...actually, the title should suggest to you it's something I'm already concerned about. I don't necessarily know if this is a thing, but lately I've left some matches wondering about it.

Like... I've come out of the hanger, new ship... untouched hull, fresh shields, and been 100 to Zero'd in a heartbeat with just a few blaster shots. That doesn't strike me as something anyone should be able to do.

Conversely, I've also lined someone up with my gunship (fully maxed railguns) hammered the target with a full charged Plasma, and followed up with a full charged Slug... and my target's still standing, so I hit'em again with another well charged plasma. I've got damn near 4K damage floating on my screen (scored 3 good hits in about 5 seconds) and... my target doesn't die. And again, I'm left wondering how that's even possible without some sort of ... uh... contraband modifications.

...and, to add to my concern here, of course the target I'm looking at isn't a slow moving bomber with an extra ton of hull armour and shields for days... it's a strike fighter that's racking up kills and kills and kills with blasters and torps. I would think that Rock Paper Scissors should be coming into play here; this person has DPS like Scissors and displayed durability like Rock in defiance of the trinity.

Incidents that have me wondering about whether it's possible to cheat in GSF haven't all been the same person, and I'm certainly not going to name names. I've certainly left matches knowing that I just got outflown by someone who's better than I am... but it's only recently that I've left matches thinking "that shouldn't be possible, I wonder if that person was cheating."

Everything you just described is very very easily explained by game mechanics. What you're describing has nothing to do with cheating at all.

Strikes fighters are now the tankiest ships in the game, they can absorb more damage then Bombers.

Just to give you an example a T3 Strike (Clarion/Imperium) with Directional shields, a Large Reactor, the 10% extra shield crew passive and Reinforced armor has 2210 Shields per arc and 1830 Hull. This is all before they can actually rotate their shields to get even more shields towards the arc you are firing on. Meaning It could take up to 4 Full slugs to kill that ship, if they rotate their shields properly. Not to mention if they also have Hydrospanner and Repair probes they could actually be healing while you're shooting at them and might be able to absorb even another shot. On top of that if they have a Shield Power up in Deathmatch their shields are regenerating at 100+ a second while you're firing meaning that by the third Slug they have regenerated almost 1000 shields.

As for being 100-0'd by blaster shots, likely Damage Overcharge was involved and you didn't notice. With Damage Overcharge it takes only 3 Heavy Laser shots to kill a Gunship from full health. Quads and Pods Scout builds have been bursting down Gunships in under 2 seconds for years.

The things you're describing aren't even that rare, if you have the ability to record I can go over the video with you and explain exactly what's going on. If you don't then really try to watch what ship/weapons were killing you the next time you see this happen maybe take a screenshot if you think of it and we can explain in better detail what's going on for you.

I hope the helped

As for being 100-0'd by blaster shots, likely Damage Overcharge was involved and you didn't notice. With Damage Overcharge it takes only 3 Heavy Laser shots to kill a Gunship from full health. Quads and Pods Scout builds have been bursting down Gunships in under 2 seconds for years.

 

 

The things you're describing aren't even that rare, if you have the ability to record I can go over the video with you and explain exactly what's going on. If you don't then really try to watch what ship/weapons were killing you the next time you see this happen maybe take a screenshot if you think of it and we can explain in better detail what's going on for you.

 

I hope the helped

what would u use against that as a bomber if i may ask? like... seeker mines or what? im kinda bad at gsf and wanted to sue the occasion and grab some helpful insight from You

what would u use against that as a bomber if i may ask? like... seeker mines or what? im kinda bad at gsf and wanted to sue the occasion and grab some helpful insight from You

When playing Bomber the idea is to control an area of space, you take a section of the map and make it yours. You litter it with Drones and/or Mines and use that terrain to give you an advantage if anyone does come into it. This gives your team an area they know that if they are in trouble they can go to and you will help them.

Once you've decided on a home you don't want to just stay put and do nothing though, you want to be looking in any direction for teammates that are nearby engaged with someone. The whole idea here is to create unfair advantages for your teammates, so you can help take down the enemies.

