some suggestions.....

[dancezwithnubz]

herewith some suggestions for GSF.

 

1. built in VOIP chat system that players can use to communicate amongst themselves in a match. this would have the immediate effect of reducing the overwhelming power of premade teams using VOIP.

 

2. a 'wingman' utility. Players can designate themselves as 'wingman' for another teammate (their 'lead"). you get a second targeting box which shows you info about your lead and a green arrow around teh HUD to show their position relative to you. The ability to target your lead's target or the last opponent to attack your lead would be great for promoting co-operative play. you should be able to switch leads at re-spawn.

 

3. a MASSIVE requisition bonus on the Public Test Server. I'd be happy to come and fly on the PTS to test GSF upgrades. But i'm far from happy with the idea of 'earning' requisition at the same rate as on a full game server. c'mon BioWare, players on the PTS are doing YOU a favor, help us to help you. seriously, multiply requisition gains by x100,000 or give every PTS character a daily +500k Fleet Requisition token. let us cap out components quickly so we can test them quickly so we can give you feedback quickly so you can fix the (few) problems in GSF quickly and roll out a better game quickly. Capiche?

 

4: Strike fighters are currently the red-haired, freckled cousins with buck-teeth, eczema and halitosis in the hanger bays. with zero evasion, they're sitting ducks for gunships and with limited mobility, they're sitting ducks for scouts. with no way of stacking accuracy to counter the evasion of gunships and scouts, strikes are just getting screwed every which way until Sunday. I've tried to love strikes. I've spent a TON of requisition on strikes and I'm sorry, but there's just no love there.

 

5: The current requisition awards scheme could do with a little tweaking. New players coming into GSF have a steep enough learning curve trying to battle against subs who've had time to master a ship or two (or three or four....) without being further discouraged by earning ~300 requisition in a match.

 

6: A 'free-for-all' lobby. while waiting for a team-match to start, how about the option of entering a Lobby (giant empty area of space) with other players in the queue. you get a random ship with random components at random upgrade levels and just have at each other. no scores kept. once there are enough players for a match, POP, off you go.

 

7. re-work some of the current space missions to use GSF ships & controls. give completely new players the chance to practice some skills before throwing them up against fully capped out aces with 500+ matches of experience behind them.

 

just some thoughts for a Tuesday.

 

 

edit, 8. Maps. we need more maps. badly. very badly.

Edited January 28, 2014 by dancezwithnubz

[Zharik]

1. Don't stop at VOIP for GSF, use if for ALL group-finder stuff too...

2. Like it, I like it a lot, kinda like a focus target

3. I don't pay a monthly fee to test your patches let alone have to GRIND to do so?!?!?

4. Strikes don't need a total rework, in my humble opinion. I'd actually like to see some more built in damage reduction (or other defensive utility) since they don't get armor choices? And their "stock offense" is pretty boring too (no systems to boost themselves with, just more freedom to pick situational weapons). Point is that they need some tweaking, yes.

5. Honestly I think the requisition earning rate is about right, though it DOES suck if you get stuck on a crappy team vs a pre-made, maybe (better) bonuses for earning your side's MVPs when you lose?

6. Ummm I'd rather them focus on more important things... though I would LOVE to have the ability to take some people into a "flight school" style map where the group leader could assign teams and teach my Guildies how to fly... (no reqs earned of course)

7. See my #6

8. AND MORE GAME MODES!

[mr_sim]

1. Agreed though make it opt in so the introverts out there can Ignore it and not whine about it, and players who do use it will see who has it active.

 

2. So basically focus target from the ground game and maybe a blue arrow with optional distance range finder. You could conceivably use it on enemies too, where the it only gives data if you have them on sensors. Alt+F in the ground game BTW.

 

3. Decent idea for a PTS reward.

 

4. This is it's own thread by itself. Short answer:

- We need bombers in game first before we can balance anything, with one exception. We can balance distortion field now, have it apply an accuracy debuff to the user, then it can't be used offensively but still 100% good defensively.

- You misunderstand GS, they suck when their attacker is short range and dominate when they are far away. In fact Strikers have a huge advantage over scouts when GS are shooting.

 

5. I have no opinion on what you said, I do believe the game has already matured and the requisition/objective points are still immature comparatively.

