My first month of GOIO

[MagKel]

I don't even remember why I bought GOIO, I think I stumbled upon a Total Biscuit video and half through it I was already downloading it on Steam. Talk about love at first sight.

Tl:dr
Upon entering my fifth week and 123rd hour of game time, I would like to share my thoughts and experience with the community, from game one to today.

The Good
- Exhilarating game that naturally promotes a competitive mentality without giving up casual gaming.
- The Community informally trains the new players better than any possible tutorial.
- Lots of offline material in order to improve the gaming experience and performance
- Veteran players are so nice, sometimes it feels like an utopia.
- Possibly the only true team E-Sport
The Bad
- It should be easier to examine the ships and crew loadouts during the lobby time.
- There should be a way to promote the suggested loadout acceptance without punishing any player (maybe an achievement system?)
- Through a voting system it should be possible for a team to carry into battle 2v3 or 1v2
- Where is the capture of the flag game mode? (You capture the enemy flag at their spawn point and carry it back to your spawn)
- Some assets on some maps make lag unbearable

1. The Community makes you play. From noob to less noob.
You simply don't understand the game without someone mentoring you and there will never be any tutorial deep enough to teach you effectively how to crew or pilot a ship. A noob is a noob until someone commits the time and patience to explain the game and forgives you for the inevitable mistakes. Let me remind you how deep and entrenched is this concept among the community: On game two, since I couldn't find any novice game (I live in Italy, most of the time servers for me are >60 players) I tried to lobby for a normal game. I was of course the noobiest of noobs, I didn't even know the layout of a pyramidion, I haven't used the chat yet nor crew voice chat. My ship sat there for a good minute while the crew explained me in detail what to do, how and when. Then we started the match and we lost mostly because of my ineptitude at repairing the balloon and firing the gun. All I got was "Don't worry, you will learn." "It is not your fault" "It is ok" with a deep and sympathetic Russian accent. After that game my crew left the new lobby and a couple of seconds later I was invited in crew formation. Every other team member was at least level 30 and yet they didn't mind devoting they time to teach me while accepting my mistakes. There is simply no other community like GOIO.

2. Nobody fights. Everybody is nice, what is this sorcery?
On my first week I drifted from lobby to lobby, even ending up playing with players that are pillars of the community here and on game. Maybe I was just lucky (and I read a lot of guides) but it took me only a week to feel part of GOIO, to try to do the chem cycle and still manage to fire a gun, to recognize the pings of the gatling gun and rush to the hull, to help with the spotting and chat aimless about weapons, metas and performance while waiting for a target. I even absorbed knowledge by just paying attention to the  general lobby chats or the questions and answers made by other inexperienced players. Sometimes a Bard would play some music over the mic. Slowly I realized that the other players of this game were like me, they loved the teamwork as much as I did and the good sportsmanship of a 5-4 game would fill the hearts with joy no matter which side of the board they end up.

3. GG is truly GG. Careful calibrations bring infinite interactions.
GOIO has the same feeling of a soccer match to me. There are no winners until the game is finished. Of all the variables involved, the human element is predominant. Yes, you can play meta and think you will win easily but even before the nerf I have seen quite a number of pyras going down pretty quickly. it is essentially a very balanced game because there are too many things aside from the ship that could go well or worse. Yet I am still amazed by the mathematical elegance of the ships and components, how they are all a viable mean through which achieve victory. Muse, you have some real genius working in there. Every game is different, from a long drawn sniper battle to a furious melee with reinforcements rushing into battle, saving allies and ambushing unsuspecting enemies. Victory is always there, it is this mirage that gives the freedom to the losing side to keep rushing into battle instead of holing up at spawn. I was in my second week and I understood there would be no match like another, being the combinations truly endless.

