What should be our next map and game mode?

[Verain]

Nem had some good map ideas way back, I'd like to see some of those. Moving asteroids, so that people can cry about lag even more! Wahaha!

 

The asteroid movement could be independently calculated locally (lagless). Moving asteroids wouldn't be possible to lag into.

 

The problem seems to be that the engine doesn't understand changing terrain, or something?

[Kuciwalker]

Verain, I'm aware of all of those things. However, for "PvE" style objectives in PvP, where you have to destroy an enemy capship or whatever, as long as the defenses are static things like turrets it's not that hard to make them not very exploitable. (Especially if the enemy team is likely to be around to disrupt any exploit you try to use!)

 

Whereas, yes, I completely recognize that a pure-PvE not-on-rails version would not have the same consistency of experience of something like a raid. I just don't care. I want the PvE anyway.

[Ramalina]

What it sounds to me like a lot of people are craving in GSF are:

 

Story: What exactly are we doing here? GSF is quite weak here. Class story or X-wings series style story is clearly beyond the GSF budget, but with the whole Kuat Drive yards mini-expac there would have been a natural fit for answering the question, "why are we doing this."

 

Rational Mission Objectives: I think this is what a lot of the, "more PvE please," requests stem from. What exactly is the strategic and tactical objective of the battle?

 

You don't shoot down enemy pilots just for the sake of shooting them down. You shoot them down because you want to do something and they are an obstacle to doing it. Same for PvE elements. Blowing stuff up for the sake of blowing it up gets old fast, even if the secondary explosions are really pretty.

 

You want something like: Shoot down fighter screen>Destroy particle shield generators>Destroy airdock door control (think drydock, but for spacecraft instead of oceangoing craft, welding underwater ain't easy, neither is welding in hard vacuum) > GOAL stop construction of enemy capital ships at this facility by wrecking the shipbuilding equipment inside the airdock.

 

I realize that Admiral Aygo is really keen on having us fly in circles around unmanned satellites, but I think he must be on some really, uh, interesting medications to believe that this is a useful expenditure of military resources, compared to say, defending the Republic shipbuilding facilities on the Kuat orbital rings.

 

Stronger incentives for team play: The thing about the ground PvP vs GSF and PvE vs GSF is that the simple scripted objectives in GSF aren't that great at helping people learn or desire team play. In group PvE the mechanics FORCE a certain level of team play for all non-trivial content. In PvP this is not true, but some of the objectives have very easy and obvious ways to benefit from team play, and as players get better they can build on that if they want to (though it doesn't happen all that often in PUGs). GSF has more space for teamwork to benefit players than in the ground game I think, but does a poorer job of getting them thinking about that in some ways.

 

If the above are really the desired outcomes, then doing things like capital ship battles, escorts, hardened target bombing, etc. is more feasible because you're not trying for a war simulation, but just trying to provide certain attributes of gameplay experience. Something that is more within grasp of the engine's limitations.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Ramalina

[Itkovian]

I think some type of hardened objective assault/defense (like capital ship) is what would garner most popular support and hype.

 

And it shouldn't be too hard to implement in the current GSF engine, as long as the objective doesn't move.

 

Basically, just make a big capital ship, put it in interesting terrain that blocks long range LOS to some elements (like a huge repair facility), and slap a very big number of very durable targets/turrets on it--each with different defensive qualities that reward different weapon choices, ship classes, and components.

 

This. Most definitely.

 

One particular advantage to such a mode is that it would make bombers actually act as bombers. Load up protorps, go bomb the enemy! Likewise, Strike fighters would play a greater role.

 

In fact I believe there was some datamined info that hinted at a game mode like that. Hopefully that mode wasn't scrapped, but merely put on the back burner.

 

Regardless, I think the single most important update to GSF would be a new game mode to add actual variety to the gameplay.

[Verain]

Map: Something in the flavor of the game mode I listed below.

Game mode: Cap ship battles/assault or shipyard assault/defense.

Alternate game mode: Toning down gunships and battlescouts.

 

I think one of the things is, if they would give us different trays, each tray could have different rules. So you'd have your hangar for game mode A, your hangar for game modes B and C, etc. This could allow the game to launch a game that is "scouts only", using the tray you can only put scouts on, for instance (and if you didn't, well, you wouldn't get that queue pop!)

 

I mean, FPS games have a LOT of variation that we don't see in GSF, but much of it would apply. You have the idea where one character is supercharged and the enemy team gets a bonus for killing him, you have the idea where bases are established and meaningful (and several variations on that), you have capture the flag (and variations on that), etc. We don't see any of that in the current game, but there's space for all of it.

[RDX-TWO]

I would like to see a city like area, why not fighting on the surface in between buildings.

[Fractalsponge]

I'd like to actually fly through the Kuat rings. The number of deaths from engine maneuvers would be hilarious.