Okay so here goes. The TL;DR is at the bottom of the post, but I strongly suggest you (devs especially) read it through.
If you want to flame me, correct me or just plainly insult me. Feel free to do so. Chances are, you will be ignored (by me) if it’s not constructive criticism.
First of all, I really want the readers to know that I really like this game. It has so much potential, but IMO it’s still pretty flawed (hence the beta stage). I’ve been with this game since… forever it feels like, and I’ve seen how the game has progressed (for better or worse). I’ve come to the point where I must voice my opinion or go mad (I choose the former). I just hope I will be heard, or at least, this post will result in a excellent discussion to solve several “issues”.
Every list of suggestions is personal, so is this, so take it into consideration when you flame me for being “wrong”; this is simply how I envision it and how to fix it.
I will first list a subject and then a possible (not the only) way to solve it. feel free to add other issues, and if they’re good, I will add them (along with solutions).
Queue
Some hate it, some love it. With patch 0.9.3 released, it became so much better, but it still needs a little tweaking. Things I will mention is:
- Queue time
- Tier balancing
- Queue for different modes
Queue time
We have all seen the “Estimated wait time” and we’ve all come to the conclusion that it’s broken and nowhere near the end result. Heck, I think a random number calculator could do a better. It might even hit it right a few times.
I don’t know which algorithm is used for calculating this, but it’s obvious that it needs an overhaul. I think the problem lies in the calculation of the average wait time for ALL players, which is a lazy way of doing it.
Also, at one point or another, we’ve all tried waiting for what feels like ages, before entering combat ← this is a little harder to fix, but I’ll explain why further down.
Solution
I will try and make this simple. The estimate should be calculated depending on which game mode you engage (sector control, pve, custom). Players in custom battles should be excluded entirely from the queue calculations, since the queue doesn’t really exist for custom battles (I’m hoping this is already implemented, otherwise, it should be fixed asap). Sector control should be calculated by several factors. This will be a little complex, so try and follow me.
ET = Estimated time for your Tier - by which tier you will be placed in when calculating time
PT = Players in Tier group - number of players in the same tier group as you
IT = Players inactive for # minutes - when players haven’t tried entering combat for a certain period
TA = Time waited - for each player
It would then look something like this:
ET = (( PT - IT ) * TA ) / ( PT - IT )
A few factors are worth considering when using this relatively simple algorithm, like:
- Database structure
- Tier calculation
I would recommend trying to calculate the estimated time every 1 or 2 minutes (maybe more, maybe less - I honestly don’t know. It’s just a qualified guess). The point of time in which Tier calculation is performed, is also very important. A few ways to go about this is:
- Calculate tier group upon selection of ships and changing equipment (done by server) and store the Tier group data. When the server calculates a new ET, it will incorporate the new data and scrap the old (depending on how the dabase is set up, this might consume a lot of power, or none at all). Server will use old ET until a new ET has been calculated. This is to get a more updated and relevant ET when you enter a queue
- Calculate tier group upon entering a queue (from your current setup) and use the current ET available, then store the new data for later calculations (a more power friendly version, albeit slightly more inaccurate than the one above)
- ? (there’s certainly more ways to go about this)
Now, when we talk about the waiting time in general, this is kinda hard to fix at all, because it’s mostly dependant on the amount of players online. The queues can be slightly affected by Tier group calculation, but I won’t go more into that for now. Right now, it seems like they’re heading in the right direction, but they’re not quite there yet.
Weapons
Okay, hold on to your hats and glasses, this is gonna be a whinercoaster.
Singularity Cannon
Yes, I did it. I actually poked the sleeping tiger. Now before we go on, I have to mention that what you will read now, is how I see it. You might disagree with me, but please let me know why instead of calling my mother a cheap prostitute.
We all hate it and we all love. The singularity cannon is by far, the most imbalanced weapon in the game (please notice that I didn’t say over powered). Let me explain why:
- Shoots through beacons and static barriers, damaging players behind them
- Can be boosted immensely in strength using different modules
- Very slow and bugged tracking
- Area of Effect is huge (compared to other wapons)
I will now explain why the above mentioned thins make it imbalanced.
1: Other weapons don’t behave like this, thus giving the Singularity Cannon a huge advantage over other weapons. Especially when it comes to “duck and cover” techniques and “beacon defense/offense”, since all it takes, is a little damage to stop beacon interaction.
2: Valkyrie system, Aiming Overcharge and Ship Overdrive. Combine these and the Singularity cannon will become the single most damaging weapon in the game, due to it’s already high damage per shot.
3: The tracking system is really really bad. Personally I’ve been having issues with trying to shoot other ships that are not currently locked (free aiming) and anything at all if no ships are locked. The tracking system is a lead target marker lover and hates everything else. This makes this weapon unusually hard to aim with - which is kind of a problem due to it’s close-to-medium range role.
4: The ball of certain death, being flung towards players, tend to hit players, even if they’re out of visual range of the projectile itself (a rough estimate would be a radius of ~15-20 m). This makes the Singularity Cannon a ship shredder when the projectile encounters ships clustered together.
