I just wanted to say thanks for posting this, first of all. I'll have probably very long posts in each thread. I can't speak for the entire community, of course, but I'm sure that most of us appreciate the fact that you're listening at all.

 

Reaction in the Discord server has been a little mixed. We're excited to see that you're willing to listen again, but we feel like we've been here before. See the Strikes thread you guys posted like two years ago with no dev action taken so far.

 

Hopefully this goes somewhere.

Edited July 6, 2017 by DakhathKilrathi

On many servers the factions are now too lopsided meaning one side basically farms the other faction until the queue dies because one side cries uncle. After a long wait you then get a final same faction vs. same faction where the grouped players usually woop up on the solo players.

 

Innovative fixes could be:

 

Alliance Map Mode - This is where each team is a blend of different faction ships just like the Odessen wa rgames.

 

Strikes Only - A map that only allows strikes to play each other in a death match. By far the hardest ship type to master and don't get played because they get dominated by all other ship types which is a shame because strike to strike dog fighting is incredibly fun.

I want to thank the dev team for soliciting feedback, and engaging in this discussion. The GSF community has been starved for this kind of dialogue.

 

I'll take a little time to think about it, and then I will post in each of the three threads - with specific, concise, actionable suggestions. I'll refrain from "wall of crazy"-type ideas for now.

First, many thanks for listening to us players, GSF has been out a long time without changes.

 

When GSF first launch, i thought the game would center on dogfights, so i rolled a scout, and went really smooth with it.

 

Today i find that if i play a scout i will barely make a scratch on gunships or bombers, game became too difficult to us scouts and pretty much useless except for EMP. Laser damage should be increased to resemble vanilla, since dogfighting is the hardest of the gameplay styles (sniper turret -gunship, tank dps- bomber, and dogfight- scout/striker)

 

Bombers are fine, they were way OP back in vanilla, but now they can be easily neutralized with EMP and strikers.

 

Gunships atm are OP, i have a fully geared bomber, and eventually get 1 shot killed by gunships with damage boost, even with dmg reduction, or 2 shot killed on the regular. Gunships damage should be controlled, or their range reduced. Back in Vanilla, gunships were easier to kill, right now, they control games and make them slow and boring since most people play them.

 

tl;dr: Laser damage should be increased for scouts, due to dogfighting being the hardest skill to master. Gunships should be nerfed due to insane damage (1-2 shot kills) and insane survavility.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Osoygatitalove

I tried it and for me learning curve is too steep for me to feel like I'd ever get good at it, not to mention I don't feel any emotional connection to it as it seems to just be an Avenue for player-vs-player and there is no real story involved.

 

I realize that this may not be directed towards my play style and I would certainly defer to those who more enjoy this sort of thing, but if you are looking to bring more players in, currently I find more enjoyment in regular player-versus-player then Galactic Starfighter - I think mostly because I am a fan of objective based PVP if I do that sort of thing, and not so much a fan of "attack/defend" some random points out in space.

 

I think for me what would be neither and make me more inclined to participate is an increase in the scale of the combat.

 

Like one side having to defend a capital ship that is also attacking in the other side trying to bring the capital ship down. Or one side having to provide safe escort for a row of ships and the other side trying to take those ships out.

 

More variety would definitely get me more interested, especially with objective-based missions that can be won without having to be the best shot on the field.

Edited July 6, 2017 by ZionHalcyon

There is a learning curve for GSF that can be off putting. And the way it currently sits is much like PVP was in vanilla where level 10 would come up against a lvl 50 fully geared and get stomped. The fact that it remains this way since GSF launched I think really turned away a lot of players who just couldn't stomach having to grind and get rolled over and over until they earned enough rep to start modding out their ships. Esp since the only way to earn more comms for gear was to keep getting stomped.

I'm not sure what the fix is for this stage as it lingered much longer than vanilla PVP did before a fix came through. I'm not sure the player base size for it on a server to server basis even works to do brackets. But perhaps a ranked GSF with all the upgrades vs an unranked version with normalized stats regardless of upgrades cold help make the curve more manageable. Skill will still trump inexperience, but not being one shot every 30 seconds will prob help keep people around.

Maybe even a solo mode training mission for each map could help.

