Suggestions for starfighter ballance

[WiseStranger]

i miswrite ever -> never.

 

My point is strikes are fines or not so far to be, flashfires/quarrel are far more than op.

 

If your point is strikes are underpowered and flashfires/quarrel are fines then this is bulshi t.

 

My opinion, now can we talk about the real subject ?

 

Let's just imagine that you Jazyra were born without eyes. You're totally blind from birth, but as the time passed by you were made aware that other people have this thing called eyesight that makes life awesome and easy. You don't have to bump into things, that thing called TV is not audio only, it has accompanying moving pictures that are fun and pleasing to watch. What's even "worse" in Jazyra's mind is that the entire world seems to be built around people who can see. Everyone likes this world where everything is balanced for them. Jazyra on the other hand has to walk around with a white cane and rely 100% on other senses and other people.

 

How unfair! Jazyra starts the campaign that people with eyes are OP and should be nerfed. Pluck thier eyes out just because Jazyra uses him/herself as an anchor point. Never does it cross Jazyra's mind that JUST FREAKING MAYBE the people that can see are the norm, the anchor point and Jazyra's condition is NOT normal.

 

Let's imagine there is a miracle cure. <insert procedure to allow Jazyra to become just like everyone else>. For instance there was a different body prepared for Jazyra and the technology was developed to transfer Jazyra's mind from old body to a shiny perfect new body that is not deficient in any way. "NO!" says Jazyra, "Why should I give up this crippled body of mine when the proper solution would be to pluck everyone's eyes out and make ALL OF THE HUMANITY blind just as I am! Only then the world will be balanced."

 

Do us all a favor, either shut up or get into meta ships. We all know strikes are not where they should be, but we're not in favor of making them viable at the expense of balance of 3 other ships classes out of 4 available.

[Jazyra]

Let's just imagine that you Jazyra were born without eyes. You're totally blind from birth, but as the time passed by you were made aware that other people have this thing called eyesight that makes life awesome and easy. You don't have to bump into things, that thing called TV is not audio only, it has accompanying moving pictures that are fun and pleasing to watch. What's even "worse" in Jazyra's mind is that the entire world seems to be built around people who can see. Everyone likes this world where everything is balanced for them. Jazyra on the other hand has to walk around with a white cane and rely 100% on other senses and other people.

 

How unfair! Jazyra starts the campaign that people with eyes are OP and should be nerfed. Pluck thier eyes out just because Jazyra uses him/herself as an anchor point. Never does it cross Jazyra's mind that JUST FREAKING MAYBE the people that can see are the norm, the anchor point and Jazyra's condition is NOT normal.

 

Let's imagine there is a miracle cure. <insert procedure to allow Jazyra to become just like everyone else>. For instance there was a different body prepared for Jazyra and the technology was developed to transfer Jazyra's mind from old body to a shiny perfect new body that is not deficient in any way. "NO!" says Jazyra, "Why should I give up this crippled body of mine when the proper solution would be to pluck everyone's eyes out and make ALL OF THE HUMANITY blind just as I am! Only then the world will be balanced."

 

Do us all a favor, either shut up or get into meta ships. We all know strikes are not where they should be, but we're not in favor of making them viable at the expense of balance of 3 other ships classes out of 4 available.

 

I will stay polite because you make me laugh.

 

If your vision of GSF is everyone 2 shots everyone then ok you all right i'm all wrong.

 

But i will still be there with the worst ship/classes, harassing try hard, showing how bad they are, how carried by their classes/ships they are, trolling them all day long. Because this is what a try hard deserve, i'm ****in robin hood.

[Drakkolich]

If your vision of GSF is everyone 2 shots everyone then ok you all right i'm all wrong.

 

But i will still be there with the worst ship/classes, harassing try hard, showing how bad they are, how carried by their classes/ships they are, trolling them all day long. Because this is what a try hard deserve, i'm ****in robin hood.

 

The very interesting part is that if you turned down damage across the board in high skill matches no one would die. Currently when we play 4 vs 4 or 8 vs 8 organized play we often go to time playing meta ships that have the current burst damage. Even with all the burst damage in the game it is still very hard to kill a highly skilled player.

