What' worse than a crewman that leaves? A Captain that leaves

[C r o w]

Ok, now, even if I think that I'm too low leveled to complain, I found in recent matches that even if a crewman left, it would be still be a manageable situation, someone else might join, or we'd would have to rely on the AI.
On the other hand, when the captain left, everything was almost totally screwed, in particular for the fact that only cap'ns have flight-helping tools, can command AIs
(we all know how AIs in "do as you were" mode are retarded), and activate respawns (before the the forced respawn anyway)
I think that after a crewman leaves there should be the possibility to change your class during the match, even more if the captain slot becomes empty mid-match.

Feel free to contradict me anytime

[BlackenedPies]

Really now... Well every 6 months or so I send Muse a reminder to allow players to freely change class during match but they think it'll cause cheating. I recently sent the reminder so I'll try again in 5 months. You can try feedback@musegames.com

[Daft Loon]

The ability to command the AI is given to the person at the top of the crew list if the captain leaves already, along with control over respawning.

That aside a field promotion mechanic would be good to have. At its simplest it could just be a popup option "take over as pilot - yes/no" where clicking yes moves you to the captain slot and changes you to your first pilot loadout or a default 'emergency' loadout; maybe Claw-Kerosene-Drogue Chute.

[C r o w]

I'm sorry to hear that BlackenedPies
To Daft, thank for the info about AIs and respawn.
And what you said is exactly what I'd do about class change!
Really, I had a hellish time once while driving a Pyra as a gunner, apart from the fact that also another crewman left so that remained only me and an engie friend of mine, it was awful, expecially since I didn't have the Phienix Claw.
I don't say I'm a phenomenon, but usually me and bulky ships go hand in hand so I even managed to snatch a kill, but I've seen other ally crews in other matches just panicking or even surrender when their captain left.

[Schwalbe]

You may be low level, but the problem is quite valid and screws over literally everyone.

@Blackened:
Cheating? How in the fuck? I'm a Pole, I have inherent ability to think in ways of screwing people around in favor of my own selfishness, but I see no bloody way of taking advantage in such situation over that necessary one, when yer captain leaves fucking you over. It also locks something different, a possibility for a crew member to switch from exemplary a second bloody gunner to an engie. How is that cheating? Even more, it is advantegous for the bloody community, as having such "emergency exit" defuses most of in-lobby tensions occuring when low level second gunner appears and doesn't give a fuck bout anyone's fun... I can't even count lobbies my squad abbandoned because herpy derpy second gunner pissed people off.


@Daft Loon: It's actually a... decent... idea. One improvement, if the next in command refuses, another one receives the same offer. On the other hand, it would be immersion-breaking, if you catch my drift.

[Atruejedi]

That aside a field promotion mechanic would be good to have. At its simplest it could just be a popup option "take over as pilot - yes/no" where clicking yes moves you to the captain slot and changes you to your first pilot loadout or a default 'emergency' loadout; maybe Claw-Kerosene-Drogue Chute.

This. A thousand times this, please. I love that loadout. Fool-proof.

[BlackenedPies]

On April 18, 2014 a patch was released which made you unable to leave and rejoin as a different class by using the Resume button. This was the date of my first forum post. I frequently used the switching class feature because in those days most matches started with AI and would fill up as people joined mid-game. This caused all sorts of problems like players accidentally joining in as gunners and being unable to switch to engi. If your pilot left you could no longer switch to pilot and take over. There IS a workaround where you have to rejoin from someone in your recent list, but you'll only know that if someone tells you

The reason given is that players could start the game as a buff engi and then switch to gunner before combat, thus giving them buffs and multiple ammos. I had never heard of such a thing but I doubt Muse would make that up themselves and someone has probably tried it and it was brought to Muse's attention. The thing is that you can still rejoin as a different class if you know the workaround so the only people it hurts are new players...

I'm gonna repeat that because it blows my mind. There's a workaround to rejoin as a different class but unaware players don't know it so they're the ones being hurt. I remind Muse this every so often and I recommend everyone try emailing feedback@musegames.com

At one point it was decided to lock in players' loadouts in match and make them unable to switch but god damn if I was gonna let that happen. The argument is that teams could get an unfair advantage by switching to chem spray if they realized they need chem, or bring drogue chute if they realize they need it. That makes sense but I explained to Matthew that if they realized they need chem or drogue then they're already at a disadvantage because presumably they already died at least once. Yes you could get an advantage by switching loadouts, but it can also prevent you from being at an unfair disadvantage when players join/leave. There is some abuse potential but there's more harm done if it was removed. And they listened! That apparently makes more sense than not allowing unaware players to switch class while there's a freaking workaround!

Back to the OP. You actually can rejoin in the captain slot, but you have to wait the 2+ mins for the timer to run out. Sometimes even then it doesn't seem to work and I restart my game to be safe. You used to be able to join captain in any crew slot but that was removed for good reason

There's three solutions I see:
(keep in mind you still have to wait for the diconnect timer of the captain to expire)

Field promotion. Simple and easy to understand, but the next in line player is arbitrary and isn't necessarily the best suited pilot. Needs some coding to display the promotion message

Leaving and switching to pilot puts you in the captain slot. Works but not necessarily intuitive

My favorite would be an option to stop the disconnect timer. This would let you leave and rejoin in any slot in the match. This would be especially useful for spectators, and I've been in that situation many times. Spectators see a captain leave but can't join them because of the timer which doesn't always work. The stop timer button should be near the Resume button

[Hoja Lateralus]

You can exit the match, change the class and then join the match via social tab (so through "join crew" option, either via your friend that's in match or through "Recent" tab). Not sure whether it works with captain but it surely works with loadouts within the same class and changing between engineer and gunner.

Also - I can't understand why spectators can't join the match. I mean, yeah cheating, but still I find myself quite annoyed when I'm watching my friends play, see a spot opening and can't do jack.

[Daft Loon]

To make the field promotion less arbitrary - When the ship has no captain whoever actually takes the helm gets the option of becoming captain/pilot rather than the next name on the list.

[Arturo Sanchez]

If the pilot leaves me with a decent meta build. I don't see the problem.

I just got rid of the pilot and I got AI to replace my engying duties while I take the helm for victory!

[C r o w]

But if the captain was a scrub and left you with 2 other gunners as crewmates on a non-meta ship?

[Arturo Sanchez]

But if the captain was a scrub and left you with 2 other gunners as crewmates on a non-meta ship?

Wouldnt join in the first place. I don't humour retarded crap like that.

[GurasOguras]

What if someone lost connection, wants to join back but someone took over his helm? Your suggested solution guys would cause too much mess.

[C r o w]

What if someone lost connection, wants to join back but someone took over his helm? Your suggested solution guys would cause too much mess.

If you have a loss of connection in the first place, you either had a blackout or was lagging too much, I, using myself as test subject, found that a lagging captain is not a useful captain.
Recovering from a blackout takes time, and, unless everyone is behaving like a sniper, in that time the battle could have already ended.
If you got disconnected for the lag, then is better not to reconnect as you may keep lagging and cause more trouble than not.

[Atruejedi]

What if someone lost connection, wants to join back but someone took over his helm? Your suggested solution guys would cause too much mess.

I agree with you, so as a compromise, perhaps someone can "select" to be captain after the 180 second timeout occurs.