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Feedback and Suggestions / Re: I am begging, please add minimum level requirements to pilot...
« on: January 05, 2016, 08:52:30 pm »
I am fully against locking anything in this game, including the current system for it. I can understand and have been through the frustration with ally pilots not knowing anything about the game, nor communicating in any way. Same could be said for crew. Both make life in GoIO incredibly frustrating to get through, and I'm sure that this is one point that makes people not interested in this game over time.
My history in brief:
As a new player, like many, I joined with friends. There was one guy in particular that wanted to pilot, one that figured he'd only gun, and another guy that had a little bit of experience, so he engineered. I was very shy about even joining this game that sounded like it had such a high skill ceiling to break through, though eventually convinced myself engineering would work out since I wasn't new to games altogether. We did novice matches with the preset loadouts and generally had some fun just shooting things. None of us knew the mechanics beyond controls, so our games didn't generally go well either. I don't think I took the time to do the tutorials at the time because I was the last of my friends to join in, and they were looking to play immediately. We only had maybe two sessions of playing together before we stopped to do other games. I was the only one to stick around because I had a general interest in the gameplay and tactics. I wanted to know why we were failing and what I could do to improve my own skills.
Why I think locked content is a bad idea:
With my experience after my initial start, I started to like GoIO more and flew with good and bad pilots alike. Through the rest of my novice career I still didn't really know what was going on, but I learned quickly about some basic mechanics. Took some matches to try and pilot horribly too. What I wanted from the novice matches before I had inevitably cleared level...3 at the time? was to screw up as much as possible. To try things out for myself and see generally what worked and what didn't. I didn't really have the options in novice mode because of the locked ships and loadouts, and knew I wasn't going to be received well in standard matches. I had to learn how to shoot a hades much later. I didn't know the layout of a spire, or that a mobula was split into two distinct halves. It was pretty rough learning in a trial-by-fire method for these, though thankfully I didn't have a huge interest in piloting.
If I had the options of the rest of the ships and loadouts in novice mode, I feel that I could have gotten more from it. I feel that the current system for locked ships is useless since it can be turned off for normal matches anyways. There is no point to things being locked except for inside of novice lobbies. I like the idea of "recommended" loadouts, or even a "default" option added to the loadout list for when it's still uncertain what weapons do what, but experimentation is also needed. As for newer players, if they were to be locked out of piloting, I think lobbies would take even longer for them if there are people that are completely new, and if they joined with 3 other friends, someone would have to be on another ship altogether. That group would leave and want a refund. Sure it would force a basic understanding for the rest of the mechanics of the game, but it would also reduce the capability of people playing together from the get-go.
Possible other solutions:
The issue that I think would solve a number of problems would be more in-depth tutorials. Tutorials that go through almost a step-by-step process of the finer points of piloting, tool usage, ammo usage, gunning, stamina, engineering, and buffing. Where the current tutorials do an alright job at helping someone to understand about the damage types (namely piercing and explosive), it could be improved to where there wouldn't be a question about it. Freeze-frame certain instances and provide more information, such as where the armor breaks. Move the AI ship closer and further away to demonstrate the differences in arming times. Force the ammo to change from standard to greased to demonstrate bullet speed. Have an AI pilot to demonstrate a buffing tutorial. Have the pilot tutorial go through the different tools and in actual scenarios (include AI ships that rush the player, move up/down, etc...). Also include a scenario that has the player work with other AI ships to take down a fleet of the same size (to discourage solo rushing). This would be excellent to establish different tiers of tutorials for the basics and advanced mechanics.
One further step that could be taken is to prompt someone to take a tutorial in a class they have yet to use or do a tutorial in. Force them to select "Yes" or "No" to go through with it or not, but have a medal or cosmetic item be rewarded if they do go through the tutorial (either then or later).
Another option to consider would be a complete rework of the novice mode. It could require players to remain in novice status until a certain number of matches played and lock MMR to a certain amount during that time. Could also rework this idea into a fourth game mode (next to normal, novice, and veteran) that requires only a certain number of matches played, mic chat enabled, and a number of other features that promotes competitive play.
Other issues:
Whereas the more advanced tutorials could solve a lot of the issues in regards to experimentation and implementation of learned skills, the issue still remains that players just starting out will pilot in normal matches. Players just starting out will crew in normal matches. People that don't want to learn anything and just want to shoot stuff will be in normal matches. People that have mic chat turned off will be in normal matches. There is a vast number of problems that will appear in normal matches, and I don't believe a lot of them will be fixable unless the people are willing to go through the steps. One of those "you can lead a horse to water" proverbs.
