Gunship - Like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Sheike]

The Gunship Pilot -

"Here is good," he muttered to himself as he engaged the parking brake. I wonder how many I can get this time he wondered as he looked through the viewfinder spotting his comrades fighting the enemy in the distance. It wasn't much he had to do, just line up the shot as the shields drop and squeeze, rinse and repeat. His nerves tensed as the coils spun up, projecting a beam of concentrated death. He relaxed and fired another, and another. He chuckled as the surviving enemies became stricken with fear, desperately attempting to evade his terrible barrage. Soon the red markers on the scanner were nothing but ash clouds and statistics...Time to move on.

 

His radio suddenly buzzed to life, "Hey man, double up? You can be the spotter this time."

He knew round two would be even sweeter.

[Vladnar]

if 2 strike fighters fly at him he's dead in the water quick smart............1 strike fighter will have him locked on and out the water, so to speak, from behind behind he's even turned round even with the 180 turn ability.

 

If any ship was overpowered it would be the Strike Fighter but I think, having 5 ships myself, they have started with a really good balance.

 

A strike fighter will often remove a gunship in one strike maybe 2..........a gunship can take 6 or 7 hits to remove a strike fighter.

[Essence_of_Light]

Waah....

 

Did I wander into the FanFic Forum again by accident?

[Atamasama]

A strike fighter will often remove a gunship in one strike maybe 2..........a gunship can take 6 or 7 hits to remove a strike fighter.

In my strike fighter I love finding gunships.

 

Literally less than a minute (I've just finished a battle) a gunship was parked above satellite B in Kuat Mesas. I saw the little glow on the poor sap. I zipped up to him, got within range, and took him out with my quad lasers and concussion missiles in seconds. Didn't even have a chance.

[Njordulfr]

Gunships are good...as long as they remain hidden. Once you spot them and go after them, as long as you don't fly in a straight line, you have very good chances of taking them down.

 

Some people say they are OP but I think it's got to do with the strategy you use to fight them.

[Sinapus]

I've had some success hitting enemies with a gunship hiding amongst the rocks, girders, under the satellite.

 

It works perfectly until they find you and hunt you down.

[apiazza]

It can be like shooting fish until somebody discovers you. I personally don't like the gunship at all and I think it is stupid to have a space combat craft that is supposed to play like a sniper. It seems like 7 out of every 10 games that comes out these days is an FPS so I can see why BW created the sniper-style craft, but I hate it. That being said, a good Gunny should not be underestimated out there and I do enjoy finding them and punishing them for not moving.

[reclipsed]

I spent more time flying my Gunship last night. I hit one guy with one lucky shot and he tunneled me the rest of the game. A bad Gunship must have touched him in his no no spot too many times.

[VoodooV]

To me it's just sad that the FPS mentality has become so ingrained into gaming that it infects genres that they have no place in.

 

If I want to snipe, I'll play a first person shooter. This is a space sim. let it be a space sim. The idea of getting into a fast moving starfighter....only to camp in a stationary position and one shot kill is absurd. gunship is my least favorite ship.

 

It's just pathetic that gaming has become so dumbed down that even the original X-Wing and TIE Fighter have become too complex for your typical gamer. I really do like GSF, but it's already starting to become tedious and boring as the matches are repetitive and all the upgrades are so slight and inconsequential that you don't even notice the improvements in most cases.

 

Star Citizen can't get here soon enough.

[FirstDoc]

As it currently stands the 3 types of ships are fairly evenly balanced. If you feel it is unbalanced then perhaps you need to look at the tactics you are using or the amount of communication between yourself and your allies. I can tell you that with the correct tactics and some communication Gunships who try to act as solo snipers are the ones who are sitting ducks in my experience.

 

Flying in at warp 9.95 and not paying attention to your surroundings, not using cover when available, flying in straight lines and not calling out tango's ..... well you get what you deserve.

[Sillensumbra]

everyone can say what they want but im starting to see more and more gunships everyday today i couldnt even get out of spawn without a shot to the head

[Tentou]

everyone can say what they want but im starting to see more and more gunships everyday today i couldnt even get out of spawn without a shot to the head

 

You need to keep your starships head down, obviously.

[Tenacity]

As a scout pilot, I always pay close attention to the player list in the beginning of each match. I pick out and memorize the names of the players who select gunships, and then I terrorize them for the rest of the game. Easy kills.

[Tellenn]

As a scout pilot, I always pay close attention to the player list in the beginning of each match. I pick out and memorize the names of the players who select gunships, and then I terrorize them for the rest of the game. Easy kills.

