Messages

46

Dev App Testing / "When Ambush Comes to Shove" -Week 2 is being tested this weekend!

« on: March 04, 2016, 01:44:00 pm »

Hey everyone,

We are testing all this weekend and we will be doing a blind and non-blind test.
Balance changes Are coming to the dev app later today!
After the test is completed we'll release the notes here!

March 5th
11 am eastern- Blind Data Test
Affected Systems

Mobula
Spire
Squid
Heavy Flak
Harpoon
Pyramidion
Hwacha
Lochnagar Shot

March 5th
1 pm eastern- Change Notes Released

March 6th
12 pm eastern-  Informed Data Test

47

Dev App Testing / Re: Sunday testing release notes.

« on: March 02, 2016, 01:20:15 am »

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to thank everyone for the feedback. As always these tests are not the final version and all your feedback has been noted so we can talk about them internally and see if we can dial this patch better.
We are the first to admit this balance patch is huge compared to our normal style and we will be taking it slow and making sure we get it a close to perfect as possible which means more testing, more feedback, and more Muse time figuring out the parts we did well (like flak) and parts that are not feeling correct yet (like gravity.)
We're going to spend tomorrow talking about the feedback and figuring out what we need to do to shift everything in the correct direction.

48

Dev App Testing / Re: "When Ambush Comes to Shove" is being tested this weekend!

« on: February 25, 2016, 02:04:47 pm »

Well this time we have blind and non-blind testing. If you don't feel like blind tests are an efficient use of your time, you're definitely free to just show up for the Sunday one.
From our testing we find that blind tests give much better feedback that focus on feelings and problem statements (harpoon doesn't feel strong enough or hold length isn't enough) where non-blind has players give us "solutions" without including the core problem or what's really bothering them making their feedback hard to compare with other players. Getting sent 5 problems about a gun or 5 solutions to a gun, it's much easier to use the problems to figure out the core issue.

It's definitely hard to find the best testing plan because there are people who are very good at looking at game design and explaining themselves and those that aren't. So we're doing both this time and I definitely say do whichever one interests you or both and give us a compare and contrast if you'd like to.

49

Dev App Testing / Re: "When Ambush Comes to Shove" is being tested this weekend!

« on: February 24, 2016, 02:33:00 pm »

Yup, changed the top text to reflect, feel free to poke around to your hearts content!

50

General Discussion / Re: Pyramidion Nerf Anniversary.

« on: February 24, 2016, 01:20:45 pm »

Definitely hope everyone here is joining on the testing for all the balance changes. Full notes and timeline here!

51

Dev App Testing / "When Ambush Comes to Shove" is being tested this weekend!

« on: February 24, 2016, 12:01:05 pm »

Hey everyone,

We are testing all this weekend and we will be doing a blind and non-blind test.
Balance changes are live in the dev app right now!
After the test is completed we'll release the notes here!

February 27th
11 am eastern- Blind Data Test (Changed PM to AM)
Affected Systems

Mobula
Spire
Squid
Heavy Flak
Harpoon
Pyramidion
Physics related to ship fall
Hwacha

February 27th
1 pm eastern- Change Notes Released

February  28th
12 pm eastern-  Informed Data Test

52

Release Notes / Re: Version 1.4.5 Release Notes

« on: February 23, 2016, 09:48:02 am »

Hey guys,

The new hit markers shouldn't be going out yet and the balance changes are upcoming. They are a little more aggressive than normal so we're going to be doing more testing and we'll keep you informed on what's happening with it asap.

Keep an eye out for the announcement!

53

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: WANTED minigame remake suggestion

« on: February 22, 2016, 12:22:58 pm »

I definitely want to look at updating the system. It's almost 3 years old now and with so many changes to the community and everything we've learned in the past 3 years it just makes sense to take a stab at updating the system to try and make it more conducive to improving the quality of play as well as giving an interesting Meta Game behind it.


Definitely keep posting all yours ideas, reasoning, and issues you've had with the current system here so I can keep them in mind as I investigate changes we can make.

54

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Fully Customizable Ship Components

« on: February 09, 2016, 12:16:55 pm »

Yeah, Disaster has it a little right. Our resources are pretty thin with work in Alliance mode which makes large ideas for skirmish slow to move on (at the moment) especially if it doesn't solve a major problem in the game.
I also agree with need more and new maps in skirmish mode. This is something the entire team wants and our next big step is all the new maps for Alliance mode (which we have more than a handful) that have new elements (such as destructible walls, lightning storms, and other new elements we're working on) into skirmish mode maps.
It is definitely design cheating to take a 4v4 or 3v3 and just trim it to a 2v2, but it's very light work and its at least another location to play on. We want to do more and the alliance work is starting to get to a point (looking good) where we can start looking at pulling them into Skirmish battles. So keep an eye out because we're looking at a massive bump in playable PvP maps.

