GSF needs love

[DomiSotto]

So you're issue is that you can't multitask? As far as the tanking French because you started taking Spanish, I call bs on that. Growing up in Italy, just about everyone I knew who spoke Spanish, picked up French and Italian easily. They said it is because they are similar in language because of their roots. So like I said, that is a problem that is associated with yourself.

 

It's more about a person's limitations and where they are. I have some small ability with languages. I was okay picking up English, and managed French (I actually fond Spanish easier, but picked French because of reasons), but did not succeed with Japanese or German. So studying two very similar languages at the same time was a bad idea. I did it in addition to studying in my primary field that had nothing to do with Humanities. So, I can multitask to a degree, but not exceptionally so.

 

I do not hate GSF, I just don't participate in this part of the game, like I don't build an Alliance or decorate my Stronghold. And I do not think it is time for it to get the funds. If I saw activity parallel to the one I see in PvP or in Raiding discussions, I'd be led to believe it is an active part of the game. But I rarely see it talked about. If there are multitudes that play it, they either like it as is, or keep low profile for some reason.

 

People generally talk about what they are passionate about and the GSF forum is quiet.

Edited January 19, 2016 by DomiSotto

[Stradlin]

Precisely.

 

 

I see GSF tutorial and give up. It's too much to even try.

 

I'm bit angry at myself for actually writing you a serious reply without noticing this part in the very end.

 

It is really cool how the minor detail that you have absolutely no experience of GSF in no way stops you from filling the thread with your epic 20 piece analysis about issues of GSF. a Lesser being might have dropped the subject somewhere around " Never tried GSF, I don¨t care about GSF", leaving the facebook wall updates about your language prowess to some off topic thread maybe.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Stradlin

[Ramalina]

I do not hate GSF, I just don't participate in this part of the game, like I don't build an Alliance or decorate my Stronghold. And I do not think it is time for it to get the funds. If I saw activity parallel to the one I see in PvP or in Raiding discussions, I'd be led to believe it is an active part of the game. But I rarely see it talked about. If there are multitudes that play it, they either like it as is, or keep low profile for some reason.

 

People generally talk about what they are passionate about and the GSF forum is quiet.

 

Other than reverting a set of fairly catastrophic bugs that 3.0 changes to the ground game caused (because most of the core mechanisms of GSF are ground game mechanics that have been slightly modified and reskinned so changing the ground game changes them) the last we saw of significant developer GSF action was in patch 2.8. Aside from answering questions from new players and organizing events, there hasn't been anything new to discuss for quite a while.

 

The closest we've gotten was a Community Team post last May asking about suggestions for improving the balance of the Strike Fighter ship class. The thread has gotten enough continued response that it's still on page two of the GSF forum, and I believe it's more than 90 pages long at this point. Even more impressive, most of that is serious discussion of Strike Fighter class balance with respect to the rest of GSF.

 

If serious response to developer inquiries is a measure of passion, then that one thread has more than the entire PvP forum has had since it's inception. The new player guides are also a pretty impressive testament to the level of passion, and unlike PvE and PvP our theorycrafting community is working without the benefit of access to combat logs or any sort of match win/loss leaderboards.

 

There's even a player that made a GSF

. This was just a few months ago, and not the sort of effort one goes to without any passion.

 

If passion is considered and whiny unhinged rants and namecalling, then PvPers are much more passionate and can keep their pollution, er, passion, to the PvP and General forums thank you very much. Of course, SWTOR wouldn't be a proper MMORPG without a PvP forum that's a toxic sewer of bile. It's pretty much a requirement of the genre, sort of like credit spammers in /trade or /general chat channels in game.

 

Not everyone thinks that, "as much as you can get, then double that," is the right amount spice and trolling for discussion of what they like. GSF passion is more mature, and expects people to show up for tea-time properly dressed and on time.

 

 

At any rate, the passion is there, whether you know where to find it or not.

