Feedback and a suggestion from a new player.

[SnipahShot]

Hey guys,

I started playing Guns of Icarus last week I believe, love it so far. I love it so much that I got my brother to play it(He actually plays it rather than CS:GO and Call of Duty) and a friend(Another friend is on the way but he doesn't know it yet xD).

Basically, as a new player I found the tutorial most helpful and then the first game was sharpening what the tutorial taught me. My problem comes later, it was very very hard to figure out what Progress is all about.. And I am still not sure I completely understand. Took me quite some time to understand that "Logs" are what you need to complete in order to level up and achievements are just for goals.
I suggest some kind of extra tutorial to explain all of that.

Another suggestion would be to make this game competitive. I come from playing League of Legends for a year and there are actually ranked games there that set people based on the amount of games they win/ frequency. There is also a streamed tournament for actual money that is sponsored by Coca Cola and other companies(With crowd and stuff). I don't think Guns of Icarus is there yet, but I think you guys need to take a step to the right direction because I can totally see you there.
I suggest you guys add a leaderboard for clans(I have yet to create one so I don't know what size it can be) so that clans can battle among themselves and show all the players who is the best clan.
I'd love to give clarifications if needed.

Snipah

[Piemanlives]

The game itself has small yet growing competitive scene already, you find examples of such events down in the community events section of the forum. Clans are more of a way for players to get together and play matches together however Muse is currently working to improve the system and while I don't know the specifics any idea is welcome, besides boarding, that is not a welcome topic. 

[macmacnick]

Achievements are in the "logs" section of the progress tab, and are needed to level up. The Challenges area however, unlocks extra info in the manuals, or badges/some hats at the milestones (5,10,15) in that section (Teaching and citizenship) You can also unlock the newsboy hat by doing all the required actions in a practice match.
The game has an official competitive scene, and also has community-hosted events and tournaments such as the Cogs, the Support your local Aerodrome event, the Sunday rumble, and the saturday box social. Official events have previously included the Faberia Conclusion and the Leviathan Seasonal.
Leaderboards will almost definitely never be implemented, for players or for clans, even though the clan system may be getting an overhaul soon. The bounty board is a competitive 'mini game' in which the bounties try to win as many matches as possible in a set period of time (two weeks) and try to win more than the other bounties. Every player is eligible to become a bounty, by signing up, and out of the pool of applicants, 75 players will be chosen at random to be the bounties. The one with the mist wins at the end of the period gets a badge for their profile page and a prize. The player with the most collected bounty points (earned by winning a match against the enemy team possessing a ship with any bounty on it gets that bounty's bounty points, (bounty points are not claimed for one player, you just cannot claim their points again for the duration of that bounty period.) Also, the player who claims the highest amount of bounty points at the end of the period gets a badge and a prize as well.


Other than the Bounty board, there will almost NEVER be any leaderboards. Also, ranked games will almost never happen, as that would fracture the already small player base.


Summary
Leaderboards — Besides bounty board existing, probably not going to happen.
Achievements — Needed to level up, found in the logs section under the progress tab of the GUI.
Challenges — Complete to unlock extra info in the Journals (Manuals) and some hats and badges, depending on the category.
Competitive matches/tournaments — Official and community-organized tournaments and the competitive scene already exist and are organized through this forum.
Clans — More of an informal system, usually groups of players who use the clan tag functionality to find each other and play together.
Streamed tournaments — Exist, one of the regular streamers's twitch channels is http://www.twitch.tv/cesports

[Crafeksterty]

There is a competetive scene that i would love to see become larger. All you have to do is be commited and be a part of it.

Because it exists, very much so infact.

http://www.twitch.tv/cesports/profile/pastBroadcasts

You can here watch past broadcasts of Sunday Rumble, a weekly sunday tournament every sunday. (2v2 deathmatch)
Saturday Box special, a Saturday version of the Sunday :/ (2v2 Deathmatch)
And Other hosted tournaments like the Aerodome (3v3 crazy king) and some other (3v3 deathmatch etc  etc)

Here is the competitors list that participate in these events http://cesports.org/competitors  There are more competetive clans than that, if im not mistaken. Like The Art of War for instance.

There have been clans that have come and left that i would love to see come back, like wolfpack or some other that i dont remember.
The gents and Ducks for instance, have so many members that they split their players up into teams for competetive play. For example, the Gent's "Mad hatters" team,  and Duck's "Mandarins" team. And etc etc, the list goes on.

So there are quite a number of people playing this competetively, but it is reletively small in comparison versus league of legends or CS:GO.



Another thing i want to mention is the relatability, or the social stand out in this competetive is is, pretty easy. Specialy for Gunners and Pilots.
New clans Stand out, and are always nice to see. And are noticed quickly.
Pilots and Gunners usualy get the credit for what is going onstreams and score. Thats because the gunner and the pilots ability is most visible.

