Gearing Ships & Alts - A Solution For The Suck?

[Korithras]

Anybody who has played GSF and mastered a ship, then gone back to a fresh alt and played stock again knows how much it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks to level up a fighter like that, once you're used to all of the upgrades you have, on top of the fact that even if you're a skilled pilot, it's next to impossible to compete with enemy mastered fighters.

 

My solution?

 

Initially my gut reaction was just to have fighters be account-wide but faction-specific (i.e. no playing pub GSF then upgrading your imp fighters) but obviously that wouldn't be any fun for anybody.

 

So instead, what if you've mastered a ship on another character, you get either a discount on parts and their upgrades, say, 50% so that for example you want to buy light laser cannons on your stock novadive/blackbolt, and you've mastered it on your main. Instead of costing 2k ship requisition it costs 1k, and all of the subsequent upgrade tiers cost 50% as well.

 

Or, just double the rate and bonus cap of requisition earned for any ship you've already mastered on another character? Before mastery the rate is 500 bonus requisition, so double that to 1,000 and double the rate at which we earn requisition as well?

 

I will say that the fleet requisition prices for buying new ships should stay the same, though. Unlocking the ships and crew members you want should remain unchanged, in order to make it feel like something you're earning.

[nyghtrunner]

I agree that it sucks, but it doesn't bother me that much, and I've started over... Let's see... 10 times now? Maybe 11?

 

Honestly, if I were to make a change along these lines, this would be the change:

If you have a mastered component on a ship type (IE - BLCs on a Sting), when you start with a new toon, and you get the Sting, you can put stock BLCs on the Sting for free. Maybe make it an unlock for fleet req (which theoretically would get people spending more money on Cartel Coins? And I know my main is starting to stockpile both fleet and ship req at an alarming rate... And there will never be anything I can do with it...). The component is still stock, but you don't need to pony up the 2k ship req to unlock the stock component.

 

So to keep with the Sting, if you complete (not master) a Sting, you could put any of the base, T0 components on the Sting for free (or at least, maybe after you've unlocked the legacy bit using fleet req or whatever).

 

That keeps it largely in line with keeping it in the spirit of a stock ship, but you can swap the components around as soon as you get the ship so that you can bring it in line stylistically with your fully upgraded versions without having to grind for a day or so to get those baseline components. You get the ship you like to fly right away, it's just a much weaker version of it. It also gives you something to do with all the useless req you start accumulating after you complete a ship.

[Drakkolich]

I think requisition gain on new characters isn't too bad at the moment, but a slight buff wouldn't upset me in the least.

 

However what I do think needs to happen is the "introduction to starfighter" quest needs to give 10000 fleet req instead of the measely 500 it does now. That way anyone starting a new character could pick up a few ships and crew they like. This would also really help up out the new players because they could instantly try one of each ship type to figure out what they want to fly.

 

When the game first came out last december it was less important to have this fleet req at the starting as there were only 5 possible ships at that time, but now with the total up to 12 I think it's time to give new players and existing ones that are making alts (which is a great time to try new servers with this 12x xp thing) a way to grab a few more ships off the start.

[Pietrastor]

Not making the ships faction-wide was one of biggest mistakes. I only play on my 2 mains and many times wanted to jump into GSF when leveling alts but the thought of naked ships discouraged me heavily

[Muljo_Stpho]

I've run GSF with 4 of my solo characters and with another 4 characters which only do anything in the game paired up with a friend. I ran quite a few matches on all 8 of these characters while the double requisition event was going on in the summer. I may not have mastered anything on any of these characters yet (some are starting to get close on a few ships though) but at the enhanced pace during that event I was able to get most of them (starting from 3 ships) to about 6-8 ships in their hangar and I've got all 12 non-CM options for each faction covered between them as well. The new ship purchases have been MUCH tamer (almost non-existent) for me on any of my characters since that event ended.

 

However what I do think needs to happen is the "introduction to starfighter" quest needs to give 10000 fleet req instead of the measely 500 it does now.

 

The grant with the intro quest is a different one from the weekly. Intro gives 1000. Weekly gives 500. Both numbers are supposed to go up in 3.0 though. The intro's grant will be changed to 5000 so that people can choose one new ship right away.

 

With 3.0 we will also see increases to the ship req grants and to req earned in each match. They're aiming for a 25% boost on the grants (not counting the one from the intro) and a 50% boost in matches. It won't quite be the crazy rate we had in the summer but it will be a lot faster than it is right now.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Muljo_Stpho

[Drakkolich]

I've run GSF with 4 of my solo characters and with another 4 characters which only do anything in the game paired up with a friend. I ran quite a few matches on all 8 of these characters while the double requisition event was going on in the summer. I may not have mastered anything on any of these characters yet (some are starting to get close on a few ships though) but at the enhanced pace during that event I was able to get most of them (starting from 3 ships) to about 6-8 ships in their hangar and I've got all 12 non-CM options for each faction covered between them as well. The new ship purchases have been MUCH tamer (almost non-existent) for me on any of my characters since that event ended.

 

 

 

The grant with the intro quest is a different one from the weekly. Intro gives 1000. Weekly gives 500. Both numbers are supposed to go up in 3.0 though. The intro's grant will be changed to 5000 so that people can choose one new ship right away.

 

With 3.0 we will also see increases to the ship req grants and to req earned in each match. They're aiming for a 25% boost on the grants (not counting the one from the intro) and a 50% boost in matches. It won't quite be the crazy rate we had in the summer but it will be a lot faster than it is right now.

 

Ah yes thanks I didn't notice I had put 500 instead of 1000 for the introduction quest, good eye.