55

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Feeding Frenzy

« on: February 08, 2016, 01:00:05 pm »

Hey guys,

Just wanted to hop in and say a couple things.

1) It is not your job to teach and improve the novices (Though we truly appreciate those that do!) Your job is definitely to have fun and that can and should be your first priority
2) When someone says "Novice Hating" happens, they don't mean you are doing it or everyone is doing it, simply that people are doing it and it is frustrating them because they want people to stick around, we all do.
3) Youtube events bring out the worst in novice games and in vets (cause vets have to deal with players who honestly don't know the game at all.) It sucks, but it's true. It is important to remember though, that many current vets found out about the game from previous events we did and I know plenty of vets who didn't know about Guns of Icarus before Grumps, TB, or Cox. So for the bad apples that hang out for a week, we do get some truly awesome players out of these events.
4) I think Disaster has the right idea. If you hate the novices (or how the game gets during a youtube event) a break can be the best bet. Play the game when it's fun for you and reap the rewards of still having a population without having to deal with the week of training and headaches.
5) Events like this are why we still have a population, without a influx of players every so often the player base would be much smaller (See most other multiplayer only indie games)


So in summation, I know its frustrating to deal with novices, it's frustrating to deal with vet hate, it's frustrating that this is the best way to pop the population up. I wish we could get a couple million views and sales putting up in-depth tutorials that made people as awesome as most of our vets and only have the people that Guns is a match for buy it.
We are improving the tutorials and making them mandatory so hopefully that will help a bit, but at the end of the day there's no way to instill the hundreds to thousands of hours that vets have into novices that quickly.

It definitely doesn't hurt to talk about this topic though and at the end of the day we all want the same thing (a bunch of vets and great players to keep playing Guns of Icarus.) So as long as we keep everything civil I'd love to look at unique solutions to something that has been an issue for almost every online game for as long as the first "LFG" was met by "Fk U"

56

Release Notes / Small Holiday Patch and Free items!

« on: December 21, 2015, 05:58:27 pm »

Holiday patch is up, build 1.4.4 (507). Summary of changes for release notes purposes:

- Added Christmas trees to all ships for the season
- Fireworks (still) enabled for the New Year
- New "Reindeer" headgear being handed out to all players
- Holiday items "Jolly Old Salt", "Goggles of Good Cheer", and "Jolly Holly Hat" make their return if you didn't get them in previous years

- Additional Steam Workshop items added:
-- Ship decals "Huginn Raven" is free for all
-- Ship decals "Worn Flying Raven", "Surrealistic Clock", "'Til We Die!", and "Skywhale" added to the store
-- Character items "The Discerning Gentleman's Dapper Hat" (M) and "Trusty Pipe" (F) added to the store

57

Community Events / Re: National Discovery, The Elusive Novice Starts Today!

« on: November 18, 2015, 01:52:01 pm »

lol, do it!  If it's awesome, we'll definitely feature it and you can win as well. I'll never say no to awesome ideas.

58

Community Events / National Discovery, The Elusive Novice Starts Today!

« on: November 18, 2015, 10:56:24 am »

The skies of Icarus have always held a great multitude of strange beasts from Ducks to Spacemen, from Gentleman to those that ride storms, and every other conceivable creature you could think of.

There is none more elusive than the Novice, any player under 8. A creature rarely seen for an extended period of time either running from experienced ships or learning to blend in with their crews. A recent storm has pushed many into our skies though and National Discovery wants pictures of them, we want them tracked, and we want to see their habits in action.  We will pay handsomely for these photo shots that we will screen (screenshots if you will.)

So professional and amatuer photographers gets ready to spot, track, and send in a bunch of pictures of this shy and sometimes violent beast.

Between November 18th till November 30th we will be running this contest and accepting screenshots. To play all you have to do is send in screenshots to feedback@musegames.com and list what category you’re entering.

The winner of each category will get an exclusive National Discovery badge and any muse-made item of their choice from the store.

Best Photo:
Send us the screenshot that you most feels captures the essence of the Novice.

Novice Tracking:
Take a screenshot of the same novice on 3 different maps. The winner will have “tracked” the most novices

Novice Preservation:
Take a screenshot of a novice in your clan and online. Any clan member may take credit for the capture and the same capture can be credited to multiple people (of the same clan.) The winner will have sent in the most screenshots.

Novice in their Natural Habitat:
Take a screenshot of novices on your ship. The player that sends in the most screenshots of different novices wins.

59

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: The "Launcher" Is Located In A Very Odd And Confusing Place

« on: November 13, 2015, 01:32:26 pm »

I let the team know, adding an exit button will be a priority before we release this updated version. We can add more community events and stuff on there that part is changeable without a patch.

60

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: The "Launcher" Is Located In A Very Odd And Confusing Place

« on: November 11, 2015, 12:04:48 pm »

Hey Guys,

We just made a start screen (Aka not-launcher launcher aka starscream (as it's known in the office))
It's in the dev app right now and I'd love your feedback.

Thanks!