





🌟 Special thanks to our amazing supporters:
✨ $10 Tier: [Geeks Love Detail]
🌈 $5 Tier: [Arch Toasty][Benedikt][David Martínez Martí]
Greetings, captains and crews of the skies, Its been a long while since weve spoken to you here, and its about time we caught up. We, Muse Games, have grown up as a team. Weve worked on and released multiple titles, and we are independent. So, what are we here to talk about? First of all, you. The Guns of Icarus community have been with us for over a decade now. Thats incredibly humbling, and heartwarming for the entire team. To see you all still out there, flying in the skies we first created in Flight of the Icarus back in 2010 is amazing. So, firstly, we wanted to say, thank you. Thank you for investing in our world, and thank you for helping shape and share the story weve all made together. Not many studios are as lucky to have a community as strong as the Guns of Icarus community, and we do not take that for granted. We wanted to let you know that weve been working on something. Something we think youre going to like. A lot. Were going back to our roots. While we cant tell you too much more at the moment, lets just say that the sky is no longer the limit. Youre going to be hearing a lot more from us in the coming weeks and months, so be sure to stick around and join us on Discord. See you in the skies, and beyond Howard for Team Muse
Game servers will be down from August 16th @10pm EDT until August 17th @10pm EDT. See you in the skies when the servers are back up!
Build 2.0.20 (695) is live, it fixes several sound and video assets accidentally broken by our new build environment, including:
With our 8th birthday just around the corner, now is a great time to upgrade to Guns of Icarus Alliance! https://store.steampowered.com/app/608800/Guns_of_Icarus_Alliance/ Whether you're looking for a place to play solo, or just looking to try out PvE, Guns of Icarus Alliance has you covered! Sale ends September 27th.
We're so excited to announce that frantic, frenetic, firefighting multiplayer Embr launches on Early Access for Steam today!
[previewyoutube=2BjiEmVejdk;full][/previewyoutube]
With Embr, we set out to shine a satirical light on the gig-economy - not in terms of the people making those deliveries and driving those taxis, but rather the companies at the top powering this particular brand of venture capitalism and deregulation.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1062830/Embr/
On a gameplay basis, we also wanted to see just what mayhem would occur if the untrained masses headed out with a hose and tried to put out fires in the same way people deliver take-out or drive people around in makeshift taxis. The end result is fun, frenetic, and just as barmy as we thought it would be. It just makes you appreciate what a difficult and almost impossible job real-life firefighters do.
Embr launches on Steam Early Access today for $19.99/19.99/17.99 with a 20% discount in launch week. You can expect multiple free major content drops in the months after launch significantly expanding the game. We'll also continue to diligently work with the community to further shape the Embr experience based on feedback and suggestions. Having trouble? Get in touch!
It's amazing to finally get Embr into your hands during Early Access. Let us know what you think!
Dev Games is a twice-weekly event in Guns of Icarus! Play with or against the developers and complete the mission for free items. The mission is always available from 30 minutes before Dev Games until 30 minutes after. Win 2 matches and receive today's prize! Join the Devs in game and get free stuff! Dev Games Times: Thursday @ 2000 EDT / Fri 0000 UTC Friday @ 1400 EDT / 1800 UTC
Dev Games is a twice-weekly event in Guns of Icarus! Play with or against the developers and complete the 2-hour mission for free items. The mission is always available from 30 minutes before Dev Games until 30 minutes after. Win 2 matches and receive today's prize!
Dev Games is a twice-weekly event in Guns of Icarus! Play with or against the developers and complete the mission for free items. The mission is always available from 30 minutes before Dev Games until 30 minutes after. Win 2 matches and receive today's prize!
We cant believe it has already been seven full years! Time does fly, doesnt it? In celebration, we are adding even more content! Faction colors, a new figurehead, Embr items from Muses upcoming new game Embr (Wishlist it on Steam now!), more profile pictures, and a new voicepack. That's not all! Are you a pilot and are tired of cosmetics? Want something new? Well, then, we have just the thing for you. Try out the new Drift Sail helm tool. Damages to ship and crew are not covered under any warranty. Use at your own risk.
We'll be hosting our weekly Dev Fireside Chat in just 30 minutes! Join us at twitch.tv/musegamesnyc or watch through Steam on the Guns of Icarus Alliance Store page! https://store.steampowered.com/app/608800/Guns_of_Icarus_Alliance/ Dev Games is also at a new time - immediately after Dev Fireside. Hope to see you there!
It's time for the Summer Update! We've just received a shipment of newly balloon-approved dyes and we're giving them to you. Make those balloons shine!
Want to see your character in a profile picture? Send us a high-quality picture of your avatar - we'll be choosing a few to add to the game! You can send these to us at contests@musegames.com !
New:
We've brought an array of new maps, gamemodes, bug fixes, and balance changes to you today. Hop in and check them out! We've reactivated boarding - Happy April 1st! New Map:
~I just want to set the world on fire, and I'm gonna start by flaming your hull~
In honor of Valentine's Day, we're bringing back the Fiery Passion challenge! Equip your ship with the hottest weapons you can find and start some fires.
The Goal: Set 250 parts on fire
The Rewards:
The Daily Deal sale and giveaway has ended! Thanks everyone so much for the overwhelming support! It's been truly amazing, and we can't thank everyone enough. We still have a large pile of requests to respond to (over 7,000 has been responded to so far!), so thanks in advance for your patience. We're still waiting for the next batch of keys from Steam, and as soon as we get them, we'll resume sending them out to everyone.
Guns of Icarus Alliance is going live on PS4 on May 1st!
It’s the first seamlessly cross-platform Steam and PS4 game. Not only can you play with PS4 players in the same match, but you can call out commands or chat about life via voice chat as well!
In celebration, we are going ALL OUT!
- Get the game now for -85% and grab 3 free copies for a full crew of friends!
- Simply activate the game and send your Steam Receipt to feedback@musegames.com! It’s that easy*
Tell your friends! This is for players and friends only, no key resellers please*
Fly safely,
Your Muse Games team!
Pre-Order PS4 US link: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0456-CUSA09099_00-GUNSOFICARUSALNC
PreOrder PS4 EU link: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0453-CUSA11511_00-GUNSOFICARUSPODR
*Acquisition of the additional keys are, in whole or in part, not available for resale. Free game copies will be distributed when you email us a screenshot of your purchase receipt. Please allow up to seven days time for distribution of game keys.
Servers are going through the regular reboot. Due to windows update taking longer than expected, it may take another 15-20 minutes of down time. Sorry for the inconvience!
We put out a few fires earlier, and it looks like it's unlocked a special new item, free to anyone who logs in!
Hello everyone,
We have lowered the price on Guns of Icarus Alliance! This permanent price drop is intended to lower the gate of entry and to help us bring in more players and open more opportunities down the road.
This isn’t just good news for people looking to buy Guns of Icarus Alliance though.
To thank everyone who bought around release and supported us while you missed out on the $5 price drop, you will be receiving over $20 of free items. All you have to do is turn on your game and you’ll recieve items in the rewards section under special events and “full price celebration.”
Here’s a full list of the rewards.
It's a special weekend. A whole new slew of PvE MK2 weapons are in the dev app after we tested them all weekend.
Testing will be at 5 pm eastern today (July 14th) and 12 pm eastern tomorrow (July 15th.) To hear all the latest updates first, join our Discord Experimental Crew!
Our notes are below, but we can't wait to hear your thoughts.
Internal testing is back and just in time for next weeks patch!
Between cons, updates, broken test server and a rock climbing trip for the office, we've definitely had a break between Gazettes, but now's your chance to get a sneak peek at everything coming your way.
If you want to hear about it first hand, follow us at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus where we show off every internal session and give away the password to the dev games early (and your chance for free items.)
We’re partnering with Steam on a one of a kind sale just for Guns of Icarus owners and friends.
Owners of Guns of Icarus titles get 50% off for a limited time*, when you buy a copy for a friend on Steam!
*Offer ends June 7th at 10AM PT
The first war of Icarus ends. Long live the North!
The war ends with a begrudging surrender. The Northern Guard claims victory and an uneasy peace settles across the land. A peace that is more of a mask for the next insidious attacks from all the factions, piracy.
Those that don't accept the fight as over are taking to raiding and pillaging. Some are loyalists looking to fight for honor others are opportunists looking to take the post-war chaos to make a quick buck.