If an enemy picks up Damage Overcharge and is heading straight for you, you immediately start flying defensively. Try to keep terrain between him and you. You don't even really have to fire back at all just keep on the move try to weave him into your mines and/or drone if possible. The idea is to keep him busy until his 100% extra Damage power up wears off.

Hopefully your team notices how much help you've been giving them all games by creating a safe space for them and is helping peel for you, if not well you just gotta keep putting terrain between them and you until your deployables wear them down or they get fed up.

All that being said Bombers are actually in a pretty terrible spot in the meta right now, they are easily the weakest class currently. That doesn't mean you can't be useful in one, but it does mean that unless that exact playstyle is what you really like about the game, you probably want to try some new flying styles to help your team more.

I hope that helped

All that being said Bombers are actually in a pretty terrible spot in the meta right now, they are easily the weakest class currently. That doesn't mean you can't be useful in one, but it does mean that unless that exact playstyle is what you really like about the game, you probably want to try some new flying styles to help your team more.

I agree with this. When they decided to buff strikes to enourmously BS levels in an attempt to make strikes more viable (which worked, mission accomplished), not sure they considered the dynamic shift that would affect the other classes. Most everyone runs fighters now which completely eliminates bombers from viability, and gunships are still viable but maybe half as much as before. And most people who were running the OP battle scout switched to the new OP, so you do not see nearly as many scouts being played as before. In reality our main issue with classes before the changes were we only had 3 viable classes. But the fix to that has caused now that we only have 1.5 viable classes. Even though we have an interesting "new" ship class to explore, it actually doubled the problem of class viability.

Strikes have always been a good anti-bomber, but the new BS strikes and the fact that most everyone is flying them makes bombers really a non-choice. Not only do strikes quite adequately replace some of the role of bombers in many cases/builds with the armor (and even heals), they also nullify any use of bomber. Because bombers typically have no missile breaks, are slow lumbering garbage scows so difficult to break locks by LoS, and bombers do not have mines anymore because every 1.8 seconds a new EMP lands.

I'm not saying a bomber doesn't help a team, since bombers are rare now, a hyperspace beacon can really help. But why would someone choose to be the bomber on the team? 0 kills, 6 deaths, but at least I helped my team win with my hyperspace beacon. ? Kinda boring. The bigger issue I think is, bombers were a good way for new players to get acclimated to the game while they learn how to target and other game mechanics. Don't tell me missile locks replace the auto-targeting mines for new players because it can be a challenge to teach some new players even how to use a missile.

Its just the new balance, it could be fixed I guess but we'd have to give bombers a missile break, or a natural 100% missile resitance or change it so that EMPs cannot kill more than 2 mines at a time or something creative like that, I do not know the answer.

I agree with Drak also, doubtful there is cheating, its just the game now. The new game is: fly fighter. That's it.

The game is absolutely not "fly fighter". Every TDM between good players I've seen so far devolved into gunship chess. Strikes are still weak compared to gunships in TDM, and nothing has changed that. All you need is one team to start swapping, and you're in the old meta.

As for Dom, T2 scouts are still the best at controlling nodes. Strikes are definitely useful in this mode, but saying the new meta is "fly fighter" is completely wrong.

Everything you just described is very very easily explained by game mechanics. What you're describing has nothing to do with cheating at all.

I feel kind of ambivalent about this answer, to be honest.

I tend to think that the Star Fighter community is a good group; that being part of it has more in common with being in a sports league than the PvP community which can be toxic. I've certainly seen toxicity in my GSF channel, but I've ignored all of ONE person for toxicity (and another one person because I found their name to be particularly offensive). So, I'm kind of relieved to be told...that no, nobody is out there hacking the code and cheating their way to wins.

On the other hand... I'm somewhat distraught that the things I'm describing are possible under the current code of GSF.

...if Damage Overcharge lets someone rip through my shields and hull so fast that I can't even react, that's not fun, that's not even "game play."

...if I'm using the hardest hitting ship in the game, and someone just sits there and lets me unload on them, this should have a natural consequence of being blown up.

Unrelated, but also frustrating, is "oh. fun. someone's missile locking me.... again."

So... maybe what I'm thinking would improve the state of GSF...