Giving more options and places to experiment seems like the most viable solution to me in regards to this, because simply locking such an important feature out will prevent many players from doing what they want to do with this game. If they want to learn, they'll go out of their way to do it, but otherwise the more bull-headed will just keep racking up losses and frustration. I can't think of a way to change their mind unless there is some other reward to benefit cooperative play.
My history in brief:
As a new player, like many, I joined with friends. There was one guy in particular that wanted to pilot, one that figured he'd only gun, and another guy that had a little bit of experience, so he engineered. I was very shy about even joining this game that sounded like it had such a high skill ceiling to break through, though eventually convinced myself engineering would work out since I wasn't new to games altogether. We did novice matches with the preset loadouts and generally had some fun just shooting things. None of us knew the mechanics beyond controls, so our games didn't generally go well either. I don't think I took the time to do the tutorials at the time because I was the last of my friends to join in, and they were looking to play immediately. We only had maybe two sessions of playing together before we stopped to do other games. I was the only one to stick around because I had a general interest in the gameplay and tactics. I wanted to know why we were failing and what I could do to improve my own skills.
Why I think locked content is a bad idea:
With my experience after my initial start, I started to like GoIO more and flew with good and bad pilots alike. Through the rest of my novice career I still didn't really know what was going on, but I learned quickly about some basic mechanics. Took some matches to try and pilot horribly too. What I wanted from the novice matches before I had inevitably cleared level...3 at the time? was to screw up as much as possible. To try things out for myself and see generally what worked and what didn't. I didn't really have the options in novice mode because of the locked ships and loadouts, and knew I wasn't going to be received well in standard matches. I had to learn how to shoot a hades much later. I didn't know the layout of a spire, or that a mobula was split into two distinct halves. It was pretty rough learning in a trial-by-fire method for these, though thankfully I didn't have a huge interest in piloting.
If I had the options of the rest of the ships and loadouts in novice mode, I feel that I could have gotten more from it. I feel that the current system for locked ships is useless since it can be turned off for normal matches anyways. There is no point to things being locked except for inside of novice lobbies. I like the idea of "recommended" loadouts, or even a "default" option added to the loadout list for when it's still uncertain what weapons do what, but experimentation is also needed. As for newer players, if they were to be locked out of piloting, I think lobbies would take even longer for them if there are people that are completely new, and if they joined with 3 other friends, someone would have to be on another ship altogether. That group would leave and want a refund. Sure it would force a basic understanding for the rest of the mechanics of the game, but it would also reduce the capability of people playing together from the get-go.
Possible other solutions:
The issue that I think would solve a number of problems would be more in-depth tutorials. Tutorials that go through almost a step-by-step process of the finer points of piloting, tool usage, ammo usage, gunning, stamina, engineering, and buffing. Where the current tutorials do an alright job at helping someone to understand about the damage types (namely piercing and explosive), it could be improved to where there wouldn't be a question about it. Freeze-frame certain instances and provide more information, such as where the armor breaks. Move the AI ship closer and further away to demonstrate the differences in arming times. Force the ammo to change from standard to greased to demonstrate bullet speed. Have an AI pilot to demonstrate a buffing tutorial. Have the pilot tutorial go through the different tools and in actual scenarios (include AI ships that rush the player, move up/down, etc...). Also include a scenario that has the player work with other AI ships to take down a fleet of the same size (to discourage solo rushing). This would be excellent to establish different tiers of tutorials for the basics and advanced mechanics.
One further step that could be taken is to prompt someone to take a tutorial in a class they have yet to use or do a tutorial in. Force them to select "Yes" or "No" to go through with it or not, but have a medal or cosmetic item be rewarded if they do go through the tutorial (either then or later).
Another option to consider would be a complete rework of the novice mode. It could require players to remain in novice status until a certain number of matches played and lock MMR to a certain amount during that time. Could also rework this idea into a fourth game mode (next to normal, novice, and veteran) that requires only a certain number of matches played, mic chat enabled, and a number of other features that promotes competitive play.
Other issues:
Whereas the more advanced tutorials could solve a lot of the issues in regards to experimentation and implementation of learned skills, the issue still remains that players just starting out will pilot in normal matches. Players just starting out will crew in normal matches. People that don't want to learn anything and just want to shoot stuff will be in normal matches. People that have mic chat turned off will be in normal matches. There is a vast number of problems that will appear in normal matches, and I don't believe a lot of them will be fixable unless the people are willing to go through the steps. One of those "you can lead a horse to water" proverbs.
Giving more options and places to experiment seems like the most viable solution to me in regards to this, because simply locking such an important feature out will prevent many players from doing what they want to do with this game. If they want to learn, they'll go out of their way to do it, but otherwise the more bull-headed will just keep racking up losses and frustration. I can't think of a way to change their mind unless there is some other reward to benefit cooperative play.