And there have been only a few tournaments where you get stuff. But in most cases, it is for the competetive play rather than reward of money or prizes.
Well, i only managed to get a free copy of Icarus (Or adventure mode, but i chose icarus). Nothing much, but the fight was the bigger thing.

[HamsterIV]

The Devs posted a survey about new player tutorial experiences here:
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,3433.0.html

They would probably appreciate some feed back from new guys like SnipahShot and his friends.

[Ricotomo]

 I am also a new player, I have been playing for 3 days and its a great game, probably one of my favorite online games. But I want more customization in the ships. I understand that balance is an issue, as I am a small developer myself, and I think it could be done using a similar system you have now with guns.

I want to be able to build my ships from scratch, or a base mesh. Then be able to add guns and armor, and possibly a detachable dirigible (with powers of becoming invisible for short periods of time, basically a scout no guns small armor)? . The easiest way to control the amount you can add is by making a currency, money or materials, that you can spend.

 Ever bodies tendency of course would be to place guns on all sides however you should have a penalty for this. The more guns you have the worst they are. So if you have 1 gun its a supper cannon. This would of cause the issue of not knowing where the weakness is on the enemy ship,(thus making new players hesitant to pilot) so introducing a new tool would be cool. The class would use a spy glass too, but it gives the captain a blueprint of the ship. I notice that during flying change weapons does nothing useful so the captain could scroll through the enemy ship's blueprints which would be located where the hands would normally be.

If you reward the player with some new materials or currency then you could make it feel like the player is growing, and growth keeps people coming back.

[Mattilald Anguisad]

I think the poin is the game needs more comprehensive tutorials. And MUSE is accepting suggestions how specificaly to do that.

@Ricotomo: the kind of player progress you are talking about (ie. with actual progression) is going to be in one form or another in Adventure Mode witch is in developmenet.
Customisation will be improved with adittional cosmetic customization slots in Skirmish Mode (pvp) and with more utility slots in Adventure mode. MUSe allready said they are looking into integrating Steam Workshop in some way, but the sort of scratch building of ships you wish for is unlikely in Skirmish Mode - as the gun stats are predefined(keeping balance is hard allready). There are only 2 gun size catrgories: light, heavy.

[macmacnick]

I Think of them as Small and medium, and think of this when I think large guns:

[Crafeksterty]

I am also a new player, I have been playing for 3 days and its a great game, probably one of my favorite online games. But I want more customization in the ships. I understand that balance is an issue, as I am a small developer myself, and I think it could be done using a similar system you have now with guns.

I want to be able to build my ships from scratch, or a base mesh. Then be able to add guns and armor, and possibly a detachable dirigible (with powers of becoming invisible for short periods of time, basically a scout no guns small armor)? . The easiest way to control the amount you can add is by making a currency, money or materials, that you can spend.

 Ever bodies tendency of course would be to place guns on all sides however you should have a penalty for this. The more guns you have the worst they are. So if you have 1 gun its a supper cannon. This would of cause the issue of not knowing where the weakness is on the enemy ship,(thus making new players hesitant to pilot) so introducing a new tool would be cool. The class would use a spy glass too, but it gives the captain a blueprint of the ship. I notice that during flying change weapons does nothing useful so the captain could scroll through the enemy ship's blueprints which would be located where the hands would normally be.

If you reward the player with some new materials or currency then you could make it feel like the player is growing, and growth keeps people coming back.

Yeah... no. Right now, this is skirmish. Everyone is as strong, and it is not call of duty where you can have fun with everything after you played thru everything.
You get all the ships, all the weapons, all the knowledge. All you need to do, is find the best suit of combinations, comfort for your crew, execution etc etc. It is pretty raw in terms of content. You have everything, put it to use.

And when it comes to costumizing your own ships to the extent youve described... That is not going to happen in skirmish for balance reasons. Ide love for cosmetic changes to make a ship look different from the lot. But right now, you only get to do it with your character, which as a pilot... does actualy do alot.  Whenever im on helm, newbies jump infront of me to look at my character. Im a bit annoyed. but its funny.

About making changes.  The most prominent ship that changes the way you play by just changin its weapons is most noticable on the Goldfish. Change the heavy gun, you have just changed the fish. In higher level play, a goldfish that has a carronade(Blenderfish) versus a goldfish that has a hwacha(Hwachafish) are viewed upon very differently. Even more noticable if it has a lumberjack(Lumberfish). Dont take a heavy flak on a goldfish, takes such rediculous ammount of skill and tought that not even high level play consider it often.

[macmacnick]

...Flakfish are fun if you have a trustworthy ally, and you can always wing it, with a gatling side and a gunner with lochnagar, and turn after you have them shoot down the hull with the gatling and the gunner shoots right after the hull is down, lochnagar due to the shorter arming time, which makes a flatfish a somewhat viable brawler.