[Feedback] Some UI mechanics, chat and game rules

[Geze]

Heya everyone.

So i own GoI for quite a long while now, and have been playing A LOT. The game is just amazing, and well really under rated. I've wanted to put some feedback together of things i've noticed over the course of playing and interacting with the menus. Hope it will be constructive enough to be helpful. I would put here things i have problems with, and with that a suggestion on how i think it could be done better.

I would also very much like to see anyone state their opinion on the matters i am about to touch as i am interested to see how many people think alike or disagree with me, so thanks in advance =)

The menus and UI

I don't have much to say about how the menu work, but i've encountered a very big issue with it (Or perhaps it's my sticky fingers). When i am in a match which awaits a game to start (Crew is forming, people change load outs etc...) if i click on some say notifications, or social or any other menu, after finishing to do whatever i were trying to with the extra menus i would naturally press the [Esc] button because usually it is responsible to close additional menus which are open. In this game however the [Esc] button would drop me out of the match rather then closing the additional closed menu. This will cause me often then not a big amount of frustration, because by the time i try to join back into the match i accidentally just left my spot would already be taken. For someone that tries to interact with the mouse as less as possible - This is a very big issue for me. It comes really naturally to me and there is little to nothing i can do to stop this habbit.

I would suggest either adding a confirmation prompt upon trying to leave a match (Where pressing [Enter] key will automatically confirm the action, and leave the "No" option to be clicked with a mouse or the [Esc] key) or making the [Esc] key actually close the latest opened menu.
Now i do not know how the UI interacts with itself and how it is built, so i don't know if it is possible to make the [Esc] key to close say Notifications. But I believe it is more then possible to add a prompt to exiting a match. It will be so much help!

Apart from that, i believe that the UI and menus are working pretty much as intended =) . At least for me everything is really intuitive as to where i can find anything i would want.

Another thing i would like to add into the UI section is the VOIP in game. I have no problem with it at all, but there should be 2 separated options to muting people, and blocking their communication entirely. For obvious reasons these 2 should be separated and i should not go on about it too much.
I have 1 example of last night when me and my wife were playing:
We are both sitting at the same room, and our PC's are one next to each other. We were playing in the same match and on the same ship. I wear headphones and she is using speakers (Because we do not have a second set of headphones yet). Whenever i tried to speak over the voice chat, it would feedback like hell because my mic would capture my own voice and all the background from the speakers my wife were using. That basically rendered our communication to the rest of the team impossible until she have muted all sounds from the game (Resulting in her not hearing what our team mates were saying and me needing to repeat everything that were said).

The chat system in the game

Well I don't know how much have been brought up on this matter before (So i apologize in advance if i bring up old news) but here is what i have to say about it.
First and foremost! There must be a way to reply to private messages regardless of where you are. Either in global chat, match chat, clan chat or even within a game. A button or a chat command (Like /r in most games and specially MMO's out there). Now i know that GoI is not an MMO or anything, but still please. It is essential to be able to reply to someone fast without waiting for a match to end. Now some of you might say that if i am in mid match i can press [Esc], then go to "Notifications" and respond from there. But -
1) For me it never works. It shows that the chat will actually write a reply to the person who texted me, but i cannot send it.
2) It is too complicated in middle of match to press [Esc] and open a sub menu, and find the right notification with the right person to answer to, and only then be able to respond.

I would suggest adding a several chat commands which will simplify social interaction. I've heard the devs saying that they want the chat to be some sort of a cantina, but at the same time - Please let us choose whom to send a private message? I mean i should be able to use the chat to send private messages rather then looking for a list of names in my friend list and left clicking them to send a message, or fishing out the right name in the chat, as well as a quick "Reply private message" will be equal to magical.

Other then this, the chat seems fine =)

Game rules

There is only 1 topic i want to touch in this section, and i don't know how to even call it so thus the name "Game Rules".
My biggest issue is that as soon as any of my classes reaches level 4, i cannot join "Novice" matches. Now i see where it comes from and why it was implemented, but if i am level 4 engineer and do want to practice my gunning or piloting - I must join a none novice game and because of my inexperience, i basically am causing a lot of frustration to the experienced people (Specially if i am piloting).

