Series of stock ship gameplay vidoes

[Buggleslor]

Hello GSF community,

 

Many of the major complaints I hear about GSF relate to the skill curve, how hard it is to start out with the very limited info in the game itself, and the handicap of low requisition. I spent this afternoon recording a series of games I played on Jedi Covenant with a completely stock Blackbolt with a twofold purpose:

 

One, point out that it's very possible to be successful in a stock ship

 

Two, give as much advice and direction as I can to help new players be successful in stock and near-stock ships.

 

The playlist starts with an exhaustive 17-minute rundown of each UI element and how you should be using while playing. Then are the 6 games, against a variety of opponents on a variety of maps. Finally, I have a pretty long video running down crew choices and what to do with the first infusion of requisition you get right when you start out.

 

It can be found

 

I welcome any and all constructive criticism. I'd love to know if this kind of thing actually helps anybody, and if so if there is anything else I can do that would also help--my main priority is trying to grow the community of players who feel like they can hold their own.

 

I'd also love any advice from the established GSF videomakers on here about what I did wrong--was a little plagued by audio issues (the part 1 gameplay is especially atrocious). I ended up using OBS for video capture and it seemed to be OK, not quite the highest quality but not indecipherable either. I'd also welcome any tips on editing or how to avoid saying "um" every other frikkin' word when speaking into a mic (gave up and just let 'um' rip after a few takes...)

 

Let me know what y'all think!

[caederon]

I actually only watched match 6, which was very entertaining. The commentary was informative and offered any new pilot plenty to think about. Nice job making the effort to put these together. It'd be well worth the time for people new to the game to have a look and study the tactics that can be used in even a paper plane like the stock Blackbolt to contribute meaningfully to your team.

 

- Despon

[MaximilianPower]

Awesome stuff, buggles. I didn't watch the entire first vid (I'll get to it) but I watched all the rest...your commentary was excellent, and anyone new could glean a TON of useful info from the 9000 tips/tricks you mentioned, plus all the good/bad situations you found yourself in. Clearly you proved your point.

 

And of course I was actually IN that last game, so it was interesting to watch it from your pov. I do remember the match...I played several yesterday afternoon, but I think that was the game where at one point I typed in ops chat, "my kingdom for a peel".

 

That first time you killed me - I realized you were using RFLs, had no clue what you were up to, and thought maybe BLCs to the face would win the battle. Bad idea. I took several dumb deaths in that game, but this was probably the dumbest. And you were right in your commentary, at some point I noticed I was getting a lot more attention (largely from choque), and from then on you guys steadily pulled ahead. Just wasn't a whole lot I could do besides try to stay in one piece and hunt for DOs.

 

Teachable moment, indeed.

 

EDIT: This was also the match where I totally underestimated Sal's (Gaunte) ability to handle a scout. As you know, he's usually in his bomber, and he's one of the best at that...I thought he'd be relatively easy pickings in a scout, but man, I was wrong. He switched sides after this match and we discussed it a bit; he's using a quad/BO build, and obviously he knows how to use it.

Edited March 5, 2015 by MaximilianPower

[nyghtrunner]

Nice job Buggles!

 

There was a moment in G5 where you started to say something about recognizing names on your server, and then Karlth interrupted you, and you never got back to that point, so I was kind of curious what you were about to say.

 

But I thought you did an excellent job of talking through most of what you were doing, and even your little SQUEE! sounds were pretty hilarious at points.

 

Seriously, though, I thought your videos were well done, and quite cohesive as a whole.

 

As an aside, you're a lot better in a stock BB than I am. For stock, I've found I usually have the best success with a T1 Striker. I think a lot of it has to do with how bad I think RFLs are, and how reliant you are on your 32||40 rockets (depending on whether you're pub or imp to start, I guess). I just have much better luck using the Heavies and Concs in a Strike than I do with the Pods and RFLs in a Scout.

 

Still, awesome to see. Cheers good sir!

[Enurrsha]

Good stuff Buggles

[Odacervicix]

Nice set of videos Buggles. I like that you included the major TDM loss. Your team was outmatched by competent and merciless opponents. That's something that is often missing in the stock threads. It's good to acknowledge that there is only so much you can do in a stock ship in some cases. Any new pilot is probably going to hit games like that. It's part of what you get when you solo queue. And the truth is, even if you had access to fully upgraded ships, you probably weren't going to dramatically change the outcome of that game. Anyway, it was nice to see a video showing how to deal with it and move on.

[WedgeFan]

Great stuff Buggs.

 

And now I see why you're so damn hard to hit.

[Buggleslor]

Thank you for the kind words, everyone!