[DomiSotto]

I'm bit angry at myself for actually writing you a serious reply without noticing this part in the very end.

 

I am sorry for making you angry. I do tend to reply when people ask me direct questions, as in when asked to provide a RL example. I should have been more succinct. I looked at GSF to see if I wanted to try it, and it looked completely out of my league, so I was hopeless to even try. I doubt I am the only one with the same experience.

 

Actually, seeing some of you guys said you are not really interested in the opposing opinions, it was a bad idea to post. Well, look at all the cool rejoinders it generated.

 

If passion is considered and whiny unhinged rants and namecalling, then PvPers are much more passionate and can keep their pollution, er, passion, to the PvP and General forums thank you very much. Of course, SWTOR wouldn't be a proper MMORPG without a PvP forum that's a toxic sewer of bile. It's pretty much a requirement of the genre, sort of like credit spammers in /trade or /general chat channels in game.

 

Ah, I keep telling that to the guys to talk about what draws them to PvP more along with what they don't like. This thread is actually the first one where I see what draws people to GSF. It might be actually be fun to read that and might change folks' minds. Enthusiasm is quite virulent. You are making me think well, maybe it's not as hard as it looks. Though I know perfectly well, that yes, it is.

Edited January 19, 2016 by DomiSotto

[Stradlin]

 

 

Ah, I keep telling that to the guys to talk about what draws them to PvP more along with what they don't like. This thread is actually the first one where I see what draws people to GSF. It might be actually be fun to read that and might change folks' minds. Enthusiasm is quite virulent. You are making me think well, maybe it's not as hard as it looks. Though I know perfectly well, that yes, it is.

 

For one thing, you were right to dislike the in-game tutorial, it is awful and doesn't actually teach you anything too meaningful about GSF.

 

This video is made with new players in mind. It comes with great pop-ups. Covers the basics in five minutes. I found it very helpful when learning the basics.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Stradlin

[DomiSotto]

It is a very nice video. It really helps to see what is involved with the GSF game mode. Cheers, guys, I took up enough space.

[Greezt]

One last point. I'm surprised that you had difficulties studying more than one subject. I know for a fact that many of the GSFers are PvPers/raiders, or both.

 

Like Ramalina said, it's hard to keep talking about something that hasn't been touched in such a long time. For example, the guide stickied to the GSF forums (from almost two years ago!) Is still relevant and useful... Show me another part of the game where this is true for a guide.

 

It's really too bad that you're so set on disliking GSF. Still, it would be nice if you and other people could at least not actively oppose the possibility of an improvement (which is slim anyway).

[ALaggyGrunt]

Here's what's wrong with strike fighters and several opinions on how to fix them-all ~900 posts of it.

 

It's... a well-behaved balance thread in a PvP forum. Maybe that's what we're doing wrong.

[TX_Angel]

I've flown alongside, and against, many of those "Aces." I've had my *** handed to me and handed theirs to them (and 90% don't take it personal). I never considered myself an "Ace" even though I usually placed top 3 for medals earned (not to mention kills, assists, damage done) in a match - unless it was a total ROFL-stomp with unbalanced teams. Which is one of the issues that needs to be resolved with it.

 

I don't mind losing, when there is a contest... more and more I find it is a completely lopsided affair.

 

I'm on the winning side as often as not, but winning 50 to 2 is not much of an improvement over losing 2 to 50.

 

Both are silly.

 

Was just in a satellite match, the other side had 6 bombers, put 3 on each of their platforms, that is nearly unbeatable. Combined with a handful of gunships, and the whole thing was a complete waste of time.

 

I don't mind losing, I don't like not having ANY chance at all.

[DomiSotto]

One last point. I'm surprised that you had difficulties studying more than one subject. I know for a fact that many of the GSFers are PvPers/raiders, or both.

