Hello!
before I start, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this post. I'll try my best to keep it as short as possible.
I'm a seasoned player when it come to building + programming in game (Gmod+Wiremod+acf, space engineers). I also have a micro Youtube channel with name.
Not trying to brag about it, just saying that I'm familiar with the concept That's it.
First "WHOA !" I'm speechless at the technical marvel of optimization that this game is. It start in less than 3 sec and BOOM you are in game
surrounded by tones of props and physics going on. I was not ready! This is a very old dream becoming real. I remember 15 years ago thinking how cool it would be in the future having a huge persistent universe were you can build and destroy anything you want. Well it materialize earlier than I thought.
-First 30 min in game :
After I spawned for the first time I quickly realize the anti-aliasing is bad so I checked my setting but everything were already maxed out so I was displeased with it because it hurt the eyes at first.
I really like the design in general from the animated signs , the endos and the station, its slightly cartoonish but also "techky realistic".
That's the perfect balance to me just keep it this way.
Then Starting the tutorial with the basic jobs. Honestly I know, this is a alpha so it's not polished but it was sometimes unclear even for those basic tasks.
Because who read the small little square in the top right corner xD really. Most player will not admit it but we are all guilty of it. I think for at least the first hour its necessary to put a big arrow above every objects of the tutorial that you are supposed to interact with. Like a fat yellow arrow with a PRESS "F" above the resource bridge so you are not running around your roid wondering what's going on.
Assume to take it slowly, the ball in the circle and the cube in the square and if you could add the voice that we hear in The Youtube videos as a personal guide that would be awesome.
Also, after you finish the basic tutorial, you have no ideas of what you are suppose to do. Where do I found bigger roid ? where are the rare materials ? what are those circular shiny thing far away ?
It's ok to search but the game didn't give you the beginning of a clue. So a lesser brutal ending to the tutorial would be cool.
(I know you are picking us up later on the tech tree but it's to brutal)
- Ship and control in general:
Let's be clear, it's bad. really bad. Having to use a keyboard to control a plane is not ideal but doable. But a for a spaceship that can move in all direction you need more than a numpad just for the movements. What were you thinking, we are not pianist. It's super uncomfortable.
I'm use to pilot spacecraft with keyboard (Space engineers, Starcitizen, various planes and helicopters in fps game) but here, because you cant use the mouse it's horrible. If there was no safe zone I would have ragequit after 3 ships.
My advise would be, just copy paste space engineers commands. That's just right, casual and affective. perfect for pc and consoles and accessible to everyone.
And for the hardcore pilot allow them to disconnect the dampener so they can have the true piloting experience if they want, easy.
When it come to foot action, I didn't like the "Q" thing you know. I agree that it's gonna be awesome for FPS combat but for general use I prefer Q and E for rotations like on the ships. The "Q", I would move it somewhere else because I'm always pressing it to rotate (like on a ship) and ending with my character doing something I didn't ask for. That's something that is getting on my nerves while playing.
- Building, Yolol
Not much to say about it outside of "near perfection" there is still bugs etc.. but it's a alpha so I'm not going to waste your time with this.
I have spend most of my time in easy build and got my ship to explode because he duplicate himself 9 time at the same time same spot.
So spend a lot of time farming to rebuild my ship because I didn't know about "F1". So yeah, would be cool to include this in the tutorial.
But I have to say that the amount of available props in easy build is impressive.
Still need to spend time in the other builder that look way more interesting.
In short, I really enjoyed the bolts mechanic, the integrity mechanic, universal tool, everything is amazing. You know it, we know it. Keep going.
Didn't spend much time with Yolol unfortunately because I just unlocked it, so...
- Learning this game in general
That's a big one. Outside of 3rd party Youtube videos (and it is little) there is near nothing to learn coding Yolol or understanding building sound structure.
So you may say "We made the doc with all the resources etc.." like the help page with all the yolol functions or something but I know for a fact that very few are going to read it outside of the turbo-nerds. I mean, if it require to much effort, Most players will not stay in the game.
That's something I'm really worry about because in my experience playing wiremod on Gmod, few are interested in this kind of game.
