I've read on Dulfy earlier today that Bioware is cancelling/delaying a game in order to enroll that team into SWTOR to meet the anticipated Star Wars craze (Star Wars 7) expected next year and help in development. So with these added resources and no mention of GSF in the 2015 swtor roadmap I am emploring anyone with an interest in GSF to make your voices heard by Bioware developers that further development of GSF matters to you, that you're willing to support it, that it has great potential in your eyes. Yes, GSF is a mini-game within a greater game but it has much more going for it than that. That there is a dedicated community, loving it and supporting it and that it deserves a make-over and booster shot not to be put on life support.

 

Now is perhaps our one and only chance to maybe influence Bioware a little in our direction, maybe they'll give GSF another look, hell they already have a whole new ship class developed and "sitting on a shelf" (yes I know it needs tweaking before it's playable) but obviously GSF has room for growth it just lacked/lacks manpower and reinforcements are on the way. Let the lobbying begin!!

It also wouldn't hurt to remind Bioware that space sims are making a comeback and perhaps it would be in their best interest to keep the ball rolling for GSF seeing as they already have a solid base and dedicated community to build on.

It also wouldn't hurt to remind Bioware that space sims are making a comeback and perhaps it would be in their best interest to keep the ball rolling for GSF seeing as they already have a solid base and dedicated community to build on.

 

Actually no, if space sims are making a comeback then focusing a GSF isn't a good idea when the competition in that particular niche is increasing.

Space sims making a comeback? I loved all the Star Wars space sims but I really don't think that the market, i.e. target audience, is big enough to support that genre. Although that may depend on whether you restrict it to "space flight sim" or "space 4X game". (Of course, GSF will never be a "space 4X game" and it shouldn't even try to be.)

 

Personaly, I really enjoy GSF. But when they look at the numbers and see that only few people actually play it (I mean, even at primetime there are only two or three matches going on simultaneously on TRE) they won't commit any resources to it.

 

"Do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands."

Edited February 11, 2015 by Shoraan

Actually no, if space sims are making a comeback then focusing a GSF isn't a good idea when the competition in that particular niche is increasing.

 

how do you figure? Usually supply rises to meet demand. This is a pretty basic concept of economics. Bioware has the "commodity" that is becoming popular and can save money by not developing a whole new game, but just fixing the one that they already have (and which is pretty good and unique already, even when compared to the competition)

 

Are you saying its not a sim, which by all accounts its more an arcade style shooter or "hybrid twitch shooter" but are you really going to pick apart his post because he chose the word sim and not game or shooter? This forum has been so empty lately, why troll someone in a very well meaning post over something trivial?

 

Back on topic, ill do what I can to try and drum up support in game n whatnot. My hopes are continually dashed when it comes to GSF. It has all the makings of a very cool successful / unique game, but the developers refuse to support it even a little.... so it is dying.

 

My SWTOR future is like this: with MINIMAL effort (like balance pass and some new additions) I would pay for this game for another year. If this year includes 0 GSF changes ill go take my money elsewhere, which is sad because I love this game / the community / and the extension of swtor on a whole.

 

Goodluck, PM your community forum leaders... make noise in the game and on the forum.... organize your communities.... be nice to the noobies... PROMOTE THE GAME and carry on That is apparently all we can do........

 

*Note I am a long term paid sub, I have purchased with real money the Gladiator, Ocula, Onslaught, and Mailoc - I would like to think I am the "type" of customer you would want to listen to as opposed to F2P scrubs who dont give a **** about anyrthing*

Actually no, if space sims are making a comeback then focusing a GSF isn't a good idea when the competition in that particular niche is increasing.

 

...just like a wowlike wasn't a good idea when competition was increasing?

...just like how making a clash of clans clone isn't a good idea now that competition is increasing?

...just like how you'll never see a McDonalds near a Burger King or Wendys? After all, competition in that area must be high...

 

 

In actuality, all you are seeing is a market shift. There is a portion of the population that understands space sims, wants to play them, and has been generally neglected. The success of Star Citizen's fundraising has called serious attention to this angle. That's why there's people doing it.

 

The problem would be if the market was just so flooded. Protip: We are nowhere near that.

 

 

But it is a fair assessment to say that the long-abandoned section of space sim players likely does not represent the same kind of resource well that the dopamine-mill mobile games do, or even the WoW-like ("MMORPG, but somehow just like WoW") community.

The title is correct. The December 18 movie release is likely to bring a huge boost to the SWTOR populations. Lotro use on Steam increased dramatically with the release of the first Hobbit movie and a corresponding expansion. The new Star Wars movie is a different situation and arguably will be much bigger. However, many of the players coming in will not be the usual online gamers. Clearly the developers believe that the class story lines will appeal to these new players, and I think they are right.

