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Topics - MagKel

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General Discussion / My first 4 months of GOIO
« on: June 10, 2015, 09:33:46 pm »
Here is what I wrote on my first month of GOIO and guess what: almost everyday I logged in and played.

tl:dr
Upon entering my fifth month and 365th hour of game time, I would like to share my thoughts and experience with the community, from game one to today

The Good
- The game hasn't lost its charm, if not it increased as I now enjoy more sophisticate things.
- I informally and formally trained a few players that later on became good players. I still fly and chat with many which fills me with pride.
- I saw the game evolve, I felt the changes and I witnessed how the community grudgingly evolved to adapt and create new builds.
- Oh, the mines.

The Bad
- The competitive scene struggles under the constrains of game modes and tools that are not adequate. Also the lack of intermediary leagues don't allow new teams to enter the spotlight and gain meaningful experience competitive wise. Let me put it plainly: there are some awesome teams, people that nobody wants to face off in a match. they are the equivalent of the Grand Masters of chess and their victories are so soul crushing that once you get stomped by them, you don't want to go back through that trail. i am happy for them, and i will try to reach their level, but they also destroy competition which means that, as of today, nobody signs up because defeat is assured. hence we need lower tier leagues that would play for a chance to fight them. We need an America's Cup model.
- Player count is still too low, which means that MMR is again ruining everybody's fun. When the online counter drops we need to go back to the lobby list. If you are afraid that this would crush the servers, well, you are wrong because if the servers can hold 3000 people they can for sure hold visible lobbies for 250 players.
- Disruptive behavior is unacceptable. Give an achievement for accepting load-outs, create a parallel level that describes how nice you are or anything that will promote collaborative behavior from a new player. You can always leave a ship you don't like but you can't drop a player that stubbornly wants to be second gunner on a squid.
- Capture the Flag. I haven't seen it yet.



1. Here comes the block list. I blocked some people. not because they were noisy in the lobby (I do believe the prime reason for blocking) but because I didn't like they personality. Maybe I was wrong, maybe we just didn't match in the right way but if I go back to the list and look at it, 90% of them haven't played in months. There are some notorious exceptions of people who still play and sometimes magically appear on my ship, but overall it is a sign that I became increasingly exclusive in my choice of ship mates, willing to jump to another or join a friend's game rather that stay. I was blocked too as I discovered when trying to join some games.

2. Friends in high places provide high expectations. I befriended high level players and learned a great deal, I still do. yet I entered a different stage in my game where failure is when things that are not flawless. I was required to keep ships alive in 2 v 1, I was required to snipe components from the other side of the map or as a pilot to carry daring maneuvers that would save the match. Those would not be considered surprising successes but the normal course of battle, giving the game a different perspective. If before I would have been excused a mistake, now I am absolutely not. There is no more learning credit for me. Hence my "fun" changed dramatically: Everything is routine now, public lobbies feel like breezing through simple, linear affairs where all the cards in every deck are exposed. Only when high level, organized players are facing off there is a true thrill, a true desire for victory. I know the ins and out of every ship, where to jump, where to stand waiting or the chem cycling and reload weapon patterns. more and more games are silent, murderous affairs against unorganized, assorted crews that don't stand a chance. The maps too are now familiar grounds with established spots and trails. the "fun" now is trying new things, new places and experiment with the knowledge that everybody on board knows how to tank in case things go south.

3. Tales of TB and 404. My life has always been split between North America and Italy and it is surprisingly showing it too in GoIO. TB and 404 are the people for which in those four month I connected to a level that I can truthfully call them friends. I care for them, I like playing with them more than with anyone else and recognize their voices without having to look up who's who, which is no easy feat. My job and my career is full of evolving teammates that became friends and now GoIO is rightfully one of those  places. It is an easy living I must say, the lack of strife sometimes is unsettling (man I wish I had this at the fire-station) but this is much the result of the leadership of Byron, LogHalley, Neusy, Trivee, Murkub and FranckM. Both clans display very distinct personalities molted in the years and each of the leaders create consensus in their own way. Nobody can understand my feeling of relaxation after a day of giving orders left and right from been steered around in such an harmless environment. It is truly a bliss.

