My server lost interest in GSF already.

[Ashuranrx]

But the advantages are not massive, you only see like 20% maximum improvement on your ship overall. back in the day a level 10s with no abilities played pvp against level 49s who had basically all their abilities and trees unlocked, and it worked.

 

What? 20% is not massive? You can't be serious. And back in the day, level 10s were getting owned hardcore by level 49s in WZs.

 

In a dog fight, what determines the win? The guy with better turning and faster engine ability cooldown. The newby or alt with 20% less turning won't even be able to see the tail of the other dog before it gets blown out of the sky. This is the same reason experienced players pick the scout over fighter. Superior turning and speed wins dog fights. Superior armor and shield means little when there are shield piercing and armor ignor cannons.

[Lymain]

Personally I would take TEH over Pot5

 

Both of those servers are good, tbh!

Edited December 31, 2013 by Lymain

[ptwonline]

Striker pilot here. Only upgrade I need is tier 1 missile "reduce lock on time by 14%" I assure you I will perform in the middle of the pack if not better. Skill is L33t, gear really doesn't change much.

 

Well, I can tell you this from my experience so far: upgrading a gunship is a HUGE difference. One shots with the Slug Rail Gun, and the crippling love taps from the fully upgraded Ion Railgun are a big difference. Yes, in the hands of a poor pilot it won't make a huge difference, but an upgraded ship in the hands of an average or good pilot is indeed quite a game changer.

 

I'm finding that upgrded Scouts (especially the Sting/Flashfire) are also a huge difference.

 

With the Strike Fighters I am not seeing so much difference with the upgrades because in general the ships are too slow and not tanky enough in an arena where mobility rules and offense is overpowering.

[Armonddd]

LoL except I am sure several of us, and by several i mean several guilds would quit the game or transfer off if that happens.

 

Personally I would take TEH over Pot5, the RP servers are not so rampant with elitism, and according to the thread on faction balance per server is reporting 50% win/loss rates compared to pot5 witch had what a 90% imperial win rate?

 

Note: I am aware i posted a 87% win rate but that included matches played on my imperial char and counted same-faction matches which i have never lost.

 

You can pick TEH, that's fine. Then all that needs to be done is merge POT5 and TEH.

 

Also, that 90%ish win rate was from Shadowfist, who is almost certainly server best Rycer, if not world best. He almost exclusively plays in premades with the guild. As I recall, most of those losses were on his alt ships queueing solo. I play(ed) a lot more often than him, thus with fewer premades, and my win rate is closer to 70%.

[Ashuranrx]

Also, that 90%ish win rate was from Shadowfist, who is almost certainly server best Rycer, if not world best. He almost exclusively plays in premades with the guild. As I recall, most of those losses were on his alt ships queueing solo.

 

90% win rate with premades and main ships that are upgraded, most losses from alt ships queueing solo, by the same "best" pilot. This right here proved my point.

 

The F2P newbies with no upgrade ships will only get rolled. All upgrades need to be nerf to lessen the power gap between upgrades.

[DEATHICIDE]

I just spent 30 minutes writing an epic reply, having all my reasons fully detailed, only to have internet explorer goof on me and delete it all(last time I use this garbage browser) so here is my bullet list, please forgive lack of descriptions.

 

1: Get the headset ops teams out of PUG groups. This is the number one thing destroying gameplay right now, send in some under cover testers and you will see for yourselves, this coupled with #2

 

2: Nerf the cooldowns on the flash/sting, no ship should be able to rocket in, pop 2 cool downs and become both effectively invincible as well as so blaster powerful, that they can take down a fully upgraded ship in 2 seconds of firing, and then simply rocket away again until the cooldowns are back up, all under the cover of sensor dampening.

 

3: More ship requisition, less fleet requisition.

I don't have a single mastered ship, but I have enough fleet req in the bank to buy all that's currently available plus the next 3 you are putting out, and I took a week off since launch.

 

4: Legacy wide hangars:

I am diehard level on both sides as far as the number of 55's I have goes, and I no longer go on any of them, I no longer pvp, I no longer run dailies, and I no longer am invited to ops, all because I spend my time on a lowbie alt who I have chosen to be the owner of my ships, and I want to be a part of the GSF q.

 

If this was legacy wide, I could go about my normal SWTOR experience while being in the gsf queue, and just might be inclined to have ships on both factions, but as it stands, my legacy is pretty moot right now, and I spend all my time doing things I would rather not be doing, all to wait for a GSF pop because the idea of leveling ships for each of my 13 toons is hilarious, and a definite no chance in hell.

[Mallorik]

Noobs don't get crushed because of gear, they get crushed by premades working together and mostly by players who are much better than they are.

 

And another reason for the drop off is the people who like this type of game and would keep playing GSF also wont play this type of game very long or at all if it doesn't have 1st person views or joystick/gamepad controls options.

 

The lack of diversity is also a problem, only 2 maps with one mode is wearing thin on people after a month.

