Messages

1

Dev App Testing / Re: Test Scheduling

« on: June 22, 2014, 05:52:58 pm »

Today's testing session was a moderate success. We didn't get a full server, but we got to test the new ammos on some of the guns. Another plus is that there were a couple of new people who showed interest in becoming part of the testing cycle. The testing session was stopped roughly 1 hour after the starting time as there were some people who couldn't keep playing and we didn't have enough pilots+gunners.

I'll keep you posted as soon as there's a date for the next testing session. For now, thanks to everyone who attended!

2

Dev App Testing / Re: Test Scheduling

« on: June 14, 2014, 02:38:22 pm »

Hey there,

Straight to the point: I'm organizing a test run for the newest dev app changes. The test will take place on next Sunday, June 22nd, at 5 PM EST / 9 PM UTC. For reference, the Sunday community skirmish starts at 3 PM EST / 7 PM UTC on this Sunday (June 15th). You will be able to attend both the testing session and the Sunday community skirmish, as the testing event has no time constraints - you are free to join and leave as you please.

It would be excellent if we could get at least 8-16 players in total to test things for roughly 2 hours, give or take. If we can get more people, we can make it a 3v3, but for now I'm planning a 2v2. We will meet in the dev app around 5 PM EST / 9 PM UTC. I’ll create a match and everyone will be free to join. If there are people who can't make it at the start but could join later, no problem - everyone is free to join the match via match list later on.

During this session – which will consist of regular matches in a scrambled lobby - it is very much encouraged to use the new and changed ammunition and openly talk about game balance via in-game text chat. Whenever you have time; during deaths, out of combat time, lobby phase, etc. This is the most important thing; unique, individual and also group feedback about the changes. I will be recording the chat and will forward your opinions so you don't have to go beyond discussing them in-game if you don’t want to. You are of course also free to use voice chat, but be aware that it won’t be recorded and as such will not be as useful as text-based feedback, especially if I’m not on the same ship.

Of course, in addition to this, everyone is more than welcome to join the discussion here at the dev app forums. The reason I mention the forums as a second alternative in this case is that I feel that there are a lot of people who do not frequent the forums but would still have a lot of very useful feedback about the balance changes. By organizing a testing session where in-game feedback is also recorded and forwarded, it is not necessary to log in on the forums to give your input.

As we are all in the dev app forums right now, feel free to relay this message to your friends who haven’t used the dev app or the dev app forums before. Contact me or Keyvias for dev app keys, and contact Keyvias for dev app forum access. We’re always more than happy to get more people testing.

The biggest changes on the dev app currently relate to different kinds of ammunition. One of the main goals of the next live patch is to make the gunner class more viable compared to the gunning buff engineer, and a number of steps have been taken to accomplish this. The dev app will regularly get updates, and it is possible that there will be another update before the test day.

Feel free to invite your clan members and other friends to this testing session. The more the merrier. Let’s get this ball rolling.

Regards,

Vesa „Schwerbelastung“ Vahermaa

p.s More info about the gunner improvements / ammo testing in the following thread:
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4115.0.html

p.p.s Here is the link to the Community Events forum. A thread about Sunday community skirmish #7 is not up at this time, but it should be visible on the front page once it pops up.
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/board,8.0.html

3

Dev App Testing / Re: Test Scheduling

« on: June 14, 2014, 04:18:20 am »

I have had a few going, Schwer, including Jacob...

I talked to Jacob on Skype in the CA chat about moving the testing session before and when I decided to push it back. I appreciate you had a few people interested about the session, but the reason for pushing back the session was that I had gotten word from no one that they would be bringing others in nor that they would be sure they would attend themselves. As I mentioned before, I do apologize for pushing this back. I should have given more time to you guys to forward this to your clans and then get back with an estimate.

By the way, have you joined the CA chat? I tried to ask around in the Skype chat but the others weren't sure whether you were using Skype or not. If you wish to join it, check the CA forums for details.

4

Dev App Testing / Re: Test Scheduling

« on: June 13, 2014, 07:26:10 pm »

As you can see from my first post on this page, this Saturday's testing session is CANCELLED.

The reason is that I have so far gotten word from 0 people that they or their friends will be attending this event, so I believe it will be better to not have anyone waste their time by logging on on a Saturday evening (or afternoon in the states) in case the test session would not be successful.