So hide in your safe territory and strike out and plunder the world. Do it for your faction, for your pocket, and for an exclusive title!
The faction that has the most successful attacks by the end of the mission will all earn the exclusive Pirate title. No need to hold the territory, just capture, plunder, and move on!
This will continue until the 30th when a new patch drops and new factions join in with even more content!
Greetings Fellow Sky captains and Crews! We created the Tower of Babel! A maddening structure made by an angry god of code for our attempts to break the sky. While last night our new buildings looked good for Ambush, check out the violent dealings of our newest test build! If you want to be the first to see all the content we’re working on. Follow us at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus where we show off every internal session and give away the password to the dev games early (and your chance for free items.)
Greetings Fellow Sky captains and Crews!
We crashed our testing server! We were testing a bunch of MK2 weapons and broke the server! In Between crashing everything we got to try some truly exciting things that we can’t wait to share with everyone.
If you want to be the first to see all the content we’re working on. Follow us at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus where we show off every internal session and give away the password to the dev games early (and your chance for free items.)
Greetings Fellow Sky captains and Crews!
Yeshan are being testing now! We got to fight chargers and strikers (not their final name) and their mighty boss, the Eviscerator.
If you want to be the first to see all the content we’re working on. Follow us at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus where we show off every internal session and give away the password to the dev games early (and your chance for free items.)
Internal testing happens every Wednesday and Friday at 11 am eastern. Though due to our schedule in the office, this can change. Be sure to follow to be the first to see everything!
Greetings Fellow Sky captains and Crews!
Things broke! But, that’s what should happen in testing and this one looked really interesting. While the team works hard on the fixes and changes to the world map (details incoming!) we continued our work on Ambush and night maps!
Remember, if you want to see everything first and live, we are now streaming our internal testing sessions (no commentary) a at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus]make sure you follow to see when they appear! It’s normally Tuesday and Thursday at 11 am eastern, but times are subject to change depending on the team’s needs. The only way to stay up to date is to follow!
Greetings Fellow Sky captains and Crews!
Week 2 begins with an eclipse.
We just released a hotfix to address a lot of the feedback we have received. You can find all the notes here. While we squash bugs though production is not slowing down on new content and exciting features for the game!
We are now streaming our internal testing sessions (no commentary) and you’ll be able to watch them at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus make sure you follow to see when they appear! It’s normally Tuesday and Thursday at 11 am eastern, but times are subject to change depending on the team’s needs. The only way to stay up to date is to follow!
New Maps: Night Mode
Previous glitch is now feature! Night maps are real! We found a way to keep enough light to identify enemies while still having a powerful darkness that makes explosions spectacular and combat riveting.
This is just one of many drafts and look out for a bunch of night maps on their way.
Continued work: Voyager’s Cove and Stormbreaker
We continued working with the new stormbreaker figuring out some bug locations (no longer teleport when you go to the new locations we added) and on voyagers cove testing out different difficulties and AI decisions in there.
Thank you everyone for flying in our skies, the amazing feedback, and for being a great community!
-Keyvias
Greetings Fellow Sky captains and Crews!
Congrats to the first leaders of the Icarus Faction War!
New titles have been granted to honor this historic event. The title of First Leader has been granted to all four factions’ leaders, and the title of First Grand Leader has been granted to all four faction's overall leaders.
First lore entry commemorating the first week of war is coming shortly, and so is a new leadership emblem to be worn on costumes. Stay tuned!
In addition to fixing bugs critical and small, brewing in our lab today are a number of exciting things.
New Game Mode: Ambush
We are set with the mechanics of Ambush, where ships work together to intercept and ambush enemy airships making bomb runs to bases. These bomb carriers would be supported by other enemy ships and even a boss. You need to race to intercept and kill them in time before they destroy your base. If you kill enough of them, you win. If your base gets bombed into oblivion, you lose.
Mechanically, the mode is playing pretty well. It’s intense under fire and also a race against time. It takes coordination to see who chases down what.
But as typical in any testing, things break! Somehow, we managed to spawn into the matrix today…
Next up in this mode, we’re starting to make the first map for it!
Muse MKII Program:
In our weapons lab (Eric’s desk), we’re prototyping new faction MK2 guns, and here’s a glimpse:
The goal of the MKIIs are to create vastly different versions in how they play and work, but still maintain that consistency with faction technology and theme. The Gas Mortar MKII is a rapid fire, multiple canister launcher, but the gas dissipate much more quickly.
With the Lens Array MKII, think shotgun laser.
Next week we’ll preview the Coil and the Missile MKIIs, so stay tuned!
Updated Stormbreaker:
The Stormbreaker will be retrofitted with a heavy gun slot, so you can mount the Cavitation gun!
In today’s testing, the retrofitting was deemed satisfactory by us, and you shall see it in Dev App to test drive soon!
Also, we are testing quite a few client side fixes that we’ll deploy asap, and these are the things we made fixes for.
- Fixed several memory leaks that eventually led to crashes on all platforms
- Handled some previously unhandled NULLs that could cause crashes on Linux
- Improved visibility and added distance counter to objective indicators on Assault
- Fixed missing event leaderboard title text
- Corrected some text referencing "Preorder Alliance" to "Buy Alliance"
- Fixed a music playback error caused by attempting to seek to an invalid time
Once we run through these fixes, we’ll deploy a new client build (no server restart required), and announcement will follow.
What’s on the docket next week:
Endless Seek & Destroy
Single Ship Infiltration
Missile Circus MKII
Coil MKII
Yeshan Ship
Thanks everyone and stay safe in the treacherous skies!
-Bubbles
We know you probably have questions about why Alliance is a different product from the original or are wondering what happens if you don’t upgrade, so this post’s goal is to answer the most common questions we’re seeing: Why isn’t Alliance just a free update to Guns of Icarus Online? Well, the short answer is because it’s too big for us to be a free update. It’s literally larger than the entire original game. Some people see that as a cash grab, but in reality, as I will try to explain in some of the other questions, it is quite the opposite. We felt this was the most fair way to fulfill our Kickstarter that funded this project nearly 3 years ago. Why isn’t Alliance a DLC for Guns of Icarus Online? We debated over this a lot and discussed this Steam, and the recommendation was to go with a full release and remove the old DLC upgrade. Content DLCs can be low on content and high on price, and it complicates purchase process for anyone new to the community. We believe in what we're offering, and we want to avoid the impression specifically that this is a cash grab. Alliance is more than a DLC, it is its own game. Sure it is built in the shoulders of Guns of Icarus Online, but there’s no denying the amount of new content in Alliance. Not just art, or ships, but entirely new mechanics, a new way of story telling, and just a completely different style of play from the original. Anyway, short version is if this were a cash grab Guns of Icarus Alliance could have been 10 DLCs costing 3-5 dollars each, as opposed to a full product with free updates just like Guns of Icarus Online is. What happens if I don’t want to upgrade to Alliance? We get that PvE isn’t a thing everyone wants to do, and that is fine. Alliance is also an update to Guns of Icarus Online and we will continue to support Guns of Icarus Online 100%, with the aim to bring more and more contents from PvE over to PvP. Not only will we continue to support PvP mode, but now you can join a faction, earn rewards, and still get involved in the meta story of Alliance without paying a dime. In essence we’re not making anyone pay for content they don’t want AND we’re providing a free update to our existing customers. Are you sure this isn’t a cash grab or your way of forcing people to pay more for something they already purchased? We talked at length about the ways to integrate Alliance and create sales. In the end we determined the most successful methods are also the ones we disagree with as an industry. I talked a bit about content DLCs, where you release content in drips and use that drip content to end up making people pay 2-3x the price a game “should” cost. That’s one method we simply could not do and still look ourselves in the mirror. The other would have been cutting off support or content for the original game earlier. This not only would have saved costs, since we wouldn’t be basically trying to build / support two games at once, but it would have created demand as we “starve” our fans of new stuff. On top of that, we could have then released Alliance as a totally new product that wasn’t integrated at all with the original and forced our players to upgrade or not play. Tactics like this, and I am sure you can think of at least one of both examples, are common in the games industry and we refuse to play by those rules. As a result we’re forging a different path where we give the players free updates and the option to upgrade. Unfortunately, also as a result, it confused a LOT of people about what our motives are. Believe me, we want to make money, but we want to do it in a way that makes us feel like we’re actually contributing value to our players and fans. So now I ask for everyone’s support. Please, ask questions, even question our motives, but if you agree with our methods and want to help, tell a friend. We need your help to make Alliance fly, just like we needed your help to make Guns take off nearly 5 years ago. We’re building a different kind of game company and we hope you’ll be along for the ride as we continue to try new ways of doing things. Lastly, if you’re reading this it means you are likely an owner of the original game. For that I personally thank you from the bottom of my heart. Even if you never spend another dime on a Muse Games product, your being part of our journey has shown us so much love and support that it has literally been life changing. Thank you, Howard, Team Lead
Hotfix Notes - Fixed missing wall destruction sounds - Fixed Weaponized Coil charge effect continuing to play after firing - Fixed latest round of Steam Workshop hats not being dyeable - Map colors slightly adjusted to help color-blind players - Fixed a bug that could cause first-time login issues on Mac and Linux - Playtime now accumulates in Steam for both Guns of Icarus Online and Guns of Icarus Alliance, if Alliance is installed. This means you can review Guns of Icarus Alliance in the Steam store now and let everyone know what you think of the game! http://store.steampowered.com/recommended/recommendgame/608800
Guns of Icarus Alliance is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!* In addition, owners of Guns of Icarus Online will get an additional 15% off for a limited time.
