Certainly the first question to be asked is why? Our roadmap began to shift into a new direction with a high priority placed around both Galactic Strongholds and that other expansion Bruce briefly mentioned before. In looking at our current schedule, we felt that Starfighter was in a healthy state and so by cutting the new role, we could make a better experience for our upcoming expansions.

Do these devs actually play GSF? Or read the Forums?

What's their definition of "healthy"?

I'd define 'healthy' as popular, consistently played, ready to accept potential new content like maps and modes, and able to survive minor tweaking to classes.

Which is pretty much all we're asking for these days, truthfully. Tweak Bombers for this, tweak Gunships for that, etc. Stuff needs some adjustment, not a complete breakdown, overhaul and massive amounts of deletion.

EDIT: Plus, we're kinda reaching a calm spot where we can tweak things to form a more balanced paradigm. Throwing in a whole 'nother class is going to make a lot of waves, and it's going to be Keystone Cops trying to get it all balanced on the fly. Better to let things be for a bit, and work out potential balance with new ships classes in the lab before trying to patch it all together in the field.

EDIT: Plus, we're kinda reaching a calm spot where we can tweak things to form a more balanced paradigm. Throwing in a whole 'nother class is going to make a lot of waves, and it's going to be Keystone Cops trying to get it all balanced on the fly. Better to let things be for a bit, and work out potential balance with new ships classes in the lab before trying to patch it all together in the field.

Currently it seems like only about 20% of the players on any team I'm on have any idea what they're doing. The game is still so new to the population that the majority of players are still getting a feel for what type of ship they want to learn to play. Easily the "bottom" 20% on a team is so new and clueless they just putter around the map exploring where things are (and good on 'em, it's good to know the hiding places and power up zones ahead of time.)

Once we get to the point where people have mastered the basic 4 ships we can worry about adding new complications to the mix.

I'd define 'healthy' as popular, consistently played, ready to accept potential new content like maps and modes, and able to survive minor tweaking to classes.

 

Which is pretty much all we're asking for these days, truthfully. Tweak Bombers for this, tweak Gunships for that, etc. Stuff needs some adjustment, not a complete breakdown, overhaul and massive amounts of deletion.

 

EDIT: Plus, we're kinda reaching a calm spot where we can tweak things to form a more balanced paradigm. Throwing in a whole 'nother class is going to make a lot of waves, and it's going to be Keystone Cops trying to get it all balanced on the fly. Better to let things be for a bit, and work out potential balance with new ships classes in the lab before trying to patch it all together in the field.

Definitely agree with the above. GSF IS in a good state, and is down to mostly needing tweaking balance-wise. Adding another role would definitely upset things.

What I do want to see, personally, are new maps and new game modes. That should be the priority over new roles (though of course role balance should come first).

"Healthy" can mean a few things... first, recognize there are at least two versions of "healthy":

1. Player Version: Lots of players, matches with multiple players on each side, decent balance... knowing several other people that actually love GSF as it stands today (with minor pros and cons that each person has).

2. Business Model: Consistent playerbase that sees a moderate sustained usage (i.e. X amount of players play GSF on a regular basis). Cartel market related to GSF (or other game mechanic) sees a fair amount of purchases of related items (i.e. there's income above, say, 10-20% of overall Cartel Market income). Basically, it's making money - at the moment and is not seeing a significant downturn in usage.

Now, our version of "healthy" is obviously #1. We want to see a lot of players, have a lot of matches, feel vindicated that we're able to build our ships and reap the benefits of doing so - WHILE HAVING FUN. However, when Eric (or somebody else at EA/BW) says, "healthy", they're probably talking more in the sense of #2. What bums me out is that #2 isn't sustaining. Also, what bums me out is that they're saying some things are getting pushed off. That's basically executive speak for, "don't put any more resources to it"... which translates to, "it's not making as much money as we hoped and we don't have an answer as to how to get it to make more money at this moment." Therefore, focus on housing and things that will make them money.

That's not necessarily a bad thing though... if they don't make money, we don't have a game to play. However, our passion (or most of us in the pilot community) struggles with this as we WANT GSF to be a friggin CASH HOG because that means they're going to spend more effort building it up... when, unfortunate as it may be, the fact is, it probably isn't.

Now, FLIPSIDE, is that GSF is actually making BW SO MUCH MONEY that they simply don't NEED to spend any effort on it. However, if that was the case, you'd see a LOT more advertising around GSF to get MORE people to play... because that's how you make more money when you have a cash hog (i.e. World of Tanks which I don't think has really even changed a lot since it was released). Sadly, I haven't seen much hoopla about GSF since it was released... therefore, I'm doubting this is the reason.

With Eric's announcement, I fear GSF is just not what BW thought it was going to be... but instead of ignoring it, string the current community along as long as you can or as long as you can until the next big thing arrives (i.e. cross-server q'ing or deeper integration with the rest of the playerbase).

Bottom line... I think we have a long secluded road ahead of us GSF friends.

I'm playing on T3-M4 (german server). It's 7pm currently on a friday evening and i'm waiting for 25 minutes for a queue to pop.

Healthy state, they say....

