Messages

31

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Improved matchmaking via a ranking system

« on: August 14, 2013, 05:23:06 pm »

Jack, I've seen you sessions running - but I've also noticed that it takes you up to half-an-hour to drum up a training match when there's 600+ in the Lobby.  And that's typical.  Last time I dropped in on the EU training session the experienced players outnumbered the trainees.  I think it would be easier to go into a beginner match lobby and offer help.  You might get rebuffed, but you at least know you're going to the target audience and not waiting on them coming to you.

Beginner matches risk ghettoising low level players that are just shit out of luck - always in a game or not online when a session is advertised- or just don't want to put their hand up and say they need help.


I know CAs and the Muse team can, but how many do just drop into a Beginner Match and just ask how things are going, are they enjoying the game, do they need help?  If it was my game, I'd have the marketing and community liaison team doing this daily.

32

Gameplay / Re: Pyra being op?

« on: August 14, 2013, 11:43:41 am »

The Pyra is like the Mercury.  One is fine, two start to cause problems.  In a 1v1 against any other class the balance will come down to pilot skill and loadout and not ship selection.  But put Pyras in a pack of two or three and the ability to advance (or retreat) whilst keeping two light weapons per Pyra on the target whilst simultaneously shielding all three engines becomes dominating.  The ability to fight at full capacity whilst charging or withdrawing is what hurts.

Compared to what it was before the physics patch that corrected mass inconsistences, the Pyra now is barge-like in it's poor manoeuvrability.   It's biggest advantage, beyond the forward-firing twin mounts, is the location of the balloon and the engines.   With the balloon on the forward upper deck that allows an engineer to fix the balloon and man the forward port weapon mount.  With the engines shielded behind the mass of the hull and the ability to stage a fighting retreat as well as a charge the lower deck engineer has it comparatively easy as long as the Pilot is able to dominate the engagement or when the Pyra pack has superiority of numbers.  If the balloon was on the lower or rear quarter deck, or if the engines were more exposed from the front, engineering would be a far tougher proposition.  In a 1v1 these advantages are lessened as the opponent has a greater degree of freedom to maneuverer - particularly in the closing phase.

33

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Improved matchmaking via a ranking system

« on: August 14, 2013, 11:22:22 am »

I'm not convinced the Beginner Matches are even helping beginners.

Back to this point..

Is there any way that a pool of experienced players can get into Beginner matches - just in the Spectator slots?  Pulling beginners into specific training matches is like pulling teeth.  The games I've seen become dominated by the trainers making up numbers with very few trainees.

I've had players up to L3 coming onboard recently unaware of some of the basics - e.g. timing flak shots to armour destruction.  With no experience in the Beginner matches the best that can be hoped for is that players won't learn too many bad habits.  They certainly don't seem to be learning very many good ones.

It's coming back to this potential for the beginners to break-up into the Stomped and the Stompees.

34

Q&A / Re: Ships' types, loadouts and strategies for dummies

« on: August 14, 2013, 11:12:40 am »

I always think the Squid works better with instinctive weapons like the gatling, mortar,banshee and flamer on the front and side mounts.  Anything that needs concentration or aiming (flak, mercury) is working against the ships natural agility.

I quite like the mine launcher on the rear mount, but it's rare I'm flying a Squid other than on an Anglean CP match.

35

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Stop punishing high levels

« on: August 14, 2013, 08:43:36 am »

I'm kind of wondering what muse defines as a reasonable amount of time to finish an achievement.

At the moment, I imagine they regard a reasonable time as long enough that they don't have to chase after the high achievers every week and increase the level cap as often as they have done in the past.

The problem is that a definite cap hasn't been set.  Perhaps L15 should be the absolute cap with no more levels above it.  Ever.

36

Gameplay / Re: GUNS & GUNS SKILL v1.3 Balance Issues

« on: August 14, 2013, 08:41:00 am »

Think about a sniper rifle in real life, the bullets move FASTER than other guns.

Sniper rifle, a man-portable anti-personnel weapon.  Mercury, definitely not man-portable anti-armour weapon.

I don't see where your relating it back to "reality" works.  You can't think of the Mercury as a sniper rifle, the analogy just don't fly.

37

Q&A / Re: Beginning with the Galleon

« on: August 14, 2013, 08:37:29 am »

QKO, have you tried flying a Junker instead of a Galleon?  It could just be you're flying the wrong ship for your style of play.

38

Gameplay / Re: New names under spots

« on: August 14, 2013, 06:01:42 am »

It is dumbing down, turning it into an arcade game.  The screen used to be nice and clean, now it's starting to resemble the HUD of an F-16.  Not the low tech airship environment at all.

