Messages

16

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: MK II Guns

« on: January 28, 2017, 05:11:40 am »

Mine Launcher MK II
Attached to each mine is a small propeller that slowly pushes the mine forward on a wobbly path. These mines would be used more as slow-moving naval torpedoes, but not pack as much explosive punch.

That's all I've got, I'd love to read your ideas!

https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php?topic=1580.0

17

General Discussion / Re: My (Long)Open Letter to Muse

« on: January 26, 2017, 11:01:07 pm »

Level 45s only get vote kick ability.

I dunno, that might need to be looked at a little more and refined but, as a lvl 45...



The rest of all of that, pretty much what has been said many times over the years around here. But never really did get as much fan fare. If more new folks come on and say this is a problem, I'm glad to see that. I've lost count of how many times I encouraged new players to do just that. They want it, but they don't want to take 5 minutes and let Muse know it's a problem.

So from the old guard silent majority to you...



I've shared a few things personally with Howard and Muse over time, they know where I stand. Overall I say it with love though. I pretty much lost hope the Squid would ever return to the form it was when I first picked it up in 1.1, but now we're back to 75% of it's awesomeness. That's huge after how painful it was for maybe 2yrs or so. Muse really does try to make something the community will enjoy.

Trouble is, there is just a lot of different interests among the community and for a small studio to be able to handle that, yeah it gets rough.

Really gotta remember with all of this, that Muse isn't EA. It's not the faceless, soulless arch nemesis of all things good in the world. Muse listens and tries to be nice. Sometimes they do good, sometimes you just shake your head and wonder. Hence why I think this anti kick stance has stayed for so long. Ya know, I love em for being decent folk that want to try to be nice like that.

But the internet is not a kind place. There are some players on here who have had to undergo some of the worst sexual harassment you'd ever seen. Most female players. Heck I run into this elsewhere, MMOs especially. They often times won't even speak over voice because people just get so disgusting around them. I've always tried mine the ever loving #%#@ out of players who harass them because there just isn't any kick ability and also because the report functions or CAs just don't work. Some of the best lobbies have been where ships on both sides banded together and just mined a troll ship till they rage quit and left.

If a kick vote feature would have stopped at least one of the players I know on here, from being harassed, it's worth it.

18

General Discussion / Re: lol@muse

« on: January 26, 2017, 07:53:26 pm »

You introduce a vote kick option it will be overused and abused.  Plain and simple.  If anyone knows of games that use it in the past they are associated with toxic communities.  All ya gotta do is get one salty person to initiate the vote and most people will follow like sheep and just kick when they dont even know why.  (left 4 dead 2)

Doesnt matter if you leave it to a captain to initiate.  That says that all captains in this game have a high moral standard to only kick true offenders when everyones definition of a troll is different. 

You initiate vote kick, you lose more players.  Then you're talking about a skeleton crew remaining of players.

On the subject of CA's i see a consistency of long time players with the CA tag just playing with other high level players, as well as other CA's consistently going and helping novice crews.    I think it's time to re-evaluate who is a CA now and fire and hire all over again.

Yes you will, but you aren't seeing the cost of what keeping trolls around is doing.

The cost of a few people getting ticked about being kicked, doesn't compare to the number of people who just stop playing due to trolls.

Case in point, ARK Survival Evolved. There was a time when servers were maxed out all the time. This went on for months. Then the trolls and the cheats had their toll. 70+ person servers that would be overloaded during most of the day, would struggle to get past 20 during prime times. This isn't an isolated case. I've seen time and time again over the years where a game without proper community police controls, would implode due to the inhuman behaviors of these animals.

Sure you'll be pissy if you get vote kicked the moment you join a match but, sometimes those people have had a friend that DC'd. You know how many times I've had that happen and someone jumps into the slot that refuses to leave? Holy crap, you come to really appreciate the nice ones who understand. There's just too many that sit there or get violent about giving up a spot. Then others who don't play with their sound on.