 

Have you ever played in an organized Strike night Jazyra? I've done it a few times now and what would happen is no one could kill anyone. The game was so slow it often became boring.

 

 

I've never understood how the tern "try hard" could be considered an insult, in a video game there are certain rules you must follow it's not like in a board game at home where you could possibly play the rules wrong. Choosing the best ship/components for the current set of rules is how a competitive player plays any game. This is how I play every game I have ever played, I play whatever is the best thing that will let me win the most.

 

If you don't want to play the best things you just have to accept that players that aren't as good as you might beat you anyways because of that choice. It sounds like you have more fun doing this even if you lose and that's ok. However talking down a player that doesn't have that mentality is just plain wrong in my opinion, the way they want to play is no different then the way you do, you just have different goals.

 

In a game where every player has access to every ship/component (eventually) I don't see how someone could be carried by a ship choices. Before the game started every player had a choice of what ships to use in their loudout once the game started they again each had the same choice of one of the ships they put in that loadout. What's even crazier is that in this game you can actually see exactly what your opponents have chosen and can easily choose something to counter it. Now if you decide not to use certain tools the game has available to win then that isn't the other players fault it's yours.

[Jazyra]

The very interesting part is that if you turned down damage across the board in high skill matches no one would die. Currently when we play 4 vs 4 or 8 vs 8 organized play we often go to time playing meta ships that have the current burst damage. Even with all the burst damage in the game it is still very hard to kill a highly skilled player.

 

Have you ever played in an organized Strike night Jazyra? I've done it a few times now and what would happen is no one could kill anyone. The game was so slow it often became boring.

 

 

I've never understood how the tern "try hard" could be considered an insult, in a video game there are certain rules you must follow it's not like in a board game at home where you could possibly play the rules wrong. Choosing the best ship/components for the current set of rules is how a competitive player plays any game. This is how I play every game I have ever played, I play whatever is the best thing that will let me win the most.

 

If you don't want to play the best things you just have to accept that players that aren't as good as you might beat you anyways because of that choice. It sounds like you have more fun doing this even if you lose and that's ok. However talking down a player that doesn't have that mentality is just plain wrong in my opinion, the way they want to play is no different then the way you do, you just have different goals.

 

In a game where every player has access to every ship/component (eventually) I don't see how someone could be carried by a ship choices. Before the game started every player had a choice of what ships to use in their loudout once the game started they again each had the same choice of one of the ships they put in that loadout. What's even crazier is that in this game you can actually see exactly what your opponents have chosen and can easily choose something to counter it. Now if you decide not to use certain tools the game has available to win then that isn't the other players fault it's yours.

 

Still my opinion but for me the definition of fun is not win or either 2 shoting someone and by definition the frustration of my oponent, the funniest match i've done are defeat. Close long and epic dogfight middle map.

 

i might sound like a mad kid because of my non-native engish, but when i hear "Shut the fu ck up play meta" by all the gsf community.... I just wish you say something like "shut up and play sorc" on the pvp forum or any other games, you gonna be flamme for years.

 

The gsf community really surprise me by hes hypocrisy sometime. in france we have a proverb "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king".

Edited February 17, 2016 by Jazyra

[Drakkolich]

Still my opinion but for me the definition of fun is not win or either 2 shoting someone and by definition the frustration of my oponent, the funniest match i've done are defeat. Close long and epic dogfight middle map.

 

i might sound like a mad kid because of my non-native engish, but when i hear "Shut the fu ck up play meta" by all the gsf community.... I just wish you say something like "shut up and play sorc" on the pvp forum or any other games, you gonna be flamme for years.

 

The gsf community really surprise me by hes hypocrisy sometime. in france we have a proverb "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king".

 

It's great that for you the definition of fun is not to win. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. All we are saying is that we would like you to understand that not everyone thinks that way.

