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[beorn080]

Having just played my first match, I must say, its a very different experience. Enemy ships have random loadouts. This isn't TOO bad, until you get three to spawn all at once with Hwacha's or Flamethrowers. That being said, the best offense is, in this case, FIRE. I haven't figured out if the game simulates crew on AI ships, or it just destroys things faster, but fire damage does wonders to stop the torrent of ammo coming your way. The new Seraph Tempest missiles are great for that. Also, I REALLY hope these new guns never see the light of day in PVP. Just the tempest missiles alone feel very over powered.

[Ygdrad]

Guns of Icarus Alliance is releasing in a about 7 hours and is 25% off until then for anyone who owns the base game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/608800/

Edit: Had a ton of fun playing this with a friend and some other random players today. Ended up working my way all the way up to the top of the faction leaderboard for the Fjord Baronies and am now next in line to become their Glorious Fabulous Leader

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Ygdrad]

Guns of Icarus Alliance is releasing on PS4 on May 1st and will be cross-platform compatible with steam, the first pc-ps4 cross platform title. To celebrate, the devs are selling the game for a steal on steam right now at 85% off which comes out to a measly 2$. But wait there's more, if you buy it and email your receipt to the devs you also get 3 copies free. You'll have a hard time finding better entertainment value with your friends for 2$.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/608800/announcements/detail/1661142811553900500

[Kagus]

Price-wise? Sure. Value-wise? Not so sure.

I played GOIO a fair bit back in the day, and eagerly awaited the day that Alliance would spread its wings.

Then it actually came out and I got to play it, and it was a cocking mess of microtransactions, horrid lobbying, worse balance, and all tied up in an abysmal UI that was somehow worse than the original.

I don't really mind that all the few players online are incompetent edgelords flying ships named the S.S. HITLER, which is just a pyramidion with no weapons on it... That just comes with the territory (and I play Blackwake, for goodness' sake).

What I do mind is the godawful mess that is the campaign map. What genius decided that they should chop up the pitiful group of active players and spread them out over a massive, useless atlas of dots and lines where they don't get to pick the map they're playing on? And as if that weren't enough to completely dissolve the playerbase into the murk, now you've even got this faction loyalty nonsense for your account, so you don't even get to fight on all the campaign map, you just have access to the one little section that your chosen faction is fighting on.

And don't get me started on the retardation of the ground battles and coin management...


So we have a multiplayer game where you can't find players, can't pick all the ships, can't choose the map, and can't even pay attention to loadouts and lobby chat because you're dicking around with the ground war... Doesn't seem very enticing to me.

And to top it all off, they throw in that goddamn laser with its massive range, perfect accuracy and completely apocalyptic firestarting capability with incendiary ammo. It's like a sniper and a flamethrower had a kid that surpassed even them now, master.

I don't generally feel guilty about destroying the enemy ships. I did this time.

[Ygdrad]

Price-wise? Sure. Value-wise? Not so sure.

I played GOIO a fair bit back in the day, and eagerly awaited the day that Alliance would spread its wings.

Then it actually came out and I got to play it, and it was a cocking mess of microtransactions, horrid lobbying, worse balance, and all tied up in an abysmal UI that was somehow worse than the original.

I don't really mind that all the few players online are incompetent edgelords flying ships named the S.S. HITLER, which is just a pyramidion with no weapons on it... That just comes with the territory (and I play Blackwake, for goodness' sake).

What I do mind is the godawful mess that is the campaign map. What genius decided that they should chop up the pitiful group of active players and spread them out over a massive, useless atlas of dots and lines where they don't get to pick the map they're playing on? And as if that weren't enough to completely dissolve the playerbase into the murk, now you've even got this faction loyalty nonsense for your account, so you don't even get to fight on all the campaign map, you just have access to the one little section that your chosen faction is fighting on.

And don't get me started on the retardation of the ground battles and coin management...


So we have a multiplayer game where you can't find players, can't pick all the ships, can't choose the map, and can't even pay attention to loadouts and lobby chat because you're dicking around with the ground war... Doesn't seem very enticing to me.

