Messages

136

The Lounge / Re: The Ghost of the Dunes

« on: May 10, 2013, 07:56:55 am »

Nice summary of a very strange game.

This hopefully gives the devs some idea what the server was thinking when it wouldn't respawn us:


I've never seen a map display like that before.

137

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: My list of problems/anomalies/suggestions.

« on: May 09, 2013, 03:21:07 pm »

^ Exactly.
Forums > email for such things.

138

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Captains to be able to kick players off of ships.

« on: May 09, 2013, 03:19:09 pm »

I mean, I hope that GoIO will one day become a popular well known game than just aprovincial, cosy game for a small group of enthusiasts (no offense).

It feels to me like the player base has doubled in the last week or so, but the average age and IQ of the playerbase has halved...
I'm not sure what happened, but I guess being mentioned on popular sites had a greater effect on player numbers than the indiegamestand deal.

I do agree that being able to kick could cause more problems than it solves... Why not just do what I've seen people do already, which is wait until the match is over (or maybe surrender if there's a real problem) and refuse to start until the troublemaker leaves.

139

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Half destroyed balloons unrealistic

« on: May 05, 2013, 06:38:39 am »

How about... The balloon is divided internally into several layers. The bottom layer fills first, and when that gets enough pressure, a valve starts letting gas into the next layer up, and so on. Now it makes more sense for a partially-full balloon to be full at the bottom and not the top
Still doesn't explain how hitting a machine fixes huge holes in the balloon itself, but yes, suspension of disbelief.

140

Release Notes / Re: Version 1.2 Release Notes

« on: May 04, 2013, 10:52:55 am »

Is that for 355? What about 356 and 357?
Or does that cover all of them?

141

Release Notes / Re: Version 1.2 Release Notes

« on: May 04, 2013, 09:37:01 am »

It seems that some heavy gun positions don't "auto-click" - holding down the mouse button doesn't do anything. Front gun on goldfish, front heavy gun on spire, and rear heavy guns on galleon (but not front ones) only responded to individual clicks for me, although the hitting animation did continue playing while holding down the button.
Edit: Also the bottom/middle engine on the Junker.

142

Release Notes / Re: Version 1.2 Release Notes

« on: May 02, 2013, 11:14:30 am »

Also which existing achievements were modified? I know the pilot class to rebuild 80 parts with spanner was dropped to just 40, but I'm not sure which other ones changed.

I think I got everything...
What no spoiler tag on this forum?

