New Player Tips/Strategies for Domination

[havokhead]

This is geared towards new players and much of it would seem like common sense to an experienced player but I see the same mistakes over and over in PuG squadrons so I'm hoping some players take my advice to eleviate some frustration on both your behalf and more experienced squad-mates.

 

1) At the beginning of a match go for all 3 satellites!! It's fine if the team has a plan to cap a specific 2 satellites but at least 1 player in a scout should take it upon themselves to go after that third sat. Too often I see both teams make for the same satellites and the third sits unclaimed for lengthy periods of time. That's free points!

 

2) Pick a satellite with more cover. Increase your chance for survival against gunships, make people come get you, good pilots use LoS to their advantage, suckers hang out in the open getting farmed by gunships then QQ about it. Pick C in Lost Shipyards, B in Kuat Mesas and C in Denon Exosphere for better cover and increased odds of survival.

 

3) DO NOT approach a defended satellite at a snail's pace, in a straight line and out in the open. I see new players do this all the time. You're like a deer grazing in a meadow when you do this, dead. Make sure you have enough engine power to scream into the satellite at Mach 75, stop behind cover to regenerate 2/3rds of the way if you have to, dodge and weave through cover, don't be an easy target.

 

4) DO NOT approach a heavily defended satellite by yourself. I see this all the time too and it's probably my biggest pet peeve. Why would you fly all the way across a map by yourself to a satellite defended by 2 bombers and 2 gunships!!?? You're just wasting your own & your team's time. You'll never survive that, even wily veterans have a tough time surviving that. And what's worse is I see them re spawn and do it again over and over. If you're meeting tough opposition then it's much better to stop and wait for a few squad mates to re spawn with you and go in all together. Too many times I just watch on my map, in amazement, as half the team just spawns, flies & dies. Spawn, fly & die. Over and over, one at a time like a cow to the slaughter, it makes absolutely no sense!! Could you imagine if the Allies landed one ship at a time on the beaches of Normandy?

 

5) Stay on the satellite you just captured. As a new player, you're much better off defending a satellite, you get points for defending them so why not stay and defend it? If everyone leaves a satellite undefended, good players can un-cap it in less than 20 secs. Stay, defend, use LoS, earn points, help your team and call for help when you see the enemy approaching.

 

6) Stick to the plan. So many teams just jump aimlessly from one satellite to the next. Try A, no now B oh that didn't work maybe A again or C. It won't work. The stealth ships aren't out yet (if ever), the enemy can see you and see where you're going. They're not stupid, they'll meet you to defend. All you do is manage to spread your squad out too thin. If a few pilots want to try their luck on another satellite fine but the bulk of the squadron stick to the plan. All it takes to see enemy movement is clicking tab or map. You're not surprising anyone (use tip #4).

 

7) Fight on the satellites!! They are the objective. Don't chase an evasion scout all over the map, you'll earn more points staying around the satellite. Clearing 2 defence turrets & defending a satellite for 4 mins will pretty much earn you the same as a guy who gets 8 kills. And don't fight consistently in no-man's-land, your points really take a beating out there. You could have the best game of your life in no-man's-land and still only earn 500 pts.

 

8) Hunt down bombers out in the open as they're trying to reach a satellite, they're especially vulnerable out in open space and much tougher in cover so it is worth it to intercept them before they get to a satellite.

 

Good luck, have fun.

[OmenQ]

4) DO NOT approach a heavily defended satellite by yourself.

I see so-called aces do this all the time, and was actually what I was complaining about in GSF chat this past week, though my wording was all wrong. When your team goes 4-A, 3-B, 1-C, then gets slaughtered at B and C, it helps nothing to jump right back to the same spread on respawn. Ideally, one or two of the ships at A would move over to help the 4 respawns at B, and one can continue to C after B is captured, but I see that SO rarely.

 

6) Stick to the plan.

And that's where my frustration comes in. If the plan isn't working, what then? No one, and I mean NO ONE ever plans past "I'll scout C, you bomber, and 3 of you go B". If you stick to the same plan that isn't working, you're just going to lose, because guess what, the other team knows your plan too. Too many matches go by with a lot of (good) chatter and coordination before the match, and complete SILENCE for the entire time. "The Plan" gets you through the first 30-60 seconds of a 7-10 minute match. Continued communication and re-strategizing can turn a triple cap with a near 500 point lead into a come from behind rally and last minute win.