 

That's because I have a low gaming IQ as opposite to those players, who have a high gaming IQ. Alrick repeatedly quotes the term 'Curse of Knowledge' to explain an inability to understand the difficulties someone else experiences in the sphere where you shine. I know with a certainty that I am unable to handle the controls like in GSF, with the aiming and the vector-based movement. The less I diversify, the better are my chances to achieve a mediocre level of performance that I dream about.

Edited January 19, 2016 by DomiSotto

[Greezt]

I don't mind losing, when there is a contest... more and more I find it is a completely lopsided affair.

 

I'm on the winning side as often as not, but winning 50 to 2 is not much of an improvement over losing 2 to 50.

 

Both are silly.

 

Was just in a satellite match, the other side had 6 bombers, put 3 on each of their platforms, that is nearly unbeatable. Combined with a handful of gunships, and the whole thing was a complete waste of time.

 

I don't mind losing, I don't like not having ANY chance at all.

 

I certainly know that feeling... Last weekend I was in a match that ended 50/1. Yes, it sucked. I didn't quit, but watching my whole team being replaced around me while being premade food was horrible.

 

This is a problem, but it's not exclusive to GSF, and over all I think GSFers are less prone to roflstomping than PvPers.

 

That's because I have a low gaming IQ as opposite to those players, who have a high gaming IQ. Alrick repeatedly quotes the term 'Curse of Knowledge' to explain an inability to understand the difficulties someone else experiences in the sphere where you shine. I know with a certainty that I am unable to handle the controls like in GSF, with the aiming and the vector-based movement. The less I diversify, the better are my chances to achieve a mediocre level of performance that I dream about.

 

Best of luck in that . Alrick is right, but everyone I've managed to get to play GSF (not a lot, true), showed improvement over time. Most aren't aces (I certainly am not one) but reaching a level where you can be at least medicore is plausible without compromising your PvP skills, even if you find it hard to do both.

 

Either that, or by some chance all my guildies who I pull into GSF and PvP are by some chance people with high gaming IQ (I'll be honest, I'm not familiar with that term).

[AlrikFassbauer]

I don't mind losing, I don't like not having ANY chance at all.

 

You can have that in "ground PvP" as well.

 

It is always a riddle to me what drives people into giving the other team absolutely no chance. I mean, what kind of fun is this ???

 

The only thing I can imagine is a mix of domination ( = dominating others ) and the dark triad. Apart from that, I'm helpless.

 

Giving others 0 % of a change - or, let's say 10 % just to troll them and make them believe they have a chance whereas in fact they don't - is an behaviour that's just ... too immature to me. I can imagine selfish kids come up with the idea of completely destroying others, but older gamers ?

 

But ... well, there do exist kinds of business where you do exactly that. Like ... Wall Street ? The reasons whgy the Bank Of America almost got elected to be the worst business company - only to be topped by EA bbecause of ME3 ?

 

I just cannot understand what kind of "ffun" it should be to give others 0 % of a chance. I just can't. Maybe I'm too soft for that. Yes, that must be it.

 

But still - it happens so often. Both in "ground PvP" and in GSF.

 

Why does it have to be there at all, winning without a challenge ?

 

 

 

 

And, besides, being a bad player in such an overlord team is bad, either.

In my case, it felt like being totally worthless. Lesser than worthless. Because I just couldmn't contribute even the slightest bit. Either I got one-shotted (well, nearly), or I did so few damage I easily - and without any challenge - landed in the bottom of the scoreboard.

 

Feeling worthless because of no chance to contribute is maybe a pecial problem of mine - but I believe that it does exist, but no-one talks about it, and rather leaves GSF without saying a word. And, what words should I use to talk about that with aces anyway ? "Sorry that I'm not as good as you ?" "Sorry that I didn't contribute ?". If they could, they'd kick me out after writing that. Because they wouldn't want bad players, like in ground PvP, I'm sure.

 

But at least people try. Some people are more stubborn than I am and just stay in.

[PorsaLindahl]

People generally talk about what they are passionate about and the GSF forum is quiet.