1) Balancing; but this is an ongoing process. Numbers should always be looked at, and tweaked.

2) The way Overcharge boosts work could use a hard look.... or, honestly, are these something we even need (or want) in game? I think I'd be happier if flights were ship to ship, no performance enhancing needed.

3) I would appreciate it if, when I use a missile breaker, that I had a few extra seconds of immunity to Lock. It feels like as soon as I come out of my barrel roll (et al) and straighten out, I'm almost instantly getting the beep beep beeps. And when I say a few extra seconds, I do mean like... 3.

I agree with Greezt, SFs are most definitely not the sole viable option. Gunships are everywhere in TDM. I've seen fewer battlescouts than pre-5.5, yes, but the good ones still wreak havoc. The burst damage is still there. Also...

I'm not saying a bomber doesn't help a team, since bombers are rare now, a hyperspace beacon can really help. But why would someone choose to be the bomber on the team? 0 kills, 6 deaths, but at least I helped my team win with my hyperspace beacon. ? Kinda boring.

...actually, yes, I'd say that players interested in wins should (and do) end up flying bombers. Their numbers have never been sexy. But to this day, a beacon bomber in a dom, and a heals bomber in a TDM, still do help their teams quite a bit. Coordinated teams almost always have somebody in a bomber, because they know what it takes to win.

That said, I do agree that it's a much tougher "learning ship" than before. But on the flip side, a basic T1 strike is probably the best stock ship in the game. Pre-5.5, newer players taking a Rycer/Starguard would instantly become foodships...now, at least, they can survive a bit longer and maybe actually deal some damage.

I feel kind of ambivalent about this answer, to be honest.

 

I tend to think that the Star Fighter community is a good group; that being part of it has more in common with being in a sports league than the PvP community which can be toxic. I've certainly seen toxicity in my GSF channel, but I've ignored all of ONE person for toxicity (and another one person because I found their name to be particularly offensive). So, I'm kind of relieved to be told...that no, nobody is out there hacking the code and cheating their way to wins.

 

On the other hand... I'm somewhat distraught that the things I'm describing are possible under the current code of GSF.

...if Damage Overcharge lets someone rip through my shields and hull so fast that I can't even react, that's not fun, that's not even "game play."

...if I'm using the hardest hitting ship in the game, and someone just sits there and lets me unload on them, this should have a natural consequence of being blown up.

 

Unrelated, but also frustrating, is "oh. fun. someone's missile locking me.... again."

 

So... maybe what I'm thinking would improve the state of GSF...

1) Balancing; but this is an ongoing process. Numbers should always be looked at, and tweaked.

2) The way Overcharge boosts work could use a hard look.... or, honestly, are these something we even need (or want) in game? I think I'd be happier if flights were ship to ship, no performance enhancing needed.

3) I would appreciate it if, when I use a missile breaker, that I had a few extra seconds of immunity to Lock. It feels like as soon as I come out of my barrel roll (et al) and straighten out, I'm almost instantly getting the beep beep beeps. And when I say a few extra seconds, I do mean like... 3.

Damage Overcharge is a power up that gives you +100% damage for 45 seconds in Deathmatch. It is the single most important objective no the map, it drives the whole game mode. This is important because it makes map control very important to a team, if this didn't exist people would just setup defensive formations at their spawn and just wait for the enemy to come to them. In every Deathmatch map there is a Super Cluster of Damage Overcharge powerups that only spawn those, only 1 can be up at a time but after sometime that the last one expired a new one will spawn. This means learning these locations is how you play Deathmatch. I've made some maps and explained all this in this thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=745625.

As far as balancing the numbers is concerned they are actually really well balanced right now, there is always a few tweaks here and there to make but it's as good as it's ever been in GSF right now.

@Stellarcrusade

The meta is way more open then it's ever been. I'm not sure why you think the game is only fly Strike fighter that really isn't the case. Scouts and Gunships are still really good, both of which require far more defensive flying then before which is why many players are struggling to adapt to the new meta with them.

Bombers while I think are the weakest class right now are nowhere near as awful as Strikes fighters used to be in the last meta.

