How long will GoI last? What happend to May players?

[DMaximus]

They're also working on some in-game clan features for the next update. At least clan tags, and I think some join matches as a group stuff.

[Imagine]

As one of those may players, and someone who hasnt played for a month but just came back to see if there's an update, I had a few reasons why I stopped playing

1- lobbies. Most games you just jump into the action, but this game has a lot of downtime where you have to wait for that last 4th player, or wait for a pilot, or play with/against AI which is not fun to me, I like to play with/beat other ships with real people.

People need to exorcise a little bit more patience, imo. I swear if a game doesn't start within 10 seconds of someone joining a game, they leave. Baffles me to no end.

2- variety of gameplay. i got really tired of having to play engineer 90% of the time. pilot is usually reserved for older players, gunners are usually limited to 1 and then the pilot asks you to switch to engy. Also got tired of playing on pyramidions, and when I did get to play on a cool ship like squid we always lost. this lack of variety has mostly to do with balance of ships/classes/guns

"Reserved for older players" is something that's really in your own head, honestly. I've seen plenty of lower level players pilot and be quite adept at it. Yes, you'll want to be comfortable flying the ships that you do, but the only way to get that experience is to, well, do it. If someone else insists on being captain or piloting but you still want to work on yours, you're certainly under no obligation to give into their requests.
As for gunning, if you're on a ship with two engies already and the captain tells you to go engie as well, just tell them that you're working on your gunning. If they then throw a hissy-fit, just block the person and find another ship (there is some point to not actually needing to be a gunner to be a gunner currently but that's an entirely different topic). And if there's a gunner already, well then, find a ship that doesn't have one already
There's also certainly no lack of variety of ships, they all have their purposes, strengths, weaknesses. It's up to you to find out what works well when, and can especially mixed up if you're able to talk to the other captain about how you want to go about in a game plan.

--> If there were more classes (which I dont think is planned) or even sub-classes (Co-Pilot, Main Engineer, Associate Engineer, Main Gunner, Associate Gunner) and those classes had distinct sub-roles then itd be more fun

Sorry but, wha? What exactly would this accomplish that can't be done be simple in game communication? Heck, what would a co-pilot even do o.O?

3- no social aspect. should really have an integrated clan feature. this game is really meant to be played with friends, then it gets really fun. if you're running solo, ur gonna get tired of it quickly. and thats what happened to most may players

I personall ran solo for... quite a while and never got tired of it. While the game (and any game) is enjoyable when you've got friends along, that doesn't mean you can't make them in game. A high amount of folks in the game are incredibly friendly and supportive, but if you're closed to the prospect of talking to others in game or here on the forums, yeah, you won't really get anywhere.

Also, iirc, clan/team/guild/whatever support should be in game in a near future patch.

[roder]

This is something you have to kind of be active about, but I play with an awesome clan. We chat and hang out, and I talked to them and played with them a bit even before joining the actual clan. I have lots of friends across the clans, and enjoy playing and talking to all of them.
You've got to put yourself out there man.

Yeah when I'm talking about social aspect, im saying a clan interface actually integrated within the game. Right now, you have to go out of your way, go into the forums or chat, and ask to join a clan. This is out of the game. I want it integrated within the game. Put tags around before name if you're in a clan, for example. Something this minor can go a long way.

Also when I was talking about sub-classes,they dont have to actually be different from the main class. There's already subclasses without the title, as in having 2 engineers on ship but one as Gungineer and one as main engineer. it'd just be cool to actually differentiate them

Thanks for all the response though.

[Surette]

The clan stuff you're talking about is coming soon. 

As for subclasses, I actually love the ambiguity. I love that engineers can gun and gunners can repair (hell, even pilots can if they really wanted to). I wouldn't like such strict subclasses that dictate exactly what you're going to be doing; I like that a captain can utilize his crew members in different ways regardless of the class they choose.

[roder]

"Reserved for older players" is something that's really in your own head, honestly. I've seen plenty of lower level players pilot and be quite adept at it. Yes, you'll want to be comfortable flying the ships that you do, but the only way to get that experience is to, well, do it. If someone else insists on being captain or piloting but you still want to work on yours, you're certainly under no obligation to give into their requests.
As for gunning, if you're on a ship with two engies already and the captain tells you to go engie as well, just tell them that you're working on your gunning. If they then throw a hissy-fit, just block the person and find another ship (there is some point to not actually needing to be a gunner to be a gunner currently but that's an entirely different topic). And if there's a gunner already, well then, find a ship that doesn't have one already
There's also certainly no lack of variety of ships, they all have their purposes, strengths, weaknesses. It's up to you to find out what works well when, and can especially mixed up if you're able to talk to the other captain about how you want to go about in a game plan.

Haha I just wanted to give you my own opinion, you're not really changing my opinion at all. Yes I do think the 2engy+1gunner set in stone for every ship = lack of variety. you even stated I might as well find another ship or another game if there's already a gunner. There is definitely a lack of variety of ships as you cannot play a game without seeing a pyra, but you can definitely go without seeing a squid. As for guns, well hwacha/flak/gatling are very very popular. I'm not saying the others are inbalanced (as others are harder to shoot) but like I said, lack of variety

[Echoez]

Haha I just wanted to give you my own opinion, you're not really changing my opinion at all. Yes I do think the 2engy+1gunner set in stone for every ship = lack of variety. you even stated I might as well find another ship or another game if there's already a gunner. There is definitely a lack of variety of ships as you cannot play a game without seeing a pyra, but you can definitely go without seeing a squid. As for guns, well hwacha/flak/gatling are very very popular. I'm not saying the others are inbalanced (as others are harder to shoot) but like I said, lack of variety

Actually a lot of ships will run 3-Engi, while ships with heavy guns will want at least one Gunner on them so there's that. Variety in ships comes with experience, less experienced pilots will mostly try piloting ships that are pretty straight forward, the Pyramidion being a great example, just point and shoot at the enemy, so that might be one of the problems, if you play a lot of DM do not expect to see many Squids as they are not realy fit for DMing other ships and while possible, maily achievable if the captain has a lot of exprience and is playing against lesser opponents.