 

For me personally the last two weeks I only play 4 or 5 matches to do my weekly because its become very boring and without a first person view, joystick control and something other to do than domination its going to stay boring.

[-KeggER-]

Kegger doesn't like running out if people to play against at 4 am.

 

 

Shhhhhhhh......

[Armonddd]

90% win rate with premades and main ships that are upgraded, most losses from alt ships queueing solo, by the same "best" pilot. This right here proved my point.

 

The F2P newbies with no upgrade ships will only get rolled. All upgrades need to be nerf to lessen the power gap between upgrades.

 

Yes, when someone who plays strike almost exclusively switches to a scout he's barely touched and plays in a very different way than he's used to, he loses sometimes. I'm sure that was your point.

[Kuciwalker]

Jung Ma pilot here, I actually have been reasonably happy with queues recently. I do think there is a tremendous skill imbalance; I'm not sure how much this is actually driving people away.

 

I think gunship upgrades are both over- and under-valued. Upgrading the railguns is nice but is actually not essential (despite the awesomeness of upgraded ion); what I consider mandatory is just a level 2 barrel roll and level 0 distortion field (total cost: something like 5500 requisition). Give me those and I will outfight any other gunship on the server except Tsuki.

 

I actually haven't seen that many premades in VOIP in the past couple weeks, just some regular non-VOIP premades.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Kuciwalker

[Armonddd]

3: More ship requisition, less fleet requisition.

I don't have a single mastered ship, but I have enough fleet req in the bank to buy all that's currently available plus the next 3 you are putting out, and I took a week off since launch.

 

I think using cartel coins to convert ship to fleet is fine. With six ships unlocked (which is a good idea for many reasons), you can upgrade a ship from zero to mastered with two weeklies, fourteen dailies, and cartel coins... and that ignores req from matches and daily double bonuses. That's fine IMO.

 

(Disclaimer: I'm doing the numbers from memory, and I might be wrong. I'm pretty sure it's ~150k req to master a ship, and with six ships dailies give 4,500 req and weeklies give 45,000 req. If I'm wrong, well, like I said, that doesn't include req from the matches themselves.)

[DanNV]

1) I actually like having different progression on different characters. It's fun to level up, try different builds, ect.

 

2) First, as others have said, the upgrades don't make a very big difference now. Yes, they could be even less significant, but ship customization is one of the best parts of GSF, and making upgrades meaningless would ruin that.

 

Sorry, but the upgrades make a HUGE difference, particularly in some combinations and in combination with crew abilities. They make enough difference I'm not really willing to play alts in GSF at this point and I really LIKE GSF. My mid modded ships (pick any 1, I have 4) disintegrate almost immediately against a few of the heavily modded ships (mostly gunships and tier 2 scouts. My mostly unmodded ships on my alts just vanish in a puff of fire and smoke. It's not terribly fun to play that way (well, I expect the people in the really tricked out ships are having fun.)

 

If BW wants people to actually play, they have to cut back on the power of the mods, cut back on what they allow to stack with what and probably remove bypass altogether. Otherwise new people simply aren't going to play and people with alts aren't going to play their alts, either.

[renegadeimp]

Sorry, but the upgrades make a HUGE difference, particularly in some combinations and in combination with crew abilities. They make enough difference I'm not really willing to play alts in GSF at this point and I really LIKE GSF. My mid modded ships (pick any 1, I have 4) disintegrate almost immediately against a few of the heavily modded ships (mostly gunships and tier 2 scouts. My mostly unmodded ships on my alts just vanish in a puff of fire and smoke. It's not terribly fun to play that way (well, I expect the people in the really tricked out ships are having fun.)

 

If BW wants people to actually play, they have to cut back on the power of the mods, cut back on what they allow to stack with what and probably remove bypass altogether. Otherwise new people simply aren't going to play and people with alts aren't going to play their alts, either.

 

OR

 

 

SImply wait 2 weeks until matchmaking is turned on. Problem solved.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

This is what I suggest to make GSF fun and viable even for newbies and alts:

 

1. Make ship upgrades across legacy. So people don't have to start all over with new ships every time they play a different alt.

 

I don't really see the devs making ground end game equipment available legacy wide once you earn it on one character so I have very serious doubts that they'll do it here.

 

That being said legacy wide mastering of ships or legacy wide discount components for mastered ships would be cool. They also need to make CM starfighters be part of your collections if they haven't done so already.

 

2. Nerf all ship upgrades and abilities across the board, so the power level between new ships and fully upgraded ships are not that big of a gap.

 

This is quite possibly a horrible idea as some components are distinctly better than others so an across the board nerf would just ensure the least used components become even less appealing.

 

Some things do need nerfing because they're too good or balancing because they do things they shouldn't but currently nerfs/buffs should be limited to that capacity. Match making currently doesn't work very well (if it's been activated at all) because the early access population is such a small fraction of a server's population. Once GSF has been fully released and all account types have access if match making still pits newbies against mastered ships then we should tone down all components.

 

But the devs shouldn't nerf things just because the population is too low for matchmaking to work effectively.