Burst damage is always a huge part of PvP as you want to leave the smallest amount of time for the other player to react, this is why in many games the Meta's often use high burst damage setups. It isn't to frustrate our opponents (for some it might be and that's ok too) but usually it's to win the engagement faster.

 

You talk about how you like long epic dog fights in the middle of the map but for a player like me that is the exact opposite of what I enjoy. I like coordinated tactical games that involve working with your team to win the objective of whatever game/map I'm playing. This clearly isn't what you like about the game and the fact that one game can appeal to both of us is awesome, we both just need to recognize that fact and realize that we want different things.

 

You don't have to play the meta, and I personally am very much against someone saying "shut up and play the meta". I think everyone is free to play however they want. However if you don't want to play the "most effective tactic available" you shouldn't complain that other people are. Using the term "try hard" is just that, you are complaining that someone is using a very effective tactic to win a game.

 

 

I'm not sure how your proverb applies here? Are you the one-eyed man in this scenario?

 

The way I read the proverb anyone that plays the meta is king and everyone else is blind.

[WiseStranger]

Still my opinion but for me the definition of fun is not win or either 2 shoting someone and by definition the frustration of my oponent, the funniest match i've done are defeat. Close long and epic dogfight middle map.

 

i might sound like a mad kid because of my non-native engish, but when i hear "Shut the fu ck up play meta" by all the gsf community.... I just wish you say something like "shut up and play sorc" on the pvp forum or any other games, you gonna be flamme for years.

 

The gsf community really surprise me by hes hypocrisy sometime. in france we have a proverb "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king".

 

It's not "shut up AND play meta".

It is "shut up OR play meta".

 

"shut up" - because if you're trying to promote across the board nerfs to the balanced, larger part of the system instead of buffs to the smaller, under-performing part of the system - we don't want to hear you. However you're still free to play whatever the build you want and have fun.

 

"play meta" - because If you're looking for a readily available solution of improving your game and overall contribution to your team, playing meta is the solution.

 

If you really want to contribute ideas that won't cause a backlash at you, discuss potential BUFFS to strikes. Something that gives them a useful role that can't be filled by other ship types effectively. There is a hundred page long thread about strikes started by the dev team.

[ALaggyGrunt]

Strikes are weak because they can't kill things, and they die too easily.

Strikes can't kill things because everything has a way to get out of the way for the several seconds of average-player gunfire (we can't keep our mouse on that little red dot constantly when something's boosting and squirrely), and can press a button to laugh off a missile. The only way a strike will hit anything with a missile is if its pilot makes a mistake and allows the missile lock.

Everything else can kill things because they drop very painful AoE weapons in places where other people want to be (mines), they have insane and broken burst damage (slug rail, burst laser+CDs), and the defensive abilities to get out of the way. Or they can blow through a shield power pool before the target has a chance to respond.

The debuffs (snare, regen, drain) can't be dealt with by any component choice on a strike. There aren't any engine components which can clear snares (I'm looking at you, interdiction drive). There aren't any thruster or magazine components which can make a ship more resistant to drain (I'm looking at you, power thrusters). There aren't any good weapons which can threaten anyone while the weapon power pool is drained (missiles, but they don't hurt enough and are way too easily countered). And there aren't any shield components which can resist piercing (directionals maybe?) or laugh off dots (quick-charge).

[Tredayn]

TLDR : Yeah you right GS are completly fine.

 

A match with more than 4 GS is soooooooooo enjoyable, especially the T1 ION is perfectly balance.

 

I agree.

 

Too much games with 5 GS out of 8 ships or 8 GS out of 12 ships who are covering themselves. These games are not enjoyable and some players quit the team as soon as it starts. It shouldn't have more than 3 GS out of 8 or 5 GS out of 12 ships (just less than half of the ships).

 

And YES, with a team of players on teamspeak, you can take on these GS pretty easily. BUT, 95% of the GSF games I play are with 100% solo players, half of them with nearly no experience of GSF (2 ships, 0 kills, 0 assist, 10 deaths, ... ).

 

So, assume you are alone. Sometimes i can destroy 4 nearby GS if their players have only little experience. But with normal pilots with ion railgun, all ships which are coming are frozen in the air and destroyed.

