Release 1.4.0 notes

[Grixis]

New Content:
- Minotaur Heavy Cannon: New support heavy weapon that knocks back enemy ships!  Use to help your friendly airships keeps enemy airships out of gun arc or to prevent rams.  Has arming time, Primary Damage is piercing, Secondary AoE is shatter.  Fires like a Carronade where each ‘buckshot’ causes knockback.  Knockback is equally distributed across both Primary and Secondary damages.  The farther from a ship’s center of mass you shoot, the more ‘spin’ you will add to that ship.
- Workshop support for voice commands
- Game Grumps RubberNinja Voice Packs in game store.
Ross has lent his amazing voice talent to record 2 sets of voice commands (varied by how much they stay on script ) for us.  They are available through the in game store.  All proceeds from the sales of the voices will go to Child’s Play, Ross’s designated charity. 
- New Workshop items (Only a subset of new Workshop items that people submitted are presently integrated into the game due to a 1-2 weeks delay in Steam’s creator revenue sharing feature. Once Steam’s feature is ready, we’ll be able to patch those items in, add them to our store, and start revenue sharing with item creators.)
  - Storm Ryder (Decal) by ¬°GeoRmr
  - Flying Hare (Decal) by Rookster
  - Gears of War (Decal) by Herr_Razor
  - Holy Sun (Decal) by Skargil
  - Ramming Speed (Decal) by A_Harmless_Fly
  - Triple Horn (Decal) by SassyKat
  - Gold and Sheepskin Goggles (Goggles) by AIB (aka AnInnocentbaby)
  - Winged Panama (Headwear) by Il Mostro
  - Wooden Moustache (Goggles) by Mr. Lambert

New Features:
- Capture Point Mechanic Redesign
With the new capture point design, capture and de-capturing are based now on superiority of ship numbers at the capture point.  Once a team has more ships at the point than the enemy ship, the team can start capturing or de-capturing.  Teams no longer have to wait to root out the enemy team completely.  Also, each ship kills is now awarded 20pts toward the goal as well.  With the change, capture point maps should be more fluid and dynamic.
- State why player's name is refused at registration and rename
- Remove bubble help when hovered by mouse cursor
- Search for friend list
- Confirmation for "Abandon Match"
- Updated Gunner Tutorial (Banshee)
- Show matches with your clanmates in Friend's match list.
- Music: changed drums conditions; they no longer trigger based solely on enemy proximity.
Drums trigger when you are spotted or spot enemies, and intensify when spotted enemies are near
Drums trigger and intensify with the amount of damage your ship has taken
Drums trigger when your ship is firing and intensify if your ship is hitting an enemy
- Music: Spectators now hear combat music
Drums trigger based on spot status and health of all ships in the match
Melody triggers on any ship kill
- Humbly added a shortcut for players to review the game for us.

Balance Changes:
- Spire: Hull Health increased to 950 (from 750), Forward Acceleration increased to 4.5m/s2 (from 3), Top Forward Speed increased to 28m/s (from 26)
- Squid: Hull Health increased to 950 (from 850), Forward Acceleration increased to 6.65m/s2 (from 5.5), Weight decreased to 95000 tonnes (from 115000, affects acceleration)
- Pyramidion: Hull Health decreased to 550 (from 700), Forward Acceleration decreased to 2.25m/s2 (from 2.5)
- Maps
  - Labyrinth: Objective reduced 450 (from 600)
  - King of Flayed Hill: Objective reduced to 550 (from 660)
  - Anglean Raiders: Objective reduced to 450 (from 550)
  - Desert Scrap: Objective reduced to 400 (from 600)
  - Raid of the Refinery: Objective reduced to 450 (from 600)

Events:
-Screenshot Contest:
Start sending your favorite screenshots to feedback@musegames.com with the title “Screenshot Contest.”  The best screenshot gets any item of their choice!  Winners will be announced at the end of March!

