We've gone back and forth quite a bit about what a GSF Ace is, and a little bit about what a GSF Ace is NOT. Here's how I see it:

AN ACE IS:

* A pilot known and respected by both factions on their server (even if the respect in question is mere avoidance)

* Can fly more than one ship type competently (Ya ain't gotta be awesome, but ya can't suck at it either)

* Can strongly contribute in both TDM and Domination

AN ACE IS *NOT*:

* A pilot who intentionally flies mastered ships when matched against newbies on a consistent, purposeful basis

* A pilot who griefs without cause

* A pilot who locks down TDM spawn points for the intent of farming kills

* A pilot who hacks (never mind that the hacks in question are painfully ineffective; it's still bîtch)

Anything to add, subtract, or contend? Feel free below. -bp

You forgot the [Opinions] tag.

I can't really see this thread going over well :<

You forgot the [Opinions] tag.

 

I can't really see this thread going over well :<

Viewpoint is often subjective. Perhaps you'd like to help avoid the fate you see? -bp

Aces are those who are recognised as such by numerous other players, no matter the killcount or whatever.

That kinda goes in with the first bullet point, but I see what you mean. While it certainly helps to have the respect of pilots from other servers, it doesn't seem prudent to think any less of demonstrated top pilots simply because they're not a cross-server presence.

For example: Imperius and Rainous are both pilots I would consider "Ace", but I don't think either plays outside of Ebon Hawk.

I said numerous pilots, not pilots from other servers.

When a player who plays often looks at the startup player list and sees names of people in the opposing side, which send shivers down his back, or when he sees names on his side and his confidence about victory grows straight up, these are the people who are aces.

When you look at names on startup list and evaluate victory chances just based on these names, then these names are names of aces.

I said numerous pilots, not pilots from other servers.

 

When a player who plays often looks at the startup player list and sees names of people in the opposing side, which send shivers down his back, or when he sees names on his side and his confidence about victory grows straight up, these are the people who are aces.

When you look at names on startup list and evaluate victory chances just based on these names, then these names are names of aces.

...so, the first bullet point covers, then.

The best aces are the ones that tout their superior skill against all those overpowered 2-ship rookie squads and bring mastered boats to make sure that those green pilots don't invade and take over all of our native servers.

Thankfully we have these players to keep us all safe!

I doubt we will come to an agreement on a single definition.

For me, I agree with the above poster. Aces are those pilots on my team that I know will contribute the most: they can be counted on to capture, hold and come to the defense of nodes in Domination, and have high kill numbers in TDM. Conversely, I fear the Aces on the opposing team that will make Domination nodes that much harder to take and that make TDM a nightmare for me to score even a few kills.

I don't think it matters whether someone is dominant on many ship types or one ship type. An Ace on my side will probably change ships to match circumstances (I don't really keep track of what they fly), but the Aces that I fear on the opposing side are the ones that fly a specific ship and that is what makes them fearsome. So when I see a certain pilot on a gunship, for example, that's when I call that person out to my team because they will wreak havoc if not checked on that ship.

One wild card is whether or not the person is on voice chat/on a premade or not. Some pilots are much, much stronger when on voice chat and part of a premade than when they queue solo.

I doubt we will come to an agreement on a single definition.

 

For me, I agree with the above poster. Aces are those pilots on my team that I know will contribute the most: they can be counted on to capture, hold and come to the defense of nodes in Domination, and have high kill numbers in TDM. Conversely, I fear the Aces on the opposing team that will make Domination nodes that much harder to take and that make TDM a nightmare for me to score even a few kills.

 

I don't think it matters whether someone is dominant on many ship types or one ship type. An Ace on my side will probably change ships to match circumstances (I don't really keep track of what they fly), but the Aces that I fear on the opposing side are the ones that fly a specific ship and that is what makes them fearsome. So when I see a certain pilot on a gunship, for example, that's when I call that person out to my team because they will wreak havoc if not checked on that ship.

 

One wild card is whether or not the person is on voice chat/on a premade or not. Some pilots are much, much stronger when on voice chat and part of a premade than when they queue solo.

I dunno about one-ship pilots. They're not very scary outside of their comfort zone for the most part. That's why I don't consider them "true" Aces personally. Suppose the parameters change again and their chosen ship type gets nerfed to the point that they're no longer as effective?

At that point, it's the ship doing the work and not the pilot in my view. And that's no Ace. -bp

I dunno about one-ship pilots. They're not very scary outside of their comfort zone for the most part. That's why I don't consider them "true" Aces personally. Suppose the parameters change again and their chosen ship type gets nerfed to the point that they're no longer as effective?

 

At that point, it's the ship doing the work and not the pilot in my view. And that's no Ace. -bp

If the parameters change and they no longer dominate on that ship, then yes, they are not an ace at that point. But until that point in time, if they are consistently topping the scoreboards in TDM or turning the tides consistently in Domination, then they deserve the Ace title in my opinion. When I see the same pilots getting high kills and medal counts over and over, they are Aces in my book.