4. Steam sales, Developers and DDos attacks. The last month or so has been quite a complicate one for Muse games and I expressed already my opinions before, so all I can say now is: Your job is hard, we know it, you know it. Don't let the attrition take away your energies and keep looking forward: We will cry, we will complain, we will say mean words but all you need is already in your domain, slowly growing. You reached this point thanks to superior willpower and passion and that is something nobody on earth will ever take away from you. All the players can do is stand back and watch but if we log in and play your creature every day, that is a testament of love that again nobody on earth will ever be able to take awaty from you. Hold those two treasures close and remember them often.




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Feedback and Suggestions / After action report Commendation time
« on: May 10, 2015, 01:09:29 pm »
Since the new patch that places emphasis on rematch, in some instances I barely had time to give commendation.

3
Steam lately corrupts my screenshots so when i tried to open it all i get is a blank image. Does anyone has it so i can forward it?

It was the second game on Firnfield
thanks

4
General Discussion / Explaining GOIO to a new player
« on: April 11, 2015, 11:26:12 am »
I wrote a thing that I like on the Steam forum today and I am going to share it with you. Regarding the tone and content of some of the other posts I am not even going to comment because seriously, lashing at a new player because he/she had "the audacity" of speaking his/her mind on the most problematic feature of GOIO never justifies aggressive behavior. And it doesn't matter you have a million matches in the game, I don't care and I will never condone gratuitous insults anywhere. When I am with my squad on a fire or car crash there is always a passerby or relative coming to me "Chief, why don't you do this or that? Why don't you use this? You are doing it wrong!", imagine if i answered like this.

Speaking of GOIO

Quote
Aasha, I salute your dedication. Sometimes the vets can be hard and unforgiving in their comments but (with some physiological exceptions) the community is one of the nicest you will ever find. Feel free to add me so we can play together and we'll discuss it over voice chat. Also MUSE forums are a great source of information both about the game mechanics, the current trends and the future of the game.

None the less, let me explain you something I discovered regarding GOIO during my play time: it is more of a e-sport than a video-game and the vets, the competitive teams and whoever has more than 800 games will play the game with a mindset that is the furthest from the "casual fun" concept of many indie games out there. The fun of GOIO is in the minutiae of assets that you bring to the battlefield: the sum of individual skills and teamwork a ship can muster given a proper load-out and strategy. it is a multi-layered game where every element plays a pivotal role. take the wrong ammo, the wrong tool or miss a step of the chem cycle and you will lose. play your cards with patience and you will win.

This is why most people here will tell you (with varying degrees of etiquette, and I apologize on their behalf) "Quick match is horrible". Since I am not from the US, I'll use soccer as the most poignant example of what a real GOIO match is. Everyone on the ship has a role, everyone has something to do that is instrumental, fundamental to the survival and victory. What it would be of a soccer team made up only of attackers, with no Goalkeeper? What it would be a team with a goalkeeper without proper shoes and gloves? What it would be of a team arranged only on one side of the field, allowing the enemy team to roam unchallenged to the goal every single time?
Now imagine a ship without a main engineer with Chem Spray? One flamer burst and the ship would be rapidly pummeling to the ground. A crew without spyglasses, unable to mark the targets for their captain? a gunner without the right tools such as heavy clip on heavy carronade and hwacha?

it would make a short, bitter game where hardly anyone learns, where the taste of victory is stale given the randomness with which it was gained. The players would not learn, would not understand the science behind a seemingly complex array of weapons. Would you learn how to crew a standard long/short range Galleon or Junker without a clear and firm hand guiding your moves? Would it be possible for a crew to decide duties without the quietness of the Lobby, making everyone aware of how fundamental each role is?

No, it wouldn't and instead more and more players would gain a warped perception of what GOIO is, the potential for everyone to feel pride in a 5-4 victory like no other game out there can give. GOIO is a game where people take that extra mile of sacrifice and instead of firing a gun (which is fun) run the length to the ship to let another player fire her/his gun so that the crew, as a whole cohesive unit, can win the match.