-Guns of Icarus Seasonal
An amazing new event is starting up and  we need all great crews to show up and try to win free items, both digital and physical! https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,5667.0.html



Fixes:
- Fixed harpoon reload visual issue when distant
- Fixed issue of shadows skipping or have unsynchronized animations
- Joystick bindings menu is called "Keybindings"
- Fixed issue of not able to cancel when creating/editing event
- Artemis reload animation issue Fixed
- Fixed a case where the Artemis and Banshee projectiles sometimes had the same explosion
- Added missing UI click sounds
- Removed unused ‘Minimap’ binding from Spectator section of keybindings'
- Fixed issue of join advanced games text slightly too large.
- Fixed issue of tutorial achievements are not being displayed in UI.
- Fixed bug with playtime pie graph for players with playtime in only one class
- Fixed issue of matchmaker not putting the player in the lobby
- Fixed: deploy button not working if timer was allowed to expire
- Fixed: Novice Graduation achievement needs adjustment
- Fixed: Badge info in stats panel is off
- Fixed: Recommended loadout UI is shown when inspecting someone's ship
- Fixed: UI breaks if getting recommended loadout while being in the options menu
- Fixed: While in character select screen you do not hear the starting drums
- Fixed falling sound at the end of match as spectator
- Social/notification tab now closes when entering the Custom Game screen
- Fixed "Unknown" voice
- Fixed text positioning issue for the achievement "Doom and Gloom" and "Role Models"
- Fixed model scale for Paritan maps
- Fixed: can't switch to regular ammo from a spec ammo you don't have
- Fixed a bug that could cause the chat scrollbar to remain visible after closing chat
- Fixed: non themed ship objects intersecting with ship theme objects
- Fixed: Wrong loadout is shown/not saving when a novice unlocks their ship loadout
- Fixed: No victory/defeat music at match end screen
- Fixed: Sometimes there is no music during match
- Fixed resolution issue in workshop tool
- Fixed: Spam protection timer doesn't change if chat UI is not visible
- Fixed: Pop-up for the main menu chat draws below other UI elements, obscuring some options
- Fixed typo in Hydrogen Canister's tooltip
- Fixed typo in Wilson’s notes (Harpoon)

[Cancaro]

Hum... I can't see it in the patch notes: did you fix the problems of getting stuck everywhere on the ships?

[KitKatKitty]

Hum... I can't see it in the patch notes: did you fix the problems of getting stuck everywhere on the ships?

This is legit! It's so horrible you get stuck on everything!

Besides that, good job guys this is a large patch! Went in game and have found some glitches. Not sure if they are just bugs for my game or bugs that everyone is seeing:

• Wilson's Note: Minotaur achievement the image of a book with a cannon over it that all the other Wilson notes have or even a locked image does not appear. It is simply a blank box.
• Decals: Storm Rydrs, Gears of War, Ramming Speed...all are not in game
• Goggles: Both Gold and Sheepskin goggles and Wooden Moustache not in game
• Headwear: Winged Panama only in store not in character creation...Not sure if this is intended
• Voicepack: The Game Grump Voice pack is not in store

I have not gotten to really test out the new capture point or balancing of the ships yet.


Concern:

The new drum effects sound really cool but I am concern that with the drums not playing unless spotted that competitive play and your larger maps are going to be more lengthy in time. On the larger maps you get the "ring around the map" effect a lot and the drums really help out "pin pointing" where the enemies are and this progresses the match but without them players could be going around the map for a very long time before actually spotting each other. In competitive play this could really hurt seeing as most competitive matches are limited to 15 mins now. Without those drums triggering when near (without spots) competitive teams can use 10 mins trying to find each other

[Indreams]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

... is what I said when I got up this morning.

Spire buffs! Awesome! Though, that pyra might be over-nerfed.

And I can't wait to try out the Mino. NEW GUN! NEW GUN! NEW GUN!

[MightyKeb]

I havent logged on after the patch just yet, but just from looking at it it seems both good and bad.


 - I'm not sure how the cap mechanic will be balanced out, a team of goldfishes could simultaneously swarm all points and theres nothing you'd be able to do about it besides either run 4 goldfish aswell, or hole up in the next point and try to dispatch all 4. But it definitely seems better than the old.


- Pretty much all the music updates: Awesome. Earlier an experienced player could abuse the drums to nullify a flank, now it seems even more legitimate. I cant wait to hear the victory theme again, thanks muse! ^_^


- Friends search bar shouldve been added way earlier imho, but its still nice to have


- Balance changes: Spire buff seems nice, generous and simple but I'm not sure how it'll impact the comp scene at all. Hades flak still nullifies the good ol' spire from what  I can see.

Squid: The health buff is very redundant, It makes the ship more goldfish-esque and I personally wouldnt like to see that. The mass and speed changes are something I'm gonna have to get used to, but to be honest I imagine you wont even need the hull HP if your speed's that good.