 

For my part I stopped playing GSF because of the holidays, so like others have noted the holidays could have as much to do with the lowering of GSF population as powerful components/poor match making.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Gavin_Kelvar

[DanNV]

OR

 

 

SImply wait 2 weeks until matchmaking is turned on. Problem solved.

 

I have no faith in the matchmaking. It doesn't work anywhere else, what makes you think it'll work here. OP combinations of mods and abilities are OP. It really is simple.

[silvershadows]

You can pick TEH, that's fine. Then all that needs to be done is merge POT5 and TEH.

 

 

No thanks!

[ptwonline]

OR

 

 

SImply wait 2 weeks until matchmaking is turned on. Problem solved.

 

Anyone want to bet that no one will notice much (if any) difference with matchmaking turned on, and premades will still roll vastly outmatched newbies or reasonably geared but solo queuing players?

 

See, even if they implement reasonable matchmaking, queues will get far too long and they will feel pressure to tune it down. What they should have done from the start is make GSF cross server because it won't be long until interest ebbs and it will be hard enough to get into a match at all, matchmaking turned on or not.

Edited December 31, 2013 by ptwonline

[RCSlyman]

Anyone want to bet that no one will notice much (if any) difference with matchmaking turned on, and premades will still roll vastly outmatched newbies or reasonably geared but solo queuing players?

 

Because that doesn't ever happen in any type of PvP ever.

[silvershadows]

2: Nerf the cooldowns on the flash/sting, no ship should be able to rocket in, pop 2 cool downs and become both effectively invincible as well as so blaster powerful, that they can take down a fully upgraded ship in 2 seconds of firing, and then simply rocket away again until the cooldowns are back up, all under the cover of sensor dampening.

 

The Flashfire cannot upgrade its sensors, therefore cannot have any sensor dampening except for the 4000 dampening provided by a companion - hardly worth complaining about, or even having, really.

[Zoom_VI]

The Flashfire cannot upgrade its sensors, therefore cannot have any sensor dampening except for the 4000 dampening provided by a companion - hardly worth complaining about, or even having, really.

 

shouldn't even bother with dampening sensors if we did have them, dampening hardcaps at 15 km well outside the effective range of a FF.

[silvershadows]

shouldn't even bother with dampening sensors if we did have them, dampening hardcaps at 15 km well outside the effective range of a FF.

 

That's why I don't bother running the dampening companion, I like being able to see almost the entire map at once (depending on where my squadmates are).

 

Just pointing out that the scenario listed can't actually happen.

[ptwonline]

shouldn't even bother with dampening sensors if we did have them, dampening hardcaps at 15 km well outside the effective range of a FF.

 

I think the dampening is so your opponent has less time to spot you you once you are in detection range.

 

If they can spot me from 20km out they have a bit of crucial extra time to prepare as opposed to only spotting me from 15 km out as I'm trying to close in quickly on them.

[Lymain]

Sorry, but the upgrades make a HUGE difference, particularly in some combinations and in combination with crew abilities. They make enough difference I'm not really willing to play alts in GSF at this point and I really LIKE GSF. My mid modded ships (pick any 1, I have 4) disintegrate almost immediately against a few of the heavily modded ships (mostly gunships and tier 2 scouts. My mostly unmodded ships on my alts just vanish in a puff of fire and smoke. It's not terribly fun to play that way (well, I expect the people in the really tricked out ships are having fun.)

 

If BW wants people to actually play, they have to cut back on the power of the mods, cut back on what they allow to stack with what and probably remove bypass altogether. Otherwise new people simply aren't going to play and people with alts aren't going to play their alts, either.

 

Fully upgraded ships can be 1-shot with Bypass basically just as easily as un-upgraded ships. I play GSF on 4 different characters, across both factions and two different servers. Despite having played nearly 500 matches, I don't have any mastered ships (only one even close to mastered). Upgrades do make a difference (thank goodness!), but I don't feel worthless on un-upgraded ships at all.

[Puja]

As usual, cross-server PVP (ground and space) would fix this to a great extent.

[Armonddd]

I have no faith in the matchmaking. It doesn't work anywhere else, what makes you think it'll work here. OP combinations of mods and abilities are OP. It really is simple.

 

Speaking from the bottom of the totem pole and/or the top of the pyramid, I don't really think anything is overpowered. Gunships have mechanics issues that go beyond simple numbers issues (my definition of "overpowered"), and nearly everything else seems fine. I understand arguments for burst lasers and bypass being too powerful, but I feel they're balanced by the skill required for close range kills plus the risk of being out-ranged by other classes (in the case of burst lasers) and the possibility of wasting a cooldown (in the case of bypass and other offensive cooldowns)

 

I could see an argument for not letting certain cooldowns be stacked (e.g. if you have a six second distortion field, you can't activate bypass or blaster overcharge for six seconds), with the justification being that the reactor can't push that much power all at once, plus of course some sort of overhaul for gunships, but beyond that I think GSF balance is fine (e.g. fair and interesting).

Edited December 31, 2013 by Armonddd