The new time for the testing session is next weekend (21-22.6), and I will post another reply in this thread as soon as possible so that everyone will have a week's notice (as opposed to a few days that was the case here). I will gather information about community events happening on that weekend so I can do my best to avoid conflicts with anyone's GoIO schedules.

My sincere apologies to anyone who may have marked this Saturday in their calendars. I will also contact the 4 contact persons I had E-mailed about the session, to let them know that it is being pushed back by a week.

5

Dev App Testing / Re: Test Scheduling

« on: June 13, 2014, 06:51:54 pm »

Errrrr... are those times right? I'm pretty sure CET isn't supposed to be behind EST (or, as we are now in daylight savings, EDT)...

You are correct. My bad, I'll be sure to fix the mistake. Luckily there were two times so the mistake could be noticed.. hopefully by everyone.

6

Dev App Testing / Re: Test Scheduling

« on: June 13, 2014, 03:57:07 am »

CANCELLED - SEE BELOW PLEASE

Hey there,

Straight to the point: I'm organizing a test run for the newest dev app changes. The test will take place on this Saturday, at 15:00 EST / 22:00 CET. It would be excellent if we could get at least 8-16 players in total to test things for roughly 2 hours, give or take. If we can get more people, we can make it a 3v3, but for now I'm planning a 2v2. We will meet in the dev app around 14:45-15:00 EST / 21:45 – 22:00 CET. I’ll create a match and everyone will be free to join. If there are people who can't make it at 15:00 EST / 22:00 CET but could join later, no problem - everyone is free to join the match via match list later on.

During this session – which will consist of regular matches in a scrambled lobby - it is very much encouraged to use the new and changed ammunition and openly talk about game balance via in-game text chat. Whenever you have time; during deaths, out of combat time, lobby phase, etc. This is the most important thing; unique, individual and also group feedback about the changes. I will be recording the chat and will forward your opinions so you don't have to go beyond discussing them.

Of course, in addition to this, everyone is more than welcome to join the discussion at the dev app forums. If you do not have access to that section of the Guns of Icarus forums yet, E-mail  keyvias@musegames.com  to get it. The reason I mention the forums as a second alternative in this case is that I feel that there are a lot of people who do not frequent the forums but would still have a lot of very useful feedback about the balance changes. By organizing a testing session where in-game feedback is also recorded and forwarded, it is not necessary to log in on the forums to give your input.

The biggest changes on the dev app currently relate to different ammunition. One of the main goals is to make the gunner class more viable compared to the gunning buff engineer, and a number of steps have been taken to accomplish this. The dev app will regularly get updates, and it is possible that there will be another update before the test day.

I'm posting this on the forums since out of the 4 contact persons from 4 different clans I've contacted earlier this week, none have replied to me (or their replies have not reached me due to technical difficulties) about how many people they would be getting for tomorrow. I'm hoping we will get 8-16 people, maybe even more, for this session.

p.s. If your clan needs additional dev keys, I will be sending them in a separate E-mail upon request. Just say so in this thread.

p.p.s More info about the gunner improvements / ammo testing in this thread: https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4115.0.html

CANCELLED - SEE BELOW PLEASE

7

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: A new piloting tool: Ship Stabilizer

« on: May 11, 2014, 05:47:10 pm »

Are you guys forgetting that moonshine pretty much allready does all of what you guys are stating?
I mean the stats where the guns get a buff because of a tool is... maybe too much but would be cool to see a tool that actualy helps out guns.

For the harpoon... the only thing moonshine does not prevent is sidewise drifting but it does help not loosing control.


I would still like this tool however. Its just that right now it needs to simply be a Stabiliser that does not hurt the engines. That way, moonshine is something with heavy drawbacks.

I do believe that it has been mentioned several times that the ship stabilization effect can be gotten through the use of kerosene/moonshine, chute vent, and hydrogen. However, with some of the suggestions in this thread, this tool could prove to be a viable option, especially to long range ships.

Because all the tools have some kind of drawbacks, I think it would only be logical to have some drawbacks for the ship stabilizer too. Also, as the stabilization effect could be reached with other tools, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea to give the tool some other benefits as well in addition to just dramatically reducing momentum. What we are trying to do in this thread is get an idea on how to balance the benefits with the drawbacks, so the tool will neither be under- or overpowered.

