A New Hope for GSF (news from BioWare)

[tommmsunb]

Yes, nerf bombers and gunships. Soon I will be able to take over the world and scout will be able to reign supreme and all the plebs will see my e-pencil and wish there's could be at that level muwahahahahhaahahahahaahahahhahahah

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/izVHg8w.png

 

 

/l33tspeak off

 

 

Seriously though if we're talking balance changes, a damage buff to strike fighters and a better self-peel option for gunships would be dolce&gabanne.

 

 

If we're talking actual QoL changes, arrows that show where your teammates are and hotkeys that lets you target and cycle through teammates and maybe even a follow button would be nice.

Edited May 24, 2015 by tommmsunb

[ALaggyGrunt]

I've got another one I don't think anyone's mentioned.

 

Your cursor has two parts; a directional cursor which can go outside your firing cone, and your gunsight, which gets hard-limited to your firing cone. You can fire with the gunsight at the edge of the firing cone, but it's usually a bad idea: tracking penalty is restrictive on pretty much everything but BLC.

 

If the mousewheel could grow/shrink the primary weapons firing arc at will, it would make other guns more viable for snap shots: you've got the guy centered, but you can't stop turning for whatever reason, so you set your firing cone to very narrow so you make near-centered shots which the RNG won't eat. As much. I know the engine can do something like this, because it does this with railguns.

[Nemarus]

For those downplaying concerns that GSF queues might dry up altogether, I can only speak for my own server with confidence. Where once I could get several matches in before going to work each morning, now I often get none. Where matches once stretched late beyond PST bedtime, now they often dry up before EST bedtime. Where once Eclipse Squadron could easily top 10 in conquest based purely on GSF, now it is a challenge.

 

Eclipse Squadron has lost several players who once logged on just to queue, but have since become bored with it--because nothing ever changes, and the consistency of competitive matches is spotty.

 

So yes, on The Ebon Hawk, I have noticed a definite shift in GSF popularity. And ironically, we have been the recipients of several transfers from other servers, who've said similar droughts had already happened where they were coming from.

 

That is why I am always so desperately pleading for improvements to the New Pilot Experience. Because without them, at some point, GSF queues may die. And I think anyone who doesn't consider that as a serious threat has their head in the sand.

 

You may love the meta now and fear any changes to it, but I do not believe GSF can survive in its current form. At best, we may get a stay of execution if Episode 7 increases SWTOR's population broadly. But even then, most of that new population is not going to stick unless GSF changes.

 

And I do think Battlefront will take a bite out of SWTOR's overall PvP population.

 

So my question to everyone is: Do you want to enjoy the same game we have today for another 6-18 months, or are you willing to accept some change in the meta (ideally a broadening) if it extends GSF's life? Either answer is valid, but it is good to be upfront about your stake.

 

For my part, I have gotten a ton of satisfaction out of the current GSF meta, but it is growing a bit stale. Even to keep me logging in and queuing this holiday, when there are many other fun distractions coming, I think I will need GSF to offer something new. Not even new content--I'm just talking subtle changes in the meta, and potentially a change in which ships/components are dominant.

 

But most of all, I'll need good, healthy queues.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Nemarus

[StrixHiraeth]

So yes, on The Ebon Hawk, I have noticed a definite shift in GSF popularity. And ironically, we have been the recipients of several transfers from other servers, who've said similar droughts had already happened where they were coming from.

 

That is why I am always so desperately pleading for improvements to the New Pilot Experience. Because without them, at some point, GSF queues may die. And I think anyone who doesn't consider that as a serious threat has their head in the sand.

 

I'm one of those pilots. I haven't had a match on Jung Ma in literally two months. And it's not for lack of trying--I will queue for at least an hour or two each week during primetime hours (admittedly because on Jung Ma all of my ships are mastered and I am something of a big fish in a small pond, which is perversely fun...).

 

Anyway, I'm glad for your persistence and your positivity (this last post notwithstanding).

 

I have also noticed a slowdown on TEH; I choose to remain in denial for the time being.

 

Here's hoping for some dev love for our game!

[Ramalina]

Try an alt, or group queue. Right now JM is really bare if you're solo queuing with a high requisition hangar. I'm still getting the weekly done most weeks on Zhe-Lian, but it often takes 3-4 nights even with 4 wins.

 

Group or use a low req alt, and the queue is significantly more lively, though still not good by any standard.

