I think we all know I've been in love with the concept of GSF since its inception. I love dogfighters in general, and space dogfighters in particular. But flying around in a mastered Pike got nauseatingly easy (I mean, Lindsay Lohan easy) and nuking stock pilots just starting out probably wasn't good for the health of the overall community.

Let's face it - there's a pretty hefty difference between mastered and stock. Or even mastered and tier 3.

So then I started asking myself: Is it the ship, or my abilities, that make me a decent pilot? To find out, I decided to roll with just a stock craft myself.

I'm a pretty decent pilot. Not good enough to go toe to toe with, say, some jacktard flying around in a mastered Scout farming friendlies (as part of a team, no less - not even Lohan's THAT easy!), but certainly good enough to take on most of you in similar craft. ;-)

And thus my challenge to you, the Ace pilots of The Ebon Hawk: Fly stock only.

If you're good enough, it won't matter. If you're good enough in a team, it's HILARIOUS to stack up on that one twit with the mastered Cartel craft and nuke his expensive Youtube build to the junk heap in the sky. But most importantly, it'll give the newbies and lesser-talented some breathing room to learn, get better, get the gear THEY need in order to compensate for the Ace's uberleet piloting skillz, and greatly improve the overall talent and challenge pool for all GSF fans everywhere.

Well, maybe not the easy button aficionados, but whatever. I never liked them anyway.

See ya up there in my stock SG. -bp

I think we all know I've been in love with the concept of GSF since its inception. I love dogfighters in general, and space dogfighters in particular. But flying around in a mastered Pike got nauseatingly easy (I mean, Lindsay Lohan easy) and nuking stock pilots just starting out probably wasn't good for the health of the overall community.

 

Let's face it - there's a pretty hefty difference between mastered and stock. Or even mastered and tier 3.

 

So then I started asking myself: Is it the ship, or my abilities, that make me a decent pilot? To find out, I decided to roll with just a stock craft myself.

 

I'm a pretty decent pilot. Not good enough to go toe to toe with, say, some jacktard flying around in a mastered Scout farming friendlies (as part of a team, no less - not even Lohan's THAT easy!), but certainly good enough to take on most of you in similar craft. ;-)

 

And thus my challenge to you, the Ace pilots of The Ebon Hawk: Fly stock only.

 

If you're good enough, it won't matter. If you're good enough in a team, it's HILARIOUS to stack up on that one twit with the mastered Cartel craft and nuke his expensive Youtube build to the junk heap in the sky. But most importantly, it'll give the newbies and lesser-talented some breathing room to learn, get better, get the gear THEY need in order to compensate for the Ace's uberleet piloting skillz, and greatly improve the overall talent and challenge pool for all GSF fans everywhere.

 

Well, maybe not the easy button aficionados, but whatever. I never liked them anyway.

 

See ya up there in my stock SG. -bp

I'm in.

Gives me a reason to buy the CM Strike.

Edit: I've had exactly one game where I was able to talk my team into using blasters only against a complete team newbies.

It was eye opening seeing how many of our pilots can't shoot worth a damn.

some jacktard flying around in a mastered Scout farming friendlies

This is basically the only way I have fun in GSF these days.

I no longer play for the win. For a long time now, I've played for the hunt. There's nothing quite so thrilling as zipping from target to target blasting things to dust, unless it's hitting a new personal best on kills, K+A, accuracy, and/or DPS. Clearing out a satellite of threats so my buddies can cap it while I move on to the next? That's fun. It's a rush, a thrill, an adrenaline spike like I don't get studying calculus or rewriting essays about speeches.

I've tried playing stock. I have five GSF characters, and each of them had to start somewhere. I don't get that thrill from outplaying people in better ships. In fact, generally playing stock is more frustrating than challenging, because the bullsh*t two-shots turn into bullsh*t two-shots I don't have the engine power or blaster damage to do anything about.

If your intent here is to get the aces to lighten up on the newbies, let me remind you that the last time I flew stock, I got 50 MVPs in 50 matches.

My interest is already dwindling as BioWare continues to refuse to address the things that make GSF frustrating and unfun for me; I'm not going to intentionally gimp myself and make that worse.

This is basically the only way I have fun in GSF these days.

