So excited for Tuesday...!

[Xakthul]

My real question is: Will anybody actually use bombers outside of Domination? Area denial and utility aren't worth a flying sh*t if you can't get away when somebody realizes you're the one hitting them. Same thing with Gunships. I mean, they do nice damage and everything, but then the IMMA CHARGING MY LAZOR bit makes sure somebody's gonna kill you.

[Itkovian]

My real question is: Will anybody actually use bombers outside of Domination? Area denial and utility aren't worth a flying sh*t if you can't get away when somebody realizes you're the one hitting them. Same thing with Gunships. I mean, they do nice damage and everything, but then the IMMA CHARGING MY LAZOR bit makes sure somebody's gonna kill you.

 

I believe drones will still be very useful, I'm sure the fights will still concentrate in certain areas, and bombers will learn to gravitate there.

 

And with their utilities, hanging around YOUR bombers is also a good idea, which creates a concentration of numbers, which leads to hot spots, making bombers useful. Or maybe they'll be useless in TDM and people will just fly something else, but hopefully that's not the case.

 

Either way, I'm looking forward to tuesday. The new hangar area alone has me salivating.

[Fractalsponge]

My real question is: Will anybody actually use bombers outside of Domination? Area denial and utility aren't worth a flying sh*t if you can't get away when somebody realizes you're the one hitting them. Same thing with Gunships. I mean, they do nice damage and everything, but then the IMMA CHARGING MY LAZOR bit makes sure somebody's gonna kill you.

 

Too early to tell on bombers. I can guarantee gunships will be used a lot in deathmatch though. The big glowing charge up ball means you're by default within sensor range, since dampening is currently broken, and so it's not really any different than in domination in terms of "gunship visible to opponents." How well gunships can consistently do in deathmatch will probably depend on coordination. I can see a lot of hide and seek with gunship stacking premade teams - my guess is for 2x scout and 2x gunship.

[Xakthul]

Too early to tell on bombers. I can guarantee gunships will be used a lot in deathmatch though. The big glowing charge up ball means you're by default within sensor range, since dampening is currently broken, and so it's not really any different than in domination in terms of "gunship visible to opponents." How well gunships can consistently do in deathmatch will probably depend on coordination. I can see a lot of hide and seek with gunship stacking premade teams - my guess is for 2x scout and 2x gunship.

 

I'm an all- Gunship player, atm, and I'm obviously gonna try Bomber. I'd say we'd get teams stacking GSs and Bombers, with a couple scouts thrown in.

[Davionix]

I cant wait to fly my minelayer. Bombers can be useful in setting up a perimeter around gunships in addition to area denial as well. Lay those mines and turrets around gunship and scouts will think twice before boosting towards the first glow they see if they dont want to drop down like flies attracted to bug zappers.

[Verain]

I think bombers will have some utility in death match. The dronelayer is a guaranteed winner, because it's a death match and he has a heal button. A dronelayer somewhere defensible makes an area that injured ships will fly back to.

 

The minelayer I just don't know enough about yet. I believe he can use his burst combo to land kills, but I think most scouts will have to be stupid to fall for that, and he is still mostly stuck to an object.

[Coldcrush]

I think bombers will have some utility in death match. The dronelayer is a guaranteed winner, because it's a death match and he has a heal button. A dronelayer somewhere defensible makes an area that injured ships will fly back to.

 

The minelayer I just don't know enough about yet. I believe he can use his burst combo to land kills, but I think most scouts will have to be stupid to fall for that, and he is still mostly stuck to an object.

 

This is exactly what I will be doing as the two bombers. The Razorwire will be for satellite control in Domination and The Legion will be for Repair/Ammuniton restock from a safe area surrounded by mines and a missle sentry. (I am guessing a railgun sentry would broadcast its position with a light show much like a gunship).

Edited February 3, 2014 by Coldcrush

[Luneward]

I think bombers will have some utility in death match. The dronelayer is a guaranteed winner, because it's a death match and he has a heal button. A dronelayer somewhere defensible makes an area that injured ships will fly back to.