Establish a kick vote with a reason why ability, it's been done before. It works. It is much easier to track down and punish people abusing a group kick vote than it is to have to police an entire community in it's current form.

19

The Gallery / Re: What is this, Muse?

« on: January 26, 2017, 07:44:23 pm »

So, we ask for votekick, new spires, and tunes to our ammo. We want new hats, too. However, you give us this?

I'm done.

Uninstalling.

https://www.facebook.com/GunsOfIcarus/photos/a.221029881330882.36408.131119136988624/973433446090518/?type=3&theater

You mean finally a night map that doesn't look like it's high noon at night?!

Zomg yes! Please uninstall so I never have you on my ship!!

20

General Discussion / Re: lol@muse

« on: January 26, 2017, 05:51:43 pm »

Oh my gosh "hey everyone CA just joined a lobby as pilot join his ship now to learn the game". Than you get like 3 lvl 2s on the ship.  No one would want ca then.

To change the subject. You see what I'm talking about with the late joins tho right it totally ruins your plan.

Theres a lot of people, myself included, who were interested in CA work until they saw how CAs get treated. Heck I know some former CAs who absolutely hated it just because no matter how nice they'd be or how hard they'd try to help new players, the new players would treat them like trash. It was literally like the new player would shove dog poo in the CA's mouth and then force them to eat it with a smile on their faces. CAs could do nothing against this treatment.

It's not worth all the money in the world to be treated like that and unable to do anything about it. CAs don't even get paid!

CAs should have had the power to impose a kick or a ban for people who behave like that. Because think about it, if they treat a CA with such disrespect, they are treating other players with worse.

The trouble is, only CA Mods can do that and with good reason. Their requirements are steeper than CAs. So you have responsible people handling that stuff. However, if a kick vote system was in place, the work load could be taken off the CA system. Maybe some CAs would actually enjoy teaching again.

21

General Discussion / Re: lol@muse

« on: January 25, 2017, 03:17:02 pm »

On the subject of vote kick I'll always agree it needs to be done.

However...

PVE games are traditionally played more than PVP. That is a hard fact in the industry. Been documented over the years. Alliance is a good move and as long as it is handled right, it will extend the life of GOIO much longer than Skirmish. There are just more people who don't like competing with others than there are those who do. Your own posts even show the prime reasons why, there are a lot of trolls.

Heck I'm gonna play Alliance probably more than Skirmish once it is live just because I'm traditionally a PVE player. I'll do PVP but I'd rather be raiding than sitting around with 10yr olds and trolls who make me wish I could duct tape them to a mine launcher and see how many mines I can cram up them.

As far as the Jedi fiasco goes. I dunno if Muse was friendly with him or not, but you can't expect Muse to be 100% aware all the time of what a player is doing. There have been some people and clans Muse has been friendly with over the last few years that if they knew them the way some of us do, they'd never give them the time of day. Quite a few nutjobs actually. Most don't put that face publicly. Unless Muse is provided with ample evidence from the get go, they can't be investigating someone's report about trouble because it could always be someone trying to slander another.

Also don't expect reports to get filed unless you are doing it. This has been a long time problem with this community and why it has lost so many members. If you look at the players who have been around since 1.0, there aren't really that many left as a whole. There is a reason for that. Lack of vote kick, bad design choices (every patch since 1.2), and just overall friction within the community. Yet they'll never take time to address it here, let alone send Muse an e-mail. They just move to other games. Don't count on people to care to get their voice heard. It's very much like the American political system. There always is a great amount of people who just don't care to vote when it matters. Doesn't matter the candidate or party. They just don't want to vote. Figuring it won't do any good either way.

