An Open Letter to the Devs

[Lu Lu]

An open letter to the Developers,

Dear Muse Games.

      Your game is dying.  Like legit.  How are you still denying this?  Players
online are at a several year low point. That's concerning.  Despite existing to 4 years,
we've dropped to square one.  Now pray tell, how do you manage to ignore this?

       I have a theory.  Devs follow the following method.  Whenever the community wants
one thing, it actually means the want something else.  Community asks for more maps?
Ha, they must mean they want us to nerf the Pyra.  The community wants new guns? L-O-L.
that obviously that means re-scale maps.  The community wants us to fix bugs?  ROFL, that
for sure means add a rocket league game-mode.  The community wants us to fix a broken
game mode [VIP]?  lmao, duh that means we ignore them while we devote all out time
working on a dlc that costs more than the base game.  Honestly devs.  There is a
serious disconnect here. 

      This community is dying.  And alliance once its all patched
and ready to go may be the best game ever made.  That. Wont. Mean. Shit. If people
y'know the ones in the community, stop playing the game.  Then, whose going to play
the dlc?  Aliens? Cyber-powered Monkeys? A pet named steve?  Maybe instead of
declaring you know what's best because you are devs, it may be time to turn to the
community.  We want new maps.  So maybe, give us the tools to make maps, let us
run wild with it, and then we can vote on those in steam, and let you, the devs
implement the ones you fancy.  I mean, hell we could do this with guns, with ships.
And I know what you're thinking. what about balancing all of that. 

      If only we had some sort of balance or dev tool.  We could call it, a Dev-App. Wait... we already
have one of those.  How useful!  This is a community and teamwork fueled game,
so please devs, let the community take a larger stake in it.

Sincerely,
A Dedicated Player.

[Naoura]

Spookily like an ultimatum, but I can understand that thought behind this. They already give us tools for cosmetics and costume parts, and they accept them happily and let us have a say... in cosmetics.

I only recently got on the dev app, but I can agree. Look at the forums and see what you can implement. Put it in the dev app for a year or two and let it get tested to pieces until the community either hates it or loves it to death. I don't mean to say that the dev app is where ideas would go to die, but a place where theoretical weapons can get a chance to either be hated or be loved.

It's a testing ground for developer ideas as it is, so why not say "have at it" with the players? They want to implement things and dedicate time, effort, blood, sweat, and other bodily fluids to the game to see it succeed. You have people working on Alliance, but the Skirmish mode IS Guns. It's what gave you the dedicated fan base you have. It's what made you.

Muse, you are the Captain. You steer the ship. You're at the helm. But you can't fly your community through the same skies day after day. You can't keep burning 'shine through the engines and just expect us to take care of it. You can't keep twisting the ship this way and that and expect the rounds to keep hitting.

This community is your crew.

Take care of us, and we take care of you.

[Atruejedi]

Muse, you are the Captain. You steer the ship. You're at the helm. But you can't fly your community through the same skies day after day. You can't keep burning 'shine through the engines and just expect us to take care of it. You can't keep twisting the ship this way and that and expect the rounds to keep hitting.

This community is your crew.

Take care of us, and we take care of you.

First, let me say this is a very welcome patch and a step in the right direction. But it's been a long time comin' and that's the problem. Thankfully, last week, during the dev chat, Muse admitted they've been neglecting Skirmish. That is another step in the right direction. If Muse continues to #AdaptTheMaps and throw us a few balance changes based on community feedback and ideas, we might yet survive

These Loch changes... well, I haven't tried them yet, but I fear it only FURTHER makes Lochnager overpowered. I fear The Return of the Carrofish™, which was already supremely powerful with Old Lochnager® (and is still very powerful with heavy/charged/incendiary right now; this patch is an unnecessary buff to the Carrofish). I'm currently drafting an ammo rebalance essay to make ammunitions more distinct, useful, and evenly selected. I hope Muse will listen to me after 6+ months, like they usually do

[Ayetach]

Hi Luharis,

I'm normally not one to post responses often but your concerns piqued my interest. Let me break this down so we can understand each other more clearly:

An open letter to the Developers,

Dear Muse Games.

