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Messages - StrawberryDelite

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Feedback and Suggestions / On Alliance and Making Tools Feel Unique
« on: August 02, 2016, 07:50:30 pm »
It is now the second day of Alliance, and, from what I've seen, upgraded greased & mallet are the only tools you need to do well. Oh yeah, and armor kit + loch exists, too.

The nice thing about PvE is yeah, you don't have to worry too much about things being too op, but you have to make sure everything is op in distinct ways from each other so that we actually have to choose between them. Right now, most of the tool upgrades are just simple buffs to their numbers, which leads everyone trying to find the tools with the biggest numbers so that they can use that. A few simple, and other probably very not simple changes to upgrades that aren't simply bigger numbers would help make tools more distinct and solidify their roles.

Let's start with the Pilot tools, because most of these tools were already distinct from each other, and I love the upgrades that were made on two of them.

Drogue Chute & Impact Bumpers:
I really love the upgrades for these. They're examples of helping to solidify a role for a tool without simply buffing the numbers. Drogue Chute is now an obvious counter to balloon poppers, while Impact Bumpers have the reduced explosive damage taken, making it great for those oh-shit moments when you're taking too much damage.

Kerosene & Moonshine:
These are the only two pilot tools I have a problem with. One damages the engines less for a little less thrust, while the other damages the engines more for a little more thrust. Great! But now you have the nightmare of trying to fudge the numbers so everyone doesn't just take kerosene.

For Kerosene, instead of simply increasing thrust when it's upgraded, have it slowly give more thrust the longer it's used. This way, it's good for those long-distance marathons where you need to quickly move to the other side of the map. Moonshine upgrades should just simply flat out increase thrust while keeping its engine damage; this way it's the tool for when you need to quickly change directions or run that quick sprint that means the difference between getting a face full of mercantile laser or barely getting out of arc long enough to survive.

Helium, Chute Vent, and Claw are in good places, they're already distinct enough from all the other pilot tools that simple boosts to their effectiveness are good enough. The reduced impact damage from Chute Vent is a nice touch, however.

Let's move on to the gunnery equipment, because the whole "this ammo is good for this gun" or "this ammo is great for this range" shtick leads to everyone taking greased because it's awesome at all ranges and great on all the guns.

Heavy Clip:
Have upgrades give a boost to on-hit damage that gets calculated as shatter damage. Now it's a great ammo to use for when you want to try to focus down specific components on a ship, such as the shoop da whoop laser on the mercantile ship or the mini shoop da whoop flame weapons on a mercantile ship. This also meshes perfectly with the jitter reduction, as it helps gunners actually aim at what they want to disable.

Incendiary Rounds:
Have upgrades cause this round to give a debuff that blesses hit components with increased repair and rebuild times. Perfect for ruining an engineer's day. Also for making sure that mercantile laser beam actually stays down when you tell it to. This fits perfectly with the general feel of the ammo, as it's supposed to help, y'know, sow chaos and stuff.

Burst Rounds:
Increased damage that gets calculated as explosive damage, with an increased effect on damage that's already explosive damage. Now this ammo is great for finishing off ships that have no armor, and it actually makes sense to use explodey rounds on the explodey guns. Now I can make sure that stupid laser doesn't hit me by making sure it stopped existing in the first place.

Charged Rounds:
Increased damage that gets calculated as piercing damage, with an increased effect on damage that's already piercing damage. Now this ammo is great for helping ships take off all that heavy armor to expose all that sexy hull, and I no longer have to explain to someone why charged rounds actually cause a gat to do less damage. Making that laser more prone to being exploded is also a nice side effect.

Lesmok Rounds:
Increases damage the longer the projectile flies. Now the sniping ammo is actually good for, y'know, sniping. Getting to show off how far you can pump a mercantile laser full of lumberjack is a nice touch, too.

Greased Rounds:
No damage change, reduce the clip size boost so it doesn't give the heatsink 3rd shot, but keep the increased refire rate. Now it's an awesome ammo for engis who want to fire a clip really quickly so they can get back to putting out those fires from that stupid laser.

Heatsink Rounds:
Completely extinguishes a gun when loaded, and reduces incoming damage to that gun by 50%. I'm shooting this gun, no matter how many lasers you throw at me.

Loch is weird. Let it do loch stuff.

Now we can get to the Engineering Equipment, because it's supposed to be a mallet, not a pipe wrench that pipe wrenches better the pipe wrench.

Mallet:
Remove the rebuild power buff. This tool is for whacking things back into place, not for trying to fix them when I can't do that anymore. Instead, maybe also keep the cooldown, but allow other tools that aren't mallets to be used during a mallet cooldown. Now it's even better at what it does best, which is keeping things that aren't bork'd from being bork'd. Also, I no longer have to worry about that stupid laser setting fire to the hull literally RIGHT WHEN I MALLETED IT.

Spanner:
Parts that were freshly rebuilt with a spanner within 10 seconds of being destroyed take no damage for 2 seconds. Now the spanner is an awesome tool for making things that are bork'd by a certain laser less likely to be bork'd again.

