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Ship Scrambling and Other Upcoming Features

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GreyTea:
I think a point is being missed and that is that a few weeks ago when the game was on sale there was up-to a 1000 people waiting to get into a game, once the game went off sale the numbers plunged straight back down to the same 80-150 people waiting,
There was obviously money made from the influx of sales but very little of the users stuck around to actually play the game i think that the lobby system comes into it, if you join a lobby and the blue team is all clan lvl 7+ for example and you are new to the game you will leave 9/10 and try and find enough lobby if there is any running,
OR
You join a lobby and get beat become frustrated and there is no way to change the outcome you get disheartened, same as the achievements system and level up system not being fully explained so people don't really see a point to play,

Muse really has to do core changes to the game to help this situation obviously the feeling must be stacked lobby's is a massive Issue, we have all seen how some people react to a level 1 person join he's got a buff kit no mic and hes ready to help the ship out with good intentions 9/10 what happens  he get's berated into changing everything why?? because you were told to..
If you don't comply then your a troll or you really want to buff you get asked to leave,

We are all guilty of this because when captain we know how we want our ship ran, in my opinion a vocal captain helps because even though you are telling them what to do they are learning the game allot quicker and explain why you don't need buff on your ship and some captains might on this ect ect,, than joining against a organised high level team who share the same lobbies fully kitted out mic'd up and you are on a galleon lvl 1 pilot who has already readied up to the new players how is this an encouraging environment to stick around and play, something needs to be done,

Yes the higher players and clans might be feeling hard done by, yes this is a niche title but the game needs to make money if you want updates adventure mode server quality bug fixes, This is someones job and they want to make the game more friendly to newer players so they become competitive and the scene grows when the game gets bigger they can even add intermediate lobbys maybe to go with novice or even advanced,

i think people should stop trying to blame muse for trying to kill the own competitive scene because it makes no sense why they would want to do that when numbers are so low clans make up majority of people, and instead use there clear knowledge and experience of the game to help come up with a solution, because just shouting down no change is going to get no were,

How can you expect to verse better people if no one wants to get better,

Ship scramble is a way to force interaction with different players, which is not favorable if your playing with friends but imagine the benefits it might have, the advice you can give knowledge because this game is not easy to pick up and play, when you get into the mechanics and different types of damage on guns,  imagine when you started playing and this feature was in and the teams were even you didn't lose as much you learnt the game faster,

There is some tweaking needed such as with the scramble what is stopping the opposition just requesting a swap as mentioned in the updates, what locks them in place, lobbies might just go dead, so what can we come up with that is balanced fair and easy to implement,

The Churrosaur:
Looking at things hollistically, the idea of creating a completely balanced, perfectly fair game utopia is about as realistic as building a functional pyramidion. There will always be winners, losers, lovers, and haters. We might as well just give up.

Regardless,

I point I would like to bring out however, is that it seems to me that the problem of "stacked teams" is to me not a problem of clans vs. pugs. While admittedly Friday Gents practice often ends up being a series of pub stomps, I find that the majority of lobbies where one team is clearly dominating another are actually cases of differences that in this discussion have been lumped together- often times it'll be level 4-5's vs. 1-3's or even a difference as small as a single captain on one team with a microphone. One team will dominate, hands down. Match, after match, after match. THESE are a majority of the "stacked" lobbies that I see, it's these lobbies that cause people to rage and complain, and for this case I'll say Yes! by all means scramble the ships- most of those players wouldn't mind, it would probably even achieve what it's supposed to achieve.

Before you carronade my beliefs into the dust below however- most of the friction with this idea comes from the fact that by scrambling ships Muse is rustling one of the key components and attractions of this game, which is the cooperation and communication required and gained from running a well co-ordinated team of ships. I totally agree. working as a well coordinated team with other captains that you know well and play with often is one of the most rewarding and fun things about GOI, and being stuck with an unresponsive tactless ally is not only enraging, but results in a match ultimately resigned to fail.

So why don't we satisfy everybody and MAKE SCRAMBLING A MATCH OPTION

(seriously, I'm like the hundredth person to suggest this.)

Now the new blood stops complaining about stacking, the mid-levels get fun games, and the veterans are free to fly teams to their hearts contents.

C'mon, there's even a convenient little blank area underneath the novice match slider.

Omniraptor:
Personally, I think most team stacks are not malicious. I suggest rolling out the "ship swap" feature first and seeing whether the issue resolves- ship and crew swap is perfectly voluntary and most people seem to have no problem with it, and it serves mostly the same purpose as mandatory ship scrambling, which is controversial and maybe not a good idea.

Since the community at large is pretty cooperative/nice and most stacked matches (in my experience) don't "unstack" because it's too difficult to get everyone to move while preserving crew composition. Once switching sides becomes a matter of two mouse clicks, I think people will be much more willing to move around.

Implement the switching mechanic first, wait on the more drastic scramble mechanic. However, if it's still a big problem after switching gets implemented, then maybe mandatory scrambling is in order.

The Churrosaur:
This man speaks genius.

dragonmere:
A huge problem that I have is with identifying legitimate problems within this community. Up until now, "Stacking is ruining this game!!!" has held about as much weight as "Boarding would be more FUN!!!" It's been rhetoric, and nothing more. There is NO reason to believe stacking has a negative impact on player retention. But now, apparently, we have MUSE saying "It's true!".

This is based on casual, non-scientific observation....   
During the Steam Summer Sale surge, the ratio between normal and novice lobbies was probably about 1:4; at least. For every normal lobby, there was at least 4 or more Novice lobbies at the same moment. Mostly filled. Somewhere around 80% (fairly conservatively) of the NEW players played damn near exclusively in Novice matches. They did not come up against "STACKED" teams. They saw this game for what it is, and decided (of their own free will) that it was not worth their time. Why are we blaming this on organized teams? I do NOT understand. At all. Give me some proof. Please.

I have introduced this game to about 10-15 people in a "balanced team" atmosphere, and they still did NOT like it. Due to the nature and quality of the game. Not the composure of the teams.  From my observations, player retention is more likely related to the quality and overall composure of the game - not the enemy team.

If this is for real 100% a legit problem - that experienced people are choosing to play with people they know on purpose - and it is making the game unplayable for new players, a scramble function isn't going to fix jack squat. We'll work around it. We're just going to make a new lobby, and MUSE will have fixed nothing. We're going to continue to learn to work together, get better, and continue 'ruining' this game.

The only way to fix this problem - IF IT'S REAL - is eliminating the people who like to play this game in a organized and competitive fashion.

I absolutely 100% for sure fall into this category. So I need to stop playing in the way I find enjoyable and rewarding, or just stop playing entirely, if I actually give half a damn about this 'community'.

I do give a damn. But I'm not going to stop being competitive. Team building and a competitive mind-frame are the only ways I have found to enjoy this game, despite short comings that may very well be causing many people to not play.

I hope you can see I'm up against a rock and a hard place. This is why I am so obviously frustrated.

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