Pyramidion: I dont mind the accel nerfs, it makes the pyra worse at something it's already bad at, which is also the case with squid's speed buffs. But I find the HP nerf a bit harsh. I understand that the team might want to change the current meta but in its nature the pyra is, like Junker and Goldfish, one of the most viable brawling ships and it's good at what it does. Current balance changes make a glass cannon less glassy (Though it is dispatched so easily that it needed one by now), a frail speedy annoyance less frail and more speedy, which both add up and give massive survivability, and it makes a brawling vanguard that can wade in-and-out of combat, less brawly. I mean, that is borderline junker hull HP there. And junker has twice the hull armor to compensate for that. Pyra can control ranges and play agressive like squid and goldfish perhaps, but its terrible at repositioning when things aren't going its way. Instead of this simple hp nerf, I'd be more in line with something that indirectly reduces it's survivability such as less engine hp (Which can limit pilot tool use AND make it easier to hit the back of a pyra with burst rounds, turning it into a literal sitting duck) Or less turning speed (Which gives some ships easier time positioning themselves towards a pyra's back ,thus also contributing to the triple engine destruction, and also encouraging pyra pilots to take tar, likely sacrificing a vertical tool such as hydrogen in order to maintain its survivability against them, which would thus make it's vertical weakness also more relevant)


That's all I have to say for now. Keep in mind this is entirely based off of this thread and I have not spent a single second in the game after this patch. I will shortly, and if I still can I'll edit this post/reply to it with updated feedback.

[Dementio]

Out of relevance, I emailed them this about the ship balance:

Pyramidion
Please do not decrease the hull value, rather when you are about to decrease it's acceleration I want to see the hull value increase. The thing is, once its armor is down, it dies very easy already, with the current actual game values. Decreasing the hull value, for me means, having it die that 1 second sooner and erasing every chance of survival the Pyramidion had.
Yes, you hear people say Pyramidion "overpowered" and "easy to crew", but as an experienced pilot this is the only ship that cannot actually do anything once it is being shot at. Every other ship can dodge up/down or even by flying past and some others just have more fire power or can easily tank more than the Pyramidion can do damage. Once the Pyramidion is being shot at it has to shoot back, it is already too slow to dodge and it does not have the ability to block Gat/Mortar shots with its balloon, because that part is only hull too! One more problem the Pyramidion has when it is being shot at: The hull engineer is usually the one that repairs all three engines. So when it is being shot it it not only cannot dodge, it can barely make use of pilot tools because the engineer has to rebuild the armor and there is no time reparing the engines.

In conclusion I say, the Pyramidion does not actually need a nerf for it is pretty weak already. If you do reduce its speed however, do not decrease the hull value too, increase it if you want , but otherwise don't toucht the Pyramidion's hull value.

Sqiud
Starting of similar to the Pyramidion: Do not touch the hull. Increasing it to the levels you have done during the Dev App testing is just making it more and more like a Goldfish. Now, I don't know what you though the Squid should be when you put it into the game, but I don't think it was supposed to be a clone of some other ship. This is also what I believe the Squid's greatest problems, it is very similar to the Goldfish, but with heavy guns the Goldfish has more quick disable power and the Squid's ability to Gat/Mortar like some other ships is limited. Forget the hull, it is high enough already and if you increase the value, you have created a super annyoing ship that won't die for whoever is playing against it, and for everybody actually being on this ship it is going to very annoying rebuilding the armor as often as they have to in order to escape. I like the longitudinal accelartion buff, but in my opinion it is not only what it needs. With it's lightness and small form I would like it to be getting some sort of vertical acceleration buff, possibly to close the gap between the Mobula's vertical acceleration compared to any other ship. But what I would really like to see in combination to the longitudinal accelartion buff is an angular acceleration buff. When a ship is as fast as the Squid, one could very well expect it to be able to go around corners, but it doesn't do as well as it could do.

In conclusion, I say, do not increase the hull value when you increase the Squid's speed. It will just turn out to be a smaller Goldfish and it would take forever to kill and it already does take quite long to kill in the current game. I would like the Squid's speed to be buffed in all directions, not only the longitudinal one, but I do believe this one is what it needs the most.

[GeoRmr]

heatsink seems to no longer extinguish 3 stacks when loaded into a burning gun

[Kamoba]

I've not emailed Muse about ship balance yet, I want to get some testing done, but right now I agree with Keb and Daniel, the hulls should not be touched, the pyramidion is meant to be a vanguard, but as far as the numbers look, squids will be able to ram Pyra to death...