 

I no longer play for the win. For a long time now, I've played for the hunt. There's nothing quite so thrilling as zipping from target to target blasting things to dust, unless it's hitting a new personal best on kills, K+A, accuracy, and/or DPS. Clearing out a satellite of threats so my buddies can cap it while I move on to the next? That's fun. It's a rush, a thrill, an adrenaline spike like I don't get studying calculus or rewriting essays about speeches.

 

I've tried playing stock. I have five GSF characters, and each of them had to start somewhere. I don't get that thrill from outplaying people in better ships. In fact, generally playing stock is more frustrating than challenging, because the bullsh*t two-shots turn into bullsh*t two-shots I don't have the engine power or blaster damage to do anything about.

 

If your intent here is to get the aces to lighten up on the newbies, let me remind you that the last time I flew stock, I got 50 MVPs in 50 matches.

 

My interest is already dwindling as BioWare continues to refuse to address the things that make GSF frustrating and unfun for me; I'm not going to intentionally gimp myself and make that worse.

You were not the jacktard in question. You'd know it if you were.

The intent isn't to get aces to lighten up on the plebeians. Far from it - the intent is to give said plebeians a little breathing room and incentive to learn, grow and become better pilots more worthy of a challenge.

Basically, I want this program to be so successful that it has to be abandoned at some point because the competition got too good to outfly with a handicap. That, in my view, would be ultimate success here. -bp

I'm starting new characters and trying to prove my skill by flying without the benefit of my name and my gear.

I'm still upgrading, because I've flown stock and I've flown mastered, and mastered is better, but it's neat to see that I'm still being singled out as a threat on some of my other characters. So, I'm kinda trying to do what you're suggesting, man.

I'm starting new characters and trying to prove my skill by flying without the benefit of my name and my gear.

 

I'm still upgrading, because I've flown stock and I've flown mastered, and mastered is better, but it's neat to see that I'm still being singled out as a threat on some of my other characters. So, I'm kinda trying to do what you're suggesting, man.

Flying stock may not be for everyone. It's definitely an 11 sometimes on the challenge scale. And progress IS progress.

Besides, you're not the kind of person who consistently rolls newbies. You find that distasteful. I'll settle for that much. XD -bp

This is basically the only way I have fun in GSF these days.

 

I no longer play for the win. For a long time now, I've played for the hunt. There's nothing quite so thrilling as zipping from target to target blasting things to dust, unless it's hitting a new personal best on kills, K+A, accuracy, and/or DPS. Clearing out a satellite of threats so my buddies can cap it while I move on to the next? That's fun. It's a rush, a thrill, an adrenaline spike like I don't get studying calculus or rewriting essays about speeches.

 

I've tried playing stock. I have five GSF characters, and each of them had to start somewhere. I don't get that thrill from outplaying people in better ships. In fact, generally playing stock is more frustrating than challenging, because the bullsh*t two-shots turn into bullsh*t two-shots I don't have the engine power or blaster damage to do anything about.

 

If your intent here is to get the aces to lighten up on the newbies, let me remind you that the last time I flew stock, I got 50 MVPs in 50 matches.

 

My interest is already dwindling as BioWare continues to refuse to address the things that make GSF frustrating and unfun for me; I'm not going to intentionally gimp myself and make that worse.

I couldn't agree more - I'm in the same boat, I occasionally play on other characters for a change, but right now my enjoyment for GSF is slowly progressing on Tolgid towards certain achievements, and that requires me to regularly play my best in my best equipped ship.

I understand that some pilots get their nose out of joint when beaten by better equipped, more experienced pilots. I like to think of myself as a friendly guy who tries to help others out, so to counteract any concerns that I'm being 'mean' by legitimately doing well in GSF I do my best to give my time to chat with, and teach, any and every pilot who gets in touch with me.

In my opinion that's a far better way for the less able and less equipped to improve, without me needing to sacrifice my enjoyment of GSF in some misguided search for 'fairness' or 'chivalry'.

I couldn't agree more - I'm in the same boat, I occasionally play on other characters for a change, but right now my enjoyment for GSF is slowly progressing on Tolgid towards certain achievements, and that requires me to regularly play my best in my best equipped ship.

 

I understand that some pilots get their nose out of joint when beaten by better equipped, more experienced pilots. I like to think of myself as a friendly guy who tries to help others out, so to counteract any concerns that I'm being 'mean' by legitimately doing well in GSF I do my best to give my time to chat with, and teach, any and every pilot who gets in touch with me.