 

Understand me, I am not saying GS are too strong or deathly. There are other ships which can lay destruction on ennemies. But GS are the only ones which can prevent you from playing and induce such a frustration which make new players never coming back to GSF.

It can be fun to fight a scout and be defeated by its turning rate. It can be fun to chase a bomber around a satellite and failing to escape its mines and drones. It can be fun to launch a proton missile to a strike fighter and be destroyed at the same time by his proton missile.

BUT, it is never fun to be kept frozen into the air without be able to play. Never, even if you are masochist. Even if you want suddenly a coffee. Never.

[Greezt]

GSF balance isn't going to change in the foreseeable future, that's a fact. Even if it did, I doubt gunships would get a nerf. Like it or not, that's the way the game is right now. You can fly whatever you want in any match, but you should be aware that you are essentially holding yourself back with a less optimal ship.

 

Since I fly with you often Kywi, I can say you're a good pilot (at least in my opinion), and you're definitely hurting yourself by insisting to fly strikes. If you flew scouts more, you'd see that gunships are definitely killable by them. If you flew bomber more (not the sledgehammer), you'd see scouts are not as strong as they seem. The problem is strikes, not the rest of the ships.

 

As for "gunships vs. noobs": That's a problem, but don't think the good players wouldn't wreck the new ones in worse ships. Take a look a the highscore board, and see what people can do with a pike and a starguard...

[Retrogame]

If we take a stroll back to the subject of the thread: A number of fundamental flaws exist in the game design. You can't have balance.

 

1. Rule of Cool is in the game design. What do I mean? Well... you want me to believe that space craft in a high space fantasy setting can't lock missiles onto each other from many miles away even though lowly air craft in the real world can do this. "Realistically" ships with missiles should have longer ranges than gunship railguns. Missiles have much longer ranges than artillery in real life. We need to come up with some crazy explanation as to why a strike craft can't use its weapons until the enemy is flying past them at a ridiculous speed. We could say "oh jamming technology is too good" or something but it's just an excuse; it's a necessity of an arena setting like this. Similarly, strike craft should be MUCH faster than gunships, and scouts even faster again. It's like a speed boat versus a fishing boat. But again, if everything moved at "realistic" speeds the game would be too twitchy and the maps too small. Game engine limitations.

 

2. The design of many of the ships is heavily influenced by wanting to remind you of X Wings and Tie Fighters and other Star Wars tropes, and actual gameplay balance comes second or third. As a result, it's way off kilter. We are so far beyond the launch period of this that it's becoming inaccessible. The very fact that there's a right way and a wrong way to "build" your ship is a bad thing. Why have so many different possible ways to kit out your craft if a lot of them are useless? This can't be the way they wanted it. Otherwise every ship would have the same equipment.

 

3. Everything above notwithstanding, how much sense does it actually make for the team to be able to have as many of whatever craft they want? IMHO it does not make sense. The Republic fleet would not consist of an infinite number of each craft. Some are far more expensive or larger than others. Size alone would mean a cruiser could only carry 4 scouts, 2 strikes... maybe one bomber in the shuttle bay... and no gunships at all, they're so big that they're the same size as the Player ships in the rail shooter from launch. See where I am going? The game might be more interesting if in a match only a certain number of each class of ship was allowed on the field. You could even mix it up where in different scenarios, different kinds of squadrons clashed. It would require fundamentally different game design however. Oh, and let's not even get into the inherent illogic of respawns. I saw a guy cap a sat and then smash and blow up on purpose to respawn in a bomber.

 

4. My firsthand experience of late has been that "Faction A sucks and always loses. Faction B doesn't." You can't tell me that it's a good thing that all the players with a modicum of skill have a huge incentive to join Faction B. Maybe it would dilute the ranks of B with a bunch of bad players but I don't see it. I don't know what the answer to this is, but perhaps eliminating same-faction battles for a start. That way, Faction B can't practice against themselves all day and then Faction A comes up for an occasional 999-1 drubbing. It would require the experienced players to spread out across both sides. (Or you'd never get a queue.)

