Jump to content

Suggestions for making GSF more popular


Belthorian

Recommended Posts

#1) Add a PVE environment that pits players against a team of AI players or training room that guilds can host that allows new players to learn the basics, maps, and tactics of GSF before being thrown into the deep end of the pool. I would like to play GSF but I am lost and have NO IDEA what I am doing and I do not think it is fair for to my teammates to be handy capped by my incompetence. I don't care if the PVE doesn't give conquest points I just want to feel comfortable before I start playing against the more experienced PVP GSF pilots. World Of Warships has this exact thing and it allows players the ability to practice on AI before PVP'ing.

 

#2) Add support for Flight Stick, HOTAS, and rudder pedals. I have a Thrustmaster Cougar and rudder peddles and if I could mad the abilities and controls to it I would play GSF all the time. I have no idea why the incredibly shortsighted decision to only allow keyboard and mouse controls was made but it was the worst possible decisions and a huge portion of the potential player base simply ignored GSF because of this terrible business decision.

 

A few small changes to GSF will make it much more popular and may even attract new players.

 

 

Thank you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll cover your second point first. Joystick support is never going to come, because all primary weapons in GSF are gimballed, which makes M+K superior. If you detach control of aiming from steering, and make joystick superior, then it will force everyone to gravitate toward that. It's also a development nightmare to implement support for all the different HOTAS setups. This is all outlined here in this thread. The smart business decision was to design the control scheme for hardware every single player had, namely, a M+K. Joystick support has been asked for since the game mode was in beta during 2.x, so ~8 years ago. The time to program native joystick support was way back then, not now, and I say this as not only someone who lobbied for joystick support in beta but played Jump to Lightspeed extensively in SWG.

 

As to your first point, a better tutorial has been a long standing request. Right now, the best substitute is to get a group of a minimum of 4 guildies together and do a pvp-challenge 2v2 match, and have an experienced pilot go over things with the team on some type of voice-over-IP program. Alternatively, Despon's flight school videos or Drakolich's videos are great video tutorials. Even SWTORista made some reasonable videos for GSF.

Edited by phalczen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A training mode vs AI (or even stationary training dummies) where you can try out different builds, or explore the existing maps (get familiar with the Kuat maze, powerup locations, which way is up on Iokath, etc.) would be great.

 

Would be great if the game gave you more information while flying, like your copilot informing you your engine ability got disabled, you got hit by slicer's loop and can't regen power, an easier way to know what debuff corresponds to which debuff icon (say a sidebar where the name of each debuff and it's icon is shown), a death summary where you can see recent debuffs and damage taken, and from whom, with timestamps and the name and weapon of whoever dealt, and in addition to this, a death cam from the point of view of the person that killed you, showing you where he was and how he did it. This would go a long way to make people understand why they got killed and what they can do to avoid it in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

#1 is a good idea, but Bioware's going to be like "Nah, too expensive" and just... not. I mean, maybe if enough people bother them about it, but... yeeeeahthey'renotgonna.

 

Making it play well with keyboard and mouse is kinda important for making it accessible to as many players as possible. Making it play *well* with a HOTAS is basically hanging a huge no-poors sign on the game, cause decent ones start at $100ish. The Logitech Extreme 3D Pro is entry-level, not decent. Keyboard-and-mouse take a bit of getting used to, but are honestly the best way to make this minigame not take an extra $100 entry fee.

Edited by ALaggyGrunt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

A tutorial mode that let's you bring another grouped player in the tutorial with you would be HUGE. It's a way to show new players the ropes and giving the ability to duel.

 

Match making should not be based on legacy level which really doesn't necessarily correlate to gsf ....or whatever method they are using.

 

Match making should be based on a player rating formula. It would be weighted 60/40; 60% number requisitions spent on ships currently in your 5 ship active hanger for a given toon

and 40% average medal count per match (legacy wide).

These numbers are already tracked in places within the gsf hanger interface thingy.

Cartel market ships which come upgraded are assigned a minimum total value of a mastered ship (i think that number is 72,250, but someone can feel free to correct me)

 

>Reqs spent gives and indication to the level of ship upgrades you have,

and medal count is at least some indicator of skill.

 

As an addendum to the previous point if you're grouping with more than 1 other player, your rating gets boosted by 20%-25% per player in your group. This is to offset the trend of having the best players all fly together (often coordinating abilities and movements via voice chat). Which of course makes for a very lopsided non-competitive match. These matches are boring for experienced players (whether i happen to get on a team with or against them), and discouraging for new players.

 

Then assign teams based on trying to equalize the total cumulative rating. So if you're in one of these all-star groups you're at least gonna get paired with the most inexperienced pugs to fill out your team in an attempt to balance the match.

Edited by CyorReco
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

My experience with GSF: Perception sucks, there is not much useful information on screen to play with.