 

In my opinion that's a far better way for the less able and less equipped to improve, without me needing to sacrifice my enjoyment of GSF in some misguided search for 'fairness' or 'chivalry'.

A huge issue is that for every player who goes to talk to veteran players, there are numerous more who simply stop playing GSF all together, which only hurts the community. Sad to say that this seems very common on Imperial side, as fighting against full mastered pre-mades (Or damn well unlucky queuing) is all but a common place. Even I find that I can never decide to try out a new ship or work on anything but my Sting or else I will just be cannon fodder and farm feed which is an inherent problem with the game.

Sad to say, conversation and chat wont change the fact that hard core players will actively farm stock fighters. It's the nature of the beast.

You're not wrong in your final point, but it doesn't make it any better for the people you're killing.

But this is just a problem that stems from the game itself and open queue system.

- Erissi

Dainan: I don't know if I qualify already for what you're asking for in terms of what I do, but if you're asking me to start over with a new character and fly just un-upgraded ships, the answer is no. I play basically all ships more or less equally these days (except T2 scouts, because T2 scout pilots pissed me off so very very much pre-evasion-nerf I promised myself I was going to learn to kick all their asses without ever resorting to the same lame gimmick) and I've done so on both Imperial and Republic sides and having put in all that time playing outside my comfort zone and getting the ships configured the way I like them I see no reason to forcibly gimp myself when I don't need to, especially since I go out of my way in most fights vs noobs to give the noobs chances to do things and respond instead of just "I blowed up and don't know why!!!" To put it another way: I'm fine with handicapping myself if the handicap is voluntary and adjustable on the fly. That means giving myself my fully upgraded ship and using it less efficiently than necessary.

Stock ships don't give noobs more of a chance. Only better matchmaking or a better tutorial or simple restraint on the part of the aces will do that. I played my Star Guard for nearly 3 solid months with the only major component change being Koiogran to Barrel Roll, and I got good enough I could rather reliably take nearly any other strike 1-on-1 (and usually I could get them to follow me away from the furball to grant that 1-on-1). Upgrading the components just makes the process quicker, it doesn't change the tactics (and even the Koiogran turn can be fit into how I was flying it, now I've worked out the moves). Every single fight you (Siddain) had with Rhodogast, I had that near-stock loadout, and when I started playing Kelril in a stock Rycer I was doing the exact same thing and doing fine - targets go down slower, but they go down.

Mae'thon's screenshot says rather the same thing. It's not stock components that mean anything, it's the pilot knowing what to do with them.

I totally agree that farming noobs can be a problem in certain quarters but it comes down to either the people doing it deciding to stop, or their teammates seeing that some top pilots on the other side have ganged up on them and just don't come to the target's aid.

I think I should also mention that there are people out there who you might only ever see in your targeting reticle, and you get a certain opinion of them from things they do, and then ... once you actually talk with them ... you cool down. I'm not saying this would happen with all such - evil jerks exist, absolutely - but there are reasonable differences of opinion in what is reasonable behavior, and sometimes people just are a certain way and don't mean any particular harm by it. It's important to be able to sift them out from the real jerks.

On a slightly different topic:

For a long time now, I've played for the hunt. There's nothing quite so thrilling as zipping from target to target blasting things to dust, [...] I don't get that thrill from outplaying people in better ships.

This is an interesting statement and I'm wondering if I'm misinterpreting it. Do you mean you don't care if the opposition is capable or not as long as you're blowing them up? Or do you prefer capable opposition (measured in pilot skill, not upgrade level) so that your swath of devastation is that much more of an achievement? The first one doesn't seem to be very different from PVE in terms of meaning anything.

Outplaying people that I KNOW are good is exactly where I get the thrill. There's a pattern, that I think most aces will recognize at least in part -

Somebody I haven't encountered before flies into engagement range. Very likely I'm focused on someone else and don't notice them. BOOM! They blow me up.

"Oh cool, that guy's an easy kill!" they think. Next time I'm out to the fight, they're on me fast again. Very possibly, another BOOM. Sometimes this can go 5 or 6 times in a row in just a minute or two. (Hi Brünnhilde!)

I learn slow, but I do learn. Maybe in that match, maybe in a later one because I need to tweak some ship loadouts or something. But the point comes where they come at me and - boom. Their boom.

They come at me again. Their boom again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

I probably will explode a few times in there. But over the long term, the balance is in my favor. Sooner or later, the magical moment occurs - they target me, see I have them targeted, and ... switch targets. And go bother someone else.

