I'm losing or tied in a close match. This means my turrets are turned on. I get 3 guys on me and run to my capital ship. They get within range of the turrets which blow them out of the sky. Now we're winning. The opportunity to lure enemies into a trap is still there. If I time it right and they don't realize the situation, we win at the very end of the match. We're tied and I lure someone to the capital ship, before the guy on my tail gets there my side gets a kill. Now we're ahead. This means my turrets just went offline and the help I was expecting is nonexistent, I'm dead and the turrets almost immediately go online. This constant on and off might be a problem, especially when taking lag into consideration. Even if you change it to a range difference such as there has to be a 10% or more difference in the score, you could still have a constant on and off issue.

On your first suggestion, how long would the enemy fighters have to be in the spawn area to trigger it? How long does it last? I think with everyone as a moving target there might be issues in the finer details that result from lag and the turrets need to be either on or off all the time. On the second one, why do a ~% chance bonus to evasion if all weapons are turned off near the spawn point or is it just your team's weapons? Are you trying to create a situation where the newly spawned near their spawn point can't fire when they have that buff but the enemy can? The change to evasion doesn't make sense unless your enemy has a chance to hit you and if your enemy can hit you, you're going to want to at least fire back in some way either via turret or your own weapons.

I completely agree with this! That's why I'm wondering if the intent was to even out the matches. A default level ship hitting the power-up may not be even as high as the same maxed ship without a power-up. At that point, how much of a benefit is it for the default level ship? It denies the other side a power-up but he still has trouble matching. A maxed out ship hitting the power-up could be so over-powered compared to a default level ship that it's laughable in an uneven match.

I'd be okay with down-tweaking DO. Assuming DO is a % increase on the damage, it could be an issue where the % increase is resulting in cases where the improved damage is so outrageous (depending on the weapon and upgrades) or the lucky critical hits push the damage way out of whack. Putting a max limit that is a regular damage + number instead of % might be viable. It kind of depends a bit on the original intent. If the intent was to bolster the ships and even out the playing field like bolster in ground PvP, I think it's off the mark.

You're probably right about that. This is why premades tend to own pug's.

This would effectively do the same thing providing invincibility to the recently spawned would do. My hesitation would be you are making the area that much larger. I don't know what system or programming limitations there might be. Would you put obstacles such as asteroids in the additional space or keep it clear? I would lean toward keeping it clear. Those fleeing back to the capital ships would not have the speed boost the recently spawned have making them easier targets for those chasing them. That might be enough to discourage running back home but keep it as an option for the truly desperate. The recently spawned should have a limit of some sort to use the boost so if they're choosing to get into the fight close by they can't abuse the boost to bug out to the next spawn area. If they aren't sticking around, they are using that boost to get into the action in the middle of the map.

That's an interesting thought. I'm not sure how viable it would be. Running back to your spawn or farming at someone else's spawn would tend to turn the TDM games (even if the game can put you in an alternate spawn) into a domination game without the satellites. Be the first to get to your opponent's spawn points and stay there and you win. With the turrets turned back on, you just have to sit outside the turret range and can still farm them. Your gunship would counter theirs as far as range is concerned, etc. For this to work, the spawn points might have to be truly random on the map, i.e. not fixed, or the number of potential spawn points would have to be so high that the opposing team could never adequately cover them all.