Guns of Icarus Alliance is a new Co-Op/PvE airship combat experience brought to you by the makers of Guns of Icarus Online. Take on armadas of enemy ships, planes, and bosses in diverse game modes with wide selection of ships and weaponry. Claim the wasteland solo or with up to 16 friends in perilous and dynamic missions to advance your faction's goals, and unlock new gear.
*Offer ends April 7 at 10AM Pacific Time
Guns of Icarus Alliance and its glorious co-op is finally here with lots of contents and meaningful factional warfare!
March 31st marks the release of Guns of Icarus Alliance! Expect a complete and staggering amount of content, explosive AI, and tactical choices. The battle starts day one so be prepared this Friday for the biggest thing to happen in Icarus.
For those that can survive its fires.
The last and final open session brings with it an exclusive item you can only get until the 8th when the beta ends. 30 victories on hell level missions to earn the Spore shield goggles for male and female.
This is no easy mission and will take the best in you and your crew. Best of luck and remember, winners get the exclusive mask, losers get nothing.
If you don't see the mission on the main screen, simply relog your game and download the update.
New content/features:
- Alliance Beta (For Open Period)
- Static Story Book
- Pietro's Veil (Male and Female) for buyers of Alliance
- Recommended Ship/Loadout for matches/modes/difficulty settings
- New War Goal voting system
- War Period: When war period begins, alliances will be automatically formed and each alliance will have 24 hours to vote on their war goal. This replaces voting on what alliances to form, which was found to be confusing and less rewarding based on feedback gathered. These goals range from converting the enemy’s populace by conquering a territory, enforcing a will of strength by growing to a certain size, to activating a super weapon by accruing resources.
Skirmish
- New Gun: Typhon Heavy Flak Mk. II: The old 2 shot flak of yore in a new body. You asked for it, and here it is. Let us know what you think!
- A new map derived from Alliance’s Parous Glen. Take a peek at our new content in the form of a dark and deadly, although strikingly beautiful, DM map.
- New underdog icon
- Match list opens if Matchmaker goes too long
- New Map: Ashen Scuffle 3v3 and 2v2
General
- End Match Screen: Show faction progression for both Skirmish and Alliance
- Improved Voice Commands menu
- New character customization page
- New ship customization page
- Goggles are now dyeable
- Added tooltips for class selection, tab settings
- Period/Daily Rewards
- Additional titles, in particular Mercenary
- Ship kill count displayed in scoreboard
- Distinct "component destroyed" sound effect for the balloon
Changes:
General
- Faction message panel adjusted
- Adjusted grounded flag on slopes
- Moved the Vote in Progress countdown to right below the map vote panel on the left
- 'Favorite Ship' text on profile page changed to 'Most Played Ship'
- Captain priority extended to team
- Tweaked lights on all ships
- Ladders are easier to notice
Alliance Beta (For Open Period)
- Escape Pod renamed to Enemy Supply Ship
- Alliance world map design improvements
- World UI Ease of Use adjustments
- Icon callouts to indicate Leader choices
- Better communication of Leader status
- Killfeed adjustments
- Flare made to trigger for drill armor break
- Marker bullets will now self destruct after a second and a half
Skirmish
- Balloon outline in Skyball matches is now toggle-able as spectator
Balance
- Overall balance changes to enemies, difficulty modes, and game modes like repair rate, damage output, ramp up between Novice and Normal etc…
- Survival: all matches are now set to 5 waves, each of which are timed.
- Assault: in-world icons on currently active base
- Retrieve: convoys are now tanky but move much slower, Refineries have increased health while the Final Refinery has greatly increased health
- Defense: tweaks to Friendly Emplacement effectiveness to support more constant push of enemies
Fixes:
General
- Overlapping chat
- Recommend load-out menu appears in match
- When you die spotted, you spawn with HUD displaying as spotted
- Edit Event button leads to "Create Event" panel instead of "Edit Event"
- Help balloon while transitioning back to lobby
- Tooltips showing up off-screen in some cases
- Flickering engine when fireproof coating added
- UI elements on loading screen
- Character positioning on heavy guns
Alliance Beta (For Open Period)
- Failsafe kit starts cooldown on rebuild
- Alliance content missing in Progress screen
- Special Abilities sometimes trigger without pressing the button
- Tar bomb framerate drop on certain maps
- Tar bomb no longer sometimes hits the ship that created it
- Corsair and Crusader: Valentine's theme items placing
- Crusader: catwalk is cutting the main engine in half
- Character model positioning issue on new guns
- Crusaders: pistons are clipping
- Magnate: clipping into brass decorations
- Magnate: walking through wall
- Magnate: pistons clip through material
- Fixed some special ability configuration issues
- Fixed past leader display on unlock markers
- Fixed resource count display for the resource war goal
- Fixed reinforcement purchase error for user buffs
- World map: mission panel was not showing anything
- Missing end match for Stormbreaker ship and balloon mesh error
- Fixed bug with retrieve spawns
- Arc shield generator light flickers with lightning
Skirmish
- Victory Defeat Notifications in Skirmish reversed
Many new players, many new experiences, and a lot of new data!
Hello everyone,
A huge thanks to everyone who took part in and gave feedback for the December Alliance Open Session.
Also a big welcome to everyone from our Steam notification and feature. It was great to have so many new pilots, engineers, and gunners experience Alliance.
In total, over 35,000 players came in throughout the week to fly in our skies. Between all those players, a total of almost hundred thousand hours of Alliance were played, making this open period our largest one yet!
If you enjoyed Alliance, be sure to pre-order to be one of the first one in and if you email us at feedback@musegames.com with proof of purchase weâ
Alliance Beta will end in two hours (4am EST, 9am UTC). System will restart in another hour.
Hi everyone! Servers will be down shortly and be back up in about an hour. In honor of Steam's Daily Deal featuring and the extension of the Alliance Loyalty Reward, we're taking Alliance back up for people to play in a bit, and it'll last through the weekend. http://store.steampowered.com/app/209080/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/252590/ Thanks so much, enjoy, and Happy New Year! Howard aka Bubbles
Today's Deal: Save 75% on Guns of Icarus Online!*
In addition, owners of Guns of Icarus Online will get 33% off the upcoming Guns of Icarus Online Alliance Expansion until January 6th at 10AM Pacific Time.
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends January 6th at 10AM Pacific Time
Happy Holidays everyone!
We’ve been working hard at Muse HQ to get prepared for our next test phase with a bunch of new content and some major balance changes to make a much smoother Alliance experience. Two massive heavy weapons are coming to the skies including the very requested Heavy mine launcher! We also have a screenshot contest we’re really excited to invite everyone to.
This session will be shorter than last starting on December 27th and ending January 2nd, so make sure you get in early and leave your mark on the history of Icarus.
Follow along to See all the notes and see the requirements for our Screenshot Contest!