That's the moment when I know I've won.

Maybe they try ganging up instead. Maybe they wait until they think I'm busy and then try to jump me. It takes a few more explosions - sometimes with 2-3 hostiles on my tail trying desperately but ineffectively to stop me - to really drive the point home. But once that "no, I'm not taking him on alone" decision is made, it's a LOT easier to make people break off (or try to), even if they have help. War is fought in the mind first and foremost; if you can beat people mentally first, beating them in actuality becomes nearly an afterthought. (I'm sure there's a Sun Tzu line about this but it's been too long since I read him) I've been told variations on "I hate flying against you" by more than a few people. There is no higher praise, and - for me - no greater thrill in this game than seeing it in action, because it's the mark of honestly earned respect.

There is a small number of pilots on Ebon Hawk where I haven't had this experience - few enough that I keep a mental list - "I need to make these guys explode more". I'm working on it. I'm pretty sure I can keep shortening it.

(There's an even smaller number that I've proven I can blow up, but they keep coming at me anyway. Those are the ones I really admire.)

Rhodogast / Kelril

A huge issue is that for every player who goes to talk to veteran players, there are numerous more who simply stop playing GSF all together, which only hurts the community. Sad to say that this seems very common on Imperial side, as fighting against full mastered pre-mades (Or damn well unlucky queuing) is all but a common place. Even I find that I can never decide to try out a new ship or work on anything but my Sting or else I will just be cannon fodder and farm feed which is an inherent problem with the game.

 

Sad to say, conversation and chat wont change the fact that hard core players will actively farm stock fighters. It's the nature of the beast.

 

You're not wrong in your final point, but it doesn't make it any better for the people you're killing.

 

But this is just a problem that stems from the game itself and open queue system.

 

- Erissi

That's a fair point, but as you say, it's a problem with the game

I'll do my part to counter it though ..I'm going to do a better job of actively talking to people rather than just waiting for them to come to me

This is an interesting statement and I'm wondering if I'm misinterpreting it. Do you mean you don't care if the opposition is capable or not as long as you're blowing them up? Or do you prefer capable opposition (measured in pilot skill, not upgrade level) so that your swath of devastation is that much more of an achievement? The first one doesn't seem to be very different from PVE in terms of meaning anything.

Both, really. I enjoy being able to go on a killing spree of five kills in fifteen seconds, and I enjoy chasing skilled opponents through asteroids to land the kill. If you've ever seen me say "that took forever" in general chat after landing a kill, that's pretty much the highest form of praise I can give -- because, being an arrogant son of a b*tch, it's never a question of whether I'll get the kill or you will, it's just a question of when I'll get that kill.

PvE opposition, especially in this game, falls into one of two categories: either it's too easy/predictable for me to get that sweet adrenaline, or it's too reliant on other players for success. I didn't have fun in WoW spending two hours a night pouring my rotation into dailies or the boss, and I have no incentive to try it in SWTOR. The only thrills I get from PvE are from boss kills and near-kills, but those only come from other people performing as well as I do (or, more often, me not dragging down the rest of the group, cause I suck at ground PvE). Parsing some huge number is essentially meaningless without a boss kill, and more often than not is the result of luck rather than skill; in GSF, I can get big numbers and big explosions all on my own merit.

my challenge to you... Try REAL pvp sometime and see how much of an "ace" you are.

I'm absolutely terrible at tab-target PvP of any kind and it's highly unlikely to improve given my gravitation to - and therefore, experience with - action-oriented engines. You know, like an FPS or something. -bp

I couldn't agree more - I'm in the same boat, I occasionally play on other characters for a change, but right now my enjoyment for GSF is slowly progressing on Tolgid towards certain achievements, and that requires me to regularly play my best in my best equipped ship.

 

I understand that some pilots get their nose out of joint when beaten by better equipped, more experienced pilots. I like to think of myself as a friendly guy who tries to help others out, so to counteract any concerns that I'm being 'mean' by legitimately doing well in GSF I do my best to give my time to chat with, and teach, any and every pilot who gets in touch with me.

 

In my opinion that's a far better way for the less able and less equipped to improve, without me needing to sacrifice my enjoyment of GSF in some misguided search for 'fairness' or 'chivalry'.

I have direct experience to the contrary involving you in particular. As a matter of fact, YOU are the reason I issued this challenge.

