Oh, and be warned: it's 61 pages (with pictures) and 11,517 words. So... grab a drink.
tl;dr?
Guns of Icarus Alliance teems with potential but has fundamental design problems. I am here to offer suggestions on how to improve the game and make it a success.
narrative deficienciesDo you think this would be helped by taking a leaf out of a MOBA's book, and adding voice overs to what is happening? I don't play Mobas much, but from my memories, most of them have audio telling players that a structure is under attack. If voice messages saying things such as "Refinery A has been destroyed, or "Your team is attacking Outpost A", it would make sure that all players are more "in the loop".
Why not, instead, make those weak spots into areas that, when targeted, do significantly more damage to the enemy?I am not entirely sure, but isn't it already like that?
We can take community-submitted ideas for names.This would be very cool. The markers saying what type of ship they are (the "(kill)" or "disable)" at the end of the name) are not very useful to me, as I don't generally have time to pay enough attention to the ship name to read it. While I still wouldn't have time to read it, adding unique names/nicknames to each ship does sound very cool and would definitely help immersion.
I don’t think a boss is something that should be hiddenWhile a boss should definitely not be hidden, it should not be explicitly pointed out to the player at first. When you play a match in Skirmish, and the enemy team is completely unbalanced, do you get an indicator when the much more powerful spawns? No, you don't know until you actually spot them. It should be the same for a boss. While you might be able to visually tell where they are, there shouldn't be any special indicators until the boss is spotted. There is something unnerving about knowing there is an enemy, but not knowing where exactly they are. This uneasiness is what makes horror games as popular as they are.
Will bosses be "worth" risking it all to destroy,even if the objectives can be completed and victory can be achieved?There needs to be something done to make players actually consider engaging boss ships. The only reason I have seen so far is for the glory, and bragging rights. Boss ships are such difficult battles, and usually deliver a large majority of my team's deaths, and for what? A measly upgrade. I personally have never noticed any difference at all from getting the upgrades. The most effective strategy so far seems to be ignoring the boss ship and rushing the objectives, on all 3 gamemodes.
you are blurring the lines between different tools and different ammosWhile I do like the idea of upgrades, I also agree that it does blur the lines. My solution for this would be simple: instead of making up for an item's weaknesses, improve their bonuses. For example: The spanner upgrades currently include boosts to it's repair power and the mallet upgrades include improvements to it's rebuild power, making them more usable for each other's purposes. Instead, the spanner should not get boosts to it's repair power, but more rebuild boosts instead. This way, the lines between those two items would be even more distinct, instead of morphing them to one.
What do those resources...do? Do you need to collect them to win? Should you? Do they provide bonuses? Should they?This is my biggest problem with the map as well. I see these resources my faction has, but absolutely no idea what they mean, or what they do.
battles are resolving themselves too fastBattles currently seem to be taking only a few hours, which is a problem, especially with the amount of territories currently in the game. With this, we could have an entire faction swap land with another in just a few days. A territory should be valuable to a faction, and every time one is won, it should feel like a huge victory to that faction.
That fucking spinning wheel/fan/watermill thing. It's so god damn distracting, becauseany movement attracts attention from the pilot.I piloted a Magnate for the first time yesterday, and I did not get distracted too much by the watermill.
The ShrikeI can not for the life of me figure out what is more attractive about a Shrike than about a Corsair. Both ships have one side facing light gun and one side facing heavy gun, but the corsair also has an extra light and heavy gun on the front and back. The only advantage of a Shrike is the less complex layout, but any captain with any patience at all should be able to explain to their crew their responsibilities.
"What a Piece of Junk!"
there should really be more options for painting ships. Especially the new ones. Sure, you can paint the Magnate's balloon, but nobody's going to notice with all the bright yellow sails. They're all beautiful ships(mad props), but I'd love to customize them.I do agree. I'm thinking about the new ships: most of them seem to balloons that are not really visible. What if the balloon is not what received the paint, but the largest visible aesthetic section was painted? For example on the Crusader, instead of painting the balloon, the large, red section of the armor is painted?
I like the Crusader, but god damn if I haven't had trouble going up those stairs from the heavy guns. I feel like the hitbox on the railing for the Crusader's stair case... isn't there. I've relied on that railing to be able to get me up the stairs because I have those days where my hand doesn't move the mouse fast enough to get me to face the exact middle of the top stair, just so I don't walk off the side... All I can ask is... Hitbox on that railing... please?I love the crusader, but it is right now VERY buggy to move on. I can only walk from the mid guns to the armor about 50% off the time, the rest I simply fall off.
... I would suggest maybe 3 different unique map markers, one for airplane, one for boss, and one for the rest. Also, having names attached would be too chaotic with the large amount of alliance enemies, so maybe have a key on the left showing the difference between types of markers.
On upgrades:
Again, I hate them. Not for personal use, as they are fun. However, on a meta game level, they mess up everything. As a pilot, I use to be able to tell my crew to bring specific things for specific tasks. Now I just say "Just bring whatever you want." because upgrades can now be better than what you would normally take, or just because you don't want to argue with anyone over them wanting to use their upgraded shizzel. I don't care to ask what level tools everyone has.