Other than that, I have seen many Junkers, Goldfishes, Galleons, heck even some Spires on the matches I have played so far, is the Pyra being realy popular that bad of a thing?

Only thing that I believe need something more about it is the Spire and maybe then you'll see more of these.

[Ofiach]

IMO the game will last if its community is diverse. I built the Falconeers from scratch and alot of the guys say the only reason they still play is because they can hop on any time and play with people they like and know.

So finding a clan or building one of your own is probably the best way to keep people interested. Rather than being stomped or slaughtering in every match you can balance it out between clan teams and have great battles.

[Mill Wilkinson]

Rather than being stomped or slaughtering in every match you can balance it out between clan teams and have great battles.

Clans do provide certain "quality-check", but it is not failproof.

I think "Education Clan" would be something worth researching in GoIO. I mean, I'd want a few matches where both we and the enemy were under the tutelage of someone well-versed in the game. it shouldn't be restricting, though, and the people could be in another clans, too.

[Surette]

I think "Education Clan" would be something worth researching in GoIO. I mean, I'd want a few matches where both we and the enemy were under the tutelage of someone well-versed in the game. it shouldn't be restricting, though, and the people could be in another clans, too.

Have you ever tried the Training Days? https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/board,35.0.html

[Ofiach]

I kinda run a stream for teaching new players almost every day twitch.tv/ofiach. It's there to let players learn from my flying (or crashing) and along with training days and CA help there really is no excuse for new players who actually try to learn. I learned almost everything from the forums, I'm giving people a video to watch and the ability to ask questions in real time. I mean maybe it isn't flawless I'm not the best pilot ever but its a tool that I didn't have and all you have to do is go to a website and type in some questions.

[Strite]

Me and my team purchased the game back in October and played it pretty heavily for a few weeks, unfortunately at the time there really weren't any community events going on as the community was still finding its feet and so we moved on to other games. I've been wanting to get back in to the game for months and finally we've returned as a team with plans to enter future tourney's such as the Cogs and maybe even host a couple of tourneys ourselves. This is a niche game and so it'll never have a huge population, much as those of us who love it would like it to.

As long as the community is passionate and we continue to see players organising events I think this game is fine. I mean the only other game communities I've seen with such a passionate community as GoIO has are usually MMO's. GoI's competitive scene continues to grow and as others in this thread have said even the most casual players have a chance of competing against the more experienced competitive players unlike in other games because of the unique team based nature of the game.

Our team also has three regular streamers who have a decent number of subscribers on Twitch between them, they'll be streaming most of our gameplay sessions and maybe that will bring in a new player or two If as many members of the community as possible spread the word about the game then that's a start. Even if only one new player out of every ten sticks with the game then IMO it's worth the effort.

[Redorio diVario]

So generally, what I understand from your posts is that in order to stay for long with the game you have to be a part of the community. I know it may be a silly question since this game is cooperation-based and everyone who bought it was aware of the fact that he can't be a lonely wolf here but...

Does is mean that without the community the potential of the game highly is limited? Do players who are not interested in events, joining clan etc won't find the game interesting for long?

So maybe it would be wise to encourage players in-game to join the community? Most of them don't know about the forum (because this is the heart of the community, isn't it?). They don't even know that an account has been created here when they registers for the game xD. Maybe there should be some advertisement in the game "Join our community on forum!" or something else.

[Imagine]

So generally, what I understand from your posts is that in order to stay for long with the game you have to be a part of the community. I know it may be a silly question since this game is cooperation-based and everyone who bought it was aware of the fact that he can't be a lonely wolf here but...

Does is mean that without the community the potential of the game highly is limited? Do players who are not interested in events, joining clan etc won't find the game interesting for long?

Have to? Absolutely not, but it does enhance the value of the game. Like any multiplayer game, you can play it flying solo in random matches, but it gets much more enjoyable when you start to find people you like to play with, especially in a game such as this where everything depends on how well your crew gels.

You get as much out of this game as you put into it, imo

[Plasmarobo]

If I hadn't found the community, I really doubt that I would be willing to put up with the frustration of players who don't communicated well.

Your performance is sort of an average of the skill of everyone on your ship. Feeling chained down by people you don't know is a really rough thing. Being chained down by people you do know/are friendly with isn't quite as bad, especially since you get to see them improve over time.

For me, the community makes this game. Without it, it's fun but frustrating.
With it, I can't imagine ever putting this game down.

[Letus]

Frankly, it's actually nice, in my opinion, now that that huge wave of YOLOCODSWAGHASHTAG is gone...
was not enjoyable...definitely when people who have only seen the vids on youtube and have only put 4 minutes of game time think they know more than someone who has been playing for months.

Nice part was easy kills...and that they were the ones that really got me into lumberjack again...

But always the community.  I'll come back, stay back, just because with everyone I like in the game (and need to put into the stalker's list,) we almost make half of a sane person...

It's really fun when you're in a game and talking nonchalantly about any random topic as you just casually shoot or die...