Where is the PvE mode?

[Omniraptor]

In terms of pace goio might be a smaller version of arma? I haven't played arma but I've seen a few videos. But it seems fairly popular..

[MagKel]

GOIO's competitive lack individuality. Hence will never be on the same popular level of other competitive games.

Dunno what people you fly with, but all of my crew mates are very personable =)
The again, if you simply watch the whole thing from outside, you won't know that.

I meant from a spectator point of view, someone who's not an expert of the game neither knows the vast background of GOIO's competitive scene

[Velvet]

Slow pacing doesn't preclude popularity but it may preclude the sort of competitive play that could increase popularity. I think GOIO and Arma have it in common that although they have competitive scenes, neither really has the potential for a major competitive scene that could be a big sales driver.

[Hoja Lateralus]

Competetive games are fun to play but also fun to watch. This is important.

GOIO is just so-so fun to play, but for me it's not really fun to watch. It's quite boring due to its' pacing, and there's not really much to see. In most popular games you can see how individual players do their stuff and it's quite interesting. In GOIO? Seeing engineers banging things? Or pilot turning the helm? Gunner aiming with his gun.... perhaps? It's all not that interesting to watch.

[MagKel]

In all of Magkels post one sentence stands out the most...

"this will never cater to a majority of spectators"

As much as I love guns of Icarus and the competitive scene, it is hard to sell towards the mainstream market...
The YouTubers are not selling the game when they play as an example, they're selling the fun they're having, which is more often than not exaggerated as are their personalities..

The audience which GoIo competitive sells to is not a mainstream audience...
It is very easy to paint a single ship and crew as a hero, underdog or any other role that mainstream audiences thrive on, this is not the problem, the problem originates from how the game appears from an outside perspective...
No matter how the spectators sell the game, and no matter if they follow crew or ships, the game from an outsider view looks tactical more than action packed, because it is.

Watching Guns is more like watching Golf or Chess than it is like watching Hockey or Football (personally I hate football, but I'll not go into that! )
The action is not a constant through the match, you spend half the match watching pilots make tactical choices and movements, based on their assessments of what they predict the enemy will do, tactically playing cat and mouse until one.gets the upper hand, then there is a chip shot to the green and the ally makes the putt! Or the bishop takes the queen from behind after the knight makes a distraction, then its back to tactics choices and movements which does not appeal to the low attention span and intelligence levels of the mass audience, which guns does not appeal to..

Co-op has more consistent action over time, but the threats to the players are much lower and skill cap lower, so selling that to an audience will be tough too...

All we can do is sell to those who enjoy guns and encourage as much competitive play as we can...

As for my opinion regarding the original post... My opinion tallies with others who have posted, I shan't echo

I agree, the game is too layered to rise the heartbeat of a spectators unless the observer knows exactly what is going on, what is going to happen and why.

Maybe the "individuality" could shine if they give access, only for competitive, to 1 v 1, some kind of duel, maybe in KOTH maps to avoid dispersion,  forcing the fight and setting an inevitable end of the game. yes, ship variety would suffer (more than the metamidion era? I doubt) but individuality would rise.

Removing the tactical possibility of 2v1 or cooperative builds, pitting the opposing crews there alone could possibly create the "legend" that other games manage to dispense so easily. The masterful repairs of the main, the timely buffs and such could be described in depth without forcing the streamers to jump from one angle of the map to the other. In a 2v2 things happen too fast for a single voice (Maybe someone remembers that when i spectate i almost always do the broadcast via text chat, well it is finger-breaking) once the spots are acquired, all the voice can do is to call the name of the ship and in a few words explain what's going on. Hardly something a novice spectator could appreciate. incidentally this is the same problem of many sports or competitive activities such as cricket, golf and poker.

[Velvet]

I really don't see it. There isn't a spin or modification that could give GOIO any major competitive potential.

[Kamoba]

I really don't see it. There isn't a spin or modification that could give GOIO any major competitive potential.

Not enough to have a major following I agree...
But enough to keep long term players interested and playing...

I dread to think what the game would be like without the guys and girls who arrange our tournaments...

Endless pub stomps from vet players versus newbies and the occasional epic battle of titans when match maker puts them together..

[Santa Barbara]

I really don't see it. There isn't a spin or modification that could give GOIO any major competitive potential.

Not enough to have a major following I agree...
But enough to keep long term players interested and playing...

I dread to think what the game would be like without the guys and girls who arrange our tournaments...

Endless pub stomps from vet players versus newbies and the occasional epic battle of titans when match maker puts them together..

That's why some people -like me- will like to drive the ship doing missions, freeroaming across beautiful landscapes and fight fair bots sometimes.

Too often deathmatches are a sad prison. After a long string of uneven battles my love for the game is quite low indeed and I don't see so much incentives to resume the fight against the odds (even the unlocking of cosmetic items needs lots of play suffering).

Deathmatch should be expanded to make the experience more engaging for the player, more lore-involved.  Why don't have a mode where players swear allegiance to a faction and the result of every local battle is used to calculate the success of a bigger campaign?
If you are a player striving to be pro, a synoptic map with the movements of the ships and some statistic (hit success, damage distribution...) could be nice too!

[AldenIOE]

I heard somewhere that Adventure Mode would be this huge open world thing where you adventure with your crew doing missions and having fun, and destroying stuff. Now, i'm not so sure. I'm getting mixed messages. Clarification?

[BlackenedPies]

There are two modes planned: Adventure mode is a future project and Co-op will be coming sooner. Co-op is vs AI while adventure mode includes missions and both PvP and PvE. Here is the Adventure mode page https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/musegames/guns-of-icarus-onlineadventure-mode/description

[Queso]

Adventure mode is the long term idea that we see as the ultimate version and culmination of Guns of Icarus. Co-op mode is the step we raised enough money for in our last Kickstarter. Co-op is intended to be a game worth making in it's own right, but the work being done on co-op is also work towards adventure mode when co-op is completed.

[Velvet]

don't think even adventure mode will have freeroam open world airship piloting though, which is a shame.

[Queso]

That actually largely comes down to 32 bit precision physics calculations, which, while not impossible to circumvent (see Space Engineers blog post), is still pretty difficult to rework, especially in a game that's been in development for this many years.

(Interesting to note, the system implemented by space engineers works especially well for a space game because it is highly unlikely that single objects extend far past 32 bit distance limits. This is less true for a game like Icarus where namely the environment cannot be easily chunked into independent sections, which would cause physics issues at the borders of regions. In the more distant future, 64 bit physics may become more viable for newer games as hardware performance increases, but we are still a ways off from it, especially with the prevalence of 32 bit off the shell physics systems still being common and viable, and 64 bit precision being generally unnecessary.)