 

This is exactly what I do aswell.

 

Ignore sats at the start. I let others go grab them.

 

Immediately boost to midway between mid and a side bo and to maximum height. Height is most important on top of the mesas or above the highest asteroid. Then when I notice all the scouts and fighters have moved past to fight over the sats I dive onto the gunships that have parked up behind triggering all dps boosts as I fire.

 

Height is a huge advantage in getting the drop on anything in GSF. Always boost to max height between fights.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Tellenn

[AlrikFassbauer]

Playing a Gunship is always like a dice throw : Will someone find me while I'm targetting or not ?

 

Usually, though, someone DOES find me - even when I sit on the most remote spots ...

[Helig]

Playing a Gunship is always like a dice throw : Will someone find me while I'm targetting or not ?

 

Usually, though, someone DOES find me - even when I sit on the most remote spots ...

Maybe this has something to do with the giant "IMMA CHARGING MAH LAZOR" colour-coded nebula when you charge and fire your railgun...

[Hitomo_x]

only noobs Play snipers in space.games

seriously, its cool you non-skill guys got a place in this game

but I always feel pitty for the People picking gunships cause they are like fish in a barrel

[sosolidshoe]

It's actually surprising to me how few people seem to understand where the gripes about gunships are coming from. If I'm flying a fighter, strike or scout, and I come up against someone with better upgrades and more skill, I at least feel like I made them work for the kill; not so if I come up against a gunship pilot with better upgrades and more skill.

 

A decent gunship pilot engages you at close to their maximum range, at which distance all the jinking and evasive flying the forum-warriors keep insisting solves everything barely register. They upgrade sensor dampening so you don't see them until you're already in range for them to fire. With upgraded weapons and buffs, they can one-hit scouts without maxed defensive upgrades, and even in an upgraded scout, the second-tier scout, or a strike fighter they only need a quick tap-shot after their initial one to finish you off, and they can hit you with that while you're still trying to react to the sudden disappearance of all your shields and 90% of your hull.

 

It's frustrating because one side of the combat has essentially no input in the situation once it begins; you can't juke around and hope a team mate can get your enemy off your tail, you can't try and use superior mobility or firepower against them, you just die. Everything is decided based on who sees who first; if you catch the gunship, unless they're really good or they have backup nearby, they're probably going to die; if they see you first, you're going to die as well just quicker. There's no fun there, no chance for cool stories about turning the tables mid-fight on an overconfident opponent, or using your superior skill to fly through terrain in a way that causes your pursuer to crash, or a last-moment A New Hope-style rescue by a friendly ship; just *bang* "Oh crap my shie.." *bang* *dead*

[Andryah]

Everything is decided based on who sees who first

 

While first sight and tactical surprise DOES give you an advantage (regardless of your ship, frankly) it does not decide the game for a team. Maybe for a solo rogue player, but not a team.

 

MISTAKES, provoked or unprovoked, more often then not decide the fate of a game encounter. All you need to do is to force Gunships into play early, force mistakes, and take them out as a priority over everything else. Eventually, Gunships lose their luster of appeal except to the true loner and the noobs who don't want to maneuver. In fact, the true loners who genuinely embrace and appreciate sniper style solo play... I bet most of them relish the day when the luster of Gunships wears off. Why? Because then they have a better chance of entering a game and playing a true sniper role at their leisure through the game....... whereas today... most good teams enter the encounter assuming a butt load of Gunships and the need to scrub them out early.

 

TEAM PLAY > then everything else. Thing is... MMO players have been so used to being roguish players for so long.. that when finally faced with a sub-game where teamwork and tactics means something... many of these players are struggling.. and hence demanding nerfing based on 1:1 mechanics in what is otherwise team based play mechanics.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Andryah

[sosolidshoe]

While first sight and tactical surprise DOES give you an advantage (regardless of your ship, frankly) it does not decide the game for a team. Maybe for a solo rogue player, but not a team.

 

MISTAKES, provoked or unprovoked, more often then not decide the fate of a game encounter. All you need to do is to force Gunships into play early, force mistakes, and take them out as a priority over everything else. Eventually, Gunships lose their luster of appeal except to the true loner and the noobs who don't want to maneuver. In fact, the true loners who genuinely embrace and appreciate sniper style solo play... I bet most of them relish the day when the luster of Gunships wears off. Why? Because then they have a better chance of entering a game and playing a true sniper role at their leisure through the game....... whereas today... most good teams enter the encounter assuming a butt load of Gunships and the need to scrub them out early.