Would this be possible to happen in a random, fast and chaotic game where anyone can jump in regardless of conditions and needs? Even faster and more repetitive games such as CS require a modicum of planning and thankless sacrifice. GOIO places this element at the center of it, making someone more proud of saving its own ship rather than killing an enemy.

I see you around and may your skies be clear of flak and the balloon not on fire.

5
Feedback and Suggestions / Melpomene Stun Emitter
« on: March 29, 2015, 10:42:32 am »
light utility weapon

TL:dr the weapon functions as a flamethrower, it is designed for short range suppress and defense, inflicting light damage to components and stunning the crew, impairing maintenance and repairs. A ship under attack from Melpomene would not be destroyed but instead forced to work under increased stress. Crew members would move less efficiently and the visibility of the pilot would be impaired as well. The effect would not be crippling but nonetheless effective.

Direct Damage:
 very low continuous Shatter
AoE effect:
 stuns the crew, reducing visibility (similar to a flashbang or stun grenate in first person shooters, i think Unity libraries for this are plenty)
Burst Radius
 5 meters
Effective vs
 Crew, Components
RoF
 15 bullets/s
Reload
 10 seconds
Magazine
 200 bullets
projectile speed
 195 m/s
range
 150 m
jitter
 10°
Spread at max range
 ___ (don't know if Unity Engine and Muse use average group radius, offset spawn points or else)
Horizontal Angles
 60° L 60° R
Vertical Angles
 35° U 35° D

The weapon has been re purposed from a fog horn paired with a flashlight emitter, mostly used by merchants and explorer to scare and defend themselves from wildlife or the occasional raider. With a few augmentations it has now become an efficient suppress tool for picket ships, spotters and scouts while it may have some use also as last resort defensive weapon for long range snipers.

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Comunita' italiana di Guns of Icarus Online / Lebtr per tutti
« on: March 23, 2015, 07:09:39 am »
ve lo meritate.

Inoltre... che *azzo è Lebtr?

7
General Discussion / My first month of GOIO
« on: March 18, 2015, 02:03:54 pm »
I don't even remember why I bought GOIO, I think I stumbled upon a Total Biscuit video and half through it I was already downloading it on Steam. Talk about love at first sight.

Tl:dr
Upon entering my fifth week and 123rd hour of game time, I would like to share my thoughts and experience with the community, from game one to today.

The Good
- Exhilarating game that naturally promotes a competitive mentality without giving up casual gaming.
- The Community informally trains the new players better than any possible tutorial.
- Lots of offline material in order to improve the gaming experience and performance
- Veteran players are so nice, sometimes it feels like an utopia.
- Possibly the only true team E-Sport
The Bad
- It should be easier to examine the ships and crew loadouts during the lobby time.
- There should be a way to promote the suggested loadout acceptance without punishing any player (maybe an achievement system?)
- Through a voting system it should be possible for a team to carry into battle 2v3 or 1v2
- Where is the capture of the flag game mode? (You capture the enemy flag at their spawn point and carry it back to your spawn)
- Some assets on some maps make lag unbearable


1. The Community makes you play. From noob to less noob.
You simply don't understand the game without someone mentoring you and there will never be any tutorial deep enough to teach you effectively how to crew or pilot a ship. A noob is a noob until someone commits the time and patience to explain the game and forgives you for the inevitable mistakes. Let me remind you how deep and entrenched is this concept among the community: On game two, since I couldn't find any novice game (I live in Italy, most of the time servers for me are >60 players) I tried to lobby for a normal game. I was of course the noobiest of noobs, I didn't even know the layout of a pyramidion, I haven't used the chat yet nor crew voice chat. My ship sat there for a good minute while the crew explained me in detail what to do, how and when. Then we started the match and we lost mostly because of my ineptitude at repairing the balloon and firing the gun. All I got was "Don't worry, you will learn." "It is not your fault" "It is ok" with a deep and sympathetic Russian accent. After that game my crew left the new lobby and a couple of seconds later I was invited in crew formation. Every other team member was at least level 30 and yet they didn't mind devoting they time to teach me while accepting my mistakes. There is simply no other community like GOIO.