 

If you're defending a satellite in a scout, and it's not being contested, call for a bomber or strike to relieve you. If you're the relief, or you're a bomber defending the sat, call out incoming. If people can do it in ground PVP, we can learn to do it too.

 

I'm just as guilty as anyone of not communicating enough during a match. I will try and work on it, as well as not losing my temper on someone who's dogfighting 25k meters on the opponent's side of satellite C. I apologize, Cheech (or whatever your main's name is, if you read this) for my behavior last week. I was having a bad night full of awful matches, and I lashed out at you when I saw you and another pilot both so far away from any objective point.

[havokhead]

I really do get your frustration, this thread, as mentioned, is geared toward rookie pilots, I don't presume to tell more experienced pilots what to do because sometimes I see a "One-percenter" pull off some pretty amazing stuff. Sometimes I'll see a player in a battlescout take on a heavily defended satellite himsel and snicker "he's dead" but 2 minutes later I see the satellite go neutral

 

Unfortunately, the game moves too fast for good communication. There's not a whole lot of time to type commands or coordinate tactics. Pre-mades with VoIP and experience behind them can rolf-stomp anyone who doesn't have the same.

 

I've tried to initiate a sort-of gsf quick type lingo for fast/effective communication during matches a year ago but the community felt if communication was that important then players will just use VoIP but here we are a year later no better off. The more serious gsf teams will use it but that doesn't help the new-to-average player who could greatly benefit from good communication. A quick reference guide that would allow let's say someone to type "DA" would mean defend A, as it stands now most people type full sentences and die before they can send it. I also referred to the fact of before a match starts the first half on the list could be like "first wing" and the second half referred to as "second wing" so a squadron commander could quickly type let's say "1DC" and all the players who know they're in first wing would stay to defend C then he could type "2AA" which would mean second wing attack A. I think little dinky crap like that would go a long way in helping, not the experienced teams using VoIP but teams containing new players. But it would need to be a community effort and so far no one is keen on it. So here we sit a year later with people frustrated on both ends of the spectrum. Veterans cursing out noobs for being noobs and rookies banging their heads on the keyboard because they don't have a clue. Then people come on the forums ranting or quitting gsf out-right.

 

The truth is, we're all stuck in the same game together for better or worse. Bioware stated that GSF is a mini-game within a game and that's all it'll ever be to them. It was put in as a marketing promise that was stated before the game launched and they made good on that promise. Maybe a little too good because for a small population of gamers the mini-game far out-strips the rest of the content. So to Bioware GSF is just a small element to a great game but to some players (like me) GSF is the greatest element of that game and if it hadn't been for GSF I would've moved on long ago.

 

Bioware is unwilling to further develop GSF (as it currently stands) so it'll be up to the community to improve it for themselves. I know on TEH we tried several initiatives such strike fighter Monday's where players played exclusively strikes, the dogfighting was great and a lot of players stated how much they loved strike Monday but that has fizzled. We also have a "gentlemans' mercy rule" of not spawn camping or not 3 capping during Domination matches but lately that gentlemanly conduct has also been wanning, to the detriment of GSF I believe.

[OmenQ]

Unfortunately, the game moves too fast for good communication. There's not a whole lot of time to type commands or coordinate tactics. Pre-mades with VoIP and experience behind them can rolf-stomp anyone who doesn't have the same.

 

I'm headed out the door right now, but just wanted to say I get that. Since I play on a laptop most of the time, if I let go of the mouse to type it tends to slide off the tray and I die unless I'm careful about it. In-game voice chat support for GSF would really change the game. Too often, the difference between being blown away and holding the satellite as a defender is that 1-2 second reaction time. Makes for great game play, but sucks for coordinating an assist to take out the gunship that's just going to keep sniping you until his buddy respawns.

 

I'm now realizing that a lot of my frustrations come from the game itself, and not the other pilots.

 

I get that you posted initially for newer pilots, but there seems to be SO little discussion about actual strategy, and every third thread is about different loadouts for the ships. I can master the ships and loadouts all day long, but if I can't figure out a strategy to shape the flow of the match, it's just going to continue to end in frustration.

Edited March 25, 2015 by OmenQ