High getting into starfighters on the bastion is intolerable long to the point of sadistic. Queue times can average hours. I wonder if it would be better if you could beef up access to this to help with this or at least at cross servers.

There has to be a better system for this.

People either complain about long queue times or about imbalance... You can have either short queue times or balance in such a small community, but only rarely both.

Both your ideas have been suggested, but don't get your hopes up. As for a practical answer, why not try queuing on different servers on different times? The Red Eclipse has some great pops almost all day long (if you're willing to try a european server), and you could always try another american one if that's what you want.

Most of the NA GSF population has migrated to Harbinger or The Ebon Hawk, and their queues are pretty reasonable. Shadowlands can also be decent at times. The other NA servers are mostly dead most of the time in terms of GSF queues. You can get brief good runs, but they aren't regular.

If you're looking for morning or mid-day GSF then the German and English servers are fairly good queue wise, provided your connection, "across the pond," doesn't have too much latency.

Most of the NA GSF population has migrated to Harbinger or The Ebon Hawk, and their queues are pretty reasonable. Shadowlands can also be decent at times. The other NA servers are mostly dead most of the time in terms of GSF queues. You can get brief good runs, but they aren't regular.

All good advice and accurate, except I would add Jedi Covenant to the list of non-dead NA servers. It's certainly no Harb, but imo it's just as good as SL and TEH in terms of GSF population (possibly slightly better).

There is a good reason the queues are long. GSF is terrible for new players and many that try it, never come back. New players are put against fully upgraded ships, they have no access to gunships, enemy gunships one-shot them as soon as they are in range (microrant: The GS "fun" is usually something like a competition between a swarm of GS's competing to one shot new players, who are easy to ID by their lack of a GS on the load in screen - Also the solution to this is NOT to give everyone gunships... frankly I think GSs do more to ruin GSF than any other factor, take them out and people can actually dogfight instead of dodging well armored, mobile space artillery all match). For a new or novice player GSF is like starting out PvP in rated matches with no gear.

In short, if it didn't suck completely for new players, more people would play it and queue times would be shorter.

They could also decouple GS from WZ queues so you would not lose your place in a GS queue while you run WZ's. At least that way people that have gotten over the initial revulsion of GSF to it will have the option to join over sticking in a WZ they may not like.

There is a good reason the queues are long. GSF is terrible for new players and many that try it, never come back. New players are put against fully upgraded ships, they have no access to gunships, enemy gunships one-shot them as soon as they are in range (microrant: The GS "fun" is usually something like a competition between a swarm of GS's competing to one shot new players, who are easy to ID by their lack of a GS on the load in screen - Also the solution to this is NOT to give everyone gunships... frankly I think GSs do more to ruin GSF than any other factor, take them out and people can actually dogfight instead of dodging well armored, mobile space artillery all match). For a new or novice player GSF is like starting out PvP in rated matches with no gear.

 

In short, if it didn't suck completely for new players, more people would play it and queue times would be shorter.

 

They could also decouple GS from WZ queues so you would not lose your place in a GS queue while you run WZ's. At least that way people that have gotten over the initial revulsion of GSF to it will have the option to join over sticking in a WZ they may not like.

GSF isn't terrible for new players, it just has a steep learning curve as a lot of PvP games do.

New players only have to play ONE game (and they don't even have to win it) to get acces to the best Gunship and the best Bomber.

Gunships can't one-shot, except with damage overcharge or when having the luck to crit.

Removing Gunships would make it almost impossible to remove Bombers from satellites in DOM games.

"Dogfighting" only exists in GSF when there are only new or bad players on both sides of the team and none of them having any idea how to score a kill effectively. GSF is a shooter, not a flight sim.

Starting GSF isn't difficult because of not having "gear". Starting GSF is difficult because of not having experience. Most beginners have absolutely no idea what they are doing. They don't know about the range of their weapons or what their abilities do and when to use them. They don't fly evasive and they have no idea what happens in most "standard" situations.

I don't think letting people queue for GSF and WZ at the same time just to give them an option to chicken out is a good idea. If anything, leaving a game and letting down the rest of the team should be punished.

GSF isn't terrible for new players, it just has a steep learning curve as a lot of PvP games do.

New players only have to play ONE game (and they don't even have to win it) to get acces to the best Gunship and the best Bomber.

Gunships can't one-shot, except with damage overcharge or when having the luck to crit.

Removing Gunships would make it almost impossible to remove Bombers from satellites in DOM games.

"Dogfighting" only exists in GSF when there are only new or bad players on both sides of the team and none of them having any idea how to score a kill effectively. GSF is a shooter, not a flight sim.