To be fair to Muse, the new gametypes were ones that had been asked for by the community long before many here ever got here. Now the problem is, the game we had then, where it would have benefited from more gametypes, is not the game we have now. So there is rebalancing that has to take place. Also the gametypes aren't the ones the community put forward. Skyball is spawned from Cargo Carrier, a gametype from Aerodrome 3, which is a modified VIP mode. What we'd do is designate a ship as the cargo carrier and then the cargo would swap on death till the game ends in kill cap. Points would be awarded for non cargo kills but the team that holds the cargo by the end would get the most and win. So it would actually be a mode where the VIP would swap from team to team. There would be no capture points so it would encourage teams to slug it out to the end.

Actually one of the problems is, Muse respects opinions too much. Which is why we don't have vote kick and some of the other silliness that has happened. They like the community a lot and listen often. Which is not really a bad thing, just this is their first big PVP game like this so it's been a learning experience. Would you rather have Muse be EA and you never hear a word from them ever?

22

General Discussion / Re: Alliance art style

« on: January 19, 2017, 12:06:01 am »

In that case, I kind of think that a lot of the Skirmish ships would likely be modified forms of cargo vessels. You'll likely not find a single vessel that isn't armed, the skies aren't friendly in the slightest with piracy and raiders rampant. I think that the mainstay of trasport might be something akin to the Goldfish.

The Goldie has plenty of below-decks space for at least light cargo, and if you were to remove the front weapon you'd have a little bit more on the main deck, as the engineering house behind that big boiler would offer manueverability for the engineers. You'd certainly keep those side guns to fend off raiders, and the Goldfish is reliable enough and quick enough that I might rate it as a light, independant freighter.

Now, as for a heavy freigher, we're getting somewhere. For a heavy freighter, I'd probably go back to the Junker, just modified very, very heavily. That large balloon would be pretty cheap, and necessary for carrying cargo and freight to and from ports. Again, armed, as pirates would be likely. I think the Magnate also deserves a mention here too, as the Magnate practically IS a freighter. That's not a warship, and I don't even pretend it to be. Her hull is too fragile, her weapons too dedicated to fighting from her flanks, and that below-deck space would be perfect for goods. Slow, of course, but the Magnate would rate a heavy freighter, no question.

As for personell transports... Well, you've got the Boss Ships. Those are practically flying cities, honestly, and you'd be able to carry any statesman in a ship even lightly designed after them.

Really kinda depends on which trade routes you are on. The main land route from the north to the south passes along Arashi lands. However, there are sea routes listed on the original map.

We can assume these routes aren't arbitrarily drawn if we consider ourselves as people in the world. Most likely they correspond with trade winds as did our sea routes in the age of sail.

The trouble is, we do not know which way the winds actually blow aside from maybe the Fjordlands. The mountain range which runs through the Fjordlands gives a bit of a picture of the potential wind map of that area because of the forest located on it's one side. So we can assume that side is very wet, and the other side doesn't get as much. However, that could change between day and night winds.

Anglea is listed as attacking Firnfeld and the Fjordlands + Chaladon. You don't commit to a major raid if the winds aren't favorable. Especially not so far away from the homeland. So we can speculate a little up there.

Other than the obvious rivalries between Nalm and Sylka, the central area seems to be rather peaceful in comparison. Except probably during major wars. So lets consider why? What could they have that wouldn't attract pirates/etc. Simple, it's a plains area. Weather conditions are probably better for growing food. Who needs to raid farmers at the source? Raw materials? Nah. The central region has to be a great export area. Everyone needs them but attacking them does no good because it'll only hurt production in the end. You also gotta be flat out stupid to invade that far and then burden yourself down with loot, slowing your escape.

So most attacks would therefore happen in transit closer to home territories of Anglea or the Arashi. Or maybe other pirates. You go to where the prey is and you maximize your haul by attacking when they are burdened down, not burdening down yourself.

So dangerous world yes, but it wouldn't be total anarchy and Mad Max killing left and right. Some routes wouldn't need as heavy of weaponry.