I would really like to ask to do either of 2 things:

1) First suggestion is simple - Just make it possible to join with classes less then level 4 to novice matches. As in i cannot join novice matches with my level 4+ Engineer, but i can join with my level 3- gunner or pilot to novice matches.
2) Make a "Practice mode" more game like. If i am not totally wrong and have no idea how this system works today "Practice" as it stands offers you a game with no goals and foes. Unless you invite people into it, you will be left there alone and be able to do all sort of things (Like spawn AI ships and stuff like that). I believe that this idea is cool for people who like to do it solo (Or with a small group) but i believe that there is a better way

Why not to have a queue for practice matches? How it works? Well i'll try to explain with my best verbal abilities:

Upon pressing the "Practice" button (Or the equivalent...Name it differently, i believe there are enough creative people out there =] ) you will be asked to choose the ship you want to practice on and then the class you want to practice (So essentially 3 buttons - Pilot, Engineer and Gunner respectively with the corresponding icons).

After choosing your class you would be put into a queue as this particular class. Once it is your turn you'll be thrown into a 2v2 match with others that have also been participating in the queue and the system (AI or something) will match you up with the missing classes for a crew (Aka 1 pilot, 1 gunner and 2 engineers on a ship for example).

The ships will have a practice default loadout which cannot be changed. There would not be any time limit, score limit or anything in the map. 2v2 ships would be just flying around and being able to practice piloting, engineering and shooting as the game goes forever untill the members leave (And the system replaces them with people on the queue).  Every ship that is taken down will instantly respawn at a single default spawning point (Which to avoid spawn kills will be not reachable by the opposite team via invisible walls, and to avoid people sniping from that area, they would be thrown out of the area after a small amount of time... Like with a gust of wind...Rapidly moving to the border)
That way no one will ever be pissed as there is no way to win, there will be no frustration at anyone (Because of instant respawn and such) and people would be able to practice their abilities.

Now feel free to elaborate on this mechanic as you please because i am more then sure that i missed a couple of points that would break it or make it frustrating. But the core idea - I believe is something that will be quiet pleasing for a lot of people =)

And to conclude!~
The game is amazing! I am having a lot of fun with it! And i am starting to play more and more as time goes (And when i can). Because of that, i started to care a lot about the game and thus i would really love to see the game have some improvements on slight things that can be annoying. Just so it can succeed even more!

Hope i made myself clear at everything i've been trying to say, and feel free to tell me your opinion =)

[Imagine]

Just a couple quick things of note:

We are both sitting at the same room, and our PC's are one next to each other. We were playing in the same match and on the same ship. I wear headphones and she is using speakers (Because we do not have a second set of headphones yet). Whenever i tried to speak over the voice chat, it would feedback like hell because my mic would capture my own voice and all the background from the speakers my wife were using. That basically rendered our communication to the rest of the team impossible until she have muted all sounds from the game (Resulting in her not hearing what our team mates were saying and me needing to repeat everything that were said).

She could've just muted you on her end. Your voice wouldn't be coming through her speakers, and she'd still be able to hear you.

There must be a way to reply to private messages regardless of where you are. Either in global chat, match chat, clan chat or even within a game. A button or a chat command (Like /r in most games and specially MMO's out there).

/r works, you just need to activate chat first with one of the other hotkeys (j,k,l). Once your cursor is active, just type /r and you'll respond to the last person to send you a tell.

[Geze]

I didn't know about the reply feature, but still to be able to whisper could be cool.

And about the muting... She didn't need to listen to me via speakers, it is just when i were speaking - Because my mic would pick up both me and her speakers... It caused a lot of noise when speaking and a lot of feedback from speakers

[Milevan Faent]

I didn't know about the reply feature, but still to be able to whisper could be cool.