 

The question for GSF is whether or not they/we can sell the dream of space flight to these enthusiastic Star Wars fans. I love GSF because I can get into my starfighter and have high speed combat that is even faster and more complicated than in the movies. The dream is real. The barrier is in getting new players up to the point that they can play out that dream. This is the Achilles' heel of GSF. The more we or the developers can do to band aid it the better.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Ardaneb

In its current form, GSF might actually do it for a little while. If, as certain vets say, the matchmaker actually does work when you have 5+ games going at once, they won't wander into the usual roflstomp. The game still seriously needs a good tutorial, because going straight from stationary targets to trying to kill, say, Drak and co in anything is a jump no real newbie can make.

...just like how you'll never see a McDonalds near a Burger King or Wendys? After all, competition in that area must be high...[/qUOTE]

 

Where I live, there is a McDonald's and a Burger King across the street from each other. For a while, the sign at the BK read, "Why eat with a clown when you can dine with the King?"

 

....off topic, I know, but I got a big kick out of that sign.

Honestly, I'd like to be optimistic about bioware working on gsf, but I'd say they're going to be working on pve content. I'd like them to be working on everything myself, especially exterminating the many bugs that plague the game. Hopefully the "craze" earns them enough money where they finally update the servers. Edited February 15, 2015 by wvwraith

I'd personally like to see more varied maps. For example, getting a new battle location on an ice planet, another on a volcanic planet, either at high or low altitude would make for some more varied flight experiences. These are essentially 'fluff' visual additions, but something I certainly wouldn't mind seeing.

I'd personally like to see more varied maps. For example, getting a new battle location on an ice planet, another on a volcanic planet, either at high or low altitude would make for some more varied flight experiences. These are essentially 'fluff' visual additions, but something I certainly wouldn't mind seeing.

 

Coming to a Queue near you "Volcanic Kuat Mesas Domination" It's exactly like the other map only we made the bottom out of Lava!

 

Also Enjoy the brand new map "Icy Shipyard that can't find their way home Domination" It's exactly like Lost shipyard domination only the asteroids are made of Ice!

Edited February 16, 2015 by Drakkolich

Coming to a Queue near you "Volcanic Kuat Mesas Domination" It's exactly like the other map only we made the bottom out of Lava!

 

Also Enjoy the brand new map "Icy Shipyard that can't find there way home Domination" It's exactly like Lost shipyard domination only the asteroids are made of Ice!

 

Talk about a narrow interpretation to a general desire for increased variety in battlegrounds. Heck, I'm not even saying the lack of map variety is exactly game-breaking, either.

 

Well, since we're nitpicking at a minor idea that is admittedly only cosmetic in nature... Shall we nitpick at basic grammar?

 

*their vs there

Edited February 16, 2015 by AztecSoul

Talk about a narrow interpretation to a general desire for increased variety in battlegrounds. Heck, I'm not even saying the lack of map variety is exactly game-breaking, either.

 

Well, since we're nitpicking at a minor idea that is admittedly only cosmetic in nature... Shall we nitpick at basic grammar?

 

*their vs there

 

Lol Thanks for the grammar fix typed it fast while laughing, was just trying to be funny. This joke was aimed at my friend Verain didn't mean to insult your idea.

Lol Thanks for the grammar fix typed it fast while laughing, was just trying to be funny. This joke was aimed at my friend Verain didn't mean to insult your idea.

 

No worries, it's all good

Edited February 16, 2015 by AztecSoul

I'd personally like to see more varied maps. For example, getting a new battle location on an ice planet, another on a volcanic planet, either at high or low altitude would make for some more varied flight experiences. These are essentially 'fluff' visual additions, but something I certainly wouldn't mind seeing.

 

Actually a volcanic planet and an "Ice Ring" could be pretty interesting battles depending on how they did them.

 

For example, on a volcanic planet they could have lots of columns of smoke you could fly through while trying to lose your enemies. Now, of course You can get a sensor lock on people, but visually they wouldn't be able to see what's on the other side of that smoke. So you fly through a column of smoke and cut a sharp turn around a rock, the bogey on your tail adjusts to try and get a lead on you, flies through the smoke too and wham, hits a rock cropping he didn't see. Plus, falls of magma could make pretty interesting obstacles to try and weave in and out of.

 

An ice ring could do some pretty interesting stuff too. For example you could have large balls of ice with a tail and in the tail are much smaller chunks of ice, hundreds of them, that if you hit will cause problems for you and your ship. It's the tail of an ice ball so to speak. Also, anyone seen Titan A.E.? The final sequence of the movie takes place in an ice field, Bioware could set up some balls of ice with large caverns and passages through them.

