There were some very cool new items in the roadmap roundup, this an more in todays episode:
Foundation Fest Free Fly and Roadmap Update
- Thread starter Montoya
- Start date
It's so much fun watching the ships flying.
And swimming, great now we can drown in the 890jumps pool.
AI commuter I have to wonder if it will also enable VIP transport missions.
And swimming, great now we can drown in the 890jumps pool.
AI commuter I have to wonder if it will also enable VIP transport missions.
I saw the roadmap update on the RSI site, but didn't read it very well... that's why I love these videos.
Sure sure. Truthfully we all just have a huge crush on Montoya.
Yeah but I like em shaved elsewhere. Especially if they shave their legs. @Montoya? Ignore this please? I don't want NinjaGirl saying anything about cuts on your legs.
I just wish they could make the foundation festival more introvert and autism-friendly in some way - There are a lot of people who are interested in the game, but who have great difficulty in meeting\speaking with new people, and so are either forced to endure the extreme discomfort\stress they feel in order to participate, or miss out on the "rewards".
It is for social people to meet other social people and have a great experience and thus become advocates to their friends and attract more players. While I do agree that it sucks for those who are less socially inclined, it is still about enriching the community with what makes MMOs special.
The problem is that there are different types of "social"... Many people have trouble talking to\communicating with new people, but once they get to know them (over some variable length of time) they become more comfortable doing so, and may have a large existing group with whom they are comfortable socialising with.
Another issue is that there isn't any indication of how the "guide" system works, which also affects how people approach it - Some may expect a "go here, click this" experience, others that the "guide" will be sitting back passing "judgement" on what you are doing and explaining how you could do things better, Some expect the guide to help over voice comms, others by text, while others might expect the guide will do something and the player being guided simply watch and repeat the same steps\actions.
From my personal experience (someone with mild autism\asperger's diagnosed in my mid-late 30's (It was nice to finally understand the cause of a number of problems I'd suffered through for many years), with poor reflexes, and not good with "new experiences"\new people\groups):
I finally forced myself to give this a go (to hopefully get some of the skins) a couple of days ago (The communicating with someone new, as well as not knowing exactly what would be occurring were very difficult barriers to get past). I initially tried for someone from Test, but after a few attempts where there was no responce\timed out (guide system showed them as in-game), I decided to try someone else at random and wouldn't have been disappointed at the time had the request timed out. I was lucky in that the guide wanted to\expected to do the "guiding" via typing rather than voice, that they were happy to do all the flying (we did fps missions, and typed back and forth on various other areas of the game), and the guiding was mainly both of us entering bunker missions and them rushing off killing most of the NPC's.
Would I do this type of thing again? I really don't know... I didn't feel entirely comfortable even with the minor amount of communication required, and while I did learn a couple of things, this event could have been easily extended so that as well as the "in person" guiding, there was also a "library"\reference area where people could go to watch videos\read guides created by other players, and where players could create guides... Many people get into the game after watching gameplay videos (Twitch\Youtube) of generally solo players playing the game, so having a reference that people could both use to point friends towards to see specific things that can be done and how to do them in-game, which doesn't require them to be playing at the time, would allow many more people to see what the game is like in advance, try it (free fly) and then be able to advocate for the game to their friends - Meeting people in-game happens easily enough through the chat system in the game, where people often do ask for help (and where I generally do my best to assist them with information they need when I have the chance).
Like the "Bar Citizen" events with giveaways to those who attend them (Which even if one were held next door, I don't know that I'd be capable of attending no matter how much I may want the item given out there - It would be nice if the items for such events could be added as something purchasable in the pledge store, even if time limited, for those unable to attend), it seems like the focus is skewed too far towards rewarding the "social" end of the playerbase, and ignoring the section who, while preferring solo gameplay, still have the ability to attract others to the game but require certain personal circumstances\conditions being met before being able to join in the "team"\group aspects of the game, rather than being forced into this type of activity - In this case, either not having the "limited time" skins (the reason many people "participated" and why CIG had to note that they would be monitoring guide interactions), or simply making the timeframe required to do the "guide"\"be guided" section longer (It could even become a year-long reward, changing skins\ships each year, and rewarding new players for using the system regardless of when they start) would have been nice.
This is an interesting point. While SC may be an MMO, s42 is single player and most certainly launching first. By the time s42 hits the shelves how many soloists may have already walked away...?
No clue given that right now there is not much for a soloist to do beyond trolling as many of the game elements are missing and one would think doing courier missions and increasing one's wallet only to have it wiped out a couple of times a year gets old.