Those 28 kills you had in that friendly? You were clearly focusing on easy kills to pad stats. You even needed a TEAMMATE out there (Kimberly, who actually seemed to try to break off on their own but that's just my observation).

That's not Ace, and you apparently have no intention of even trying to step out of that mastered Scout of yours until you've achieved your personal glory - and damn the expense.

I can't respect that. There's nothing to respect there. ESPECIALLY if you're targeting your own faction like that. But as you've stated - you don't care. It's all about you.

You might like to think you're a better person than that. Maybe in other aspects you are. But not in GSF. If you're gonna be a one-ship pony, at least be proud of it. Don't try to blow smoke up my butt.

I've flown with and against you. I know better. -bp

I have direct experience to the contrary involving you in particular. As a matter of fact, YOU are the reason I issued this challenge.

 

Those 28 kills you had in that friendly? You were clearly focusing on easy kills to pad stats. You even needed a TEAMMATE out there (Kimberly, who actually seemed to try to break off on their own but that's just my observation).

Kimberly was, is not, and have never been, my teammate - I generally fly with Itkovian and whoever he is hanging out with, and my guildmates.

I wasn't 'focusing on easy kills' - I was targeting anyone and everyone - after the fight, I saw your taunts & complaints in General chat, including the suggestion that you were purposefully parking your ship in 'protest' to my style of play.. I didn't read any of that - I'm pretty terrible at reading game chat when I'm focusing on flying, and I never have General Chat visible on any of my standard chat tabs.

Had I seen your demand that I use a 'Stock' ship before the match, I probably would have ignored it at first - It was my first round of the day, I was trying to get my daily, and I always fly my Flashfire first..

That said, if I had died more than once that round, I probably would have swapped ships, I like variation - and that can be attested to by anyone who's seen me fly my Novadive or Strike Fighters.

So, I'm afraid you're mistaken, and frankly I find it quite sad that your mistaken interpretation of my behavior in a single TDM has resulted in this little crusade of yours. If you care about the health of the GSF community on this server, as I do, perhaps it's better to nurture friendships rather than start witch hunts?

For all of GSF's flaws, there's room for us to both have fun here, without needlessly dampening personal enjoyment or instigating personal attacks

An additional thought - as this idea was spawned apparently from my behavior from a single TDM..I'd like to draw your attention to the kill board from that mission

http://imgur.com/jnkdQWw

Yes, I did 28 kills, and Kimberly did 10 - the rest of the team (6 pilots) we were on therefore contributed about 11-12 for our winning score of 50

I stand accused of 'picking on' a team of novices and farming 'easy kills', but I'd like to point out that the opposing team managed a total of 29 kills, with a majority of the team managing 4 or more kills, something which only 3 people on my team were able to do.

I'd consider this a reasonable battle, not a bullying cakewalk you seem to consider it.

Would I have been less aggressive if the gap between the teams was greater? I'd like to think so.. but when both teams are racking up a fair number of kills, I'm going to play my best, in order to be a good teammate and help my team winning.. that's what I did that day.. I don't appreciate any attempt to vilify me for it

Also please note my chat window and the lack of any communication between Kimberly and myself, plus the lack of General (therefore unable to see your comments/flames/insults...though Estherica's 'someones mad' comment was what led me to review that chat channel after this screenshot was taken)

Kimberly was, is not, and have never been, my teammate - I generally fly with Itkovian and whoever he is hanging out with, and my guildmates.

 

I wasn't 'focusing on easy kills' - I was targeting anyone and everyone - after the fight, I saw your taunts & complaints in General chat, including the suggestion that you were purposefully parking your ship in 'protest' to my style of play.. I didn't read any of that - I'm pretty terrible at reading game chat when I'm focusing on flying, and I never have General Chat visible on any of my standard chat tabs.

 

Had I seen your demand that I use a 'Stock' ship before the match, I probably would have ignored it at first - It was my first round of the day, I was trying to get my daily, and I always fly my Flashfire first..

 

That said, if I had died more than once that round, I probably would have swapped ships, I like variation - and that can be attested to by anyone who's seen me fly my Novadive or Strike Fighters.

 

So, I'm afraid you're mistaken, and frankly I find it quite sad that your mistaken interpretation of my behavior in a single TDM has resulted in this little crusade of yours. If you care about the health of the GSF community on this server, as I do, perhaps it's better to nurture friendships rather than start witch hunts?

