How do they do it ?

[AlrikFassbauer]

Hello,

 

I guess thatz I'm just BAD.

 

I just cannot get enough kills or how it is called in English. (I play SWTOR in German language.) I mean, when you look at the summary at the end of the match, some people have far more kills than others. When I'm able to get a few, they get 27 or so.

 

How do they do it ? Am I'Äm really THAT bad ? (I guess so.) Or do they[]/i] just have better RL equipment ? Better mice, keyboards etc. ?

 

Plus, I also asume that I'm just too old for that now. I'm between 40-50 years old now, and I'm not that agile anymore like any 20-year-old player.

All I can count on is what I had learned through playing Xö-Wing & TIE Fighter in the 90s - and that was quite a hefty training !

 

But still - I'm very much frustrated that I get only sop few medals. What am I doing wrong ? And what can I do to get more kills in any match ?

 

(And please don't tell me that kills don't count - because I *alw<ys*

see those with the biggest number of kills gettingthe biggest number of medals ...)

 

Another thing is this : Why do others ALWAYS get the kill count when I was the one actually destroying the opponent's ship ?

 

Alrik

[Danalon]

Getting lots of kills depends on different factors. Your skill, skill of your team, skill of the other team, gear, luck.

 

To get more medals you should know what actions award medals. Here's a list. List is missing savior medal for 4k repairs.

As you see, killing enemies only awards 4 medals. In deathmatch mode you can get up to 10 medals for killing or assisting enemies and damage dealt.

 

RL equipment can help a lot, and so can graphic settings. When playing GSF I usually set shaders on low because the bloom effects is irritating me. I also turn down the dpi on my mouse for better aiming. I use mouse buttons to switch between energy modes isntead of F1-F4.

 

As you can't see if someone else in your team does damage to an enemy it might sometimes feels like you destroyed the ship but actually someone else did.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Danalon

[Asbetos]

How long have you been playing? People that get that many kills tend to have at least a 1000 games under their belt. Don't give up, read some tutorials around here, ask those pilots for tips, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and you might just get there.

 

The age and reflexes might be a set-back, but it isn't necessarily so. Ive watched my father (40+ at the time) do amazingly well in another FPS.

[Fractalsponge]

Have you greatly reduced your mouse sensitivity? That is the only structural reason I can think of that might strongly limit your potential performance. The twitchiness of the default sensitivity makes regular weapon aiming a lot harder than it should be. I'm not as quick reflex wise as I used to be, but I do well enough in gsf. It's not a super-twitch game.

 

Other than that, kills are often about situational awareness. Keep overwatch on the battlefield. Tab target a lot, and go after people that are distracted, or have lost shields, or are on low health. Know when a fight isn't worth taking to the bitter end. It's usually more efficient to go bag an easy kill than to tunnel vision a particularly slippery target. Low risk kills are also efficient, since boosting back from respawn is the ultimate brake on your kill rate (or running out of missiles, whatever).

 

Medals - in TDM, a top player is going to be guaranteed 8 medals:

Assassin - 1 solo kill

Quick Draw - 2 solo kills

Ace - 5 kills

Ravage - 8 kills

Support - 4 assists

Combatant - 10k damage

Destroyer - 20k damage

Annihilator - 30k damage

 

More than that depends on your team and the length of the game. Shoot for those goals, and you'll find your performance improving, because you'll be optimizing your time.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Fractalsponge

[Ryuku-sama]

Don't worries... You can post an average scoreboard for you so we can pinpoint your worse issue. But seriously, being good isn't only about kills except in a gunship. And doing 20+ kills in a match normally means said pilot was far more skilled than the other team and just farmed them. And was skilled enough to outfly your whole team too.

[AlrikFassbauer]

How long have you been playing?

 

I'm an occasional player ... Sometimes I play several weeks in a row, sometimes months with nothing ...

 

Have you greatly reduced your mouse sensitivity?

 

Thanks, I'll check this.

 

And besides, no, my ships aren't fully equipped yet. And I'm FAR away from mastering them ...

Edited October 11, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

[TrinityLyre]

Or do they[]/i] just have better RL equipment ? Better mice, keyboards etc. ?

This definitely has nothing to do with it. I can assure you of that.