It's really hard to bring peoples in those games if peoples have to learn the hard way (reading, testing, researching) peoples want to play games to have fun right away.
It would be fine if this game was for a small community but it's not, it's a MMO and it feel super empty.
So if you allow me id like to make some recommendations or propositions to bring as much players as possible in the game because id like to see it succeeding.
- Make a place in station where peoples can learn building and coding with super entertaining mission. Like a school where you get point for your tech tree by finishing a lesson/assignment/mission. It will bring more peoples in the advanced building that it normally would and may help the game to snowball. But it's a lot of work, I know...
- Most players will not be in for the super advanced building. Most of them just want to enjoy the FPS combat and destruction mechanics of the voxels.
And it's fine. It's just that from the outside it look like it's a building environment only. even if you showed some combat, it feel like a very minor thing from the outside.
It would be cool if you add some arenas in the stations where peoples can enlist in a team deathmatch/capture the flag to make some money while others can watch and enjoy supporting their team or betting money. It would be a good start because honestly the game sound super exiting for combat.
- The last one, I don't know if it's because of me but it look like the social app doesn't work. Couldn't join a faction or meet other players. It would be cool to be able to groupe with randoms for a mission or something. To put a context or a reason for player to come together because in 24hours and 11 different stations I have seen no one else. You may say "yes but in world of warcraft they did just that and it destroyed the social aspect of the game" and I would say "Yes but in WOW you do 20 times the same missions every day. as part of the farm. so you don't have the time to meet the person or to talk to the persons you are playing with outside of "Hi, rdy, k, go, heal, thx, bye""
So yeah there is a need to bring peoples together and against each other. Otherwise it will be like space engineers where each player is hiding alone in one corner of the solar system (boring).
-The real last one. It would be cool to be able to watch some animated quick tips with the universal tool thing. So you can learn some stuff while moving back or out of station instead of watching the void.
That's about all I can remember.
Hopping this will reach the Devs and help, I wish the team the best luck to make this master piece a total success
Ps: sorry for my English I tried my best
before I start, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this post. I'll try my best to keep it as short as possible.
I'm a seasoned player when it come to building + programming in game (Gmod+Wiremod+acf, space engineers). I also have a micro Youtube channel with name.
Not trying to brag about it, just saying that I'm familiar with the concept That's it.
First "WHOA !" I'm speechless at the technical marvel of optimization that this game is. It start in less than 3 sec and BOOM you are in game
surrounded by tones of props and physics going on. I was not ready! This is a very old dream becoming real. I remember 15 years ago thinking how cool it would be in the future having a huge persistent universe were you can build and destroy anything you want. Well it materialize earlier than I thought.
-First 30 min in game :
After I spawned for the first time I quickly realize the anti-aliasing is bad so I checked my setting but everything were already maxed out so I was displeased with it because it hurt the eyes at first.
I really like the design in general from the animated signs , the endos and the station, its slightly cartoonish but also "techky realistic".
That's the perfect balance to me just keep it this way.
Then Starting the tutorial with the basic jobs. Honestly I know, this is a alpha so it's not polished but it was sometimes unclear even for those basic tasks.
Because who read the small little square in the top right corner xD really. Most player will not admit it but we are all guilty of it. I think for at least the first hour its necessary to put a big arrow above every objects of the tutorial that you are supposed to interact with. Like a fat yellow arrow with a PRESS "F" above the resource bridge so you are not running around your roid wondering what's going on.
Assume to take it slowly, the ball in the circle and the cube in the square and if you could add the voice that we hear in The Youtube videos as a personal guide that would be awesome.
Also, after you finish the basic tutorial, you have no ideas of what you are suppose to do. Where do I found bigger roid ? where are the rare materials ? what are those circular shiny thing far away ?
It's ok to search but the game didn't give you the beginning of a clue. So a lesser brutal ending to the tutorial would be cool.
(I know you are picking us up later on the tech tree but it's to brutal)
- Ship and control in general:
Let's be clear, it's bad. really bad. Having to use a keyboard to control a plane is not ideal but doable. But a for a spaceship that can move in all direction you need more than a numpad just for the movements. What were you thinking, we are not pianist. It's super uncomfortable.
