Dealing with Salt

[Newbluud]

So, I still really love this game and, at this stage, I believe I am in it for the long haul. Huzzah! You're stuck with me.

However, I still have something I need to shake as I am worried about excluding myself from the community because of it - that thing is salt.

I can take a loss pretty well, most of the time, especially if it was a good fight and the teams were relatively even. The issue I start to get is when I have a specific thing I can blame the loss on, such as a lousy team mate or crew member. Not in terms of experience, of course, in terms of deliberately not listening or refusing advice that is pretty simple to follow (stop prioritising the wrong repairs/avoid shooting them with a gatling gun when we're trying to tank two ships' worth of incoming fire/stop charging into a meatgrind, etc.) 

It's a terrible display of sportsmanship to start pointing fingers however, unless you're giving constructive criticism, which I try to do in the areas I feel I am somewhat informed about this game. However, letting go of my pride is hard, especially when I know exactly why my loss occurred and it was no fault of my own. I get mad and it's frankly immature of me.

I guess my question is, since you're all human like me (I hope); how do you handle the inevitable rage in a game that relies so heavily on good chemistry between you and other players? I've not slipped up yet, but I don't want to make enemies by resorting to CoD-levels of expletives after those terrible matches.

[Kamoba]

To quote one of the tips as given by Muse games which is displayed in game: "The first point of call aboard any ship is find someone to blame for everything."

It's tough when things like this happen, and when people do it deliberately yes, we can all get a bit salty, most people won't mind if the salt is justified, it's when people get salty about things which were not the others fault, for example I've had pilots scream shout and swear at me on captain chat because of a loss, while at the same time having three crew members all trolling me, refusing to shoot guns, do repairs and generally being vile in ship chat.. That sort of salt should be avoided, but justified salt is the same as sea salt to a sailor.

[HamsterIV]

I guess my question is, since you're all human like me (I hope);

I'm sorry, didn't you get the memo? We are all ancient spirits soul bound to mechanical death machines unable to pass into the afterlife due to some dark techno sorcery thankfully lost to the the knowledge base of man.

As for raging at under performing crew members, I go in phases.
Phase 1: Explain at the start of the match what is expected of them
Phase 2: Remind them mid match that they are not doing what is expected of them
Phase 3: Irately question them as to why they are unable to do what I am telling them
Phase 4: Angrily explain how the death of our ship or our ally's ship is their fault
Phase 5: Block the offending player and never crew with them again.

If they correct their behavior between Phase 2 and 5, I apologize for the curtness of my previous remarks and continue to crew with them, hopefully earning them a few victories and levels.

[Wundsalz]

The finest application of salt is the treatment of wounds.

Having shared this wisdom, dealing with occasional (close to) dead weights is part of GoI.
Some ways how I personally cope with it:
- If I feel like teaching, I elaborate what I expect and analyze the match for the problematic player as it goes on to help him improve. Some players improve at a rapid pace under good instruction - which I enjoy as well. Others are a bit slower. My personal rule of thumb: elaborate everything thrice and if they don't seem to improve by then, avoid them.
- If I don't feel like teaching, I play with people who know their shit.
- Having played a couple of thousand matches, I can state getting grumpy almost never gets me anywhere in GoI. So I try to maintain a positive attitude. If I feel it slipping away for whatever reason I usually take a break, avoid the player in question or at least pass the steering wheel to another player.

[Daft Loon]

If the problem was your 'ally' replace the word 'rematch' with 'horrible bloody vengance' tick the box and allow shuffle to do its work. Im of half a mind that they should replace the name with 'revenge' and allow you to vote for ship(s) you want to destroy next match (defaulting to a vote for shuffle though).

[High King Thorgrim]

This might be a bit tedious but there is an easy way to avoid a lot of the salt you are talking about.



When you are in the lobby make sure that everyone can respond you...If they do not they are either afk or will not respond you at all.

