Agree

Dear Bret, In this post, I would like to list some of the reasons I personally do not like the current pop rate 12v12 matches, as well as offer a list of co-signees who agree with at least some of these points to a degree that we would like to see the 12v12/8v8 match ratio reduced. The situation Over the last few weeks, I have played exactly 36 matches, all on Darth Malgus, mostly during prime-time, but also some across the day. So far, of these matches two were 8v8s. This is clearly a much higher rate than before the MatchMaker patch. Of course, there is a certain amount of habituation to 8v8s, as that was simply the way GSF worked before, and over the week I have found my opinion on 12v12s moving from tedious to challenging, but still I think that 12v12s all the time are not optimal. Difficulty 12v12s are significantly harder than 8v8s. Because there are more players, drones and other objects to keep track of, it can sometimes even be overwhelming. Particularly less experienced players have difficulty keeping up, looking at Domination death-numbers in particular. Also for more experienced players the need of being aware of about one-and-a-half times as many items and the LoS to those items is more difficult. A higher difficulty can be fun and challenging, but the current pop rate for 12v12s raises the skill requirement of the whole game, and I don't think that's a desirable thing. META differences In 12v12s playing a Bomber pays off significantly more than playing one in an 8v8. In 8v8s Bombers, in my opinion, could use some improvements, but in 12v12s the reverse is almost true. In 12v12s, it pays much more to nest up, creating static gameplay. This is not always the case, as when engaging in dogfights with a Scout or Strike Fighter heavy composition the matches feel more dynamic than 8v8s, but in Dominations in particular nests of four Bombers or even more make any assault come to a grinding halt, and it starts feeling futile to even try to attack such a node. Playing Solo Of the 36 matches I played in the last two weeks, I played about two-thirds with Nightmaregale. Those matches were significantly more fun than the ones I played alone. Not just because of his excellent company, but also because with the two of us, we were making a difference in the game, whereas some of the matches I played alone seemed utterly futile attempts to change the score in my team's favour. Especially in Dominations, coordination was often key to breaking a nest of two to three Bombers apart. In 8v8s, coordination is less needed because there are fewer enemies to begin with. Performance Issues Most players in this game do not run on the latest and greatest hardware. This can lead to much lower framerates in 12v12 games than 8v8 games, particularly when the FPS is CPU-limited. Players on Linux using Wine (such as myself) also experience this problem. In an 8v8, my laptop reaches a solid 60FPS, but in 12v12 this may drop to 20FPS or lower in <Battle over Iokath>. The difference is pretty dramatic, and while 20FPS is still somewhat playable, for most people who have FPS issues in 12v12s, the game becomes barely playable. Conclusion 12v12 matches definitely bring some variety into GSF by allowing for very dynamic and active matches when the composition is Scout or Strike Fighter heavy and their higher difficulty can be interesting and challenging for the more experienced players. However, there are also downsides to 12v12 matches that simply do not make them the ideal match to pop all the time. In the bigger map of Denon Exosphere 12v12s can make the game seem more alive, but in the other maps it soon starts to feel crowded. On top of that, Galactic StarFighter is simply not balanced around 12v12s: It's balanced around 8v8s. Therefore, I, along with my co-signees, plead for a lower 12v12 pop rate. Perhaps not as low as it was before as there are certainly good sides to 12v12s and some people really enjoy them, but having 12v12s all the time has negative effects. We may not all agree on the specific reasons or the precise desirable 12v12-8v8 ratio, but we all agree that the current one is undesirable. Hoping that you will consider our concerns, Have a great day, RedFantom Aelmaron Baudran Damzy Heizen Kelly Rohan Sathiwaari Stewart-Baxter Teira Whistlingbird Yellowbird Yo-Wan Yui Motomi

I'm also of the opinion that 12v12 should be less common than 8v8. The points stated nicely by Verain and others (8v8 centered balance, more confusion for new players, harder to perform well both solo and in a group) are all valid. I'd also like to touch more on the clientside issue of a 12v12. Because of the significant increase in both players and mines/drones, FPS drops are very common in those situations. For me personally, it drops from a completely playable 30-40 FPS in an 8v8 to around 15-20 in a 12v12. Battle over Iokath hits those numbers even harder. This is tolerable on an infrequent basis, and I do admit that a 12v12 can be a nice change of pace every few matches or so, but playing like that 90% of the time is aggravating. I would be satisfied with a 12v12 every three or four matches. Thanks for paying attention to these posts though, Bret. It's nice to know that someone is actually keeping an eye on this comparatively neglected game mode.