Also "just fly Strike" is a really off putting statement. The reason you are seeing so many Strikes isn't only because they are really good right now, it's because of just how many different builds you can have for them. GSF is a game about specialists, and right now you can make Strikes all sorts of different specialists. The reason we're seeing so many Strikes in the meta is because of how many different viable builds are now available to them. You might have 5 Strike fighters on your team but each and everyone could be doing very different jobs.

If we were seeing whole teams of exactly the same build of Strike fighter at that point I'd start to consider that maybe that specific ship is too powerful but right now all sorts of different tools are being used and because of it we have the richest meta we've ever seen.

Damage Overcharge is a power up that gives you +100% damage for 45 seconds in Deathmatch. It is the single most important objective no the map, it drives the whole game mode. This is important because it makes map control very important to a team, if this didn't exist people would just setup defensive formations at their spawn and just wait for the enemy to come to them. In every Deathmatch map there is a Super Cluster of Damage Overcharge powerups that only spawn those, only 1 can be up at a time but after sometime that the last one expired a new one will spawn. This means learning these locations is how you play Deathmatch. I've made some maps and explained all this in this thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=745625.

Which brings up the question has any one already a read on the Iokath super clusters?

I have some points on the watch list but except from one havn't seen any thing spawning more than once yet. But the one left I am fairly certain that in C3 is a part of the super cluster. There is a bigger wreckage part which is nearly an entire ship at once. It has an open section, maybe an open hangar, that let you travel through this peace of debris from left to right, or B3 to D3. This open section has two floors, on the upper floor i have found a DO now in three matches in a row and never any other power up. Sure that is still a small sample size but after you don't get Iokath TDM all the time it is what I have to work with.

Which brings up the question has any one already a read on the Iokath super clusters?

 

I have some points on the watch list but except from one havn't seen any thing spawning more than once yet. But the one left I am fairly certain that in C3 is a part of the super cluster. There is a bigger wreckage part which is nearly an entire ship at once. It has an open section, maybe an open hangar, that let you travel through this peace of debris from left to right, or B3 to D3. This open section has two floors, on the upper floor i have found a DO now in three matches in a row and never any other power up. Sure that is still a small sample size but after you don't get Iokath TDM all the time it is what I have to work with.

That is indeed one of them. I'm working on it but it's slow going because last time I did the maps I had already flown hundreds of games on the map so I knew the map really well. This time I'm both trying to learn the map and map out the DO's at the same time, it's proving difficult.

On the other hand... I'm somewhat distraught that the things I'm describing are possible under the current code of GSF.

Well, these things don't disturb high skill players, because if you have a good understanding of the underlying mechanics, there are things you can do to deal with these things, even if you aren't the fastest twitch gamer on a mouse and keyboard.

...if Damage Overcharge lets someone rip through my shields and hull so fast that I can't even react, that's not fun, that's not even "game play."

There is the warning message in large lettering across the middle of your screen that tells you then name of the player on the other team that picked up Damage Overcharge.

In the vast majority of cases that warning gives you ample time to locate the player in question and make sure they don't get a chance to shoot you. It's only a surprise if you ignore the warning.

...if I'm using the hardest hitting ship in the game, and someone just sits there and lets me unload on them, this should have a natural consequence of being blown up.

If they are using shield abilities to mitigate your attack, they are not just sitting there and letting you unload on them. They are actively countering your attack with defensive abilities that will be on cooldown or otherwise depleted for a significant period of time before they can be used again.

Also, if you understand Gunship mechanics fully, you know that Plasma is a DOT based weapon, and is the opposite of suitable for trying to do burst damage to a target. Slug followed by Slug, or Ion followed by slug are both vastly superior choices for attempting that.

Unrelated, but also frustrating, is "oh. fun. someone's missile locking me.... again."

Much like playing Line of Sight hide and seek with gunship fire, now playing Line of Sight hide and seek with missiles is also a full time job, though a bit easier since the warning that someone is trying to shoot you is much more obvious.

So... maybe what I'm thinking would improve the state of GSF...

1) Balancing; but this is an ongoing process. Numbers should always be looked at, and tweaked.