 

And of course I was actually IN that last game, so it was interesting to watch it from your pov. I do remember the match...I played several yesterday afternoon, but I think that was the game where at one point I typed in ops chat, "my kingdom for a peel".

 

That first time you killed me - I realized you were using RFLs, had no clue what you were up to, and thought maybe BLCs to the face would win the battle. Bad idea. I took several dumb deaths in that game, but this was probably the dumbest. And you were right in your commentary, at some point I noticed I was getting a lot more attention (largely from choque), and from then on you guys steadily pulled ahead. Just wasn't a whole lot I could do besides try to stay in one piece and hunt for DOs.

 

I think that match really highlighted how much a few individuals can swing GSF matches. It brings up a large debate in the community that I have mixed feelings on between sportsmanship and competition--how OK is it to latch onto one name and focus them on sight? It feels very unsportsmanlike, yet as that game demonstrated, it's extremely effective considering the impact an unmolested gunship can have on a game. How sportsmanlike is it to let your team lose because you're too "honorable" to do what's necessary to win?

 

For an even more stark demonstration of what one well-piloted gunship can do when given the infinite peel of a bomberball, see the massive loss in the series.

 

Nice job Buggles!

 

There was a moment in G5 where you started to say something about recognizing names on your server, and then Karlth interrupted you, and you never got back to that point, so I was kind of curious what you were about to say.

 

Rewatching them to sort out any audio issues/add little pop up notes, I realized that I did that a lot. Would be narrating to fill some boring silence, then suddenly action and I'd have forgotten entirely what I was talking about. I think it was just that, in many ways, recognizing names is as important as recognizing ship silhouettes when it comes to situational awareness/threat ranking. There times I'll dive a sat with 3 players on it solo and come out with them dead and the sat captured, and there are times I'll look at a sat with 1 of theirs already under attack by a teammate with all the turrets dead and I'll nope off to a different one, because that teammate is soon to be dead.

 

 

As an aside, you're a lot better in a stock BB than I am. For stock, I've found I usually have the best success with a T1 Striker. I think a lot of it has to do with how bad I think RFLs are, and how reliant you are on your 32||40 rockets (depending on whether you're pub or imp to start, I guess). I just have much better luck using the Heavies and Concs in a Strike than I do with the Pods and RFLs in a Scout.)

 

I think it depends on what ranges you tend to engage at--I'm so programmed from sting and gunship flying that the range I'll fight at is either <2-3k or >15k. Just not comfortable in that weird middle area where heavies really shine. The other thing I think is that, while concs get damage on moving targets, my style is generally to find or force players into being unmoving (either by waiting till they're on an attack run, hitting zoomed-in-gunships, or baiting into a joust) where spamming rockets on a hittable target really shines. As a result, most of my time is spent positioning for damage and then dealing it in quick, high-impact bursts than consistent performance. Scouts are just better suited.

 

And all that said.. I still don't want to advise new players "play strike if it fits your playstyle." The fact is that I built my own style almost exclusively because it's the one that's rewarded by two of the best ships in the game right now (and, given no mention in any roadmap, probably forever). For a new player who's going to accumulate req eventually, I'd prefer they get the experience into a style that will be useful down the road than learning to be effective with the strike mid-range style that will get obliterated by both ion/rail gunships and evasion/burst scouts in serious competition.

 

Nice set of videos Buggles. I like that you included the major TDM loss. Your team was outmatched by competent and merciless opponents. That's something that is often missing in the stock threads. It's good to acknowledge that there is only so much you can do in a stock ship in some cases. Any new pilot is probably going to hit games like that. It's part of what you get when you solo queue. And the truth is, even if you had access to fully upgraded ships, you probably weren't going to dramatically change the outcome of that game. Anyway, it was nice to see a video showing how to deal with it and move on.

 

For sure, though I don't think I was the best role model in containing my nerd rage . Having been involved in more than a few of those on my main, I do believe that their lack of truly good scouts would have meant I could have manglered up--between clearing out the mines to help my teammates and likely being able to occasionally get the drop on Jainenenah from max range the game might not have been a win, but it would have been much closer. At the end of the day, a successful bomberball really needs all 3 elements--bombers, at least one gunship with solid aim and positioning, and scouts that can punish enemy gunships seeking to break your ball up. They had two of the three, meaning they were vulnerable to the gunships that I didn't have and nobody else on my team played to any effect.

 

Great stuff Buggs.

 

And now I see why you're so damn hard to hit.

 

I do my best.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Buggleslor

[Binthurmung]

Nice Vid's bro, glad to see more people interested in helping out the new guys instead of just cutting them down.

