tweaks and sounds

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

some things i'd hope were added to the game:

- Hull and balloon short (3 sec) cooldown timer after completing rebuild and getting 10% health. This to avoid constant rebuild frenzy and award engineers for saving the balloon or hull to give them that 3 second breather in which the hull and balloon can't break. Like a form of spawn protection function if you like. Examples: No cooldown. 3 crewmembers hitting balloon or hull like crazy without getting it rebuilt at all as a constant collapse is occuring to bring it down and they are unable to save it with hard work. With cooldown. same 3 crewmembers are on the item tanking and rebuilding it with constant hits on it but manage to work hard to save it, then get it to 35% and have a chance to escape the rebuild phase. Enemy can still be quick in taking the ship down but would give the other a fighting chance to work for survival. Under rebuild phase normal damage but if crew manages to save the hull or balloon the award would be this small breather.
It might be hard to implement but if possible only in close and medium combat.

- Friends list: Add to name if ingame also name of matchserver and if joinable or not (novice or normal, number of players). If not room in list then to the menu when you click on a friends name.

- Sound additions. Add sound to tools hitting solid objects ingame (other players or surfaces). If hitting player, player makes a sound (ouch, ow, ay, ugh, oof, knock it off, leave me alone, ahh, i'm gonna getcha etc). Add sound to hitting bells aboard ships. Add sound to engines when kerosening so engineers know when it is on and also when it stops. Add sound to hydrogen. Add sound to tar. These would also inform captains that they are using them, which can easily go unnoticed.

- Add optional Experienced match list. Level 6 - 15. Also intermediate level 3 - 5. Would balance skirmishes and give all levels options for finding suitable games. Add possibility to join suitable leveled game regardless of what level the other classes are to get a more practical learning curve. Invite to match by players in it would give access regardless of level. Would help against stomps.

- European, Russian, Australian and Asian events to get more players during the current "idle" times ingame. Community could maybe help?

- Anti spam timer to global chat.

- Team vote to move one player to spectate on same team (anti-trolling). Possible once per lobby session.

- "working" button beside "ready" button to imply crew setup is under work and signaling others that the ship is not yet ready.

- 2 or 3 random sets of spawnpoints per map so they aren't too predictable. Same amount/range but just a bit different places each time on same map.

- Buff Spire armor 10%

[Dutch Vanya]

I like your suggestions here. And I also still fully support a sound effect for gatling gun bullets hitting and ricocheting off your ship. Considering the prominence of the gatling gun when it comes to breaking armor it should be more obvious when you are getting hit by one.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

Thank you.

Yes. A local sound for the ship when the hull breaks would be great. Also the ricochet sound but that could get annoying in the long run.

[The Djinn]

- Hull and balloon short (3 sec) cooldown timer after completing rebuild and getting 10% health.

I'm opposed to this one. Firstly, I think carefully engineered ships are already pretty tanky. Secondly (and more important) I feel this mechanic is unintuitive. If ships need to be more survivable I'd tweak the amount of health that rebuild grants to be higher rather than give blanket immunity to damage for X seconds. The chance of newer (or even experienced) players missing the "XXXXX rebuilt the Hull Armor" message and wasting a full Hwacha clip, for example, is unacceptably high. A definitey "no" on this one: I just feel it would be bad for the game in a whole bunch of ways, and similar results could (if necessary) be accomplished in an easier fashion.

- Friends list: Add to name if ingame also name of matchserver and if joinable or not (novice or normal, number of players). If not room in list then to the menu when you click on a friends name.

This would probably require a revision of the UI. That said, it currently does let you know if a friend is in a game, and what map they're playing on. It doesn't say the name of if it's joinable, but that's entirely accessible by right-clicking them and hitting "join match." That puts you in the match lobby, where you can decide to actually join the game or back out to the main menu.

- Sound additions. Add sound to tools hitting solid objects ingame (other players or surfaces). If hitting player, player makes a sound (ouch, ow, ay, ugh, oof, knock it off, leave me alone, ahh, i'm gonna getcha etc). Add sound to hitting bells aboard ships. Add sound to engines when kerosening so engineers know when it is on and also when it stops. Add sound to hydrogen. Add sound to tar. These would also inform captains that they are using them, which can easily go unnoticed.

Subtle sounds for Kerosene/Hydrogen/Tar might be acceptable...but then I'd say that all pilot tools should have associated sounds (or at least all those that deal damage), and that might get a little annoying for a crew, given how frequently some of them are used. Definitely opposed to the player-hit noises: I think that would just get irritating. Sounds for hitting metal/wood surfaces and/or bells I'd be okay with though.