8

Feedback and Suggestions / MOVED: Can't verify my email

« on: May 11, 2014, 11:13:29 am »

Hello. As this was more of a game issue/bug report, the topic has been moved to Bugs and Game Issues.

https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php?topic=4004.0

9

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: A new piloting tool: Ship Stabilizer

« on: May 11, 2014, 10:40:30 am »

Have you considered harpoons?

If I had a Spire that has a harpoon on it it would instantly turn the spire out of arcs. Also it moves my ship towards the enemy which I actually don't want to happen.
This tool could allow me to use a harpoon on any ship and on any gun slot without having my ship turn against my will and without my ship getting pulled towards the enemy. I could actually reer the enemy in or even have them get stuck on the piece of cover that they were trying to get behind.

I see much more use for this tool when combined with a harpoon, when fighting mines or even combined with impact bumbers and less long range use.

Also, what would happen if everything on your ship is disabled? Does it still damage your engines/balloon/armor if you don't have these things anymore? Would it do perma hull damage? Or would the tool just not work if the thing that is to be damages is already destroyed? I think it would be rather useful to have a tool that can stop you from moving while your engines are down, like drouge chute slows your drop while your balloon is down.
Does it really have to damage anything? Why not leave it at bringing your ship to a deadstop no matter what you do while the tool is activated?
If you want to stop the tool from being abused why not leave it active for X seconds after deactivation or even ave the accelaration of everything be incredibly decreased and increase it by X% over a period of Y seconds until it's back to normal? Making it possible to move your ship again, but with the decreased accelartion your enemy can still gain the upper hand.

However, I do not see why the abuse of this tool would be severe enough to punish it in general. It should not reduce the damage you take or reduce recoil, which has nothing to do with the ship at all, making this tool less realistic than the entire game. It should just stabilize the ship and stop it from moving entirely.
The punishment already is when you have to give up a pilot tool. If you combine it with impact bumbers to counter rams entirely you have to give up 2 slots already leaving you only 1 more slot for more engine power or vertical evasion.


And Schwer: Having the tool interact with the throttle and stuff might confuse the player at times if they didn't read the description correctly. Causing more confusion than it was supposed to fix. Another possibility might be that the player is looking away while activating this tool, making it's interaction kinda pointless.

Thanks for the input. I agree that it could be very useful with harpoons, and to a certain extent also that it could be confusing if a new player didn't read the description.

However, it would be cool to let new people know somehow that the functionality that this tool offers can be achieved through other means. It's not crucial, but it would be kind of a "hidden tutorial" as ship stabilization is not something all new players consider or are very good at.

I also think that I suggested the tool to stay on a few seconds after deactivation so you could not just click it and forget it, much like you can when stabilizing the ship using moonshine. There would be a drawback which would limit your ability to move the ship immediately after trying to stabilize it.

My initial idea suggested that this tool would "combat" any increase in momentum. This would effectively mean that it would be theoretically possible to move the ship, but the movements would be very slow and potentially also damage your ship. You also bring up a good point about whether this tool would work when the engines are destroyed - I think it wouldn't be overpowered to have it work like that. It would also give more reasons on why to pick it over some other tools without (in my eyes) making it too powerful.

10

Gameplay / Re: 1.3.6 Hotfix Flamethrower

« on: May 07, 2014, 02:47:28 am »

Having played some games on and against the flamethrower in the recent days after the hotfix, I feel comfortable stating the following opinions:

-I feel the flamer is in a pretty good place right now. People are still using it - perhaps even in part because of the psychological issues Dementio mentioned - and it is definitely a viable weapon. However, it is easily countered and does not demolish ships at the ridiculous speed it used to before the hotfix.

-It has been argued by a very experienced player that the flamer already had its place in the competitive scene and was as such more or less fine before the buff. I do agree with him to the extent Dementio does, but both his opinion and mine are still only our personal opinions. Do not get me wrong, I also respect Sammy's knowledge of the game, both game mechanics and competitive gaming wise. However, it does not change the fact that while his opinions of the flamer are educated opinions, they are still his personal opinions, and hardly enough to reach a consensus.