[MaximilianPower]

I think that match really highlighted how much a few individuals can swing GSF matches. It brings up a large debate in the community that I have mixed feelings on between sportsmanship and competition--how OK is it to latch onto one name and focus them on sight? It feels very unsportsmanlike, yet as that game demonstrated, it's extremely effective considering the impact an unmolested gunship can have on a game. How sportsmanlike is it to let your team lose because you're too "honorable" to do what's necessary to win?

 

Just responding to this point: when I play, my primary goal is to win, and as such, frequently you just need to neutralize the opposition's greatest threat. I don't think this is unsportsmanlike, it's just reality. We have a couple folks on our server who get focused all the time, and sometimes they'll rage about it, but it's simply the correct strategy when their names pop up on the other side of the ledger. Personally, I expect to receive this kind of attention...when I don't - and had I not in the game you captured - then this is what can happen (a game from earlier today). Looking at that scoreboard - had even a stock buggles hassled me just a little, kept me busy, don't you think the other guys would've come out with the win?

 

I look at that line as less a reflection of my own brilliance than the opposition's lack of competence. There's no way I should've been allowed to get away with that. Just...no way.

 

Which is what you demonstrated in your vid. Again, a good lesson to new pilots.

Edited March 7, 2015 by MaximilianPower

[Bolo_Yeung]

The main problem is that conquest farmers won't even bother looking at this...

However, this will be pretty good help for those who actually *want* to learn something, so thumb up *pressing imaginary 'like' button*

[AlrikFassbauer]

Just responding to this point: when I play, my primary goal is to win, and as such, frequently you just need to neutralize the opposition's greatest threat. I don't think this is unsportsmanlike, it's just reality. We have a couple folks on our server who get focused all the time, and sometimes they'll rage about it, but it's simply the correct strategy when their names pop up on the other side of the ledger.

 

The problem I see there is this : It appliues only to "known names".

 

Me, I've been frequently shot down several times by people who followed me throughout the whole match if they saw me - it was as if they had complete tunnel vision : Seeing not anything else but me.

 

And i was a Newbie there. I have a few ships, for which I had worked hard, but they treated me as if I was an "known name". It was like being a Lemming : Getting back into the match only to be tunnel-visioned and then shot. Over and over again and over again and over again and over again. To say that this was frustrating to me i an understatement, and it was one of the reasons why I quit GSF : I felt like a Lemming. It felt as if someone was farming me like cattle for Req. Because I was so easy to kill.

 

Aces tunnel-visiooning aces is something I'm okay with, but an overly competent ace tunnel-visioning Newbies who have no idea at all how to stand them is in my opinion quite "unsportsmanlike".

 

It's to me as if you had a football / soccer match with mixed teams, where each team conists of amateurs & professionals alike - and then professionals would tunnel-vision exclusively amateurs and take them out over and over again and over again and over again and over again ... leaving the aces - the *real* threat ! - alone ...

 

Or, even worse, am amateur team being match against a team of aces ... So boring for the amateurs because they can easily figure out that they wouldn't stand a chance against a whole team of aces ... This is like being a Lemming.

 

So, in short, focusing aka "tunnel-visioning" aces is in my opinion a fair thing, but against Newbies / Beginners it is not. And against "bad ones" it isn't either. Because "bad ones" have to work so much more to get on line with aces (if they ever manage that, that is), simply because they are so bad ...

[MaximilianPower]

The problem I see there is this : It appliues only to "known names".

 

Me, I've been frequently shot down several times by people who followed me throughout the whole match if they saw me - it was as if they had complete tunnel vision : Seeing not anything else but me.

 

And i was a Newbie there. I have a few ships, for which I had worked hard, but they treated me as if I was an "known name". It was like being a Lemming : Getting back into the match only to be tunnel-visioned and then shot. Over and over again and over again and over again and over again. To say that this was frustrating to me i an understatement, and it was one of the reasons why I quit GSF : I felt like a Lemming. It felt as if someone was farming me like cattle for Req. Because I was so easy to kill.

 

Aces tunnel-visiooning aces is something I'm okay with, but an overly competent ace tunnel-visioning Newbies who have no idea at all how to stand them is in my opinion quite "unsportsmanlike".

 

It's to me as if you had a football / soccer match with mixed teams, where each team conists of amateurs & professionals alike - and then professionals would tunnel-vision exclusively amateurs and take them out over and over again and over again and over again and over again ... leaving the aces - the *real* threat ! - alone ...

 

Or, even worse, am amateur team being match against a team of aces ... So boring for the amateurs because they can easily figure out that they wouldn't stand a chance against a whole team of aces ... This is like being a Lemming.

 

So, in short, focusing aka "tunnel-visioning" aces is in my opinion a fair thing, but against Newbies / Beginners it is not. And against "bad ones" it isn't either. Because "bad ones" have to work so much more to get on line with aces (if they ever manage that, that is), simply because they are so bad ...

