Taking Time off GOIO

[Indreams]

I was gonna post something else, but I realized I haven't actually played GOIO in a few weeks. That sent me into thoughts about why I haven't played this game in a while.

Hopefully, this isn't a narcissistic post about me being some grand member of GOIO that needs to announce his time off. I don't intend this post to be that way. I just wanted to post a few reasons why I'm taking time off GOIO and see what you guys (mostly more experienced, dedicated, and better GOIO players) think about it.

Reasons

1.) Time
Even though I now have way more free time than I used to a few months ago, my time is still limited. GOIO is surprisingly a big time investment. 5~10 min setting up lobby, 20~30 min playing a match, so on and so forth. I want to play some other games. I'm actually trying to create my own Kingdom in Mount & Blade, and I don't have time for GOIO at the moment.

2.) Voice Chat
I feel it kinda weird when I am in front of my computer, shouting things at it. I like the communicative nature of GOIO, but I'm not too comfortable with it yet. It'd be nice if I had friend that played GOIO so I can go over to their house and chatter while we play, but most of my friends are console peasants...  So, yeah.

3.) Lack of Variety and New Content
I know Muse is gearing up for adventure mode, so they don't have the resources to go after new maps or new ships. But the game feels repetitive. DM is either crush or get crushed. CP is one battle on one battlefield. Crazy King is great, but half the players don't know what they are doing. Recent patch with Stamina added variety to classes, but it still feels pretty repetitive.

4.) Lack of Variety of Players
I know its not helping that I'm not playing, but it really puts me off that there aren't a lot of players online. I pretty much seem to play with the same people again and again, despite match maker. It's always that ship with four 1000+ match players and that ship with same-faced newbies that doesn't add variety to matches.

5.) Lack of Variety in Builds and Strategies
Maybe this goes with #3, but there's a lack of diverse builds and strategies. There's a handful of builds that work, another handful of builds that works but are impossible without lvl 45 crews to execute, and there's only so much strategy that can happen in a pub match. Maybe its inherent to the game. Maybe we need more guns and more maps. Whatever it maybe, the game feels stale to me.

6.) It's a bit of a chore
At some point, playing GOIO became a bit of a chore for me. Don't know why, but it just became that. Maybe someone that's played more matches knows why. I don't.


Closing
Of course, there are bunch of really good stuff in GOIO. The idea of mounted guns with gun arcs and stuff, the idea of communicating, cooperating, and coordinating with team mates, and the idea of an aerial mine launcher gun. I will definitely be coming back to GOIO, but I'm going to take some time off. Hopefully by the time I get back, #3, 4, 5, and maybe 6 would have resolved. Until than, you'll see me lurking the forums sometimes.

And of course, I want to hear what you guys think about reasons I've posted above.

Thank you for reading.

Indreams

[Koali]

We'll see you... In our dreams.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Lack of variety in builds has been a problem for awhile. I blame arming timers for a bit of it. When Muse got arming timer crazed, we lost some builds. Some completely lost their viability in 2v2 and you'd only see them in 3v3 or 4v4. Then i blame the nerf hammer for the rest. Nerfing of ships and guns has reduced the flexibility of many builds and only made the problem worse.

This is why I play 3v3 more. 2v2 bores the heck out of me because the strats and matches are just repetitive crapfests. Adding the 3rd ship adds another factor. It makes some builds suddenly viable. Allows teams to experiment. I've said this to many who got bored with GOIO..."Do you play 3v3?" "No." "Well thats your problem."

[Kamoba]

My time away from.guns is almost entirely due to Time constraints...
Since work has picked up again I find myself with very little free time, getting 10-20 minute breaks a throw, with which I can load and play something, if I choose.guns, I've not started a match before I have to get back to work... So lately I've only found time to load games which allow pause and alt tab, play, pause alt tab, work, play, pause...

As you can imagine not possible on guns, unfortunate.

And I agree about it feeling like a chore from time to time, with expectations to meet at all times, even as a non CA, due to the close knit feel of the community, but the PvP nature of the game, there is always that need to perform at best, and the days where the fingers may be stiff or reactions a bit slow, there is the feeling we let down our team mates.. Maybe that's just me that feels bad when I let the team down, but it makes the game good in ways too.

[Dementio]

I too found Guns of Icarus boring for a while, but then I made new builds with my friend that nobody ever made before, in and outside of pub! And would you be surprised at how many new players are able to listen and do exactly as you say. At worst, just get one guy from your friendlist to join your ship and tell him to be main engineer, this way you can still move your ship even if the rest of your crew is braindead.

Because of the game ending up being boring once in a while I too didn't feel like using voice chat, but then explaining something in text chat is a drag and voice commands don't tell anybody anything so I end up using it anyway and suddenly we have a nice casual conversation while our enemies explode in the background.

A problem with variety is partly, because the game has been out for 2-3 years (I think so at least) and all these super cool people in comp use only the builds that "work", with many not experimenting at all and then people watch these games and then they are like "If this works, I can win every pub game with it!" and then they use it and then others see that and use it too and then everybody uses it (Metamidion and Blenderfish). Then you just have to break the Meta, put a Mercury on front of that Squid and ramkill a Galleon in 4v4 with it.

I may have never met you in-game for long enough for us to really connect, Indreams, but I will miss you! I will!!

[Dr Brobotnik]

I have an easy reply =) You're simply burned out. It happens to me too, but I always come back at some point, and enjoy a period of time where I can roam the skies, make jokes with funny people, and celerate victories after blowing my mind out with rockets and guns alike.
What makes me adore GoI as much as I do is that I can come back to it whenver I want and ALWAYS have a very good time =)
Not a lot of games offers me that anymore.

[The Mann]

Completely irrelevant to the conversation, Indreams has 99 salutes so allow me to be the 100th. 

[Indreams]

Thank you

I might be coming back. As soon as I get bored of Heroes of the Storm. Now, here is a game about cooperation without being too stressful. I mean, at least so far.

[Dr Brobotnik]

Thank you

I might be coming back. As soon as I get bored of Heroes of the Storm. Now, here is a game about cooperation without being too stressful. I mean, at least so far.

Isometric perspective is a pain though. I never did understand how people can manage constantly re-adjusting the camera while also doing everything else. It just makes my head hurt.