Easement of communication and other little things

[Swizy]

I have some suggestions for communication easement in the game. I guess some of them are considered since they are somewhat obvious. Most of it is just for the captain. Just let me get through each point:


Kick/Lock/Ban function for slots in Lobby(for the captain)
You're in a lobby, you're the captain and following scenarios can happen in each game:

-Some really annoying guy (like he wants to make you mad/ has no mic/ understands no english/ doesn't play as a team, you name the reasons) shows up and you have no force at all to get rid of him. Kick him and your good. Maybe even a voting system could work. But in my eyes the captain should be in charge of that decision.

-A buddy of yours gets a disco and someone else takes the spot (in game or lobby). This arrogant slot stealer (A.S.S.) doesn't move after your buddy came back and you can't play with him anymore

These kinda problems can be solved by a Kick system (from the pilot) a ban system (voting by the lobby) or simply a locking ability to lock the spots on your ship till your friends show up (lobby and in game).


Visualisation of different chats (Party/captain/crew) (just like party chat is purple) +volume control
this one i'm sure is already in consideration. A simply way to give an indication who on which chat in game is talking. Simplest way would be to use colours for that. Such as purple for party chat (just like in the chat window) and any cool of choice for the other two.
in addition it would be cool to have a volume control so that for example crew chat volume will the lowered to captain chat.


Primary targeting (indicator like in Portal 2)
In eve online we had this window visible by everybody in the fleet. it helped you to target a primary ship so everybody will shoot at the same guy. something like that would be very useful in many situation just to eliminate any misunderstandings. In game I could imagine the indicator the look similar to the portal 2 co-op pointing sign (just a simply circle for visualisation). It shows up briefly for everybody on your team to focus fire on one guy.


Scrolling ability in chat
yeah i think somebody mentioned that before already. scrolling in game just like the in these valve games would be very great. There are not many situations where you can't live with that but still. It's something that in my opinion should be considered.


who got the last shot??? (kills in chat)
Please tell me, Many times when you play competitive with your teammates we want to know who got the last kill. Implement kills in chat or something, I just want to know WHO GOT THE LAST ONE. THX

I know some of these have their downsides. Just like everything does. Though im confident that these chances would benefit my gameplay.

Thanks for your time!

[Rainer Zu Fall]

Bans or kicks are wanted by many players. The problem with a kick (or even ban - better leave that to the devs) function is that people may be abusing it to kick disliked or new/unexperienced/"low level" players of their ships. Which isn't quite the idea of teamplay...
Talking about teamplay, if some other player takes your friends spot ask him to leave politely, explain the reasons why. If he doesn't do that just ask if he speaks english before calling him an "a.s.s.". Furthermore you and you're co-captain are a team. Ask him to unready and explain the reasons why. Try to figure out what to do now. The match only starts when the players want it to! (Although many people start a match without thinking, just ready up as quickly as possible and afterwards yell because they just had AI...)


Different chat colours might make the chat really, really colorful. That's a bad thing if you're wondering.
Too many colours don't help sorting out what is important and what isn't! The prefixes "Match", "Team" or "Crew" already indicate in which chat the text has been written.

Scrolling is already enabled by pressing "Esc" and clicking "Social". You then see every chat possible.

[N-Sunderland]

Hey Swizy. First off, welcome to the forums

On to your suggestions.

1. Kicking has been suggested on a number of occasions, but Muse has decided against it. It's generally agreed that it would cause a lot more harm than good. You'd end up with certain groups of fairly experienced players kicking less experienced ones due to "lack of skill" or whatever. It's just far too abusable to be worth it. To be honest, I don't see that many trolls outside of beginner matches (since said trolls don't tend to get past level 1-3). Isn't it better for one or two matches to get ruined every once in a while than for the entire game to be potentially ruined for some other people?

2. Yes, I have to agree with this. Party voice chat is supposed to be purple... But something seems to have gone wrong there. The volume thing is also a good idea... But I don't know if Muse can actually do that, since the game uses Steam's voice chat, which they don't have too much control over.

3. Exactly what I've suggested before! A point-and-highlight system like in Portal 2 could do a number of things for communication. Not only could it point to enemy ships, but it could also indicate different
components to repair, guns to fire, etc.

4. It wouldn't make too much of a difference, but I agree that it'd be nice for the option to be there.

5. I believe Muse has something in the works that'll record kills per player and such statistics.


Anyways, thanks for your suggestions! Your ideas are much appreciated.

