I'll keep this thread updated as I see more ideas coming in. Please keep in mind "balance" would fall under 1 category. I'll start with my top 5:

1) Overhaul UI for the benefit of Squad-based play. It's really difficult to work with a squad at the moment, and I'd like to see more options for team-based play. You don't have any frames which show the relative position of your squad mates in relation to where you are, and I'd like to able to get to know specifically where each of my squad mates are on the map at any given time with just a glance (devs could really take a look at JTL's UI for an idea on how to do this). Also, on the ground you can assign a focus target (friendly or enemy), and I'd like to be able to have the same options for acquiring target of target (especially for friendlies) for assisting and making for better team-based gameplay.

Waiting on Dev Response

2) Free Space for pilots. In short, an area for players to launch to other than just the war zones. A pvp dedicated area such as Deep Space in JTL would be great as well being able to simply launch and fly around your factions fleet would be a great opportunity for pilots to practice and hone their skills while waiting on pops for the dedicated war zones. Would also be a great way for pilots to show off their paint jobs/ etc.

Bottom line: more time in the cockpit.

Waiting on Dev Response

3) Balance tweaks: This covers a wide variety of things, and this really is probably the most difficult animal, seeing as how usually it's not any 1 ship that's OP, but the manner in which certain players exploit said ship's strengths/ weaknesses. It'd be nice to come up with a general consensus though.

4) New maps/ modes! The new game modes brought some variation, but playing the same maps over and over well... you get the idea. An "Assault the enemy's capital ship" mode would be VERY welcome, and would encourage diverse load out options. I'd like to see some more dynamic map changes as well.. Ways to change the environment which we can play in to suit our team (moving asteroids, blowing up huge satellites to create debris, stuff like that).

Waiting on Dev Response

5) QOL and customization: being able to continue to customize load outs while in que (huge), Legacy requisition (great idea!) as well as more paint styles, different looks of cannons/ launchers (ie. I'd like to have burst cannons that look like quads etc.)

Requisition increase in 3.0. Not Legacy but it's a start...

Please post your top 5!!

*Updated 9/30

1- Cross server GSF. I know it's a different bear, but it's really the #1 thing.

2- Dev communication, ideally including intent.

3- More maps.

4- More game modes.

5- A deeper meta, ideally from balance tweaks and additional ships.

1- Cross server GSF. I know it's a different bear, but it's really the #1 thing.

2- Dev communication, ideally including intent.

3- More maps.

4- More game modes.

5- A deeper meta, ideally from balance tweaks and additional ships.

This, pretty much.

I do think Distortion Field and Burst Laser Cannons in particular need to be hit with a pretty significant nerf. Just nerfing those two, while it wouldn't solve everything, would be pretty helpful. It'd weaken T2 Scouts significantly and would indirectly buff Strikes and missiles. It would also nerf Gunships, though not as much as the T2 Scouts, but I don't think it would break them. And honestly it might be nice to play a few months where T2 Scouts and Gunships are a bit underpowered and see what meta develops. There could always be iterative retuning later on if they need to be brought back up a bit.

In no particular order...

1. New Maps/content. The stuff we've got does seem to get stale...
   
2. Some balance tweaks. In particular, I don't much like that Disto can be an additional missile break, because it can in effect make a player close to immune to missiles. I think Slug Rail and BLCs could stand to be a little less lethal as well. Also on the balance tweaks, I'd love to see some kind of penalty for teams that sport nothing but gunships and bombers. Having to punch through 5 bombers and 2 gunships in a DOM requires more effort to break up, especially in a PUG, than it does to put together. And having slug rails ignore armor makes even building a custom ship to go deal with the bombers a lot trickier. For instance, my Quell with Charged Plating and Nullify is great for rooting out bombers and surviving seismic explosions, but it's awful against slug rails and BLCs. And I hate how the sentries seem to ignore evasion rolls altogether. You end up in a situation where stacking evasion is better for funships, and stacking DR is better for bombers, but the team is a mixed bag of both. Obviously no ship is an island, and shouldn't do everything well, but when matches devolve into a bomberball style strategy, and it's a bunch of noobs with just starter ships, there's simply not much that can be done. I guess that's kind of true with any team PVP when it comes to nooblets, though.
    