 

Plus, I also asume that I'm just too old for that now. I'm between 40-50 years old now, and I'm not that agile anymore like any 20-year-old player.

Well without trying to be insulting, age does have an impact on your reaction time.

 

All I can count on is what I had learned through playing Xö-Wing & TIE Fighter in the 90s - and that was quite a hefty training !

This game is hardly the same, though many of us wish it were. Not happening, though!

 

But still - I'm very much frustrated that I get only sop few medals. What am I doing wrong ? And what can I do to get more kills in any match ?

Can you Twitch stream or record your gameplay? I'm sure many of us would be happy to give you tips based off what we see/hear. That's the best way to communicate your flying and point out flaws (no one's perfect).

 

Another thing is this : Why do others ALWAYS get the kill count when I was the one actually destroying the opponent's ship ?

The killing blows are what adds to the kill count at the end of the match.

[tunewalker]

The lack of a mastered ship can sometimes contribute as well. There are ships more designed for getting fast kills then others. So depending on the ship you are flying and its load out it could affect that. However that doesnt mean you arent an effective team mate if you arent getting all the kills. but it is kind of complicated with out more detail.

[AlrikFassbauer]

This game is hardly the same, though many of us wish it were. Not happening, though!

 

Well, I do believe that these games can train one in terms of overall awareness and reaction time ...

 

Well without trying to be insulting, age does have an impact on your reaction time.

 

I almost expected a thing like that.

Edited October 11, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

[zaskar]

#1 pro tip

 

Slow your mouse down, lower the dpi via a hardware switch on a gaming mouse or from within the game or windows for GSF matches.

[StrixHiraeth]

Alrik:

 

Don't let yourself get too frustrated. If you have yet to master any ships, you're still hundreds or even thousands of matches behind most of the "aces" you see.

 

And remember--they couldn't rack up those kills without you. Your efforts are not only important to the overall outcome of the match, but also to those individual "ace" performances. When they get two or more ships on their tail, they need someone to drive off or distract the attackers. Your numbers at the end-of-match scoreboard might be different than theirs, but you are no less important to the team or even to the high level of performance of those you seem to envy.

 

Aside from hardware, ship upgrades, keybinds, and mouse sensitivity, another important factor is your build and your crew members. I'm a decent (read: above average) pilot, but unless I'm in my gunship or facing less experienced foes, I don't usually get a really high "kill" stat. This is because the builds I really enjoy aren't really optimal from a min/maxing point of view. For example, I never use burst lasers on my S-13 Sting, though they are mathematically the best choice for close-range burst damage... but I don't care how much damage they do, they look ridiculous on that ship and I can't stand it!

 

Maybe you just haven't found "your" ship yet? I like to fly scouts--they're simply the most fun for me to fly; other ships feel slow and clumsy in comparison. But I spent some fleet requisition on a Jurgoran gunship a while back, and I am FAR deadlier when piloting that ship than when piloting any of my scouts (of course, it just so happens that in the case of the Jurgoran, my personal preferences match up with what is mathematically optimal... only one of my four scouts is built to be "optimal"). I can't fly bombers worth a damn (and I've tried! oh how I've tried!) ...sure, I can protect a node with one, but I am mystified by the bombers that rack up kills in TDM. I've also tried strike fighters a couple of times; they just didn't appeal to me.

 

Oh... I really don't think that any age-related difference in reaction time can account for much in this game... but lag certainly makes a huge difference. I'm curious--do you have noticeable latency? That could explain some of the kills you mention losing. Even a little lag makes a big difference in GSF.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Ymris

[ThutmoseV]

I am 64, so I was not sure how well I would do, but GSF is not super twitchy. In fact, I do better in GSF than I did in ground PvP. I used to play Wing Commander a lot, but that was PvE, which is very different. It took me about 200 matches to get competitive. I'm at about 780 matches now. I am not one of the top aces on my server, my high kill count is 17 (in a gunship in TDM), high assists is 19 (in a bomber in TDM). But I do have a lot of double digit kill matches, a lot of double digit medal matches, a number of double digit assist matches, and some matches where I was at the top of the scoreboard. I think most people could get to my level, or surpass it, with enough practice.

 

I always wonder how well I would have done if I could have been playing this when I was 20. Reaction time does make a difference. My accuracy is less than it should be also, I might have to try dialing my mouse down farther.

