And I (re)discovered the number of things I hate about the arena: from the (unengineered) small planes you have to fly, to the way it matches much higher ranked players (with more unlocked planes and options) with brand new players; to the controls that don't work quite like they do in the normal game, and on and on.
I *might* do it for mats, but I'd much rather the whole manufactured-mat gathering process was rejiggered to be less stupid.
I completely understand that many Commanders very much dislike CQC. It can be pure unadulterated mayhem. That mayhem, however, is precisely what makes it so glorious for me. The CQC fighters are probably the closest to the spaceships envisioned by the original flight model. Although the higher levels do get more outfitting options, they are mostly sidegrades. In comparison to engineering, it is far more balanced. There is no way you can avoid continuous and rapid pip management. It's not about theory crafting and the endless grinding of mats and twenty minute fights; it's about patience and loving flying so much that one is willing to die thousands and thousands of times over. Instead of paying for rebuys, one pays by offering bits of one's ego to the god of technical perfection. Most every ship is viable, too.
CQC does try to put similarly leveled players together, unfortunately due to the lower player population, a wide variety of skill levels may be placed in the same instance. I rather like being placed in with the pros. I want to see to what extent Elite's brilliant flight model can achieve. That is if I live long enough... which becomes another game in itself.
There is no doubt that more incentives, like materials, many more credits or being able to queue from the main game, would be great for CQC. CQC can be very disheartening to those not accustomed to perceived failure.
However, isn't picking yourself up over and over again, figuring out what you did wrong and reattempting a most valuable life skill?
Besides, there's very little clogging in comparison.
o7
