Matchmaking is awfull - as far as I see it - you either dont kick AFK players from matchmaking (and this is silly if you do that) or matchmaking is takes so long that lots of people lose interest and go away (worst I had was 5 failed to ready in a row).
Match starting menu - after you find mission (ATLAST) you thrown into most anoying thing ever - "Are you ready for some fun?" screen.
Not only does it have humming sound that drives you crazy and probably is there to bring atention to player who has Alt-Tabed cause he has bored of waiting for yet another "Hey sombody didint chek in - enjoy another round of wasted time", but wait there is more - even when you chek that you are "Ready" - not only do you still get that unnerving humming, you also now has a 25 bloody seconds timer and you will hear every bloody BEEP of it ticking down. This screen alone is enough to drop this game and never bring it back.
Possible Solutions_______________________________________________________
This right here will doom whole affair more then crappy game ballance. Getting to gameplay is awfull expirience in itself, I was anoyed like hell even before I got clumsy controlls back from tutorial.
Dont disband whole lobby when one person was AFK in PUG so you will only need one person to fill the AFKer slot, don't throw player into "Ready screen" again if player was ready less then 1 minute ago (95% that person is still ready)
Get rid of timer and humming once you pressed ready on "Ready screen"- it serves no purpose, especially when you still stare at bloody screen after clock ticked down to 00 for good minute.
Or just get rid of Ready Screen alltogether. Just throw people into character select - with 25 seconds timer and ability to "ready\lock". When everyone is ready - start game instantly, and if somebody fails to lock their char - instantly time out this person for AFK and start searching for replacement player, not whole new lobby.
Singleplayer______________________________________________________
Ok, what the point of not allowing people to get blueprints in single mode?
Devs- you realize that games should be RECREATIONAL, right? How is person supposed to have unapologetic fun with the game after long hours of work if said person will have to deal with 4 random people to unlock new gun for his favourite character?
What if somebody likes gameplay but is asocial or his internet outright sucks and he doesnt want to bother people with lags and crappy connection? Look at Warframe for example- alot of players play solo-mode there for those exact reasons - to not deal with their internet issues or to not deal with other people (because its very likely someones day will be ruined in process), and if Warframe had any restrictions on solo play that would force those people to play online - my bet they wont be staying with Warframe for long.
There is no meanigfull "cooperation" in this game its just "you shoot bunch of stuff together" like Borderlands and Warframe, not SplinterCell ctyle coop where you can do more advanced moves together and need act in sync. So there is no really a reason to nerf single player expirience.
If you afraid that people wont bother with coop mode because single mode offers same result - that means you just failed to make enjoayble coop mode, and should work on this, not on ways how to make single mode unatractive.
Make single player to have all gameplay stuff in it - blueprints, character unlocks, cards. Make super fancy VANITY stuff a coop\antagonist rewards - and it all will be fine - people wont feel like they are wasting their time with game even when they don't have nerve to play online right now.
"You only get rewards when you play this first time" - that just bad. Make such mission net you unique reward when you finish it first and then have some baseline rewards for subsequent runs.
I mean mission for saving "Private Sharkteeth" is fun and all, but to not be completely wastefull with your time - you are FORCED to play it in coop mode, because no rewards for you son.
Antagonist_______________________________________________________
Antagonist - allow antagonist to be part of the premade team. Period.
Do not make "Evolve" mistake here. People like to play both WITH ther freinds and AGAINST their freinds at the same time - and that should be your main concern when designing whole Antagonist deal (having fun with it), not the possibility of "win-trading". Allow people to express themselves through Antagonist on your team - if he is willing to let his friends win match easly - its his choice and he sacrifices his own well being and rewards he gets for helping people win a match easly, if he wants to mess with them - he can do that too. Evolve started without being able to have a Monster on your team and they eventually added this option because people were asking for it - to play against their freinds, to have fun fragging each other.
If you are afraid of wintrading so much - just ponder a bit on notion that some people wont pick up the game once they will find out that you cant fight against your friend in any reasonable way. People will wintrade, but I doubt it will be huge deal overall if reward system for both sides will activley promote gameplay that will make wintrading safe option but suboptimal for both parties.
Episodes and "tickets"____________________________________________
Are you sure you wana do this folks? What I see here is a game designed to fail. If online-gaming industry showed us something is that - "You DO NOT split community".
You do episodes that give you another portion of story? Cool. Allow everyone to play darn thing without need for ingame tickets bought with cash by leader - content is already IN THE GAME, let everyone play it. And when I say play - I mean just that - PLAY.
Let "freeloading" people partake in those missions without any fee at any given time. Hell let them do that even in single mode. BUT - do not give them rewards for doing so initially. Then - when you at rewards screen - you can either give a "ticket" to somebody "freeriding" so he will get his ALREADY ROLLED loot that he wants or said person who has just expirienced new mission and now sees new sweet gun that is just hanging infront of his face can buy "ticket" himself if he has enough coins.
Or - realizing that this episode is cool and worth it - he can swallow the sad fact that he will miss on this loot and proceed to store to unlock episode for himself. OR - he can get BOTH ticket as a compulsionary purchase to get his new shiny gun AND then buy an episode to not bother with tickets anymore.
Do not lock your gameplay behind paywall and do not separate friends who may have different incomes or preferences - let people expirience it firsthand and share.
I bring Warframe again here - they belived that they will be able to make fair system that wont frustarte people, they revoked notion of locking gameplay behind paywall.
Lock your unlocks from episodes - weapons, characters, skins w\e - thats fair - wana keep your fancy stuff - fancy isn't free. But basic gameplay should be free + again MISSIONS ARE ALREADY IN GAME - you literally lose nothing with opening the floodgate for freeloaders to get a freeride.
Tickets as they are described in shop are vague, but if they are what I think they are (tickets spent at the start - if mission fail - lost ticket) thats road to disaster.
Just few examples:
- Antagonist is super strong - wasted ticket - Feelsbad
- No blueprint you wanted - wasted ticket - Feelsbad
- Dumb teammates - wasted ticket - Feelsbad
- You somehow won the match, picked the Blueprint but lost a roll - wasted ticket - Feelsbad
- You won and got you roll - ticket wellspent - FEELSGOOOOD!
Ticket that you only decide to blow when you see your final reward?
- Antagonist is super strong - NO wasted ticket - FeelsOK
- No blueprint you wanted - NO wasted ticket - FeelsOK
- Dumb teammates you lost - NO wasted ticket - FeelsOK
- You somehow won the match, picked the Blueprint but lost a roll - NO wasted ticket - FeelsOK
- You won and got you roll - ticket wellspent - FEELSGOOOOD!
You see the difference?
Do not aim to frustarte people. Make system that will make people to feel good about spending money.
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Will probably write some more later