23

General Discussion / Re: Alliance art style

« on: January 18, 2017, 06:52:09 pm »

I like that question, Squid, and I kind of think the Arashi meet that pretty well. Look at the Junker, that's a perfect pick-up of the skies if you were to strip some guns off and remove the bottom level ramp. Take a cargo net and tie it up around the bow portion and you've got a good cargo hold.

That's kind of why I'm eager to see what they come up with for the Arashi. If they are planning to make at least 2 ships per faction (Which I think they should if you're supposed to grind for it), I wouldn't mind seeing something very similar to a Mob/Junk with heavies. Something built as one of the only "Heavy" ships of the Arashi line.

Yep, you're nailing it. For game purpose reasons, Muse will likely want distinct ships. Imagine if Muse shipped a heavily modified Junker...most folks would be raising a fuss about how lazy they are and how they want new ships. If Adventure mode had been funded, maybe. But that just isn't happening with either PVE or PVP game modes.

But world purposes, I doubt we'd see loads of unique designs for every culture. Even in modern times here, there are designs that just work and are used or sold and reused from military to military. Just look at the F-16 alone. Even going back to WWI, planes were not always made with a singular nation in mind.

Plus we'd have more non combat oriented designs just like today. So while armored car is a symbol of precious cargo, some merchants would likely opt to use non armed/armored vessels as a ruse to carry things discretely. Then there would be passenger transports. I doubt everyone would want to arrive at the end of their journey covered in dust or soot. Especially those who must attend to business or state affairs.

The people of the world aren't stupid. Someone would look at plane cockpits and figure to do similar with an airship. Even if it isn't pressurized, it would create a market for people not wanting to look like a dust monster when arriving at port.

24

General Discussion / Re: Alliance art style

« on: January 18, 2017, 03:03:12 pm »

Rest assured, there will be no feathers in the GOIO VN

Yeah I've never been a fan of those feathers either.

Actually thinking about our roster, there will be lots of either concept ideas, new variants on top of a solid design, or just a heavily modified base model. Our approach was more: "What would these things actually look like if used by everyday people in the world?" Less loads of new designs, more personalizing. Warlord A may not have access to an entire shipyard but he is capable of scavenging or hijacking ships, what would his fleet look like? What does everyday, non combat oriented ships look like. We tease one in our previews with that background. All started with a concept idea around a galleon sized vessel that doesn't have guns all over it. More the big rigs of the skies.

Anglean ships have morphed quite a bit since the original concepts. Original concepts had them looking more Chaladonian, but with kind of a black pearl ghost ship look. Very menacing. The new designs, while so-so at times, aren't outside of the lore for Anglea. Anglea has all the tech. Lots of the old cities/etc are under the ice, which they dig up. Chaladon would be next or on par in tech but I'd say it's kind of a, Republic vs Empire approach. Chaladon tries to bring a lot of form to function or just tries to dress up too much, whereas Anglea is straight up sterile cold function.

25

General Discussion / Re: On the subject of vote kick...

« on: January 17, 2017, 04:48:39 pm »

Had more than one friend who really liked GOIO till they saw there was no kick function. Then they'd stop playing. It only takes one bad player to ruin a game and make them never want to come back.

This isn't just GOIO but many other games. Heck I'm with a growing majority that won't play ARK again because the devs failed to implement anti cheat fast enough and we just got tired of hacks. With time the servers there have just emptied to bare minimum. It's just like GOIO. Boom to bust, now only small pop remains.

I guess things are still pretty bad in GOIO. I've played a few times recently and had crews flocking to stay with me. Talking about all sorts of horror stories of the ships they'd been on. Was like...yep, that's what GOIO is like much of the time. Why I fly with AI more often than not.

26

General Discussion / Re: A wild GOIO VN appears...

« on: January 13, 2017, 02:47:09 am »

This just in, a wild Guns VN UI has been spotted. We are still trying to ascertain when it might reveal it's full glory, but we did manage to catch it on camera before it got away.

27

General Discussion / Re: A wild GOIO VN appears...