[DJ Logicalia]

Thorgrim  has this right idea here. If your crew rejects your loadouts or if you try and coordinate with your ally and they refuse, just leave the lobby. No sense in having to fight your enemy as well as your allies.

[Kamoba]

Thorgrim  has this right idea here. If your crew rejects your loadouts or if you try and coordinate with your ally and they refuse, just leave the lobby. No sense in having to fight your enemy as well as your allies.

Well... Mines and tar...
They do help in the cause of fighting everyone...

[Arturo Sanchez]

just something one of the ppl at the fighting game comm created.
in regards to this. some people are just too stupid to understand their own shortcomings.

In crazy king I'm the guy that gives concise commands from the piloting slot. I tell other pilots the times to move on, I instruct ships when to move ahead and who stays behind for rear guard.


Generally doing what I say maximises the amount of points per capture point (I even have to do it with supposed it "vets"), Alas people think they know better and try to do their own thing. As a result I have to pick up the slack, and naturally I get pissed off at it. Because when that moron starts acting all high and mighty for the hard work I did when we win, and says he was being useful. Even when its clear he wasn't. All you can really do is switch teams and utterly destroy them. Demonstrate by results.


As for crew members. After a match I return to the lobby. Go to spectate and watch as I am very likely replaced by a novice. When they play that match... and I'm watching... its very satisfying to see them get mad and salty in the exact same way I was and unlike me ragequits mid-game.

[nanoduckling]

Winning is good. A good fight is better. And if you cant control your emotions they will control you. And your emotions wont lead you down paths that will further your objectives. I control my passions by moderating them with my desires, both short and long term.

If someone cant shoot a hades for toffee then they cant shoot a hades for toffee, the only thing they can do is practice and get better. Split second decisions about engineering can be tough, and require judgement calls. Those get easier the more you make them. You wont know how a ship feels until you've flown it into a few mountains. View the other people you fly with not simply in terms of winning or losing this current match, but as long term prospects, people who may fly with you in the future and help you win other matches, or at least have fun.

That said there is no harm in disuading a immature or rude player from joining you in future. If someone crews for me, rejects loadouts, ignores my requests and then fails to look inward for ways to improve that person will quickly find themselves on my block list. If I cant tell the difference between their behaviour and trolling then they will be reported too. Inside a unskilled and inexperienced player there may be a great player waiting to emergy, or at least a decent person who will be fun to fly with, and getting angry at them wont get you what you want. Inside an asshat there is just an asshat.

[Hoja Lateralus]

how do you handle the inevitable rage in a game that relies so heavily on good chemistry between you and other players? I've not slipped up yet, but I don't want to make enemies by resorting to CoD-levels of expletives after those terrible matches.

I usually I get by humming this

I may not be good example but many times if someone is making my game/day miserable (either deliberately or by accident or incompetence and/or inability to LISTEN) for me it's block + report + sometimes something like "Please do not reproduce" on chat. But that's me.

I hope stupidity of such people will bring death to them. Perhaps they will try to make some toasts while in the shower. Who knows. The night is dark and full of retards.

How to play GOIO 101:
1. Don't play with anyone below 500 matches
2. Get friends that don't have below 500 matches
3. Play 'only' with your friends (at least on your ship) or recommended friends of your friends.
I mean, seriously, playing GOIO with randoms is the worst.

[MightyKeb]

how do you handle the inevitable rage in a game that relies so heavily on good chemistry between you and other players? I've not slipped up yet, but I don't want to make enemies by resorting to CoD-levels of expletives after those terrible matches.

How to play GOIO 101:
1. Don't play with anyone below 500 matches
2. Get friends that don't have below 500 matches
3. Play 'only' with your friends (at least on your ship) or recommended friends of your friends.
I mean, seriously, playing GOIO with randoms is the worst.

I share similiar views, but I think 500 matches is a high standard. I often come across captains/crew with around 300 matches and I find that most of them listen to me and take me seriously, which to me is all I ask from anyone around me save for some competence along the way.



o7 for filthy frank

[Newbluud]

Thank you for all the honest responses!