      Your game is dying.  Like legit.  How are you still denying this?  Players
online are at a several year low point. That's concerning.  Despite existing to 4 years,
we've dropped to square one.  Now pray tell, how do you manage to ignore this?

We don't. We're perfectly aware of the player trends and demographics, and we have measures to help alleviate that challenge as much as possible. Be mindful that this is coming on to a 4 year old online game made by indy developers. That's a pretty incredible milestone and we're really proud and grateful for that since it was you guys who helped us realize this ambition.

       I have a theory.  Devs follow the following method.  Whenever the community wants
one thing, it actually means the want something else.  Community asks for more maps?
Ha, they must mean they want us to nerf the Pyra.  The community wants new guns? L-O-L.
that obviously that means re-scale maps.  The community wants us to fix bugs?  ROFL, that
for sure means add a rocket league game-mode.  The community wants us to fix a broken
game mode [VIP]?  lmao, duh that means we ignore them while we devote all out time
working on a dlc that costs more than the base game.  Honestly devs.  There is a
serious disconnect here.

Lets see.. we do have more maps, the Pyra was re-adjusted (we do push some extensive changes to find out what works and what doesn't before really fine tuning it) so that has been addressed, guns are tricky since they require a lot of asset work, balance into the gameplay, and changes that factor and warrant a healthy amount of testing. But... when we do add more guns we do adjust them as extensively as our ships' changes. Perhaps I missed something here and you are welcome to reiterate if I have (apologies in advance!)

Both VIP & Skyball got a lot of love and attention in the form of testing especially in the last month and a half (which I host every weekend mind you) and is freely accessible to any player willing and able to make it. Those players who do come have done great work helping us look at how it works in practice. Is this perfect? Not at all, we can always use more players to participate and give us a hand in making and breaking the game as we develop it. It really does make a difference no matter how the surface of it looks.

Don't let the DLC deceive you. Alliance is more or less its own game in terms of content and size (perhaps more so than even the skirmish game we currently have) but we are calling it a DLC because it can integrate into our standard skirmish model and allows players to hop back and forth. This to us seems much better than jumping between apps so yes it is pricier but the base game has been around for a while too so its fair to say the price for that is bound to go down over time. Also DLC doesn't necessarily mean its cheaper by default it just means there's more content to download (which as aforementioned is explained.)

      This community is dying.  And alliance once its all patched
and ready to go may be the best game ever made.  That. Wont. Mean. Shit. If people
y'know the ones in the community, stop playing the game.  Then, whose going to play
the dlc?  Aliens? Cyber-powered Monkeys? A pet named steve?  Maybe instead of
declaring you know what's best because you are devs, it may be time to turn to the
community.  We want new maps.  So maybe, give us the tools to make maps, let us
run wild with it, and then we can vote on those in steam, and let you, the devs
implement the ones you fancy.  I mean, hell we could do this with guns, with ships.
And I know what you're thinking. what about balancing all of that. 

I don't know about Cyber-powered Monkeys, although it does sound cool. That said, its possible you're right, but its also possible there are a lot of people waiting to play Alliance when its complete rather than PvP. A lot of people are very different and naturally their tastes reflect that. We have had really large numbers of players on checking out Alliance when we had the Open Alpha and I'm willing to bet the same will be the case for the Open Beta (who knows). This shows us that the variety does exist and tapping into that surely doesn't hurt especially with the theme of gameplay we are designing.

On the matter of providing you development tools, yes that would be extraordinarily awesome. I personally love to see what people come up with (just based on what incredible stuff I've seen so far from our current Steam Workshop), the real challenge here is how small our team is and how large of a task (or tasks) we have to tackle to make sure we maintain the quality to our work in art design and game design. Would we love to offer tools? Absolutely. Are they easy to make? Not really. That is one of the big challenges we face, if we had the man power and resources to dedicate to that sure, it would be possible. That's not to say it won't happen though we do have some plans in the future but things naturally take time with what resources and manpower we have.

      If only we had some sort of balance or dev tool.  We could call it, a Dev-App. Wait... we already
have one of those.  How useful!  This is a community and teamwork fueled game,
so please devs, let the community take a larger stake in it.