Make the pyra a slow tank, not a slow squishy ship which is now doomed to fail...
Make the squid speedy gonzalez on speed, not a fast tank...
Obviously after testing I'll email Muse with some more official feedback.

Capture points, this sounds like a good mechanic, but I do worry labyrinth will now be too fast, especially with the 25points per kill bonus, so later tonight I will be starting custom lobby for Labyrinth and testing it to death to see just how fast the rounds go and will get back to Howard on that with findings.

Drums, I agree entirely with Kat!
With complaints being made about match times taking too long in competitive and competitive, why change the mechanic which shortens engagements...
Although beneficial for people attempting a sneaky ambush it also removes a huge boon for low-mid level players who may not be aware of the maps, no longer will they have a warning before their hull is stripped...

Minotaur, support weapon which will be very fun on galleon, and I cant wait to see it in use on a goldfish in dual at dawn or paritan rumble!


However until the Pyra nerf is reverted may I be the first to say, Rest in peace Pyramidion, you had a legendary run, your deeds shall be remembered in the tales of story tellers.
Now weary traveller rest your head, for just like me you're utterly dead.

All hail the rise of the squid!

[RearAdmiralZill]

I find the complaints about the drums funny, given that all of the "issues" it brings are player created. Stop making competitive matches so short in a game that ideally needs awhile to let fights flesh out. Positioning is a thing.

RIP SONAR.

[DJ Logicalia]

I like this update, but, uhh. Ship Geometry guys? I thought this was getting fixed? I seemed to be fixed in the dev app, and I know you were planning on having it in this update. What gives?

As far as the pyra changes, yeah maybe it's unfair/unneeded, but if it means I'll see less pyras in the skies, I don't really mind

[Kamoba]

B..b..but... Sky Slicer!... Nooooo!!!!!

(nerf the meta, not the pyra! Gat Art ftw!)

Guess its time to bring out Celum Lembus and The Rusty Razor..

[KitKatKitty]

I find the complaints about the drums funny, given that all of the "issues" it brings are player created. Stop making competitive matches so short in a game that ideally needs awhile to let fights flesh out. Positioning is a thing.
RIP SONAR.

I agree that competitive matches are too short, yet I feel that's more caster/host concerns that caused the matches to be shortened than the actual teams that play. (But frankly that topic is for another forum post under community events) 15 mins competitive match is close to being too short for the really even teams. Take the SCS this weekend where Starbards lost due to a coin flip after a 1/1 tie and the 15 min match time was up and they hadn't any overtime left, is a perfect example. Most time in competitive matches there is minimum to no over time left. Now that competitive teams can't use drums to find each other the matches will drag on and use up over time even faster. Not to mention...people keep saying it will help with ambushes...that's only if you SEE the enemy and DON'T ACTUALLY SPOT THEM and then you have to hope that your enemies aren't playing the same game of seeing but not spotting and that they don't dunk behind a mountain/building and switch directions. 

Although beneficial for people attempting a sneaky ambush it also removes a huge boon for low-mid level players who may not be aware of the maps, no longer will they have a warning before their hull is stripped...

 
This also is a very valid point. Low-mid levels will never hear their enemies coming. So you will have more complaints about "pub stomping".

The only "ISSUE" I had with drums is that there was a BUG that after the first match of the day the drums would no longer play unless you restarted your game. Other than this bug I did not hear anyone complain about other "issues" the drums posed.

*lights candle* RIP SONAR  <----- This really needs to be reconsidered Muse. The whole point for the match making system, the capture point changes, the lobby timer are all based on you wanted to increase the speed people play matches and get into matches yet you just took away the one tool that helps players find each other on these maps.

[Imagine]

We can debate about match lengths or whatever all we want, but frankly music in the game acting as a detection system for opponent ships was always a horrible idea. It had no place in the game, and extremely restricted a sneaky style of play; I daresay that the removal will actually speed up some matches because people know that if they go into the middle of the canyons (for example) they can set up ambushes since they won't be given away by music.

This is a good thing. The way it was was just straight up bad, I for one am thrilled that it's finally changed.

[Kamoba]

We can debate about match lengths or whatever all we want, but frankly music in the game acting as a detection system for opponent ships was always a horrible idea. It had no place in the game, and extremely restricted a sneaky style of play; I daresay that the removal will actually speed up some matches because people know that if they go into the middle of the canyons (for example) they can set up ambushes since they won't be given away by music.

This is a good thing. The way it was was just straight up bad, I for one am thrilled that it's finally changed.

Imagine, defending ninja's everywhere!

