The 5 Minute Game Guide: Crash Course for New PlayersFor those of you particularly short of time and/ or focus, the 1 Minute version is at the end of the guide.The Purpose of this guide is to give new players a crash course in what the best approach is to best learn the basics. It is not definitive, it is purely my own opinion that is based on my own experiences of playing the game. This outlines the path that I would have/ Should have/ did take in my opening forays into this game. This guide is a quick start guide for those of you who have just purchased the game have played a few matches, you really like the game but fear that the learning curve is too steep. It is somewhat steep, but once you know the basics, you will be dominating in no time. Now you have found the forum and it is here that you hope to find some tips and techniques to help you stop crashing and burning.
In a Nutshell; - To get a noob functioning as a helpful crew member quickly. I often teach a good majority of this on the fly as it is my preferred response to dealing with new players rather than getting frustrated and angry with them, but if these noobs are anything like me, they will find this guide after a few quick and violent defeats, determined to learn and improve.
- To grow the community by retaining new players and developing them quickly. Rather than shouting at them, harassing and abusing them until they leave the game.
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Play as Gunner first, this class is the easiest and most natural to begin playing with as your only real focus and objective is to
shoot enemy ships. While there are some levels of complexity to the gunner role such as; what ammo types to use with which weapons, how each ammunition type affects the behaviour of the weapon and which parts of an enemy ship to shoot in order to efficiently kill/ disable it. Your role as a gunner is the easiest to begin with when you first start playing GoI. Don't concern yourself with the state of the ship,
just get on a gun and fire, if there's anyway you could improve your strategy, a crew mate or a captain will tell you, but for now just shoot and you won't go far wrong if you hit the target. Playing the gunner role will have several benefits to your overall learning experience;
- You will learn how to aim and shoot. Winning in this game often depends quite heavily on destroying enemy ships.
- You will learn the firing arcs of each weapon. This will benefit you when you begin playing as a captain as you will be able to find a proper firing solution for your crew and position your ship properly.
- You will learn what weapons are useful in different situations and how best to disable and/ or kill a ship.
- It's a great deal of fun destroying ships.
- You are responsible for repairing and rebuilding your weapon, so bring the pipe wrench too.
- Bullet travel time, projectile arcs/drop and ship's speed/ direction will affect your accuracy. Learn to lead your targets.
Of course, it's entirely your own decision which roles you play and when. I would suggest understanding the basics of the gunner role before moving on to other roles. Then learning the basics of engineering before eventually flying your own ships and leading your own crew.
Try play as Gunner - Engineer - Captain in that order, this should build your skills and knowledge ready to take on those roles with different responsibilities. It is also worth noting that the most common crew make up is 1 X Captain, 1 X Gunner and 2 X Engineers, so it is very likely you will be asked to switch to engineer, if so then do that, but play as gunner as much as possible during your first few matches.
Youtube: Guns of Icarus Online—Gunner Tutorial Redux May 2013NOTE: I take no credit for the videos referenced in this guide. They belong to the official Muse games youtube channel and as such full credit for these videos is attributed to Muse games and the dev team themselves.Don't be a useless engineer, there are few things more annoying to a crew than an engineer who has no clue what he/ she is doing. Of course most players are very welcoming and tolerant of new players, willing to give you time and attention to teach you. Most new players who take the engineer role figure that it's just a case of hitting something with mallet. But that's only part of it, sometimes hitting with the mallet actually does more harm than good.
There are various components on a ship that the engineer is responsible for repairing and rebuilding, they are; Hull, Balloon, Engines and Weapons - with the most important of those being the Hull. So lesson number one for new engineers is to
always prioritise the hull over everything else.
There are two main states of disrepair for ship's components to be in, Damaged and Destroyed (There is also fire, but fire is fairly self-explanatory and will not be covered in detail in this guide). When an item is damaged, this is shown by the health bar on the item, some of the health is missing, the Mallet is the optimal tool used to repair the damage. When a component loses all of it's health it is then destroyed and must be rebuilt, this is what the spanner is used for.