Yes you're right, me, Matt & Josie work very hard and sacrifice our weekend times to make sure new changes are tested every single week for the testing hours. All you have to do is hop in and help out, we welcome it!

Either way for you to write this does show how much passion you have for the game and believe me when I say that on behalf of Muse that does mean a lot to us. Things do take time and yes it probably would drive everyone nuts from time to time. But we are doing everything we can to move mountains for you guys and its tough work.

Anyways if you want to help out in other ways let me know! We have plenty of things for even the regular players to check out, and you can always reach out to us when you want to have dialogue directly (that is by far the easiest way for us to exchange information and ideas).

Clear skies,
~A.

[Hoja Lateralus]

I would like to underline the fact that despite GOIO being on sale we don't have noticable influx of players. I have an impression that you think that sales can solve player retention problem (at least in the short run) but this is not really the case and since a while every new sale is less and less effective. Since July '15 the chart of player population is basically a flat line, slowly dropping down.

No Ayetach, re-sized deathmatch Refinery or maps with changed names for VIP are not really new maps. Since I've got here in summer '14 there was no new map added despite community pleading for it, even offering Muse money just so they do it. Claiming GOIO has new maps is being intellectually dishonest at best and I don't appretiate that. 

And you say new guns are adjusted, just as minotaur that nobody uses anymore? ;] (oh, also rip flamer, sniff)

I would like to reformulate the dlc argument: in multiplayer-based game (which GOIO obviously is) it is expected of the developer to support the game through (preferably) free updates or at least paid dlc. If the game is polished and has enough content, players can be fine with no support or paid dlc's option (i.e. Battlefield series). But GOIO, as we said before, is a game that horribly lacks content (why players think this way and what quality content it has today is a different discussion) so players obviously would like game to be supported, developed. Instead Muse decides that they are going to make a new game (because, let's face it, alliance has a PvE focus so it's very different) which old veterans may or may not like. Especially that given kickstarter and pre-orders Muse still requires more money to do it (they once claimed that in-game shop gains pay off the art team - which is currently working on Alliance). Muse is willing to patch Skirmish once in a while, but we all know they don't put the same resources and patches don't come out as often as they did earlier.
Also "oh, new maps? we can't, we're working on Allia- OH WAIT HERE'S A NEW GUN MATE HOPE YOU LIKE IT" ;] minotaur anyone?

[Atruejedi]

I would like to underline the fact that despite GOIO being on sale we don't have noticable influx of players. I have an impression that you think that sales can solve player retention problem (at least in the short run) but this is not really the case and since a while every new sale is less and less effective. Since July '15 the chart of player population is basically a flat line, slowly dropping down.

I am shocked there isn't a notice on the Steam news page saying it's on sale. That's what's killing us right now.

No Ayetach, re-sized deathmatch Refinery or maps with changed names for VIP are not really new maps. Since I've got here in summer '14 there was no new map added despite community pleading for it, even offering Muse money just so they do it. Claiming GOIO has new maps is being intellectually dishonest at best and I don't appretiate that. 

And you say new guns are adjusted, just as minotaur that nobody uses anymore? ;] (oh, also rip flamer, sniff)

Far be it for me to defend Muse, but honestly... we have plenty of options, we just don't get to use them because of balance and Muse's poor prioritization. Certain ships, guns, and ammunitions need a rebalance, Muse must continue to #AdaptTheMaps, and then you'll have so much variety you won't need to request new maps.

• Spire needs an armor or hull buff and a vertical mobility/rotation buff.
• Mobula needs reverted gun arcs and something to balance it (as you all know, I say buff vertical mobility).
• Greased ammo needs a range nerf so it isn't so ubiquitous.
• Lochnager needs reverted to Old Loch (with a few minor tweaks, obviously).
• Charged ammo needs to change into New Loch (again, with a few minor tweaks, obviously).
• Give us the new Skyball Dunes/Duel-hybrid map as a 3 vs. 3 Deathmatch and call it Graveyard.
• Give us 3 vs. 3 Labyrinth King of the Hill.
• Give us 3 vs. 3 Fight Over Firnfeld King of the Hill (BATTLE FOR THE BIG GUN).
• Give us 4 vs. 4 Canyon Ambush.
• Reskin the Heavy Flak model to a different texture color (easy!) and give it the attributes of the Old Heavy Flak. Call it a Howitzer or something.