Conclusion
The Singularity Cannon is essentially a weapon that spews out small electro magnetic suns of pure destruction that passes through most barriers and can destroy several ships at once, with a few shots (look out interceptors!). Slow moving targets, like frigates in general, are f***ed when they encounter an enemy with a Singularity Cannon, unless they have fast moving escorts or if the engineer manages to throw down a warp gate and get the hell out of there (unless the ball of destruction destroys said gate first). I hope you all see where I want to go with this.
Solution
First off, change the name. Singularity is just a fancy word for black holes - and black holes are awesome, but have no place in this game (maybe make a singularity bomb instead - like a nuke, but with different properties). Call it “Modulated/Directed EM wave cannon” or something like that (maybe other players have suggestions?).
Secondly; fix the tracking (slightly higher turret rotation and not so target loving?), lower the damage, increase rate of fire, decrease AoE and make it blockable by barriers.
There are a slew of other ways you could balance it, but this is my favorite solution.
When it comes to all the other weapons, I think they’re very much balanced at this point, with only a few tweaks here and there, to complete them, so I won’t go into detail with them.
Hangar and Combat
We’ve all tried to leave combat when facing impossible odds, only to find all your ships locked in combat.
What really irritates me, is that you cannot access your ship tree. I love fiddling around with ships from different factions and plan different ship combinations. At least let me do that if I can’t do anything anyway.
Players who have tried WoT and WT (World of Tanks and War Thunder), are accustomed to being able to use other vehicles when the last used is still locked in combat.
Yes, I know it’s a pain in the butt when players leave you to fend for yourself, and yes they should be “punished” for that as well, but there are better ways.
Solution
Make players able to create “squads” of different ship combinations, so they can enter combat again, just not with the same ships as before. This will also increase the amount of players queuing up for combat, making queue times lower. I would love to be able to level different tiers of ships instead of having to wait for combat to finish (if I want my reward) and then use a few minutes on swapping out ships and equipment:
- 1 squadron, increasing with one for every second tier, ie; 1 squadron at Tier 1 & 2, 2 squadrons at Tier 3 & 4, 3 squadrons at Tier 5
- 3 ships in each squad (4 if you have unlocked the 4th hangar bay)
Disconnecting from combat should not result in no rewards at all. You’ve put in time and effort, so even if you ragequit or is just waiting for the last ship to finish the mission because everyone else is dead, you shouldn’t have to loose it all. And on top of that, if you’ve lost some ships in the process, it can quickly become a pricey affaire, especially for higher tiered ships.
Disconnecting from combat…
- Will forfeit loot attempts (boosters for loot will be used regardless)
- Will forfeit winning bonus boost to synergy (will gain synergy as if you had lost)
Nothing else. And when you get back to your hangar, you will have other ships to fly (if your rank is high enough).
Power Squads
We’ve all met them and we all lost to them. The prime cause of rage quits and name calling.
The devs way of trying to nerf them, was to lower the max squad size to 3 (or so I believe). A horrible idea in my opinion.
Solution
Limit total DSR (Destroyed Ships Rating) of a squad to 5000 points. That would only allow an average of 1250 DSR for all players in a squad.
I know DSR isn’t everything, but it’s a damn good indication of killing skills and survival chances.
I know there are a lot of other ways to go about it, but this was the first one to come to mind. Maybe someone else could come up with a more reliable and balancing way to do it?
Thermal Damage & PvE
Thermal damage has been nerfed to the point of complete uselessness in PvE. I understand that lasers are very effective in PvE, since the AI has no evasion skills whatsoever, but c’mon. At least try and make them more usefull. I personally never use them, because they simply cannot compete with other weapons in PvE, when it comes do DPS.
Loot System and Golden Standards
The loot system is bad, like really bad. I find more artifacts than green and purple components combined. Not only do you have a small chance of finding any component in the first place, but you also have to roll for it with a ridiculous low chance. But oh no, it doesn’t stop there. That ridiculous low chance can be slightly improved if you’re willing to pay Golden Standards for it, and it’s not even guaranteed then, that you will get it. Golden Standards are equal to REAL MONEY people! I don’t even get a second chance to regret, if I misclick. Bam! there goes your money out of the window and you only got a small sum of money not worth mentioning, if you didn’t get the loot.
Personally, I misclicked the money for Golden Standards trade in the hangar menu. 2500 GS traded for a lousy ~1 mil. credits (or something around that). I was mad as hell. I can earn 1 mil. credits in around 3 rounds of PvE, equalling to about 15-20 minutes if I’m lucky.
Solution
Bottom line, when GS is involved, ALWAYS ask if they’re sure. However, gambling GS for loot is generally a bad idea, let me show you how I think it should be (I don’t have a problem with paying GS for equipment in hangar, at least you get it).
- 30% Loot chance. Money if it fails (current rate is fine) ← Default, no cost
- 50% Loot chance. Using experimental techniques increases chances, but will destroy everything if it fails (no money)
- 100% Loot chance. Pay GS equivalent to shop prices -10% (you had to fight for it after all) - Paying professional scrap teams to recover items, always pays off.
I sincerely hope that some of these issues will be taken into consideration. I’m more than willing to help out, if it means a better game as a result.
Please don’t flame me or compare my ideas to feces, try to come up with constructive and helpful alternatives instead. After all, I’m posting this to help everyone. Also, don’t insult my mother, I can manage that myself.
TL;DR
Game is bugged, whine whine whine, please fix it. Here let me help you too.