 

5. I see many frustrated players trying to express this simple notion: "Being killed in one shot from far away over and over is not fun." No, it's not. But it's the way it's built. They wanted sniper ships. Curious that Darth Vader didn't just fly across the surface of the Death Star in his Tie Gunship X2 and take out Red Squadron with a few well placed force guided railgun shots. There's no gunships in Classic Star Wars, why are there gunships in SWTOR? They're out of place. I know you love them, but they don't belong. And newbies die by the score to gunships and come here and complain that it's just not fair. It may be true that they'd lose fair and square against the same players even if everyone was flying the same ship, but that's beside the point.

 

6. Go and watch another Rule of Cool thing about fighters: Top Gun. Cheesy awesome movie. "You never, ever leave your wingman." Right. There's nothing inherent to the game design to get people to cooperate and watch each other's backs. Strike fighters are dangerous if it's 2 against 1. You can dodge the first missile, but can you dodge the second?

Edited February 18, 2016 by Retrogame
missed a point

[Danalon]

Let's consider every component having roughly the same strength and enough synergies with other components to work well. There would be more different ships around, and beginners could build what they like without making mistakes. That's about it. It wouldn't magically make beginners stronger.

Without a rating system, which requires a bigger participation to work, or at least a better tutorial, which has to be played and not just skipped, there won't be much change in veteran vs beginner fights.

 

Game mechanics versus real-life usually doesn't lead anywhere. Games have to be designed for playability and in many cases there are differences to "real life".

The reason why there are no Gunships in the movies is basically the same as with the game mechanics. Movies are made for watching - they're not documentaries about weapons. Weapons have to be cool to watch. Besides that, in almost any movie there are discrepancies bewteen the power a character (or his equipment) should have and the power he uses. Sometimes it's explained, moreoften it's not.

 

Maybe inside the game there is no mechanic to support playing with a wingman, but what keeps you from using any VoIP to coordinate. I usually fly with a wingman and we have developed some standard moves for the beginning of matches and coordinate changes in tactics. I wouldn't call us aces but we manage to lead our team to victory most of the time.

And again, while 2v1 may work, what happens if the opponent also brings a wingman?

Edited February 18, 2016 by Danalon

[Jazyra]

because if you're trying to promote across the board nerfs to the balanced

 

I'm done with you.

 

GSF balance isn't going to change in the foreseeable future, that's a fact. Even if it did, I doubt gunships would get a nerf. Like it or not, that's the way the game is right now. You can fly whatever you want in any match, but you should be aware that you are essentially holding yourself back with a less optimal ship.

 

Since I fly with you often Kywi, I can say you're a good pilot (at least in my opinion), and you're definitely hurting yourself by insisting to fly strikes. If you flew scouts more, you'd see that gunships are definitely killable by them. If you flew bomber more (not the sledgehammer), you'd see scouts are not as strong as they seem. The problem is strikes, not the rest of the ships.

 

As for "gunships vs. noobs": That's a problem, but don't think the good players wouldn't wreck the new ones in worse ships. Take a look a the highscore board, and see what people can do with a pike and a starguard...

 

Thanks you too, but i disagree with you. I'm not here to complain as a strike pilot. But as a pilot who as almost try every ships even the one i complain about. Of course not all of them are fully mastered or upgraded and i'm far to be the best.

 

My point is some component are too powerfull and do not work as intended (BLC, ion rail ect...), A lot of people complain because of their lack of knowledge, this thread is made of that.

 

But i got this knowlegde, my duty is to expose the real problems.

 

Why so many GS ? Cause the "skill cap" is very low to master it, stack enough of them with one or two bombers and you got a real fortress.

 

Why GS so efficient ? Ion is far too powerfull making the t1 gs perfect the others gs, Slug damage & shields pen is too much. To compare i feel the plasma is really balanced.