I don't really keep track of whether an Ace pilot sucks on another ship type. Maybe you play a lot more or watch the scoreboard more which allows you to do this. Until Bioware makes this data easier to see, we probably won't agree on a single definition.

Maybe it's safer to say that Pilot X is an Ace Gunship pilot while Pilot Y is an Overall Ace, or something like that.

I dunno about one-ship pilots. They're not very scary outside of their comfort zone for the most part. That's why I don't consider them "true" Aces personally. Suppose the parameters change again and their chosen ship type gets nerfed to the point that they're no longer as effective?

 

At that point, it's the ship doing the work and not the pilot in my view. And that's no Ace. -bp

If you fly on multiple characters, but each of those characters only uses one ship, do you not consider that person an ace (assuming you know that it's the same person)? For RP purposes, I could see this occuring a lot

If the parameters change and they no longer dominate on that ship, then yes, they are not an ace at that point. But until that point in time, if they are consistently topping the scoreboards in TDM or turning the tides consistently in Domination, then they deserve the Ace title in my opinion. When I see the same pilots getting high kills and medal counts over and over, they are Aces in my book.

 

I don't really keep track of whether an Ace pilot sucks on another ship type. Maybe you play a lot more or watch the scoreboard more which allows you to do this. Until Bioware makes this data easier to see, we probably won't agree on a single definition.

 

Maybe it's safer to say that Pilot X is an Ace Gunship pilot while Pilot Y is an Overall Ace, or something like that.

We'll have to agree to disagree, then - if they're good enough, they'll be covered by the first bullet point in my view anyway.

If you fly on multiple characters, but each of those characters only uses one ship, do you not consider that person an ace (assuming you know that it's the same person)? For RP purposes, I could see this occuring a lot

EXCELLENT point. Me personally? I only consider the PERSON behind the character an Ace. Not the character itself.

Shayd and Callem are the names of two excellent Imperial pilot characters. They are flown by the same person. That person is an Ace. That title is shared by Shayd and Callem both by association, but only because one flies as both.

(Strangely enough, I flew as multiple handles but only one was considered "Ace" - a distinction I still reject. That character has, by FAR, the worst stats of all of them! HA!)

I dunno about one-ship pilots. They're not very scary outside of their comfort zone for the most part. That's why I don't consider them "true" Aces personally. Suppose the parameters change again and their chosen ship type gets nerfed to the point that they're no longer as effective?

 

At that point, it's the ship doing the work and not the pilot in my view. And that's no Ace. -bp

That's bull and you know it. When I have I not turned a game in my Flash? I'm consistently top of the leaderboards and have over a 70% win rate with over 10.3 kills per match and a KDR of 4.0+; am I not an ace?

If the Flashfire were suddenly nerfed to the ground -- let's say BLCs suddenly do 400 damage every shot with accuracy of 70% (both regardless of range) and rate of fire reduced to 40 RPMS, and Distortion Field now reduces your shield capacity by 60% -- I would be floundering, yes. I would not take the hit as well as a pilot of any other class would. But so would everyone else. That kind of a major change would disrupt the entire playerbase, and at that point any notion of ace piloting goes out the window as the game goes through a massive overhaul. At that point, an ace is whoever can rise from the ashes and secure a new name for themselves.

I really don't know where people get this notion that a good player has to fly ships he doesn't necessarily enjoy in order to be considered a good player. In the ground game, do we say someone deserves their rancor only if they have 55s of at least three classes? Do we pretend their contribution as a healer is any less valuable because they choose not to tank? Do world first guilds -- in any game -- expect their players to be as good on their alts as their mains? No, none of the above -- and so we should just stop pretending that specialization is at all inferior to diversification.

That's bull and you know it. When I have I not turned a game in my Flash? I'm consistently top of the leaderboards and have over a 70% win rate with over 10.3 kills per match and a KDR of 4.0+; am I not an ace?

 

If the Flashfire were suddenly nerfed to the ground -- let's say BLCs suddenly do 400 damage every shot with accuracy of 70% (both regardless of range) and rate of fire reduced to 40 RPMS, and Distortion Field now reduces your shield capacity by 60% -- I would be floundering, yes. I would not take the hit as well as a pilot of any other class would. But so would everyone else. That kind of a major change would disrupt the entire playerbase, and at that point any notion of ace piloting goes out the window as the game goes through a massive overhaul. At that point, an ace is whoever can rise from the ashes and secure a new name for themselves.

 

I really don't know where people get this notion that a good player has to fly ships he doesn't necessarily enjoy in order to be considered a good player. In the ground game, do we say someone deserves their rancor only if they have 55s of at least three classes? Do we pretend their contribution as a healer is any less valuable because they choose not to tank? Do world first guilds -- in any game -- expect their players to be as good on their alts as their mains? No, none of the above -- and so we should just stop pretending that specialization is at all inferior to diversification.