[img=http://gunsoficarus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/start-shot.png] https://www.youtube.com/embed/GWRhvIY-GI0 A quick snapshot of some of the action we saw over the beta Hello Everyone, It’s been little over a week since we put the planes, bosses, and faction fleets back into the hangar, and that’s given us time to go over the feedback and data, start making changes and prepare for the December open period! The data allowed us to go through matches from close to 20,000 unique players who helped us test, 40 million effort points spent, and the turnover of 320 territories. We received a few hundred direct feedback from people, and over 150 responses from our survey. From a data collection and feedback standpoint, this was the most successful testing period we’ve had for Alliance. A big thanks to all the players who took the time to play, test, give feedback, and fill out surveys on our expansion. That data and feedback drives us to improve the game and pushes us in the right direction. Follow along to see what we learned, the parts we’re proud of, and the parts we’re improving. Also, please go to the fixes section for not only a recap of all the issues and experiments during the test period, but also for a few fixes that we’ll patch in today. We’ve moreover added a draft of the post war lore for the open testing period that we’ll add in game.
[img=https://humblebundle.imgix.net/misc/files/hashed/f07355786dda74fe6ae14313074f49e1ce726af6.png?auto=format&lossless=1&ixlib=python-0.2.0&s=4296ea312147069fc06f2bc2ba984184] The Yogscast Humble Bundle Jingle Jam is live! We're super pumped to have Guns of Icarus a part of it so buy now and also get a bunch of other great games with more to come as we go through December! Don't forget that your support helps a bunch of great charities! https://www.humblebundle.com/yogscast-jingle-jam
9 of the best teams fighting for cold hard cash!
Now if your chance to get to see the best Icarus has to offer. Teams have been training for the chance to prove themselves to earn exclusive prizes, an opportunity to name an in-game AI and $200. This all starts tomorrow, December 2nd, 7:00pm UTC/2:00pm EST.
With so many games in this double elimination we'll be casting across multiple streams.
Watch them all here.
Your contenders to watch, learn, rise and fall with are:
Peace reigns, but for how long?
Thank you everyone for a highly successful test of our war system. It was amazing to see and hear players fighting it out in a vicious fashion. What we need right now though is your feedback! Click here and fill out the survey to let us know how to improve Guns of Icarus Alliance.
If you liked what you saw, don't forget to pre-order a copy of Guns of Icarus Alliance. So you can be one of the first taking up your factions flag again.
We Also have some lore for the war, this is just preliminary as we analyze the mountains of data and information generated by everyone during the beta.
War has permeated through the land with the rise of two great alliances: the Chaladonian-Anglean Primal Conservancy and the Mercantile-Baronite Utilitarian Assembly. Chaladon initiated the war in an effort to stem Mercantile territorial advances, use of water fouling mining techniques, and suspicions of human trade. Threatened by the strict Chaladonian trade requirements, the Fjord Baronies joined with the Mercantile Guild to promote free trade in order to secure foodstuffs while turning a blind eye to the transfer of more questionable 'wares'. Reluctantly, the Angleans realized that their water and food were depleting and joined the Chaladonians to form the Conservancy and fight for a sustainability.
Expect more in the official lore write-up once data has been collected and analyzed.
Go to our store page now at http://store.steampowered.com/app/209080/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1 and vote!
We would love everyone to vote for all the games you think should deserve an award and we believe we're a great fit for "I thought this game was cool before it won an award" award.
Big thanks to our amazing community for staying with us, trying beta, and helping us in this contest!
[img=http://gunsoficarus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/war-now.png] Our paid DLC is free for all to play for the next two weeks. All you have to do is turn on Guns of Icarus and enjoy new ships, content, including our first period of war between the factions. Learn to survive the war here. Read the full patch notes here!
Are you ready?
Starting Monday November 7th, the new new patch hits and war comes to Icarus, but we need people to test it out before hand! We're doing a massive testing call tonight at 9 pm eastern, 1 AM GMT (we believe with the daylight savings.)
This is to give us an opportunity to look through all the new UI, systems, and exciting features we're putting in and make sure there's no major break points. Please come join us test and if you don't have access to the dev app get your key here!
Find the full notes below!
Are you ready?[
Starting Monday November 7th, the new new patch hits and war comes to Icarus, but we need people to test it out before hand! We're doing a massive testing call tonight at 9 pm eastern, 1 AM GMT (we believe with the daylight savings.)
This is to give us an opportunity to look through all the new UI, systems, and exciting features we're putting in and make sure there's no major break points. Please come join us test and if you don't have access to the dev app get your key here!
Find the full notes below!
Squid changes, skyball changes, and more being tested right now!
Hello everyone,
Mayday Friday is back after its hiatus and we have a lot going on! As you've noticed we have an entirely new game mode that has a tournament coming up where you can win exclusive titles and eight copies of the game!
That's not all that's happening though, we are testing some new changes in the dev app. You can see them all here and get in on the action! Squids, mobulas, and Skyball will never be the same again!
Coming up is what our team is working on and our player of the week!
Alex:
Has been tracking down performance issues that were introduced when we upgraded to Unity 5.2, and investigating what we can do to fix them. Also prototyping a couple of new Alliance weapons for the remaining factions.
Tom:
Working on Ambush and prototyping the new class Special Abilities for Alliance.
Eric:
Prototyping new guns for yesha and arashi.
Jerry:
Working on new UI. See a special sneak peak here
Matthew:
Press outreach, store marketing audits, and testing.
Last and never least, our player of the week!
Congrats to Deargdue for winning a free item of his choice.
He's been an awesome player with suchs applauds as:
"Player went above and beyond instructing crew."
"Worked well with the team"
[img=https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/s480x480/13876634_845376722229525_8214475490522251895_n.jpg?oh=039b9df1447c8998bd7c4fe677601d0e&oe=5811E017] We're finished with our first week of the Alliance Open Alpha and we've returned Guns of Icarus to its regular PvP battles. Coming out soon will be stats, lore, and everything we've learned from your amazing feedback. Thank you everyone for a great week!
The Alliance Open Alpha begins Monday, August 1st, and the skies will fill with new exotic ships, new lethal weapons, and new strange locations. It’s a dangerous new world and you’re going to fly in it.
Servers will go down at 12 am Eastern Monday and be back up at roughly 6 am Eastern. From 8/1 to 8/8, you will be able to experience 3 new Alliance game modes - Assault, Defense, and Retrieve - over six new maps. You’ll find yourself flying and crewing on four new ships with access to 4 new guns in the service of one of four factions. All of these new contents will be in service to the first war of Icarus. Defend a homeland, launch a daring attack, recruit mercenaries, and build defenses as you and other players attempt to dominate the world. Can you rally your faction and turn the tide of the war?
How to Fight a War
Every battle you fight will not change the world around you as you apply points, recruit troops, and build defenses.
When you first start Alliance, you’ll pledge to one of the four available factions. The honorable Baronies, industrious Anglea, sage Chaladon, or devious Mercantile.
After you’ve chosen your side simply press Play and begin!
By pressing play, the matchmaker will find you a match, and points will be applied to your faction's side, you’ll progress through your faction (up to rank 4 for the Alpha,) and earn points for your war chest.
To specify where you want to fight for and apply your earned points towards your faction’s war efforts, click World Progression on the main menu. From this map screen, you can spend from your war chest by click on a territory and then click on Reinforce to improve attacks and defenses of the territory. By click on the territory, you’ll also dedicate your next battle there. Your war chest will increase in size as you rise through the faction, earning the opportunity to horde and use more resources for your side.
Full Patch Notes
Alliance Alpha Features (August 1st - August 8th):
Ships-
The Chaladonian Shrike
The Order of Chaladon have been known as peaceful and reclusive, but the pull of war and the planet’s dilapidated state are starting to change traditional Chaladonian values. Being the mad scientists, the Shrike uses heavily modified balloon gas technology in order to support the ship’s heavy armaments on such a small frame. If you look closely, you may see some of this gas leaking from various pipes on the ship—a common issue with this new substance. The Shrike’s movement is and durability comparable to that of the Squid’s but with additional firepower.
The Anglean Corsair
Like its creators, the Corsair is extremely rugged and is not easily budged. Based on ancient war machine designs, the Corsair is ideal for inserting itself into a fray of enemies and simultaneously dispatching them from multiple angles. Gameplay wise, the Corsair takes cues from the Spire in its layout. The Corsair has multi-tiered decks and a massive interior. Given the ship’s toughness, scurrying up and down ladders can be kept to a minimum for a skilled engineer.
