Author Topic: State of the Game Address #1  (Read 5375 times)

MSE_Karen

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State of the Game Address #1
on: October 05, 2018, 05:43:35 PM


Dear Raiders and Antagonists,

Welcome to the first State of the Game address. In this new section, the MercurySteam team would like to acknowledge the most candent topics shared by our community in Spacelords’ official forums, the game’s Steam forum, the unofficial Discord channel and our social media channels.

Previously this week, we released Spacelords’ Update 11.0, including many optimizations and upgrades to the game’s AI and Logic systems.

The feedback we are receiving is quite positive overall, but there are some topics our community is concerned about or would like to have a better understanding. Let’s have a look to the top 3.



1. MMR, game difficulty and disparate player levels.

With the new F2P model we have welcomed thousands of new players. These new users are very important for the future of game, and in time they will develop their skills and become really good players. We believe that, as more players enter the game, players will be better stratified between low, mid and high levels. Until we reach that sweet spot, though, we currently have new players mixed with dedicated veterans.

In an ideal world, matchmaking would flawlessly match players with absolute precision, and the system is designed to function with that goal in mind, but in real life time zones, geographical zones and connection speeds might affect the experience. Again, we keep working to minimize their impact.

Ideally, Spacelords matches players with compatible MMR, independently of their character level. It is entirely possible for a low-level player who recently joined the game to achieve a high MMR if he or she is skilled enough, having to face and Antagonist with a superior While Forge Level. We keep working on fine-tuning this system and improving the user experience.



2.  Mentor Matches

This topic is related to the previous one. We implemented the mentor matches to support and reward veterans who give a helping hand to the players new to Spacelords. While the concept is sound, it is not pleasing a significant number of vets out there. We are aware that the system is not 100% fine-tuned, and we are thinking about ways to improve it, including increasing the rewards for the mentors, among many others.



3. Kuzmann’s levers in “In Shock”.

The latest patch included a small modification to the “In Shock” mission boss fight against the infamous Dr. Kuzmann. We felt the old "insta-use" levers incentivized suicidal manoeuvres a bit too much. With these new changes introduced in the game, we tried to encourage a safer and slower approach in order to solve the situation.

The solution, however, is not as fine-tuned as we hoped, resulting in a significant increase of the mission´s difficulty. We are amending this in an upcoming game update.



We hope you have found this State of the Game entry useful. We are immensely grateful for all the constructive criticism feedback. We take all the feedback received into account, and several ideas coming from the community have ended-up being implemented in the game. Of course, this process takes time from evaluation to execution, but our commitment to making the best game possible based on our fans’ preferences remains.

See you on the Broken Planet!

Aspire_Ano

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #1 on: October 05, 2018, 06:29:41 PM
I think this needs to be said. Thank you, Karen and Team for all that you do.  I realize that it's not easy creating a game and updating it to please the community.  Just know that you are very much appreciated by everyone here and that I will always support you because I believe in you. :'( ;D

LordDraco3

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #2 on: October 05, 2018, 08:08:31 PM
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of feedback we love to hear from the developer side of things :D

ArnoldCat

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #3 on: October 05, 2018, 08:37:23 PM
Gracias Karen, estos posts (state of the game) calmaran los ánimos de mucha gente.

Besitos para ti.


Level9Drow

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #4 on: October 05, 2018, 09:45:52 PM
Thanks for the communication!!!!

pululon

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #5 on: October 06, 2018, 01:13:17 AM
The most important thing about this is this part of the new in the news section
Quote
2. Aneska Mentor Matches
Aneska confirmed (?) XD

Tekato

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #6 on: October 06, 2018, 03:22:13 AM
Appreciate you guys keeping us updated. I'd like to add to the list loadouts should be purchasable with gold not just mercury points.

EMack114

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Re: State of the Game Address #1
Reply #7 on: October 12, 2018, 05:50:03 AM
Thanks.

Another suggestion; how about you make the Antagonist mode OPTIONAL? This way, players who actually just want to play the campaign and maybe, learn the game and the levels, can actually do so without having to worry about an antagonist mucking it up.  This would probably make it easier for vets to play with noobs.  As a level 153, I don't CARE about playing with noobs if I don't have anything to lose. You're reward system, and by that I mean BLUEPRINTS, is based on chance.  In order to increase the chance of me getting the Blueprint I want (assuming your random blueprint generator gives me the weapon I want, in the first place) I need to play with some players who know what they're doing in an Antagonist free zone.  As it stands now, I don't have time to play with noobs; they mess that up. And will all these "thousands of new players", the chances of me getting a set of vets gets even thinner.

You could also make the blueprints buyable; seriously.  You're reward system sounds nice, but this is supposed to be a grind game. WAAAAAY too much of the rewards is based on chance. I have to take the chance I get a good team, take the chance I get a bad antag or no antag, take a chance that the MMR doesn't make the game hard so we can breeze through it (because I need to beat the level fast for max points), take a chance that the blueprint I want is made available to me, and AFTER ALL THAT, take the CHANCE that I get it.  Oh, and if I don't get it, I have to wait another 8-12 hours and take a chance the randomizer will let me try again. I can not tell you how frustrating that is.

I don't know if you guys play the game you made, but you should try grinding up to level 50 or so; see how fun your reward system is, if you haven't.  I'm no game designer, but there's probably a reason why most other games let you buy weapons and the like...it ensures that all the crap their players are going through is worth it.  With your current reward system it's a crap shoot, and from what I've seen from people who've played the game, it's shooting you guys in the foot.  I don't know what "positive" reviews you guys are getting, but I can tell you that your games current rating on the X Box live online store is 2.5 stars.; that's not a good review. At least I don't think it is.

I hope this review finds you well and I hope that you guys at least take a look at increasing the odds of the reward system or SOMETHING.  This is the second or 3rd release of "Raiders/Spacelords" and the reviews have only gotten worse.  Your next upgrade sounds nice, but I think you guys should focus a little bit more on player friendly things.  Try looking at games like Left 4 Dead; they had a sweet PVE and PVP system that worked great. Maybe take some ideas from that and make it your own, without copyright issues of course.  I hope you guys improve on the game; I really do.