 

For all of GSF's flaws, there's room for us to both have fun here, without needlessly dampening personal enjoyment or instigating personal attacks

You can call me a liar all you want. I'm not here to garner support for a cause. I issued a challenge. Big diff. XD

I saw what I saw out there. You and Kim were focus-firing on newbies during a friendly. Your 28 kills in that match mean absolutely nothing to me. Less than nothing, actually, because you had the audacity to farm your own damned faction.

There's no honor in that. Spin it however you like, though, if it makes you feel better. I'm used to it. I covered politics once upon a time.

I don't want friends like you. I actively avoid being around people who demonstrate such behavior. I don't like or appreciate it. I find no value in it. So, lack of your friendship isn't really detrimental to me at all.

Which is good, because neither of us really cared about all that. I care about flying with a truly decent group of truly decent people. You care about farming your faction's newer pilots for kills. It is what it is.

Look on the bright side, though - that selfish attitude of yours may have given birth to a whole new level of competition. I'm thinking of starting a stock fighter league with tangfible prizes (read: not some piece of gear or credits or whatever). So, there's that, right?

Disasters beget blessings sometimes. Gotta love those old Chinese fables. -bp

An additional thought - as this idea was spawned apparently from my behavior from a single TDM..I'd like to draw your attention to the kill board from that mission

 

http://imgur.com/jnkdQWw

 

Yes, I did 28 kills, and Kimberly did 10 - the rest of the team (6 pilots) we were on therefore contributed about 11-12 for our winning score of 50

 

I stand accused of 'picking on' a team of novices and farming 'easy kills', but I'd like to point out that the opposing team managed a total of 29 kills, with a majority of the team managing 4 or more kills, something which only 3 people on my team were able to do.

 

I'd consider this a reasonable battle, not a bullying cakewalk you seem to consider it.

 

Would I have been less aggressive if the gap between the teams was greater? I'd like to think so.. but when both teams are racking up a fair number of kills, I'm going to play my best, in order to be a good teammate and help my team winning.. that's what I did that day.. I don't appreciate any attempt to vilify me for it

 

Also please note my chat window and the lack of any communication between Kimberly and myself, plus the lack of General (therefore unable to see your comments/flames/insults...though Estherica's 'someones mad' comment was what led me to review that chat channel after this screenshot was taken)

In order:

* I notice the high assist totals on the other fighters too. I doubt many of them were flying mastered anythings, especially given damage totals. Again - not impressed in the least. Kim's kill count simply further demonstrates you two were flying together (read: working together - which doesn't necessarily require typed communication. Several pilots and I work very well together based on sight alone. Many multiplayer dogfighters can.) Spin might lie, but numbers don't.

Oh, and that one kill you suffered? That was one of my five. Did that in a stock. Anyway.

* "The majority"? Since when is half a majority? Only two people on my team managed to top 20k in damage. I wasn't even one of them and I had 5 kills. If anyone flew anything even CLOSE to mastered on my side, they were really really bad at it. And I don't believe that to be the case. You might. But I don't.

* Look, maybe you're the type that feels like being bloodthirsty around new players who are members of your own faction. I don't respect it at all, but you're not a villain for it unless you feel that way. A douchebag? Maybe. But not a bonafide moustache-twirling villain. I mean, you're only griefing on a video game. Let's not get terribly melodramatic.

* If you consider 50-29 a close match, that's you. Personally, I consider 50-45 to be a close match warranting all-out violence against factionmates, but that's a personal view as is your own. It is what it is.

And finally:

* I've been around the 'net long enough to know when a person is dug firmly into their position, never to have their mind changed about the subject. Do what you wanna do. Fly how you wanna fly. But don't expect me to respect 28 kills against a bunch of friendly newbs or the pilot who defends the "accomplishment" as if it were something great.

It isn't.

I think at this time, the best thing to do is just ignore you. I think we both know the conversation only stays at this depth or sinks lower if we continue. Enjoy your Flashfire, and good luck if you ever decide to fly something else.

All the best. -bp

(EDIT: You kept that screenshot because you were proud of your "achievement". That's the most telling bit of information of all.)

I can only speak for myself when I reply, and only because I saw my name in the post above.

I never intentionally make a point of "farming" non-veterans. I will not kid myself...I am not skilled enough at this game (nor any twitch based game for that matter ) to do that in *any* scenario. Be that space or ground player verse player combat. Have I been involved in seemingly woefully imbalanced matches? Absolutely. But that goes for being on both the receiving end as well as the delivering end of one.