 

It' may be quiet over there, but it's not dead. It may not be as active as General with all the BS x10 duplicate threads, but it's definitely not a dead subject.

 

As you can tell in this thread, people do like GSF. You admittedly don't. You've never given it a chance. By not even having first hand knowledge of that aspect of the game, you nullify all of your arguments against it. All you're doing in this thread is stirring up a hornet nest, saying things along the lines of "Don't divert resources to this because it was a mistake from the beginning."

 

There are Ops that I haven't done. If I popped into one of those X is broken threads and said "Don't waste any resources on this Op because it's stupid and was a mistake to even implement it." How do you think people would respond?

 

As previously mentioned, the only thing you "should" have posted, if anything, would have been "I'm against it. I don't like GSF." Not these ramblings trying to impress people by blowing smoke up their asses.

 

GSF needs a lot of attention. And has for quite some time.

[Stradlin]

You can have that in "ground PvP" as well.

 

It is always a riddle to me what drives people into giving the other team absolutely no chance. I mean, what kind of fun is this ???

 

Giving others 0 % of a change - or, let's say 10 % just to troll them and make them believe they have a chance whereas in fact they don't - is an behaviour that's just ... too immature to me. I can imagine selfish kids come up with the idea of completely destroying others, but older gamers ?

 

But still - it happens so often. Both in "ground PvP" and in GSF.

 

Why does it have to be there at all, winning without a challenge ?

 

 

 

 

And, besides, being a bad player in such an overlord team is bad, either.

In my case, it felt like being totally worthless. Lesser than worthless. Because I just couldmn't contribute even the slightest bit. Either I got one-shotted (well, nearly), or I did so few damage I easily - and without any challenge - landed in the bottom of the scoreboard.

 

Feeling worthless because of no chance to contribute is maybe a pecial problem of mine - but I believe that it does exist, but no-one talks about it, and rather leaves GSF without saying a word. And, what words should I use to talk about that with aces anyway ? "Sorry that I'm not as good as you ?" "Sorry that I didn't contribute ?". If they could, they'd kick me out after writing that. Because they wouldn't want bad players, like in ground PvP, I'm sure.

 

But at least people try. Some people are more stubborn than I am and just stay in.

 

 

Just as you say, you'll always have unfair or imbalanced games. Can never be too sure how balanced, fair or unfair things are going to be in the next match. It is part of the nature (some might even say charm!!) of PvP.

 

What does set GSF apart from ground PvP is how most veteran Rep pilots are also veteran Imp pilots, and other way around. After you got some few hundred games under your belt, most who end up liking GSF end up flying both factions, for variety of reasons. So while there will always be imbalanced games, neither faction dominates GSF in any consistent, long term fashion. ( I can only speak from my own subjective experience, of the two servers I've done more than few games in)

 

Nobody ever is very good at GSF when starting out. Every experienced pilot knows/remembers/understands this from first hand experience and is prolly happy to help out if you reach out. If newcomer accepts he/she has few things to learn and manages to have some measure of fun while learning the ropes, then everything else usually just takes care of itself. It really helps if you accept/remember that nobody expects brand new pilot to do anything besides being busy learning the basics. If the new pilot joins everybody around him in accepting this, funtimes just might happen!

Edited January 19, 2016 by Stradlin

[Stradlin]

 

GSF needs a lot of attention. And has for quite some time.

 

I think everybody wondering about potential in GSF would do well to look into direction of Star Citizen. 100 million dollars gathered in crowd funding. One hundred million dollars made by selling people an idea of a game. One that won't see a release in several years. Idea of a game that, as day dream fodder for it's fans, actually isn't that far removed from the actual experience of playing SW:TOR as a GSF Pilot. Something in that almost makes one wonder if GSF, Bioware and EA could benefit from tiny slice of additional attention/budget/visibility given to GSF maybe? But hay, can't waste money to stuff like unique game mechanics when you need to fund all those sweet CGI trailers.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Stradlin

[Vhaegrant]

I would have thought all the devs needed to do was port over a reasonable facsimile of the old Star Wars X-wing/Tie Fighter space sims. I used to be pretty good at those. Not sure what happened during planning but what we ended up with was the standard gear based/ class based fiasco that plagues pretty much all MMO PvP that I've had the misfortune of playing.