Very true, but understand that if the developers continue to pursue genuine balance, the result you experience is going to likely be that you will be surprised by ship builds and components that you've rarely seen and don't understand well suddenly becoming highly deadly threats in new and interesting ways.

That's what happened in 5.5 for the most part. Ships that used to be weak enough to ignore gained the ability to go toe to toe with the best ships. If you found 5.5 to be an unpleasant surprise, further well designed balance changes will be more of the same. There are plenty of components that got passed over in 5.5 that could be buffed to turn previously unviable builds and ships into competitive killing machines. Meaning that it would be more things you'd need to learn in order to counter them effectively.

If you didn't like the effect of a large set of balance improvements, you might want to think twice before asking for more.

2) The way Overcharge boosts work could use a hard look.... or, honestly, are these something we even need (or want) in game? I think I'd be happier if flights were ship to ship, no performance enhancing needed.

Drako covered some of the benefits in TDM gameplay, I reminded you that there is a very explicit warning of DO pickups, and if you want to look at Drako's map to DO spawn locations you could use the aces' preferred method of dealing with DO powerups which is to scoop them up for your own use before the enemy team can get them. Monitoring the mini-map for DO's is an important part of high level TDM play.

3) I would appreciate it if, when I use a missile breaker, that I had a few extra seconds of immunity to Lock. It feels like as soon as I come out of my barrel roll (et al) and straighten out, I'm almost instantly getting the beep beep beeps. And when I say a few extra seconds, I do mean like... 3.

Like the 3 seconds of immunity that Barrel Roll has given after breaking a lock since GSF first released? Not to mention Retro Thrusters, Koigran Turn, and Snap Turn (Koigran and Snap both having received buffs to the duration with 5.5 I believe).

GSF has a fairly large and complicated ruleset, and if you don't spend time on reading the advanced tooltips, have a good eye for the math that results from the rules in terms of calculating effects, and have some experience with how things that should work a certain way do or don't in actual gameplay, then the result can seem like an impenetrable mystery. Most players never get beyond that stage.

Fortunately, just about all of that has been figured out, and there are various resources the community has made explaining it, so there's the same amount of content to learn to master it, but you don't have to figure out the answers yourself, you just have to look them up. It saves a lot of time in becoming a more competitive player.

Even better, those of us that think that figuring all that out is almost as much fun as flying GSF matches are always happy to answer any questions that you're having trouble finding answers to in various guides. Just ask, and a bunch of people will help.

I think what my complaint is... and what I'm seeing when a game goes one-sided... is that the overwhelming team is pushing back hard enough that they're camping spawns, and since they're now camping spawn points, naturally they own the map. If they control the entire map, they control all the power ups. This team probably has the upperhand when it comes to number of good pilots and/or mastered ships... and this is just putting another insurmountable advantage on top of their already insurmountable advantages.

...right now, I don't think that having access to power ups is something that's necessary to give an "offensive team" access to powers to break open a defensive position. What it seems like, to me, is giving the ravenous wolverines access to barbecue sauce. Which is to say, it's just making spawn camping even worse.

Does your 3 (or 4) seconds of immunity to locks start from when you finish your engine maneuver, or from when you finish it?

Oh, for the record... a LOT of the balances really benefit my style of play. For the most part, I'm enjoying flying more. I'm an old enough player that the difference between flying better and flying smarter really matters... and when it comes to component and copilot choices I made a lot of "this isn't ideal, but it's what will work best for me" kind of choices, and with the changes to balance 5.6 brought, those sub-optimal choices are now entirely viable.

Unfortunately... while "playing smarter" is something I need to do to be successful, I also know that I'm not willing or able to put in a whole lot of study into the math and maps of GSF. I mean, I'll continue to improve as I practice and get muscle memory for my best ships... but I think that I'm never going to be a top flyer... which I am generally OK with, provided I'm having fun. I think when I have a night that's less fun than other nights are nights that spawn threads like these.

Does your 3 (or 4) seconds of immunity to locks start from when you finish your engine maneuver, or from when you finish it?

The 4 seconds of lock-on immunity starts from the moment you press the button for the engine maneuver. FYI Its five seconds for snap turn now.