I'm not a fan of GS, but I very much appreciate Eric continuing to launch focused discussion threads like this for players to make their desires known in a somewhat organized manner.

I didn't play GSF for like 3+ years. Why? As fun as it occasionaly may be there simply isn't enough incentive to play it. Here's my issues:

 

1. Extremely long progression - it takes WAY too long to level up ships to reach "bis" and get competitive with the right loudout. This is even worse now that we've got CXP gearing which makes gearing alts a huge pain for pvpers. :{

 

2. You promised "ground" rewards as incentives and you didn't deliver. I'd like to play GSF but I am mostly a "ground" player. If I don't get any rewards, be it tunings, good-looking cosmetic gear (not some reskinned, cheap scrap :{ ) I don't really have a reason to play.

 

3. Outrageous Cartel Coin costs when it comes to converting commendations. Why is that still a thing? They should be completely removed. There aren't enough GSF players as it is. Pops are extremely slow and you guys hamper progression even further with this.

 

TL;DR GSF never worked for me because of its extremely slow progression and lack of "ground" rewards and huge CC costs associated with converting commendations. :{

Unless Bioware are thinking about a PvE version of GSF they are ignoring the biggest stumbling block to why so few players access it.

 

All The Best

Good to see this happen. We have MANY things that GSF can improve upon.

First, many thanks for listening to us players, GSF has been out a long time without changes.

 

When GSF first launch, i thought the game would center on dogfights, so i rolled a scout, and went really smooth with it.

 

Today i find that if i play a scout i will barely make a scratch on gunships or bombers, game became too difficult to us scouts and pretty much useless except for EMP. Laser damage should be increased to resemble vanilla, since dogfighting is the hardest of the gameplay styles (sniper turret -gunship, tank dps- bomber, and dogfight- scout/striker)

 

Bombers are fine, they were way OP back in vanilla, but now they can be easily neutralized with EMP and strikers.

 

Gunships atm are OP, i have a fully geared bomber, and eventually get 1 shot killed by gunships with damage boost, even with dmg reduction, or 2 shot killed on the regular. Gunships damage should be controlled, or their range reduced. Back in Vanilla, gunships were easier to kill, right now, they control games and make them slow and boring since most people play them.

 

tl;dr: Laser damage should be increased for scouts, due to dogfighting being the hardest skill to master. Gunships should be nerfed due to insane damage (1-2 shot kills) and insane survavility.

 

 

"GUNSHIPS ARE OP" says the bomber player. "Scouts need a buff" says the bomber player.

 

You may not realize this, but GSF balance is very much a rock/paper/scissors kind of thing.

 

Scouts counter gunships, gunships counter bombers, bombers counter scouts. So yes, as a bomber player, of course you're dying to gunships and of course the scouts are struggling to kill you.

 

It's hilarious that you're arguing that anyone should try to kill a bomber with strike fighters, btw, since EVEN THE DEVS have acknowledged that Strikes are the worst class in the game and by a very large margin. EMP is similarly bad.

 

"Dogfighting" is 100% the wrong way to play this game. You should never be chasing a target for very long unless it's a gunship. Scouts shouldn't be tangling with other scouts in open space, because that's not their job. (Unless of course they're setting up a shot for an allied gunship to finish off the player foolish enough to circle in open space.) Each ship has a clearly defined role (other than strikes).

 

 

Edit: As a further example that scouts are fine, here's me swapping to a scout after my gunship dies too easily and then performing well even in a build that's not even close to optimal:

 

 

Pay attention to how I play this game. I don't chase any single target for an extended period of time. That's not my job. Instead, I swap targets to people who aren't trying to avoid me.

Edited July 6, 2017 by DakhathKilrathi

I'm going to go post in all of these threads, but as an avid GSFer since GSF's early access, I just want to say thank you for all of these renewed signs that you are not letting GSF just die! Any game, or game mode, needs attention from its development team in order to thrive. Even without new ships or game modes, we've seen GSF bugs lie unaddressed for years, and it's incredibly disheartening. Seeing these threads go up made me giddy with disbelief and renewed hope, so thank you for reaching out. Hopefully you'll be able to sort through the flurry of opinions you're going to receive in order to pick out a few gems you can implement to really breathe some new life into this game mode that many of us love.

