I have a couple of things I would like to add. I have 13 years experience as a game developer in key roles on everything from small and dirty movie tie-ins to AAA award winning titles. So I think I have a sense of what is happening here.
I started playing this game in April and loved it through the summer. This was the game that I had been waiting for since my first attraction to Homeworld many years ago. But starting around August, as we got into the v9 updates, that were drastic changes, I began to develop a theory of what was going on - based on my experience. With entire weapon systems getting overhauled, ship trees shuffled, module systems re-designed and progression changes coming down once a month it felt like someone new was in charge of the team. In terms of design and story, I don’t believe the original vision holders are working on this title or they have left the studio. So for this “current” team, changing things that they don’t like is simply a byproduct of trying to put your signature on something. Most designers and programmers are not happy with simply closing out someone else’s vision - its just not in their nature. The matchmaking problem is more than likely because there is one guy that believes he can finally be the one to develop the mathematically perfect system, player happiness and feedback be damned. So this game is back to Alpha, because it is no where near feature complete and the design systems are constantly being re-worked. This is not being tuned, it is getting completely re-worked and re-designed by what is probably a small group of four or five people. Again, I expect Antibus will refute me on this - but it is just my gut feeling, based on my experience. I do not believe this is a very big development team at this studio. And I believe that these team members are probably worked to death spread across other games week after week to fire jump the other titles or to work on the new protoype.
The turning point came for me in mid September when I was still ‘sorta’ having fun with the game again. I wasn’t happy about all the changes but I did have a couple of ships that I liked using with the previous week’s update. I almost dropped another $49 through steam and then I paused to say to myself “oh crap, its Wednesday - everything could change tomorrow”. And it pretty much did. A week later we got the reticule changes that implied somebody on the team just decided to tinker with something and I was done. I uninstalled the game and I check back here once a week to see how its going. Sadly, it still doesn’t sound like there is a coherent vision in place or a strong closer in the team that can pound this game into shape. When and if it does get to a better spot, I will gladly come back. Until then, I offer up some suggestions that I believe would help, if considered (some have been said before):
1. Lock the tiers: A game should not punish you for being good. That is the point of a game - to get better so you can actually “win”. Don’t make me get my teeth kicked in because my new purple weapon puts me against stronger players in higher tiers. By the current matchmaking analogy if a highschool basketball team has one super star player they might play their next game against the most recent college champions - that’s just not fun or a real match - its an exhibition game.
2. Stop re-arranging the deck chairs: If something isn’t broke or busted, don’t keep tinkering with it - you just introduce new chaos.
3. Lock the mechanics: Don’t add new features, modules or game elements until the core mechanics are locked and tuned. Then don’t touch the mechanics again without a true play test, QA cycle and test server that players can join.
4. Be Selective: Don’t tune everything at once. By constantly changing so many variables with every update you would need at least 24 QA testers working hard to give you feedback - which you don’t have. So limit the changes on weapon systems and modules severely (like only two at a time) to give you time to see how it plays out.
5. Use your players as beta testers: Password games, dedicate servers and recruit. Call it the “BetaCorp”. Actually set up an online survery for them afterwards that is password protected and that gives you real data points. If the big ego or two in the office can’t handle it, tell them too bad - you are running out of time, money and players.
6. Divide and conquer: Set up tier one (locked) as the true recruitment ground. Make it fun and easy. Keep Tier 2 out of it. You need new people coming in fast - that’s the only way I see to do it.
7. No more carrots: Stop dangling huge and grand ideas to the player base. If you balance what you have and just make it more fun then it is enough for now. No one will be upset if dreadnaughts don’t come for another six months after release.
8. Queue team vs queue solo: Simply change the queue system. If you are in a squad you only get matched against other squads. If you are solo, there are no kill squads on the other team. Now you can increase team size to 6 / 8 / 12 / 16!!! (See, now I’m on the phone with friends for some serious team fun.)
9. Can you spare a dime?: If the studio is worried about monetizing the game because of a low budget for it at the moment, then its solved by getting more players in on a fun game they then want to invest in (like I did initially). It doesn’t come from one that changes drastically week-to-week making people feel like their investment will be lost completely the next update. And it especially doesn’t come from charging more for the color red or by constantly changing progression methods, you just keep burning bridges with the loyal fan base.
That’s all I have for now guys. Good luck!
you guys are getting there but the guards “mass slow” needs a little twicking maybe another 5 to 10 percent more (deduction).
(not game reasons, but personal reasons) so when there back i will try out the new squad system (i’m just dreading this after reading what everything people are saying about it)