 

You may take from my tone that I'm not the biggest fan of gear based/ class based PvP

 

A small population means that the matching system just doesn't work. Not to mention folk who need to win so just start queuing on the other faction if there seems to be a better winning streak.

When GSF first launched it had promise, the satellite match meant there was a non-pvp element for those that wanted to capture and harass the PvE style satellites. Then the bombers were introduced alongside a pure deathmatch mode and the remaining bit of interest I had evaporated. My space sim needs replaced by Elite: Dangerous (not a perfect game by any measure, but at least one where I can target my opponents).

 

I'm not sure what the Devs can do at this time to resurrect the fortunes of GSF.

The way the main game is going with its focus on story and single player content I'd strongly advise them to think about a PvE element like the old missions of the X-wing/ Tie Fighter games... go play them, people always talk about Wingcommander and Elite but I feel these were the best examples of a space combat game out there at one time.

 

Bad matchmaking aside I've never understood the online tendency to penalise newcomers to a game. No other real sport does this at a social level (I think there needs to be a distinction between ranked play and casual/social play) Golf uses the handicap system so that players of differing ability can play together in friendlies and local competitions, if you want the big money however it is scratch play (no handicap).

 

In social unranked queues:

There should be no gear buff at all, all ships of a class should be the same.

*put in ship restrictions for some matches, if gunships are dominating then put an embargo on them for a number of matches, same with bombers.

If a player dies they get a small buff on respawn.

If they die again this buff should increase, if they kill someone it should decrease.

 

More gamemaps and modes would be nice, but first you have to make the overall experience more appealing to a newcomer, rather than just stomping them into the ground and jeering at them.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Vhaegrant

[Greezt]

In social unranked queues:

There should be no gear buff at all, all ships of a class should be the same.

*put in ship restrictions for some matches, if gunships are dominating then put an embargo on them for a number of matches, same with bombers.

If a player dies they get a small buff on respawn.

If they die again this buff should increase, if they kill someone it should decrease.

 

These ideas are problematic for a couple of reasons.

 

1) a big part of the fun in GSF is the customisation. You can have two ships that are the same type but work completely different. Taking that away would take away much of the depth of the game. Also,.there's nothing wrong with working towards a complete ship. It makes it more enjoyable when you get there. Bolster is a nice idea, and could work.

 

2) a buff on respawn will achieve nothing. A good matchmaking system would give you the same results, without you needing to die to get them.

 

3) restricting ships is unfair to everyone. If a premade just tan 4 gunships, why should I take punishment as a soloqueuer?

Edited January 19, 2016 by Greezt

[ImmortalLowlife]

It's actually not a design flaw per se. They explained in a stream that in order to make the game accessible to a larger audience, and since the ground game is played with a mouse and keyboard, they decided to make GSF a keyboard game too. I get why many players want a joystick, I'm just explaining why it's not there.

 

Also, GSF is very much alive. Try switching servers if the GSF on yours is dead.

 

I called BS when they said that garbage...

 

"Accessible to a larger audience....."

 

 

78 million Xbox 360s sold to date

80 million PS3s sold to date

30million PS4s sold to date

15 million Xbox ones

 

Devs.......Don't you think it's a good chance that almost EVERY swtor player has at least one of the consoles?

 

How many of your players do you think are primarily console gamers who are only playing on pc because they can't play Swtor on a console?

 

You didn't think it'd be a good idea to include a control scheme that'd appeal to those players?

 

 

Nah....bottom line is they dropped the ball big time with GSF because of piss poor decisions. It's they own damn fault it failed.

 

GSF alive? Riiiiiiight....that's why there hasn't been ANY content introduced to GSF since a few months after it launched. Even the devs barely acknowledge it exists.

