Messages

1

Dev App Testing / Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking

« on: July 18, 2014, 04:10:45 am »

After trying to read this thread through, i got only to page 5 and got tired.
A lot of the concerns here repeat themselves.

On all this negative note of comments and concerns (Which are by the way very valid, and I will not argue with any of the statements), i would like to ask you players something:

Why do you think that matchmaking in general is such a bad system? There are so many games out there that use matchmaking apart from League of Legends and Dota 2 to see how bad it is. What about games like Starcraft 2? I see that matchmaking potentially is going to improve a lot of things.

How many times have you been stuck to a lobby for 30 minutes because you get 14/16 players and the few people that stay in the match to wait for these last 2 players leave every 5 making you wait even longer?

You guys are saying that it will kill your ability to find custom matches to play with your competitive friends, well let me ask you this:
How is it different to matchmaking? All the difference is that right now, you have a list of matches to choose from and the biggest thing is join an already running match. With matchmaking it will be almost the same apart from your choice of a specific lobby. You will still have the ability to leave a certain lobby you know, and you will have the ability to re-queue and find another 1. You only won't be able to choose which 1 in the first place and to join running matches. But as it stands even with match list - Before you join the lobby, you don't know who is playing in that lobby.

I do believe that if matchmaking going to go through, it will not be a problem to make lobbies that you left to be in a lower priority in your next queue - That way you won't be joining the same match over and over after leaving.

I think that this system will do 1 big thing - That is filling a lobby with people in less than 30 seconds. The captains would be the ones to decide when to start the match any ways, so if you want to socialize, or wait for a certain player to leave - You'll still be able to do it....
Hell even if you want a specific player to join your game - It is still possible because they haven't removed "Spectator" slots. So your friend can join as a spectator and then swap slots with anyone in the active ships.

I would like to note again, i do not disagree that removing match list is going to take away an experience that older players are familiar with and like.... But at the same time, just like you guys have mentioned you guys didn't like "Scramble" either and over time it was refined to suit you all. Why then to be so resistant to a change that in the long run going to make the game better?

Specially Tropo (Only because of a phrase you said =D )
I do understand and you have no idea how much i agree about the fact that this is not CoD and that we are not supposed to suffer because of 12 year old kiddies that don't have patience nor know what they want. But at the same time, these exact kiddies are the people who ruin my experience already as it is by leaving mid match and by leaving lobbies after waiting for only 1 minute even with the existing match list.... I personally do not like to wait 40 minutes in a lobby just to start a 15-20 minute match to then wait again for about 30-40 minutes to start the next because 3 people left (Because it's already been over an hour since they started the game and have things to do in their life)
I personally do not like that i come back from work and able to play 1-2 matches at max and it takes me almost 2 hours where i mostly wait in a lobby.... This is a flaw and is being addressed and i am happy with it.

2

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: [Feedback] Some UI mechanics, chat and game rules

« on: May 24, 2014, 08:28:25 am »

Firstly thanks for the feedback =) on this topic. However i would still like to touch several things you've mentioned:

Firstly, as someone else who uses their keyboard an awful lot - I understand. That being said, no two games are the same in how they're built and I would really recommend that you use your computational plasticity to get used to not making that mistake. A prompt would be nice, but really this is an issue of habit, not game design.

I know it is a habit and that is exactly how i have presented it ^.^ i were merely asking for a feature which i believe is easily possible to implement, just to save the "Oh crap" moments that's all. I do believe that adding a prompt would be a very good addition regardless of my habit and would benefit other players as well.

This game is built to be played with headphones. If your wife is next to you, then the block feature will be adequate for your needs. If that doesn't satisfy you, then get her to mute her speakers entirely, or both of you can play off the same mic+speaker setup, both using it to communicate.

As much as this is true, it is just imposing an inconvenience. I have put only an example of where a "Mute" option could be useful. The "Block" option sound more permanent, and if i am not playing from our home but from my friends place, she would need to unblock me and such things. It is very simple to just add a convenience such as "Mute" for this particular match that's all.

Practice mode (Blumer's Blastyard) Allows you or a group to fly a ship outside of a match. You can fly as one ship, or you can fly 1v1, 2v2 and all the configurations in between. You already can spawn in AI enemies using the Sandbox keys which are on your Right hand Side of your UI in the Practice Mode. This allows you to come up with your own goals and fly how you want. You really need to check out these features before coming up with feedback. Most of the things you mentioned the Practice Mode needed are already in that gamemode.