 

But yeah, if they just did a repaint of Kuat Mesas and Lost Shipyards...well it would be nice to have "new" scenery, but I'd rather have entirely new maps.

Star Citizen is going to hurt SWTOR. How severe, I do not know. I am sure Elite Dangerous has either taken some players or distracted some away from SWTOR temporarily for a more space combat like feel. Of course, Star Wars and Jedi diehards will remain loyal. Maybe one day, and if Star Citizen delivers what is promised, Star Wars will be released in a Star Citizen format. I will continue to play SWTOR until Star Citizen goes into full beta release or Gold release or Star Citizen fails to deliver. Until then, I will be playing both SWTOR and Alpha/Beta Testing Star Citizen.

 

Elite Dangerous is in full release and currently comes in second for the re-emergence of Space Sims potential. Check out some of the videos on both games especially with Voice Attack (both SC and Elite Dangerous) and ASTRA (Primarily Elite Dangerous but you can finesse a Star Citizen profile as well).

 

It may be that EA Bioware is waiting to see how Star Citizen (SC) and Elite Dangerous (E : D) pan out. I know that the lack of Joy Stick/HOTAS support for GSF has kept me away from it. Both SC and (E : D) have HOTAS and Oculus Rift Support. In addition, I know SC has TrackIR support, not sure if (E : D) has it yet.

 

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/citizens/Teufelhunden

Edited February 16, 2015 by Lorica

I wouldn't worry too much about Elite Dangerous at the moment. I was an Alpha backer for that game and the dev's have released it way too early with very barebones content, it's essentially the 1984 game with better graphics. Even key multiplayer features (like the ability to form groups) are completely missing. If you like pvp play then GSF beats it hands down. The flight model for the game is nice and it does support things like occulus rift (too much emphasis on that in my opinion, which leads to a clunky user interface for everyone else) and trackir.

I think both Elite and Star Citizen have space combat that is far too slow-paced when compared with GSF.

 

I think the likeliest competition for GSF (and SWTOR in general) is Star Wars Battlefront, another EA property.

 

Past Battlefront games have already allowed scenarios where you take off from one capital ship, dogfight, and then board another capital ship and kill things with your blaster or lightsaber.

 

The new one is allegedly going to support missions involving full space-to-atmosphere-to-ground transitions.

 

Now I suspect the dogfighting will be a bit simpler than GSF (no cooldown abilities or ship customization), but it'll be fast paced and Star Warsy. I think it will be hard for GSF to compete with that in terms of attracting general audiences. That may be another reason why BioWare is not investing heavily in it anymore.

 

EA has likely decided/decreed, "Battlefront is our product for Star Wars space combat. SWTOR is our product for Star Wars story-centric roleplaying." As much as I love GSF, that is an entirely sensible and fair decision for EA to make--it plays to the strength of each game.

 

One bright spot--if Battlefront space combat is "good enough", we GSFers should continue making a guild or clan or whatever.

I think both Elite and Star Citizen have space combat that is far too slow-paced when compared with GSF.

 

Maybe Elite Dangerous but it is too early to tell for Star Citizen. Alpha testing dog fighting in Star Citizen can get pretty fast paced even in Drone (AI) mode.

 

I'll check out Battlefront too.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Lorica

I don't think Battlefront will really be the same thing as GSF, but I'm very much looking forward to it. Elite and SC are much more simulant, involving stuff like "land your ship" and "buy a component to land your ship" and "this is a world to explore". That's all amazing stuff, and I think these games will be genre-rocking, but... they really are a different genre. GoD Factory: Wingmen has some similarities to GSF in that you spend pretty much all the time in pvp (it's sort of a three space moba), but has almost no players (GSF is likely two-three orders of magnitude more players).

So what platform are we all going to play Battlefront on? Given my ... attachment ... to Xbox LIVE, I have a certain required bias for Xbox One.

 

Also I doubt any of my computers will be able to run Battlefront at anything approaching the fidelity of the console-optimized versions.

 

If I enjoy it on Xbox One--and if I am at least somewhat as good at it as I am at GSF--then I may spring for a better PC to play it at maximum settings.

...just like a wowlike wasn't a good idea when competition was increasing?

...just like how making a clash of clans clone isn't a good idea now that competition is increasing?

...just like how you'll never see a McDonalds near a Burger King or Wendys? After all, competition in that area must be high...

 

But you have to also look at market size. You have burger kings next to mcdonalds because the demand is that high, space sims are no matter how you try to spin it - are a niche market.

 

Also using wowlike as as argeument is rather poor. The reason nobody has ever come close to WoW's numbers is because WoW found a niche and dominated said niche, the reason people keep making wow clones is because investors see wow's numbers and want to copy rather than trying to find a new untried niche.