Call me a masochist, but I try to avoid blocking anyone based on skill, purely because I fear the segregation between inexperienced and experienced might hurt the community overall. I mean, being an outsider to the core high-level friendship groups, I get to be on the receiving end of the skill concentration that creates. I even pissed and moaned about that on here too.

I think my blocks will be reserved for those truly beyond redemption, lest I contribute to something I believe hurts the player retention further than it already is by the fast breakout of novice matchmaker. I know a lot of people want this game to stay niche, as it keeps the toxicity low and the community tight knit, but, as far as the games survivability goes, I'm not so sure myself. People duck out after repeated stomps. It even demoralised me a hell of a lot. Thankfully, I took it as a challenge more than a defeat.

I've gotten better at not getting mad at losses these days, even when I'm totally outstacked or dealing with terrible allies/crew. I feel it teaches me to adapt to bad situations a little better. A meatgrind ally, for example, teaches me to focus targets based on observation rather than communication. Eh.

When I get lumped with a bad or inexperienced crew, my coping mechanism has been to become a calm teacher. I can educate at least a rudimentary set of strategies to make a competent crew/captain, although I still have a lot of learning to do myself. (Last bit comes from being forced out of my comfort zone by a higher-level captain today, who made me use the mine launcher and lumberjack; two guns I have avoided like the plague due to me not feeling able to make good use of them yet.)

When it comes to the people that won't take advice, are abrasive or are trolling, I just repeat to myself that it is not worth getting angry over. I mean, the trolls are looking for that so giving that satisfaction - even in principle - is to be dodged and those abrasive players I simply consider it a learning experience for them. Their mistakes made us lose and they'll probably have to sit and think in the naughty corner for that prior to their next game.

Thanks again, all.

[Schwalbe]

I share similiar views, but I think 500 matches is a high standard. I often come across captains/crew with around 300 matches and I find that most of them listen to me and take me seriously, which to me is all I ask from anyone around me save for some competence along the way.

Bullshit. 500 is a reasonably low treshold. Rarely there are players that know what brain is for with lower match count than that.
What's worse - sometimes even with far more matches played there's still a chance of encountering a sheer total retard. (example - my own fuckin self)

o7 for filthy frank

I recommended it to him.


And about the thread.
When I suffer from especially humiliating loss, I take either blenderfish or munker, gather my friends and we let matchfaker loose to meet newbies to obliterate them.

[Arturo Sanchez]

how do you handle the inevitable rage in a game that relies so heavily on good chemistry between you and other players? I've not slipped up yet, but I don't want to make enemies by resorting to CoD-levels of expletives after those terrible matches.

I usually I get by humming this

I may not be good example but many times if someone is making my game/day miserable (either deliberately or by accident or incompetence and/or inability to LISTEN) for me it's block + report + sometimes something like "Please do not reproduce" on chat. But that's me.

I hope stupidity of such people will bring death to them. Perhaps they will try to make some toasts while in the shower. Who knows. The night is dark and full of retards.

How to play GOIO 101:
1. Don't play with anyone below 500 matches
2. Get friends that don't have below 500 matches
3. Play 'only' with your friends (at least on your ship) or recommended friends of your friends.
I mean, seriously, playing GOIO with randoms is the worst.

Oh but we have to be like cool guys and teach people and blah (biggest load of crap from the vet community ever, seeing as we all do the above because we don't want to go insane).

That being said... I don't tend to join vet crew  forms because I'm usually grinding achieves that most cant be arsed to help with.

now that I've hot the achieve wall though. I do now. Its freakin sad that you can't play a normal game without relying on the vets.
Every match just has to be either Jazzhands babysitting stupid buggers that can't comprehend how useless they're being simulator

When I'm with people like that. I cannot forgive myself if I won. It feels HORRIBLE when that liability lvls up. Theres already too many high lvl scrubs, me adding to that number by my playing to pick up their slack is disgusting.