Version 1.3.8 Hotfix Release Notes

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Schwalbe...first of all, you rock. It is awesome to see a new player as passionate about GOIO as I was when I first started out. Is a small part of the reason I still hang around. You've seen something with GOIO that no other game offers. The same thing I saw too. Course the game you love and the game I love are totally different breeds. I wish I could share it with you but all I can do is hope for some of that to return by keeping the memory alive. Think you'd see how fantastic GOIO truly is if you could have been with it then.

That said, give Muse a little benefit of the doubt. This isn't EA or Activision which is just a faceless company that could care less. Muse and I have a love/hate relationship but at the core of it I've recognized that they are decent people. Sure they screw up, and I haven't liked some big aspects the direction the game has gone in for a year or so, but they do make up for it in other ways. Its a small team. One which still takes time to address fans and actually play the game.

This was a mess for a lot of reasons. It thankfully didn't get added in it's original form, but still, a lot went wrong. I kinda wonder if it was rushed at the end here due to fact we're even having convos about stuff brought up awhile back. I've noticed that Muse often puts huge patches around sales or special events. Celebrity involvement/etc. Which makes sense as it drums up interest/etc. But there is a problem. When they do, we gain lots of people real fast but the game has some crippling problem caused by the patch which scares them away. Last year I'd say it was netcode problems. Then before that we had overloaded servers where Muse and CAs had to manually start all games till the fix was done. Sadly, when these things happen, folks don't come back again to see the game fixed. But they do get fixed. Gotta remember, small team so things take time. If you learn to give them some slack you tend to ride these periods out better than if you just uninstall and walk off.

You'll never get the same kind of treatment elsewhere, nor the gameplay. Heck they probably got a dart board with my face on it in their office for the number of times I've clashed with them over various things *cough* SQUID *cough*. Its frustrating as a player to have to endure some of this. Specially playing competitive where things get heated and one bug can ruin your entire month. But then you have moments or the devs do something right and you just go..."yeah I know, they're good people. Don't agree at times but...good people."

[Schwalbe]

So you are telling me, that things were much, much worse. I can't disagree, as I haven't witnessed them. Pardon me, if I don't get the full spectrum of your post, Gilder, because I feel little ill, BUT.

You mentioned some sick problems with matches in the past. Right. But as I understood, it was because something was screwed up there.

And now it seems the effects of matchmaking were desired by it's creators. Soooooo... the case is a bit different.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

True, but Muse is still here. Still responding. The fact that they acknowledge the problems and are admitting they are having meetings regarding what to do, says a lot more than what you'd get from others.

Heck EA, people cried for months regarding some of their games with no response or recognition they even were listening to their customers. Simcity for example. Took them over a year to add offline mode but it took months for them to finally admit the fans were right and they were changing it. With Muse its like..."IT SUCKS!!" "Ok we'll look into it."

Sometimes they bother with things that aren't as pressing and we wonder why the heck they are doing "such" when they should be doing "that." But we don't know where their team is at. How long beforehand they were working on something before finally coming out with it. The other problem more likely cropped up after they already had plans to fix another. When we get it we shake our heads thinking everything they do happens the moment we say it. They mentioned this in a fireside one time where they discussed the patching system and how they work with matters in advance.

[Michael Wittmann]

True, but Muse is still here. Still responding. The fact that they acknowledge the problems and are admitting they are having meetings regarding what to do, says a lot more than what you'd get from others.

Heck EA, people cried for months regarding some of their games with no response or recognition they even were listening to their customers. Simcity for example. Took them over a year to add offline mode but it took months for them to finally admit the fans were right and they were changing it. With Muse its like..."IT SUCKS!!" "Ok we'll look into it."

Sometimes they bother with things that aren't as pressing and we wonder why the heck they are doing "such" when they should be doing "that." But we don't know where their team is at. How long beforehand they were working on something before finally coming out with it. The other problem more likely cropped up after they already had plans to fix another. When we get it we shake our heads thinking everything they do happens the moment we say it. They mentioned this in a fireside one time where they discussed the patching system and how they work with matters in advance.

You sir have "Stockholm Syndrome " and that's all there is to it.

As for it being worse in the past. I disagree! I could still get a GOOD/FUN game even if the net code lagged. I could still get a great balanced lobby when the servers were screwy. I could still enjoy my time even with ships velcroing left right and center. I tried for days to get one single solitary balanced/fun match since that "patch" if you wish to call it that. Guess what! THHHAATTSS RIGHT SIR! I can't

I'll take ALLL the past screw ups over this match making any day of the week. Que up with full crew of friends? To bad your gunner is going to the enemy ship, your engineers are going to your allied ship and as for your ship? Yeah that's right you get three level 2 gunners to crew your ship.................

One more thing, What do you think is the end goal for Muse as far as being a company goes? What is the dream of all indie dev companies? To become the biggest and best and that happens to mean making the most money. Thus its inherent for muse to become "EAish" in due time.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

You've obviously never played a competitive GOIO game in your life. Especially not during the hell weeks. Game broken, ships warping across the screen, rubberbanding, target markers missing, velcroing into everything, disconnects and ref pauses every few mins, and casters blaming it on the competitors instead of on the broken game. You know how many teammates get fed up and quit under all that? Quite a few.

Why don't you go join a competitive team and see what its like, then come back and say something Mikey. Matchmaking is bad, but competitive can get around it for the time being and the netcode is still holding. Sure its a pain in the butt but it isn't last year. I'd rather have this, than have the year of putting up with that nonsense. This can be changed without breaking the game. Those things took forever to fix and broke the game often before they did fix them.