2. Nobody fights. Everybody is nice, what is this sorcery?
On my first week I drifted from lobby to lobby, even ending up playing with players that are pillars of the community here and on game. Maybe I was just lucky (and I read a lot of guides) but it took me only a week to feel part of GOIO, to try to do the chem cycle and still manage to fire a gun, to recognize the pings of the gatling gun and rush to the hull, to help with the spotting and chat aimless about weapons, metas and performance while waiting for a target. I even absorbed knowledge by just paying attention to the  general lobby chats or the questions and answers made by other inexperienced players. Sometimes a Bard would play some music over the mic. Slowly I realized that the other players of this game were like me, they loved the teamwork as much as I did and the good sportsmanship of a 5-4 game would fill the hearts with joy no matter which side of the board they end up.

3. GG is truly GG. Careful calibrations bring infinite interactions.
GOIO has the same feeling of a soccer match to me. There are no winners until the game is finished. Of all the variables involved, the human element is predominant. Yes, you can play meta and think you will win easily but even before the nerf I have seen quite a number of pyras going down pretty quickly. it is essentially a very balanced game because there are too many things aside from the ship that could go well or worse. Yet I am still amazed by the mathematical elegance of the ships and components, how they are all a viable mean through which achieve victory. Muse, you have some real genius working in there. Every game is different, from a long drawn sniper battle to a furious melee with reinforcements rushing into battle, saving allies and ambushing unsuspecting enemies. Victory is always there, it is this mirage that gives the freedom to the losing side to keep rushing into battle instead of holing up at spawn. I was in my second week and I understood there would be no match like another, being the combinations truly endless.

4. Clans? A different game
My previous experience in gaming with a hierarchical structure goes back to CS or Arma and I was with long time friends, playing over LAN and only then online. So I can say [TB] is my first real "clan experience", I even had to install Teamspeak the day I joined it. But my first encounter was while playing against them in a game in which I finally saw Clan v Clan gaming. It was a 3v3, I was on a ship of randoms, the other two ships on my side and one in the opposition had a lot of []s (I don't remember precisely, surely there was CAKE in the mist), lots of voice chat and jokes. Then a silent monolith of 8 players dropped in, interacting with the lobby via text. They were greeted warmly but the ships on my side immediately changed to match the opposition while on team chat two people suggested at the same time to my captain what to do in a gentle way. Nobody readied until we all had whole crews and some spectators. I was looking at the names and levels, I felt inadequate and didn't want to ruin everybody's game so I wrote a pm to a spectator "do you want to swap? the levels are too damn high" and the reply was "no, enjoy :-)". And yes, I enjoyed the game: our balloon popped from shots fired by an unseen opponent, the ships flew in a formation flowing, engaging and disengaging like a school of fish. As the match went on I realized there was a science behind the disabling hwacha shots that sent me into a frenzy of repairs, the sudden hull drops paired with a very fast death. It was the first time I felt the need to provide solid feed back to the captain at all times, for the first time I would say "sprayed for combat" if I had all my things in order or "not dead yet" if i knew I could keep the armor up. 5 minutes into this game, less than 100 matches into GOIO and my mentality was irremediably changed: I was in the zone, I was thinking and acting methodically, I was experiencing my first e-sport game.
I was impressed by the match, the atmosphere, the fact that people would joyfully spectate a game, not minding the presence of an inadequate goldfish dropping dead way too easily and firing without heavy. We were flying with veterans and champions and yet they welcomed our presence. I added Byron as friend and immediately tried to join up the games, flying with them on one when a spot opened. I was practically a stalker. Moving from random crews into a clan crew while less than two weeks into the game didn't make me exactly confident of my skills. Looking at their profiles I realized I had less than 1% of their games played. The ship too was a complicate assortment of weapons, contrary to the simple layouts of a goldfish or pyramidion. "There is the science" I thought looking at it, realizing every ammo goes somewhere, everyone has a role and everything is honed by constant practice, the training and attitude of the team. I was asked if I know how to main the top deck of a galleon, i replied "I hope so". I inverted the position of spanner and mallet for the first time and while people ran around in a frenzy on other ships this was a sea of calmness and efficiency. I stood on the main deck of the galleon, silently running between a buffed balloon, hull and engine with spray while slowly the guns under me fired. I hardly worked that match and yet I felt the responsibility, the role of a main deck engineer like never before. Once we went back to the lobby I was told "thank you very much" and a swap request appeared, I obliged and I was thanked again. From there I went straight to practice mode, disabled the AI, damaged every ship multiple times and tried to learn some more. So yeah, I fell (still very much fall) from a squid countless times.