Look, I get that you have a problem with my viewpoint. I GET that. But if this is how it's gonna be then you and I no longer need to converse.

Quit taking life so personally, homey. It's never a pleasant experience. Take care of yourself. All the best. -bp

Arguing about what an ace is or is not is silly.

Arguing about most things can be defined as "silly". But apparently, society needs definitions and tiers. Otherwise, we'd never even consider calling anyone an Ace at all, right?

It doesn't matter if they only fly one ship. As long as they bring their team to victories, they are aces.

Baddies aren't good enough with their Stings to be called aces by numerous players. If Stings were nerfed (or rather, put more in balance) though, I'm quite sure that Sting aces would still be aces. Only baddies would suffer.

Look, I get that you have a problem with my viewpoint. I GET that. But if this is how it's gonna be then you and I no longer need to converse.

This isn't, and has never been, about you. It's a viewpoint I've seen pop up on the forums and in various conversations multiple times, and I've always found it full of fallacies.

I didn't intend to be offensive, and if I was, I apologize. I hope you'll see my posts for what they are -- critique of ideas I find in need of correction -- and not as personal attacks.

This isn't, and has never been, about you. It's a viewpoint I've seen pop up on the forums and in various conversations multiple times, and I've always found it full of fallacies.

 

I didn't intend to be offensive, and if I was, I apologize. I hope you'll see my posts for what they are -- critique of ideas I find in need of correction -- and not as personal attacks.

I think it's best we go our separate ways. Sometimes, my friend, the only winning move is not to play.

Good luck out there, man. Hope life treats you well. -bp

Honestly I agree for the most part, but there are times when some one can turn the tides on one ship regardless of the situation.

I will say even if they are good on multiple ships though, they usually have that 1 ship where they are good on all, they will make you want to cry on that 1. You can tell that the other ships they are flying are what a few of us have come to call "req" ships. Ships that have yet to be mastered so we are flying them to earn requisition on them more so then to fly what is needed. When we start seeing a close game, we might fly a different "req" ship that will be more appropriate and is closer to being mastered or if we are losing and we really need to turn the tides we fly one of the mastered ships, the ones we know like the back of our hands. I have had me and a partner do this in a TDM we started losing 30 to 18. So I jumped on my Pike and him on the GS......end of match we won 50 to 40.

We were still doing well pre the Pike and the GS swap, but we werent killing any where near as fast, and because of that the enemy team was able to pick off our more fresh pilots while we chased tails. After the switch obviously that changed.

I think it's best we go our separate ways. Sometimes, my friend, the only winning move is not to play.

 

Good luck out there, man. Hope life treats you well. -bp

Don't you think that's a bit of a hacky cop out?

You create a thread meant for debate, and even invited people to contend with your opinions.

Don't then just do the whole "agree to disagree" and immediatly shut down the debate.

Someone posted some critique about your opinion, answer them, otherwise what would the point of this thread have been?

Don't you think that's a bit of a hacky cop out?

You create a thread meant for debate, and even invited people to contend with your opinions.

Don't then just do the whole "agree to disagree" and immediatly shut down the debate.

 

Someone posted some critique about your opinion, answer them, otherwise what would the point of this thread have been?

With this particular person, it's been the same old song-and-dance over multiple threads. Sorry, but it gets a little old, y'know?

I hate doing it too, but I'm sure you know the old saw about how internet arguments are like the Special Olympics.

Honestly I agree for the most part, but there are times when some one can turn the tides on one ship regardless of the situation.

 

I will say even if they are good on multiple ships though, they usually have that 1 ship where they are good on all, they will make you want to cry on that 1. You can tell that the other ships they are flying are what a few of us have come to call "req" ships. Ships that have yet to be mastered so we are flying them to earn requisition on them more so then to fly what is needed. When we start seeing a close game, we might fly a different "req" ship that will be more appropriate and is closer to being mastered or if we are losing and we really need to turn the tides we fly one of the mastered ships, the ones we know like the back of our hands. I have had me and a partner do this in a TDM we started losing 30 to 18. So I jumped on my Pike and him on the GS......end of match we won 50 to 40.

 

We were still doing well pre the Pike and the GS swap, but we werent killing any where near as fast, and because of that the enemy team was able to pick off our more fresh pilots while we chased tails. After the switch obviously that changed.

Oh, I agree. I don't think you have to be AS good with a second or third ship as one is with the one they like the best. I mean, I don't drive the cargo trucks at work like I do the Impala I've owned forever. But I do drive the cargo trucks well enough to be employed at it.

When I'm referring to a "one-ship pony", I mean someone who's just complete garbage on anything but a particular ship with a particular build. There aren't too many of those, thankfully. -bp