 

6. It would be nice. Truthfully I'd rather see Biowares apparently overly limited time applied to a few dozen other things first. Maybe on hiring a few more people to develop the game that just made 100+ million dollars 2013 and rumor is that was just the F2P side and not subscriber fees too.

 

7. See answer to number 6.

 

8. See answer to number 6 from a different perspective, they are working on it. I've seen one of the death match maps it's not the same as the domination one, but efficiently uses already developed mats and textures to quickly give us a new map.

Edited January 28, 2014 by mr_sim

[mr_sim]

Lol just read Zhariks post, almost said the same things Haha.

[okiobe]

Agreed on most points, especially #5. I would also like to see changes with req earned by those at the bottom of the scoreboard. I can see a lot of players quitting because they don't see enjoyment earning only 100-200 req a match. Especially compared to the top performers earning 1.5k req a match. Even a basic 1000 credit upgrade would take 5-10 matches to earn. Without the sub bonus the difference will be even worse.

Naive solution: Have a minimum 300-350 req for non-AFKers who are trying.

Edited January 28, 2014 by okiobe

[mr_sim]

BTW if it isn't in the game already. there is a system on the PTS right now that essentially flags you afk only it's more like Away From Useful.

 

I got it with no choice as there was a bug that made everyone invisible. I didn't gt booted but you are identified.

[Kaivers]

I know there's Sensor beacon but do Scouts have anything like a tracking beacon? Something they can fire to call out and track a high priority target like a Bomber, Gunship or Ace?

[HoloGrinder]

herewith some suggestions for GSF.

 

1. built in VOIP chat system that players can use to communicate amongst themselves in a match. this would have the immediate effect of reducing the overwhelming power of premade teams using VOIP.

 

2. a 'wingman' utility. Players can designate themselves as 'wingman' for another teammate (their 'lead"). you get a second targeting box which shows you info about your lead and a green arrow around teh HUD to show their position relative to you. The ability to target your lead's target or the last opponent to attack your lead would be great for promoting co-operative play. you should be able to switch leads at re-spawn.

 

3. a MASSIVE requisition bonus on the Public Test Server. I'd be happy to come and fly on the PTS to test GSF upgrades. But i'm far from happy with the idea of 'earning' requisition at the same rate as on a full game server. c'mon BioWare, players on the PTS are doing YOU a favor, help us to help you. seriously, multiply requisition gains by x100,000 or give every PTS character a daily +500k Fleet Requisition token. let us cap out components quickly so we can test them quickly so we can give you feedback quickly so you can fix the (few) problems in GSF quickly and roll out a better game quickly. Capiche?

 

4: Strike fighters are currently the red-haired, freckled cousins with buck-teeth, eczema and halitosis in the hanger bays. with zero evasion, they're sitting ducks for gunships and with limited mobility, they're sitting ducks for scouts. with no way of stacking accuracy to counter the evasion of gunships and scouts, strikes are just getting screwed every which way until Sunday. I've tried to love strikes. I've spent a TON of requisition on strikes and I'm sorry, but there's just no love there.

 

5: The current requisition awards scheme could do with a little tweaking. New players coming into GSF have a steep enough learning curve trying to battle against subs who've had time to master a ship or two (or three or four....) without being further discouraged by earning ~300 requisition in a match.

 

6: A 'free-for-all' lobby. while waiting for a team-match to start, how about the option of entering a Lobby (giant empty area of space) with other players in the queue. you get a random ship with random components at random upgrade levels and just have at each other. no scores kept. once there are enough players for a match, POP, off you go.

 

7. re-work some of the current space missions to use GSF ships & controls. give completely new players the chance to practice some skills before throwing them up against fully capped out aces with 500+ matches of experience behind them.

 

just some thoughts for a Tuesday.

 

 

edit, 8. Maps. we need more maps. badly. very badly.

 

I agree with everything you just said!

All I would add is please address the imbalance between the republic and the empire in as far as one side almost always wins.

And secondly give strike fighters the option to link there primary weapons and fire them together taking the drain for both together as well when they do and they will come into there own. Not as fast and agile as a scout and lacking the range of a gunship but absolutely devastating if they can draw a bead on you in range.

[HoloGrinder]

BTW if it isn't in the game already. there is a system on the PTS right now that essentially flags you afk only it's more like Away From Useful.

 

I got it with no choice as there was a bug that made everyone invisible. I didn't gt booted but you are identified.