Edited October 12, 2014 by ThutmoseV

[AlrikFassbauer]

Thanks for your kind words.

 

I didn't play any GSF yesterday because I wanted to ddo some more PvE ... But I think this evening I'll try it again.

 

And remember--they couldn't rack up those kills without you.

 

Something very bitter inside of me responds to that with a feeling of "getting farmed".

Ground PvP has made me *very* bitter in that respect.

Because in ground PvP - at least when I read through the forums here - I often get the impression that most ground PvP players just want uneven matches for better farming. I often get the impression as if for ground PvP no balanced matches are wanted by the players.

 

In GSF, the community makes an - at least partially - more serious impression to me. People who are really interested in the "fun factor" of matches, and that - at leastz it seems to me so - seems for them to rather be balanced matches. Real challenges, a thing I hoped to find in PvP, but just couldn't.

 

Although ... I have witnessed horribly inbalanced matches in GSF, too. On both sides. Sometiomes the other team was so bad that I would have preferred not to do anything at all anymore so that they could get a few more points as well. And some times I'm so bad that I even collide with asteroids at one point.

And sometimes my own team was so bad that I rather would have preferred to leave the match completely. My far worst match is recorded in the "GSF records" thread, because I wrote it into it one day.

 

At least this community here makes an 200 % better impression - more polite, that for sure ! - than the ground PvP forums ...

Edited October 12, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

[Storm-Cutter]

Teams tend to score higher than individuals so group up and use a VoIP app like TS or mumble then you and your group can co-ordinate better . if that's not possible then at least communicate via chat in game even an 'inc c' or 'target GS' or ' scouting A ' can let your team co-operate rather than have individuals chase all over the map.

 

I would also say that several matches in a row helps I find that I only usually get into my stride after 2-3 games

 

Experience can't be underestimated in this game

 

and finally if your kills are >deaths and you score a few medals you are helping your team and not hindering!

[tommmsunb]

To quote Nate Dogg. Conversation and Hennessy. Edited October 12, 2014 by tommmsunb

[Fractalsponge]

Experience can't be underestimated in this game

 

This is key. The game actually telegraphs almost everything you need to know about where to be, assuming your team follows a pretty typical distribution around the map.

 

You get the minimap, turret killed notifications, point capture/loss notifications, and kill notifications. With enough experience that's pretty much all you need to know where you should go. When I'm flying with my regular team, even if I'm not on TS (and I am often yelled in chat at because I'm not), I find we're usually at the same spots, since we're all reading the flow of the game.

 

VOIP is useful, but not required to do well. In ace premade vs ace premade, sure. But that happens pretty much never. WTB cross server.

[tommmsunb]

This is key. The game actually telegraphs almost everything you need to know about where to be, assuming your team follows a pretty typical distribution around the map.

 

You get the minimap, turret killed notifications, point capture/loss notifications, and kill notifications. With enough experience that's pretty much all you need to know where you should go. When I'm flying with my regular team, even if I'm not on TS (and I am often yelled in chat at because I'm not), I find we're usually at the same spots, since we're all reading the flow of the game.

 

VOIP is useful, but not required to do well. In ace premade vs ace premade, sure. But that happens pretty much never. WTB cross server.

 

All of this is incorrect. Henessy is the answer.

[ALaggyGrunt]

Good enough:

AMD Phenom X3 8750 at 2.8 GHz (don't forget to Prime95 it a few times to make sure the OC is perfectly stable)

ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB with slightly upgraded cooler

4GB DDR2-1066 RAM

Vista

 

That build had a bad habit of "Wait, let me rearrange my memory!" for about 2 seconds when flying through the shipyard structure next to the mid pub spawn in Lost Shipyards, and whenever there was a cloud of smoke from someone sploding (at which point you can't see anything anyway). That didn't stop me from causing mayhem, because I could see well enough to shoot and usually avoid the terrain.

[StrixHiraeth]

Although ... I have witnessed horribly inbalanced matches in GSF, too. On both sides. Sometiomes the other team was so bad that I would have preferred not to do anything at all anymore so that they could get a few more points as well. And some times I'm so bad that I even collide with asteroids at one point.

