Encouraging the newbies

[BoushhDC]

I have a great solition for this and it's take it outside the game because BioWare has abandoned GSF.

 

I came up with a good way to do this.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=760146

 

Sorry about the person that crapped all over the thread. I don't know if it was that or genuine lack of interest but I did not get the 10 mentors I needed to sit down and code the thing. Maybe I need to revisit it.

 

I like your approach. To wax nostalgic for a moment, it reminds me a little of First Fleet, from JTL in SWG, but that was a different time and players were different / had different expectations and levels of commitment in a game. You take more of a long view which is more rare than it used to be.

[Daekarus]

Interesting discussion. As a GSF noob, I have a few comments:

1) Based on my limited experience, there is no matchmaking. It is extremely common for me to see a Pub lineup of mostly 2-ship players with the occasional 3-4 shipper. Opposing this are Imperial teams with 3-5 ships each. The ensuing slaughter is pretty unavoidable. Why there are more Pub noobs than Imps on during the morning EST is anyone's guess.

2) I'd have to agree that Conquest is contributing to GSF queue pops. I wouldn't be doing it without that motivation.

3) Upgrading all defenses or all weapons first seems illogical to me. Since the price of upgrades seems to increase beyond T1, I am getting everything to T1 first, then T2, etc.

4) Giving the Novadive as the default Scout and NOT giving it the ability to mount decent dogfighting missiles was a totally boneheaded design move. Rockets are fine against defense turrets or the occasional stationary gunship, but they're useless against 75% of the targets on the map.

[SammyGStatus]

They should learn as I have - Alex and tsukuyomi fire waves of broken ion at you

[zaskar]

Interesting discussion. As a GSF noob, I have a few comments:

4) Giving the Novadive as the default Scout and NOT giving it the ability to mount decent dogfighting missiles was a totally boneheaded design move. Rockets are fine against defense turrets or the occasional stationary gunship, but they're useless against 75% of the targets on the map.

 

You're so not right. Ignore the animation they act just like lasers do. Here is how you you pods.

 

1. Get an angle on target, between 15 and 30 degrees off plane works great on anything, especially gunships and bombers

 

2. Tap your laser to check your aim.

 

3. If you got numbers hold down both buttons and fire missiles and lasers at the same time at the target

 

4. Rinse, repeat until everything around you is dead

Edited September 23, 2014 by zaskar

[Ryuku-sama]

Interesting discussion. As a GSF noob, I have a few comments:

1) Based on my limited experience, there is no matchmaking. It is extremely common for me to see a Pub lineup of mostly 2-ship players with the occasional 3-4 shipper. Opposing this are Imperial teams with 3-5 ships each. The ensuing slaughter is pretty unavoidable. Why there are more Pub noobs than Imps on during the morning EST is anyone's guess.

Considering the bads 5-shippers and great pilots' new alts with two ships.. That's false.

2) I'd have to agree that Conquest is contributing to GSF queue pops. I wouldn't be doing it without that motivation.

3) Upgrading all defenses or all weapons first seems illogical to me. Since the price of upgrades seems to increase beyond T1, I am getting everything to T1 first, then T2, etc.

T1-T2 engine and shield are more important than anything else. After that would come Your thruster, reactor and armor, than T3 engine and shield. Then everything else.

4) Giving the Novadive as the default Scout and NOT giving it the ability to mount decent dogfighting missiles was a totally boneheaded design move. Rockets are fine against defense turrets or the occasional stationary gunship, but they're useless against 75% of the targets on the map.

Rocket pods are useful against everything.. problem is they aren't newb friendly.

[Daekarus]

You're so not right. Ignore the animation they act just like lasers do. Here is how you you pods.

 

1. Get an angle on target, between 15 and 30 degrees off plane works great on anything, especially gunships and bombers

 

2. Tap your laser to check your aim.

 

3. If you got numbers hold down both buttons and fire missiles and lasers at the same time at the target

 

4. Rinse, repeat until everything around you is dead

 

See, stuff like this is why so many people try GSF and quit. IGNORE THE ANIMATION THAT SHOWS THE PATH OF FHE PROJECTILE. Just like the tracking penalties that are pretty opaque, not explained, and are unintuitive. It's like BW wanted the barrier of entry to be stupidly high on purpose.