I think what my complaint is... and what I'm seeing when a game goes one-sided... is that the overwhelming team is pushing back hard enough that they're camping spawns, and since they're now camping spawn points, naturally they own the map. If they control the entire map, they control all the power ups. This team probably has the upperhand when it comes to number of good pilots and/or mastered ships... and this is just putting another insurmountable advantage on top of their already insurmountable advantages.

 

...right now, I don't think that having access to power ups is something that's necessary to give an "offensive team" access to powers to break open a defensive position. What it seems like, to me, is giving the ravenous wolverines access to barbecue sauce. Which is to t say, it's just making spawn camping even worse.

If you play enough matches against bomber balls in TDM, you will probably find that the DOs are truly essential to a high level of play, to keep the gameplay dynamic. DOs keep the game moving. Now, of course, in a low-level match, the DOs are picked up by the single Veteran in the whole match and he or she will smash through the stock Blackbolts and Rycers with BLCs.

With this, you have actually pointed out something that is important to keep in mind: GSF is not balanced around low-level matches. GSF is an arcade-like, sports-community-featuring, very, very high-paced game that happens to be in an MMO. If you slow down gameplay by, for example, removing DOs or lowering burst damage, the game will get boring for most people who seriously spend all their time in SWTOR either in-match or in-queue.

The only way to keep up is to get faster, and for that you need practice. Trust me, if you persevere, you'll get there. But for now, you indeed should keep track of the DO announcements and avoid that person if you can. Maybe in the future you can try to keep him occupied without dying for the full duration of his DO. That's not easy though, and you'll die the first hundred times you try.

If you want to find out more about the abilities deploy against you, so that you can more easily counter them when you are hit with them again, then check out the GSF Parser. It slows down gameplay after the match is already over, and offers various features to analyze your performance.

I think what my complaint is... and what I'm seeing when a game goes one-sided... is that the overwhelming team is pushing back hard enough that they're camping spawns, and since they're now camping spawn points, naturally they own the map. If they control the entire map, they control all the power ups. This team probably has the upperhand when it comes to number of good pilots and/or mastered ships... and this is just putting another insurmountable advantage on top of their already insurmountable advantages.

 

...right now, I don't think that having access to power ups is something that's necessary to give an "offensive team" access to powers to break open a defensive position. What it seems like, to me, is giving the ravenous wolverines access to barbecue sauce. Which is to say, it's just making spawn camping even worse.

There are a variety of approaches to this sort of situation.

The one that I find least effective is to just spawn in normally and try to use the capital ship as cover. They don't really offer great cover and if outnumbered expected survival time is fairly low.

What I generally consider the most effective, is to look at the map, pick the capital ship with the fewest number of enemies near it, and then spawn in a scout, preferably one with Power Dive and a bunch of engine endurance upgrade choices. Personally I'd tend toward a build based on Rocket Pods. Then in your very fast and very evasive ship go hunting for Damage Overcharges.

In that sort of game the enemy team tends to push really far forward, leaving the bulk of the map pretty empty. That means you can often grab an engine powerup, and a shield powerup, enabling you to fly around hunting DOs quite safely. Then when you find one, hit the enemy ships from behind their lines. Picking off careless gunships is a particularly good option. If the opposition isn't that great, you can snag a lot of kills that way, if they are really good as an entire team, then a bunch of them will come after you when they see the DO warning, and even if you don't score a kill, it does take a tremendous amount of pressure off of the rest of your team.

You can also try a similar strategy with a Condor/Jurgoran gunship or with one of the strikes, but with lower evasion and lower engine endurance it's a little bit harder to make it work with them.

If you can pull it off, then the DO allows you to potentially do a lot to even up the odds in a way that would be impossible without DOs. Whether it's allowing you to get kills, or forcing a large portion of the other team to stop camping and deal with you as a threat, the DO is a big advantage that you can add to the balance of a game to help a trailing team catch up.

Drako and Verain like to talk about the importance of map control, and based on the size of the map, if the other team is really controlling the map, that forces a bunch of them to be in places where they're too far from your spawn points to be able to camp them. At least it does if you're being sneaky, fast, and slipping past their lines.