The thing is that if i want to practice not against AI (Which sometimes is just not the same as other people) i would be needing to make a group of people i know (Or convince from the chat... Which is very unlikely) to join a practice match with me. Unfortunately i do not have an extent of more then 8 people to join a match with me for practice purposes... Thus i just have suggested a way to make people able to practice together without goal nor with the need to arrange practice matches. Just a "Looking For Group" system for practice matches to pit people together.
Now that i think of it - It might indeed be quite chaotic, but at the same time with no goals or scores it will be less frustrating for people and it might lead to less leaving in mid match (Specially in novice games).
Not by any stretch of the imagination have i said that the current practice system is flawed! I like it, and i've learnt quite some things from there (Specially while piloting), i have only suggested on how to make it more of a player base experience rather then 1 player vs AI ....


However thank you very much for the thoughts =)
I would only like to add that in my original post, i did not mean to say that the game performs bad in any way and i am sorry if this is how it been interpreted. I am having a blast! And the game is polished as it is.

I did not know about several things (Like the chat commands) because as you have mentioned they are not publicly available so i am glad to know it now =)

3

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: [Feedback] Some UI mechanics, chat and game rules

« on: May 24, 2014, 06:09:55 am »

Well to me block sounds like blocking all communication at all, and not just muting voice in 1 match.

However i would also like to hear opinions about other things i've mentioned XD

4

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: [Feedback] Some UI mechanics, chat and game rules

« on: May 23, 2014, 06:54:06 pm »

The only way to mute i've found was "Block" =/

5

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: [Feedback] Some UI mechanics, chat and game rules

« on: May 23, 2014, 03:44:30 pm »

I didn't know about the reply feature, but still to be able to whisper could be cool.

And about the muting... She didn't need to listen to me via speakers, it is just when i were speaking - Because my mic would pick up both me and her speakers... It caused a lot of noise when speaking and a lot of feedback from speakers

6

Feedback and Suggestions / [Feedback] Some UI mechanics, chat and game rules

« on: May 23, 2014, 10:18:36 am »

Heya everyone.

So i own GoI for quite a long while now, and have been playing A LOT. The game is just amazing, and well really under rated. I've wanted to put some feedback together of things i've noticed over the course of playing and interacting with the menus. Hope it will be constructive enough to be helpful. I would put here things i have problems with, and with that a suggestion on how i think it could be done better.

I would also very much like to see anyone state their opinion on the matters i am about to touch as i am interested to see how many people think alike or disagree with me, so thanks in advance =)

The menus and UI

I don't have much to say about how the menu work, but i've encountered a very big issue with it (Or perhaps it's my sticky fingers). When i am in a match which awaits a game to start (Crew is forming, people change load outs etc...) if i click on some say notifications, or social or any other menu, after finishing to do whatever i were trying to with the extra menus i would naturally press the [Esc] button because usually it is responsible to close additional menus which are open. In this game however the [Esc] button would drop me out of the match rather then closing the additional closed menu. This will cause me often then not a big amount of frustration, because by the time i try to join back into the match i accidentally just left my spot would already be taken. For someone that tries to interact with the mouse as less as possible - This is a very big issue for me. It comes really naturally to me and there is little to nothing i can do to stop this habbit.

I would suggest either adding a confirmation prompt upon trying to leave a match (Where pressing [Enter] key will automatically confirm the action, and leave the "No" option to be clicked with a mouse or the [Esc] key) or making the [Esc] key actually close the latest opened menu.
Now i do not know how the UI interacts with itself and how it is built, so i don't know if it is possible to make the [Esc] key to close say Notifications. But I believe it is more then possible to add a prompt to exiting a match. It will be so much help!

Apart from that, i believe that the UI and menus are working pretty much as intended =) . At least for me everything is really intuitive as to where i can find anything i would want.

Another thing i would like to add into the UI section is the VOIP in game. I have no problem with it at all, but there should be 2 separated options to muting people, and blocking their communication entirely. For obvious reasons these 2 should be separated and i should not go on about it too much.
I have 1 example of last night when me and my wife were playing:
We are both sitting at the same room, and our PC's are one next to each other. We were playing in the same match and on the same ship. I wear headphones and she is using speakers (Because we do not have a second set of headphones yet). Whenever i tried to speak over the voice chat, it would feedback like hell because my mic would capture my own voice and all the background from the speakers my wife were using. That basically rendered our communication to the rest of the team impossible until she have muted all sounds from the game (Resulting in her not hearing what our team mates were saying and me needing to repeat everything that were said).