[Stradlin]

^

As has been explained by numerous people in numerous threads including this one, it is an utterly flawed notion to assume pad would in any way be superior or better controller than m+KB in an arcade space " sim".

Edited January 19, 2016 by Stradlin

[Vhaegrant]

These ideas are problematic for a couple of reasons.

I never said they weren't

1) a big part of the fun in GSF is the customisation. You can have two ships that are the same type but work completely different. Taking that away would take away much of the depth of the game. Also,.there's nothing wrong with working towards a complete ship. It makes it more enjoyable when you get there. Bolster is a nice idea, and could work.

I don't have problem with different setups as much as I do the gear gap and how it effects the environment in unranked content. I think having the best set is fine in ranked, and if people want to try fighting in a lesser ship in ranked then more power to them.

But lets be honest here, PvP that rewards the better player with more rewards and even better gear just serves to reinforce that new players are not welcome unless they are prepared to serve their apprenticeship time of getting whitewashed time and time again.

2) a buff on respawn will achieve nothing. A good matchmaking system would give you the same results, without you needing to die to get them.

If the population queuing at any time is small enough the matchmaker is going to have issue. Again, maybe I should have been clearer those ideas were only meant for unranked play, it's an attempt to draw in more players, and giving them a buff/ debuff to make it more of a skill challenge to the experienced that want to participate.

Look at many of the complaints and it is the lopsided nature of the matches.

3) restricting ships is unfair to everyone. If a premade just tan 4 gunships, why should I take punishment as a soloqueuer?

If it's unfair to everyone that's usually the sign of a fair compromise.

If match after match is being dominated by players in Gunships, then take gunships out of the equation for a few matches. It applies to everyo.ne in that match so no one will have access to that ship type. You have a hanger with several ship types, a good idea to diversify

[Reno_Tarshil]

In my opinion, the best way to fix GSF is the PvE route. Would get more people to play it.

[Vhaegrant]

In my opinion, the best way to fix GSF is the PvE route. Would get more people to play it.

Certainly can't argue with you there. The original X-Wing and Tie Fighter space combat games were two of my favourite games of all time. Reskin those to SWTOR ships and get them in the game and I'd be re-invested in the space side of SWTOR.

 

Sorry, I'm an older gamer but when I was younger this was epic

It got harder...

Edited January 19, 2016 by Vhaegrant

[Stradlin]

^

 

As a kid, I was huge fan of Tie Fighter/X-wing games too. I have no difficulty seeing GSF as spiritual ancestor for them. Well, at least for X-W Vs Tie, heh.

Seen this btw? Sith is so cahs.

 

Sure it would be awesome to have PvE content in GSF but it'll be such a cold day in hell that we gotta fly wearing mittens.

 

RE: what you said last page;

 

There is a notable difference between mastered components vs stock components. The difference is bit smaller than it usually feels to a new pilot.

 

Mastering a ship can be major undertaking involving lots of time and matches. Building a ship with functional build to stage where minor components are mastered and majors around tier 3 or something is much, much less big of a deal. Such ship is perfectly functional thing to have and usually marks the spot where you can stop blaming ship from failing, and get to blame yourself. ;p It can be quite rewarding to get better and better upgrades as you get better and better as pilot.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Stradlin

[Greezt]

GSF alive? Riiiiiiight....that's why there hasn't been ANY content introduced to GSF since a few months after it launched. Even the devs barely acknowledge it exists.

 

Since when do the devs decide whether a certain part of the game is alive? The only way they can kill GSF is by pulling the plug on it. Since players still play it, yes, it is alive.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Greezt

[MDVZ]

You can have that in "ground PvP" as well.

 

It is always a riddle to me what drives people into giving the other team absolutely no chance. I mean, what kind of fun is this ???

 

The only thing I can imagine is a mix of domination ( = dominating others ) and the dark triad. Apart from that, I'm helpless.

