I've been writing this for two hours, Jedi. You should send me cookies.
So I agree with alot of what Jedi wrote, and said as much in game, but we figured I might as well post my thoughts on Alliance here (and I'll probably copypasta it elsewhere) so we can further the discussion and brainstorming.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends... Here's some more word vomit covering Jedi's essay, some replys in this thread, and further feedback I have on Alliance DLC that I hadn't already emailed previously to Muse. Sorry it's so spastic and lazy, but that's my thought process and writing style. While I truly want to make it perfect, i would go overboard editing it and it would be legit torture for me in the end. Gomenasai!~~ Q___Q
I would LOVE a more immersive backstory from Alliance. I have already gone through the main site reading as much as I can into the history of Burren and each faction, the famous pilots and ships, I have head canons for my own Bardgineer, Tribal Sniper, and Flight Lieutenant Pilot (she's not a captain, but her ship and crew were separated from their armada and are flying treacherous skies with only her own judgement to guide her! xD) and there is SO much that can be done to add to this that I am sure they just havent released yet. I think faction voice packs could be nice if done carefully. I like the idea of Newspapers, or perhaps a heavily populated "Tavern" or "Garage" or Faction Intelligence Base where we can get news of lost and gained territories and such. A "Base" could be modeled the same, but flavor text would style it to be unique to each faction. I.e. Fjords and Chaladons could probably have Newspapers, but Arashi and Angleans (who probably don't have wood or paper) would rely on scouts returning from the frontier with this information or an airship garage where they hear this information by word of mouth.
I don't mind the model style of the planes as the look doesn't detract from the game for me, but I DO think bi-wings and changing it up to make them more ramshackle and steampunk could only improve the atmosphere of the game. They become more of a problem than enemy ships in the harder game modes with 3 or 4 ships, and their AI paths could def use some remapping so they're not flying into things so much, but I don't think they are a big enough aspect of the game to focus on and so again they don't detract the submersion for me, they are just there.
You could improve on it this way though, as stated by HamsterIV:
* 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.
I think it's possible to use those stationary guns from defense well in this case. Though I think creating moving ground forces would be cool it would also require more time and work. But as Hamster stated, the need for different weapons and ammo types to target these forces could mean a ship has more play styles and objectives to choose from (also, achievements to work towards!).
Spotting as crew is a pain in the arse; it's only worth using far away, as the close you get when you're trying to kill this one ship, it's too zoomed in and you can barely see the hull and health. That being said, I also prefer the obscure way you can tell how damaged a ship is in Skirmish: the breaking ships and those red crosses.
Also it would be nice if ally ships were targetable as well, with the ability to see their hull and health a valuable asset (not all captains can communicate via mic, and chat while viable means taking your attention away from your ship to write). This is a skirmish complaint for me as well.
Otherwise, I like the spotting system for pilot, though needing to not use pilot tools to target it is annoying. I personally have difficulty seeing the faint light outlines around the spotted enemy combatants (and especially in the white clouds of some maps, Sea of Alleron being one, forget trying to spot planes..), perhaps having a menu option to choose to use a different color? Or an animated aura/target that circles the enemy?
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.
Ramming is a fun part of the game for me and many others, but it wasn't really a feasible option in Alliance against any of the ships. With balancing out armors for all the player's faction ships and AI faction ships, please keep in mind ramming. Logically some ships are stronger rammers and some are weak being rammed, but with the AI repair and rebuild being notched up each mode it wasn't feasible.
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.
It may be not as important, but I completely agree and it was my immediate complaint with the new ships; they were SO much more colorful than the Skirmish ships and I wanted to change there colors to suit ME. The ability to paint more textures on the ship would mean more paint sales for Muse, the ability to NOT confuse ally ships (the blue sails aren't always enough), AND a pilot can happily fly something that's to their palette (I like the shrike, but the colors are sooooooo not me. This is the case for most of the ships tbh).
One thing I dislike about Assault is how linear and predictable it is; I'd prefer if the outposts, base and respective generators, as well as the boss ship, were all targetable as soon as you load into the map (though I imagine this may cause issues with spawn and lag that would need to be addressed), though not seen on the map until spotted via spyglass or Captain spot. It would make scouting ship like the Shrike, Squid and Goldfish a desirable ally in searching for these targets as well as break up the mundane "Destroy outpost one, maybe destroy outpost two, forced to destroy Boss because it's hovering over the third outpost and thus you can't get to the base to end the game..." problem. War effort and personal points would be rewarded depending on the objectives you could complete, and while not all of them are necessary to be destroyed, just the end objective i.e. destroy the base, destroying outposts would benefit with less enemy spawns.
I enjoy Defense, but I think some minor tweaks may be needed to enemy and boss ships. While killing the boss isn't necessary, if you can't get the balloon back to base in time you lose, thus fighting the boss becomes mandatory. Perhaps if the ground turrets in one respective "lane" were destroyed before it could target the base, it would give pilots enough time without having to prioritize the boss. Losing turrets would mean losing points at the end of the match.
Upgrade system: I'm thinking of this from a Skirmish Mode perspective so if this remains in Alliance mode only, I suppose it could work if the system is tweaked. If it's implemented into Skirmish mode however I think it would unbalance the player base. Certain ships will be made stronger or weaker depending on the crew, it will encourage pubs to form, and as I've stated before in emails, it will make many of the items obsolete in comparison to the upgrade metas that the captains will force crews to take (assuming that said crew even listens to the captain. So far, they haven't). Obviously the ability to repsec your points could fix this, but it may be a constant thing in order to fit the needs of the ship your on, and I don't think I'd enjoy doing that every 30 minute lobby interval, not when I may also be attempting to fix various loadouts. The upgrade system really limits us. I personally prefer a diverse selection of tools and ammos to choose from to work my tactics.
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.
The idea of items intrigues me, though it would also be just as hard to implement as the upgrades I think. These in particular I like though; an added engie for that Corsair? Check!
Why don't we fly in with a battalion of planes of our own? Or at least an AI manned ally ship? It'd be necessary if you prefer or are stuck playing single ship in Alliance.
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?
Shrike: Just throw double gunner on it. They're stamina ability with the right ammos could make some arcs more feasible, yes? (But I don't plan gun arcs well. I main engie and my skills at Captain are limited to piloting and map awareness, not the weapons aspect.) The staircase rail could be fixed so engies can stop getting their clothes and tools stuck on those back engines.[/color]
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Gathered these from some of the kind photographers I met that weekend.
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