I'm a largely new player, and while I've run into a few gameplay mechanics that bug me, I do feel this game has a lot of potential. This feels like a real labor of love and care and I really do think it can and deserves to do well.
What concerns me is a few immediate issues I see that are likely to turn new players like myself off, or encourage less than ideal behavior. You know, things that are likely to make the game not make money and not keep going. So here are what I feel are the the most pressing problems and some hopefully helpful suggestions, sorted in order of more or less how important I feel they are
Or maybe I'm entirely wrong and just armchair game developing!
*Stop offering Map & Mission Specific Rewards and Incentives*This spreads your player base incredibly thin and makes new players feel frustrated at long wait times for matchmaking. Now, new players are likely to set their eyes on one or two specific maps and only try to play those.
Instead of giving specific maps specific reward bonuses the first time you play them in a 24 hour period, give players X "Daily Boost tokens" they can choose to spend before a match begins. If they do, they guarantee a blueprint drop or gold bonus just like the current map specific bonuses do. These tokens refresh every 24 hours and can not be saved up, they're use 'em or lose 'em. Simply assign each token a bonus and let players pick which they wanna use. Thus those looking for blueprints can spend their blueprint tokens first, while those with an eye on gold or faction points can start by spending those tokens.
This method means players are more likely to search for games across all or most maps (perhaps only avoiding ones bad for the characters whose blueprints they want). Which means less wait times as more people cue for more maps, and that means more time spent playing and happier players who won't go on steam and complain about 10 minute waiting periods.
*More Clarity Regarding Blueprint Drop Mechanics & Incentives for Playing*As a new player, Blueprints immediately become one of the big thing you want to work towards. They provide new weapons to characters you like, open up new ways to play and seem integral to keeping up with the power level of the game as a whole.
As it stands, new players are likely to start focusing on getting Blueprints for heroes they like and have unlocked. This means they will hone in on the blueprint drop missions, and once they've done those they're likely to feel discouraged from playing more. Needless to say, this isn't good.
*Mechanical Transparency*This game has a consistent problem in that a lot of its functions and mechanics are opaque to players. Beyond the narrative descriptors, there's no way to compare weapons. No listed damage values, no listed reload speeds or knockback chance or ammo capacity etc.
Likewise, heroes and their powers and cards also suffer the same problem. I know a card can increase my shield capacity by 20%, but I can't tell what the base capacity is. Or the recharge timers on abilities. It doesn't tell you what happens with duplicate blueprints (which, currently, seems to be actively negative to roll, due to not stacking).
It even extends to purchasing heroes, since there's no way to preview skins or weapon alternatives or card options before spending significant amounts of gold on unlocking them.
This problem honestly is appearing to be painfully systemic, to the point that I constantly find myself frustrated because I build a weapon that doesn't work like the description seemed to indicate, or I find out that the game has actively wasted my time due to not communicating how any of it works.
*Reconsider or Remove Level Caps on Individual Heroes*I've seen this posted elsewhere, but I find the current system where most heroes have specific level requirements very discouraging. Every player is different, and enjoy different playstyles. This means not every hero appeals to every player.
So if I, as a new player, see a cool trailer featuring Ginebra and go "I wanna try this game and that cool hero!" and then start it up only to find myself looking at having to farm 36 levels to get to even try her, I'm unlikely to be happy and unlikely to stay. Worse still, unlocking heroes I don't want along the way will now feel annoying, not rewarding.
I think you should look into replacing the current system for one with more player choice. I've seen suggestions on this forum for unlock tokens with escalating costs, as well as just flat unlock fees for every hero. Both are solid suggestions that would solve this problem.
The important thing is, don't gate heroes behind individual level requirements. Letting players focus in on and unlock the heroes they want first means they're more likely to find a playstyle they like, and that means they're more likely to keep playing in the first place.
*Let Players Try Heroes Before Buying Them*In conjunction with the above hero access change, make players able to try heroes before they buy them, especially if unlocking them is pricey. Partially that means some way to actually play them in a static training map or something. But it also means letting players see the card decks, weapons, and skins of heroes they haven't unlocked. Currently, the only way for me to learn more about what kinda cool things Schneider has is unlocking him or google, and this is generally a bad thing. If I can see his options, that means I'm more likely to spot a skin or ability or gun that seems or just looks awesome, and that means I'm more likely to try and unlock that hero. In other words, I'm more likely to play.
*Reconsider the Deluxe Packs on Steam*This is a more minor thing, but the price point and nature of the Valeria and Schneider Deluxe pack on the Steam page does not "look" good. 70 euro (the price of a full retail AAA game at launch) to speed up unlocking two specific heroes in a F2P game will put people off, and hints at a terrible monetization system, even if said system isn't actually terrible.
This is less about the reality (though as mentioned above, I do think the Hero unlock system needs to change) and more about perception. It looks bad, it's bad PR and it risks putting potential players off. At the very least, if you won't reconsider the packs as a whole, consider removing them from the steam DLC page and putting them in the in-game store instead. This at the very least means the game's DLC page is not entirely occupied by two very expensive looking instant unlock "shortcuts".
*Option to fast forward through Post-game Reward Screen*And, because no suggestion list is completely without one completely nitpicky nitpick
The post-game reward screen after finishing a game is a little frustrating. I love our goofy pilot as much as the next guy, but right now we have to sit through his lengthy animations and dialogue after every game, with no way to speed it up or skip it. Then we get the post-mission cutscene and
then we return to the main menu, only to endure two pop-up messages with lengthy animations (that we also can't skip) that simply tell you what you got all over again. I'm legitimately curious if there's something I'm missing here, because it just seems redundant and kind of a waste of time?
*Rant Over, Time To Be Nice!*If you're reading this, that means you sat through all that noise, so thank you for your patience and literary fortitude. I appreciate you giving me some of your time. And, if you're one of the lovely people over at Mercurysteam, thanks for the very cool and promising game you're making. Lemme know you've read this and I'll send candy to your office. You seem like cool people, and I wish you and this game well!