Gsf is an excellent and timeless game mode and, despite the accusations of it being a dying part of SWTOR, it still surprises me that the vibrant, positive, and active community in GSF has continued to keep the game interesting and compelling for new and old players alike. Threads such as these are such a positive and encouraging thing for this community, and I would like to thank the dev's for reaching out.

 

To the newer players out there, there are so many community resources out there to help you get started on the right track, such as Despon's GSF School, The GSF Discord Server, A A Dedicated GSF Guild as well as the Galactic Starfighter Forum.

 

See you in the skies!

I'm in disbelieve that a dev went to the GSF forum

 

But so happy that we are going to get more love!

Thank you thank you for having this discussion! I agree with lots that's been posted already.

 

Gunships over-powered..just throwing ideas out there:

-handicap Gunships during the battle the as more enter the fray from one's team?

-make Gunship armour very "brittle"

-do not allow Gunships to be able to use powerups/boosts/bonuses

-limit each fight to 2 Gunships per team at any one time

-allow fighters to spawn right behind enemy Gunships as a free option

Dogfights: I love the idea of battles without Gunships

Spawning: I don't think I see too many capital ships firing anymore (might be something that one has to enable during the game? idk)...makes it hard to have a chance of surviving the first 5 seconds during a lopsided game, when the enemy is all over your spawning points...then again, that makes the game end quicker.

...wait...

...WHAT IF YOUR TEAM'S CAPITAL SHIPS (with ability to fire) MOVED CLOSER TO THE CENTRE THE MORE YOUR TEAM IS GETTING CRUSHED!?!?!?!?! BRILLIANT...I...think......

 

I may h8 Gunships...I might be biased

 

I honestly do love GSF actually...it's a fun mini-game and good for conquesting points. Once in a while, a blowout is fine, but not when it's like, 80% blowouts and only 20% competitive (so it seems)...

Nerf Gunships

Buff Strikes

Add a little balance to T2 scouts

Improve the tutorial for new pilots

Add drink cup holders

Quite honestly I enjoy it as it is. The main barrier I have however is that you have to be on a heavy pop server to play. Otherwise if you are on a lower or low pop server this aspect of the game is utterly non-existent. My main server is low pop and GSF never happens. I made characters on Harbinger only to play GSF, and this is fine, but I should be able to to this on any server. If anything in this game should employ cross server play, I say GSF should be it.

 

Besides all this, there is stuff in older starfighter packs (ships, colors) that can not be found anymore and should be reassigned to a vendor in the GSF deck at the fleet station. Possibly for credits. I want stuff, but I cant get stuff. Let me get stuff. Please?

 

Also some random bits, the GSF deck at fleet station should have more to do if you want to hang out there waiting for queues to pop. Perhaps a GTN and other utilities? I would love this. It is a fun deck with lots off love put into the design.. I would love more of a reason to hang out there. And from a RP standpoint, would be nice to have more to do there. Oh and would love a travel point added there as well, like what was done at Cartel deck.

Edited July 7, 2017 by xmarcusprimex

Thank you thank you for having this discussion! I agree with lots that's been posted already.

 

Gunships over-powered..just throwing ideas out there:

-handicap Gunships during the battle the as more enter the fray from one's team?

-make Gunship armour very "brittle"

-do not allow Gunships to be able to use powerups/boosts/bonuses

-limit each fight to 2 Gunships per team at any one time

-allow fighters to spawn right behind enemy Gunships as a free option

Dogfights: I love the idea of battles without Gunships

Spawning: I don't think I see too many capital ships firing anymore (might be something that one has to enable during the game? idk)...makes it hard to have a chance of surviving the first 5 seconds during a lopsided game, when the enemy is all over your spawning points...then again, that makes the game end quicker.

...wait...

...WHAT IF YOUR TEAM'S CAPITAL SHIPS (with ability to fire) MOVED CLOSER TO THE CENTRE THE MORE YOUR TEAM IS GETTING CRUSHED!?!?!?!?! BRILLIANT...I...think......

 

I may h8 Gunships...I might be biased

 

I honestly do love GSF actually...it's a fun mini-game and good for conquesting points. Once in a while, a blowout is fine, but not when it's like, 80% blowouts and only 20% competitive (so it seems)...