[Lavaar]

You know, I see this kind of mental acrobatics about this game more often than I should, and it comes in many different flavors, but tends to express itself in similar ways. This isn't just new players, but even players who have been around for a long time can make excuses and come up with an endless list of justifications to try to convince themselves that it isn't THEIR fault that they are are having a bad time, but some external issue.

 

It comes in many flavors:

 

- Scouts are OP and ruin the game

- VoIP is cheating

- Bombers ruined the game

- Premades killed the ques

- Gunships are OP and ruin the game

- It isn't fun for me to play like this

- I was focused

- He was playing cheap

- My team sucks

- Star wars is supposed to be dogfighting, you're all doing it wrong

- There aren't any challenges anymore

 

All of these are "main points" which some people have convinced themselves of at some point in time to quell their anger, and instead of critically evaluating their points with reasonable discussion or taking advice given. They delve deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole every time they are faced with a situation which they see as reinforcing their attitudes, and lash out or shut down when confronted with an opinion that isn't their own on the matter. Often these people will surround themselves with others who believe the same things, creating a ********** of half-truths and justifications. I see jaz digging himself a deeper and deeper hole into a warped opinion which he has given no ground or consideration to some of the very knowledgeable pilots that have offered him reasons to reconsider. Jaz, I hate to be the bearer of bad news on this one, but even if 100% of us on this forum agreed with you (which we don't) it still wouldn't change a damn thing, so sink or swim my friend.

 

The reality is that this is the game, the way it is. The devs haven't and probably wont do anything anytime soon, so play the game as best you can with the tools we have been given. The fact that one ship type does not reign utterly supreme shows us that the game has some semblance of balance and longevity, which is the only reason we are still here. That means that understanding the meta even if you don't play it (I don't) so you can know what to do when faced with it will help you beat tough teams, even if you don't play the same way as them. It means grabbing groups when you can, trying to teach new players on easier nights, and bringing out your best on the hard ones. It means that you should play all ship types to better understand what you're up against, and it means that challenges should be embraced and sought out, rather than hidden from.

[Greezt]

Ion's main use is AoE, and that's it. Sure, it can wreck a pilot in the open, but I've seen some of the better pilots wreak havoc with their condors and jorgorans just fine. Most of the more experienced pilots will be either in or very near cover except when they are actually killing someone. Either that, or they fly with friends that cover for them.

 

Sure, it's frustrating to be ioned/slugged again and again, but in fact scouts are just as dangerous. As for bomber - if you ever end up against a bomber team, you'll know what helpless feels like. I thought that was only on harbinger you saw that, but here's and example of such a game from TRE. In case you were wondering, here are the results... Not even ions helped that match. Imagine trying to fly a strike in that...

 

So in short, assuming you enjoy the game you should learn to fly gunships, bombers and scouts. Learn how they work, and you will learn how to counter them. Also, listening to the commenters above is a good idea. They all know what they're talking about...

[Danalon]

You know, I see this kind of mental acrobatics about this game more often than I should, and it comes in many different flavors, but tends to express itself in similar ways. This isn't just new players, but even players who have been around for a long time can make excuses and come up with an endless list of justifications to try to convince themselves that it isn't THEIR fault that they are are having a bad time, but some external issue.

[...]

 

The human brain goes through a lot of effort to make itself look better. One of the most common ways it does this is the self-serving bias. I'm aware this bias exists, yet sometimes I catch myself doing it.

[Retrogame]

The reality is that this is the game, the way it is. The devs haven't and probably wont do anything anytime soon, so play the game as best you can with the tools we have been given.

 

I totally agree. My point was that you can't achieve "balance" when there's so many things that need an overhaul. Teamwork is required. However, I am concerned that all the best players tend to congregate together on one faction meaning the other team never has a chance.

 

Let's consider every component having roughly the same strength and enough synergies with other components to work well. There would be more different ships around, and beginners could build what they like without making mistakes. That's about it. It wouldn't magically make beginners stronger.

Without a rating system, which requires a bigger participation to work, or at least a better tutorial, which has to be played and not just skipped, there won't be much change in veteran vs beginner fights.