The outcry is large enough with this that Muse has to act one way or another. Railing at them more won't get the work done faster. Besides, I've said my piece regarding MM multiple times. Content now to just see where it goes. Anymore uproar can wait till after the next patch.

[Queso]

One more thing, What do you think is the end goal for Muse as far as being a company goes? What is the dream of all indie dev companies? To become the biggest and best and that happens to mean making the most money. Thus its inherent for muse to become "EAish" in due time.

    Speaking as myself, as a student of game development, separate from my relationship with Muse Games, I can tell you that almost nobody in this industry wants to become EA. Every developer and artist has ideas for something they want to do and what they want to see happen in the industry, and I can tell you that none of them would say "I want to make the same games over and over year after year and ignore all my players and customers". Developers are passionate about their ideas to the point of insanity. People ruin their lives trying to make their ideas come to life. It's always true that some decisions developers make have to be motivated by money, but only so much that they can keep doing what they love. I've know developers that have worked on tacked on features pushed by publishers. They hate it because they aren't making things they can be proud of. Making the most money isn't the "end goal" for people in the games industry. There is a lot more money in a lot easier jobs. The end goal is to make something awesome. Sure you need money, you need to make a living, but I could go work at a software developer and do that a lot easier, so there has to be something else keeping all these people in the video game field.

[Michael Wittmann]

One more thing, What do you think is the end goal for Muse as far as being a company goes? What is the dream of all indie dev companies? To become the biggest and best and that happens to mean making the most money. Thus its inherent for muse to become "EAish" in due time.

    Speaking as myself, as a student of game development, separate from my relationship with Muse Games, I can tell you that almost nobody in this industry wants to become EA. Every developer and artist has ideas for something they want to do and what they want to see happen in the industry, and I can tell you that none of them would say "I want to make the same games over and over year after year and ignore all my players and customers". Developers are passionate about their ideas to the point of insanity. People ruin their lives trying to make their ideas come to life. It's always true that some decisions developers make have to be motivated by money, but only so much that they can keep doing what they love. I've know developers that have worked on tacked on features pushed by publishers. They hate it because they aren't making things they can be proud of. Making the most money isn't the "end goal" for people in the games industry. There is a lot more money in a lot easier jobs. The end goal is to make something awesome. Sure you need money, you need to make a living, but I could go work at a software developer and do that a lot easier, so there has to be something else keeping all these people in the video game field.

OH IS THAT SO? If that is the case then you wont mind refunding Me, my three cousins, and a handful of friends. Right? Since money isn't a big concern of yours it wouldn't be a big deal to fork out of your own pocket to refund us then? Since you know you want to be as far from EA as possible you wouldn't mind doing this at all. In fact you feel obligated to refunding me right? I mean only some big bad wolf company like EA wouldn't dream of using their own pockets to refund those who demand it. 

[SaintR.L.]

OH IS THAT SO? If that is the case then you wont mind refunding Me, my three cousins, and a handful of friends. Right? Since money isn't a big concern of yours it wouldn't be a big deal to fork out of your own pocket to refund us then? Since you know you want to be as far from EA as possible you wouldn't mind doing this at all. In fact you feel obligated to refunding me right? I mean only some big bad wolf company like EA wouldn't dream of using their own pockets to refund those who demand it. 

So hostile. You're practically waving your fists in his face asking for your money back.



I've been hearing that another hotfix is coming up but when can we expect that? Seems the game has been changing a great deal in just a few weeks.

[Hoja Lateralus]

OH IS THAT SO? If that is the case then you wont mind refunding Me, my three cousins, and a handful of friends. Right? Since money isn't a big concern of yours it wouldn't be a big deal to fork out of your own pocket to refund us then? Since you know you want to be as far from EA as possible you wouldn't mind doing this at all. In fact you feel obligated to refunding me right? I mean only some big bad wolf company like EA wouldn't dream of using their own pockets to refund those who demand it. 

Listen, pal. Personally I think this patch was a great mistake. I do, you can tell from my previous posts. But implying sth like
You don't want be like EA => You don't care about money (at all!) => Give me my money back
Is just below any critique. I only hope this is just 'ad absurdum' argument, but still... Don't be THAT guy

[Wundsalz]

OH IS THAT SO? If that is the case then you wont mind refunding Me, my three cousins, and a handful of friends. Right? Since money isn't a big concern of yours it wouldn't be a big deal to fork out of your own pocket to refund us then? Since you know you want to be as far from EA as possible you wouldn't mind doing this at all. In fact you feel obligated to refunding me right? I mean only some big bad wolf company like EA wouldn't dream of using their own pockets to refund those who demand it. 

YEAH! Damn those greedy devs who tricked you into buying their product you've only enjoyed for more than hundred hours so far for a price of less than a meal! Daylight Robbery!

[RedRoach]

*smirk* I really love how this thread went from constructive criticism about the game to saying Muse should go die in a hole.

I don't have anything personal to contribute in terms of feedback though since I haven't gotten on recently enough for the newest hotfix though. From what people are saying, I'm guessing for improvement the matchmaking should place people into ship positions and then search, allowing pilots to search for a pilot spot, gunners to search for a crew spot, and an entire ship to look for a game with an empty ship slot.

Just a reminder that the game doesn't improve if everyone gets up and leaves, only if everyone gets up and says what should be in the next patch.

[Queso]

Again, I'm just a former intern and that post is of my own opinion. If you would like a refund for the game, please contact feedback@musegames.com and they should be able to get you sorted out.