And to top it all off, they throw in that goddamn laser with its massive range, perfect accuracy and completely apocalyptic firestarting capability with incendiary ammo. It's like a sniper and a flamethrower had a kid that surpassed even them now, master.

I don't generally feel guilty about destroying the enemy ships. I did this time.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by mess of microtransactions. The only microtransactions are a small selection of relatively cheap visual fluff and you get a bunch just from playing. No lootboxes, no buying of gems or any sort of middle currency that stops you from getting just the amount you want, nothing consumer-unfriendly. The balance was definitely weird when it came out and that's sort of normal, but they've been working on it and balancing things out. They're happy enough with the balance that the alliance stuff started making it into the pvp mode. The UI isn't that bad and most of the important stuff can be reached in two or 3 different ways each for convenience. Unless it was a bug I didn't run into at the time, you can't remove weapons from a ship so I'm kind of calling bull on that weaponless pyramidion things, although the stupid ship names is pretty spot on.

You don't seem to remember or understand how the campaign map works at all, you can play any map, you choose where your efforts go, but you can even play custom matches or play with people of other factions without really much of an issue. The playerbase isn't really separated and factions don't force you to play on specific maps, the campaign map is just for distribution of war resources to win the faction wars. Not sure what you find retarded about the system: you fight, get coins, spend them bolstering your side or hindering the enemy side in various locations, simple enough. Hell, if you keep playing on your faction of choice it starts unlocking other factions' ships so you don't even need to swap. It's pretty convenient.

TLDR
Pretty much all the things you complained about are wrong so I don't know if you just don't remember any of it right or just hate it and want to keep people away, but please, get your facts straight.

[Kagus]

It's not so much that the pyramidion didn't have anything classified as a weapon, so much as that every hardpoint was taken up by a harpoon or flare. And if you can pick the map, that's definitely not something that was apparent at the time.

One thing is the aesthetic purchases (which, even there, I feel like they went a bit overboard with the dyes and whatnot, even though you do end up with a bunch of dyes at the end of the day), but I remember weirdness with the ground battles and expanding your coin wallet so that it could hold more than a single match's worth without overflowing and getting wasted (and thus also allowing you to buy the more expensive bar-pushers for the ground battle bar-pushing). Whatever the case of how much or how little the purchased elements contributed to gameplay, I recall the game being very obnoxious about recommending new transactions to you. Maybe I just have a low tolerance for it.

It's quite possible that I don't know or remember how the campaign map works, as in the four or so hours I spent trying to get back into the game saw me focused on the single spot I could find enough players to have a match, which after a presumably gruelling battle was eventually won by our forces and pushed us over to the next pip in line. I really just don't see what the overland campaign provides to the game, other than some extra menu micromanagement for those who at all acknowledge its existence.

And if there are lobby settings such as for map, objective type and ship number, it definitely wasn't apparent, but I guess that's all in some other menu flap that I wasn't meant to know about. I seem to recall talk about PvE battles as well, but I didn't find how to do that either (outside of the tutorial, I believe).

If they balanced the laser, that's great. I love that they added an actual round shot cannon as well, though I never got the chance to use it. But for its positive additions, I felt that Alliance was mainly just a bunch of bloat that hindered getting into the frantic gameplay of the original.

Maybe you're right, and all good things just come to those who wait and/or grind, but... I just wanted to play some Icarus.

[Ygdrad]

The way you increased the coin wallet for the war was by simply playing, it got bigger over time, it was never tied to real money and you may be misremembering the recommendation thing too as microtransactions aren't really being pushed, but there is this little browser thing when you start the game which is for keeping up with game news and a sort of box/tab at the bottom-right in the main menu which aesthetically could be confused, but it's just letting you know about your progress for the daily/weekly bonus faction points and event progress when there's one.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And if there are lobby settings such as for map, objective type and ship number, it definitely wasn't apparent, but I guess that's all in some other menu flap that I wasn't meant to know about. I seem to recall talk about PvE battles as well, but I didn't find how to do that either (outside of the tutorial, I believe).