 

Also agree -- imagine if you decided you wanted to play regular PvP on a new class. You make that class, start doing its story/easymode leveling, and then when you're level 12 you queue up. You're not thrown into a ranked arena versus guys in full ranked gear that are level 65 and have all their skills and hundreds of hours working on their rotations. You go into "lowbie PvP" which IMHO is the most fun PvP. GSF has no "lowbie" mode.

 

However, I think it's a serious design shortfall that it's possible to "choose poorly." That said, the skills you can select while playing the main game, some of them have a "niche" and are there for variety to spice things up and don't have total utility. We have to play the hand we're dealt.

 

Game mechanics versus real-life usually doesn't lead anywhere. Games have to be designed for playability and in many cases there are differences to "real life".

The reason why there are no Gunships in the movies is basically the same as with the game mechanics. Movies are made for watching - they're not documentaries about weapons. Weapons have to be cool to watch. Besides that, in almost any movie there are discrepancies bewteen the power a character (or his equipment) should have and the power he uses. Sometimes it's explained, moreoften it's not.

 

On this point, let's think about it not in "real life" terms but in "setting" terms.

 

A. Cinematically, yes, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are "better" than the mooks around them. OK, we see this all day in regular game, you are more powerful than 99% of the NPCs you blast on the field because you are the hero. But in GSF, how do you reckon with suddenly becoming the nameless faceless NPC that dies instantly? It's a small scale arena which means further tweaking needs to happen. There's no consideration of "who the pilot is" -- game design change, what if your character's attributes had some effect in GSF? Currently they do not. But a Jedi flying a ship would have Jedi premonitions, Jedi abilities to dodge etc.

 

B. Let's consider the concept of the fleet. The Sith Empire fields hundreds upon hundreds of small ships for a reason. It's the power of numbers. Sure, gunships might exist in the Old Republic era, but then you might legitimately see a case of one gunship with a couple of escorts having to take on twenty light fighters at once. Again, this would require a serious change in the design. There's no NPCs or external factors in the dogfight other than deathmatch power-ups and the defense satellite turrets at present. What if a "squadron commander" ship could call in fire support from a capital ship? What if a heavy fighter could temporarily make itself immune to long-range fire? What if a ship with missiles would automatically use the targeting computer to fire instead of having to hold down a button to try to get a lock? What if a scout/light fighter could have a handful of NPC buddies with it to screen it? There are many things that did not go into the design that could "make sense' in the fantasy space opera setting but we don't have any of them.

 

C. If you look at the source material, let's examine something like the Battle of Yavin sequence from Episode IV. The dogfight scene basically tells us, "if a TIE Fighter gets behind an X-Wing, the only way out is if another X-Wing comes and saves it by shooting down the TIE Fighter." Or, Luke's about to get shot down and suddenly Han and the Millennium Falcon save his bacon from "out of nowhere." I think it might make for a more entertaining game if you could somehow capture more of this feeling.

 

I usually fly with a wingman and we have developed some standard moves for the beginning of matches and coordinate changes in tactics. I wouldn't call us aces but we manage to lead our team to victory most of the time.

 

In the end, we're stuck with what we've got. The only things we can actually do are try among ourselves to improve teamwork. If a rookie pilot has an experienced pilot watching his back that can improve the experience. And yes, we can work out maneuvers ahead of time, good ideas.

[caederon]

C. If you look at the source material, let's examine something like the Battle of Yavin sequence from Episode IV. The dogfight scene basically tells us, "if a TIE Fighter gets behind an X-Wing, the only way out is if another X-Wing comes and saves it by shooting down the TIE Fighter." Or, Luke's about to get shot down and suddenly Han and the Millennium Falcon save his bacon from "out of nowhere." I think it might make for a more entertaining game if you could somehow capture more of this feeling.

They've captured this perfectly already! Strike fighters are going to frequently get shot down unless someone else saves them from their certain, inevitable death. All along I thought this was an issue with strikes being underpowered, and yet the explanation is that it's just being true to the movies. That solves that problem! And the best part is you can even be the one shooting down that strike fighter, just like in the movies.

 

Despon