   At this point, I don't really have a problem with either funships or bombers in general, it's just when they start to stack up that this really seems to turn matches into lopsided slaughters.
   
3. Some kind of indicator that you're being targeted by rail guns. It's not the worst, but getting popped by a slug that crits and going from full health to almost no health in a scout with no warning can be pretty obnoxious. But then, I prefer scouts, so I'm slightly biased here. I just think it kind of sucks to get effectively hit with a protorp with no warning. I'm over most of my innate hatred of the mechanic, but when the protorps do similar damage, and the lockon time and flight time can be sometimes 8-10s, the out of nowhere slug rail feels a bit overpowered. It might be better to have this in the balance stuff, but I think having some kind of indicator for that rail is more of a redesign. And it's also not going to happen.
   
4. Better means of communication. It might be enough to just get rid of the text that sits in the chat window, because it manages to sometimes scroll chat quite quickly, especially when bombs kill a bunch of people quickly. It's easy to miss calls for help or attempts to coordinate.
   
5. Along with comms, it would be lovely if there were a way to get a directional on an ally. Targeting them would be awesome, but it would probably be enough to just be able to get an actual direction. It would make it much easier to be a wingman if I could focus an ally or something to stay with them.
   

I could probably think of a few other things, but those are the things I've kind of had in my mind for a good while now.

1- Cross server GSF. I know it's a different bear, but it's really the #1 thing.

Absolutely on this as well. Not sure how I left that off my list... Maybe too busy bashing on funships. =X

1- Cross server GSF. I know it's a different bear, but it's really the #1 thing.

2- Dev communication, ideally including intent.

3- More maps.

4- More game modes.

5- A deeper meta, ideally from balance tweaks and additional ships.

That sums it up. Games are interesting when you have a continual series of meaningful choices to make. When there are clearly ship builds that stand above everything else in terms of optimal performance, it removes meaningful choice from the game, assuming your goal is to win.

Cross server is a necessity, because it is really really boring and frustrating to play on or against teams that are vastly different from your skill level. That's why sports organize into leagues sorted by how well you play.

Despite the devs claims to the contrary, GSF is not a casual minigame. It's set up with all the trappings of an e-sport competitive game, and to treat it otherwise is disingenuous.

- Despon

[*] Better means of communication. It might be enough to just get rid of the text that sits in the chat window, because it manages to sometimes scroll chat quite quickly, especially when bombs kill a bunch of people quickly. It's easy to miss calls for help or attempts to coordinate.

 

Chat channel settings let you filter what appears in each tab, and you can create additional tabs. Usually I have a tab called "Social" which only has [Guild] [Ops] [squad] [Group] and [Gsf], all different colors. And if that got too noisy, I could filter it to just [Ops] and [squad]. Combat spam I leave in the "Other" tab. [General] and [Trade] are off in their own tab as well, which I rarely look at.

1. A PvE storyline and/or just PvE missions.

2. More ship types.

3. More ships of the same types.

4. More match types.

5. More maps.

Fun stuff:

1: More maps. Think level-from-Descent kind of maps, or maybe that asteroid mining facility from Rebel Assault II.

2: Assault-type game mode in spaaaace!

Important stuff:

3: Limited cross-server queueing + better matchmaking.

4: Lots and lots of balance stuff. There are too many useless crew, too many weak ships and useless parts. Rapids/LLC need buffs (damage output + reduced tracking penalty), bursters really need armor reduction removed. Scouts need weapons regen nerfed: they can still have the most burst damage, but they need to wait a little longer to do it again. Add a "Gauss Armor" component or the like, which gives a lot of evasion vs. railguns, but nothing against any other weapon. Remove the insta-lock-break of distortion field, and replace it with a significant passive boost to hostile missile lock-on times. Get rid of the one-shot slug crit effect (increased ROF/reduced damage), or make it a very hard choice-for example, choose between crit and armor piercing. Add laser cannon to the T1 striker's arsenal. Plasma rail's evasion debuff isn't strong enough. Railgun debuff strength and duration should depend on weapon charge. Charged plating tier 3 should be changed to: ignore hostile railgun armor piercing, or invulnerability to snare effects.