Through number of matches played, I have gotten more familiar with the mechanics of Starfighter, as anyone would. I am still finding my comfort zone with the Skybolt (personally I think it is ugly, but it has a different look over the Flashfire ). The reason I am flying it on a regular basis is due to the fact I am still looking for a load out I enjoy. I have mastered quad cannons...didn't like the feel of them. I then mastered burst lasers... but didn't like them either. Currently I am working on rapid fire lasers, and although everyone says they are laughable, I personally love them. They are a lot of fun, and very Star Warsy in my opinion. It is too bad they do not have the same sound as the Slave 1's rapid fire lasers.

I have also switched out my capacitor from damage to frequency, and reactor from regeneration to large.

By no means am I just taking my scout out to farm rookie pilots... ever. I am working on my ship. I have a Pike that I really enjoy, and was flying that for a good deal of time, prior to just going for enjoyment over theory crafting. When I wish to work on my Pike...I take it out. I have a pretty upgraded Warcarrier in my hangar. I do not like the playstyle of that ship, so I do not deploy it.

I can see both sides of the argument sure, but at the end of the day, I will absolutely never fault anyone for making the choice on what they wish to play. It is about their enjoyment, just as it is about my own.

For me, I tend to limit my characters to one, maybe two ships that I make active for them. Out of GSF's total compliment of craft, 3 ships currently interest me: The tier 2 scout, and the tiers 1 and 2 strike fighter.

I apologize, but until BioWare makes it possible to have more than one type of the same ship in your hangar (different load outs would be nice to have ), then I really cannot find fault in people flying the ship they enjoy and have invested in.

I can only speak for myself when I reply, and only because I saw my name in the post above.

 

I never intentionally make a point of "farming" non-veterans. I will not kid myself...I am not skilled enough at this game (nor any twitch based game for that matter ) to do that in *any* scenario. Be that space or ground player verse player combat. Have I been involved in seemingly woefully imbalanced matches? Absolutely. But that goes for being on both the receiving end as well as the delivering end of one.

 

Through number of matches played, I have gotten more familiar with the mechanics of Starfighter, as anyone would. I am still finding my comfort zone with the Skybolt (personally I think it is ugly, but it has a different look over the Flashfire ). The reason I am flying it on a regular basis is due to the fact I am still looking for a load out I enjoy. I have mastered quad cannons...didn't like the feel of them. I then mastered burst lasers... but didn't like them either. Currently I am working on rapid fire lasers, and although everyone says they are laughable, I personally love them. They are a lot of fun, and very Star Warsy in my opinion. It is too bad they do not have the same sound as the Slave 1's rapid fire lasers.

 

I have also switched out my capacitor from damage to frequency, and reactor from regeneration to large.

 

By no means am I just taking my scout out to farm rookie pilots... ever. I am working on my ship. I have a Pike that I really enjoy, and was flying that for a good deal of time, prior to just going for enjoyment over theory crafting. When I wish to work on my Pike...I take it out. I have a pretty upgraded Warcarrier in my hangar. I do not like the playstyle of that ship, so I do not deploy it.

 

I can see both sides of the argument sure, but at the end of the day, I will absolutely never fault anyone for making the choice on what they wish to play. It is about their enjoyment, just as it is about my own.

 

For me, I tend to limit my characters to one, maybe two ships that I make active for them. Out of GSF's total compliment of craft, 3 ships currently interest me: The tier 2 scout, and the tiers 1 and 2 strike fighter.

 

I apologize, but until BioWare makes it possible to have more than one type of the same ship in your hangar (different load outs would be nice to have ), then I really cannot find fault in people flying the ship they enjoy and have invested in.

Tolgid was clearly the problem from what I saw. Of the names listed in your signature, I don't recall any that have been anywhere near like that. My apologies if I wasn't clearer on that point, but rest assured your name was mentioned simply to point out to Tolgid that I was watching quite a bit more than he seemed to indicate. I have yet to even hear of any of your names mentioned disparagingly, let alone taken personal issue myself. -bp

Less than nothing, actually, because you had the audacity to farm your own damned faction.

no seriously what the **** is this

literally everyone I've flown with has said this at some point and I don't understand it at all

who cares what faction they are, it's still a person behind the screen

imps aren't magically less frustrated when they get shot down just because they shoot lightning instead of throwing rocks

no seriously what the **** is this

 

literally everyone I've flown with has said this at some point and I don't understand it at all

 

who cares what faction they are, it's still a person behind the screen

 

imps aren't magically less frustrated when they get shot down just because they shoot lightning instead of throwing rocks

Ask your professors. They're paid to explain simple concepts. I'm not. -bp

As an Imperial I can contest that being farmed or focused on by an entire geared out team is very discouraging when being tempted on requeuing or simply stop for a long while.