- Mallet for repairs - Notice how the engine still has some health, all is needed here is a single whack with the mallet.
- Spanner for rebuilds - Notice how the engine has no health and is flashing red, this is destroyed and needs to be hit repeatedly with the spanner in order to rebuild it.
- Remember the cool down timer (Explained ahead)
NOTE: Apologies for the rough quality of the gifs. However, I think they adequately illustrate the point.So that covers which tools to use and when, there is also something known as the cool down. When you hit something with your mallet, it repairs some of the damage it has taken but also initiates a
cool down period during which no additional engineering can be done to that item. You cannot hit it with a mallet during the cool down and you cannot extinguish a fire during the cool down. What this basically means is that as an engineer, you don't generally stand in one place repairing one item, what you do is
move constantly around a ship seeking out damage to repair, fires to extinguish and components to rebuild. There is much more to engineering than what I have written down here, but this is a quick start beginners guide and I am confident that if you understand and implement the advice I have written here that you will quickly teach yourself the advanced engineering techniques. Regarding fire, fires are self explanatory, they need extinguisher or chem spray. Squiritng
Youtube: Guns of Icarus Online—Engineer Tutorial Redux May 2013Get a microphone and communicate with your crew mates. Winning in this game is all about teamwork,
this is not the type of game where lone wolfing is a viable strategy. By the very nature of matches in GoI, you are part of a four man crew and you have a dedicated role to perform in order to give you and your team the greatest chance of success.
Communication is a vital part of a cohesive team, everything from engineers coordinating repair duties around the ship to gunners telling captains to turn more so they can get a shot. If you don't have a microphone then you must listen to those who are communicating with you and if the situation is not critical, you can use text chat.
Don't have a mic? Have some excuse for why you can't afford/ obtain even a basic,
cheap flimsy piece of plastic for your desktop that will serve perfectly as a communication aid? Then you had best get fluent with the commo-rose, default 'V'. This is a quick guide and I prefer using my microphone so I haven't used it much. But you can pretty much communicate all of the basics with this, you'll have to explore this yourself.
Listen to and follow orders issued to you by the captain.
The captain is the commander of a ship, if you hit tab during a game or notice in the lobby, it is the captain who has the title "Commander" this is how the game was designed, it's a teamwork game and as such utilises a dedicated commander role in order to unify that team into one single purpose. It is critical that the Captain must be able place their trust and confidence in you to fulfil your duties to the best of your ability. That is all that is asked of you. In addition to this, it is the Captain who pilots the ship most of the time, they choose the ship and select the weapons and configuration. Most Captains do this with a strategy in mind.
It is the Captain's job to devise and implement the strategy. It is the crew's job to execute that strategy. The types of orders, commands and information a Captain may give are;
- In the lobby, if captains wants you to be engineer, then be an engineer.
- If captains wants gunners to target a specific ship do it because this is part of his/her strategy.
- Captains says "Man left side guns!" then man left side guns.
- Captain may say "Engine repairs please, I'm burning Kerosene" Engineers need to promptly begin engine repairs lest the ship become a sitting duck.
Commandeering your own ship by playing as a Captain is a highly rewarding, tactical and fun part of the game. Your job as a ship's captain is to
manoeuvre the ship into a position where your gunners can unleash hell and that's basically it. But what are the best ways to accomplish this? Much of that depends on the ship you have selected, the weapons you have selected and the map/terrain. But since this is a beginner's quick start guide I am going to be focusing on one ship, the Pyramidion, with a standard load out for frontal attacks. The majority of experienced players in this community will likely agree that
the easiest ship to learn with and start having immediate success if the Pyramidion. This is because this ship is a brawler, it is used to close with and destroy the enemy ships.
To give you a full and comprehensive guide to the pilot role is beyond the scope of this quick guide, so instead I am going to give you some quick start tips.
- Stick close to friendly ships and coordinate your attacks with them. Use default 'C' to voice chat with friendly ship.
- Some weapons are good at disabling ships or stripping armour whilst others are best used in dealing the killing blows. Choose a load out that enables your ship to both disable and destroy.
