Shadowlands is not lopsided in favor of the pubs. It might depend on what time you play, though. When I play in the middle of the afternoon, the pubs seem to have the advantage. In the middle of the evening the strong group of Imp pilots that prompted this thread often show up and do very well.

Some complaints in this thread, and others, are about the wrong things. I don't have any problem with what ship people fly. You should fly the ship you like to fly. If you think a ship is overpowered, then fly one yourself. Don't complain about what tactics the enemy uses, everyone should use the tactics they think give them the best chance to win. If someone trash talks, ignore them (don't feed the trolls). I I play well, it does not matter what anyone says. If I don't play well, that fact bothers me more than anything anyone says. I don't think there is any correlation between GSF skill and whether or not you are an ******e.

This does not absolve Bioware from trying to improve the GSF experience. But you have to expect that people will play in the way that gives them the best chance, given the current structure of GSF, and you can't complain to them if they do. I have not seen a strategy yet that can't be defeated, relative pilot skill is more important. But I expect a team with voice chat has an easier time coordinating a counter strategy.

All that said, the one complain that is valid is the problem with matchmaking. There have been plenty of discussions about that elsewhere, so I won't repeat that here. I almost always queue solo, but I would like to try more groups and voice chat in matches. So if anyone, inexperienced or veteran, wants to group with Erannov or Deranova for GSF, I will be happy to join. If anyone thinks I am good enough that they want me to join their premade, or use voice chat in a match, I will accept. If the guy who did the OP has any interest in me joining the group he is trying to put together, I would be interested. I don't have the GSF time handy, but I have played over 700 matches.

Also, I am interested in a pub side guild oriented to GSF players and open to any pilot. I don't know if there is such a thing, the Rogues might have had a guild but I have not seen them as a group for a while.

I should probably fly my Imp GSF toon a bit, I have neglected him the last couple of months. So if there is an Imp side GSF guild open to any pilot I might join that also. If you think one faction has too big an advantage and you want to be on the winning side, start a new character and join it. One advantage of GSF is that you can plunge right in with a 1st level character.

I'll fly in either a pub or imp group depending on what makes it more fun for everyone, though I will admit I am much better geared pub side. You can find me on Ahsh (pub) or B'ahsh (imp). I also have GSF toons on other servers if anyone else is reading this.

I don't see why there is an argument here. If a group of friends happen to want to play together and happen to be very good at what they do more power to them. If we as pubs want to take down the best we need to step up our game, get in VOIP and play together consistently. Actually ideally for me both sides get in the same VOIP but different channels. I think that would be fun.

None of the top pilots I've seen on either side hack or cheat because frankly they don't need to. We all want more competitive balance in the part of the game that we love. Hopefully bioware will add some features to GSF now that GSH is out. In the meantime we as a community should be open to any grassroots ideas to keep people involved in GSF. Should we do a strikes only night? Tier 1 ships only night? I'm open to ideas.

By the way Xiao thanks for nominating me to the aces forum. I am not on the forums much so just became aware.

I don't usually trash talk, but aren't you one of those "turkey shoots" that I farm? Also... I would take you more serious if you didn't base your gameplay on farming every red power-up you can.

Exactly, the OP is used to matches where they can do Gunship ball and farm 2-ship players that have no clue... but if a premade or even organized players show up, have mercy on them cause they are not used to that.

problem I saw in here and talked with people lately (pub side) is drama, e-peen fights or weird hate (supposed hate) that players have to each other for no apparent reason, but I will leave that for the GSF channels on our server.

I'll just leave this here. It amused me.

Ahsh, the issue (as it seems to me) is that one group has become powerful enough, that at this point trying to form an equivalent group on the opposite side requires more time and effort than most are willing to put in. It would be an uphill battle anyway, now you have a group that is already at the top of the hill throwing boulders down on you (metaphorically). IMO most of this could be solved by a matchmaking system, even if queue times did increase initially.

Stercus'accidit/Serviam for those who care, I also stopped playing GSF for the most part due to getting steamrolled at night by the same premade. Call it what you want, it's just not fun to get roflstomped by the same crew every week. I'm not saying that team can't queue as a group, because friends absolutely should group together, it's a bloody MMO. Why not make my own crew? If I could, I would have, but I don't, so I'll just wait until it stops being fun for you guys and I'll come back to it later.

Really guys? Get it together or stop whining. If pubside gets a group together, then we'll fight it out in match. Otherwise, stop pretending anyone cares that your feelings are hurt; imperial side went through worse when everyone was solo queuing for the first 3 months of gsf.

Everyone has a standing invite to queue with me imperial side. Except for the worthless print screen abusers. We know who you are.

As an official GSF Nomad, I've flown almost everywhere... I've flown with Xi'ao's crew a number of times, and lately I've been queuing pubside on Shadowlands as Beres. The difference in the two sides is that Xi'ao & co. know the game, and the majority of pubs I've seen don't. Lots of imps don't, too, as I've been on a number of teams usually in the morning hours where it was me (as Desponn) and at most, one other quality pilot against whatever the pubs could field. Results varied.

There is a simple solution to getting a more balanced playing field:

If you are on the side that is losing more often than not, be a student of the game, improve your play, and most importantly, help elevate the less experienced pilots around you into better teammates. This requires effort. It requires getting people to join the GSF chat channel, and using it to discuss strats and gameplay. It necessitates that you as a veteran share your expertise and in a non-destructive, non-confrontational way work to improve the level of the people on your side that are not doing too well. It is not easy, it is often frustrating.

Make an effort to improve your own conditions. Group with good veterans. Triamterene always stands out as a threat when I'm flying imp and though I've not spoken to him on pub, I like seeing that name show up. Some of the Rogue-s (forgive me for not recalling which numbers) consistently do well, too. Ask them questions, look for people who do better than you on the scoreboard, ask them questions. If I'm on as Beres, ask me to group or ping me for GSF advice. Learn. Improve.

Don't bemoan your fate... build a better one!

- Despon

Really guys? Get it together or stop whining. If pubside gets a group together, then we'll fight it out in match. Otherwise, stop pretending anyone cares that your feelings are hurt; imperial side went through worse when everyone was solo queuing for the first 3 months of gsf.

 

Everyone has a standing invite to queue with me imperial side. Except for the worthless print screen abusers. We know who you are.

Eh, I'd guess most of the complaints are from solo queueing and not knowing who you'll end up with when you all are queueing up in a group. I was a bit "yay, this will be fun," last night when I solo queued and saw your group on the other side (some others on the team said the same), but we actually had an even match, so it was fun. I would have been fine losing 48-50 (rather than it being the other way around), because both sides were going all out.

But the problem is still not knowing who your teammates are going to be, like one night last week when I was on Ithyrn and had a bunch of 2-3 shippers (that really were 2-3 shippers) and your side was extremely experienced. It was a fun challenge to get the few kills I had, but getting swarmed when I tried to keep the scouts busy or make the gunships move a bit did get old in that context. It's not all that different from when you complain about getting focused so much. Some things just wear on you.

I'd say this is all inevitable in any MMO. People solo queue and are at varying skill levels, so they're going to be annoyed when they get the short end of the stick for either of those. Doesn't really justify the internet rage, but... such is life. If anyone had the solution to that, the human race would be much more happy.

At any rate, let's all group up, play well, and have fun. It's just a game and we don't even have some lame season to worry about. I still was content with the few kills I got last week in that lopsided match, because I got them in a lopsided match against damn good pilots.