If I get shot down 5 times in a game, does that make me an enemy ace?

If the number of being killed makes one an "enemy ace" (for whatever this means), then I should be named there as well. I got shot down fairly often.

And ... especially Newbies should be in this list, beccause they are easy fodder.

Letting yourself kill very often is called feeding.

If it happens to you on a regular basis, you need to focus on improving you evasive flying skills and evaluate why you got into a situation where you got killed.

Evasive flying and situational awareness help you to get killed less and logically this is a deciding factor in deathmatches. Many close games have been decided not by the "aces" but by the feeders.

Also, on topic of "aces":

On my server a lot of the good players stopped playing GSF or play significantly less. However, a lot of them show up when there's a conquest event going on. Some are playing other parts of the game - leveling other characters with story boost is popular at the moment. Others are playing different games.

Letting yourself kill very often is called feeding.

 

If it happens to you on a regular basis, you need to focus on improving you evasive flying skills and evaluate why you got into a situation where you got killed.

 

Evasive flying and situational awareness help you to get killed less and logically this is a deciding factor in deathmatches. Many close games have been decided not by the "aces" but by the feeders.

There are actually TWO sides :

Those who are "fed" might very well decide NOT to kill the "feeder".

But they don't. Why ? What is forcing them to kill the same "feeder" player over and over and over and over and over again ?

There are actually TWO sides :

 

Those who are "fed" might very well decide NOT to kill the "feeder".

 

But they don't. Why ? What is forcing them to kill the same "feeder" player over and over and over and over and over again ?

The goal of deathmatch is to kill the other team faster than the own team is being killed. There is no such thing as choosing to not kill in deathmatch - if your team is clearly better than the other, you may slow down your pace but you still need to kill the other team to win the match. And obviously I was talking about deathmatch because it's unlikely that kills decide a domination match. Also, when I talk about feeders deciding a match then it should be clear I'm not talking about a farmfest but a match where both teams are close in strength. If it were a farmfest, it wouldn't matter if they fed.

I see that those are a lot of things I wasn't mentioning so I'll make up an example:

Imagine a deathmatch that ends 50-48 and the losing team has someone in it with 15 deaths because he wouldn't stop flying right into the enemies guns. If this person would have stopped feeding and instead stayed back and helped cover the gunships (or whatever), his team would have won.

This thread has become far too convoluted since its inception. I have a suggestion, though I'm sure this has been discussed already, but I simply don't have the energy to spend hours sifting through 74 pages of posts.

My suggestion would be to retire this thread and start anew with something more structured and a bit more relevant. It would require regular maintenance by keeping a monthly tally of pilots whom others would nominate for such a prestigious acknowledgement. Perhaps, in order to qualify for an "Ace-of-the-Month" position it would require either some simple voting system or a general consensus by everyone participating in the discussion. It would then be the Moderator's responsibility to finalize the list and post their names at the top of the thread for convenient viewing. A new listing would then commence for the next month. Perhaps, at the end of the year, all the "Ace" pilots for each month would then be featured on a final post (eg. "GSF Ace Pilots for 2015") . This would provide a snapshot of Ace pilots both past and present. These acknowledgements could then be archived while the monthly listings get reset for the next year.

It has been my experience that the veteran GSF community tends to be very detail oriented and I have no doubt that there are plenty of thoughtful posts already out there broaching the subject of "ace" pilots and plenty of suggestions on how to best classify and acknowledge them. It begs the question:

What constitutes an "ace" pilot?

Is it a pilot who farms rookies in his gunship simply to pad his numbers? Is it a pilot who has mastered every nuance of their T2 scout but scoffs at the notion of mastering other ships? Is it a pilot who frantically keeps a swarm of enemies from capping a satellite by skillful maneuvering for an entire match despite never having scored a single kill and ranking at the bottom of the scoreboard? Is it a pilot who prioritizes the practice of good sportsmanship regardless of whether or not they are winning the objective?

Maybe there should be an annual GSF Awards that recognizes pilots who have distinguished themselves in a multitude of categories:

Best Scout Pilot

Best Gunship Pilot

Best Strike Fighter Pilot

Best Bomber Pilot

Best All-Around Pilot

Best Team Player

Best GSF Guild

Best Independent Pilot

This is a general idea and there could obviously be additional categories with more sub-divisions (such as best ship class with their respective tiers). Additionally, each server could have its own designated thread rather than tangling all the servers together. It would enable GSF enthusiasts to peek into each server and see the ebb and flow of whatever talent happens to be flying for that month.

Elaeis

Begeren Colony

Let it go. A popularity contest by another name is still a popularity contest.

Folks know who they respect, fear, or intend to keep an eye on from server to server.