I was actually going to suggest single (or multiple) use items as something special to use a while ago, but that was before I thought they would ever have an upgrade system for tools. So, I shelved the idea. Tools are the last thing I thought would be upgrades, since they define your role in the game. Changing roles is bad in a crew-based game.
So, moving on to those items. With tools, there are only so many upgrades you can get, and you can only earn them once. With items, the possibilities are endless. Some would be class specific. Others would be usable by all.
Full match items:
Loot crate. An item on the ship that allows crew to change their loadouts.
Stowaway. Adds one AI with a pipe wrench to your crew. Can not use guns.
Wingman. Start the match with a small ally escort ship.
Ship tweaks. Change ship stats slightly for the match. This could include a lighter hull with faster engines, or more armor with higher mass, greater lift with higher ignition chance, or slower turning guns with more power.
Coffee. Increase stamina regain rate.
Single use items:
Air strike. Call in your own fleet of bombers.
Artillery. Call in an artillery strike using rangefinder to target.
Specialty, one reload ammos. Completely OP, but Ok because you only get one clip per match.
Upgrade ammo. Upgrade your current ammo for one clip.
Spare parts. Allow the rebuild of some permahull.
Super buff. Buffs the entire ship instantly.
Fly the colors. Your ship will not be attacked until you attack. Your ship must be unspotted to activate.
Elixir. Fully refill stamina.
Anyways, if each of these came in tiers (lasting longer, more powerful, more uses) with higher cost, you can easily see how this would keep players much more engaged than a simple upgrade system. If something seems OP or overused, it is easy to balance by simply adjusting the effect, or removing future purchase. It is much harder to balance tools, since people already have them, and got them for the desired effect. Lessen the effect, and people will be upset.
* Restrict airplanes to open sky sections of the map. If an airship flies too low or too close to canyons the airplanes should peel off and go back to patrolling a safe stretch of sky. This would allow the pilot to out maneuver the airplanes and with the airplanes contained to a certain area they can be purposefully engaged with long range guns if they present too much of a threat.
* Add immobile ground or balloon based turrets in areas of the map that the airplanes can not reach. This can be a simple as a gun on the back of a truck that drives into position from a hidden spawn when the player is not looking. Being static and possibly ground based allows the players more agency in how to deal with them. Also slow moving shot drop weapons would be more effective since the gunners can calibrate their aim from the ground hits and the splash damage.
Ramming could use more damage.
Ramming is perfect in novice it feels realistic , but in normal and higher difficulties there's a huge jump in the amount of damage it does. So in novice I'm able to get 3 hit rams but in normal it takes 3 times that.
Some very minor quibbles, but I'm nothing if not vain; there should really be more options for painting ships. Especially the new ones. Sure, you can paint the Magnate's balloon, but nobody's going to notice with all the bright yellow sails. They're all beautiful ships(mad props), but I'd love to customize them. Come on, there's an entire store tab dedicated to tricking out your skyboat.
On upgrades:
Again, I hate them. Not for personal use, as they are fun. However, on a meta game level, they mess up everything. As a pilot, I use to be able to tell my crew to bring specific things for specific tasks. Now I just say "Just bring whatever you want." because upgrades can now be better than what you would normally take, or just because you don't want to argue with anyone over them wanting to use their upgraded shizzel. I don't care to ask what level tools everyone has.
I was actually going to suggest single (or multiple) use items as something special to use a while ago, but that was before I thought they would ever have an upgrade system for tools. So, I shelved the idea. Tools are the last thing I thought would be upgrades, since they define your role in the game. Changing roles is bad in a crew-based game.
So, moving on to those items. With tools, there are only so many upgrades you can get, and you can only earn them once. With items, the possibilities are endless. Some would be class specific. Others would be usable by all.
Full match items:
Loot crate. An item on the ship that allows crew to change their loadouts.
Stowaway. Adds one AI with a pipe wrench to your crew. Can not use guns.
Wingman. Start the match with a small ally escort ship.
Speaking of, the macthmaking..... ughhhhh....
I have no idea how queues are formed, but it's usually single ships, the extended search time probably overrides your preference of server (even when t plops you in solo with an empty lobby), it ususally not even against the faction you originally set out against (and sometimes not even WITH your faction), and they take up the majority of queues so making 2vE or higher more difficult. Though I believe you will still be gaining the war effort in your deployed area, it's confusing and makes forming crews with friends in enemy factions more difficult. Making Custom Games is really the only way to play with your faction and friends. Is it even necessary to show the fighting parties, or could we do away with it altogether so that the war effort you gain goes to your deployed territory regardless of "where" you fight with your (enemy faction) friends?
Something I forgot in my large post is the fact that Alliance stats shouldn't be included with Skirmish stats. For an example, let's use ram kills. I averaged about ram 1 ram kill every 2 matches is Skirmish. In the open alpha, I am averaging closer to 5 or 6 ram kills per match, due to the kamikaze airplanes hitting my Corsair and dying, bringing my overall average to about 1 ram kill every match. If stats for alliance are tracked at all, they need to be tracked separately, to avoid skewing stats.