5: Shinies. Thermites and plasma railguns should burn their ships. A ship hit with one of these should glow white-hot, fade to heating-element red, than to the ship's usual colors. On a weak plasma charge, the glow should start in the cooler colors. In the higher health levels, a ship should pick up scorch marks before the how-is-my-ship-still-in-one-pice fire. Interdiction-type effects should cause a ship's engines to flicker and/or maybe audibly strain. Heavy lasers don't sound heavy enough.

Remove the insta-lock-break of distortion field, and replace it with a significant passive boost to hostile missile lock-on times.

As a strike pilot I'm honestly not sure a passive boost to lock on times would be an improvement. It would effectively mean a striker could never successfully lock a proton or thermite and could make a conc pretty iffy. You'd effectively be making it so, coincidentally, only clusters (a T2 scout staple) would be effective against disto field. To some degree Pikes would manage since they can have two missiles but you'd hit Clarions very hard, and make only one Starguard build (with clusters) reliable against disto field.

Rather I think one thing that should be done is reduce the duration back to pre-nerf days (when it was 3 seconds). When they nerfed disto field they also buffed it's duration which made the lock break easy to choose without much (or any) meaningful drawbacks. For example I don't recall in the Beta many scouts using the missile lock break since 6 seconds of evasion was so powerful. Something needs to be done about the lock break too but I honestly have no ideas (except for flat out removing all missile breaks that aren't on an engine component but that could very well be an overnerf).

Perhaps something like make the final tier a choice between choosing longer evasion duration or replacing the active evasion with a missile break? That way you could get an active that either increases defense against blasters or missiles but not both at the same time.

Add laser cannon to the T1 striker's arsenal.

I assume you mean Light Laser Cannons? Because Laser Cannons are for all intents and purposes a weaker version of Quads and wouldn't be much of a buff since they'd still seriously lack a good close range blaster.

1. A tutorial that is in depth; people leave knowing how to win a match and have the skills to do so.

2. Fix what they broke, anything with a dot simply does not work right

3. A training ground, so simple. Lost Shipyards TDM, replace the powerups with mines, drones and turrets. No timer no scorekeeper. Everyone is red (like outlaws den) so you can work with out kinks and teach new pilots.

4. FIx the matchmaker, whatever is going on right now is not cutting it with how the game is actually played.

5. Dust off their "Smugglers Run" (capture the flag) gameplay type and release

my wish list

1) NO STEALTH SHIPS

2) some sort of ranked / leaderboard for all the servers, even if not poss to do seperate queues surely couldnt be that hard to have each game goes towards a rareting similar to ground and have that populate leaderboards.

3) more game modes

4) more maps

5) cosmetic options: more options for custom paint jobs, colours to add more uniqueness to ships graphics etc

1. A tutorial that is in depth; people leave knowing how to win a match and have the skills to do so.

2. Fix what they broke, anything with a dot simply does not work right

3. A training ground, so simple. Lost Shipyards TDM, replace the powerups with mines, drones and turrets. No timer no scorekeeper. Everyone is red (like outlaws den) so you can work with out kinks and teach new pilots.

4. FIx the matchmaker, whatever is going on right now is not cutting it with how the game is actually played.

5. Dust off their "Smugglers Run" (capture the flag) gameplay type and release

I think having # 3 would negate much of the need for #1.

Regardless, I'd like to see an area where people can just launch into space and fly around, maybe kill some npcs. Some kind of Pve content would definitely help close the learning gap as well. Either way, it's more time in the cockpit which is what we want, no?

I think having # 3 would negate much of the need for #1.

 

Regardless, I'd like to see an area where people can just launch into space and fly around, maybe kill some npcs. Some kind of Pve content would definitely help close the learning gap as well. Either way, it's more time in the cockpit which is what we want, no?

I didn't list PvE. Mostly because it's a huge investment. It would absolutely make a huge difference though- the fact that you can't pilot any of YOUR ships unless you are in a match, for instance, is the first problem. I really and 100% think that you should be able to just fly around the fleet. There could be a mission terminal there even! And you could see other pilots doing whatever, and fly close and see their ships and stuff. Basically, an extension to fleet that would be your ships, not your ground guy. That would actually be doable with VERY small resources.