A suggestion, the one positive thing that could be taken out of this thread was a list of pilots from server to server that folks could reach out to for grouping or help. Why not avoid the e-peen popularity contest based on a completely subjective definition and keep it to the thread's positive byproduct. And if it's not enough to do just that, make a shout out thread for folks to commend actions of others.

Best GSF Guild

I think it could be useful to list the different GSF guilds on every server, updated from stasie's guide. Organizing guild vs. guild firefights could be an interesting event idea as well.

I think it could be useful to list the different GSF guilds on every server, updated from stasie's guide. Organizing guild vs. guild firefights could be an interesting event idea as well.

Not a bad idea. And while this is wholly OT (sorry, OP), another thought: how about a "who's playing where" thread. With all the server-hopping, it's tough to figure out where the good games are going to be at any given time. Drak announces his destination via his stream thread, and sometimes I'll just go to that server (if I'm on at the time, it's usually too late for me) because I assume other folks may congregate there too for the same reason. Which works out now and then.

But too often I hear about the great games I missed, simply because I wasn't in the right place at the right time.

I think most good pilots are flying either Shadowlands, Harbinger, or Red Eclipse these days.

yeah, seems that way. but my timing is terrible...i play on SL, everyone's on harb...then I go to harb, and everyone's on SL. guess I'll catch up eventually.

I think most good pilots are flying either Shadowlands, Harbinger, or Red Eclipse these days.

Let it go. A popularity contest by another name is still a popularity contest.

 

Folks know who they respect, fear, or intend to keep an eye on from server to server.

The fact this thread is going into its 75th page means it's obviously a topic that still intrigues people, which is why I even bothered to post in the first place. Considering the chronically unpopular state of GSF, what I was suggesting is that maybe it could benefit from a few "popularity contests" every once in a while, especially if they had a bit of structure to them.

If you disapprove of the term "ace" you are not alone. I've had my share of chuckles and/or eye-rolling whenever someone pops into GSF chat asking, "Any Aces wanna group up?". As corny as that sounds to me I also acknowledge that it's very natural for people in any hobby-based community to have aspirations of distinguishing themselves and receiving accolades from their peers. Considering Bioware has a Ranked PvP leaderboard posted right on their home page, is it really that far-fetched that the GSF community wish for something comparable?

If "ace" sounds too overblown, I'd be happy to refer to it simply as "Distinguished Pilots" instead, but most people prefer simplicity in their lives, so I imagine "Ace" will probably win in the semantics debate. It's easier to spell.

Elaeis

I think most good pilots are flying either Shadowlands, Harbinger, or Red Eclipse these days.

Even if what you're saying is true, I think it is important not to dismiss the talent that still exists on other servers. What I'm noticing from some of the posts I've read on this forum is that there is a very small percentage of people who post here thinking their opinion is gospel. They are perfectly entitled to do so, but it can sometimes be misleading and inaccurate. I fly primarily on Begeren Colony and there are still many great pilots that fly there. I've also flown on Bastion, Ebon Hawk and Harbinger. My experience is that each server is a mixed bag depending on time and day of the week (as usual), but that "most good pilots" can still be found flying on every server.

Elaeis

Even if what you're saying is true, I think it is important not to dismiss the talent that still exists on other servers. What I'm noticing from some of the posts I've read on this forum is that there is a very small percentage of people who post here thinking their opinion is gospel. They are perfectly entitled to do so, but it can sometimes be misleading and inaccurate. I fly primarily on Begeren Colony and there are still many great pilots that fly there. I've also flown on Bastion, Ebon Hawk and Harbinger. My experience is that each server is a mixed bag depending on time and day of the week (as usual), but that "most good pilots" can still be found flying on every server.

Elaeis

Well yes I agree that there are some good pilots that stay on their home servers of course. But most of the top players have started characters on other servers. Off the top of my head, the only top players I can think of that haven't tested other waters are Nemarus and Xi'ao. Although I heard Xi'ao made a Harbinger imp account recently.

*snip

 

Elaeis

I'm not sure you took my statements in their proper context. So, I'll reiterate.

Yes, there are 75 pages of people giving shoutouts to their buddies and/or a kind word to a rival which has long since become outdated and ultimately ridiculous in the essence of identifying an "Ace" - a highly subjective/opinionated term slung around. But this page had fallen to the dustbin for very good reason.

As previously stated and then reiterated by Zuck, the real value of this thread and front page was that it provided a list of Who and Where for servers allowing folks to find pilots to group and play with/against. Hence... my suggestion to abandon the idea of crowning somebody or some group as the "best" or the "ace" or the whatever and to take the biggest positive byproduct from this thread and renew it. Most of the pilots on the lists no longer fly and part of having decent matches and fun games is knowing where folks are flying.

I can neither stop nor change the course of a decision that has already have been made, but I will sling out my opinion none the less. Proceed or do not, it makes no difference to me as I have the ability to abstain regardless.

Good luck.