Its why its hard to get anyone to queue with me or even to want to learn. Its just come to be expected that Republic aces will farm you with little care for the community. Thats the perception that I have witnessed.

- Erissi.

Taking various points in reverse order:

As an Imperial I can contest that being farmed or focused on by an entire geared out team is very discouraging when being tempted on requeuing or simply stop for a long while.

 

Its why its hard to get anyone to queue with me or even to want to learn. Its just come to be expected that Republic aces will farm you with little care for the community. Thats the perception that I have witnessed.

Yes. Absolutely. That's why Kelril has been flying a lot more than Rhodo recently, I want to redress that, and I want to encourage all the pub aces who don't do the same to keep in mind that those imps they're farming are game content, and that killing too many of them destroys the content in a manner that's difficult to replace. When you're making jokes about "where are the imps? we killed them all" - it's really not as funny as you think. If you don't WANT to have anyone to play with, keep it up.

Any new players who want to group with me, just whisper me any time you see me on. And /cjoin gsf.

Ask your professors. They're paid to explain simple concepts. I'm not. -bp

You're assuming into existence a game mechanic that doesn't exist, at all. The error is yours. I'm in complete agreement with Mae'thon on this.

The game is: two teams of pilots fight each other. Whichever team does better gets rewarded better. The ONLY effect that team faction composition has on the battle is whether or not the two teams can talk to each other in general chat or not.

That's it.

You can make an argument that for RP / lore reasons wargames should be more polite and restrained than cross-faction games. The argument can be made but it is not supported by any actual game behavior, and if you insist on it being a determining factor, you are trying to force a completely optional style of gameplay on people who don't want it. I tend to like and approve of RP, but enforcing gameplay styles is never a good idea. The game is functionally the same whether it is same faction or cross faction; the appearance of the ships and the potential pool of pilots changes, but the behavior of the game is the same. Therefore it's completely normal to treat same-faction matches just as ruthlessly as cross-faction - in fact it makes sense to work HARDER in same-faction pub matches, because pub on Ebon Hawk has more of the better pilots.

A 50-29 match actually is VERY close. I've been in quite a few where kills were neck and neck up until the late teens or so where one team managed to get in synch, suppress one or two key people on the other side, and pull ahead. I've been in games where we were 20 kills ahead of the other one and then all of a sudden it was neck and neck in the late 40s. It takes very, very little in terms of skill difference to produce a gap like that. 50-10 or worse is unbalanced, but a game that ends 50-29 ... I can totally see the better pilots pulling out all the stops and going for the throat because they honestly thought it was absolutely necessary.

When I saw this thread originally, I thought "Oh, he's obviously talking about so-and-so." (Not Tolgid. Tolgid is annoying as anything and I intend to blow him up some more, but he's just doing what Flashfires do.) Then I thought: "But so-and-so actually isn't that bad a guy." That's why I put that paragraph about reasonable differences and perceptions in my earlier post.

I can understand why you were motivated to start this. I've had my high-stress moments because of GSF also, and moments where I was ready to condemn certain pilots or teams to eternal flames for being such (*sniffle, whimper*) INSENSITIVE JERKS. I've mostly managed to walk away from the keyboard in time and calm down and review matters in a cooler light ... and come back and make the one argument that really, truly matters:

Blowing them up.

So I don't think a thread like this can really achieve much of anything useful - it's high on (understandable) emotion and low on specific case justification. Small, careful, cool-headed steps always work better than dramatic ones in these sorts of situations.

Rhodogast / Kelril

Speaking of fighting against your own side, I sometimes won't notice until halfway through a match what faction I am fighting. I am one of those who aims at the red dots in the distance and pulls the trigger. I like to think that I do fairly well despite being so gosh darn random.

So unless I am actually in Mumble and flying with guildies, I just sit back and enjoy shooting whichever red dot I happen to see first. I wouldn't know a noob from a mastered - well, unless I one shot them.