Starting GSF isn't difficult because of not having "gear". Starting GSF is difficult because of not having experience. Most beginners have absolutely no idea what they are doing. They don't know about the range of their weapons or what their abilities do and when to use them. They don't fly evasive and they have no idea what happens in most "standard" situations.

I don't think letting people queue for GSF and WZ at the same time just to give them an option to chicken out is a good idea. If anything, leaving a game and letting down the rest of the team should be punished.

Well I don't know how it is on other servers right now, but here every time I queue we get matched up against the same team who proceed to tear us apart and camp us at our beacons. It's impossible to learn anything or get any enjoyment out of it when you die within 30 seconds of spawning. The new players get fed up with it and quit, and are replaced by newer players who go through the same thing only to quit themselves. Personally, I have better ways to spend my time.

Well I don't know how it is on other servers right now, but here every time I queue we get matched up against the same team who proceed to tear us apart and camp us at our beacons. It's impossible to learn anything or get any enjoyment out of it when you die within 30 seconds of spawning. The new players get fed up with it and quit, and are replaced by newer players who go through the same thing only to quit themselves. Personally, I have better ways to spend my time.

What server are you playing on? That sort of thing only happens on the truly dead servers, and it doesn't actually prevent anyone from learning how to play when it does happen. I've seen a few players learn the game over time when faced with exactly that scenario.

It doesn't change the fact that Danalon is correct, either. Additionally, there are plenty of resources available to help people who are getting started with GSF, up to and including a channel in game on pretty much any server where people can find groups or ask questions.

All good advice and accurate, except I would add Jedi Covenant to the list of non-dead NA servers. It's certainly no Harb, but imo it's just as good as SL and TEH in terms of GSF population (possibly slightly better).

Better than Shadowlands and TEH. Tried queuing there a couple times in hours where Jedi Cov was getting regular 5-15 minute pops. Literally queue was dead over there at those times.

Jedi Cov's queue has a far wider range, probably because most Europeans who play on NA servers play on Jedi Cov. Most Europeans don't have the ping to play on Harb (as bad as mine is over there, or Isa's playing here on JC).

Also Jedi Cov's general population still seems to be higher than Shadowlands or Jedi Cov, from what I could tell.

~ Eudoxia

Well I don't know how it is on other servers right now, but here every time I queue we get matched up against the same team who proceed to tear us apart and camp us at our beacons. It's impossible to learn anything or get any enjoyment out of it when you die within 30 seconds of spawning. The new players get fed up with it and quit, and are replaced by newer players who go through the same thing only to quit themselves. Personally, I have better ways to spend my time.

I've seen a lot of those one sided games. In deathmatch it's almost impossible to prevent the battle from moving to one of the spawns, if one side is clearly better than the other. It simply doesn't matter where the fight in an one sided deathmach is. Even if the fight only takes places on one spawn, the weaker team doesn't have anywhere to go, but where the fight is. They spawn on another beacon but still have to move towards the fight. In domination, the spawn can't be camped but I've seen a lot of games where the weaker team decides to join the zerg between their spawn and B instead of avoiding it and attacking A or C.

Another thing that happens relatively often in GSF is a small advantage leading to a landslide victory for one team. Just yesterday two friends and I played off peak hours and we had four games with roughly the same pilots on both sides. We lost three games of those four, but we managed to win a domination match with 3 satellites.

Also, I've seen some of the better pilots of my server when they were beginners and I'm almost certain some of them just kept improving out of spite.

One of the reasons I kept playing was I thought some pilots just were better than me because their ships were better upgraded and I wanted to get my ships on a level with theirs. By now I know the reason was their advantage of having played longer than me and their ships with higher upgrade were just a minor factor.

GSF isn't terrible for new players, it just has a steep learning curve as a lot of PvP games do.

New players only have to play ONE game (and they don't even have to win it) to get acces to the best Gunship and the best Bomber.

Gunships can't one-shot, except with damage overcharge or when having the luck to crit.

Removing Gunships would make it almost impossible to remove Bombers from satellites in DOM games.

"Dogfighting" only exists in GSF when there are only new or bad players on both sides of the team and none of them having any idea how to score a kill effectively. GSF is a shooter, not a flight sim.

Starting GSF isn't difficult because of not having "gear". Starting GSF is difficult because of not having experience. Most beginners have absolutely no idea what they are doing. They don't know about the range of their weapons or what their abilities do and when to use them. They don't fly evasive and they have no idea what happens in most "standard" situations.