4. Clans? A different game
My previous experience in gaming with a hierarchical structure goes back to CS or Arma and I was with long time friends, playing over LAN and only then online. So I can say [TB] is my first real "clan experience", I even had to install Teamspeak the day I joined it. But my first encounter was while playing against them in a game in which I finally saw Clan v Clan gaming. It was a 3v3, I was on a ship of randoms, the other two ships on my side and one in the opposition had a lot of []s (I don't remember precisely, surely there was CAKE in the mist), lots of voice chat and jokes. Then a silent monolith of 8 players dropped in, interacting with the lobby via text. They were greeted warmly but the ships on my side immediately changed to match the opposition while on team chat two people suggested at the same time to my captain what to do in a gentle way. Nobody readied until we all had whole crews and some spectators. I was looking at the names and levels, I felt inadequate and didn't want to ruin everybody's game so I wrote a pm to a spectator "do you want to swap? the levels are too damn high" and the reply was "no, enjoy :-)". And yes, I enjoyed the game: our balloon popped from shots fired by an unseen opponent, the ships flew in a formation flowing, engaging and disengaging like a school of fish. As the match went on I realized there was a science behind the disabling hwacha shots that sent me into a frenzy of repairs, the sudden hull drops paired with a very fast death. It was the first time I felt the need to provide solid feed back to the captain at all times, for the first time I would say "sprayed for combat" if I had all my things in order or "not dead yet" if i knew I could keep the armor up. 5 minutes into this game, less than 100 matches into GOIO and my mentality was irremediably changed: I was in the zone, I was thinking and acting methodically, I was experiencing my first e-sport game.
I was impressed by the match, the atmosphere, the fact that people would joyfully spectate a game, not minding the presence of an inadequate goldfish dropping dead way too easily and firing without heavy. We were flying with veterans and champions and yet they welcomed our presence. I added Byron as friend and immediately tried to join up the games, flying with them on one when a spot opened. I was practically a stalker. Moving from random crews into a clan crew while less than two weeks into the game didn't make me exactly confident of my skills. Looking at their profiles I realized I had less than 1% of their games played. The ship too was a complicate assortment of weapons, contrary to the simple layouts of a goldfish or pyramidion. "There is the science" I thought looking at it, realizing every ammo goes somewhere, everyone has a role and everything is honed by constant practice, the training and attitude of the team. I was asked if I know how to main the top deck of a galleon, i replied "I hope so". I inverted the position of spanner and mallet for the first time and while people ran around in a frenzy on other ships this was a sea of calmness and efficiency. I stood on the main deck of the galleon, silently running between a buffed balloon, hull and engine with spray while slowly the guns under me fired. I hardly worked that match and yet I felt the responsibility, the role of a main deck engineer like never before. Once we went back to the lobby I was told "thank you very much" and a swap request appeared, I obliged and I was thanked again. From there I went straight to practice mode, disabled the AI, damaged every ship multiple times and tried to learn some more. So yeah, I fell (still very much fall) from a squid countless times.

5. Clans! Noob pilot and veteran crews.
I opened the community tab for the first time that night, I looked for The Brotherhood, i realized everybody there had a ton of experience yet the message on the page struck. Still I had no idea how deeply TB was lodged in the community back then. The next day a steam sale came and matchmaking didn't let me play with clans anymore so I began to fly myself a junker. It was then that some []s would show up as crew, a level 7 pilot with a level 39 engineer. No matter what, they kept mentoring, they patiently waited for me to line up the guns and while in the lobby they suggested every possible solution. I was expected to carry them into battle and instead I crashed into the geometry, I was expected to give roles and orders and they did it for me; the more I played the more I wanted to be part of an orderly and efficient ship crewed by nice people. Sure it was fun to meet new players every round and I still do relish it (squid rushing against a hwacha galleon? best engi training ever) but with the steam sale a recruiting post of the Brotherhood showed up on the official GOIO steam page and I told myself: "Worst thing to happen is that nothing happens". Little did I know...

6. From Randoms to Clan. It is more than a tag.
The day I was accepted I didn't play, I watched instead the match from twitch and realized I got myself into something much, much bigger than I could expect. Clans strive for perfection, they evolve as the game evolves and at the same time keep a leveled head behavior, a tactful attitude toward others. When I spectate I study what Frank does, when I play, I follow orders. This is no game to buy and drop after a few months just to release aggressive impulses and lessen some ego issues. There is no pleasure in winning an undeserved victory or oppress the other players: you will instead apologize first if one of the captains leave during the match and say GG even if you lost 0-5. With the [TB] tag on and less than 200 games in my pockets my perspective changed yet again, I wasn't simply an object of the community, I became a subject. I would show up for practice and be trained by veterans, I would behave in a way proper to TB and as TB I would get to know people who are friends first and foremost; but I would also behave with the public in a way that is expected from a GOIO clan player. Someone needs help? Sure I can try to help you. You would like to learn? I can explain you what I know. Crew, which ship would you like to fly? Please gunner, take your position because of this or that, thank you. Please. Thank you. My pleasure. Please. Sorry. Well played. Thank you. No problem. GG. My skills in the game would take a very long time to improve but what I realized in my fourth week was that not in any circumstance I should behave rudely or in an inappropriate manner. My trial time was over, the community is great because I shall contribute to make it so.