The Fjord Baronies Crusader
Long, sleek, and painstakingly crafted, the Crusader plows its way through enemy lines in glorious charges. Stained glass and crisp design hide a hardened workhorse that has served the Baronies through many conflicts. More dangerous than its sturdy frame and protected balloon is its unique heavy weapon angles which give it an edge over opponents, catching them by surprise.
The Mercantile Guild Magnate
Luxury and violence have no closer merging than the Mercantile’s Magnate. Blistering with weapons on both its port and starboard the Magnate is invulnerable to flanking. While exquisitely cut sails and an aerodynamic design, has turned this heavily armed and armored ship into a nimble beast of the sky comparable to a Goldfish.
Maps-
Oblivion Approach- Retrieve
Similar areas like this one lay scattered across the world, but no route is more deadly than Oblivion Approach. Its deep ravine cuts a narrow passage that’s too risky for most traders to fly in. The low traffic and multitude of nooks makes it an ideal place for marauders to hide or even be used as an escape route. There have been tales of robbers successfully making their getaway through the approach, using the jagged terrain to lose their pursuants. Must feel terrible to get robbed and crash your ship in a single day. Hope that doesn’t happen to you anytime soon.
Voyager’s Cove- Defense
The Voyager’s Cove takes place off the coast of Chaladonian shores. Judging by the ruins, it was once a bustling coastal city that has since been reclaimed by the sea. Now, the cove is an important defensive location linking the Isle of Chaladon to the mainland. This new map follows the Defense mode ruleset and is designed for 3-4 player ships.
Seas of Alleron- Assault
It is known that the world has changed its face many times over. Now, Alleron wears an arid mask of sand and scorching heat. However, there is evidence that briny waters once bathed the obelisks that lay partially buried in the dust. Of course, this also means the seas left many valuables resources behind. Sifting sand and drilling through rock is a time intensive process, but a worthwhile enough endeavor that many parties fight over the production facilities that lie in the old seas.
Parous Glen- Assault
Raw materials drive conflict and Parous Glen’s unique location gives it access to material impossible to find anywhere else. Numerous refineries and outposts drill and process ores day and night. The sound of rumbling and grinding is only ever broken by the sound of raiders attempting to destroy this fortress of manufacturing. Attackers will be quick to find these bases more prepared for war than any stronghold.
Thornholt Crest- Retrieve
A fractured church sits at the heart of Thornholt, surrounded by a broken crown of rails from before the age of air. The crest it sits on provides a natural bastion for numerous outposts and refineries. Unfortunately this also means it is a natural target as well. Numerous factions attempt to plunder the resources tucked away in the crest following the now broken rails to rich targets.
Devil’s Eye- Defense
The Hot springs of Devil’s Eye are beautiful and pristine, but the smell of sulfur nearly suffocates any near. It is this sulfur that brought giant refineries and loading docks. Tucked within a crater the Devil’s Eye Citadel can only be reached from 3 angles of attack. These lanes are littered with the wreckage of many who believed they could make it through dangerous paths.
Weapons and Tools-
Seraph Tempest Missiles
The Fjord Baronies have always had a distinct flair to every aspect of their culture from their attitude, dress, and even weaponry. Taking a cue from this tradition, the Seraph Tempest Missiles not only provide a spectacle to behold but also excellent support capabilities. The missiles’ movement are known to trick enemies into thinking that shots have been missed, but with a guided aim the missiles will travel to its intended target despite taking a few detours along the way.
Use its unique aiming mechanic to dodge obstacles and hit enemy mechanical components to disable them. If the enemy’s armor is down, the Seraph Tempest Missiles also do substantial damage to hulls.
Charybdis Gas Mortar
Even though Chaladonian researchers tend to not exclusively focus their work on war applications, many of their experiments have unintended side effects. When trying to find new ways to disperse aerosols, and new environmentally safe pesticides, something went awry. The dispersal method worked fine, but the pesticide didn’t work as intended. Instead of killing deadly insects, it was better at corroding metals and gunking up intricate mechanical parts.
When the specially designed shells make impact, chemicals are released in the form of a deadly green cloud that will slow down any ship that gets caught. The cloud will slowly eat away at metal armors, engines, and weapons. There’s even a handy early detonation function on the shells too.
Februus Weaponized Coil
Reverse engineering parts unearthed from the frozen tundra, the Anglean Republic has reconstructed methods to temporarily store an electrical charge. At first, they were disappointed by their inventions’ instability but soon realized that it could be weaponized to devastating effect.
The gun fires an electrical charge that arcs between multiple enemies. Hold the trigger to charge up to 6 seconds. The damage and the number of jumps increase with charge time. It has a minimum charge time of 3 seconds.
Aten Lens Array
Harnessing the power of the sun via a series of carefully crafted lenses, the Mercantile Guild is able to burn its enemies with a focused beam of light. Only the Guild is able to procure such valuable diamonds and crystals that make up the weapon’s intricate lens array. The armament’s devastating effectiveness easily justifies its costly construction.
To operate the Apollo, hold down mouse to start shooting. The longer you train the beam on an enemy ship, at the expense of less turning arc and movement, and the the more damage the gun would inflict.
[NEW ENGINEER TOOLS] Armor Kit and Fail-safe Kit
Both kits are buff tools, bringing the total buff tools to 3. Buffs can only be applied one at a time and cannot be stacked. Armor kit will apply armor to any component for a set duration of time, or until armor has depleted. Fail-safe Kit applies a rebuilder automaton for a set duration of time. When a component with the Fail-safe buff/automaton is downed, it will begin to rebuild itself. Normal assistive rebuilding still works. Once rebuilt, the buff/automaton is removed.
Changes:
The skies will darker with bosses and new players!
Hello everyone,
The event we've been talking about for the past couple weeks, the open alpha has a date! August 1st will be the start of the open alpha week. We'll have more information coming up soon. Also Alliance won an award for Best 3D Graphics in the 2016 Intel Level Up Game Dev Contest!
As always we'll be talking about the open alpha, new updates, and answering questions at 3 pm on twitch.tv/gunsoficarus. Stop by, enjoy the rambling, and learn Icarus secrets!
This week's highest applauded player is Szalony and Sorrow.
He'll be receiving any item of his choice for being a strong member of the community with applauds like:
"Great captain. One of the best I have had the honor to be led by."
"amazing leading and piloting"
What some of us stare at daily
Hello Everyone,
Unity 5 is in full force and you can see Guns of Icarus on Unity 5 in our dev app. We're testing it for bugs and issues that the new engine upgrade introduced. Also be sure to try fighting against our new AI pilots!
We'll be talking about unity 5 and the upcoming open alpha today at 3 pm eastern at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus. Come ask us about it, other things, and hear us ramble and get off topic!
Next up what some members of the team work out.
Alex:
Tracking down a few Unity 5-related issues revealed by Dev App testers, and performance work on both client and server.
Tom:
Ambush, testing enemy AI and behavior.
Matthew:
Video editing, test planning, and orchestrating casters and youtubers.
Last and never least, our player of the week is:
MegaMexican
He will receive free muse made item of his choice for earning the most applauds this week including
"A natural leader and stalwart comrade. One of the best to have at your side when the cards are down."
"Thanks For Being the Best Leader"
"You make a great leader and a great captain. I am sure you will go far!"
Our process for map making
Hello everyone,
A long slow clap for the beautiful gif above from Tim, our art director. This should show an outline of the process that goes into all of our maps. We're coming up to the final week for the "Why We Fly" video event, please send in your submissions so you can get exclusive titles that will NEVER be given out again!
Our apologies for last week's stream being missed. We had a pressing press engagement that ran long, but we're back this week! We're be at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus at 3 pm eastern talking about the hotfix and upcoming Open Alpha that's in the works!
Next what the team has been working on:
Alex:
Fixing assorted graphics bugs introduced by Unity 5.
Eugene:
-Tweaked sand storm cloud texture/mat to differentiate from normal clouds better.
-Resized base & boss guns and their bullets to increase visibility.
-Tweaked mines to look better with metalmap shader to be more noticeable in the field.
Tom:
Ambush mode and bugs.
George:
Fix unity 5 bugs, Fixes to AI ship state effects, fixing bugs with the newly added guns.
Matthew:
Marketing content, testing plans, and press engagements.
And now: Our player of the week and winner of a free item!