5. Clans! Noob pilot and veteran crews.
I opened the community tab for the first time that night, I looked for The Brotherhood, i realized everybody there had a ton of experience yet the message on the page struck. Still I had no idea how deeply TB was lodged in the community back then. The next day a steam sale came and matchmaking didn't let me play with clans anymore so I began to fly myself a junker. It was then that some []s would show up as crew, a level 7 pilot with a level 39 engineer. No matter what, they kept mentoring, they patiently waited for me to line up the guns and while in the lobby they suggested every possible solution. I was expected to carry them into battle and instead I crashed into the geometry, I was expected to give roles and orders and they did it for me; the more I played the more I wanted to be part of an orderly and efficient ship crewed by nice people. Sure it was fun to meet new players every round and I still do relish it (squid rushing against a hwacha galleon? best engi training ever) but with the steam sale a recruiting post of the Brotherhood showed up on the official GOIO steam page and I told myself: "Worst thing to happen is that nothing happens". Little did I know...

6. From Randoms to Clan. It is more than a tag.
The day I was accepted I didn't play, I watched instead the match from twitch and realized I got myself into something much, much bigger than I could expect. Clans strive for perfection, they evolve as the game evolves and at the same time keep a leveled head behavior, a tactful attitude toward others. When I spectate I study what Frank does, when I play, I follow orders. This is no game to buy and drop after a few months just to release aggressive impulses and lessen some ego issues. There is no pleasure in winning an undeserved victory or oppress the other players: you will instead apologize first if one of the captains leave during the match and say GG even if you lost 0-5. With the [TB] tag on and less than 200 games in my pockets my perspective changed yet again, I wasn't simply an object of the community, I became a subject. I would show up for practice and be trained by veterans, I would behave in a way proper to TB and as TB I would get to know people who are friends first and foremost; but I would also behave with the public in a way that is expected from a GOIO clan player. Someone needs help? Sure I can try to help you. You would like to learn? I can explain you what I know. Crew, which ship would you like to fly? Please gunner, take your position because of this or that, thank you. Please. Thank you. My pleasure. Please. Sorry. Well played. Thank you. No problem. GG. My skills in the game would take a very long time to improve but what I realized in my fourth week was that not in any circumstance I should behave rudely or in an inappropriate manner. My trial time was over, the community is great because I shall contribute to make it so.

7. Fifth week. Friends in expected places.
With my level steadily increasing I am finding myself in more and more [] lobbies when playing with randoms. Because of the timezones, I am usually playing with Russians, Europeans or early US East Coast till TB wakes up. As I write, I marvel at the fact that I can say I know some players and I cherish when I find them online. We end up playing maybe five or six games in a row, flying around in improbable builds just for the laughs and maybe get the chance that a newer player would show up so that we can teach the game and make sure everybody has a good time. How did it happen? How did I get so involved in such a short time, to the point that I am sure in March 2016 I will be still playing and enjoying as of today? How did my new car's smell evaporate so quickly that I actually care for GOIO to be successful and popular as it deserves to be? How can I be so sure that the people reading this or that I meet and will meet in game are nice people? In short, again, what kind of sorcery is this?

Thanks for reading, may your skies be clear of flak and your balloon not on fire.

(Ah, the feels, the damn feels.)

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