7. Fifth week. Friends in expected places.
With my level steadily increasing I am finding myself in more and more [] lobbies when playing with randoms. Because of the timezones, I am usually playing with Russians, Europeans or early US East Coast till TB wakes up. As I write, I marvel at the fact that I can say I know some players and I cherish when I find them online. We end up playing maybe five or six games in a row, flying around in improbable builds just for the laughs and maybe get the chance that a newer player would show up so that we can teach the game and make sure everybody has a good time. How did it happen? How did I get so involved in such a short time, to the point that I am sure in March 2016 I will be still playing and enjoying as of today? How did my new car's smell evaporate so quickly that I actually care for GOIO to be successful and popular as it deserves to be? How can I be so sure that the people reading this or that I meet and will meet in game are nice people? In short, again, what kind of sorcery is this?

Thanks for reading, may your skies be clear of flak and your balloon not on fire.

(Ah, the feels, the damn feels.)

[David Dire]

Capture the flag seems a bit of a bad idea for this game, as you can just grab the Flag as a squid and moonshine half the way to your spawn. Literally nothing with stop you.

Also, a reward system for accepting loadouts isn't a great idea. Anyone that just deny's loadouts because whatever, won't care about achievements.

Also I don't want a punishment for declining a loadout just because I changed one thing in it.

Also, 2v3 and 1v2 votes... Just, no. Not really fair for the people that don't want to do it, and it goes against the teamwork aspect of this game.



The problem with your suggestions is that you're not thinking about the teamwork aspect of this game.

[DJ Logicalia]

Lovely analysis. I'm glad the game's grown on you like it has for me and many other people. Hope you stick around it the future as the community always needs players like you

[MagKel]

Maybe an idea in a single sentence is not the best way to communicate. I'll elaborate.

Capture the flag:
Two objects are located in the respective spawn points. In order to capture it, an opposing ship has to loiter near the "flag" for a certain amount of time. Once it is captured, the object has to be delivered to the team's spawn point.

Speaking of teamwork, it requires:
1. An adequate fleet setup, not only regarding the ships but down to the components.
2. Higher coordination between the captains that have to develop a strategy and a counter strategy in order to defend and capture at the same time.
3.A game mode just like king of the hill or crazy king that rewards tactical control and planning over enemy destruction.

Loadouts:
Accepting the loadout is fundamental, especially for lower level players that may have imperfect ideas of what to carry and why. If you crew a ship with the wrong loadout you are ruining the game for that ship because maybe a gunner and two buff engineers is not the best way to fly. You say you don't want to be punished for refusing a loadout if have to change just a thing (such as ammo, most probably). Which now means that you accept it, go into character menu, change that one thing and go back into the match lobby.

I suggest a different way: you accept the loadout, talk with the captain why you want to change that thing, find an agreement and then have the captain change the loadout for you. Problem solved.

2v3 and 1v2 is obviously voted by the team that voluntarily puts itself into minority.

[BlackenedPies]

Hello MagKel and thanks for your thoughts on the game. I have a few comments regarding "the bad" section.

I think viewing ships and loadouts is pretty streamlined as it only involves one click. Do you have a suggestion to improve this?

Getting players to bring loadouts used to be extremely frustrating with no recommended loadouts option. I find that by giving players a brief description of their job is enough for about 95% of players to accept the loadout. If they don't want to bring it they should leave or will be considered trolling. Many players prefer specific tool orders so having locked mandatory loadouts could cause problems.

Unbalanced teams like 2v3 would be more difficult to implement and presumably unpopular. I'm guessing the purpose would be as a handicap vs an experienced team. Unfortunately, stacked lobbies have become a bigger issue since the advent of crew form and the unwillingness of players to balance lobbies themselves. A simpler alternative to voting for 2v3 might be voting for a lobby shuffle using the mystery MMR or other means. Ideally, players should attempt to manually balance lobbies.

As for capture the flag, I'm under the impression that it wouldn't be very balanced. I can only imagine how it would be implemented and it would likely be interesting, but I think I'd prefer KOTH (pre no blocking).

Edit: I see that you have clarified your points with the above post

[MagKel]

Hello MagKel and thanks for your thoughts on the game. I have a few comments regarding "the bad" section.
I think viewing ships and loadouts is pretty streamlined as it only involves one click. Do you have a suggestion to improve this?

The think on top of my mind is merging the ship view with the individual loadout of the crew. Just as you can see how your ship is armed, on the side of that instance the crew rooster with the same component icons used in spectator mode. This is available to every crew member, without having to click on the "person" icon every time.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

CTF would have worked in 1.1. Not in current GOIO. But either way it would be a squid ruling gametype. I like the idea of CTF, don't get me wrong, its one of my favorite FPS gametypes. However given how slow the game is and how weak certain guns are, I know how the matches would turn out.