Pipe Wrench:
Adds a chemspray effect that lasts about 10-20% longer than its cooldown period. Now the jack of all tools really IS the jack of all tools. Also, who doesn't want a swiss-army pipe wrench? Uhh, something about lasers not setting your guns on fire here.

Chemspray:
Allows for non-fire tools to be used during its cooldown. I shouldn't have to decide between not being set on fire by a laser and repairing the damage done by a laser.

Fail-Safe Kit:
If upgraded, allow it to be used without removing an armor kit. Otherwise, why would I use it if I can use an armor kit instead?

Buff Hammer & Armor Kit already seem to be in good spots. Leave them.

Changes like these allow for more varied gameplay, as they'll force players to ask what effects would work best with their team, over what effects are just simply the best. Also, this may be the solution to the boring old triple engi crew that just about *every* *single* *ship* seems to work best with.

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Website and Forum Issues / Well, then what are we fighting for?
« on: July 31, 2016, 08:55:25 pm »

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Feedback and Suggestions / Colorblind Mode
« on: May 31, 2016, 01:05:54 pm »
So I just got into a match with a crewmember who was colorblind, and we had to tell him whenever the enemy's armor went down in case he didn't notice because he couldn't tell the difference between the red and the white indicators.

Could we have a colorblind mode added to help out with that?

4
Feedback and Suggestions / Novices
« on: October 30, 2014, 05:22:34 pm »
With the new matchmaking system, I've been seeing a lot of problems that involve novices. However, the main problem I've found with them wasn't the inexperience, but rather the unwillingness to communicate. I believe the best way to solve the "novice problem" that Guns has would be to target the unwillingness to communicate.

Novice "Status"
First off, novice status is now removed at level 5, which, going by the badges, is only the middle of level 2 in the old system. In addition to the fact that levels are now more easily gained due EXP, this means that novices are graduating far earlier than they would in the old system. For the following suggestions to work, novice status should be removed at either level 10 (level 4 in the old system), or upon receiving commendations from 10 non-novices.

In my experience, I have found that most players level 10 and higher have gotten a fairly good grasp of the game and are most likely to respond to other crewmembers, so level 10 seems to be a good number.

The commendation alternative would be for those times when a novice has played enough games to prove that s/he is open to communication and knows enough of the ins and outs of the game to be graduated earlier. After all, we've all played matches with low levels that were willing to listen and learn from others, thus making them just as good as the high levels in most cases. By allowing novices to graduate from commendations, it'll allow the better players to graduate earlier and it will give players an incentive to be open and responsive.

Mentorship System
One thing I've found to be very successful in other games is a mentorship system. This is a system that allows new players to apprentice themselves to more experienced mentors, who can help guide them through the game. Seeing as to how Guns of Icarus consists primarily of teamwork and knowledge of the game's mechanics, GoI would benefit greatly from a mentor system. Mentors would have to be level 25 or higher, at which point they can apply to become one. Once a mentor, the player would automatically be placed into a "mentor queue" whenever s/he is online. Novices can join the mentor queue whenever they like, and as many times as they like in order to be matched up with someone. Both novices and mentors can have as many mentors and apprentices as they'd like. In addition, while in the lobby or a crew formation, a novice can right click any level 25+ player and ask them to become their mentor, and vice versa. If a novice is level 5+, a mentor can choose to graduate them from novice early if they believe they are good enough.

Limits on Novices
As of right now, Novice ship builds are only limited in Novice matches. Novices should have their builds limited in all matches, but not without one of the following changes:

A. The matchmaker should take whether or not a player is a novice and a captain into account. If novice captains are in a match, the matchmaker should always ensure that there are an equal amount of novice and non-novice captains on each side.

B. The matchmaker should make sure there is always at least one non-novice captain on each team. Non-novice captains and non-novice crew members on the same ship can recommend ship builds to novice captains, even if the build is not a novice build. In addition, novice captains can ask to have a certain build approved by a non-novice crewmember or captain.

C. If both of these seem like good ideas, why not both?

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Feedback and Suggestions / Ask captain before afk kick
« on: September 07, 2014, 12:03:58 pm »
A friend of mine has a pretty old computer that takes a while to load Guns up. Most of the time, it's fine and we just have to play evasively for a little while until she loads in. Unfortunately, on some of the bigger/laggier maps or on 4v4s, she gets kicked out for afk before she even has a chance to load into the game.

To solve this, it'd be nice if, instead of immediately kicking out a crewmember for afk, a message would pop up for either the captain or the rest of the crew simply stating something along the lines "x is now considered afk, permission to kick?" Pushing F4 would vote to kick them out and F5 would vote to keep them on the ship or something along those lines. Just in case it was decided to give the "afk" member the benefit of the doubt and keep him or her on the ship for just a little longer, a button could appear next to their name in the tab menu that would either kick them out immediately or re-initiate a vote depending on whether it's up to the captain or the crew to decide.

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Feedback and Suggestions / Team-specific Ship Colors
« on: May 01, 2014, 03:31:19 am »
With the new of ship dyeing, a nice way to make sure the colors actually match your team color would be the ability to have a different dye for different teams.

