MSE said that the elite skins would never be available again -  at this point it's about them keeping a promise to the people that supported them in the beginning.

Elite skins? I'm sorry I don't understand?

Hi everyone !
Today , I will share my opinion about the exclusiveness of  in-games cosmetics .
In my opinion the exclusiveness for cosmetics is a bad thing , it's frustrating , and a true pity for the player and the dev team. MercurySteam is doing such an amazing job !  They worked for something that new player can't buy ( and support MercurySteam by the way) and can't use now ,  because , the new player started the game too late. In my opinion its such a pity .  I want to support MercurySteam , I want to buy "the love is in the air" emotes , I want to buy the 4 exclusive skins. And I don't think I'm the only one.

My suggestions are the following : make the event related cosmetics buyable the whole year, but very expensive compared to the others , and far more cheaper during the event (but more expensive than others cosmetics).
And make the exclusive skins buyable in a pack , or individually.
In my opinion its best system , players can support and buy their favourite cosmetics , and MercurySteam is payed for their (amazing ;)job.

Let me know what you (whoever you are ) think about that ,  and have a nice day !:D

Limited time cosmetics and emotes can be frustrating, but I think it's part of a long term financial plan: In some games there are in-game stores that sell event exclusive cosmetics and emotes and offer limited time discounts, these put pressure on the player's fear of missing out. This motivation can come from the player viewing content as either an external reward like having it as a status symbol or an enjoyable accessory.

In conclusion: limited time purchasable content and discounts, like event exclusives are good for the Spacelords economy, because they drive more sales. And more sales means the developers can have a more flexible budget and a better safety cushion, which can come in handy when trying out new and different ideas or changing the direction of the company when it needs to.

My point about Doldren and timing is that when an enemy player is preoccupied, like actively shooting or in CQC-- Doldren could position his astral form near the enemy and grapple them from behind.

CQC talents are not exclusively local and I woundn't say their all busted either. I will say that Doldren can equip two talents that increase his strike damage. I think the sum increases his strike damage to 170% or something.

Assault Elites with automatically lethal grapples were OP under the wrong circumstances: when 5 or more Fifth Council (resistant to shot damage), Assault Elites are on a small map with narrow passage ways like on 'White Noise' with invulnerability and surrounding a raider.

Also in order to cancel an assault elites invulnerability charge-up you have to either wound them or push them. If you can't push them then you have to sap their health and wound them, which can be difficult considering how they continuously recover health during this process; it's almost impossible when their fifth council.

I'm not sure you can aleph bomb after you get struck in CQC, or at least I don't think it always happens, it might be a bug, not exactly sure. Also I would argue that the old way of how aleph worked was dysfunctional: whoever held aleph and died would kill any allies in close proximity, unless otherwise specified

 E.g. your in solo queue as a raider and your in a team with a low skilled player, they're next to you carrying a 5 stack of aleph and accidentally get themselves killed, taking you along with them. In situations like that, having the old aleph properties punishes a raider for their teammates and vice vera. Another example would be the final stage of 'The Beast's Lair': if you insert your aleph into the pig, then someone has to guard it from looters, but if everyone held onto their aleph until their sum was enough, then they would put their teammates at risk.

Another point I would like to make is that it gives raider trolls another way to troll their teammates by standing next to them while carrying aleph and killing themselves by using the right weapons. Like any of Loahts weapons. This can't be avoided in certain situations like on some extractions points e.g. extraction points on 'Hanging by a Thread' and 'A Low Blow' are small enclosed spaces where a Loaht could easily kill his teammates with aleph explosions.