I am glad to see you seeking out discomfort not in that it is uncomfortable but it does help us in the end. And my point was not that it is fair as it is not fair like much of life and your example of bar citizen is a prime example as was the bar citizen prize, but that such things serve the purpose of attracting more players to the game. As all MMOs succeed or fail on the size, and personality of their core gamer group. And it's not like CIG has not had many different programs and opportunities after all there is the referral bonus that predominantly caters to the large youtube/twitch channels, then there are the large expensive ship packages that cater to those with lots of disposable income. Subscribers get a monthly flare and while one of the more fair options it can still be argued that there are lots of players who do not have the means to participate or did not know about the game until now. Even the golden ticket if you did not jump on the game at the start or even before Kickstarter was announced. My point is while yes it is unfair to those who do not find themselves capable or able to participate in the latest giveaway do not end up with a ship skin its not unprecedented nor does it give the participants any added advantage over anyone else. It's a cosmetic reward for those who have contributed a little extra to make the community a little better. As much as the game itself is pretty and hopefully will have lots to do if it does not have an active friendly core it will not survive very long as the social aspect is a huge part of what makes mmo's satisfying.
In no way am I attempting to say you're playing the game wrong or that having a small group of friends who regularly play together is a terrible thing as we are all allowed to play the game in whatever way we find enjoyment, just calling into question your parameters of fairness and equal outcomes for it can be said it's not fair that you can buy the skin for those who do not have the means to communicate or financial resources to buy but love SC just the same. While it can be successfully argued that when filling in our skill sheets we were not all granted perfect rolls, this world is still a better place because of the diversity.
Different people have different interests - Some people don't mind (or enjoy) doing repetetive things like "box" missions, cargo runs, bunkers, bounty hunting, or mining - The increase in wallet size isn't the aim (other than to "earn" a new ship to try the same\more activities in it instead of the current ship), but rather the enjoyment they get from getting into their ship and flying to wherever to do whatever "task" they find that they like doing. Others, similarly, find working in a group (running bunkers in a squad, ERT bounties with a "fleet", etc.) to be more enjoyable - to each their own, as there's no "right" way to play the game, and focussing too far in either direction risks alienating a large portion of the potential player-base.
When "discomfort" tends to involve the feeling of physical illness (or worse - unfortunately autism can't be all fun...), it's not something I go out of my way to look for, but yes, I do understand what you are saying here - I used to play in a relatively (then) high-ranked clan in "World of Tanks" in competetive team battles (clan wars), so I know how much team play and solo play differ, and how enjoyable teamplay can be.
I have no issues with missing past rewards\items (well, I'd have liked some of the items I missed, but as they were before my time in the game they are lower on my priority\"grey market" shopping list), the point I was making is that an event to attract new players was designed in a way to be exclusionary to a large portion of the curent\potential player-base (coincidentally immediately following a month of the company advertising how "inclusive" they are regarding factors which have no bearing on people's ability to play the game), with in-game rewards which cannot be obtained in any other way - Were the reward in-game credits (whether for 3.17.1, or held over to 3.17.2) or "Spectrum badges" (All things which can be either be earned in game, or which have no effect in the game itself), or the rewards were available for creating "written" and\or video guides (and\or reading\rating them) - or even purchasable - then I wouldn't have minded... It's the act of shutting out so many players/potential players from something they may like in the game, where there are ways they could have been included, that I disagreed with... Having written\illustrated instructions I could bring up on another screen while playing would be much more use to me than a session (or multiple sessions) with another player where I may miss or forget something said and have no way to get the information back... Or they do something without saying anything about it, so I remain unaware of it.
As a side note, one thing I would like to see is past items (skins, "subscriber" items - including those not available on pledge store, etc. which have been "given away" in the past) and certain rare in-game ones (Pico balls, for example) made very rare but findable in-game (whether on bodies, in crates, "salvageable" from wrecks (ship paints), etc.) that can be taken to some NPC\facility\"bank" and handed over to have them added to an account ("pledge" item area, not wipeable database) as "non-tradable", $0 melt value items - limited to a certain number of copies (combined hangar and buy-back) of an item per account, possibly allowing trading of these between players in-game, or ideally sellable for a high price to NPC stores where players can go to buy items that had been sold to that location by others (armor items\sets at armor shops, for example) adding the possibility of finding something "special" at random while shopping at a store. Early "exploration" gameplay could then involve going out looking for a guaranteed such item in the wilderness based on vague details provided in a mission, with the option to get more details from various NPC's if you can work out who\where they are from clues, and each player has a different location (and NPC's) to go to... Resetting this each patch For example, (Invictus having old medals, BMM release featuring the Banu cubes, etc., that can be displayed in hangars\habs eventually) with past items added to rare loot item list and so able to be randomly found in subsequent patches.
The NPC's\clues could even involve testing a range of different types of gameplay (take care of a bounty\deliver a package\provide certain supplies\mine certain minerals\clear a cave\search a shipwreck\etc.) through "personal missions" - some could require solo actions, while others require (or be easier with) a group.