[David Dire]

Actually, the way you re-worked CTF sounds pretty solid, actually. Say, you need to be there for 15 seconds, so you need an actual force to assault it. That's sounds pretty fun really! I'd think a 3 point limit to win would be sound.

[MagKel]

The idea for CTF is to employ to the full possibility every ship type and give an added purpose to the match.

Let me explain further:

A fleet comprised of
squid, junker, mobula, galleon and pyramidion

goes against a force of
goldfish, spire, spire, pyramidion and galleon

Squid, Goldfish and the two Pyramidions are offensive in nature, let's call them first line.

Junker and Spire are tasked to control and conquer the center toward the opposition, the second line.

Mobula and the other Spire are the first very mobile defense designed to push forward and retreat when needed.

The two Galleons are the last defense, using long and short range weapons to control the battlefield.

A game in my head would see the three lines moving in the beginning together, clashing at the center or the sides. it is important to spot early and understand the plan of the enemy while at the same time thinning their lines. if they lose the first, their attack is stalled, if you lose the second line a bottleneck for the returning squid or goldfish is created, a third line hole would mean the opposite defense wise. Each ship has a purpose, a fleet of metas is not a viable option anymore. With the first kills the upper hand switches fast between the reds and blues and decisions must be made: press the attack on the left or cover the right being overrun? Move the center to gain an advantage or to cover a loss? A ship locked into a 2v1 fight should immolate in order to let the others open a breach in the enemy lines or retreat? And while those two ships finish the job, who's defending? At some point attrition lets a team capture the flag, beginning a mad dash home with the enemy on tail. In order to win a point the fleet needs to hold steady because friendly ships are leaving their post trying to defend their runners, opening holes in the defense organization. You may have won a point but what if that brought you the enemy at your doorstep? The blue squid carries the point home but now the reds pyra and fish are within reach of the blue flag while the rest of the fleet hammers the displaced blues. 1 - 0 can rapidly go 1 - 1 if the fire is directed to the wrong ship and everything is to be repeated or maybe the blues can hold off the reds for the squid to rapidly go back and wait for the flag to spawn again while battling the galleon in an uneven match.

In short, everything from the fleet composition and the personality of the captains to the weapons loaded on each ship could define the game

[Kamoba]

Hey MagKel!
This post is beautiful! Also you've only been here a month now? I always greet you like an old friend because you've blended into the game and community so well!

[MagKel]

Hey MagKel!
This post is beautiful! Also you've only been here a month now? I always greet you like an old friend because you've blended into the game and community so well!

Thank you Kamoba, it means a lot to hear it from you! 
It also feels a much longer time but it has only been a few weeks. Weird uh?

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Not trying to rain on ya but you are envisioning ideal situations. In actual play, you would not be seeing engagements going so orderly. Competitive level pilots would roll all over that. Simply because we've had to do this for a long time and we will exploit the hell out of people who try to bring order into engagements. You say metas wouldn't work but I say...Ryders, CK champions of Aerodrome 1 & 2. They'd pull it off. I could literally bet money on the Ryders doing it. You'd run an ideal ship mix against them, they'd run metamidions and 5-0 you.

On top of that consider maps to be used for this. Most maps have clouds or fog, many ways to approach. Galleons holding the D are not scary unless there is only 1 way to approach. If so, sniper boat ftw. Heck if your map is a big open football field sort of thing then you'll still have sniper battles happening. Which comes down to who has more mercs.

I love CTF modes of play but in GOIO, when you consider the competitive players, it just wouldn't work the way you think.

[Ayetach]

Indeed this is a very thorough and well thought out post. Of course there is all kinds of factors to argue for and against every point you made but your observations are certainly valid in their own right.

@Gilder

To be fair, not every Ryder pilot rolls with metamidian, in fact the minority of pilots in this clan run with it. It is effective and many who crew for them know exactly what to do to make it work to its maximum potential but its subject to change depending on the engagement strategy.

[trivee]

i really like the idea of capture the flag. i see some of you say that it would mostly be a squid dominated game type, but i don't think so. To keep that kind of game balanced i think it should use a similar system to the new co op mode that Muse is working on. In the new co op mode that they showed at Pax the players had to capture a balloon being towed by AI ships, and the bigger AI ships could tow the balloon faster then the smaller ones. On top of that i THINK that the ship with the balloon was slowed down, but i'm not completely sure on that. SO basically the smaller ships cant tow the flag as fast as the bigger ones. that would mean that the squid could get to the flag fastest but would be the slowest to return it, and the gallon would be the least affected.