« on: January 10, 2017, 09:35:31 pm »

This is pretty neat. Really good job and I like the format and delivery.  I'm interested to hear what kind of music you put into future productions. 

I am too. With the original project, we had an entire theme and music made for one of the story arcs. Unfortunately it was mostly lost back then. Our audio guy had a HDD failure. Only managed to find one fragment. But he's been rebuilding and starting new character themes.

The artist you heard, Cody Thomas, is a newer one who joined on. He's kind of one of those guys who can just about play anything. Give him a general theme or example and he can develop something pretty quick. Great guy too, met him a few times as he's not that far away.

In other updates, a lot of new developments lately. The UI is pretty much done. I really hope to post some screenshots soon. Also the final models for the demo have been completed. Next internal build will be near ready to open to testing. We're also going to be working a little closer with the Tyrano devs as they've taken interest in helping us troubleshoot any issues. It's actually going to help them further advance the engine. I think we might be the biggest project done on it .

I know some are asking me personally about how soon the crowdfunding is going to start. We definitely are getting very close. Just want to get that demo further along, hopefully ready to launch alongside it.

Oh and thank you Mann for updating!

28

The Lounge / Re: Sky Pirates

« on: January 09, 2017, 01:27:21 am »

Looks like a flying pirate ship version of Dreadnought and Fractured Space.

Was going to say the same thing. It looks like a spin off Fractured Space.

That said, it'll probably be fun. Although I pretty much haven't played Fractured Space for a long time now. I know they've added a lot of content and it's better now, but the game just got both formulaic and I got tired of the lack of teamwork. Then with new ships and the F2P aspects of it...ehh.

Steel Ocean ended up being much better than Fractured Space and I swapped to that for awhile before I hit a high enough tier where I just had no opponents anymore. No one else would level up past T5 it seemed.

29

General Discussion / Re: An open letter to Muse

« on: January 03, 2017, 05:59:44 pm »

If you have a decent case, state it. I actually got reported by two kids for stealing their ship. I reported them for trolling and standing in front of my view the whole time. I took screenshots and had evidence on hand. Still, Muse went after me like I was the bad guy. When I provided evidence, things changed.

I give Muse the benefit of the doubt on a lot of things, simply because I communicate with them regularly and they are very decent folk. But the one critique I will always have is the lack of kick buttons or basic community policing. Everything has to run through them which I still argue is a waste not only for them but also for the community. Abuse or not, it causes more harm than good in the long run. To me this thread is just another example of how the system doesn't work. Muse shouldn't have needed to even send a warning unless enough reports were submitted.

If you haven't sent to feedback@musegames.com about this, I'd do it. You'll get a much better response than in here. You do have a valid point. Muse needs to maintain a standard elsewhere too, not just in game.

30

General Discussion / Re: A wild GOIO VN appears...

« on: December 30, 2016, 08:42:30 pm »

Yeah it might mean a little more once the NA is out. Hard to create something that will both be true to the characters and also set them up in kind of a 4th wall situation. Was a few scripts and the VAs tweaked some lines as well.

You might actually be seeing them in a future vid. We're kinda helping promote their own VA careers and originally the talking segment was going to be larger and with them in it. Just ran into a lot of scheduling issues due to the holidays. Which isn't surprising.

This was also originally going to be released for the actual crowd funding. Decided we wanted something to coincide with the site going live. Pulled it out early for that. It was going to be part of the site anyways so just thinking about that made us realize, why are we holding it back for later?

Big milestone as of last night, the final character models for the demo are now complete. Really are shooting to have that playable for the campaign so that's good news. Most of the BGs and all the Keys are done too. Just do still have a few big ones left and then the UI. Music has been coming along, in fact the music playing in parts of the last two vids, the non royalty free stuff, is from our main composer.

Did the royalty free stuff to save some time. Trying to use our talents and time wisely. Don't want to pull people off of a major thing to work on something that may only be used once.