Put the names in the map or make them only visible when using a telescope, rather than create a HUD that's moving away from the low tech feel and aesthetic of the game.  It would be more useful in 3v3 to have your own team's ship names showing on the map.

39

Gameplay / Re: MAPS Balance Discussion v1.3.1

« on: August 13, 2013, 08:02:35 pm »

I really don't like the new clouds on Dunes.  It's like flying through fog, no clear view to get you bearing on where you are and at spawning in you team mate can be invisible despite being only half a map square away.  The sense of space has gone from the map.

40

General Discussion / Re: My issues with this game.

« on: August 13, 2013, 08:42:34 am »

You have Captains flying as gunner/Engineer instead of pilots.

A classic example yesterday.  On the other ship in the team there was an Engineer in the Captain's slot, no Pilot on the ship.  Against my initial judgement and personal rules, I thought that as they were flying a Spire they might be trying something to mitigate its fragility.

Thirty seconds into the match, and on the Team text channel there's the other Captain typing, "Somebody go steer"


It's times like this I don't want to Block a player, I just want to flag them as a Muppet so I can still see/hear them but get a warning if I see them in my crew or team.

Password protected private matches FTW.

41

Gameplay / Re: CP matches since 1.3.1

« on: August 13, 2013, 08:32:47 am »

The capping mechanics were definitely changed with 1.3.1 back to the pre-1.3 altitude-dependent mechanic where you have to be below the aerial buoy to register.  With 1.3 you could cap at any altitude within the capping range of the buoy.  So something was definitely changed and it doesn't feature on the change log so it's very possible that it's unintentional.

Having now played Anglean, Refinery and Labyrinth in 1.3.1 I'm even more convinced there's at least two problems:
1.  Buoys are frequently failing to register the presence of individual ships, the problem is random between games but the relationship between individual ship and error buoy is persistent within a game
2.  The block radius is not altitude dependent and is significantly more sensitive than the capping radius

I've experienced or seen the first problem (not registering) affect Squid, Goldfish, Galleon and Pyramidion,  So it's not ship dependent.


Eric, can you confirm that the definite change (altitude dependent capping) was intentional and someone just forgot to add it to the change log?

42

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: UI Complaint

« on: August 13, 2013, 05:30:09 am »

The icons and role names aren't even displaying correctly..  last night my Gunner had the bullet symbol and title Chief Navigator floating next to his head.

You have the tab key for checking crew roles.

All this UI stuff that's appearing (including enemy ship names when spotted) is all dumbing down the UI to chase a younger or stupider audience.  The game is losing its clean look and becoming just another arcade game.

43

Guides / Re: Gunnery for dummies v1.3 - A beginner's guide to the common weaponry.

« on: August 13, 2013, 05:23:23 am »

I'm not sure the sound of the Whirlwind is synched to the actual firing rate, someone from Muse will have to confirm.  But using Burst Rounds on the Whirlwind has always appeared to be more effective than the numbers would suggest.  It's possibly the increased slip size giving a greater DPC, or the effects on the DPS(C).

44

General Discussion / Re: My issues with this game.

« on: August 13, 2013, 04:31:03 am »

Once again, what do you expect Muse to do?

Easy.  Better options for setting up custom game types.

I.... don't quite see how that would get rid of people not listening to captains.

It would obviously help with Jack's example - the one above your post.

If you can set-up a Lobby as a Mobula-only game, not permitting other ship types.


It would also help with some crew problems.

If Captains could set a role preference for each slot, not forcing someone into that role but making them click through an acknowledgement if their role is different.  That message would be in the default language for the player, helping with multinational crews.

45

Q&A / Re: Ships' types, loadouts and strategies for dummies

« on: August 12, 2013, 05:56:39 pm »

3: Gat mortar is popular because the gat will take down armor and the mortar will deal with the perma hull resulting in a reasonably fast kill. Gat flack used to be popular but the more recent patches has made it less viable.

To expand on this..

If you look at the Damage Matrix and the Weapon Table you can begin to understand how a weapon doing Piercing damage can strip down armour so effectively, and how it's complimented by a well timed delivery of Explosive damage once the armour is down.

http://gunsoficarus.com/gameplay/weapons/

Which leads to another point.. Gat-Flak (or Gat-Mortar) is only lifted from being an average combination to a great combination when the crew knows how to use it.  They need to hold fire on the flak or mortar until the armour is stripped by the gatling and then hammer it hard and fast with explosive damage before the armour is repaired.