-If the flamer did receive further nerfs, as it already has on the dev app, I do fear that people would end up using it less. Buffs and nerfs in any game, be it Guns, a MMORPG/Action RPG, or even an FPS, often have the tendency to get people using the modified (usually the buffed) guns more. This directly leads to people losing against said weapon more often than they used to, and this feeds the cycle of "pls nerf". It does not mean that the gun itself is overpowered - although it certainly does not remove that possiblity - but in my eyes rather signals that more time is needed to form a balanced overall opinion among players before further modifications are warranted.

Unless, of course, stuff like the initial flamer fix happens. Then a quick reaction and modification are most definitely warranted.

Just my 2 cents.

11

The Gallery / Re: Guns of Icarus -themed songs

« on: May 07, 2014, 02:28:08 am »

Wellllllllllllll excusssssssse me for having someone compose a song boasting of my skill and ability (maybe) thats funny and original

Ah, I misunderstood you. I thought you had not only inspired, but also been part of making that song. Seeing that you apparently hadn't, that, I guess.. makes the song less terrible?

I like this song. I feel it has a GOI ring to it. Though maybe that's just because it is the only steampunk game I've taken the time to get into. Still, I like this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkyPFhZHfhg

It's an instrumental, no lyric editing needed

I like that one. It somehow reminds me of Mike Oldfield. I haven't gotten into that many steampunk games either, but that shall go to my Guns playlist regardless. Mr. Phoenix did a fine job composing that song. Hey, wait...

12

The Gallery / Re: Guns of Icarus -themed songs

« on: May 06, 2014, 06:06:24 pm »

Sorry Schwer I kind of already inspired a song that uses the drunken sailor theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD8imm3uMOk

Bah! That would be like you trying to play the piano drunk with a blindfold on and say it was similar to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Drunken Swabbie reigns supreme!

13

Guides / Re: Some Guides i kept away. [How to mine] [Heavy flak] [Lumberjack]

« on: May 05, 2014, 09:17:23 am »

Just a quick comment regarding mines: when I occasionally use the mine launcher, I have my gunner (or if I'm the gunner, suggest that I) bring lochnagar, incendiary, and lesmok. That way he has ammunition for 4 ranges - very short (loch), short (incendiary), medium (normal), and long (lesmok). I do realize the benefits of burst and charged mines, but I usually opt for the 4 different ranges instead of more effective medium range mining.

Incendiary rounds are in my opinion better at short range mining than heatsink or greased since they do not reduce the damage. However, after the last patch, I would probably at least consider bringing heatsink instead of incendiary if the enemy has flamers due to how you can "reload and forget about chem spraying it" after using heatsink on it.

Heat-sink is useful for defensive mining where the phobos is not one of the builds primary weapons, a last second short range mine with the -20% projectile speed is much quicker to aim and shoot and then leave the gun immediately to return to repairs because of heat-sinks +50% yaw speed buff.

Correct. I usually opt for the non-reduced damage of incendiary mines compared to heatsink ones if I don't have to worry about the flame stacks as the turning speed seems to be good enough even without heatsink. Both incendiary and heatsink are viable short-range mines for me, depending on how much fire I'm facing, but before this patch I usually didn't need to consider heatsink.

14

Guides / Re: Some Guides i kept away. [How to mine] [Heavy flak] [Lumberjack]

« on: May 05, 2014, 09:11:02 am »

Just a quick comment regarding mines: when I occasionally use the mine launcher, I have my gunner (or if I'm the gunner, suggest that I) bring lochnagar, incendiary, and lesmok. That way he has ammunition for 4 ranges - very short (loch), short (incendiary), medium (normal), and long (lesmok). I do realize the benefits of burst and charged mines, but I usually opt for the 4 different ranges instead of more effective medium range mining.

Incendiary rounds are in my opinion better at short range mining than heatsink or greased since they do not reduce the damage. However, after the last patch, I would probably at least consider bringing heatsink instead of incendiary if the enemy has flamers due to how you can "reload and forget about chem spraying it" after using heatsink on it.

15

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: A new piloting tool: Ship Stabilizer

« on: May 05, 2014, 12:46:07 am »

Schwer, the suggestion on hull damage was for when the ship is turning with the tool being active.

Thanks, I'll try to get that fixed by a mod at some point. I hate leaving small inaccuracies (that I know of) behind