Pilot Archive

I can't agree more Halyn. I know that most of us on Starsider flew the 'flavor-of-the-month" ETA-2, but no one that is worth their Ace badge flies it anymore. I popped mine out the other day after flying my A-wing for a long time and all I have to say is 'Damn'

I forgot that the ETA-2 flies like that. No wonder we stopped using it.

as much as not a petition

/sign

Great Post Halyn! Agree with you whole heartedly!

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Halyn wrote:

I've been thinking a lot about the unbalanced elements in space. Oftentimes we seem to be the red-headed stepchildren of Galaxies--we seldom see fixes or balance issues addressed in space, aside from completely game-breaking elements (destroy mission counters, invincible components on the Corellian Corvette, and so forth). With the addition of a variety of relatively overpowered ships with Rage of the Wookiees, quite a few pilots were actually relieved to see the only new addition to our arsenal of ships in Trials of Obi-wan is the difficult-to-attain YT-2400. (And yes, that's a reason I've barely been on the boards since ToOW hit live--I've been out questing every night, working on getting it. We're at the mining camp right now.)

In a sense, we are the stepchildren of Galaxies. There's not another element of the game even close to flying starfighters. There's no true "flavor of the month" in space. We don't depend on macroes or uber weapons, but our individual skills as a person, not a character.

Even moreso, we pilots, although divided into three groups, have something that no other profession has: a sense of community. The smugglers had it; its mostly gone for them, as their veterans quit in frustration after two years with no content for a smuggler in sight beyond playing slice-monkey or crowd control. Bounty hunters and Jedi alike are caught up in a war that has destroyed any sense of community among them. No other professions really have anything to focus around to create community. Roleplayers still have it, but they're not a profession--they're a group of crazies. (Myself included, at times. )

There are almost no pilots I know of that will deny that RotW introduced some massively unbalanced elements--the relic fighters, the bugged RGI, the heavy novice ships (not precisely RotW, but closely related), and the Vaksai and Advanced X-wing. Even before RotW, though, we did have elements that were unbalancing--E-pulse's overwhelming power being the most distinctive, although there were plenty of debates about A-wings and TIE Oppressors.

More often than I'd like to see, I see pilots coming in and saying "It's my fifteen bucks a month, don't tell me how to play it." And, in a sense, they're right--it is their fifteen dollars. They are paying to play, and they should have the freedom to choose. As long as the devs don't change it, there's not much we can really say in protest.

But keep in mind what you are sacrificing when you use those unbalancing, overpowering elements.

You are sacrificing community. I said it before, and I'll say it again: pilots have a community that no other profession can really claim. On Starsider (yeah, almost all of my experience is Starsider...sue me ) we have some friendly rivalries, even some heated arguments about what's fair and what's not, but we all recognize the worst elements of balance and do our best to suppress them on both sides of the aisle. I strongly suspect that, among the semi-organized flight elements of other servers, the same is true--I see it all the time on the boards.

But when you pull that Actis or Belbullab or bugged Royal Guard Interceptor out, or hit that convenient E-pulse 3 button, remember what you're doing--you've exhibited a lack of a sense of "fair play" that keeps a community togetherthat is based around shooting each other up.

We're not the ground. We generally have a degree of nobility that ground-pounders lack. We have a sense of honor. Almost no one in space PvPs to prove they are "l33t."

We are a community. Let's stay that way.

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QFE!

This is just my opinion, but perhaps the ship isn't the only thing diminishing the community. Perhaps the people who sit on high and passing judgements on the JSF/Bel also contribute to the diminishment. I mean come on what kind of community do we have if a guy starts a thread to get the community's permission to fly his JSF in PvE, and it's because some folks here make the JSF sound like a demon spawned cheater ship that will devour your soul just for looking at it.

I'm a Smuggler and used to abuse, so flame away on me if you feel if you have to but I can't help but feel the way I do.

Pirate Trap and Bomber Strike won't call against another player. And EP3 can destroy any ship (Not sure about a POB with the new shielding and armour) that gets withing 500m of it.

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FilanVader wrote:
what is so hated about Epulse? is it just like an EMP in planetside that shuts things down or does it truely blow up ships.

also has any freelancer used Pirate Trap in PVP? seems that could be fun if it worked.