I don't think letting people queue for GSF and WZ at the same time just to give them an option to chicken out is a good idea. If anything, leaving a game and letting down the rest of the team should be punished.

You should really go back and read your own response. It isn't terrible... except that it is. You can't get one shot, except that you can. "Just hang on it gets better" except that it doesn't.

Unless you are on a team, have been playing for a long, long time and/or really are a glutton for punishment, you should stay far, far away from GSF.

Unless you are on a team, have been playing for a long, long time and/or really are a glutton for punishment, you should stay far, far away from GSF.

Are you here to discourage players? Anyway, that's an opinion. Make sure to know the difference when making such a statement.

Are you here to discourage players? Anyway, that's an opinion. Make sure to know the difference when making such a statement.

I can't in good conscience encourage new players who aren't willing to take beatings. New players have to have the right mindset or they won't stick around long enough to get better anyway.

I can't in good conscience encourage new players who aren't willing to take beatings. New players have to have the right mindset or they won't stick around long enough to get better anyway.

Players should have a pvp mindset before stepping into pvp. That's it. I've played a couple of other pvp games, and even in the most balanced ones new players would get slaughtered... That's the thing with pvp, in order to win you have to be better than your opponent. So saying that GSF is horrible to new players isn't exactly wrong, but I wouldn't say it's worse than ground pvp, or an other pvp game This has nothing to do with the balance issues (or NERF GUNSHIPS/NERF FLASHFIRES), only with pvp itself.

I have found the most "balanced" server to be one of the German EU servers. Both sides stink equally, it seems no matter which side I'm on, I lose. lol The queue times there, during the day for the US is great. However, if you're an evening US player, then Harb, TEH, JC or SL would be the better servers of choice for the "best" queue times.

Equal sides is almost unknown on SL or TEH though and the pubs rule there normally. JC and Harb factions are pretty equal. With the pubs being slightly more dominant. When I type slightly...I mean to within a percent of w/l. lol

Harbinger is my main server and would welcome you to roll a toon there, either faction. Do a /cjoin gsf and look for a group. There are also many guides on this forum to help new fliers with builds and suggestions on improving.

You should really go back and read your own response. It isn't terrible... except that it is. You can't get one shot, except that you can. "Just hang on it gets better" except that it doesn't.

 

.

pretty much this... it never gets better. best is a team full 6 gunships and 6 bombers seen it already and its not funny for anyone. I guess for the 1 shot team it is.

Anyway people here are kicking on a dead horse over and over again... GSF is a mini game (which most likely wont get anymore updates since well the hard truth that no one on this part of the forums wants to acknowledge or see is... nobody or almost no one plays it, because of obvious reasons, to steep learning curve, unbalanced ships and unbalanced upgrades) that you play when you are bored, queuing as a premade is laughable at best there is no point to it except ruin new players experience.

You should really go back and read your own response. It isn't terrible... except that it is. You can't get one shot, except that you can. "Just hang on it gets better" except that it doesn't.

You can only get one shot in two scenarios:

1. You're a Scout and eat a critical railgun hit. Railgun crit chance is 16%. Also the Railgun has to hit you, which is modified by it's precision and tracking penalty as well as the evasion of the Scout. It is EXTREMELY rare to get one shot in this scenario. Even rarer if the Scout is moving good.

2. Someone has damage overcharge. If someone collects Damage overcharge, it's announced in the middle of the screen and everyone of the opposing team needs to pay attention. A lot of people don't pay attention to those warnings and wonder what happened.

"Just hanging on" is definitely not enough. As in every good game, a player needs to want to get better and work on it. I've seen so many people, who don't improve themselves, making the same mistakes over and over and then complain about others easily farming them.

Unless you are on a team, have been playing for a long, long time and/or really are a glutton for punishment, you should stay far, far away from GSF.

Well yeah. It's an advantage playing as a team in a teamplay environment. Experienced players are better than inexperienced players is a part of every good (PvP) game. In a PvP environment, everyone gets killed from time to time - good players learn from the experience and try not to make the same mistake again.

pretty much this... it never gets better. best is a team full 6 gunships and 6 bombers seen it already and its not funny for anyone. I guess for the 1 shot team it is.

One shots either can't surprise you or happen rarely, see above. I'd like to give an answer to that situation but your examply doesn't even state if it was a domination or deathmatch game.

Anyway people here are kicking on a dead horse over and over again... GSF is a mini game (which most likely wont get anymore updates since well the hard truth that no one on this part of the forums wants to acknowledge or see is... nobody or almost no one plays it, because of obvious reasons, to steep learning curve, unbalanced ships and unbalanced upgrades) that you play when you are bored, queuing as a premade is laughable at best there is no point to it except ruin new players experience.