Gunner/Maps/1 Grit In Your Eye - Win 6 matches in Dunes. Was 8.
Gunner/Multiclassing/1 Hit It With A Hammer - Fully repair 60 parts. Was 50 parts with Mallet.
Gunner/Multiclassing/8 Bang-Up Job - Fully repair 500 parts. Was 350 parts with Mallet.
Gunner/Objectives/3 Suppression Fire - Win 10 DMs. Was 8.
Gunner/Objectives/4 Inflammable - Win 10 CPs. Was 8.
Gunner/Objectives/5 Notches - Win 20 DMs. Was 12.
Gunner/Objectives/5 Notches - Destroy 50 ships in DM. Was 15.
Gunner/Objectives/6 Death Dealer - Win 20 CPs. Was 12.
Gunner/Objectives/7 Takedown - Win 30 DMs. Was 12.
Gunner/Objectives/8 Battle of Wits - Win 30 CPs. Was 20.
Gunner/Shootin'/1 Scattershot - Destroy 5 parts with Carronade. Was 1 balloon.
Gunner/Shootin'/2 Overloaded - Destroy 5 hull armor with Gatling. Was 4.
Gunner/Shootin'/2 Overloaded - Destroy 30 parts with Heavy Clip. Was with Greased Rounds.
Gunner/Shootin'/3 Balls Of Fire - Destroy 40 parts with Incendiary Rounds. Was 50.
Gunner/Shootin'/4 Red Glare - Destroy 50 parts with Greased Rounds. Was 50 hull armor with Flak.
Gunner/Shootin'/4 Red Glare - Destroy 30 guns with Rockets. Was 70 parts with Burst Rounds.
Gunner/Shootin'/5 Blood And Gunsmoke - Destroy 50 parts with Lesmok Rounds. Was 50 ships (!).
Gunner/Shootin'/6 Burn All The Things - Set 300 fires with Flamethrower. Was 80.
Gunner/Shootin'/6 Burn All The Things - Set 100 fires with Incendiary Rounds. Was 50.
Gunner/Shootin'/8 Stunning Effect - Destroy 100 engines with Rockets. Was 50 with Rocket Launcher.
Gunner/Shootin'/8 Stunning Effect - Destroy 300 parts with Greased Rounds. Was 100.
Gunner/Teamwork/2 Cleansing Fire - Set 50 parts on fire with Flamethrower. Was destroy 50 parts.
Gunner/Teamwork/4 Out Of The Blue - Destroy 300 parts while unspotted. Was 400.
Gunner/Victory/2 Kill Count - Play 3 matches with 4 or more kills. Was 5 or more.
Gunner/Victory/3 Fish In A Barrel - Destroy 30 hull armor on enemy Goldfish. Was 20.
Engineer/Maps/1 Sand In Your Boots - Win 6 matches in Dunes. Was 8.
Engineer/Objectives/3 Fire Suppression - Win 10 DMs. Was 8.
Engineer/Objectives/4 Smoking Gun - Win 10 CPs. Was 8.
Engineer/Objectives/5 Makes You Stronger - Win 20 DMs. Was 12.
Engineer/Objectives/5 Makes You Stronger - Play 15 DMs with fewer than 2 deaths. Was 12 DMs.
Engineer/Objectives/6 Scratched Paint - Win 20 CPs. Was 12.
Engineer/Objectives/7 Buoyed Spirits - Win 20 DMs. Was 12.
Engineer/Objectives/8 Race to the Point - Win 30 CPs. Was 20.
Engineer/Multiclassing/3 Fan The Flames - Set 200 fires. Was 50.
Engineer/Victory/4 Fight Another Day - Play 10 matches with 3 more kills than deaths. Was 8 matches.
Pilot/Career/6 Charting A Course - Destroy 80 ships (crew). Was 60.
Pilot/Flyin'/5 Silent Running - Destroy 200 parts while unspotted (crew). Was 100.
Pilot/Flyin'/6 The Good Stuff - Spend 240 seconds using Moonshine. Was 180.
Pilot/Flyin'/6 The Good Stuff - Spend 240 seconds using Impact Bumpers. Was 180.
Pilot/Flyin'/8 Eye To Eye - Destroy 40 ships at a distance of less than 75m (crew). Was 20 ships less than 100m.
Pilot/Experience/4 One Spark - Set 120 balloons on fire (crew). Was 100.
Pilot/Maps/1 Dust In The Wind - Win 6 matches in Dunes. Was 8.
Pilot/Multiclassing/2 Hot Air - Fully repair 200 balloons (crew). Was 60.
Pilot/Multiclassing/5 Hands On - Rebuild 40 parts with Spanner. Was 80.
Pilot/Multiclassing/7 Systems Status - Fully repair 800 parts with Wrench (crew). Was 200.
Pilot/Objectives/3 Kobayashi - Win 10 DMs. Was 8.
Pilot/Objectives/4 Ahead Full - Win 10 CPs. Was 8.
Pilot/Objectives/5 Survival Of The Fiercest - Win 20 DMs. Was 12.
Pilot/Objectives/5 Survival Of The Fiercest - Win 15 DMs with fewer than 2 deaths. Was 10 DMs.
Pilot/Objectives/6 Evasive Action - Win 20 CPs. Was 12.
Pilot/Objectives/7 Good Dog - Win 30 DMs. Was 20.
Pilot/Objectives/8 Diversionary Tactics - Win 30 CPs. Was 20.
Pilot/Teamwork/2 Tongue Lashing - Set 100 parts on fire with Flamethrower (crew). Was destroy 80 parts.
Pilot/Victory/5 Calamari - Destroy 20 Squids (crew). Was 30.
Pilot/Victory/6 Still Alive - Win 20 matches with no deaths. Was 10.