 

I'm very happy they did decide to bump that particular quest grant to 5000, that is something I've been lobbying for, for awhile now. The req boost will be great for new comers or even veteran's that are server hopping. I will definitely be playing on more servers now that I know this is coming.

[zaskar]

The argument is thus: once you enter the hanger your character is the ship not the pilot. You don't get (well, not till last week) any free rides in the rest of the game while leveling a character why should GSF be any different?

 

I agree with this whole heartily, even though I do wish I had faction based hangers when I'm on a an alt and really want my quads & pods sting / flashfire to deal with good gunships. It is just like when you're playing an alt in ground pvp that is not as well geared and you get stomped. You want to switch, but you don't you want the comms.

[zvbm]

I wish at least fleet requisition was legacy wide (account wide even). I've already purchased all the ships and crew on my mains in both factions and no longer have any use for fleet requisition. I'd much rather spend it on unlocks for my alts.

 

This would enable people sufficiently annoyed with gearing alts to cartel coin their way to mastery and maybe encourage more spending on GSF.

 

The rest of the game is more friendly towards alts. You can legacy gear over, mail credits, stims.. anything that's not bound and then there's the legacy unlocks like quick travel and rocket boots which certainly make questing faster. I don't see why GSF can't be somewhat similar.

 

~Zen

[Verain]

Honestly, as a community we've been asking for this sort of stuff for awhile. The best part from a balance perspective is that the GSF objective rewards are going up by 50%, while the tokens only go up by 25%. That's not to say that I want tokens to be devalued, but I do feel that it's a little silly that a whole good game has such a low baseline. If you log on and get 2100 req on a fresh ship, the baseline for that was 700. You got +100% because sub and +100% because fresh ship. That's a pretty low number compared to total req on ships and even compared to the 7400 you get on EVERY ship each week just for the quests, so increasing those numbers from 2100->3150, 700->1050, and 7400->9250 will make things go faster and also shift the reward bracket a bit to punish tunneling a single ship less.

 

 

But the big deal is that our "give everyone a free ship" repeated beg-threads have actually gone answered! By allowing a fleet token that IMMEDIATELY lets you buy a new ship, that's a huge step forward.

 

 

 

Personally? I don't think it quite goes as far as it should, but I don't want to sound like a whiner. I still do think that:

 

1)- Fleet requisition converting to ship requisition should be gated- you have to earn some amount of fleet requisition before that turns on. I would suggest around 6000 total- this means if you play the game and get your fleet token, you will believe (if truenub) that it ONLY buys ships. So you'll buy a ship. Then, when you cross the boundary, you get a pop up letting you spend fleet as ship req. 6000 is low enough- you could almost vault it with your first weekly and your intro to GSF, which together 5750 postpatch, and a couple games will do it, so it shouldn't bother a player who wants to do that with real intention.

 

Reasoning: Much like my strongly worded arguments in favor of making all components unlocked (which briefly is, by putting a cost on them they play a psych game and discourage anyone from experimenting or switching, especially new players to whom 2000 req is a lot), many players will, not understanding, spend 2500 fleet req not unlocking a Rampart or a Quarrel, but instead on level 2 rapid fire laser. Disable this for a brief amount and make it clear that it's supposed to be a thing for ships and crew.

 

2)- What gameplay do new ships having 5000 fleet req cost offer? When the type 3s launched, I immediate-purchased them- most of us on the forums did. We had fleet req lying around for that purpose. For us they were cool new things. What value does gating 9-10 of the twelve ships behind such extraordinary costs?

Halve the costs of all of the ships.

The costs didn't add much gameplay or pooling to actual players of this game- we have tons of fleet req with no outlet, so no depth or strategy, and the casual players it is this giant hump. Is there some middle area served well by this? I think it must be thin, because I keep seeing two-shippers.

 

3)- Randomize some (10%ish) rewards. Sometimes you should win a battle and be given a token or extra stuff or something. The average effect of the bonus can be small, as long as the peak rewards can be substantial.

 

4)- Baseline armor piercing on every weapon that can talent it, and reduce their damage by like 8%, then have a talent that gives you 8% damage instead of the current armor piercing talent- such that a mastered version of the weapon talented for armor piercing on live is unchanged, a mastered version that doesn't select armor piercing on live instead has that, but deals less base damage, and the unmastered ones deal less damage but pierce armor. And if you think 8% is way too low- that's unquestionably around the budget the devs have for it.

[Ryuku-sama]

Honestly, as a community we've been asking for this sort of stuff for awhile. The best part from a balance perspective is that the GSF objective rewards are going up by 50%, while the tokens only go up by 25%. That's not to say that I want tokens to be devalued, but I do feel that it's a little silly that a whole good game has such a low baseline. If you log on and get 2100 req on a fresh ship, the baseline for that was 700. You got +50% because sub and +100% on objectives and kills/assists, not on time passed in the match because fresh ship. That's a pretty low number compared to total req on ships and even compared to the 7400 you get on EVERY ship each week just for the quests, so increasing those numbers from 2100->3150, 700->1050, and 7400->9250 will make things go faster and also shift the reward bracket a bit to punish tunneling a single ship less.

 

So if you get 2100, you probably got 1100 maybe 1200 depending on the length of the match and your participation.

[Verain]

Ah, gotcha.

 

Either way the number on a ship once the bonus is gone is always surprisingly low to me.

[Ryuku-sama]

Ah, gotcha.

 

Either way the number on a ship once the bonus is gone is always surprisingly low to me.

 

Yup.... I love the double req event.. that was a gain rate enjoyable that didn't feel like a grind.