 

I've been there. When my team so overmatches the other team that they can't do *anything* I tend to hold back... and not really do anything. Sometimes I even go park by the enemy so they can kill me. If people aren't having any fun, they won't keep playing--and they have to keep playing to get better at GSF.

 

Also, everyone--every single player who has flown in GSF--collides into asteroids sometimes. We all crashed when first starting. All of us. And we all make mistakes that make us crash to this day. Anyone who says otherwise is lying, and headed down the path to the Dark Side.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Ymris

[Verain]

I'm mid thirties, and I've been pretty heavily involved with reaction-time rewarding games since I was about 15. I would go through efforts to have Warcraft II matches over modem, late at night. In college I played pretty competitively at first, and then less as I had to study more.

 

I have, absolutely, seen my reaction time decrease. No question.

 

 

 

But, the amount of the decrease is not something that is going to kill you- especially not in a game that has strategy, tactics, and twitch- like this one. The game isn't nearly tuned or competitive enough that you are running into that as your limiting reagent. If you were trying to be world class in SCII or something, ya, sure.

 

I can't find numbers on GREAT reaction times. But I can find average easily enough. At 20, men average at around 560ms, at 30 585ms, and at 50 around 630ms (women have a graph of the exact same curve, but are slower to react at all ages).

 

But I bet your reaction time is way better than those averages. And I also bet you can see that those numbers are not that different from each other, not that burdensome. Yes, you are comparing yourself to young men who practice a good bit, but you're a middle aged man who practices a good bit, and your values aren't going to be in a different universe.

 

 

 

So no, that's not it.

 

 

 

 

So like everyone says, if you can post a video, that will be great. But here's a fast rundown:

 

1- Are your power settings right? When you are shooting at people, are you in F1? When you are boosting, are you in F3? If you aren't doing that consistently (with exceptions for good reason), that's a low hanging fruit. This is a very common problem.

2- What builds are you using? If you want to put up numbers, if you want to prove to yourself that you can, then play a build that can do this!

Ex: Sting/Flashfire: Burst Laser Cannon / Cluster Missile / Targeting Telemetry / Distortion Field / Retro Thruster

Ex: Mangler/Quarrel: Burst Laser Cannon / Slug Railgun / Ion Railgun / Distorion Field / Barrel Roll

3- Remember that some builds will do a lot of damage and others will not. If you are seeing someone deal a ton of damage, the first question to ask is, "what ship was he flying"? If you are on a Bomber, you will not normally do really high amounts of damage. But being on a bomber is still really important!

4- Doing damage isn't the main thing. Kills aren't the main thing. But yes, you would expect that you COULD make these numbers high, if you made it your focus, and if you can't, then it's fair to say that you are missing some experience.

 

 

 

Anyway, post some video?

[AlrikFassbauer]

1- Are your power settings right? When you are shooting at people, are you in F1? When you are boosting, are you in F3?

 

What do F1 and F3 mean, respectively ?

 

And regarding videos - I have no clue how to do them. I have the freeware version of Fraps installed, but that's it.

I once tried to record Treek's arrival on the fleet, but I only saw a part of the screen having been recorded. I never understood what i had done wrong, so I gave up.

[TrinityLyre]

What do F1 and F3 mean, respectively ?

F1 - Power to Weapons (of the three small bars at the bottom of your UI, the yellow bar)

F3 - Power to Engines (the purple bar in that same region. In that screenshot I linked above I am in Power to Weapons)

 

I have the freeware version of Fraps installed, but that's it.

If you can figure it out (there's quite a number of decent Googled examples/tutorials of this), even a 5 minute Fraps that you upload is enough to give feedback on and get some idea of what you're doing correctly/incorrectly. That type of feedback is far superior to what you're seeing right now and would likely help you far more than generic advice (of which there's plenty of in my guide, linked in my signature below).

Edited October 13, 2014 by TrinityLyre

[Bafucin]

I have not played much and when I'm at my best I have maybe +5 kills and +8 assist or so... but it helps a lot to use the modification skills (I think they are called) that let you focus on attacks, shield and speed.

 

And when you attack someone and they get too close, turn of off the engine and it easy to hit them when they pass you.

 

Sure sometimes I have someone else in my back that take me out doing that, but I get a lot of hits on my target doing that and maybe I help my team a little.

 

And like someone else wrote, try find targets that have less HP.