 

TEAM PLAY > then everything else. Thing is... MMO players have been so used to being roguish players for so long.. that when finally faced with a sub-game where teamwork and tactics means something... many of these players are struggling.. and hence demanding nerfing based on 1:1 mechanics in what is otherwise team based play mechanics.

 

I don't agree. Anecdote is not data obviously, but since we have little else to work with; I played a match the other day, the teams seemed well balanced in terms of individual skill, and both teams were coordinating, flying in groups and so on, yet one team utterly dominated the other. The reason? One team was composed largely of upgraded gunships, the other was using a mix of classes. With several gunships working together to cover each other, there was no angle of approach where an attacker was not exposed to at least two railguns, more than enough to decimate enemy groups of equal or even greater than equal numbers. If the mixed team concentrated enough ships to deal with one of the gunship packs, the handful of scouts and strikes on the opposing side easily took the objectives. If they tried to focus on securing the objectives, the gunships obliterated them when they were travelling between objectives to prevent enemy captures.

 

Further, you cannot balance a game based on "ideal" scenarios like two teams with balanced class composition, broadly equivalent skill, and total cooperation, especially not based on this kind of rock<paper<scissors system where one class, given equivalent skill, is at a huge disadvantage to another. Not in a multiplayer game. The end result of that attempt is the scenario I described above, where team composition skews drastically towards the "better" ship, to which the only response the opposition have is to follow their example, and we end up with matches full of dampened gunships which was exactly what happened in the beta.

 

Even further, the reason why MMO players have "become used" to being "roguish" as you put it, is because rational developers realised a long time ago that carrot beats stick every time, and began designing their systems with the presumption of solo play, but built-in rewards for group play. In this case, that means balancing the ships so that they can engage each other on even terms even in situations where one side or the other is not functioning as a flawless Borg-like hive-mind, because 1v1s do in fact happen, players are not always able to choose the terms of an engagement, and in those circumstances they should have the opportunity to turn things around, fight back, and even possibly win.

 

Finally, if the developers of the game are willing to so (term for an illegitimate child)-ize the space combat/dogfighting dynamic of games like GS in order to satisfy FPS sniper-sorts who don't want to have to think about moving and shooting at the same time, then by God they should better be able to also provide a place in the game for the lone-hunter sorts who prefer to seek out 1v1 fights without running into enemies which can take them apart in just one or two unavoidable shots with no chance to respond. At least that style of play is traditionally and thematically consistent with the core game experience, as opposed to shoehorned-in.

[Yorumi]

It's actually surprising to me how few people seem to understand where the gripes about gunships are coming from.

 

Could I not just immediately turn this around and say it's surprising how many people like you don't understand what people are saying about countering gunships? You basically started out your post saying "no one is allowed to disagree with me."

[gunslinger]

gunships cannot sit on the fringes to snipe AND take a satellite. let them snipe away so long as your team has the satellite. stay opposite them and out of range. you do know that every target you select shows the range.

 

as others have stated, the gunship is for two types of people. the first are the loners more interested in solo kills and their K/D ratio. They will not cost your team the game. The second are part of a group. Their teammates are in the other ships. the sniper covers them while they take the sats. the others keep an eye on the gunship for missile punks like me. those gunships (aka those teams) really suck to fight.

[AlrikFassbauer]

Maybe this has something to do with the giant "IMMA CHARGING MAH LAZOR" colour-coded nebula when you charge and fire your railgun...

 

I know.

 

That's why it's a dice throw : "Will someone notice me or not ?"

 

gunships cannot sit on the fringes to snipe AND take a satellite.

 

No, they can't - but they can take out the turrets.

 

Then, however, someone else gets the medal ... ( For taking the satellite ... )

Edited December 9, 2013 by AlrikFassbauer

[Kuciwalker]

As a scout pilot, I always pay close attention to the player list in the beginning of each match. I pick out and memorize the names of the players who select gunships, and then I terrorize them for the rest of the game. Easy kills.

 

As a gunship pilot, I know when you are doing this and I similarly prioritize killing you.

 

Spoiler alert: I usually win, because bypass + I see you first.

 

as others have stated, the gunship is for two types of people. the first are the loners more interested in solo kills and their K/D ratio. They will not cost your team the game. The second are part of a group. Their teammates are in the other ships. the sniper covers them while they take the sats. the others keep an eye on the gunship for missile punks like me. those gunships (aka those teams) really suck to fight.

 

This. Gunships + teamwork = win.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Kuciwalker