[Imagine]

Kick/Lock/Ban function for slots in Lobby(for the captain)
You're in a lobby, you're the captain and following scenarios can happen in each game:

-Some really annoying guy (like he wants to make you mad/ has no mic/ understands no english/ doesn't play as a team, you name the reasons) shows up and you have no force at all to get rid of him. Kick him and your good. Maybe even a voting system could work. But in my eyes the captain should be in charge of that decision.

-A buddy of yours gets a disco and someone else takes the spot (in game or lobby). This arrogant slot stealer (A.S.S.) doesn't move after your buddy came back and you can't play with him anymore

These kinda problems can be solved by a Kick system (from the pilot) a ban system (voting by the lobby) or simply a locking ability to lock the spots on your ship till your friends show up (lobby and in game).

You may want to read this: https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1529.msg26717.html#msg26717

Y'know, I'm tempted to say that kick function suggests should be treated the same as boarding suggestions >.>

[Swizy]

Thanks for the response

I know kicks can be abused. By ban I ment ban from the lobby not a actual gameban. I wouldn't mention these kinda stuff if I hadn't had cases  where it would've been useful. I play alot with new players. I like to help them to understand and play the game. But there are many who are just not mooded to learn anything. Whetever it is because they can't understand you or simply ingore you. And this is quite the idea of teamplay. to have people to work with. That's why I play this game. And don't get me wrong, I ask everybody before the match if they're able to communicate. If not I suggest them other ways to get into the game.

As for you it's also my goal to stay polite and ask everyone who takes a spot that was ment for somebody else. This is the only way to do it now anyway. I don't think it's rude though if you remove somebody from your ship in anyway. I've met enough cases where a slot locking would be helpful. (I know of the crew formation feature). I know how the game works by now and the ability to ask my teammates for their understanding if I need things sorted out. Locking slots should be avaible for the captain if he wants so. This allows good teamplay in my oppinion.

Different chat colours was ment for voice chat. I have no problems in text chat to understand who talks with me. There's only Party/captain- and Crew voice chat as of now and I think everybody is able to handle three different colours there.

Also don't take the ass joke seriously mate 

[Rainer Zu Fall]

I know that there are positive aspects about kicking. But what you meant to say with kick/ban isn't agreed with everyone. Give some people power and they will abuse it. Everybody knows how difficult it is sometimes, but that's where we should grow over ourselves and not just pass the problem to someone else.
Sometimes people have to learn it the hard way, be it by acknowledging that everything you said is right, getting angry over that and leaving with the promise to never play the game (which is a shame I think - but some people just aren't teamplayers or reasonable enough to give in) or be it by learning that you have to be a team and keep on working on that in the future.

Don't be polite because it's the only way. That's not what the inventor had in mind when thinking of politeness.
Removing someone from your ship without him doing anything bad to you is, to be honest, pretty rude. Maybe he is afk? Maybe he just doesnt know which button to press? There are plenty more of things that may be keeping him from answering. Maybe he doesn't use headphones and just can't hear you? If you explained everything and after a few games of losses he still sticks quietly around, the probability of him being eager to learn is high.
Otherwise if he instantly leaves after a few disasters you know what he had in mind.
Nonetheless, don't let that lead you to think everyone is the same, even if acting the same!

Different chat colours for voice is actually a really good idea. I like this A LOT. As I do like the target function you wrote.

Showing personalized statistics after each match just leads to some people being eager to be the best though, no matter if the team is winning or losing.

[Swizy]

yeah you got some good points about the kick/ban system. Might be better to keep it the way it is. Power abusing is sad but still a reality.

Removing someone from your ship was another thing combined with kicking. So let's forget about that for now. I know there are different people. It's not really a question of how we should treat everybody individually. It's better to have a generalized view on that matter. As I said before there are reasons for someone not reacting to you. However in a game like this where your rely totally on communication it's pretty important to have at least somewhat of power on your ship if you're captain. It's not my intention at all to pass problem players on or to corrupt the fun of this game to somebody. This game needs a bit of time to get the hang of it. Like in every other game out there there's a learning curve. We shouldn't look at this game like every other generic game. Most multiplayer games I know don't need as much teamwork as GoI does. New players need to learn that from the begining and since the tutorial fails at this kind of teaching we (the players) are the ones who can help them.

I understand that the learning curve might frustrate some new players out there to even go as far as to skip the game completly . But that's how it is, I can see why this isn't a game for everybody's taste. But the ones who will stay are the ones who communicate activly and help winning. And there's the biggest rewarding in my oppinion. Winning a game is mostly or even only a result of good teamwork with feedback.

The one idea about reserving slots is still not as bad I think. Worst case would be that you have a trolling captain who reserves all slots to start a game with only one guy on board. Smart captains will use it to get firends on their ship. With new players it's a bit different of course since most experienced players tend to favorite good players on their ship. But that's what the lvl 1-3 matches are for I guess.