- Add optional Experienced match list. Level 6 - 15. Also intermediate level 3 - 5. Would balance skirmishes and give all levels options for finding suitable games. Add possibility to join suitable leveled game regardless of what level the other classes are to get a more practical learning curve. Invite to match by players in it would give access regardless of level. Would help against stomps.

Not sure about this. I'd be afraid of everyone getting locked out of matches, personally. What if I'm one of the few new players on, but all the experienced players are in level 6-15 lobbies?

- European, Russian, Australian and Asian events to get more players during the current "idle" times ingame. Community could maybe help?

Could be a good idea.

- Anti spam timer to global chat.

I haven't really seen spam be much of an issue, honestly. I don't see the harm in this, provided it's not particularly restrictive: I know I've typed up a storm when answering questions before.

- Team vote to move one player to spectate on same team (anti-trolling). Possible once per lobby session.

There have been a number of discussions about this topic...I'm not sure what MUSE's stance was though.

- "working" button beside "ready" button to imply crew setup is under work and signaling others that the ship is not yet ready.

Given that such a button would have no practical use other than alerting the team (which voice chat and/or text can do just as well), I would call this unnecessary UI clutter.

- 2 or 3 random sets of spawnpoints per map so they aren't too predictable. Same amount/range but just a bit different places each time on same map.

Meh. It would be pretty easy to memorize 3 sets of spawn points and figure out which one is in use. Doesn't really gain us much other than a bit of randomness at the beginning of games, and a higher memorization requirement. Not sold on the idea: I'd prefer to just see the spawn system revised a bit.

- Buff Spire armor 10%

Definitely not convinced this is necessary. The Spire is currently a BEAST in good hands, and its relatively low armor is definitely a sacrifice worth making.

[zlater75@hotmail.com]

Good points.

reassesment:

- instead of cooldown a small buff to first health after rebuild

- Friendslist UI shows what map they play on but not wether it is joinable, beginner or normal, full or about to start etc. If there's 6 matches with battle of dunes and not able to join on your friend for some reason. Nothing much needed. Like just grey out the "join match" text to indicate if it's not possible to join that match or add the name of the server?

- I agree on your comments with the sound options but why not and have them as toggleable environmental sounds in audio options? If you've played the game 2000 h you prob have most sounds muted anyway? In the beginning it's more fun to hear and experience the details.

- Intermediate/Expert level matches. Semi locked then?? The maps have difficulties on them but they don't really do anything other than if you happen to read it you notice it. Why not have a box to check in creating match where if you have the level you can click the difficulty?? Or why not just make the Match list that automatically? Depending on what level the creator has? Then if low-levels or high-levels join they get a notification that the match is set for high level or low level, recommendation of what match would be suitable and cancel to search again or yes to join anyway. Compromise? If the game by default also has the match list set to beginner level match list it would help the new guys to have time to get acquainted and chance to learn the game (not sure if it is or not).

- i'd love to see the game active worldwide properly and around the clock.

- anti-spam chat.. ok . not such an issue. i agree. no need.

- Team vote shouldn't be too bad? would the chance of having 7 trolls instead of 1 be possible in this game vs possibility it happens to be 1 troll and 7 want to put him into spectator to let their friend join and he doesn't listen or see chat in lobby or care? 7 of 7 votes needed to forcemove to spectate. One time use? Unnecessary or precautionary? If it needs control how about a CA must start the vote?

- working button unnecessary.

- spawnpoints. How would you want them revised then? I like the idea of them being further from the battle. I don't see why they really need to be solid points. just an area further away from the battle to not get a bad spawn and have time to get ready for the next approach. If they're set that means they can be used as an advantage especially if not enough available in regard to enemy ship amount. If they get mined, camped etc we might end up needing spawn protection and that in turn more issues to take in consideration..

- I disagree on the spire bit. It's a big ship and even in capable hands it's armor drops a bit too fast in an even match. but ok. + 5% ?

[Crafeksterty]

I like the First one on the Baloon but not the hull.

Also the 10 or 5% on Spire armor? Not neccesary, I fly the spire alot and the armor is not an issue.  If anything, i still want a quicker Acceleration!


Regarding spawn points, getting spawns away from battlefield was not the problem when there were no choosable spawn points. The issue was having bad spawns (Spawning in battle when you dont want to) Or spawning too close to battle (Lucky spawn that gets you right back into battle).
Spawning far away was and still is in most cases a more balanced approach. So spawning away is always more safe and balanced. Just not far away from your teamate that also just spawned.

If the spawns worked around keeping you and your teamate away from enemies but close togheter, would be nice... But i think the spawn system is like the next hardest thing to work around for muse since it is so new. I rather Muse take care of it as they know exactly the expencese to deal with on the subject.