 

Overall these days I find fast pops require both screening the server list for the highest population servers, and then within those searching for Denon Mesas Shipyards to see how many are actually queued.

 

Even going to TEH, Harbinger, or Shadowlands is no longer really reliable.

 

I almost think that at this point a major GSF QoL service would be a web page with all of the servers listed that showed fields for:

"Queued," and, "Playing," by faction and total for GSF .

 

Example:

Jung Ma
                Imperial          Republic           Total
Queued        3                      5                     8
Playing         6                     7                     13

 

It'd make life a lot easier for those who want to GSF enough to server hop for it. Would also let you try to pick factions for balanced pops, or let you know that the factions are so lopsided that wargames are the only hope and tell you which side was having the wargames.

 

Not a matchmaker but a matchfinder.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Ramalina

[ALaggyGrunt]

Two things:

1: 12x XP has everyone chasing class stories and not flying. I haven't done nearly as much flying as before. After a few weeks of playing around with those, maybe people will get back to flying-or decide there's nothing interesting left of the game and leave entirely, because realistically, we're never going to get anywhere near as much class story as the first release gave us.

2: Gree event for shiny guns and lightsabers. Let's see what happens to the queues on Tuesday. With the end of the Gree event, they should pick back up a little.

[Camelpockets]

WTB cross server queues

[tommmsunb]

Yeah, I'm going to say there are other reasons queues aren't great right now than the new player experience. A lot of it has to with it being stale for old players like Camel (come back to me Camel!)or old players who are fed up of being told they're jerks for being good. New players are still coming in, just less so because of 12x xp. Edited May 25, 2015 by tommmsunb

[Nemarus]

Yeah, I'm going to say there are other reasons queues aren't great right now than the new player experience. A lot of it has to with it being stale for old players like Camel (come back to me Camel!)or old players who are fed up of being told they're jerks for being good. New players are still coming in, just less so because of 12x xp.

 

Oh, I certainly agree that there is a risk of the game getting stale. In fact, lately the only thing that has kept me going is Drakolich's career record thread.

 

But it seems some people in this thread would prefer the meta stay the same rather than risk changes that break it and make it narrower. That is a totally legit fear, especially as we would have no guarantee that BioWare would monitor the consequences of a balance pass and correct for them if necessary.

 

I respect that opinion--GSF has certainly been far worse balanced than it is now.

 

But for my part, I think there will come a point where the threat of queues dying--due to new pilot frustration and veteran boredom--will be more dire than the threat of a broken meta. At some point the game must change to engage more people and/or keep more people interested, or there simply won't be enough people to play it. This is true of just about every video game that requires a critical mass to function.

 

Personally, I think just making Rapids a near-foolproof anti-evasion weapon would do a ton. It would give new players a more reliable experience, and it would softly nerf evasion builds--which would in turn rattle the meta just enough to shake out some new variance I think.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Nemarus

[Linuxizer]

I'm also noticing declining GSF population on different servers, not to mention overall SWTOR population. Bioware needs to put in some effort to attract new players to SWTOR in general and to GSF in particular.

 

The bug fixes and balance tweaks will not directly attract new players to GSF but are important to keep the veterans from leaving. We may be a small number, but some of us have produced video tutorials, guides, answered questions, formed guilds and so on, for the benefit of all GSF players.

 

Bioware might have produced a new GSF map, let's say Rishi, at the same time as the expansion, but that was a lost opportunity. At this point I think a new game mode would be more likely to attract new players. They should also have another double-requisition week like they had last year.

[Verain]

Personally, I think just making Rapids a near-foolproof anti-evasion weapon would do a ton. It would give new players a more reliable experience, and it would softly nerf evasion builds--which would in turn rattle the meta just enough to shake out some new variance I think.

 

I've tried distilling down what would be solid changes, but I definitely feel RFL buffs are near the top of the list- it's default on like three ships (including both starters), currently has no role, and could easily be given one. I do feel that the meta emphasizes evasion on any ship that can run it, and having a semi-decent counter would help that.

 

Note that the following ships have rapid fire lasers as an option:

 

All scouts

Type 1 Strike

Type 3 Strike

 

And no one else.

 

So I don't think it would fix the meta hugely or help out UP ships a lot, were it to become great- but it's essentially a laser with no home right now.

[tunewalker]

I've tried distilling down what would be solid changes, but I definitely feel RFL buffs are near the top of the list- it's default on like three ships (including both starters), currently has no role, and could easily be given one. I do feel that the meta emphasizes evasion on any ship that can run it, and having a semi-decent counter would help that.