Not being a captain myself, I hadn't really looked at their achievements much before. Why does crew repairing stuff help for pilot multiclassing?

Also, are we going to get a changelog for today's little patch (355)? I see the kickstarter button has changed and there's a sale on in the store, but presumably some more important things were changed too.

And the news banner on the forum needs to be updated. It says 1.1.5 is live and mentions a 1.2 preview.

143

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: My list of problems/anomalies/suggestions.

« on: May 01, 2013, 02:16:56 pm »

Like I said in game yesterday, I think forums are much better for such things, as it allows discussion from other people, and saves people wasting time reporting stuff that's already known. If the "right people" don't read the forums, perhaps its time they did

Quite a lot of my list is my opinions, and not bugs per se, so...

144

Feedback and Suggestions / My list of problems/anomalies/suggestions.

« on: May 01, 2013, 01:30:06 pm »

Here's my list of mostly minor things I feel could be improved. I waited until the update to see what would change before posting, and a few things were fixed. I think I checked them all but maybe some others have been fixed already too.
I put numbers so it's easier to refer to things (but maybe not easier to read, sorry). If anything isn't clear, please say

• "Matches" screen: Currently red for "waiting" games and green for in-progress. I would think the other way round would be more logical? Normally one would want to join a "waiting" game, I would think.
• FIXED Running time shown as 00:00:00.
• Game details shown like "Spectators Welcome - 1 / 4 Captains", which makes it look like that's the spectator slot count rather than normal captains (which would be included in the player count anyway). Rearranging it so the captains and players are shown on one line and the public/spectators shown on the other line would make it less ambiguous.
• In the in-game manual, page 3, "An airship chooses and outfits the vessel, and directs..." presumably it should say "A Captain" or "An airship Captain" rather than "An airship".
• FIXED One-pixel-wide line at left of screen not hidden by the black background of the "loading match" screen.
• When initially displaying the "loading match" screen, it's just black with "Exit Game" at the bottom left. Why not at least have a background rather than just black here?
• On the "loading match" screen, the text at the top describing the history of the map area highlights and can be clicked on... why?
• Screens (eg Progress) available from top bar are exited using Back-type buttons, and there isn't a way to do that using the toolbar. Maybe clicking the middle logo part could return you to the "main screen" too?
• On the Ship/Role/Look screens, there's a "Back" button and a "Customization Complete" button, which both seem to do the same thing.
• Empty captain slots are shown as "[AI Crewman]  CLICK TO CAPTAIN" but there are no AI captains, so that part should probably be removed.
• Text input boxes (eg: promo code entry, game password entry) are badly aligned, should be higher up with the caret aligned to the middle of the box rather than the text being at the bottom of the box. Alternatively, the caret could be shortened to not go over the edge of the boxes.
• Text at top left in game about who destroyed what etc, and chat at the bottom left, and icons in the map, the dark red and blue are often hard to read against the background... Maybe they could be made lighter, or given a light outline, or something?
• In the ship customization, the guns seem to be divided into two types, Light Gun and Heavy Gun (according to the gun info popup)... But the Item Selection window itself calls them "Small Gun" and "Medium Gun" instead.
• There is no way to see who or what is in a game other than by joining it, which means lots of unnecessary joining and leaving. It would be nice if there was a popup or something to show at least the ships and their crews before joining. It could go in the space currently taken up by the create-game stuff, and have a button or tab or something to switch between them.
• When joining a game, one is placed into a crew slot by the system. This can mean people end up in silly places, or have to go to spectator to allow someone else to change ship, etc. What I think would be better is if people joining weren't put into any crew slot, and were put in a "waiting" slot instead, or maybe just a spectator slot. Then they can join whichever slot they do want. This already happens when clicking on a running game.
• When the match actually begins, everyone spawns in the same spot, which means you end up seeing the insides of the other crewmembers. It'd be better if there were 4 spawn spots (one for each crew position) arranged near the current single one instead.
• FIXED In Social page, template email displayed on first view of page, but blank on subsequent views.
• In Matches screen, colour of [Regional] etc when typing is same colour as team you last played on. Should probably be white when not in a game.
• Clicking the "Back to Lobby" button on the connecting-to-game screen doesn't take you back to the lobby, it quits the game completely.
• The map filter in the game list filters by map and game mode, but doesn't display the game mode in the text. Either it should show this too, or probably better, just filter by map and not game mode.
• It would be nice if there was a screen that could be visited post match showing stats, such as how many kills and deaths for each ship, maybe a copy of the whole log of who destroyed/repaired/killed what etc.. Or maybe just a log of which ship destroyed which.
• The game list can be confusing when there's more than one "Whoever's Game". Maybe it shouldn't let a new game be created with the same name as an existing one. Then, if someone uses the default name and tries to start a second game when the first game they made is still running, they'd have to change the name, at least slightly, before starting.