MrTheREALButcher
For being applauded the most in the past week including
"Great communication as fellow captain"
"Excellent at communication and encouraging to the novice players."
"jolly good and enjoyable chap"
Changes: Reduce the limit of veterans necessary to open Vet Games Rematch vote logic change: 1~2 DM, 0~1 VIP, 1 CP. Last played map will not show anymore. Bug fixes: Added tutorial loading screen pictures "ChatCrew" correctly binds to ‘L’ by default, default binding of “TaskList” moved to ‘T’ (was conflicting) Fixed TAB Scoreboard data issues in Practice Player popup shows in ESC scoreboard again Fixed an effects leak on the Banshee that was causing lower frame rates
Trying out a new ambush mode, but the AI jumped us with over 100 objectives!
Hello everyone,
We've been testing out a lot of new ideas all through the week. Ambush, Skyball, and new VIP changes are being worked on right now. With all the work both Skyball and the VIP changes are ready to get dirty and have players run though them. You can find their testing through the Experimental Crew. We'd love everyone to show up and let us know what you think of what we're working on.
As always we'll be live at 3 pm eastern at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus to talk about these changes and new game modes live. Come ask questions, be a part of exclusive events and rewards, and join in the community experience!
Don't forget the "Why We Fly" Video event is live! Exclusive titles and a chance to be one of the faces of Guns of Icarus is up for grabs!
Next up is what the team has been working on this week.
Howard:
Been recovering from a viral infection thing with symptoms that somehow sounded a bit like ZIKA. Otherwise, I've been doing a bit of planning for CoxCon, for an open alpha event (stay tuned!).
Eric:
SPIES. EVERYONE LOOVESSSS SPIIIES!!
Tom:
Ambush mode and bug fixes.
Alex:
Bringing the whole of Guns development into a newer version of the game engine (Unity 5.2), and dealing with the inevitable complications of that.
George:
Working on new States for Ai Airships, ship editor improvements to improve artist workflow, Fixing AI Flare issues, testing Unity 5.
Matthew:
Press organization, content generation, and testing optimization.
Last and never least is our player of the week:
Sky-Gunner
"Wonderful leadership"
"good communication"
"This... beautiful man is a legend. He not only always keeps a positive outlook towards anything he always has that calm voice even when everything is falling apart."
Why do you choose to fly in these bullet riddled skies?
Hello Everyone,
We’re creating a video of the best part of our game: the community! All you have to do is send footage of yourself or of you playing in one of the listed situations. Everyone who sends in footage will receive an exclusive title reward: Evangelist. If you do one for every situation you will receive a second exclusive title: World Bearer.
The videos that make the cut will be edited together into a community “Why we fly” video. We truly appreciate the time our players put in and want to show them off to the world!
Send your entries to feedback@musegames.com, please have the subject line read “Why we fly” and include your in-game name. Contest submissions will be accepted up until July 1st
Situations:
You can send in footage for one or all of these situations. These help us put a theme to the video and make editing and categorizing much easier. Examples are included for each of these. Feel free to take artistic license with any of these ideas. Videos can use webcam, in-game, related media, or any combination. Feel free to let your creative side flare!
There is no time requirement or limit for these videos.
Why I fly: A video with a description of why you love guns of Icarus.
Favorite Gameplay moment: Some gameplay (Can be of yourself or someone else) with commentary (either taken in the moment or added after.)
My faction: Announce your faction, it’s up to you if you want to include your reasoning.
Favorite Ship: Announce your favorite ship, it’s up to you if you want to include your reasoning.
Here are some simple examples:
[url=https://youtu.be/Orf-NVFKrL4]My Faction
Favorite Ship
How to record:
Feel free to use any software or tools you feel comfortable with, these are for players not experienced with video recording my advice is Open Broadcaster Software (free)
To get started
Editor’s Notes:
Welcome to 1.4.6, one of the biggest patches to hit Guns of Icarus, with the first new entirely new game mode - VIP - in a long while! VIP is tactical, but also thrilling and violent. It's been really exciting and rewarding for us, as we're finally able to take the mechanics we've been developing for Alliance and bring them back to Skirmish PvP. Not only do we have the new VIP mode, we also have a massive tutorial revamp, complete with voice over, more interactive scenarios, and final tests for players to earn higher medals and rewards. There's more! A new coupon system and friend referral bonuses are here to reward everyone who's been so instrumental in helping us grow the community. This isn’t the end of skirmish content either. As we speak, another game mode - Skyball - is being designed for the next patch. It is an entirely different and unique sky sport game coming FREE to all owners of Guns of Icarus. Get ready for some zany fun and more explosions and stay tuned!
New content:
New VIP Game Mode
You’ve gone out on your own to play this mode, and we’ve seen how much fun you all have. We’ve connected with Tropo, Richard, and KitkatKitty the creator and organizers of the player run VIP matches to discover how your rules and nuances make the mode fun. Score points by killing each team’s VIP. If the VIP kills another VIP, you get bonus points! First team to get the required points wins the match. Important thing to note, the first ship on each team in the match lobby is designated as the VIP. Plan accordingly! There are 5 revised maps to play this hectic mode on with a set of achievements to boot. Happy Hunting.
Alliance Sprung a Leak!!
While we’re deploying this morning, we misconfigured something… And! All the first level costumes for Alliance are now in the game! it’s not often that our mistakes have pure, unintended, and positive consequences. While we have to rework our progression for Alliance, we’re happy to announce that everyone in game is now gifted (accidentally :D) an Alliance custom free! Enjoy! If you so choose, the Alliance preorder is on our Steam store page, feel free to check it out.
New Tutorial
The best crew member is a crew who knows how to complete basic tasks on the ship. This is why we’ve completely revamped our tutorial to ensure that new players can have a place on every ship. It even offers mini-game challenges that even the experienced players can test the skills with and earn medals. There are tutorials for all classes and each one is meticulously instructed by Captain Morrison via radio (just in case you crash the ship). These revisions should offer a more in-depth yet concise, and highly engaging way to learn how to play the game.
New Friend Referral
Our players have gone out of their way to recruit, refer, and bring in an amazing number of friends, and it’s vital to the growth of our community. It’s the reason we have such great clans and upstanding players. To reward and push for more players to do the same, we’ve added in a referral system. On the main page you can click the “Review and Recruit” button to get your code and give it to friends. Once they redeem this code you and them will earn items, dyes, and exclusive titles! Each player can only be recruited once so make sure to grab your friends quickly and look for more.
New Coupon System
A new reward has been added into the game. Coupons! You’ll be able to receive these in the new friend referral feature and in other upcoming reward systems. These coupons will give you your choice of items from the store at a discount instead of simply being assigned a reward. Once you get one all you have to do is use the store and you will see your coupon applied on checkout.
New Workshop Items
Credit to player jamesmokka who made this amazing piece of art.
The team has been hard as work squashing bugs, putting the final touches on, and finishing the last little bits onto skirmish 1.4.6. We're really excited to have everyone play VIP, recruit friends, and use enjoy our novices taught by the new tutorial.
At 3 pm eastern on twitch.tv/gunsoficarus where Howard, Matthew, Mikko, and Josie will be talking all about the new patch incoming your way hopefully next week.
Keep reading to see what the team has been working on and the player of the week
Mikko:
-7 Deadly ship image and event support
-General assistance the Sunday Community Skirmish, Chaos Skirmish Saturday, & Spread Your Wings
-Alliance keys/support
-General intermingling with the player base
Alex:
An assortment of small fixes to bugs and performance issues in Alliance. Testing some rendering improvements on a wider variety of hardware and discovering the inevitable problems that they introduce.
Tom:
Various bug fixes, testing, and finishing up tutorials.
George:
Bug fixes, meetings, and finished up sound design test.
Matthew:
Some moderation work, bringing in our next round of CAs, and expanding testing to three days a week!
Our player of the week:
The-Doctor-
"This player is always focused on making sure every team has enough players even if it hurts their team. Excellent player."
"This player has helped me train quite a few new players in the game. Also this player is always more concerned about everyone else having fun than their own success."
