Hey CIG and Star Citizen Fans, Its Goloith here and I wanted to talk about some recent news. As many people know, a Star Citizen backer attempted to refund from the game via small claims court. Since the backer was not really prepared to take on CIG’s legal representatives he lost. Now instead of focusing on the legal side of things I think its incredibly important to focus on why the backer wanted a refund in the first place. For those who haven’t been following the disgruntled backer, the backer started to experience hand tremors that are getting progressively worse and due to further delays, he felt that he would no longer be able to play the game when it was released. So, in other words, he wanted a refund on the basis that he would no longer have the dexterity to aim at targets accurately. For those of you have that have been around since the beginning of Star Citizen’s official launch of AC v0.8, aiming used to be an accurate and a fun affair that was more in line with to a modern flight sim’s aim requirement despite having auto-aim. Remember, modern fighter jets use a centralized weapon with a large saturation zone which provides a generous chance to hit as most enemy aircraft did not need many hits to be downed. On the flip-side, most modern fighter jets have a very deep and challenging flight mechanic. Now despite the esay gunnery system back in AC v0.8, the M&K, joystick and even gamepad were all controllers used competitively. Another thing to point out is that Joystick and Gamepad users had perfect gimbal control via FreePie scripts compared to today. On top of all that, head-tracking worked so amazingly that TrackIR was sold out on Amazon and on the Natural Point website because players could easily hit targets with gimbals using their head. Since head-tracking became so popular, people also started using their webcams with Facetracknoir freeware to control gimbals with their face. However, CIG wanted to increase the aim requirements so 4 months later they introduced AC v0.9. This changed everything. Head-tracking, face-tacking and gamepad for competitive PvP all died in one patch. On top of all that joystick players weren’t in a good situation either as joysticks just were not precise enough to hit that tiny lead indicator. Hearing the cries of the community John Pritchett introduced ESP - Enhanced Stick Precision, Look Ahead Mode, and Target Focus in AC v0.9.2 Now while CIG attempted to improve a player’s ability to hit targets with ESP, they completely missed the problem. The problem was that CIG designed a gunnery system that was NEVER designed to be used by joysticks. The idea that a joystick was supposed to chase a tiny little lead indicator or move a tiny lag PIP was never part of there design. They were designed to provide a pilot with the most flight control possible to put the target into a kill zone and keep themselves out of the enemies kill zone. In other words, joysticks were designed for flight and for movement, not aim. Now those of you who have been around for a while, know that I’ve had a successful past in Star Citizen. While playing with CIG_Baior, before he became a CIG dev, I achieved the highest unbroken score in Arena Commander history. Additionally, I have led many patches with some of the highest K/Ds and Damage Ratios out there with AC 2.6.1 being the most recent one. However, this wasn’t without cost. As top pilots will tell you, I went broke nine X-55 Rhinos and a TM Warthog to get there. That is how demanding the current gunnery system is. What is less talked about is the damage done to my right-hand from playing Star Citizen since the aim requirement is so ungodly high. Now the point of bringing up my past isn’t to brag, but to talk about the toll that our control devices and our bodies take because of the poor gunnery system. Maybe CIG_Toast will add an indemnity clause from physical harm to the next ToS…okay I kid, I don’t kid. Now the point I’m making is that CIG went too far with these tiny lead and lag PIPs that they implemented in AC v0.9. The clearest example of how poor gunnery in Star Citizen is the fact that turrets, which are all about gunnery, are in an absolute state of despair. Turrets are in such a poor state they’ve been brought up by CIG Devs on ATV, but again these developers seem to be forgetting that the problem originates at the gunnery level used on ships as well. Like I said in a previous video, its been 3 years and 8 months since the last major gunnery update from CIG and we have these massive barriers of entry for anyone wanting to get involved combat. There is zero plug and play for people using joysticks and worse yet, gamepads don’t even have a prayer because the gunnery system is so difficult. So bad they maybe they should be removed from the game as they are utterly misleading to potential backers. While I hope CIG continues to put resources into ESP, I believe CIG needs to design a new gunnery system that doesn’t solely rely on ESP. Even if some people cry that a new gunnery system is too easy, stick to it as the average backer needs it if you want to grow the active PvP community and encourage PvEers to give it a try. Remember, the average player needs to be successful at least 30% of the time in competitive PvP if you want them to continue to play. Right now, they’re lucky if they can kill another player in competitive PvP 5% of time if there fighting a good pilot. People are fine getting killed 3 times for every kill, but getting killed 5, 10, or 15 times in a row without a single victory against another player causes them to give up. In closing, had CIG overhauled the gunnery system this disgruntled backer that I mentioned earlier would never have existed. So, CIG, it is time to get a plan put together on how to drastically improve the gunnery system, get it on the timeline, and start building it out. These little micro changes we see are just not enough. Many backers have provided plenty of examples on what you can do, now it’s up to you. FYI, while the video shown is from Elite Dangerous, it shows an amazing example of what would happen if CIG merged AC v0.8 and today's gunnery system together. It provides easy of use from v0.8 with the complexity of leads and lag PIPs of today's gunnery system. Technically these guns in ED are "gimbaled", but if you look closely you will actually see the guns are act like fixed guns using lead indicators with a little bit of assistance. The guns track towards the target without "snapping" the pilots ahead around like SC turrets are doing. Thanks, Goloith P.S. if you don't remember AC v0.8 here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZP__Mp1F8g