Have recently been thinking on this, right now introducing a friend to FAF also, I have been exclusive ladder player so far, and quit for a few years up until november 2020... some thoughts:

• Why did my eco suddenly crap out?!
  • Starcraft 1 Says "Not enough minerals." and displayed "Not enough minerals... mine more minerals."
    FAF should say (yes audio) "Power Stall" and display text "power down shields, radars and stop aircraft production"
  • The post-game score screen should flag power stall and mass stall events.
• Game introduction is rough, because the rating system completely ignores friendly games and games vs. AI.
  • Give AI players a fixed rating for teamgames.
  • Give checkbox for AI players to appear in ladder for low rated players
  • Allow practice games, uneven games etc should be rated at max 0 - and always as if a victory for the negative rated players (you are bound to have learned something).
• Team games... I still struggle today. Long ago, when I made my account, I got a 1200 rating for free. I am affraid to join team games, I just play ladder 1v1 - soon hopefully ladder 2v2.

Language barriers basically prevent teamwork, or restrict it to a few pings, while there is an easy solution available. Having a chat wheel or list with standard messages translated into all needed languages.

1. We would need to first list the required messages.
2. Get people fluent in the language to make a good translation
3. Mod it into a menu of sorts. In my opinion the menu should be prominent, immediately visible to new players (like 0 games played new).

This topic focuses primarily on the required messages, I would like to structure the discussion into two areas:

• #S Specifications
• #msg Messages

Please separate your post into these two parts, and use it as a title for your post or use the hashtag. If you comment on only one include only that title.

Gathered messages from all responses up to october 20th

• This is too vulnerable, get AA/TMD/SMD (x3)
• Assist me with this (x2)
• Attack here now (x2)
• Fall back, stop (x2)
• Reclaim here (x2)
• You idiot, unwise (x2)
• Attention (x1)
• Defend (water) (x1)
• Don't give up, we can do this (x1)
• Experimental under construction (friendly/hostile) (x1)
• Focus (anti air) (x1)
• Follow my instructions (x1)
• Give me an engineer (x1)
• Give up? Any way we can still win? (x1)
• Great idea (x1)
• I am going to do [strategy] (x1)
• I need AA cover (here) (x1)
• Low HP ACU (friendly warning/hostile warning) (x1)
• No, negative (x1)
• Please take the lead (x1)
• Point defense (friendly instruction/hostile warning) (x1)
• Prepare to attack soon (x1)
• SML here (friendly instruction/hostile warning) (x1)
• TML here (friendly instruction/hostile warning) (x1)
• What should I do with this (x1)
• Yes affirmative (x1)
• You are blocking me here (x1)

Why is everyone going nuts on the hidden global rating? For most of its existence Starcraft 2 has hidden it.

Sure, they show it now, but hiding it can only be considered sensible if they did it.

The mercy basically replaces the bomber of Aeon, it fits quite nicely, a mercy deals twice the damage of a normal T2 bomber in one run and is incapable of making a second or third. This fits Aeon theme of doing everything better.

Sadly however, because they are such good ACU snipers they are nerfed into the ground and still good because they can still snipe ACU. Lets remove the snipe and make it a fun bombing unit to snipe eco etc like normal T2 bombers except kamikaze.

Mercy:

• Hitpoints: 200 10
• Shield: 480 (because Aeon, manage your power grid)
• Fuel use time: 5 minutes, can refuel
• Damage: 2300 2400
  - Damage vs ACU: 600

If those decals don't matter for gameplay, is it possible for one player to play without the decals while the other does?

In that case, make a normal and high res version of each map where the latter has no or small size decals.

Automatcher only ever downloads normal versions. With a button you can download all high res maps at once.

@BlackYps said in Why would you have left FAF?:

Well do you want it? Being toxic is already forbidden behaviour, but you need to actually report the people or nothing will happen.

I think nice people will generally feel it is inappropriate to report people for "not being nice".

