It does kind of suck when that happen, but like they mentioned t2 is just chaos, to many people have no idea what they are doing and they get a rude awaking in t3. I can’t count how many times in t2 my squad had to bark orders, that are so simple, like a is almost timed out go to b now. Or b is a death trap head to c. Instead every one wants to run an int, and smack a frigate in the phase with a plasma arc. The worst part is in t2 you can actually learn, you can see as people are raging how the team is newbs only 2 guys brought an engy, and there is maybe 3 frigates on the feild roaming with out support, meanwhile on red team there is 2 engys with guard protection, because they know first hand how great engy hugs are. And only one sniper not 4 one guy shooting at frigates with no engy support, as the rest fight at the objectives.
Now bump these guys up into t3, they learned nothing in t2, but played enough to advance. They have stock ships, are still running solo. Now add in the guys who dot the landscape with good modules they spent lots of time farming, the guys in t2 yelling things that should have been common knowledge, these guys start off with greens or better from all the hard earned wins in t2 that dropped t3 mods. Groups these guys up, and double their equipment choices, and tactic options, suddenly they are finding new better ways to work their group, while the solo guys are still trying to build a rambo build, not wanting to run their support ships because of various legit reasons like no protection. What you get is a 4 man group who grinded and raged twice as hard as the guys yelling stupid newb team as they use a jump gate to run into a rock, while they dogfight in the open. These guys paid their dues, they worked hard, built friendship, and learned who likes what, and to trust that if some one asks a squad mate to let them swap from engy to int, some one else will snag an engy next spawn, and keep the squad going.
Right now I am in the t2s paying my dues, watching my squad leader who has done this longer then me yell at the team to get them to work, pushing the squad into the front lines almost when one is captain simply to keep half the team from camping with are 2 dedicated guards to kill one lone int… I barely bought my first rank 5 ship, and still got rank 4s to buy so I can diversify my line up. While I am swapping factions, and mixing up the ships, there are others saying they can’t run engy because Jericho doesn’t have one; meanwhile I got a dagger ae, and a Neuron Zealot with a fed raptor mkII in my hangers, and grinding empire rank so I can get the hydra unlocked for future purchase. It will take me weeks to fill out my t2 the way I want, and unlock the blue modules, meanwhile in that time others will drive one faction up to t3, lack tons of good module options, and diversity, then find it hell, as my corp mates talk about how much more they earn in t3, but they go down to help the new guys grind up to them.
Anyways punishing those who work their buts off and grind twice as hard as the solo players feels a bit dirty. All because they moved more slowly through tiers, and had a lot more practice with support roles, and teamwork then the people who simply did what worked for them and repeated it till they got to the next rank. I can’t imagine any game that has multiplayer making out that well with a punish system, the crazy guys who group up, and grind their buts off for the different faction ships every tier to optimize the group are the first ones to dish out money for increased exp, and credit gain, the first to not just buy one but multiple gold ships to help them afford the expensive tactic.
Zalzany