And about the muting... She didn't need to listen to me via speakers, it is just when i were speaking - Because my mic would pick up both me and her speakers... It caused a lot of noise when speaking and a lot of feedback from speakers

They mean she could have muted you in-game so you wouldn't come out of her speakers. Then there would be no feedback.

[Geze]

The only way to mute i've found was "Block" =/

[Omniraptor]

Yeah, that's the button you want.

[Geze]

Well to me block sounds like blocking all communication at all, and not just muting voice in 1 match.

However i would also like to hear opinions about other things i've mentioned XD

[Mod Josie]

I will go through a number of things and probably not in sequence.

In this game however the [Esc] button would drop me out of the match rather then closing the additional closed menu. This will cause me often then not a big amount of frustration, because by the time i try to join back into the match i accidentally just left my spot would already be taken. For someone that tries to interact with the mouse as less as possible - This is a very big issue for me. It comes really naturally to me and there is little to nothing i can do to stop this habbit.
I would suggest either adding a confirmation prompt upon trying to leave a match (Where pressing [Enter] key will automatically confirm the action, and leave the "No" option to be clicked with a mouse or the [Esc] key) or making the [Esc] key actually close the latest opened menu.

Firstly, as someone else who uses their keyboard an awful lot - I understand. That being said, no two games are the same in how they're built and I would really recommend that you use your computational plasticity to get used to not making that mistake. A prompt would be nice, but really this is an issue of habit, not game design.

Another thing i would like to add into the UI section is the VOIP in game. I have no problem with it at all, but there should be 2 separated options to muting people, and blocking their communication entirely. For obvious reasons these 2 should be separated and i should not go on about it too much.
I have 1 example of last night when me and my wife were playing:
We are both sitting at the same room, and our PC's are one next to each other. We were playing in the same match and on the same ship. I wear headphones and she is using speakers (Because we do not have a second set of headphones yet). Whenever i tried to speak over the voice chat, it would feedback like hell because my mic would capture my own voice and all the background from the speakers my wife were using. That basically rendered our communication to the rest of the team impossible until she have muted all sounds from the game (Resulting in her not hearing what our team mates were saying and me needing to repeat everything that were said).

This game is built to be played with headphones. If your wife is next to you, then the block feature will be adequate for your needs. If that doesn't satisfy you, then get her to mute her speakers entirely, or both of you can play off the same mic+speaker setup, both using it to communicate.

Well I don't know how much have been brought up on this matter before (So i apologize in advance if i bring up old news) but here is what i have to say about it.
First and foremost! There must be a way to reply to private messages regardless of where you are. Either in global chat, match chat, clan chat or even within a game. A button or a chat command (Like /r in most games and specially MMO's out there). Now i know that GoI is not an MMO or anything, but still please. It is essential to be able to reply to someone fast without waiting for a match to end.

As has already been mentioned, /r does work. j/r will work without fail so long as you aren't in a Clan chat window. In a match, j/r will work at all times. Other commands for the console are out there, but aren't public knowledge. I may ask a dev to give me a spreadsheet with them all in for the player domain.

There is only 1 topic i want to touch in this section, and i don't know how to even call it so thus the name "Game Rules".
My biggest issue is that as soon as any of my classes reaches level 4, i cannot join "Novice" matches. Now i see where it comes from and why it was implemented, but if i am level 4 engineer and do want to practice my gunning or piloting - I must join a none novice game and because of my inexperience, i basically am causing a lot of frustration to the experienced people (Specially if i am piloting).
 First suggestion is simple - Just make it possible to join with classes less then level 4 to novice matches. As in i cannot join novice matches with my level 4+ Engineer, but i can join with my level 3- gunner or pilot to novice matches.

There is a very good reason for why this would be broken. There is an individual playing this game right now with Level 15 Pilot and Gunner, and level 1 Engineer. Letting people sneak into Novice Games when they have accrued sufficient experience is an unfair advantage. If you want to practice piloting in a free environment, try the Practice mode. Which reminds me.........