About a week ago, the queue on JM took over an hour so I left and went to TEH saying screw the dailies. Within 2 minutes, had a queue pop. Healthy queues must mean great on some servers and attrocious on others. I haven't been back to JM since

I just hope your arrival doesn't herald a similar decline on TEH

About a week ago, the queue on JM took over an hour so I left and went to TEH saying screw the dailies. Within 2 minutes, had a queue pop. Healthy queues must mean great on some servers and attrocious on others. I haven't been back to JM since

The larger pop servers look like they have better queue times currently, but from what I can see the game can't be called "Healthier" on them, It would be more accurate to say they are in the earlier stages of the disease that is killing GSF.

I just hope your arrival doesn't herald a similar decline on TEH

Translation: You better not be contagious!

Oh, believe me, Any-Port-In-A-Storm Aimbot is what they call him. He's filthier than the bottom of a ******'s heels, Nem, trust me.

The larger pop servers look like they have better queue times currently, but from what I can see the game can't be called "Healthier" on them, It would be more accurate to say they are in the earlier stages of the disease that is killing GSF.

Debbie Downer much, Brass?

 

Debbie Downer much, Brass?

Calling, it the way I see it. I have been trying a variety of servers this week and they all have the same problems that killed off game play on Pot5. Lots of blowouts, either boring wins or painful losses very few good matches, even fewer that can't be predicted before they start.

Queue times have been steadily getting worse and worse on JC as well. Not horrible yet, but they are getting worse.

If there was a reward system of some type, it might be more popular.

I didn't find it worth learning myself, I didnt like the control setup, and while I COULD get better at them with time, I dont really see the reason TO do so. It's fun fore a while, but after a while it takes a little more than fun. Need rewards.

On top of that the fact that its' PvP only turns a lot of people off. PvE content actually makes people more confident to PvP. I know my friends wouldnt even ground PvP until they were past their 30s and felt comfortable with the class and controls. GSF just throws you in and goes lol good luck.

I just hope your arrival doesn't herald a similar decline on TEH

I certainly hope not... I just moved a toon to TEH to see how the meta was over there.

If there was a reward system of some type, it might be more popular.

 

I know my friends wouldnt even ground PvP until they were past their 30s and felt comfortable with the class and controls. GSF just throws you in and goes lol good luck.

I certainly hope not... I just moved a toon to TEH to see how the meta was over there.

If you're a good pilot, roll Imperial. It is the weaker faction and needs more experienced and skilled pilots.

The problem is that we just had a big exodus of Jung Ma pilots come to TEH, but they rolled Republic, which only exacerbated the faction imbalance.

It is the weaker faction and needs more experienced and skilled pilots.

I've already noticed. And the toon I transferred was Imp. Honestly, it's a great environment in some ways to be in*. Frustrating in Dom (but it always is), but I've already run into several pilots/swarms (people I think are in voice, but only 2-3 at a time. Just the way they're converging and flying together makes me think they're coordinated) who are keeping me well on my toes. And while I've lost more than I've won, I've given more than I've gotten so far, so that's a plus. Very different meta than JC.

*Meaning that there are groups that will make me work for my food.

Interesting, in the 8-11:30 pm slot now that a lot of our native aces have migrated away or stopped queuing there seem to be more GSF noobs crawling out from wherever they were hiding.

Have to say though, that breaking double digit kill numbers in a stock scout isn't really all that satisfying.

My big unknown is going to be, "how buggy will Arena Commander be when it goes live any week now." If the answer isn't, "as buggy as a tundra bog in early summer," my GSF playtime may crash due to trading in strikes for an Origin.

...but I've already run into several pilots/swarms (people I think are in voice, but only 2-3 at a time. Just the way they're converging and flying together makes me think they're coordinated) who are keeping me well on my toes.

Ah heh...um...well...if you got names, I can tell you if we are or not.

Some of us have just been flying together so long, have such a handle on our ships, and work together so well that it's almost like a battle trance. We show up at just the right times to cover each other, finish each others' kills, and there's absolutely no coordinating mechanic actively being employed.

Believe me, those are magical times, when folks come to us after a match and go, 'Are you in voice together?!'...and my mic is currently sitting on its boom in my voice booth where I left it.

Ah heh...um...well...if you got names, I can tell you if we are or not.

 

Some of us have just been flying together so long, have such a handle on our ships, and work together so well that it's almost like a battle trance. We show up at just the right times to cover each other, finish each others' kills, and there's absolutely no coordinating mechanic actively being employed.

 

Believe me, those are magical times, when folks come to us after a match and go, 'Are you in voice together?!'...and my mic is currently sitting on its boom in my voice booth where I left it.

Still too new to name names. I know Maethon's name from the forums, because we're both scout pilots, and I've run into him I think 3 times, but I don't know anyone else yet.

And I'm not whining about premades or anything of the sort. There are a few people I know on JC that I can fly with in a similar manner because I've flown with/against them enough to know their mannerisms, habits, etc., so it very well might be that. I'm simply making the point that I've run into groups of people flying very well together. Whether it's voice or time together is irrelevant to me. I can just tell that they're somewhat dangerous. Even if they don't kill me, they're sometimes forcing me to peel before I bag the kill. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't, but I can't afford to linger or over pursue.

I'm calling them "swarms" because that's how they play (which also doesn't help in remembering names... When I tab through and there are 3-4 targeting me, I don't have time to worry about flagging names). There have been a few times I've wished I could tell my team that I was bringing company to them, and I've even been in a joust or two with multiple people at once. Now THAT'S a fun joust to bag 1 and run laughing from.