[img=http://gunsoficarus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/skyball-smaller.gif] Hello Everyone, We're very excited to announce testing for not one, but two new game modes for Guns of Icarus Online! Join in this Saturday at 12 pm eastern. Fire up your Dev App and join us in game as we put these two new game modes through the fires of player testing. The Game modes are VIP, which we'll be testing on Anglean this weekend. Anglean VIP has proven to be the most violent game mode we've ever tested. 30 ship destroyed in 20 minutes. Get in, protect your VIP and destroy theirs in a Knock-Down, Drag-Out Brawl. Skyball is a tactical mode focused on aggressive tackles, deadly turn overs, and mad dashes to the goal line. You can see an example of a ball steal above that lead to a rush cross the line while the enemy was wiped out by the backline. If you don't have access to the Dev App, Click here and grab a code in the discussions! We're going to be talking about these new game modes and more live at twitch.tv. Next: what we've been working on and our player of the week! Warren: New menu mockups, Tutorial/Tooltip/subtitle alternatives, new icons for new achievements and rewards Alex: Primarily testing Unity 5 and banging into walls (trying to track down some collision weirdness, particular with barges.) George: Various bug fixes, working on Video for Sound designer test, and help setting up assets for boss guns. Tom: Tutorials, Ambush, and captain priority changes. Michael: Improvements and fixes for Protection, VIP, and Skyball. Matthew: Marketing creation and testing revamping. Our player of the week is: Barbute This earns them a free item of their choice due to the numerous applauds they've received. "Barbute is perhaps the greatest gunner I have ever seen, always landing incrediable shots. Shots which disable enemy guns as well as landing fatal blows. Without a doubt in my mind Barbute is an amazing gunner and stunning teammate." "Super nice gal"
Hello Everyone,
We are officially in Alpha now! This means a huge batch of content and first iterations of major systems for you to test out and give feedback on. Below you’ll see notes on everything from a new map to the first take on Alliance World Progression!
For Alpha, we have increased the viability of single ship and single pilot games, and we will expand regular group testing sessions beyond every Saturday at 12 pm EST. Stay tuned in the coming days for announcement of more days and times. If you have questions or issues with the update, you can always email us at feedback@musegames.com.
If you haven’t pre-ordered Alliance yet, you can now do it through Steam! Thank you so much for your support!
Once you pre-order, just send us an email at feedback@musegames.com. We'll give you a code to join us in the prototype, and you can have an exclusive first look at everything yourself and give us feedback!
New Contents
Move over bonefish, the Arashi are upgrading
It's the week before pax and all through Muse.
Not a dev was sleeping, especially not those who schedule press interviews.
Others were working on fitting the alpha into a USB with care
In hopes that everything would work on first try when they got there
With computers tucked in all tight in the back of a van
Devs were on their way, rocking out to Dvořák's 9th symphony in a four door sedan.
To be the first to hear about our plans for PAX and get to ask about the upcoming alpha, join us for our weekly dev fireside chat at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus. We'll be taking questions and talking about the massive push into alpha coming to a con and computer near you!
This week in Muse:
Howard:
Planning for Pax East! If you're coming to Pax, come by booth 7212 to visit us and play some Alliance!!!
Jack:
More Arashi Cloud-Breaker work.
Alex:
Implementing the code bits for a new Alliance title scene, and making the "missile circus" guns behave themselves.
Tom:
Tutorials and bug fixes.
Matthew:
Updating the way we produce content from the Muse team, choosing the next batch of CAs, and preparing for PAX!
For our player of the week, big congratulations to:
The Squash
"Lead a crew of AI to victory after our allies dropped from the game"
"For always helping me out when I need it and teaching me so much."
So much violence has happened and will happen for this little square of land.
Hello everyone,
We're excited about a lot of upcoming things. We have PAx East coming up where we'll be showing off a mountain of new content which will make its way into the player prototype shortly after and just as exciting is the revamp of balance testing a procedure.
As always we'll be talking about this and more on twitch.tv/gunsoficarus at 3 pm eastern as well as taking your questions live!
Balance Procedure Revamp
We're coming to you today with what we hope will be some reassuring and exciting news about how we balance Guns of Icarus Online and our aims for the future of how we play the game together. Let’s talk about it!
After the last balance cycle, we can totally understand why everyone is frustrated - us included. Having reviewed the process, a lot of things were done wrong and communication across the board left a lot to be desired. We want to change that because these changes ought to benefit the players and community instead of causing developers and players unnecessary grief.
In order to help everyone out, we are going to change the way that we handle balance. The hope is that this will make changes less intimidating and keep everyone better informed as to what our goals are. Here’s a brief summary what we’re going to do.
Instead of making many changes at once, we’re going to deal with problems on a more regular basis, but balance changes will be made one or two at a time instead of in lumps of nine changes once a year. This will mean that our balance changes don’t fight each other as hard and will create a more regularly updated game environment.
The changes will be less significant in general so they will be less risky to implement. This will help the ease of adapting to the new balance and will ease the tracking of changes.
We will be tackling a confirmed problem statement during each cycle. This will be determined based on player feedback with corroborating data as we already do. We will be discussing with the community which statements we tackle and do our best to communicate our aims so that everyone is on the same page.
The hope is that the changes we’re making to our method should help everyone out. In order to get the ball rolling, we’re going to have a discussion about the first problem statement that we’re going to tackle for this first cycle. At the moment, we’re looking at the effectiveness of the Meta Mobula. We’ll take some time to gather data and think about it and see what we can do!
In the meantime, please send us your balance feedback. It doesn’t absolutely have to be related to our current problem statement by the way - we want to know all about the things you’re seeing in our balance so that we can generate new problem statements to prioritise and work on for future cycles. Go ahead and tell us what you think!
Team's Weekly Progress
Howard:
Been doing some testing, some outreach for Pax and Alliance previewing!
Michael:
Has been testing and fleshing out new modes.
For skirmish:
An amazingly player, Atruejedi, made this for us. I bring it up for no reason.
Hello Everyone
And happy April 1st. As you may know, this is classically a day for pranks and tomfoolery. On that note, the patch that went out today has no gameplay changes.
Beyond that though we'll be talking about Guns of Icarus and Alliance while answering your questions at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus at 3 pm eastern. Can't wait to see everyone there and get to hang for an hour!
Going to be a short update today, because news on April 1st is always a frustrating prospect. So last and never least, our player of the week!
DiemExDei, who will receive a free muse-made item of their choice!
They have apparently been sharing their musical talent and many players have enjoyed.
"Great at piano!"
"Sweet Toons"
"Playing INSANE LIVE MUSIC!"
Balance Changes Mobula -Outer top guns fanned out 5 degrees -Inner bottom guns fanned out 10 degrees Spire -Reduced turn acceleration to 10d/s2 (from 15) -Reduced top turn speed to 10d/s from 12 Squid -Back gun turned inwards (towards right side of ship) 40 degrees (from 0) -Increased forward/backward acceleration to 8m/s2 (from 6.66) Heavy Flak -Damage moved to direct hit for a 70/30% split between direct and AoE (from 45/55%) -Higher clip capacity to 4 (from 2) -Damage per shot reduced (115/50 explosive, from 150/180 explosive) -Increased RoF of 2 shots/s (from 0.8 ) -Reduced reload time of 4.5s (from 5) -Reduced camera shake Lochnagar Shot -Reduced clip size reduction to -50% (from reduction to 1 shot) -Reduced rotation speed reduction to -80% (from -90%) -Changed damage-to-gun model so that is deals proportional damage per shot until gun is destroyed (e.g. if gun has 2 shots then each shot deals 50% damage vs a gun that has 4 shots were each shot deals 25% damage) Hwacha -Reduced projectile speed to 250m/s from 400m/s -Decreased camera shake Harpoon -Added right click and hold to reel in -Increased harpoon force to 1,500,000 (from 230,000) Pyramidon -Hull health increased to 700 (from 550) -Ship mass increased to 300000 (from 200000) -Ship propulsion increased from 283500 to 675100
Lights... Guns... ACTION!
Hello everyone,
Now that we're past our teenage texting title we can get into the nitty gritty of this weeks update. We'll have some finished balance notes coming out soon and into the game, but for now you can hear it and have all your questions answered first at 3 pm eastern at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus.
In massive news though. Guns of Icarus Alliance Pre-order is on Steam! This is a massive step and we're really excited to be moving closer to a full release. As salways if you send in your purchase information to feedback@musegames.com you can get early access to the prototype.
Keep reading for what the team has been working on and our player of the week!
Howard:
At GDC, and with the help of Steam and got Alliance pre-order up on Steam finally!
Eric
Cheating in World Progression, breaking events, ruining balance, and building walls.