 

Note that the following ships have rapid fire lasers as an option:

 

All scouts

Type 1 Strike

Type 3 Strike

 

And no one else.

 

So I don't think it would fix the meta hugely or help out UP ships a lot, were it to become great- but it's essentially a laser with no home right now.

 

Ships that have LLC

 

All Bombers

T1 GS

T3 GS

All Scouts

T2 Strike

T3 Strike

 

 

Ships that use them....

 

T3 Scouts.... Sometimes

T1 Scouts..... Sometimes

 

 

Honestly if its not BLC and it has a Range of 4,000 it needs to be fixed.

[DresG]

Honestly if its not BLC and it has a Range of 4,000 it needs to be fixed.

 

That actually makes sense, while I believe that LLC are virtually in perfect balance and doesn't really need a buff(its only "issue" being that you have to know how to aim properly), it is silly that BLC can be used for jousting more effectively than virtually every other laser. So either a nerf to BLC's range or a buff to range for every other laser (except for heavies), would be good, 10% should be more than sufficient.

[Ramalina]

That actually makes sense, while I believe that LLC are virtually in perfect balance and doesn't really need a buff(its only "issue" being that you have to know how to aim properly), it is silly that BLC can be used for jousting more effectively than virtually every other laser. So either a nerf to BLC's range or a buff to range for every other laser (except for heavies), would be good, 10% should be more than sufficient.

 

 

In a head to head engagement that's not enough range to give even a single extra shot for LLCs even if you run frequency capacitors. So under ideal circumstances they'd be 0% more competitive in a joust with that buff.

 

To gain one additional shot under ideal circumstances you'd need a 12-15% range buff depending on build. To guarantee enough time for a single additional shot you'd have to give them at least a 30% range buff. That's before network latency effects and assuming instantaneous pilot reaction time. More realistically it would be 16% to 20% range buff to give a reasonable possibility of a single extra shot in a joust or 35-37% range buff to guarantee the ability to fire an additional shot in a joust.

 

Oh, and neither ship can boost at all during the joust, otherwise those range buff numbers would have to increase substantially.

 

The % range buff you'd need in order for the 5 km base range blasters to gain an additional shot is about the same as for the 4 km range ones.

 

 

Math corrections aside, the real advantage of the BLC in a joust is the ability to reliably land a single large shot at point blank range when the target is somewhat off center. This would suggest to me that evening the playing field out would be best served by increasing the accuracy of other guns, particularly at medium and long ranges. In a lot of cases in a joust against a moderate to high evasion target (and that's almost all targets with BLCs) having enough range for one more max range shot is just going to result in one more missed shot due to evasion. Massive reductions in tracking penalty might also help, though not as much as accuracy would.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Ramalina

[DresG]

Math corrections aside, the real advantage of the BLC in a joust is the ability to reliably land a single large shot at point blank range when the target is somewhat off center. This would suggest to me that evening the playing field out would be best served by increasing the accuracy of other guns, particularly at medium and long ranges. In a lot of cases in a joust against a moderate to high evasion target (and that's almost all targets with BLCs) having enough range for one more max range shot is just going to result in one more missed shot due to evasion. Massive reductions in tracking penalty might also help, though not as much as accuracy would.

 

Thank you for the math, to be honest, it was just too late where I live to get some numbers that made any sense.

 

I think more useful than increasing the accuracy would be to make it so that damage doesn't fall off that much at max range for all the other lasers, specially for HLC and LC which doesn't fire fast enough unless you are using Frequency Capacitors. That way you can get some reliable high damage shots without being at a range where aiming with those lasers becomes problematic.

[Ramalina]

Thank you for the math, to be honest, it was just too late where I live to get some numbers that made any sense.

 

I think more useful than increasing the accuracy would be to make it so that damage doesn't fall off that much at max range for all the other lasers, specially for HLC and LC which doesn't fire fast enough unless you are using Frequency Capacitors. That way you can get some reliable high damage shots without being at a range where aiming with those lasers becomes problematic.

 

Yeah, that would be a very good buff to the mid and long range lasers. Perhaps not quite as strong as accuracy, but then they don't need as much as a buff as LLCs and RFLs would to hold their own against BLCs.

[ALaggyGrunt]

Hopefully, when the devs do their balancing pass, they have a look at aces actually flying ships on Youtube and Twitch so they know exactly how they're being used in addition to reading what we say about component balance.