 

Giving others 0 % of a change - or, let's say 10 % just to troll them and make them believe they have a chance whereas in fact they don't - is an behaviour that's just ... too immature to me. I can imagine selfish kids come up with the idea of completely destroying others, but older gamers ?

 

But ... well, there do exist kinds of business where you do exactly that. Like ... Wall Street ? The reasons whgy the Bank Of America almost got elected to be the worst business company - only to be topped by EA bbecause of ME3 ?

 

I just cannot understand what kind of "ffun" it should be to give others 0 % of a chance. I just can't. Maybe I'm too soft for that. Yes, that must be it.

 

But still - it happens so often. Both in "ground PvP" and in GSF.

 

Why does it have to be there at all, winning without a challenge ?

 

 

 

 

And, besides, being a bad player in such an overlord team is bad, either.

In my case, it felt like being totally worthless. Lesser than worthless. Because I just couldmn't contribute even the slightest bit. Either I got one-shotted (well, nearly), or I did so few damage I easily - and without any challenge - landed in the bottom of the scoreboard.

 

Feeling worthless because of no chance to contribute is maybe a pecial problem of mine - but I believe that it does exist, but no-one talks about it, and rather leaves GSF without saying a word. And, what words should I use to talk about that with aces anyway ? "Sorry that I'm not as good as you ?" "Sorry that I didn't contribute ?". If they could, they'd kick me out after writing that. Because they wouldn't want bad players, like in ground PvP, I'm sure.

 

But at least people try. Some people are more stubborn than I am and just stay in.

 

It gets my goat when a strong team goes up against a weak team with META ships and Super-Serious tactics. However, you don't see it all that often. At least not on TRE. It still happens too much, imo, but it's not the norm in lopsided matches for the strong team to go for the best ships and tactics they have.

 

Things I often see, and sometimes say in chat:

Use practice ships

Use low req ships

Use fun ships (meaning non-meta; most experienced players have ships they know aren't good that they like to fly that they use in fights with weak players)

No abilities.

No missiles

Missiles only

No mines

Mines only

Let them have a satelite

Let a satellite swap teams (so new players feel like they did something and get more requisition)

Don't spawn camp

Anyone who picks up DO (a power-up that doubles your damage for a while) is a big wuss.

Once: "Everyone dogfight in bombers!" (if you don't know, bombers are terrible at that)

 

One exceptional player I know, knowing his own reputation, even occasionally lets noobs kill him so they can think 'Yay, I killed ********, I CAN DO THIS!'.

 

I've seen another top player actually give tactical advice to the enemy team during a match so they can learn to play better.

 

The list goes on. Good players are well aware of the advantage we have and we often gimp ourselves or give leeway in a match to new players. In fact, it happens in one form or another more often than not.

 

The fact is that because good players know what they're doing and GSF is actually mostly skill, they still hammer the new players even when giving up advantages and imposing limitations on themselves. It's really difficult to take your foot off the gas, as it were. You can't forget how to aim, missile break, LoS, evade and so on.

 

BUT at least experienced GSFers know the advantage they have and do try to be sporting. It might not feel that way on the other team, as the 'sporting' games still end up being stomps, but you're misinterpreting the attitude behind them, in my experience (which is about 1000 games, fwiw).

 

And don't forget that a good player can solo q into the losing side, fight well and still lose, or fight exceptionally well and basically single handedly beat the whole enemy team. Just the other day, I got 27 kills and 0 deaths on a roughly half mastered ship and STILL lost. 50-30-ish. Go and have a look at the screens of some of the record games in the GSF forum and you'll see the very best pilots getting 40+ of their teams kills.

 

Fundamentally, none of that would happen if matchmaker worked well, and matchmaker would work well if there were enough people playing for its attempt to group people by how much requisition they've earned to actually work, and for there to be a larger population, one of the big things that's needed is for new players to have an easier time. It's a vicious cycle.

Edited January 19, 2016 by MDVZ