I Agree with you. But, if the game is suposed to be PvEvP, make it fair for both sides.
Ok, antag plays against 4 raiders
Antag has a entire army of grunts/elites/looters/captains/brawlers/snipers to back them up.
If the match overcompensates a antag just because of his lower mmr, makes it unfair to raiders. Even for a full squad of raiders, that makes the match a whole bullshit.
Grunts will not stop shooting untill they kill you. Their weapon will never jamm. Elites will shoot as soon as they get wounded and will take like 80% of your health (if you are lucky enough). The ammount of aleph requirements skyrockets 50-80% above the normal.
Low Blow for example: 5+ engineers spawning and they can drain the pressure in less than 5 secs even with 5+ alephs on the generator.
Things like that made many of my friends quit. The AI is broken when it's above 60% dificulty, playing as a raider feels like a punishment at that point.
Idk... I just want MSE to listen to us and stop making changes on their own. the best thing for me and I believe lots of players think the same was, the mind game involved on CQC.
That's what hooked me the first time I played. My very first match was against a lvl 300+ alicia on low blow. I had no Idea what to do but when I got my very first kill on cqc against a antag, that felt so good.
When you used to fight elites for aleph to complete objectives was the challenge that made the game so fun.
But now... If you're losing a cqc, roll and drop aleph bombs.
If someone grapple you, you're more likely to survive, even if thrown against a wall.
Idk... The game used to be fun... now is just a: play 5 matches and wait for another day to play again kinda of.

I already told you about some ideas to make match difficulty easier in exchange for giving enemy NPCs semi-random traits

I have never gone passed 50%, but below that, I think grunts usually jam their weapons once out of every three reloads

Are you saying you that 'the game has become less fun, because CQC is less skill-based with the addition of aleph bombs and non-lethal grapples; the task of searching and extracting aleph from elites has become extinguished now that aleph spawns separately from elites; and that the daily rewards system is less enjoyable now?'

I felt like their were positives and negatives to the change to grapples depending on how you look at it: Assault Elites with invulnerability are much more easy to deal with for raiders, which makes it harder for antagonists; Doldren's in general were nerfed significantly, because well-timed grapples after using astral form were a major part of their strategy and this has made them less effective against characters like Mikah, who has extra health and can teleport if she has a chance to react. I would argue that grapples can still instakill if you throw enemies off the map.

I feel aleph bombs can undermine raider builds and characters devoted to crowd suppression and the role in general.

However, even with automatically lethal grapples and the absence of instant aleph bombs, there were already weapons, characters and talents that could give players the upper hand in CQC e.g. H.I.V.E.'s plague, Ayana Kwena's Legacy, both of whom could fire their weapons in just a single move, Loaht's ability. Also, though this is small, on the last stage of 'No Reservations,' snipers are the only source of aleph.

What I can agree with you (to some extent) is that the daily rewards system needs to change. I'm not saying I like the old-old design where you could earn blueprints daily by completing certain missions, which is what I think you were referring to. I feel ambivalent to the five daily rewards per day you can earn from any mission, what really frustrates me is the anticipatory design it lacks from it's previous form: When I started playing Spacelords, it was in solo queue and the learning curve was intimidating, but what the daily rewards could vary from regular blueprints to rare blueprints; what made it anticipatory and what made me login to Spacelords was to see if today's daily rewards offered a rare blueprint, because they were pretty much a random occurrence that would happen every week or so. If they brought that back, a good chunk of Spacelords replayability would come back, I know it.

I also wrote about reward system ideas: sections 4b, 4c and 4d

https://www.spacelordsthegame.com/community/index.php?topic=31748.0

Here, all links on the post
https://www.spacelordsthegame.com/community/index.php?topic=28221.0

Thank you for the link TheHex, I read part of the topic: from what I read, the discussion was that 'match difficulty tries to overcompensate for low skilled antagonists by spawning overpowered NPCs that can overshadow the antagonists involvement in the match.'

I don't believe this the actual case of match difficulty, but if you wanted antagonist match difficulty to be more balanced in your favor, then my solution would to be to first, make NPCs slightly less proactive and more docile so that they are more dependent on antagonist commands; secondly, if the former is achieved then NPC commands should be more specialized, like an ambush command, or give the antagonist unit strategic abilities

Personally I am ambivalent, I have heard both arguments that support and oppose the current state of antagonist match difficulty. Some argue that at least 15 NPCs should spawn at a time, though I think this number should change based on map size and shape.

I had a few ideas on the subject that I posted under section 3)
https://www.spacelordsthegame.com/community/index.php?topic=31748.0

Look them up : )