 

The minelayer I just don't know enough about yet. I believe he can use his burst combo to land kills, but I think most scouts will have to be stupid to fall for that, and he is still mostly stuck to an object.

 

Maybe. We'll see. Just keep in mind to be able to deploy repair drones and hyperspace beacon that you have to sacrifice some of your personal defense and mobility. And in death match, a utility bomber is probably going to be easy pickings for gunships or medium range strikes.

[Nemarus]

I also believe Bombers will mainly be flown only in Domination. While the idea of a "repair center" is neat, I think it would make itself too big a target. And without a missile-evade ability or cover in Deathmatch, Bombers can easily be ranged down.

 

As for Gunships, I'm not sure. In Domination, Gunships benefit from the fact that they know the space around a satellite will be a target-rich environment, so they can set up an advantageous position. And if someone does come hunting for them, it means they are not on the satellite, which itself is beneficial to their team.

 

But in Deathmatch, there is no guarantee of where the target-rich environment could be, so Gunships may have to do a lot more traveling to keep within 15km of potential targets. And once it comes in range, my guess is any experienced team will instantly swarm-kill it the moment they detect it--it's likely going to be an easier kill than a Scout.

 

In the end I think playing a Gunship in Deathmatch will be a high-risk / high-reward proposition. There's a chance that you could come up on a furball of distracted dogfighters and quickly rack up a bunch of kills before you get aggro. But there's an equal chance that your first railgun shot is your last (if you even get one off), in which case the best you can hope for is to get a single kill before you die.

 

In other words, a great/lucky Gunship could win a Deathmatch for your team if they rack up a high K/D ratio. A sucky/unlucky Gunship could be the whole reason your team loses if they just keep respawning to get killed before doing much damage.

 

That's the interesting thing about Deathmatch. Even an excellent premade can be undone if the rest of their team is being farmed.

[DEATHICIDE]

I am also really excited for these upcoming changes to the game!!

I love the changes to the shield piercing and crew ability, and for sure support the charge changes on the gunships! This alone will improve game quality a tonne to me.

 

The ONE thing that I am not looking forward to is the power-ups they placed in the Deathmatch arena.

 

We don't need to be chasing damage boosters and playing the game of whoever finds the most easter eggs wins.

 

This should be my build vs yours.

 

Having said that, I am most concerned with squadrons flying in formation and picking off random solo players for cheap points, and in that scenario, powerups could tip the scales a little in favor of the prey as the hunters are likely to make the kill regardless, but the hunted may be able to counter with a powerup if they get lucky.

 

That in mind, I would still rather see the DM absent of pickups, that is what the bomber players are for anyways, right?

 

Damage pickups just turn game play into partial easter egging + seeing who can temporarily spam OP damage with them the most often.

 

If they just have to put these in, I would strongly suggest they do what some other power-up games have done: start with little power ups like extra ammo and a minor health boost for example, then stick the high power damage and invincibility style ones in on a timer that only makes these select powerups available near the end of long running matches to be used as possible tie breaker, rather than a focal point of game play.

 

PvP = Fun, easter egg spam = old and lame.

 

I think all the old school FPS players will agree that the maps in games that were the most fun were the maps that had minimal health and ammo pickups and a very rare spawn of a special pick up.

 

Here's hoping GSF follows suit.

[Nemarus]

I think the power-ups are there purely to ensure that mobility-based builds still have a value. Scouts and Strikes both have built-in speed compared to the other classes, and they're balanced around that. But if there's little reason/need to go fast, then that advantage is lessened.

 

Granted, speed has plenty of advantages besides just going for power-ups, but I think it's there to just tip the scales.

[Kaivers]

I also believe Bombers will mainly be flown only in Domination. While the idea of a "repair center" is neat, I think it would make itself too big a target. And without a missile-evade ability or cover in Deathmatch, Bombers can easily be ranged down.

 

Well there's nothing stopping anyone from setting up a "repair center" in the range of cap ship turrets. Lol.

 

I can't wait for the ingenious camping thats going to become commonplace with 2.6. While dogfighters will be dogfighting....campfighters will be campfighting.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Kaivers

[Armonddd]

Nemarus, you're right that TDM won't have obvious points of high activity... at first. As people start to learn the terrain and the spawn points of powerups (assuming they don't spawn entirely randomly), fights will begin to converge on those points.