[Captain Smollett]

who got the last shot??? (kills in chat)
Please tell me, Many times when you play competitive with your teammates we want to know who got the last kill. Implement kills in chat or something, I just want to know WHO GOT THE LAST ONE. THX

I'm not sure if this is what you meant but ever since 1.2 it doesn't show which ship got the last kill.  I would actually love to see this change again to know who got the final kill.  I suppose I'm a bit competitive as well and I am always left wondering who's ship got that last shot in when we were both pummeling the final target.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

There is a limit to politeness. Specially when someone, even when saying their name, just ignores you.

Class locking via the captain would be nice. I get way too many powder monkeys on fresh lobbies. You ask them nicely to change and half of them just sit there doing nothing.

[Swizy]

Class locking might be even better. When they join a game they see free spots and they can choose which role to play. This of course isn't a problem if you play with a clan or with buddies. But the captain knows his ship the best. With random players you have more of a problem when it comes to that. Perhaps Crew role should be handled the same as gun loadout on your ship. You would be able to not only choose what guns you have but also what kind of crew you need to get it work. That would even eliminate the problem of gunner AI which I also have a problem with. If ya don't want a gunner AI just change the free slot to engineer and you'd have for example three engineer AI which in my oppinion is better compared to a gunner AI.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

There is a limit to politeness. Specially when someone, even when saying their name, just ignores you.

Class locking via the captain would be nice. I get way too many powder monkeys on fresh lobbies. You ask them nicely to change and half of them just sit there doing nothing.

Maybe they don't know how to change? Maybe they don't understand you? Maybe they don't know how to answer you, asking why they have to change? Maybe they tabbed out of the game? Maybe they just went to pick up something from somewhere else in real life?
Don't always think of them as ignorant idiots.
There is a limit to politeness if someone offends you.

I already see everybody locking the spots so no new players as powder monkeys will be able to join...

Class locking might be even better. When they join a game they see free spots and they can choose which role to play. This of course isn't a problem if you play with a clan or with buddies. But the captain knows his ship the best. With random players you have more of a problem when it comes to that. Perhaps Crew role should be handled the same as gun loadout on your ship. You would be able to not only choose what guns you have but also what kind of crew you need to get it work. That would even eliminate the problem of gunner AI which I also have a problem with. If ya don't want a gunner AI just change the free slot to engineer and you'd have for example three engineer AI which in my oppinion is better compared to a gunner AI.

One does not always know his ship the best. Sometimes there are situations where the crewmates may be helpful. That's why you're a team.

Random players may be good too. You think in a hospital everybody always works with the same guys? No, they help each other although they (in the worst case) don't know themselves. Still they help many poeple survive every day. And don't tell me everybody knows what to do. There are new people that need to learn everything. Also, as mentioned above, not everybody knows what to do in specific situations. But maybe the other one knows. That's what a good team does.

Sure, the captain knows what crew might be the best - but sometimes trying new things because someones convinces you otherwise or maybe just has a good idea helps this game.

[Swizy]

I think you're looking at this too much from the new players side. We discussed problems about problematic communication and we know enough reasons why someone might not respond. Again, In a game like this communication is the best way to play it right. This is something you will learn from the beginning. But instead on concentrating on the freshest players only let's look at this from a generalized perspective.

This locking wouldn't be a neccessity. It's thought to be optional. Players who are in a advanced state wouldn't even need it anymore since a crew member himself knows the best way to play on any ship. If not you will most likely be told which role would be best. As you said there are many reasons why somebody might not be able to talk with his crew. Why wouldn't it be helpful then if he has the ability to at least determine roles on his ship. I can't think of any big disadvantages from that. You might be thinking again about the newbies but there's the option for them to join beginners matches. There you will get the feeling of how to fly a ship, how to repair or how to shoot. That's something everybody can learn by himself. If they were to decide to join non-beginners match they must know that there's a advanced playstyle since beginners matches are not often about to win but more about to get the idea of the game. I'm now one of the captain who doesn't play in beginners matches anymore and everybody would be able to tell since my lvl must be over 3. I'm still not the best nor are many others. We learn as we play and we adjust as we gain experience. The ability to have determined roles on the ship is just another expansion to the way we communicate. There wouldn't be any questions left for the experienced player nor the unexperienced one if you have a role given. You can still have a lvl1 gunner or lvl1 engineer. There's no exclusion of them. The only thing that changes for them is that they now know what role they take on the ship. If we wanna protect new players from the lets for example make it so that only lvl3 and above had the ability to do that on their ship.

lemme know what you think