I've had it with antags: mentor matches with lvl 275 antags just ruins your game altogether...

I've put a bit of money in this game so far because it had some very nice ideas, gameplay, design, lore, ...

But since MercurySteam doesn't seem to care much, I won't put more money until we get an option to turn off antags when we just want to chill or just want our rewards (which can be difficult enough with the crappy way this game has to introduce itself to new players.)

And an option to turn off mentor matches will be next (cause 20% XP is far too low if you end up with 3 beginners and doesn't worth loosing your blueprint or gold!)

Clear and simple.

Your move MercurySteam.

I know ... I played it ^^

here was one in "Raiders of the broken planet", but for an unknown reason, Mercury Steam decided to get rid of it and make new players play their first mission randomly in any campaign ...

2 things:
1) the antagonist should be optional and played only by those willing to
2) Mentor matchs should never have antagonists, as beginning the game now is already bad as it is without an antagonist on top of it ...

I made a topic about the new usr experience:
https://www.spacelordsthegame.com/community/index.php?topic=2314.0

Clearly, the solo tutorial is missing

yeah, I got several granny but finally got 1 barrier BP.
I won't build it until my forge is maxed! XD

Hi.

When Raiders of the broken planet (RotBP) launched last year, I didn't bought any campaign because I wasn't happy with the game as it was but kept an eye on it because the universe, lore and characters were very nice.
After each update I re-launched it to see, tested the "mission for a week" feature and this kind of stuff.

So, when Spacelords came out, I was already level 6 and had the Alien myth campaign unlocked, so I didn't really know how was the Spacelords' new player experience.

But this WE, I played with a friend whom had never played it ... and it was not good for him.

For new comers who don't know, the beginners experience on RotBP was that you first played a solo mission as Harec to introduce you to the game controls (movement, cover system, shooting) and mechanics (strike / grapple / dodge, munitions, Aleph, Elites).

After this first mission, you played your first multiplayer mission which was (and still is) "Hanging by a thread", which again, was nice because not too hard, mechanics come one at a time (1st zone with just engineers and turrets, 2nd zone show how to organize your group, 3rd and final zone, has Aleph retrieval + shield Elites + engineers + extraction)

This was all for "free" players as you had to pay for campaigns at that time, the first being "Alien Myth", then Umbra, Hades and the last one being the Council one.

It was quite good because you could learn slowly with a solo mission, and then, a multiplayer one but not really hard.
The only problem I see was playing Harec (he's a very good character, but not to begin with) since he's a bit fragile, has a sniper rifle and his power takes time to understand.

Now, in Spacelords.
You must start with a quickplay session to define your first unlocked campaign, so you don't start by the first mission...
Every other menu is locked.

I didn't know that, so we played with my friend "A low blow".
First: this mission is hard, especially when you just start.
You don't know anything about the game, but are thrown in a very aggressive arena with all 3 types of Elites (shield, mortar and snipers), engineers, and timed sections.
Seriously ??

And then, I understood that my friend had unlocked the 3rd campaign this way.
I'm level 60 and so I don't even have all that campaign missions unlocked.
(because, as a weirdo, I unlocked the campaigns in their release order... strange, right ?!)

I find so many things wrong with this system and only understood at that point what a mentor match was.
It's not just with a low level, but someone who just started in quickplay it seems.

I really don't understand why Mercury Steam removed the solo mission, didn't choose to make new players start by the beginning with "Hanging by a thread" and then unlocked the campaign in their release order.
It would have made so much more sense from the story perspective and from the difficulty perspective!

And also a great idea from Mercury Steam: mentor match ... with an antagonist higher than anyone on the team!
Level 1, 8, 32 and 60 with an antag Doldren 71.
Pinned at spawn point and made the level 1 quit within five minutes.
Great job Mercury Steam!

A mentor match should NOT have an antagonist, just for players to get use to game mechanics first would be enough.

By the way: some players argument on this forum for not being able to have multiple times the same character is the "story driven" game.
Well, this argument is not even supported by the devs since you don't start by the 1st mission and then, can unlock the 4th campaign, then the 2nd, then the 3rd then the 1st ...
Yeah, a very "story driven" game indeed...

So, to conclude this very long topic, I would think that MS should really put back the solo mission, but with Hans for instance, as he's more balanced to start with (more life, weapon and power easy to understand, ...)
Then, players should play "Hanging by a thread" that, once completed, would unlock "Alien Myth", then Umbra, ... until Council campaign.

In this case, only "Hanging by a thread" would be a mentor match until it's won once, and without antagonist.

Currently, I will make other people quickplay until they get "In shock" to start closer from the story order, but really hope MS will change this.

Thank you for reading.

Edit: just a small add: I'm currently lvl 62 and around 65 hours of gameplay in Spacelords

After more than 60 hours in Spacelords, I wanted to add my view on the reward system.

1) The blueprints need to give something when they are duplicates!

An amount of gold would be nice (more for a rare than a common) or, at the very least, stack!

2) Refresh rotation is not good as it is

Before level 40: 6 to 8 missions with one time rewards every 24 hours
After level 40: 3 to 4 missions with one time rewards every 12 hours

what the point of that system ?
I work during days (like most people) and I preferred as it was before level 40 because I could do every reward during my evening session.
Now I just feel I'm loosing half of it and it's frustrating to level up ...

(I know at a certain level it goes to an 8 hours rotation but I'm not here yet.)

Hi.

Yesterday, I got the patch and saw that forge prices for lower levels should have been (very slightly!) decreased.

But, for me, forge 6, the crafting cost is still 21K instead of the "new" 20K Gold.

Thanks

Edit: it changed after, so it may have been a refresh issue.