 

Still, thanks for the tip. I'll use my lasers like tracer rounds and totally ignore the rocket animations from here on out.

[Ryuku-sama]

See, stuff like this is why so many people try GSF and quit. IGNORE THE ANIMATION THAT SHOWS THE PATH OF FHE PROJECTILE. Just like the tracking penalties that are pretty opaque, not explained, and are unintuitive. It's like BW wanted the barrier of entry to be stupidly high on purpose.

 

Still, thanks for the tip. I'll use my lasers like tracer rounds and totally ignore the rocket animations from here on out.

 

One thing. Pods won't hit if you aren't dead center or under Wingman.

[Daekarus]

Considering the bads 5-shippers and great pilots' new alts with two ships.. That's false.

I see where you're coming from and concede that such things are possible, but the results I've been seeing support the general correlation of ship count with skill. Moreover, the match results and my observation of obviously-standout players show very very significant disparity in player performance that would make an Elo system freak out. If there IS an Elo-based matchmaker, the parameters are set so broadly as to be useless in modulating player experiences.

[zaskar]

See, stuff like this is why so many people try GSF and quit. IGNORE THE ANIMATION THAT SHOWS THE PATH OF FHE PROJECTILE. Just like the tracking penalties that are pretty opaque, not explained, and are unintuitive. It's like BW wanted the barrier of entry to be stupidly high on purpose.

 

Still, thanks for the tip. I'll use my lasers like tracer rounds and totally ignore the rocket animations from here on out.

 

It's not the path really, it's the animation takes time and if you notice the animation and the numbers almost never sync. You need up dead waiting for something that in most cases happened two or three seconds before you see it.

[Daekarus]

It's not the path really, it's the animation takes time and if you notice the animation and the numbers almost never sync. You need up dead waiting for something that in most cases happened two or three seconds before you see it.

 

Oh, I understand what you're getting at. It's just VERY weird for someone who played Privateer, Freelancer, TIE Fighter, Freespace 2...

 

Even EVE Online has animations that match up, even if you don't manually aim. Throws me for a loop, but I'll get used to it.

[Jenovan]

As a relative newbie (I'm one of those who just started playing GSF because of Conquest, but found myself enjoying it more than expected), I thank those who have taken the time to write up (deliciously extensive) guides, offer advice (even the arguments that come up about said advice are educational ), and answer questions. The learning curve is pretty intense, but reading up on stuff here reminds me that it's not insurmountable. (Well, generally speaking. For me specifically, that has yet to be determined. )

 

Try to find other ways to contribute beyond just kills and assists. Use a type 1 scout to make a fast run to a satellite at the start of the match.

Hey, that's me! I may get squished a lot, but I'll cap a sat for you at game start, and/or die trying!

 

As far as focusing on defense vs. offense for your early purchases, I think I may have to side with defense. Getting kills is a big mood booster, for sure, but staying alive, learning how to break locks and how not to engine-maneuver into rocks, feels more like progress, IMO. My first 0 deaths match was quite exciting! Not dying meant I got more kills and assists (and medals), too. Whatever motivates you, though! If successfully blowing things up keeps you queueing, and therefore playing and learning, so be it.

 

The last thing I want to mention is attitude. Go in with the determination to do your best, no matter what the situation. Think of a mismatch as a learning opportunity. Try to keep your focus up. Quitting in the middle of a match, or just sitting at the spawn point to finish the daily or to get conquest points is a waste of your time and the time of your teammates. If my side loses a TDM 25 to 50, but I get 8 kills and 5 deaths, I fell like I have performed as best I could and made a fight out of it. If my side loses a domination match, but my bomber has beaten off an enemy attack on a satellite, I feel like I did something. But even if it is 0 kills and 9 deaths, I always try.

Couldn't agree more. I may have an objectively awful match, but at this early point in my piloting, every single match is a learning experience. Sometimes frustrating, but I've never felt like it would be impossible to do better.

 

So... thanks for the encouragement, and apologies to those on Ebon Hawk Pub-side in the evenings who get saddled with Maelos on your team. I'm trying to be less terrible!