But real PvE? They would need to dump a lot of time and effort into stuff. You'd need some AI, so that's absurd, and then you'd have to figure out where you could go and what you could do. Asking for real PvE is basically asking for about half of an expansion to the ground game, maybe a full one- games like TIE Fighter and Wing Commander pretty much ARE the sum of their scripted encounters and AI, with the flight sim portion being very small in comparison, so you are asking for GSF to be recreated thrice over.

It would be massive though. Make no mistake, it's the second biggest thing they could do on impact (cross realm being the biggest). Players would become MUCH more attached to their ships if they were more than just deathmatch shuttles.

/newbie wave

But real PvE? They would need to dump a lot of time and effort into stuff. You'd need some AI, so that's absurd, and then you'd have to figure out where you could go and what you could do. Asking for real PvE is basically asking for about half of an expansion to the ground game, maybe a full one- games like TIE Fighter and Wing Commander pretty much ARE the sum of their scripted encounters and AI, with the flight sim portion being very small in comparison, so you are asking for GSF to be recreated thrice over.

 

It would be massive though. Make no mistake, it's the second biggest thing they could do on impact (cross realm being the biggest). Players would become MUCH more attached to their ships if they were more than just deathmatch shuttles.

Right. Before GSF launched, I was one of those waiting for word on whether there would be a PVE component. When they finally announced that there wasn't one, the complexity of the AI required was the big reason. I was really disappointed, but I understand the reasoning, and perhaps the hesitance to sink so much effort into a free mini-expansion/side game.

As someone who desperately needs to improve my flying skills and battlespace awareness, I would love a "scrimmage" mode or some such thing as has been recommended above: non-competitive practice battles. They could call it simulator training or whatever for flavor.

Since I certainly can't speak to balance yet, my top 5 are more basic (and perhaps naively noobish):

1. Practice area/mode ^
    
   
2. I love the idea of cheaper (or even free) buy-in for components, with the cost shifted to upgrades. I think it would encourage new pilots to experiment and find what's effective for them.
    
   
3. The ability to tweak loadouts while waiting in the queue. Maybe you shouldn't be able to move around ships inh your active hangar? But I don't know if the groupfinder is granular enough to be tracking each ship's loadout... is it?
    
   
4. UI QoL stuff like... identifying what sorts of ships those blips on your map are (if your sensors can pick them up, it seems logical that you could tell what kind of ship they are, no?)
    
   
5. More interesting paint schemes And colors, too, naturally. No one else may ever really get to see my ships in detail, but hey.
   

More interesting paint schemes And colors, too, naturally. No one else may ever really get to see my ships in detail, but hey.

I have wanted a shark mouth (basically this http://www.mercuryairgroup.com/images/content/flyingtigers.jpg) for my Republic Strikers since GSF came out. Can you imagine how cool that would look on a Clarion?

I have wanted a shark mouth (basically this http://www.mercuryairgroup.com/images/content/flyingtigers.jpg) for my Republic Strikers since GSF came out. Can you imagine how cool that would look on a Clarion?

I know, right? I could see that being a Cartel Market exclusive, but people would certainly buy it. Or maybe an actual desirable GSF-related pack item... >_>

1. More paint jobs! Not the most important thing but I hate that imp side gets lame paint jobs when compared to pubs.

2. Invasion type play similar to SWBF - you land a transport on the enemy ship and have certain objectives to destroy. Space kills, ground pvp kills, and # of objectives captured or destroyed effect the score. (may have to add transport ship class)

3. Cross server queueing. You queue for cross server and then the game matches your queue with another server queue (ex: shadowlands vs TEH).

4. Limit number of gunships / bombers on the team (in a 12v12 total of 2 gs and 2 bombers for example). Or introduce a penalty or buff to bomber gs balls.

5. More maps. Rely tired if playing the same ones over and over again.

Ground/space PVP joint missions sounds like a great idea. Performance of both teams would influence the score and possibly 1 team would have to relay on another team acomplishing thier objective before the first one could move forward. The idea of the ground team having to destroy the satellite on Endor so that the starfighters can destory the 'Death Star' later is the obvious example. 4 players in ground Arena, 4 in starfighter group.