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Well the thing about Epulse is there is no real defense against it, and if your in range it's going to hit with 100% accuracy. If your hit with it and not already floating in space after the attack, you probably would soon be.

Heres my deal:

I like the pilot community, and I enjoy the heck out of the space game as well as the ground game.

I'm sorry if the rest of the community doesnt it like it, but I enjoy the ROTW ships alot, mainly just because of what they are, not necessarily of their abilities, but it does help since it gives us the option of making some better light fighters to better compete with the heavies out there. If the rest of the community doesnt like it, well, thats too bad for them. If I engage in a pvp tourney with set rules, I will follow them, as I can fly my TIEs just as well, but I will be damned if I am not going to fly around in what I like just because someone else doesnt like it. When I see someone in DS, and they whine and moan because I use my bell, I just come back in my advanced and kill them again just for spite.

pilot's real skill > any ROTW ship by far.

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Bountyzhunter wrote:

Heres my deal:

I like the pilot community, and I enjoy the heck out of the space game as well as the ground game.

I'm sorry if the rest of the community doesnt it like it, but I enjoy the ROTW ships alot, mainly just because of what they are, not necessarily of their abilities, but it does help since it gives us the option of making some better light fighters to better compete with the heavies out there. If the rest of the community doesnt like it, well, thats too bad for them. If I engage in a pvp tourney with set rules, I will follow them, as I can fly my TIEs just as well, but I will be damned if I am not going to fly around in what I like just because someone else doesnt like it. When I see someone in DS, and they whine and moan because I use my bell, I just come back in my advanced and kill them again just for spite.

pilot's real skill > any ROTW ship by far.

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amen

if my choice inanything shuns me from a community, i will not want to be part of that community. Peer pressure, a group of people trying to influnce my decision on what i can and cant do under the guises of community, honor, prestige, or any other bogus excuse is not something i want to be a part of. I would prefer a true community where no one is shunned for their ship choice but encouraged to learn their equipment the best that they can, possibly with help from others in the community. a good example is another threadtitled "im almost afraid to ask", where leaph is defending himself he claims that he does not shun the jsf he just offers up other ships that the pilot might get more of. if that is true, he has a true sense of what community is, pilots helping pilots to achieve their highest level of skills and knowledge of their equipment.

Both attitudes hurt the community. Balance is the key. Kettemoor has an outstanding Pilot community. We are all friendly to each other, cooperate and debate. Faction doesn't even enter the equasion... Until we hit the vaccuum. Then we have some of the best rivalries, and epic battles that help make JTL the best aspect of SWG. All of our space events have been fun, exciting, and folks have stuck to the rules of each scenario, wich generally bans the BB-22, RGT, and JSF. After some complaints, and much discussion, we're finally having our first open event since the launch of RoTW. We'll see what happens in the aftermath, but I feel that it won't be 2 JSF squadrons fighting each other. Most of us have enough respect for each other, and skill to not rely on one.

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zakalex wrote:

This is just my opinion, but perhaps the ship isn't the only thing diminishing the community. Perhaps the people who sit on high and passing judgements on the JSF/Bel also contribute to the diminishment. I mean come on what kind of community do we have if a guy starts a thread to get the community's permission to fly his JSF in PvE, and it's because some folks here make the JSF sound like a demon spawned cheater ship that will devour your soul just for looking at it.

I'm a Smuggler and used to abuse, so flame away on me if you feel if you have to but I can't help but feel the way I do.

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Help Help I'm being oppressed! Did you see him oppressing me?

There are other games in which some equipment is considered noob worthy. No respectable veteran will use such equipment. I don't see how anyone can look at the stats of the ROTW ships compaired to the JTLS ships and not see how out of balance they are.

It's not a matter of sitting on high and passing judgement. If people want to fly an easy ship for fun that's fine but they shouldn't go looking for respect from pilots who fly more challenging ships and fly them well. Some JSF pilots may be hot shots but it's so hard to tell when their flying a ship so easy to fly that I'm going to reserver any praise for them until after I see how they preform in a more challenging ship. You can't expect me to respect someone who uses such unbalanced equipment and if you do your going to be disapointed.