Tom:
Working on the new Ambush game mode for Alliance.
Alex:
Wrangling engine versions and fixed a couple of odd networking glitches.
Tim:
Hooking up some lights (see above.)
Michael:
Has been prototyping new modes, including Capture the Flag for skirmish and a couple VIP modes. Also, created a new "Debug" tab in the world map that allows more control over cheats related to world progression and viewing more data about the world.
Matthew:
Buying the worst computer possible to test min spec for alliance mode along with community work and balance testing and feedback.
And our final part of Mayday Friday, our player of the week!
Air Admrial Sean
He will be receiving any muse-made item of his choice for getting the most applauds this week including:
"Great leader, would crew for again 11/10"
"Maintained a fun yet efficient attitude as captain, contributed to the overall humor of the crew, and led the charge with atypical ship types."
"He's nice man"
Unity 4 lightmapping sat on a wall, Unity 5 made it have a great fall, and now all the Alex is putting it back together again.
Hello everyone,
We've been hard at work in the office with everyone's feedback on our massive changes for "When Ambush Comes to Shove." We've made a lot of progress and we think we have it right this time. To be a part of the (possibly) final balance testing follow this link.
As always we'll be live at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus talking about balance, alliance, and answering every question you bring up at 3 pm eastern.
Here's what the team has been working on:
Howard:
Planning for GDC! We'll be at the Intel booth demoing Guns of Icarus Alliance!
Alex:
Reinventing the (lightmapping) wheel in a way that will actually work for us in Unity 5, in support of eventually upgrading the game engine and tweaking miscellaneous highlighting/damage display things for Alliance.
Tom:
Wrapping up Tutorials.
Warren:
Cleaned up World Progression screens and working on HUD improvements/clarity.
George:
Getting up to speed with everyone's tasks and solving the many sounds in Coop problem.
Jack:
Preparing for GDC as much as I can and moving forward with the Arashi player ship.
Eric:
Balancing (or possibly unbalancing,) Lore, Progression, and new Game modes.
Matt:
Choosing the next batch of CAs and developing press materials.
And last and possibly most: Our player of the week.
Congratulations to Psaltery he has earned a free muse-made item of his choice!
"One of the best players in the whole game, always ready to help other players."
"Great pilot and has great sportsmanship, Round of applause for him"
Hi everyone!
In this new update, we’re excited to unveil another big batch of new and major things for your testing enjoyment! In addition to a new map in the retrieve mode family, we’ve also added a new faction ship and 2 more faction weapons. Another major system added is dynamic weather and time of day effects that vary across different map climates. Bases are now more threatening, with defenses and a more dynamic weak point design.
We're now hosting regular group test sessions every Saturday at 12pm EST, and we'll be collecting feedback afterwards. If you have questions or issues with the update, you can always email us at feedback@musegames.com.
If you haven’t pre-order Alliance yet, you can do that on the Humble Store, and we’re working on getting pre-order up on Steam as well. Thanks for supporting us!
Once you pre-order, just send us an email at feedback@musegames.com. We'll give you a code to join us in the prototype, and you can have an exclusive first look at everything yourself and give us feedback!
NEW FACTION SHIP: Chaladonian Shrike
The Order of Chaladon have been known as peaceful and reclusive, but the pull of war and the planet’s dilapidated state are starting to change traditional Chaladonian values. Being the mad scientists, the Shrike uses heavily modified balloon gas technology in order to support the ship’s heavy armaments on such a small frame. If you look closely, you may see some of this gas leaking from various pipes on the ship—a common issue with this new substance. The Shrike’s movement is and durability comparable to that of the Squid’s but with additional firepower.
NEW MAP: Oblivion Approach
Similar areas like this one lay scattered across the world, but no route is more deadly than Oblivion Approach. Its deep ravine cuts a narrow passage that’s too risky for most traders to fly in. The low traffic and multitude of nooks makes it an ideal place for marauders to hide or even be used as an escape route. There have been tales of robbers successfully making their getaway through the approach, using the jagged terrain to lose their pursuants. Must feel terrible to get robbed and crash your ship in a single day. Hope that doesn’t happen to you anytime soon.
NEW BARONITE WEAPON: Heyoka Guided Missiles
The Fjord Baronies have always had a distinct flair to every aspect of their culture from their attitude, dress, and even weaponry. Taking a cue from this tradition, the Heyoka Guided Missiles not only provide a spectacle to behold but also excellent support capabilities. The missiles’ movement are known to trick enemies into thinking that shots have been missed, but with a guided aim the missiles will travel to its intended target despite taking a few detours along the way.
Use its unique aiming mechanic to dodge obstacles and hit enemy mechanical components to disable them. If the enemy’s armor is down, the Heyoka Guided Missiles also do substantial damage to hulls.
NEW CHALADONIAN WEAPON: Charybdis Gas Mortar
Even though Chaladonian researchers tend to not exclusively focus their work on war applications, many of their experiments have unintended side effects. When trying to find new ways to disperse aerosols, and new environmentally safe pesticides, something went awry. The dispersal method worked fine, but the pesticide didn’t work as intended. Instead of killing deadly insects, it was better at corroding metals and gunking up intricate mechanical parts.
When the specially designed shells make impact, chemicals are released in the form of a deadly green cloud that will slow down any ship that gets caught. The cloud will slowly eat away at metal armors, engines, and weapons. There’s even a handy early detonation function on the shells too.
New Features
Though I walk through the valley of forum comments...
Hello everyone,
It's been a busy week for us and we need to start it off with major thanks to every player that came out on Saturday and Sunday to help us test a crazy new balance patch that affected so many ships, guns, and physics itself. The feedback was vicious, it was brutal, and it was unrelenting and we couldn't be happier to receive it. "When Ambush Comes to Shove" is one of the largest balance shifts in Guns of Icarus since we fixed the way mass was calculated in our game over 2 years again.
We aren't done testing and we'll be back in the Dev App skies: (Get your key here) (Compare rumors here!)
Saturday 11 AM eastern (blind test)
Sunday 12 PM eastern (Non-blind test)
As always we'll be talking balance, Icarus, and Alliance on twitch.tv/gunsoficarus at 3 pm eastern. We'd love for you guys to come hang out with us!
NeedNoLife is our player of the week and will receive any muse-made item of his choice.
Players had this to say about him:
"he taught me"
"explaining stuff"
"Helping out the newbies in global, cool dude."
Dating is like an airship battle. You have to try to make the right moves, work together, and hope that no one brought a flamethrower.
Hello everyone,
Happy valentines weekend! Make sure to take your significant other into the skies, it's a perfect way to spend time, share experiences, and get them to call you "the captain." If you're not into the pink and frilly corporate holiday, hop in game and blow the happy couples out of the sky!
Before you either embrace or destroy Valentines day, join us at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus at 3 pm eastern for the Dev Fireside chat! We'll be live with the founder and leader designer talking about all the things coming into Alliance mode including new guns, maps, and destructible terrain!
Below see what we're all working on, be reminded our new event, and see the player of the week!
George:
Baked some lightmaps, fixed some sounds bugs, and added new theme music.
Howard:
New main theme tracks - string and pizzicato ver. - and sheet music now available on Guns of Icarus Steam store page!
If you own the Collector's Edition, you'll have these automatically unlocked in your soundtrack folder. If you don't currently own CE, you can upgrade to it now on the store page as well.
Enjoy!
Alex:
Fixing lots of last-minute things for MAGfest, particularly Assault base weakpoints, making builds, and trying to improve plane performance.
Michael:
Fixes for MAGFest, namely for the end match UI and the stats displayed there. Also, a rather new UI panel that tracks COOP objectives. As an objective is completed, a tab slides in from the right-hand part of the screen to update players on what's going on. This will eventually replace the objective UI when the in-match menu is accessed.
Tom:
Bug fixes and Build testing.
Eric:
Messing with balance. Nothing is sacred.
Matthew:
Investigating new CA applicants and devising a new media strategy.
Do not forget we're running an event asking for covers of the new live Guns of Icarus Music. Find the full information here!
For our player of the week, put your hands together for: Captain Nickel
"Really nice and funn,y very positive"
"This player is such a good leader, he leads with a fist of golden hearts. Not in the way that you think, he legit takes the hearts of his enemies, paints them gold, and makes gauntlets out of them."
"Great Captain, Great Sportsmanship."
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