Another thing to consider is your ally (this game is about teamwork, right?). If you can't survive in a close range 1v1, get your teammate to help you out. Getting sniped at? Get your ally to kill them from behind. What else is he here for? To look pretty?
Also, you are the pilot and thus most likely the captain and the one responsible for the communication between ships in your team. So you better communicate.
If you could get away with everything in every situation without any help what so ever then, and only then, would I consider this game boring.
But that is not how the recipe is right now. The current recipe is widdle enemy down, kill, then move to next, rinse repeat. There is no if you can survive CQC or rewarding good pilots who can fly evasive. That is boring. 1v1s rely more and more on who gets the key shot off vs tactics or piloting skill. Because...the boats are broken.
Back when this game was fun...pilots were rewarded if they learned how to 1v1. That in turn helped support their allies better and allow boats more options during engagements. I did this all the time back then. People would see squid and think easy kill. So i'd have 2 boats chasing me all over which allowed Brick to just come in and sweep up kills. They'd usually realize what I was doing and then switch to him. He'd in turn do the same trick, dodging and weaving, buying me time to rip them up. Both boats had to have crews which were in tune with us. If one person missed a repair or rebuild, we'd die. But we'd pull it off and it was beautiful. I had engineers, new players, learn more during those matches than in any other match they'd join.
The ship, should not define the pilot or crew. Each should be approached with a different mindset and each should allow a pilot or crew to shine. Opposing pilots should be more afraid of the opposing players than of their ship. I should have to enter a match and know from reputation that my opponents are going to be tricky. Not look at the boat and go...ok can counter that with this or that.
This is how Brick and I first met and started flying. I'd see his Pyra, he'd see my Squid. We'd see the pilot and crew behind the ship, not the ship. I'd fly to counter him, he'd fly to counter me. When 1.2 came and the game slowed down, this changed completely. The worry went from how to beat the pilot and crew to just how to beat the ship. Which spawned: Qwerty throws water bottle and Polaris falls asleep, 1hr+ Merc battles.
We had to change our mindset because the ships just couldn't work anymore. They were the limiting factor in what we could do. End of that Cogs S2 taught us that fast. When the ships become the limiting factor, you become a turret. You sit there with your little mercs and peck away until they finally give up and go all in. Then it just comes down to who gets the better engagement.
If I could take everyone back who joined this game post 1.2 and show them the difference, they'd realize it right away how much GOIO has lost in this last year. Yeah you can look at vids now and chuckle, that isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about actually flying it and experiencing it in person. Vids are pointless and cannot replicate how great this game was when the airship reflected the skill of the pilot + crew. To see that again, we need speed back, we need mobility back.
We don't have to take this game to planes dogfighting to do it. I swear this is the #1 broken record complaint by the realism crowd. "Airships shouldn't be dogfighting!" Blah blah blah...make that a bumper sticker and stick it on your wheelchair and shut up.
Squid were the only, ONLY!!!!, ships that could dogfight to some degree,
TOTALLY RELIANT ON GOOD PILOTS AND CREWS TO PULL IT OFF, and they needed it because they were tissue paper fighters.
You don't have to turn this game into dogfighting to make it fun. Stop it QQing about dogfighting and go play Warthunder or whatever it is passes for flight sim combat nowadays. No one is saying GOIO should become that. In fact, bring it up in game, I'll welcome you to my block list cause I'm tired of you people.
But you do have to speed it the hell up to make the players the ones to be feared, not the ship.