The chat system in the game

Well I don't know how much have been brought up on this matter before (So i apologize in advance if i bring up old news) but here is what i have to say about it.
First and foremost! There must be a way to reply to private messages regardless of where you are. Either in global chat, match chat, clan chat or even within a game. A button or a chat command (Like /r in most games and specially MMO's out there). Now i know that GoI is not an MMO or anything, but still please. It is essential to be able to reply to someone fast without waiting for a match to end. Now some of you might say that if i am in mid match i can press [Esc], then go to "Notifications" and respond from there. But -
1) For me it never works. It shows that the chat will actually write a reply to the person who texted me, but i cannot send it.
2) It is too complicated in middle of match to press [Esc] and open a sub menu, and find the right notification with the right person to answer to, and only then be able to respond.

I would suggest adding a several chat commands which will simplify social interaction. I've heard the devs saying that they want the chat to be some sort of a cantina, but at the same time - Please let us choose whom to send a private message? I mean i should be able to use the chat to send private messages rather then looking for a list of names in my friend list and left clicking them to send a message, or fishing out the right name in the chat, as well as a quick "Reply private message" will be equal to magical.

Other then this, the chat seems fine =)

Game rules

There is only 1 topic i want to touch in this section, and i don't know how to even call it so thus the name "Game Rules".
My biggest issue is that as soon as any of my classes reaches level 4, i cannot join "Novice" matches. Now i see where it comes from and why it was implemented, but if i am level 4 engineer and do want to practice my gunning or piloting - I must join a none novice game and because of my inexperience, i basically am causing a lot of frustration to the experienced people (Specially if i am piloting).

I would really like to ask to do either of 2 things:

1) First suggestion is simple - Just make it possible to join with classes less then level 4 to novice matches. As in i cannot join novice matches with my level 4+ Engineer, but i can join with my level 3- gunner or pilot to novice matches.
2) Make a "Practice mode" more game like. If i am not totally wrong and have no idea how this system works today "Practice" as it stands offers you a game with no goals and foes. Unless you invite people into it, you will be left there alone and be able to do all sort of things (Like spawn AI ships and stuff like that). I believe that this idea is cool for people who like to do it solo (Or with a small group) but i believe that there is a better way

Why not to have a queue for practice matches? How it works? Well i'll try to explain with my best verbal abilities:

Upon pressing the "Practice" button (Or the equivalent...Name it differently, i believe there are enough creative people out there =] ) you will be asked to choose the ship you want to practice on and then the class you want to practice (So essentially 3 buttons - Pilot, Engineer and Gunner respectively with the corresponding icons).

After choosing your class you would be put into a queue as this particular class. Once it is your turn you'll be thrown into a 2v2 match with others that have also been participating in the queue and the system (AI or something) will match you up with the missing classes for a crew (Aka 1 pilot, 1 gunner and 2 engineers on a ship for example).

The ships will have a practice default loadout which cannot be changed. There would not be any time limit, score limit or anything in the map. 2v2 ships would be just flying around and being able to practice piloting, engineering and shooting as the game goes forever untill the members leave (And the system replaces them with people on the queue).  Every ship that is taken down will instantly respawn at a single default spawning point (Which to avoid spawn kills will be not reachable by the opposite team via invisible walls, and to avoid people sniping from that area, they would be thrown out of the area after a small amount of time... Like with a gust of wind...Rapidly moving to the border)
That way no one will ever be pissed as there is no way to win, there will be no frustration at anyone (Because of instant respawn and such) and people would be able to practice their abilities.

Now feel free to elaborate on this mechanic as you please because i am more then sure that i missed a couple of points that would break it or make it frustrating. But the core idea - I believe is something that will be quiet pleasing for a lot of people =)

And to conclude!~
The game is amazing! I am having a lot of fun with it! And i am starting to play more and more as time goes (And when i can). Because of that, i started to care a lot about the game and thus i would really love to see the game have some improvements on slight things that can be annoying. Just so it can succeed even more!

Hope i made myself clear at everything i've been trying to say, and feel free to tell me your opinion =)