 

Yeah, I'm not talking about aces hammering noobs...that's not cool on any level. If anything, that kind of behavior harms GSF, driving people (like yourself) away from the game. I get it, I've been there (my first couple hundred games made me feel a bit like a lemming) - it's no fun.

 

But, again, not what I was talking about. Just responding to buggles' question - and I do think it's a legit and logical strategy to shut down your enemies ' greatest threat(s). That isn't unsportsmanlike, it's just sensible.

[Odacervicix]

Hey Zuck, do you ever intentionally provoke a potentially suicidal confrontation early, just to get back to a point where you can start sniping without harassment. Say (and I'm just making up numbers here) you are averaging 3 kills a minute or so, but can be shut down by a stock scout that is going to otherwise be averaging less than a kill a minute, seems like there might be circumstances in a TDM where you just want to stand and fight and get it over with, one way or the other.

 

After all, suicide is the ultimate peel.

 

Although, I realize that in the game shown, Choque was also harassing you, and that's a totally different animal than a stock scout, which can tie you up and shut down your offense for a while, but has a harder time killing you.

 

There are reasons why it might not be the best choice. First, dying might not keep you from being focused again when you respawn, thus, you're never going to reach your optimal offensive output. Second, you don't know at the outset of the attack just how long the chase is going to go. For example, it doesn't have to end in the death of one pilot or the other. Lots of pilots break off early by choice, or by mismanaging or otherwise exhausting engine power. You also don't know what kind of peels you are going to get. And in a close game, you would assume that there are other competent pilots on your team and that you could probably get some kind of peel within 30 seconds or so. Lastly, it's probably more fun to have a chase.

 

Anyway, just curious if you ever just try to get it over with quick so that you can get back in the game and start sniping again. Or is that just a bad play overall?

[MaximilianPower]

Hey Zuck, do you ever intentionally provoke a potentially suicidal confrontation early, just to get back to a point where you can start sniping without harassment. Say (and I'm just making up numbers here) you are averaging 3 kills a minute or so, but can be shut down by a stock scout that is going to otherwise be averaging less than a kill a minute, seems like there might be circumstances in a TDM where you just want to stand and fight and get it over with, one way or the other.

 

After all, suicide is the ultimate peel.

 

Although, I realize that in the game shown, Choque was also harassing you, and that's a totally different animal than a stock scout, which can tie you up and shut down your offense for a while, but has a harder time killing you.

 

There are reasons why it might not be the best choice. First, dying might not keep you from being focused again when you respawn, thus, you're never going to reach your optimal offensive output. Second, you don't know at the outset of the attack just how long the chase is going to go. For example, it doesn't have to end in the death of one pilot or the other. Lots of pilots break off early by choice, or by mismanaging or otherwise exhausting engine power. You also don't know what kind of peels you are going to get. And in a close game, you would assume that there are other competent pilots on your team and that you could probably get some kind of peel within 30 seconds or so. Lastly, it's probably more fun to have a chase.

 

Anyway, just curious if you ever just try to get it over with quick so that you can get back in the game and start sniping again. Or is that just a bad play overall?

 

Excellent question Marttell. Short answer, yes, sometimes I do this.

 

Longer answer: of course it's highly situational. I have no qualms about taking a death if it's for a good reason (I think everyone on JC has seen me suicide to get a bomber off a node, or even to take out a well-placed hyperspace beacon); this is why my KDR is generally in the toilet, relatively speaking. In TDM, frequently I'll boost to pick up a DO that I know in advance will end in my death...I'll end up completely out of position, often right in the thick of the enemy. There, my thinking is that I'll take a couple of their guys with me - and at worst, I've kept that DO out of their hands.

 

In the specific situation you describe, depending on the composition of the opposing team, I might intentionally eat BLCs/pods/whatever, in the hopes of repositioning and resuming an assault. Doesn't happen that often, though; I'm usually not out of position badly enough such that I can't get back to where I want to be. And yes, the chase can be fun...though I'm not quite "Saevius evasive" ("evaSaevius"?), I can sometimes keep it going for a while.

 

I have many more thoughts on this subject (probably appropriate for a different thread) but I'm typing this on my phone and the freaking autocorrect is killing me.

[SWCNT]

Nice videos, and entertaining commentary. These will definitely help out those who want the learn how to be better pilots.

 

Thanks for posting these

[JonnyRay]

Thanks Buggles. I enjoyed the series. As a (mostly) new pilot myself it seems like every time I watch someone's videos I see things that I never would have thought to try. Like flying through the gap in the "solar panels" on the satellite.

[Linuxizer]

Nice videos and narration! Thanks for sharing!