I'm not sure what the situation on other servers is, but on my server there are usually 1-3 games simultaneously during the whole afternoon, frequency of invites is lower after 22:00 and usually the last games starts at 00:30 during the week and 01:30 on weekends. Doesn't seem to me like no one plays it.

GSF basics are easy to understand but mastering the game needs a lot of practice and the will to get better. I've seen a lot of players who stagnate at a certain point, refusing to learn from their mistakes.

I'm not saying GSF is perfectly balanced but overall the situation isn't bad. Some components and ships are better than others, but everyone has access to the exact same options and also everyone can switch between roles everytime they want/need during a game. Also, after just one game played, everyone can have acces to one or two of the most powerful ships in the game. After that it takes less than a month of doing dailies to buy the most important upgrades on those ships - not even factoring in requisition from games played.

I seriously can't understand why people complain about team players playing as a team in a team play environment that's part of a multiplayer game.

Also, it's not like veterans don't want to help new players. There are a lot of guides on this forum and I'm sure there are some veterans on most servers who will answer questions if asked. I'm informing other players of the existence of the GSF chat channel and what it's made for in almost every game. Usually no one reacts. Some months ago I whispered new players and offered help, just to get ignored or even insulted. I gave up on trying to directly whisper new players because of this.

Actually it is not just a dead and shrinking population. I decided to randomly hop on one night while I was trying to rack up conquest points and loved it. I know I'm not that good at it yet, I know my ships are sometimes at a huge disadvantage, but I'm both learning and earning my way upwards and man it still feels great when I manage to get a silver medal in the scoring at the end. I will admit some games are not particularly fun (I ended 1 TDM at 2 to 50 and those 2 were self destructs) but by and large I enjoy the heck out of GSF and intend to continue playing (not just for conquest poitns either, although never having to worry about that on my conquest toons is pretty nice).

Glad you enjoyed it, if you ever have any questions you can post in my "Ask me Anything" thread or just PM me directly.

I started playing GSF around July of 2014. Only really notable swing in GSF popularity I've witnessed since then was introduction of Conquest patch - It made queues quite a bit busier. Back when Bioware made Xfer virtually free, entire guilds would migrate from quieter servers to busier ones. Just like every other aspect of the game, GSF of individual servers would either suffer or benefit but size of community as a whole has stayed about the same I think.

It is always a really good idea to always queue as a group. Matchmaker loves giving short end of the stick to a solo-queuer sometimes. I've watched two, even three games popping while I sit in Q alone.

It pays to type "/who" and then insert "mesas denon ship" on search field. This way you can keep track of the on-going match situation

There is a good reason the queues are long. GSF is terrible for new players and many that try it, never come back. New players are put against fully upgraded ships, they have no access to gunships, enemy gunships one-shot them as soon as they are in range (microrant: The GS "fun" is usually something like a competition between a swarm of GS's competing to one shot new players, who are easy to ID by their lack of a GS on the load in screen - Also the solution to this is NOT to give everyone gunships... frankly I think GSs do more to ruin GSF than any other factor, take them out and people can actually dogfight instead of dodging well armored, mobile space artillery all match). For a new or novice player GSF is like starting out PvP in rated matches with no gear.

 

In short, if it didn't suck completely for new players, more people would play it and queue times would be shorter.

 

They could also decouple GS from WZ queues so you would not lose your place in a GS queue while you run WZ's. At least that way people that have gotten over the initial revulsion of GSF to it will have the option to join over sticking in a WZ they may not like.

How about group restrictions? If someone in group selected gunship u can't select it too. Groups could have, say, 1 Gunship max currently in selection, 2 bombers, etc.

How about group restrictions? If someone in group selected gunship u can't select it too. Groups could have, say, 1 Gunship max currently in selection, 2 bombers, etc.

In GSF it's sometimes important to switch ships when reacting to a situation. Sometimes you need more than one ship of a certain class to deal with a situation - that's the whole point of having 5 slots in the hangar. I don't want to end up in a team where all slots of a certain class are occupied by incompetent pilots and then losing the game because I couldn't respond to a situation. Usually we fly in a group of two and there were quite a few matches where we carried our team, which wouldn't be possible without being able to switch to whatever ship is best for the current situation. Also, this would require an overhaul of the queue and hangar, because you need to take people into account who only have one ship on their bar (or only one ship type) as well as it needs a new system to not disadvantage people with slower PCs who join a game a little later than others.