- Communicate with your crew (Default 'X'), tell them what your intentions are and assert yourself and your need for certain tasks to be performed. Apart from the occasional disruptive player, the vast majority of players recognise that the Captain is the commander and will fulfil your requests and orders if you speak to them with respect.
- Your map is one of your best pilot tools. Use it to judge your position relative to friendly and enemy ships. Default 'M' Key.
- Do not go charging full speed into enemy ships, this usually ends in your ship being attacked by two enemy ships. Move with your friendly ships.
- All ships have at least one blind side, a side of the ship where you can not get an arc on an enemy ship. The Pyramidion has no guns on the right and none on the rear. Therefore you must position your ship so that you have the enemy ship to the left or in front.
- You can use pilot tools by pressing keys 2,3 and 4. ALl pilot tools come with some trade-off. For example juicing engines with kerosene for increased speed also damages your engines. Remember to press 1 to return to normal ship operation after using a pilot tool. Forgetting this can destroy your engines or balloon and leave your ship as a sitting duck.
- It's usually polite to let your engineers know if you're going to use a tool such as kerosene or moonshine. This is so that they are able to keep up with the damage incurred to the ship. A good engineer will keep up with the damage, a better engineer won't need telling in the first place, but it's usually polite.
Youtube: Guns of Icarus Online—Pilot Tutorial Redux May 20131 Minute VersionPlay as Gunner first...- shoot enemy ships
- just get on a gun and fire
- learn how to aim and shoot
- learn the firing arcs of each weapon
- You are responsible for repairing and rebuilding your weapon
- Learn to lead your targets
- Try play as Gunner - Engineer - Captain in that order
Don't be a useless engineer...- prioritise the hull over everything else
- Remember the cool down period during which no additional engineering can be done to that item
- You must move constantly around a ship seeking out damage to repair
- Mallet for repairs
- Spanner for rebuilds
Get a microphone and communicate- this is not the type of game where lone wolfing is a viable strategy
- Communication is a vital part of a cohesive team
Listen to and follow orders...- The captain is the commander of a ship
- It is the Captain's job to devise and implement the strategy. It is the crew's job to execute that strategy
Commandeering your own ship...- manoeuvre the ship into a position where your gunners can unleash hell
- the easiest ship to learn with and start having immediate success if the Pyramidion (Main Guns are at the front of the ship)
- Choose a load out that enables your ship to both disable and destroy (Gatling gun + Scylla Double Mortar is a popular choice because it works)
- Communicate with your crew
General Notes/ Tips- You will
sometimes, always, very often be asked to switch class/ switch load-outs. If it is the Captain's request then I suggest complying with it graciously. The captain is the commander and they have designed their ship for certain roles to be more efficient. - In public matches, on the majority of ships, Captain's will almost always want two engineers and one gunner in a crew. You will be asked to switch to engineer, often.
- You can press 'Q' in a match or in the game lobby to see your progress towards achievements. Accomplishing these will earn you a rank promotion (level up).
- Always take a spyglass as crew member, call out what you've seen and give bearing (compass at top of screen) try to spot it, spotting is often hit and miss but helps the captain and friendly ships greatly.
- Somewhat of an intermediate tactic this, but if you've read everything so far and understood then you are ready for this. Stagger your fire if possible. Here's an example; we know that Gatling gun is excellent against Hull armour and that Mortars are excellent against Hull health. So hit the armour first, and when the armour is down (Hits are showing red) unleash hell with the Mortar. This is how you get a quick kill. How do you do this? Communication is a key component of a cohesive team.
- There have been several community guides written about various aspects of the game, some of them are excellent and I recommend you check them out.
Who am I? I am just a regular player of public matches. I am not particularly renowned or distinguished within this community, nor am I even a member of a gaming clan or group. I am merely a fairly new player to the game who has learnt how to be effective in each role within a short space of time. As you can see, I have only just recently been promoted past the ranks of noob in all of my classes and to some out there I may still be considered a noob. That is all a matter of opinion and so is this guide, read it as such, I believe that this opinion of mine can help a new player attain a quick functioning grasp of the game in a short time.[/list]