I'm use to pilot spacecraft with keyboard (Space engineers, Starcitizen, various planes and helicopters in fps game) but here, because you cant use the mouse it's horrible. If there was no safe zone I would have ragequit after 3 ships.
My advise would be, just copy paste space engineers commands. That's just right, casual and affective. perfect for pc and consoles and accessible to everyone.
And for the hardcore pilot allow them to disconnect the dampener so they can have the true piloting experience if they want, easy.
When it come to foot action, I didn't like the "Q" thing you know. I agree that it's gonna be awesome for FPS combat but for general use I prefer Q and E for rotations like on the ships. The "Q", I would move it somewhere else because I'm always pressing it to rotate (like on a ship) and ending with my character doing something I didn't ask for. That's something that is getting on my nerves while playing.
- Building, Yolol
Not much to say about it outside of "near perfection" there is still bugs etc.. but it's a alpha so I'm not going to waste your time with this.
I have spend most of my time in easy build and got my ship to explode because he duplicate himself 9 time at the same time same spot.
So spend a lot of time farming to rebuild my ship because I didn't know about "F1". So yeah, would be cool to include this in the tutorial.
But I have to say that the amount of available props in easy build is impressive.
Still need to spend time in the other builder that look way more interesting.
In short, I really enjoyed the bolts mechanic, the integrity mechanic, universal tool, everything is amazing. You know it, we know it. Keep going.
Didn't spend much time with Yolol unfortunately because I just unlocked it, so...
- Learning this game in general
That's a big one. Outside of 3rd party Youtube videos (and it is little) there is near nothing to learn coding Yolol or understanding building sound structure.
So you may say "We made the doc with all the resources etc.." like the help page with all the yolol functions or something but I know for a fact that very few are going to read it outside of the turbo-nerds. I mean, if it require to much effort, Most players will not stay in the game.
That's something I'm really worry about because in my experience playing wiremod on Gmod, few are interested in this kind of game.
It's really hard to bring peoples in those games if peoples have to learn the hard way (reading, testing, researching) peoples want to play games to have fun right away.
It would be fine if this game was for a small community but it's not, it's a MMO and it feel super empty.
So if you allow me id like to make some recommendations or propositions to bring as much players as possible in the game because id like to see it succeeding.
- Make a place in station where peoples can learn building and coding with super entertaining mission. Like a school where you get point for your tech tree by finishing a lesson/assignment/mission. It will bring more peoples in the advanced building that it normally would and may help the game to snowball. But it's a lot of work, I know...
- Most players will not be in for the super advanced building. Most of them just want to enjoy the FPS combat and destruction mechanics of the voxels.
And it's fine. It's just that from the outside it look like it's a building environment only. even if you showed some combat, it feel like a very minor thing from the outside.
It would be cool if you add some arenas in the stations where peoples can enlist in a team deathmatch/capture the flag to make some money while others can watch and enjoy supporting their team or betting money. It would be a good start because honestly the game sound super exiting for combat.
- The last one, I don't know if it's because of me but it look like the social app doesn't work. Couldn't join a faction or meet other players. It would be cool to be able to groupe with randoms for a mission or something. To put a context or a reason for player to come together because in 24hours and 11 different stations I have seen no one else. You may say "yes but in world of warcraft they did just that and it destroyed the social aspect of the game" and I would say "Yes but in WOW you do 20 times the same missions every day. as part of the farm. so you don't have the time to meet the person or to talk to the persons you are playing with outside of "Hi, rdy, k, go, heal, thx, bye""
So yeah there is a need to bring peoples together and against each other. Otherwise it will be like space engineers where each player is hiding alone in one corner of the solar system (boring).
-The real last one. It would be cool to be able to watch some animated quick tips with the universal tool thing. So you can learn some stuff while moving back or out of station instead of watching the void.
That's about all I can remember.
Hopping this will reach the Devs and help, I wish the team the best luck to make this master piece a total success
Ps: sorry for my English I tried my best