 

AFK flag is good but "away from useful" is a slippery slope. All new players are away from useful at first and get more useful as they play more. I have even been in my (1 box from mastered) sting and my whole team was new players in stock ships and we where against a tipple premade with 12 mastered ships flying against us and I even felt "away from useful" the whole time regardless of how many corpses I threw at them. I guess it would all be in how you would define away from useful. If it means afk it's fine but if it means spawning 50% of the match and blowing up the other 50% I can't fault a disadvantaged new player that way.

[HoloGrinder]

I know there's Sensor beacon but do Scouts have anything like a tracking beacon? Something they can fire to call out and track a high priority target like a Bomber, Gunship or Ace?

 

Excellent idea as it adds depth and strategy.

[Sirdannik]

All I would add is please address the imbalance between the republic and the empire in as far as one side almost always wins.

 

one side almost always wins because on any given server, one side is going to have more pilots queue more often (thus have more potential ace pilots and more pilots with upgraded ships). Other than minor crew member passive ability differences between imperials and republic crews, the only imbalance is skill. So I disagree with this wholeheartedly. Getting some tweaking to the empire crew members' passives would be nice, it isn't that much of a game changer though.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

4: Strike fighters are currently the red-haired, freckled cousins with buck-teeth, eczema and halitosis in the hanger bays. with zero evasion, they're sitting ducks for gunships and with limited mobility, they're sitting ducks for scouts. with no way of stacking accuracy to counter the evasion of gunships and scouts, strikes are just getting screwed every which way until Sunday. I've tried to love strikes. I've spent a TON of requisition on strikes and I'm sorry, but there's just no love there.

 

I agree that strikers need some work although I haven't found them as helpless to gunships as you describe. I don't find the lack of evasion to be a significant problem and don't feel I need any. I will grant they need an improvement to mobility (which would effectively improve the striker's ability to manually take evasive action).

 

Worth noting Type 2 strikers do get the armor component so they can stack evasion but Type 1 strikers get reactors instead. IMO both strikers should get armor and reactor components because those components are tied greatly to the effectiveness of shield components (if you have the armor component 2/3 of your shield options can't be brought to maximum efficiency). So far as I can tell there is no balance reason why one type of striker gets an armor component and the other gets a reactor component.

 

I also think they should get a systems component that allows them to stack passive accuracy at a minimum of a 1:2 accuracy:evasion ratio. As an additional effect it would lessen the tracking penalty of their blasters and effectively give a DPS buff to weapons with high tracking penalties by decreasing misses when firing off center. There should also be a component here that improves missiles so Type 2 strikers equally benefit (perhaps slightly shorter lock on time/larger firing arc and/or buff to range).

Edited January 28, 2014 by Gavin_Kelvar

[Zharik]

I know there's Sensor beacon but do Scouts have anything like a tracking beacon? Something they can fire to call out and track a high priority target like a Bomber, Gunship or Ace?

 

I'd rather see this than be able to ID an enemy by NAME... (Why can we see enemy names?)

[dancezwithnubz]

sweet! we're getting some good discussion happening! hopefully Devs might glance at this thread.

 

All I would add is please address the imbalance between the republic and the empire in as far as one side almost always wins.

 

the 'imbalance' you're seeing is mainly due to Organisation. Put simply, republic players seem to have gotten their collective acts together and have organised themselves into pre-made teams with VOIP comms.

 

My idea 1 (built-in VOIP) will remove this advantage for pre-mades.

 

there is no way to address any perceived skill imbalance beyond getting people to play enough to get over that learning curve.

[RebekahWSD]

I'd only support in game VOIP if there's an ignore/permanent mute option on day one.

 

Otherwise it will quickly devolve into a cesspool of trolls. I don't want to have to take he time to weed out the same people at the start of each match.

[Zoom_VI]

the 'imbalance' you're seeing is mainly due to Organisation. Put simply, republic players seem to have gotten their collective acts together and have organised themselves into pre-made teams with VOIP comms.

 

My idea 1 (built-in VOIP) will remove this advantage for pre-mades.

 

there is no way to address any perceived skill imbalance beyond getting people to play enough to get over that learning curve.

 

LoL, k, so pubs are always premading, that must be it...

 

On another note empire is dominant on nearly all servers for ground pvp. So I guess ground imps are always premading too?

 

The stuff people convince themselves of....