An alternative strategy that's often moderately effective, especially on Lost shipyards where the LOS terrain is more conveniently located, is to spawn a gunship at the least pressured capital ship, and then try to make it to the edge of the nearest cover on the main map. Then move from cover to cover and try to set up a position where you can snipe the enemy from the side or from behind. If you can get 3 or more decent gunship pilots to do this together it can be very effective, even turn the game around, but if you're on your own it's likely that it will just attract the attention of a scout or strike that will come over to deal with you. If doing this solo the Condor/Jurgoran is again a good choice due to better maneuverability and defenses compared to the other gunships if you expect to be under pressure.

Of course with team work, you can combine the two. If a bunch of the other team are distracted by a scout playing Pac-Man with DO powerups, that's a great opportunity for a group of gunships to sneak out to cover and start giving each other mutual supporting fire.

As with any sort of team vs team contest involving skill, if the other team as a group is sufficiently more effective than your group, no amount of skill may be enough to allow one person to compensate for the rest of their team's deficiencies. In those cases all you can do is try to do your best, and make the other team work for the win as much as you can.

Maybe also hop into /GSF and see if you can round up a few people willing to try working as a team for the next match.

I'll have to try to do that... at the moment, my current response to a fight that's gone one-sided is to spawn a gunship at an spawn point that's not being swarmed, and try to snipe the swarmed spawn points... maybe I take the pressure off, most likely the match is a lost cause, and I'm just hoping to score a revenge kill or two.

...and yeah, I'm in /GSF. If I'm not going to join a voice protocol, I don't really know that grouping is all that useful, although I will group, because... why not?

...and yeah, I'm in /GSF. If I'm not going to join a voice protocol, I don't really know that grouping is all that useful, although I will group, because... why not?

Even without voice, groups can be helpful. A little pre-match planning can go a long way, even via keyboard. Simply knowing your teammates' strengths can be useful.

If nothing else: groups get queue priority over folks flying solo. So if you're grouped, you're unlikely to miss a pop.

If you're getting your "randos" through /GSF they're very unlikely to be truly a random selection.

They know enough about GSF to be in /GSF, and they're interested enough in getting a match to be willing to interact with other people to form a group.

Those two selection steps alone already probably put them far above the average skill of a truly random group.

That's more helpful than it may seem, because a just barely mediocre player in the improvised group prevents a CXP farmer or true novice from taking that spot, and that makes a difference against a team that's part premade and part solo que.

If you can get at team full of merely mediocre pilots, if the 3-4 ace premade they're facing gets the rest of their team filled with solo queuers some of which are the sort with 12 deaths, 3% accuracy, and 500 damage done, then those aces are going to have to really work to overcome that handicap.

A really bad player can have almost as much of an impact as a really superior player in GSF. So if you can fill as many slots in a team as possible with players that are at least ok, that can go a long way in influencing the chances of victory.

The next step in easy coordination would be discussing ship choice. For example, does anyone in the group have: a minelayer with hyperspace beacon that they're willing to fly in domination, a tensor scout they're willing to start in in domination, a gunship with Ion Railgun, a ship with either EMP field or EMP missile? Spending 40 seconds before you queue the group letting people shuffle ships on their hangar bars can make a big difference even if that's the only coordination you do as a team.

The real payoff is long term. Getting people used to grouping, getting people used to coordinating a bit, and even if you lose the social aspect of commiserating in chat can all inspire people to be more willing to organize and cooperate in the future. Many of the most ferocious Ace premades really started based on the social aspect as much as anything else. Playing with friends made it more fun, they played more, they got experience, they got better as pilots as a result, and somewhere along the way shifting to VIOP so you can talk about movies and TV while shooting space pixels also gives the ability to coordinate strategy on those rare occasions when coordinating strategy seems more interesting than whatever you were talking about for most of the game (people who haven't been in premades with top aces tend to vastly overestimate the amount of tactical coordination that goes on in voice chat. Most of the chatter is pretty irrelevant to the matches unless talking about collectible card game tournements helps win GSF matchs in ways I don't yet understand).

You make a lot of really solid points there.

You make a lot of really solid points there.

 

Mostly just trying to encourage you and cheer you up really.