I've yet to play properly since patch but thinking about it some more, perhaps now the clouds can start to go away a bit again...

[MightyKeb]

I havent logged on after the patch just yet, but just from looking at it it seems both good and bad.


 - I'm not sure how the cap mechanic will be balanced out, a team of goldfishes could simultaneously swarm all points and theres nothing you'd be able to do about it besides either run 4 goldfish aswell, or hole up in the next point and try to dispatch all 4. But it definitely seems better than the old.


- Pretty much all the music updates: Awesome. Earlier an experienced player could abuse the drums to nullify a flank, now it seems even more legitimate. I cant wait to hear the victory theme again, thanks muse! ^_^


- Friends search bar shouldve been added way earlier imho, but its still nice to have


- Balance changes: Spire buff seems nice, generous and simple but I'm not sure how it'll impact the comp scene at all. Hades flak still nullifies the good ol' spire from what  I can see.

Squid: The health buff is very redundant, It makes the ship more goldfish-esque and I personally wouldnt like to see that. The mass and speed changes are something I'm gonna have to get used to, but to be honest I imagine you wont even need the hull HP if your speed's that good.

Pyramidion: I dont mind the accel nerfs, it makes the pyra worse at something it's already bad at, which is also the case with squid's speed buffs. But I find the HP nerf a bit harsh. I understand that the team might want to change the current meta but in its nature the pyra is, like Junker and Goldfish, one of the most viable brawling ships and it's good at what it does. Current balance changes make a glass cannon less glassy (Though it is dispatched so easily that it needed one by now), a frail speedy annoyance less frail and more speedy, which both add up and give massive survivability, and it makes a brawling vanguard that can wade in-and-out of combat, less brawly. I mean, that is borderline junker hull HP there. And junker has twice the hull armor to compensate for that. Pyra can control ranges and play agressive like squid and goldfish perhaps, but its terrible at repositioning when things aren't going its way. Instead of this simple hp nerf, I'd be more in line with something that indirectly reduces it's survivability such as less engine hp (Which can limit pilot tool use AND make it easier to hit the back of a pyra with burst rounds, turning it into a literal sitting duck) Or less turning speed (Which gives some ships easier time positioning themselves towards a pyra's back ,thus also contributing to the triple engine destruction, and also encouraging pyra pilots to take tar, likely sacrificing a vertical tool such as hydrogen in order to maintain its survivability against them, which would thus make it's vertical weakness also more relevant)


That's all I have to say for now. Keep in mind this is entirely based off of this thread and I have not spent a single second in the game after this patch. I will shortly, and if I still can I'll edit this post/reply to it with updated feedback.

Alright, so I've played a couple of rounds.

- The new cap mechanic is pretty exciting on KOTH, so far I've only played labyrinth which is already super fast.

- Minatour. seriously. 45 degree arcs on all directions? I've both played and fought against a minatour galleon and whoaaa, it is both fun to shoot AND play against! (obv sarcasm, I havent actually manned the gun though) a galleon can get the tiniest window of opportunity to get arcs on you while blended that you can just get pushed away and hwacha's to oblivion.


My first problem with it is the arcs. Currently minatour has the widest arcs out of all heavy guns in the game, which creates the above problem and takes away the finesse in giving your gunners good shots on the heavies, which has always been one of their weaknesses, narrow arcs. Flak is just behind minatour with 30 degree arcs on all sides, but even then it is balanced because it requires  hull armor to be down. This thing is braindead. It is not necessarily overpowered, but is an extreme nuisance on ships like Goldfish, Pyra, junker and mobula and there's literally nothing the pilot can do about it.

Speaking of Pyra, just the fact that this gun exists pretty much nerfs the ship severely already. My suggestions: Narrower arcs. This gun has the best aim difficulty/range ratio among all heavy guns, AND the widest arcs. I understand the previous minatour didnt do much, but this one does too much. I'd suggest giving it smaller arcs and if possible, make it a fast-ish projectile or atleast something the enemy pilot can react to instead of getting instantly shoved around the map.




- Spire: I was a little wrong about the spire, there is a very noticable difference in speed and the hull health allowed me to survive some situations a tad more longer where I wouldve been toast otherwise.

- Squid: The handling is almost ridicilous, when using hydrogen I've overshot past a galleon by a great distance, pretty much causing all my guns to lose arcs on it, but I assume I'll just get used to it with time. The accel speed definitely feels like how a squid should be imho.

- Pyra: Havent used this one yet so I can't comment.