Hello fellow star conflict gamers (and Speedy),
as those of you who have played portals at some point in the past know, the thing that makes portals stand out (aside from ES-module and ship regulations) is the fact that the “Beacon Capture” game mode is always enforced. I think this limits the possible amount of ship, role and module variety a player can choose (if they are playing for a win) even further than the base rules.
Among the top squads (that still play actively) you will rarely find anything but a couple of (empire) gunship(s), engineer (s) and possibly one support role (tackler, command or ECM) with the occasional long range frigate(s).
I could post several dozen screenshots from matches I have played over the past couple of months, but I think everyone that played this game mode for a while will conclude the same.
The question as to why that is will probably have to be answered by someone more experienced than me. One scenario could be that - as the portals mode re-introduced old school star conflict - people tried all sorts of things and then setteled on these few combinations as they had proven to be most effective.
Accordingly - since this game mode is probably the most competetive one (“ES” => esports => tryharding) - just picking something off-meta will usually not end well against a coordinated squad. Hence the game mode is very unfriendly towards beginners and those unfamiliar with the old school (or portals, as there have been some balance changes in the meantime) meta.
However, we are in desperate need of new players in this game mode, as there is usually just the same 10-20 people playing it regularly, the queue times are very long and sometimes you can go 1 hour (not exaggregating) without finding any matches.
Adding the regular game mode rotation that is active in regular PvP (Detonation, Beacon Hunt, Team Battle, Domination plus maybe the inactive ones such as Four Lives etc.) will bring this game mode closer to the regular PvP mode, which might lower the barrier of entry just enough to entice more people to play.
So in conclusion, yes, I’m suggesting to make portals more casual, to:
- increase ship/role/module variety
- make a transition from PvP to portals more seamless so that players unfamiliar with the mode can enjoy it from the start instead of having to adapt to the stale & boring meta.