I was talking to a friend regarding current GSF issues and it was suggested that I just post ideas. You can take them worth a grain of salt if you wish but the intent of this thread is to brainstorm potential solutions for tactical issues surrounding the following much complained about problems (items are listed in no particular order): Power-ups in TDM, specifically damage power-ups Non-contributing penalties Camping regardless of location Capital ship turrets and/or using capital ships as protection Farming I am hoping that the brainstorming produces an elegant, simple, and viable solution in some combination that can be easily implemented. I do not claim to be an expert. I have highlighted my current favorites. Items 2 to 5 tend to involve someone staying in one place too long or not moving in some form or another, so I will list options I've read and/or brainstormed when making lists to address them as one list. Potential power-up solutions will be listed separately. 1. Power-ups Remove power-ups entirely Have only power-ups that recharge as opposed to enhance abilities Suggested power-ups would be replenishing missiles, restoring all shield or engine or weapon power to normal max of the ship, repair damage, etc. Power-up is not picked up if your ship does not need it. Limit enhancement of abilities only to what is achievable via component upgrades Limit the damage power-ups to use on only one or two kills Don't do this if you limit damage to what is achievable via upgrades 2-5. Staying in one place The obvious tactical option to a spawn point being farmed is to have it protected. This can be accomplished in at least two ways. Either players decide to always protect the spawn point or turrets are turned back on. I personally do not like either of those two options assuming no other changes are made to turrets as they existed previously. Issues surrounding someone literally stopped in the field of play are really just annoyances BUT a combination of items that work logically for the main issues listed also happen to work logically for this so I included it in the list for consideration. Why exclude it when thinking about the options? If turrets are turned back on, do one or more of the following: Turn down their damage Draw a big circle around them in the map to show where the edge of the turret range is Add a huge screen splash warning when you get close to their range Allow the turrets to be damaged reducing their effectiveness during the match - i.e. they don't target and hit you right away, your evasion cooldowns work against them, x% damage results in lower damage given and/or lower range, take out all turrets on a cap ship and the spawn point disappears, etc If turrets are not turned back on, do one or more of the following: (some of these may work regardless if turrets are turned back on) Put an invincibility timer (t) on ships being spawned that disappears when they are out of the spawn area or within some small % of the edge of their spawn area such as 10%. This allows for some maneuvering so camping is less likely. If an opposing team fires on them, there would be no debuff or damage during that time. You could color the recently spawned yellow so the opposing player doesn't waste power, ammo or abilities. Automatically pop a 90% evasion bonus on spawning that ticks down over time and disappears when you leave the spawn area entirely Auto kick recently spawned players if they don't move out of the spawn area If you just spawned, weapons do not work if you are within 100% plus a little of your spawn area AND opposing ships' weapons cannot target you when you are within 100% of your spawn area (to encourage recently spawned to leave and disallow any protection if you have already been outside the spawn area) Don't allow opposing force encroachment into the spawn area Remove cap ships entirely and allow for a larger number of spawn points that cannot be predicted well enough to be farmed Close a spawn point if enemy ships are in the area or mark it red as a hot LZ so you KNOW you're going to be landing in a hot zone Allow people to choose a cooldown to automatically pop when you are spawned, i.e. choose your ship, choose a cooldown to autopop when you are spawned, click ready...if barrel roll is chosen, choose a facing direction for your ship so everyone who barrel rolls out doesn't end up in the same spot Regarding REQ's/XP and the non-contributing message and campers: Rather than addressing this as a penalty for non-contributing at any point during the match and trying to define contribution in terms of hits whose accuracy can vary due to lag, I have the following suggestions. The first two may already work that way. I have not tested them and wanted to state them in an effort to be complete. If you queue and the match is initiated but it does not get enough people to spawn you get credit for completing the match in terms of the daily/weekly but it doesn't count as a defeat or in the statistics, etc. If the match starts and you never leave the spawn area or never hit the ready button, you get nothing, including no credit for the match in the daily/weekly. If you stay away from opponents and objectives more than x% of the time, you do not get credit for anything. Someone actively dog-fighting but not being successful would never be docked REQ or XP this way. Someone actively moving around a satellite would not be docked anything. If you leave the spawn area you get what you achieve and everything accomplished outside the spawn area counts as contributing even if all you are doing is running. Even people who run make themselves targets and there are enough obstacles with restrictions to cooldowns that they won't necessarily be successful. Put "X" on a cooldown. If you hit X and come to a stop, you will remain stopped for a max of p seconds (the time can be different for each ship since it may make more sense to do so), then when the time limit ends, the thrusters come back on at the lowest level as if S is pressed for a minimum of q number of seconds and then changes to normal thrusters as if no button is pressed for a minimum of r number of seconds. A player doing anything such as turning, firing a weapon, targeting, or using an ability during this time frame will result in normal play (S if they hit S, W if they hit W, normal thrusters, etc) but the ship must move for the total of q+r number of seconds before X can be used again. This will prevent people from camping anywhere as well as encourage active participation. Someone who is moving even if their intent is to run away from the battle is still a viable target. Their REQ's and XP are already limited by their active participation with gaining damage/kills/assists. Someone who is new and still trying to figure out what to do gets some credit instead of being penalized for being new. If this is not possible, I would want to do some form of the third option in this group as a second choice. Discuss, suggest, have at it...

If you get the new galactic starfighter packs, you pick up Interplanetary Component Exchange rep. There are two rep vendors in the cartel market area for it and it includes a couple blaster colors for your ships.