Pilot Archive

I'm getting entirely too close to chewing out people in game. It's not their fault entirely, as I feel I share some of the blame (since it would be me doing the chewing out) as well as SOE because their choices have me at a loss of understanding. I even like the people, too... well, most of them.

LucasArts wanted space flight in their Star Wars MMO, I game content decision that only makes sense. It was part of the original design docs, as far as I know, and was kept low priority while the ground game was fleshed out. I would agree that finishing the elite professions, and adding mounts, vehicles, and player cities all took priority.

In the end, though, we got space flight. I would be happy to go on the record to say that "They did good." It is not X-Wing vs TIE fighter, nor should it be. It is not XWA, nor should it be. Content is provided for the basics, but (as feels proper to me in such an open ended MMO) in general the system provides the tools to make your experience "yours alone."

The ships we were given worked pretty well. The three factions had diffent toys, but the toys were all pretty much on the same scale of (speed and manueverability) inverse to (offense and defense through Mass).

There was a hitch, though, when the Krayt heavy gunship was introduced. Suddenly the Frelancers were not only given the second most powerful single person ship in the game, but also the ability to make it a two person craft, and the flight handling that almost rivaled a medium fighter! We adjusted, and not everyone flocked to it, but the effect of making certain other ships obsolete was undeniable. Ships with less mass and worse handling were left by the wayside as this (relatively) nimble behemoth pushed them aside, with only a few light fighters standing fast in the datapads of those pilots who preferred them.

Space combat went on, and we enjoyed it. On any given trip through space, it would be possible to see a variety of different ships being flown, and each one said something different about its pilot. The A-Wing zipping around, the X-Wings in the think of action, and the B-Wings loaded down with heavy ordnance all had their place.

Ahh, it is to be no more. Now certainly, there are a variety of ships that can be seen on any given trip through space. There are half a dozen or more ships that are popular and common, but none seen now that were available before Kashyyyk entered our lives.

JSFs; B22s; Crimson TIEs; heavy Scyks, Z95s, and TIEs; heavy X-Wings; Vaksais - these ships are no longer compromises, they no longer say a little something about their pilots, and they no longer create a situation where the chassis you choose truly has an effect on the components you equip or tactics you are forced to use.

As we experienced these ships, we were amazed. Taking that JSF out for its first spin was magical, as the ship seemed to be almost everything we could want in a fighter. Then the truth seeped in - these ships *did* have everything we could want, and *that* was the problem. No more TIE Interceptors or Advanced patroling the space lanes or A-Wings and X-Wings coming up to challenge them. No more Dunelizards making appearances on both sides. No more changing chassis more than once from Novice to Master, as the heavy ____ turns great and can handle top of the line equipment from the bottom of the path to the top.

An X-Wing vs a TIE variant? Only if it's a heavy X-Wing and a Crimson TIE. Dunelizards popping up to help each side? Higher mass, smaller size, quicker turning ships will simply tear them to shreds. Want a new ship? Many are more likely looking to cross server trading of reward items than what a Shipwright can provide.

Many people had many various issues with the "good old days," I'll never deny that. What this influx of "ideal" ships has given us, though, is the removal of the tactical considerations of chassis choice when it came to pilot skill, flight style preference, and mission target. Do we even still need our wonderful new ship slots now that we can create a single ship that will handle any situation?

I hate them, the added choices we have been given, because they have removed the choices we had. Welcome to Rage of the Wookiees... buy it or don't bother flying.

I hate them because I care about space combat.

Shona Bre'lya
Valcyn Galaxy
77th Wing Training Officer

Keep in mind everyone uses WO3, which isn't working properly

'cept me

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JediNg wrote:

Keep in mind everyone uses WO3, which isn't working properly

'cept me

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Yeah, and I'll be able to use it even after it's fixed!

Lies

The devs did mention bringing up the stats of our old fighters to be comparable to the new.

I still don't understand how the stats could have been so (let's face it) unbalanced for the new fighters. It's the same dev team as for JtL, right?

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SheenaBrelya wrote:
I'm getting entirely too close to chewing out people in game. It's not their fault entirely, as I feel I share some of the blame (since it would be me doing the chewing out) as well as SOE because their choices have me at a loss of understanding. I even like the people, too... well, most of them.

LucasArts wanted space flight in their Star Wars MMO, I game content decision that only makes sense. It was part of the original design docs, as far as I know, and was kept low priority while the ground game was fleshed out. I would agree that finishing the elite professions, and adding mounts, vehicles, and player cities all took priority.

In the end, though, we got space flight. I would be happy to go on the record to say that "They did good." It is not X-Wing vs TIE fighter, nor should it be. It is not XWA, nor should it be. Content is provided for the basics, but (as feels proper to me in such an open ended MMO) in general the system provides the tools to make your experience "yours alone."

The ships we were given worked pretty well. The three factions had diffent toys, but the toys were all pretty much on the same scale of (speed and manueverability) inverse to (offense and defense through Mass).