If this actually needs to be reported then say so:

• Put a thin banner above the custom games list stating for example:
• "Please report players for verbal harassment and toxic behavior to help us keep the community a friendly place for everyone."

I thought you said merge them into support factories, would that not be a solution?

Allow Aeon and Seraphim engineers to "Garrison" into T2 and T3 (support) factories, just like with air transports. For example 16 T1 engineers into T2 factory and 32 T1 into T3 factory. (and offcourse T2 and T3 engineers to ratio)

All "Garrisoned" buildpower is made available to the Factory.

@archsimkat Being able to separately (multi-) queue for 5x5, 10x10 and 20x20 random maps would be great... (long term) - I like them all but for which ones I queue would depend on my time. 5x5 queue would be great for during work-breaks

Absolutely, not just for engineers.

If you could assist to a military unit too then you sort of have a mobile army waypoint where a factory can just reinforce an army wherever it is

@jip Hearthstone solved that with 6 standard messages, especially if it is just text it shouldn't be to hard to develop, write and mod in.

1. List the required messages. (Example: Prepare to attack soon, Scale up Eco & Tech, I take your lead, Follow my instructions, No / you idiot, Yes / good idea - to be accompanied with pings and general understanding)
2. Get nationals to write it in every language.
3. Mod in under hot menu

Tbh I might use this sometimes even without a language barrier...

@emperor_penguin (Now have a PC and time to search) I see you once suggested a casual matchmaker once.
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/1599/create-a-casual-noob-friendly-matchmaker-queue-to-increase-player-retention/33?_=1644676849180

With Share Until Death apparently not being popular for 4v4 (I myself asked for it in 2v2), the fourth matchmaker is "available" for repurposing. You could go back to your previous suggestion of a casual matchmaker, and I would suggest this as a nice start.

@deribus maybe it could be trialed in place of the share until death 4v4? "4v4 Decapitation" The fourth matchmaker was somewhat intended for casual and experimental stuff...

Did I duscuss that with you once @Emperor_Penguin ?

@coinlazer said in Nerf t3 arti:

Alright lock this thread I'm sick of the excuses for people simping on artillery.

Yes please lock this thread @Deribus ? It is painful to see such needless ripping on OP.

Fewer people could have made the same point and have had the same discussion with OP.

@Emperor_Penguin I like this idea, but I would suggest a broader focus on making T2/T3 engineers more convenient instead of (only) more effective. It opens less of a balance can of worms.

For example make T2 engineers significantly faster and make T3 engineers really tanky with hp regen.

I can't comment on balance, but I always play Aeon and often hope to get a 5x5 map so I can definitely say that Aeon on 5x5 is not "unfun".

I think.... if you lose on 5x5 especially with Aeon you tend to lose quickly and can get to the next game. I like quick games, it might bias me.

I'm not novice just have a mind that makes mistakes very easily, really like this.

However would it be possible to also add an audio-alert triggered at some relevant point?

Option to output one of a few "numbers" to the desktop icon like so:

You could choose to show here:

• TMM currently in queue (highest / 1v1 / 2v2 / 4v4)
• Number of custom games (matching current search filter if available)
• Number of friends online

Possibly also an option for a windows notification tied to this number:

• Ping when highlighted number > 8

If power reserves are going to last less than 1 minute at the current rate, provide an audible alarm "Low Power!" once every 30 seconds at most. So if "ENERGY / Power_Deficit < 60 seconds".

This might help new players (and players like me) enormously to avoid power stalls. This is the only game I know that does NOT warn about low resources.

Hoplites don't have a secondary splash attack. Could you compare how many Aurora you need to kill a single Mongoose or Hoplite?

While I absolutely hate Seraphim Glaciers and regardless of what I will say next I favor blocking maps...

I learned a lot from it. First I developed a ACU drop build that would reliably end the game quickly, pretty much 50% win rate. Sometimes these drops resulted in a base/Island capture without outright winning. This new situation allowed me to practice the "normal game" with a huge advantage. Ultimately I got comfortable with the normal game and now understand T2 navy better and T3 somewhat.