 

Take a look into EVE Online space combat mechanics to see the following intel tools:

- radar tool displaying objects around your with distance, and able to select them from radar list

- lock mechanics able to lock your ship targeting system

- autopiloting tool - keep at range, orbit

- scan tool showing ships in space

 

If you expect to play a space ship combat game looking trough the front window of the ship good luck

maybe if you move it to 2D instead of 3D might work for me atm feels like a boring grind for season points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

- radar tool displaying objects around your with distance, and able to select them from radar list

When you say a radar tool, do you mean actual ship distances? Right now, they are indicated as arrows which grow in size the closer the enemy is to you. Would you prefer numerical distances indicated beside the arrow? I think maybe that might be a little too much on the HUD but if it could be done in a user friendly way I could get behind it.

If you expect to play a space ship combat game looking trough the front window of the ship good luck

You don't look through the front viewport of the ship. Its basically 3rd person so your view is a few meters behind the ship and slightly above it. If you play with a widescreen triple monitor setup you will have more than a 180-degree view of objects around you (probably around 240-degrees) and probably at least a 160 degree angle above and below horizon. A freely rotatable camera could provide you with a substitute for the more traditional "POV-hat" control of a joystick in a flight sim, where you would look to the sides and behind through cockpit windows. I think there are some keybinds actually that let you see some of those views but I can't recall them at the moment because I'm not in game. I could get behind this suggestion.

- lock mechanics able to lock your ship targeting system

- scan tool showing ships in space

I don't know what you mean about locking targets. Your targets stay as your targets unless they die, or move out of your sensor range AND any ship you are in communication range with. Similarly, I'm not sure what you mean by scan tool ... If you hit "M" for map, you will see all the ships in your sensor range, and any ships within the sensor range of friendlies that are within your comms range. See this thread for more info:

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=959219&highlight=sensors+gsf

In the map, if you hover over any triangle representing a ship, a tooltip will pop up with the name of the player. You can then match their name with the list of enemy pilots and know exactly what ship they are flying. Its obviously intended that we cannot see all of the enemies over the whole battlefield, or we wouldn't have the whole sensor range mechanic thing, or the Sensor Beacon component of type 3 scouts. So, you'd have to provide more information about what information your tool would provide.

- autopiloting tool - keep at range, orbit

Autopiloting tool ... yeah, I'm going to have to hard pass on this one since it just screams of degenerate play. Even if it didn't facilitate AFK, a skill good satellite defenders need to learn is how to use LOS. You never know when an enemy gunship may be trying to target you to blow you up, so maneuvering in between the "fins" of the satellites is crucial even if you are not being engaged at the node.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My experience with GSF: Perception sucks, there is not much useful information on screen to play with.

 

Take a look into EVE Online space combat mechanics to see the following intel tools:

- radar tool displaying objects around your with distance, and able to select them from radar list

- lock mechanics able to lock your ship targeting system

- autopiloting tool - keep at range, orbit

- scan tool showing ships in space

 

If you expect to play a space ship combat game looking trough the front window of the ship good luck

maybe if you move it to 2D instead of 3D might work for me atm feels like a boring grind for season points.

 

I can't really stand by people who come into the game and claim that the HUD doesn't give you everything you need to fly well. Because the simple fact is it does. How else do people like myself and so many others achieve a high standard of play? In my experience, one of the major issues with lower skilled players is that they don't look at the wealth of information that the HUD gives them.

 

So lets' go into your "issues" one at a time.

Radar. Yes GSF has that. The mini map shows you the location of other pilots. Your target screen and target indicators show you distance and orientation to you.

 

Lock meachnics - Yes we have that. You lock a missile by pressing and holding the right click on your mouse.

 

Auto-pilot. Objectively speaking a bad idea. Might as well have a "pls shoot at me I am an easy target" button.

 

Scan tool. Again. All the information about what ships are around you, their distances to you, which direction they are flying and what ships they are flying, is all there already.

Edited by Ttoilleekul
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright than my perception sucks. I was never good at shooters like Rust and preferred to play games that have a top down view that gives me all the intel. GSF is more of a shooter and not compatible with my gaming mode. SWTOR regular mode is really well designed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright than my perception sucks. I was never good at shooters like Rust and preferred to play games that have a top down view that gives me all the intel. GSF is more of a shooter and not compatible with my gaming mode. SWTOR regular mode is really well designed.

 

I appreciate you admitting this. Too many people blame the game mode for their own inability to play it. There is nothing wrong with admitting you find it difficult and its not your preferred type of play. However, if you do want to get better, there are plenty of people willing to help you improve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me GS worked in making GSF "more popular".

 

My original GSF impression during the early access was shaped by the awful tutorial and the game mode having no sound on Windows XP. Never touched it again.

 

Over the course of the past 5 weeks, I went from "What the...? Why a GSF weekly?", to actually prefering it as a daily PO, to listing for fun even after having already done all missions. Simultaneously, my ambition went from "lets try to be somewhat useful" to "how does that leaderboard work?" to digging through that ton of tutorials you vets have made.

 

 

Beyond bribing players to give it a try, GSF could really use a better tutorial where we can fly our actual ships vs. AI.

Also, where is the "(don't let them) reach the thermal exhaust port" trench run mode?

Edited by Mubrak
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...