 

Look for where the enemy gains an advantage, look for where the enemy compensates for a disadvantage, look for where the enemy must go, and look for where the enemy wants to go: it is in these places that you will find him.

[Kain_Turinbar]

Nemarus, you're right that TDM won't have obvious points of high activity... at first. As people start to learn the terrain and the spawn points of powerups (assuming they don't spawn entirely randomly), fights will begin to converge on those points.

 

Look for where the enemy gains an advantage, look for where the enemy compensates for a disadvantage, look for where the enemy must go, and look for where the enemy wants to go: it is in these places that you will find him.

 

I think a lot of these points will form around good sniping spots for Gunships where they can just barely get LoS on people to hit them.

 

I can see now why shield piercing was nerfed a little....whereas in domination if you injred someone and they were dead set on running away you could let them and it was a win now it will be a priority to finish them.........or else they will come back again fully healed at some point. I think they wanted to enhance this aspect with the reduction to shield piercing.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Kain_Turinbar

[Davionix]

I already have some points in my mind for setting up "pit stop" for deathmatch with my bombers where you can make the greatest use of mines without exposing yourself to gunship fire.

 

As a gunship you can be the ultimate bait at deathmatch, just aoe ion a swarm of pilots to get the aggro and turn around and boost to the nearest mine field deployed by a friendly bomber

Edited February 3, 2014 by Davionix

[Zharik]

I think a lot of these points will form around good sniping spots for Gunships where they can just barely get LoS on people to hit them.

 

I can see now why shield piercing was nerfed a little....whereas in domination if you injred someone and they were dead set on running away you could let them and it was a win now it will be a priority to finish them.........or else they will come back again fully healed at some point. I think they wanted to enhance this aspect with the reduction to shield piercing.

 

Ironically I think this is the exact reason they didn't need to nerf shield piercing. Think about the current game, the only way to fix your hull is a once a minute repair for like 245 hull (iirc). That made shield piercing even more valuable because when you respawned, you knew the guy who killed you was almost dead. Pick your heavy laser fighter and go get an easy kill. With repair points determined by another player, you can't get that easy kill as easily...

 

And yet they nerfed shield piercing anyway, hrmm.

[Brewski]

I already have some points in my mind for setting up "pit stop" for deathmatch with my bombers where you can make the greatest use of mines without exposing yourself to gunship fire.

 

As a gunship you can be the ultimate bait at deathmatch, just aoe ion a swarm of pilots to get the aggro and turn around and boost to the nearest mine field deployed by a friendly bomber

 

A pair of bombers, with one mine layer and one drone layer, could make a very effective spawn point in the middle of the battlefield. If you figure the mine layer puts down a defensive perimeter with mines and keeps a hyperspace beacon going, and the drone layer adds to the defensive perimeter while keeping a repair drone up, you can basically create a mobile platform for your dog-fighters to respawn, rearm and repair at, giving you a huge advantage in a TDM as well as Domination.

 

Such a strategy would require cover as well to keep it from being cleared by gunships or EMP wielding strikers/scouts, so it would require a high degree of coordination, but properly executed it could be devastating.

[Davionix]

A pair of bombers, with one mine layer and one drone layer, could make a very effective spawn point in the middle of the battlefield. If you figure the mine layer puts down a defensive perimeter with mines and keeps a hyperspace beacon going, and the drone layer adds to the defensive perimeter while keeping a repair drone up, you can basically create a mobile platform for your dog-fighters to respawn, rearm and repair at, giving you a huge advantage in a TDM as well as Domination.

 

Such a strategy would require cover as well to keep it from being cleared by gunships or EMP wielding strikers/scouts, so it would require a high degree of coordination, but properly executed it could be devastating.

 

I believe that even though TDM does not have sats with turrets but maps are still the same so you can still find some locations that are easy to fortify than open space and just tell your team members to come there when they need repairs & ressupplies.

 

Just have to cross your fingers and hope you get put in the same game as smart pilots and not the space cowboys that blindly chase red dots