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Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Team Stacking - Match Balance
« on: October 20, 2013, 10:01:19 pm »
How about, instead of ranking players, we simply get the root of the problem: Stacked teams

If a certain match ends up having the exact same crews on one side winning multiple times in a row with the other side constantly having different captains and crews and still constantly losing, people will have the option of marking the match as stacked. After X amount of people mark the match as stacked, it'll appear as so in the lobby.

If any two matches get marked stacked, then the matches will automatically be merged so as to have two stacked teams fighting against each other. Marked matches should also have higher priority for anyone with 2+ ships in the "Form Crew" option.

If there are an uneven amount of stacks and someone decides that they want to rise up to the challenge, then joining the match will show them a list of other members who want to try fighting them as well. From there, they'll have access to another chat in which they can organize each other into going to "Form Crew" and matching up against the team.

This'll be to prevent those level 1 engineers going in as a captain on a ship that obviously wouldn't work, but, at the same time, allow players who actually know what they're doing to group up and rise to the challenge. Honestly, in my experience, the real challenge to fighting a stacked team is just finding a team that doesn't include a level one engineer as captain.

If the teams are obviously still stacked (Either the first game goes 5/0 or a team wins three times in a row), both teams will be given the option of requeuing for a different match.

This way, we have a simple system that will ensure that people who want to play together will still get to stick together without having to fight against unorganized teams without forcing anyone into tiers.

8
Feedback and Suggestions / Couldn't get back into match
« on: October 20, 2013, 09:20:03 pm »
Long story short, I disconnected in the middle of a match as captain. I could've sworn I didn't spend more than 2 or 3 minutes trying to reconnect. However, when I DID get back, the button to rejoin wasn't there. So I spend another minute trying to find the match I left, and, surprise, someone took my spot. So, naturally, I decide to jump into spectate to see how the guy does. S/he ragequits after first death. I leave spectate, then realize that I can't take my spot back because I had just left spectate. Ended up waiting for the cooldown to go off, run back in and realize captain slot was taken. So now, I just patiently sit there waiting for the guy to ragequit again. Not sure how long I was waiting for, but when I finally decide that the guy wasn't leaving, I left the match and, surprise! It's in the lobby. Apparently it must've ended a while ago. No wonder the match was taking longer than it normally would've.

Just asking for a way to sit in lobby and be notified if the person who takes your slot decides to ragequit so that you can get back into the match.

//endrant

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Feedback and Suggestions / Captain's Requests
« on: October 08, 2013, 09:57:45 pm »
A nice addition for captains in the lobby would be the ability to request certain loadouts for their crew.

The way this would go about is, beforehand, the captain would build loadout sheets similarly to how you modify your equipment right now. However, they can also add to the tooltips of the different ammo types/engineering equipment so the crewmates can see the captain's logic.

i.e. Say I'm running a blenderfish. For the gunner, I'd have him bring Heavy, Charged, and Incendiary rounds. I'd have a tooltip over Heavy Clip describing exactly what it does and why it's needed "Heavy Clip will tighten the spread of the forward Carronade, making it ideal for medium to long ranges." Then I'd probably have one for both Charged and Incendiary reading "Charged is a direct boost in DPS, but, without the accuracy bonus of the Heavy Clip, it will make your shots extremely unreliable. Use at close ranges when we are just about literally in their faces. Also, Incendiary LIGHTS STUFF ON FIRE. That alone should give you reason to use it. I'd suggest alternating between Incendiary and Charged for the best effect."

Then, during the lobby, Captains can just right click their crew mates, hit a "Request Loadout" button, and then select whatever loadout sheet they want to send.

For the crewmembers, they'd get a notification of this, and, after looking it over, would get to decide whether to follow through with this or not.

Sure, you may ask "why add this whole system in the first place when messaging the crew works well enough?" It does, but it takes a while for me to type up instructions for everyone. If I could just quickly send my recommendations to the crew quickly and easily instead of taking five minutes to explain things to everyone, then it'd be a lot easier for me to make sure everyone knows what they're doing and how/why to use this or that.

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The Docks / Re: Hey there GoI! Do you like Cake?
« on: September 10, 2013, 12:53:56 am »
-Pokepoke- Can I join~?

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Q&A / Turning Faster
« on: September 02, 2013, 03:56:18 pm »
I've heard people say that putting the ship in reverse allows you to turn faster... I've also heard others say that putting the engines on idle allows for faster turn speed as well.

Which is it? Reverse or idle? Or is it neither?

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Guides / Re: Buffing 101
« on: May 24, 2013, 07:38:34 pm »
Ah, okay. I was under the impression that it would repair the hull armor. Sorry for the misunderstanding and thanks for clearing that up. :P

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Guides / Re: Buffing 101
« on: May 24, 2013, 07:16:26 pm »
Got one more tip for you:

When you buff the hull, the hull will actually be repaired by a bit w/out a repair cooldown. I'm not sure exactly how much, though. I'd say it's somewhere around a mallet's repair. So, instead of buffing the hull right before you get into battle, it might be a good idea to buff it once you've actually taken some damage. That way, you'll be able to get a sudden burst of hp to your armor, thus allowing the ship to soak up a little more damage.

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