PVE is a no brainer obviously, with GSF style requisitions and upgrades. Playing old PVE space missions now is even worse after the great experience with GSF's mechanics.

As for cross-server queues, many focus too much on 'right composition' and faster pops in usual hours being the biggest gain here, but what I was thinking was fast queues at ANY time. If Euro player logs late at night and wants to play GSF, he will often not get any pops. WIth cross server queues, he would be getting tons of pops from America prime time.

Lastly, maybe player-controlled capitol/guild ships in matches? Obviously their role/power would have to be carefully considered, but it's potentially a very interesting possibility.

1. The ability to adjust loadouts while in que. Since there is no matchmaking for GSF for light years in any direction, there really is zero reason to lock out tweaks while waiting for a match to pop. It would be a good use of the 10-20 (or more) minutes between matches.

i would love to see this as well...

1) Burst Cannons and Rapid Fire have their Targeting Reticle swapped. This would boost rapid fire a bit and reduce burst cannons. I think distortion field is fine at the moment. The rest of the balancing is mostly based on having the right ship to counter the other side's ships. New players don't have them and can get frustrated. Since I've maxed most of my ships, I don't have much of a problem with this. Its just that burst cannons are still overpowered, mostly due to the scout's turn radius and the max size of the burst reticle. Swapping the reticle with rapid fire would balance them more.

2) Some way to counter the "Wall of Gunships" in deathmatch... I think including the stealth ships would make it easier to counter this tactic. I don't know of another tactic besides creating a wall on the other side. Then it becomes a match of who has one more kill than the other when time expires.

3) It would be nice if the game had native voice or some other means of communication... it is too difficult to type in chat

4) More maps and game modes

5) The only other problem I have is low population... Republic side on Shadowlands have a steady stream of new players, but at prime times, there is often only the same premade of the best imp side, maxed ship players. While we could counter with making our own premade on republic side, it doesn't help that they would still be queued against new republic players because these imp players are the only ones on.

Crap...l almost forgot...

6) Legacy wide Fleet Requisition. I spend my free cartel coins on Fleet Req... I would spend more if I could then use that req on other toons.... I have too much ship req on my primary toon and nothing to spend it on.

7) Ion Cannons.... what the point... if I can't fire them before I get into range to fire another cannon... they are almost useless. Make them have a 7k range... I'd be for tweaking the hull damage lower... but they mostly only do damage on shields to begin with... not worth switching or taking.

8) Charged plating? whats the point?... these need to be overhauled... lower the bleed through by alot and lower the shield boost to compensate... and maybe, maybe they may have a purpose for certain builds.

7) Ion Cannons.... what the point... if I can't fire them before I get into range to fire another cannon... they are almost useless. Make them have a 7k range... I'd be for tweaking the hull damage lower... but they mostly only do damage on shields to begin with... not worth switching or taking.

Lock a Cluster while firing your ion.. a cluster straight to the hull. Strip a bomber of its shield.. Dead bomber if it isn't a CP build.

8) Charged plating? whats the point?... these need to be overhauled... lower the bleed through by alot and lower the shield boost to compensate... and maybe, maybe they may have a purpose for certain builds.

********. These shield are already the most powerful shield around. The only theat to these are a BLC scout (and I can take many of the bads one out) or a GS (and those able to actually hit me twice are not that many.

Before commenting over some of the most useful components, be sure it is impossible to use them effectively.

TL;DR L2P

Lock a Cluster while firing your ion.. a cluster straight to the hull. Strip a bomber of its shield.. Dead bomber if it isn't a CP build.

 

********. These shield are already the most powerful shield around. The only theat to these are a BLC scout (and I can take many of the bads one out) or a GS (and those able to actually hit me twice are not that many.

 

Before commenting over some of the most useful components, be sure it is impossible to use them effectively.

TL;DR L2P

L2P, seriously? Learn to read before you post insults.

I did say ion cannons were almost useless. You mentioned two complete loadouts for close fighting in a T1 strike, which can be accomplished by more balanced loadouts that have options for longer range, but to each his own. Extending the range does not negate your point... has nothing to do with L2P.

As for Charged Plating... the other options are still better for specializing your ships for particular purposes. I would still argue that overall, they are useless compared to other options available on each ship that has them... still a subjective argument and not a L2P issue.