• In the Social page, when a friend is in a game, it shows the name of the map they are playing... The name of the game instead (or as well) would be much more useful.
• Also, the name of the map is sometimes incorrect. This may be showing the last map played when waiting for a subsequent game.
• When engines are destroyed etc. during a game, it shows the name of the particular engine. These aren't shown on the blueprint page for each ship, or anywhere else that I know of.
• It is easier to see if a part is completely repaired if you're not standing right by it, which is rather odd. The way the bar works, you can repair something, think it's fully repaired, walk away, and the icon appears showing it's still damaged slightly. It would be better if the "repair display" would make it obvious whether something is damaged or fully repaired. Maybe have the bar in green when fully repaired?
• The count of captains in the game list for running games can be inaccurate. For instance, it can say "16 / 16 Players  1 / 4 Captains" and when you click on the game, all captains (and crew) are present. I'm guessing this happens when captains leave and rejoin, or are replaced maybe?
• Keybindings - Gun Keys: There are DismountGun and LeaveGun keys (and similar for the helm). What's the difference? Maybe they should be called DismountGun1 and DismountGun2 if it's just two mappings for the same action. SecondaryFire is actually zoom for guns - I don't think any actually have a secondary fire - so should probably be renamed.
• Keybindings - Global Keys: ThirdPerson, the Order- and Practice- keys should be Player keys rather than Global, as they aren't relevant in spectator mode, and prevent the same keyboard keys being used for something else there. Map and ScoreLog should be Global keys rather than player keys, as they apply everywhere.
• Lighting/shadow on hair in Role and Look screens goes on and off depending on character rotation and animation.
• When first joining a game as spectator, the camera often begins underground. Having it start at a high altitude would solve that.
• In the game lobby, and social screen, player ranks are shown by number. In game (player labels/score display) and all chat, they are shown by title. I think there is enough room for both, in all these places, so why not show both for all of them? If not, some more consistency would be nice. Maybe only show the rank title, as the numbers can be seen by clicking on the player name (except when playing).
• Related to (15): Trying to join a "waiting" game with all player slots occupied does nothing. It should at least allow you to join as spectator. Semi-fixed in 1.2, it shows a message that the game is full. But what if I wanted to spectate?
• When voting for a map, the "click to vote" text, or the image, can be clicked on to vote, but the text showing the map name can be highlighted and clicked on and does nothing.
• After the end of the game, the red and blue regional chat from during the game appears in white, which makes it look like the regional lobby chat. It would be better if it stayed blue and red so it can be distinguished.
• When you are waiting for a game to start, you have regional, team, and crew chat. No chat for only your game, which would be very useful. The "Regional" channel does different things at different times, which can be confusing for new players. Perhaps the Regional channel could be split into two. A Game or Match or something channel, which was for only your game. This would be the one that was available during a game. This could be the one on J. While waiting for a game to start, it would be available, as well as a Global channel (on H?), which is equivalent to the current lobby-regional one. This would solve (35) too.
• Chat from friends, CAs, etc., are shown in different colours. It would be nice if chat from your captain was highlighted somehow while waiting for a game, as it is easy for it to get lost in the other chat.
• It would be good if the message saying your captain has left during a match was highlighted in a very obvious way.
• When people join a match in progress, there's several "join" lines, one for each channel. This could just be put on one line, listing all the channels they joined. Or it could just say the most specific. For instance, if they joined your crew, you know they must also have joined your team...
• It could be useful to be able to scroll the chat and "damage log" during a game, as they can go past quite quickly. Another alternative would be a popup while holding a key, like the map display, that showed more history for these things.
• What is the use of being able to set the "area" for a game anyway? As it doesn't affect the server (as far as I know), it can't be about physical location for latency purposes. Continents aren't anywhere near specific enough for language purposes. So what is it for? It seems fairly redundant to me, and a more useful per-match "setting" IMHO would be "level", so you could set it to beginner, advanced, mixed, etc. Now 1.2 has added a beginner game option, that might not be such a good idea though.
• It would be good if the popup when clicking someone's name also showed the game they were currently in.
• Spectators can vote for maps. Is this intended?
• When spectating, when not focussing on one ship, the camera view rotates about a point in front of the camera. This is fine when rotating around a focussed ship, but makes controlling the camera in the free camera mode difficult. It would be better to have normal rotate-the-camera-directly when in free camera mode.
• It would be good if the camera position and view angle were shown on the map when spectating.
• The number of kills/points required to win a match isn't displayed anywhere.
• When spectating, the CameraUp and CameraDown keys move relative to the facing of the camera, rather than the ground, which is rather strange.
• Game names can be set that are too long to see when in their lobby. In the game list screen the length given to the game name is even shorter. Maybe it should have a little popup for the full name when you point to these too-long names.
  