Make a "Practice mode" more game like. If i am not totally wrong and have no idea how this system works today "Practice" as it stands offers you a game with no goals and foes. Unless you invite people into it, you will be left there alone and be able to do all sort of things (Like spawn AI ships and stuff like that). I believe that this idea is cool for people who like to do it solo (Or with a small group) but i believe that there is a better way
Now feel free to elaborate on this mechanic as you please because i am more then sure that i missed a couple of points that would break it or make it frustrating. But the core idea - I believe is something that will be quiet pleasing for a lot of people =)

Practice mode (Blumer's Blastyard) Allows you or a group to fly a ship outside of a match. You can fly as one ship, or you can fly 1v1, 2v2 and all the configurations in between. You already can spawn in AI enemies using the Sandbox keys which are on your Right hand Side of your UI in the Practice Mode. This allows you to come up with your own goals and fly how you want. You really need to check out these features before coming up with feedback. Most of the things you mentioned the Practice Mode needed are already in that gamemode.

And to conclude!~
The game is amazing! I am having a lot of fun with it! And i am starting to play more and more as time goes (And when i can). Because of that, i started to care a lot about the game and thus i would really love to see the game have some improvements on slight things that can be annoying. Just so it can succeed even more!
Hope i made myself clear at everything i've been trying to say, and feel free to tell me your opinion =)

I am very glad you are enjoying yourself. I hope that you can enjoy this game for a long time to come.
As for the final statement - I hope I have done just that

[Geze]

Firstly thanks for the feedback =) on this topic. However i would still like to touch several things you've mentioned:

Firstly, as someone else who uses their keyboard an awful lot - I understand. That being said, no two games are the same in how they're built and I would really recommend that you use your computational plasticity to get used to not making that mistake. A prompt would be nice, but really this is an issue of habit, not game design.

I know it is a habit and that is exactly how i have presented it ^.^ i were merely asking for a feature which i believe is easily possible to implement, just to save the "Oh crap" moments that's all. I do believe that adding a prompt would be a very good addition regardless of my habit and would benefit other players as well.

This game is built to be played with headphones. If your wife is next to you, then the block feature will be adequate for your needs. If that doesn't satisfy you, then get her to mute her speakers entirely, or both of you can play off the same mic+speaker setup, both using it to communicate.

As much as this is true, it is just imposing an inconvenience. I have put only an example of where a "Mute" option could be useful. The "Block" option sound more permanent, and if i am not playing from our home but from my friends place, she would need to unblock me and such things. It is very simple to just add a convenience such as "Mute" for this particular match that's all.

Practice mode (Blumer's Blastyard) Allows you or a group to fly a ship outside of a match. You can fly as one ship, or you can fly 1v1, 2v2 and all the configurations in between. You already can spawn in AI enemies using the Sandbox keys which are on your Right hand Side of your UI in the Practice Mode. This allows you to come up with your own goals and fly how you want. You really need to check out these features before coming up with feedback. Most of the things you mentioned the Practice Mode needed are already in that gamemode.

The thing is that if i want to practice not against AI (Which sometimes is just not the same as other people) i would be needing to make a group of people i know (Or convince from the chat... Which is very unlikely) to join a practice match with me. Unfortunately i do not have an extent of more then 8 people to join a match with me for practice purposes... Thus i just have suggested a way to make people able to practice together without goal nor with the need to arrange practice matches. Just a "Looking For Group" system for practice matches to pit people together.
Now that i think of it - It might indeed be quite chaotic, but at the same time with no goals or scores it will be less frustrating for people and it might lead to less leaving in mid match (Specially in novice games).
Not by any stretch of the imagination have i said that the current practice system is flawed! I like it, and i've learnt quite some things from there (Specially while piloting), i have only suggested on how to make it more of a player base experience rather then 1 player vs AI ....


However thank you very much for the thoughts =)
I would only like to add that in my original post, i did not mean to say that the game performs bad in any way and i am sorry if this is how it been interpreted. I am having a blast! And the game is polished as it is.

I did not know about several things (Like the chat commands) because as you have mentioned they are not publicly available so i am glad to know it now =)

[Mattilald Anguisad]

There is a matchmaking system in the works, and it will be usefull to do what you suggest.