 

You CAN'T limit the number of ships a team has, talked about this in another GSF post, there are achievements involved with playing 250 games with a type of ship and 50 wins with a type of ship, forcing a pilot to play something else they don't feel comfortable with will make them not play or que up, plus all of the people who want to fly gunships will just have 3 ships slots open only all 3 gunships so it wont even work.

 

Gunships are easy to counter <_< fly at an arcing angle with a scout or strike fighter, they lose accuracy from tracking penalty. Really not hard to kill a gunship. The only thing that may need a slight nerf is ion railgun to reduce the amount of engine power taken away so people can have a chance to speed out. But in all honesty scout or strike can easily cripple a gunship and force them to move around which is most devastating for commet breaker/dustmaker and quarel/mangler. There are guides to flying around gunships i recommend you use them i harass gunships when the other team is full of them with a novadive or a flash. Speed + Arcing angle = gg gunship.

Thanks for making the posts. Now lock this thread so the discussion actually happens there instead of genforum

 

 

Edit: Although I guess I'm happy to copy-paste all my responses into this thread, if needs be.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Verain

Either remove TDM or find some way so that every single one doesn't turn into a gunship/bomber fest.

Unless Bioware are thinking about a PvE version of GSF they are ignoring the biggest stumbling block to why so few players access it.

 

All The Best

 

I don't disagree.

 

One of the most fun times I had was in SWG, which had PvE Space Flight. Granted, it wasn't the flying around that made it great for me, while I appreciated the open space nature of the game (I also named the AEG-77 Vigo in the game, fun fact!), but it was the missions against the Corellian Corvette, and the missions against the fleet of warships over Kashyyyk that made the game awesome. It was also fun to get a crew together in a multi-player ship to take down those objectives, particularly that fleet over Kashyyyk. And one of the coolest memories I had was of that Kashyyyk mission, in a YT-1300 freighter, where they had enough people for pilot, co pilot, and the 2 gunner positions, and I just came along for the ride and stood in the cockpit, watching while everyone else took on that challenge - and it felt like I was in the Star Wars movies, just watching that excitement. It was pure magic.

GSF is a subset of PvP that seems to lack even what little the ground PvP experience offers.

 

I have fleet admiral title with a kill to death ratio of 5 to 1 yet for all the relevance it has to the game it may as well have been done in Star Citizen or a flight sim that offers a more immersive experience or hell even EvE online.

 

Dog fighting was a massive part of the Star Wars Movies and is an element of game play that ToR should have been able to offer that few other games couldn't (strangely WoW offers more flight and more flight related combat missions that ToR). Who doesn't want to strap themselves into a Tie Fighter and fly for the glory of the Empire. Hell we had X-Wing, Tie Fighter and X-Wing vs Tie Fighter not to mention all the other variant and Jump to Light Speed that showed what could be done.

 

Unfortunately what is on offer is a PvP only experience (which will limit the appeal as being ganked over an over is seldom fun) and a control system that makes it more logical to play as a gunship or bomber. While with what possible resources can be directed to mini game within PvP which already only exists as 15 minute mini games with no real open world or persistent PvP must cause GSF to fall in the too costly for any potential returns. So are these posts just lip service to the GSF community to be as quickly forgotten as the post years back asking for feed back on Strike Fighters?

Edited July 7, 2017 by Costello

I

1. Extremely long progression - it takes WAY too long to level up ships to reach "bis" and get competitive with the right loudout. This is even worse now that we've got CXP gearing which makes gearing alts a huge pain for pvpers. :{

 

. :{

 

There are several guides on the GSF forum giving tips on spending your initial requisition.

 

GSF rewards a fair bit of CXP and also UCs so you can be gearing your character while flying in space. - For example the weekly ( 7 matches wins count 2x) awards something like 11K CXP.

At lower Command ranks, you could do the daily and weekly matches and open many command crates at the end. + credits, fleet comms and conquest points. It's VERY 'rewarding' in a purely material sense.

 

Best thing though is the community. - Good for the heart as its virtually salt-free.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Storm-Cutter

Hi Eric,

 

I know I would play GSF and so would some of my friends if there was a JoyStick option