  New for 1.2
• Key labels in Piloting tutorial shown as names of keys rather than actual keys ("[increaseThrottle]" etc). Also one is "[hemlRight]".
• F7 icon in sandbox shows an airship, but it actually summons a static target. Should be an icon similar to the other 3?
• F9 icon doesn't highlight when pressed.
• "LVL 1-2" marker/box got stuck at one point on the third visible game in the list, whatever it was. Even with "beginners only" filter set to No.
• Message about giving thumbs up (and boxes for that) after a match is shown to spectators. Boxes are shown in tab list too.
• Unable to "unclick" the thumbs up after giving it. Also the receiver is notified immediately, which isn't great if it was accidental.
• IMHO it would be better if the boxes weren't displayed at all for people other than your crew, and were empty rather than a darker thumb icon when not selected.
• Clicking on a ship when you're on the lobby screen of a game in progress shows "Loading ship" and the model never appears.

145

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Option to disable birds

« on: April 30, 2013, 05:21:49 pm »

You're sure it's the birds, and not some other change that was introduced with the new version?

146

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Match replays

« on: April 28, 2013, 05:27:20 pm »

Could that possibly be that your team mate had previously started a fire in that component, which finished it off after your snipe? Just a guess really.

147

Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Website/forum chat

« on: April 20, 2013, 06:41:15 am »

An official IRC channel would be good, even if it wasn't connected to the in-game chat. This could be used for discussions about the game itself, rather than the in-game chat which tends to be about more immediate things (please join our game...).
It wouldn't even need a page/link on the main site itself, just a sticky on the forum or something. Then people would just have another place to go for discussion. People could idle on the channel when doing non-gaming-type stuff without needing the game or even steam loaded.
It would be a bonus if the developers would hang out in the channel too.