Since these are Jedi suggested, Muse will ignore them for 6 months and then reluctantly implement them. Perhaps if we make enough noise, these changes will come sooner rather than later.

If you're crying about interesting loadouts, you can ask anybody who flies with me... I do fun shit others rarely do. On Saturday night with Crista, BobDole, and huhuhuhuhu (and a few others I forget) we did loadout after loadout of non-meta. Did we lose? Sometimes. Was it fun? Always. Would it be more fun with the rebalances described above? Yes.

Minotaurs for days. Just learn to use them properly.

[Naoura]

Was that a nod of respect in the quote, Jedi?

[Lu Lu]

I don't know about Cyber-powered Monkeys, although it does sound cool. That said, its possible you're right, but its also possible there are a lot of people waiting to play Alliance when its complete rather than PvP. A lot of people are very different and naturally their tastes reflect that.

That's flat out deceptive and you know it Ayetach.  That free dev app lets us play alliance mode whenever we want so long as we download the dev app and purchased the dlc.  if that were truly the case we'd see hundreds maybe even a thousand or so on the dev app, all playing alliance.  Shockingly we do not see that number of players.

[The Mann]

As someone how has been testing Dev App since July Last year as well as assisting testing in the other testing environments. I can see the difference in the content between them and the base game is dramatic however;

At the end of the day, the DLC is optional, if it doesn't interest people, that is completely understandable; There will always be skirmish.
 
Slightly off topic but one way in which Dev App may help people is to make it a free testing DLC so players can download it once they have purchased the base game.
The Alliance Testing may not be available without purchase first but the Skirmish content such as balance changes, map extensions and new game modes can benefit from larger testing audiences.

[Ightrril]

That's flat out deceptive and you know it Ayetach.  That free dev app lets us play alliance mode whenever we want so long as we download the dev app and purchased the dlc.  if that were truly the case we'd see hundreds maybe even a thousand or so on the dev app, all playing alliance.  Shockingly we do not see that number of players.

There have never been advertisements about Dev App being the way to play Alliance. That is not the intended way to officially access Alliance, and it's not well known about. It's used for testing, so things get changed all the time.
For there to be hundreds of people online all the time it would have to be ridiculously advertised to get enough interest from people willing to put up with the changes, bugs, and missing features.
As it currently is, the Dev App is there for testing, and that's what it works for.

[Red-Xiii]

I don't know about Cyber-powered Monkeys, although it does sound cool. That said, its possible you're right, but its also possible there are a lot of people waiting to play Alliance when its complete rather than PvP. A lot of people are very different and naturally their tastes reflect that. We have had really large numbers of players on checking out Alliance when we had the Open Alpha and I'm willing to bet the same will be the case for the Open Beta (who knows). This shows us that the variety does exist and tapping into that surely doesn't hurt especially with the theme of gameplay we are designing.

On the matter of providing you development tools, yes that would be extraordinarily awesome. I personally love to see what people come up with (just based on what incredible stuff I've seen so far from our current Steam Workshop), the real challenge here is how small our team is and how large of a task (or tasks) we have to tackle to make sure we maintain the quality to our work in art design and game design. Would we love to offer tools? Absolutely. Are they easy to make? Not really.


This continues to show the disconnect.  Numbers testing the Alpha and playing in the Open Beta doesnt mean a single thing when it comes to player retention.  NOTHING.  All you do is flood the gates but with the current community and approach to the game only a trickle make it through.   All in my opinion of course but this game is good for only one reason.  Team work based killing each other.  Why on earth would anyone think AI killing is satisfying in a game like this?  Ive seen the other Dev comments before about we are small.  We are small and it is hard and takes time.  Over and over.  Ok.  So stop.  Take your hardcore player base and focus on Skirmish.  That is the bread and butter.  That is what keeps me coming back even when my friends quit.