There was a hitch, though, when the Krayt heavy gunship was introduced. Suddenly the Frelancers were not only given the second most powerful single person ship in the game, but also the ability to make it a two person craft, and the flight handling that almost rivaled a medium fighter! We adjusted, and not everyone flocked to it, but the effect of making certain other ships obsolete was undeniable. Ships with less mass and worse handling were left by the wayside as this (relatively) nimble behemoth pushed them aside, with only a few light fighters standing fast in the datapads of those pilots who preferred them.

Space combat went on, and we enjoyed it. On any given trip through space, it would be possible to see a variety of different ships being flown, and each one said something different about its pilot. The A-Wing zipping around, the X-Wings in the think of action, and the B-Wings loaded down with heavy ordnance all had their place.

Ahh, it is to be no more. Now certainly, there are a variety of ships that can be seen on any given trip through space. There are half a dozen or more ships that are popular and common, but none seen now that were available before Kashyyyk entered our lives.

JSFs; B22s; Crimson TIEs; heavy Scyks, Z95s, and TIEs; heavy X-Wings; Vaksais - these ships are no longer compromises, they no longer say a little something about their pilots, and they no longer create a situation where the chassis you choose truly has an effect on the components you equip or tactics you are forced to use.

As we experienced these ships, we were amazed. Taking that JSF out for its first spin was magical, as the ship seemed to be almost everything we could want in a fighter. Then the truth seeped in - these ships *did* have everything we could want, and *that* was the problem. No more TIE Interceptors or Advanced patroling the space lanes or A-Wings and X-Wings coming up to challenge them. No more Dunelizards making appearances on both sides. No more changing chassis more than once from Novice to Master, as the heavy ____ turns great and can handle top of the line equipment from the bottom of the path to the top.

An X-Wing vs a TIE variant? Only if it's a heavy X-Wing and a Crimson TIE. Dunelizards popping up to help each side? Higher mass, smaller size, quicker turning ships will simply tear them to shreds. Want a new ship? Many are more likely looking to cross server trading of reward items than what a Shipwright can provide.

Many people had many various issues with the "good old days," I'll never deny that. What this influx of "ideal" ships has given us, though, is the removal of the tactical considerations of chassis choice when it came to pilot skill, flight style preference, and mission target. Do we even still need our wonderful new ship slots now that we can create a single ship that will handle any situation?

I hate them, the added choices we have been given, because they have removed the choices we had. Welcome to Rage of the Wookiees... buy it or don't bother flying.

I hate them because I care about space combat.

Shona Bre'lya
Valcyn Galaxy
77th Wing Training Officer

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I love this person. .

You just put basically what I have been feeling into way less space than I could ever dream of managing..and without making it offencive in anyway! Awesome . So erm 11 out of 10 for content and presentation

But seriously...yup, I think you hit the nail on the head more or less.

The heavy starter ship variants are kind of balanced because well...they have on weapon slot and they're all still pretty big and easier to hit than a JSF.

Actually..I'm not worried about the JSF too much. I dislike it because I hink it's boring, it looks ridiculous, mean...with most other ships even though this is sci-fi, you can kind of trick your brain into believing in an alternate universe they 'might exist' but the JSF...sorry, it's too small for my brain to get round that (if that makes any sense?). I've been killing them with my A-wing...even those with similar equipment to myself. The ship I seriously worry about [and secretly hope the Imperial's start flying more because then I'd have serious difficulty competitive wise] is the RG TIE. Now that hitbox...is scary.

-Leaph.

I agree on almost all the points made...except don't you dare touch my Vaksai! I've fallen in love with that ship. Before ROTW, I flew the Kihraxz religiously, both for it's looks and it's speed and agility. Yet, I was always struggling with it because of it's very small mass (around 40k). Then the Vaksai entered my life, and changed me forever. It still has all the attributes that I enjoyed about the Kihraxz, but boosted the mass by a whopping 110k! That's more than I could have dreamed of. Is it unblanced? Perhaps. But I don't want to see it changed. So I'm a hypocrite; sue me.

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Salco wrote:
I agree on almost all the points made...except don't you dare touch my Vaksai! I've fallen in love with that ship. Before ROTW, I flew the Kihraxz religiously, both for it's looks and it's speed and agility. Yet, I was always struggling with it because of it's very small mass (around 40k). Then the Vaksai entered my life, and changed me forever. It still has all the attributes that I enjoyed about the Kihraxz, but boosted the mass by a whopping 110k! That's more than I could have dreamed of. Is it unblanced? Perhaps. But I don't want to see it changed. So I'm a hypocrite; sue me.

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The Vaksai is a slightly different beast than the oher RotW ships, because it fills a gap in the privateer fleet. It suffers from the same defect as all the other RotW ships though, too much free mass. I would still love a Vaksai if it were the same mass as a standard Xwing, and feel a lot less guilty about loving it.