You're saying you didn't get to play the pve? That's the entire point of alliance, adding pve which had been requested for a long time. At least there's a big "Co-op" button on the main menu now. I don't remember if it was quite like that originally or if you had to click something else to choose your mode of play to be fair. If all you wanted was more of the good old guns of icarus pvp, then at the very least the new rise in population will probably see some of those people play pvp, making matchmaking easier, and get more ships/guns, and maybe tools as they're balanced for pvp(I'm not sure if everything made it to pvp mode yet).

[Kagus]

Either I was playing right after the initial sale surge had died down, or maybe western Europe simply didn't get into it, but I was having a dickens of a time trying to find people. Three matches got played during four hours, 2v2 ships, first to five kills, and I don't think there was a single match that had full slots. I may have just gotten unlucky.

And yeah, no, couldn't work out how I was supposed to play PvE. I don't know if it was a menu thing or if that's only to be played via invite (I've got all of one person on my friends list who played GOIO, and I don't think he jumped for Alliance, so I really only pubbed. Except for back in GOIO, when players would invite me internally), but I never got to check it out. And I'm generally one who prefers co-op play over PvP, people tend to be a bit more chill.

Guess I misunderstood the wallet, I could've sworn I saw store items to increase it. I definitely didn't care for the initial limit only being able to contain up to a single match's worth of coins before overflowing, but considering my track record maybe I'm misremembering that too.

And yeah, those screenshots look nothing like what I remember being faced with when I logged in.

[Ygdrad]

Well, if ever you want to experience the PVE, hit me up on steam: Ygdrad. I can give you pointers since some of the mechanics are different like boss ships and the various modes. There's over a thousand players in game at the moment and we'll get a bunch more on may 1st when we get connected to PS4 players so it's a great time to jump in.

[Ozyton]

There's over a thousand players in game at the moment and we'll get a bunch more on may 1st when we get connected to PS4 players so it's a great time to jump in.

Will there actually be cross platform play between PS4 and PC? If so that's really cool. I did notice that there were roughly 700 people in-game now so I might give it a shot. I bought Alliance a while back but never actually played it past the main menu for whatever reason.

[Ygdrad]

There's over a thousand players in game at the moment and we'll get a bunch more on may 1st when we get connected to PS4 players so it's a great time to jump in.

Will there actually be cross platform play between PS4 and PC? If so that's really cool. I did notice that there were roughly 700 people in-game now so I might give it a shot. I bought Alliance a while back but never actually played it past the main menu for whatever reason.

Yup, talked to the devs, they're pretty nice.  They managed to convince Sony to let them do cross-platform play which was not done before since sony has some very strict requirements. Just hit me up on steam if you want some more crew/captain.

[Akura]

These recent posts made me take another look at it, since it's been sitting in my library for a while and all I'd done is get gold medals for the tutorials. Then I was reminded what stopped me last time: the decision of what faction to pick. We've got Fjord Baronies, where everyone is dedicated to church and pimped-out outfits; the Order of Chaladon, militant hippy elves; the Mercantile Guild, with money and more bling on their outfits than the Baronies' people; Arashi League, desert warriors similar to the Khergits from M&B; the Yesha Empire, where you are just a cog in the machine - be happy or else; and the Anglean Republic, who are Vikings with airships who are searching for archeotech.

[Ygdrad]

Just pick one, you can change without problem if you change your mind.

[Yoink]

Already trying to convince my friends with PS4s to get this.

[Ygdrad]

The game finally got its ps4 release today and the player population is pretty nice at the moment. I've been in touch on and off with the devs since early testing and they're pretty cool and friendly and just want people to play the game they love making, as can be seen from the numerous free key events and crazy sales. The last sale might be over, but Howard Tsao, a dev and lead for Guns of Icarus is a bro and I thought the game deserved more players and money, so I was able to get a number of pc keys from him. Time to give back to Bay12 and a game I got hundreds of hours of fun from.

If anyone is interested in a key, let me know. Same rules as usual apply, no escaped lunatics, preferably active community members who are looking to play rather than just grabbing free keys to sit unused in their library since supply is limited.