Thoughts after 4 hours of playing (usability testing)

[Sire404]

It's obvious you people at Klei put a LOT of thought into the art direction, the UI, UX and the game design and general game loops. I'm confident it will be a fantastic game. I'm already having a great time even though my base is somewhat of a hydrogen-filled hellhole.

Usability testing is most useful the first hours, so here you go:

It was not obvious for my first playthrough that the electrolyzer would spit out unbreathable hydrogen. It says so when looking closely, but consider mentioning this in the text description as well. Unless you find it funny that we all perish in our first base, which is an argument I understand, as long as we understand why. Perhaps enter a tutorial text about this after a while.

It was not obvious that the plumbing menu was scrollable and contained a bunch more constructions. Consider making this more obvious. Also, perhaps prioritize so the more common constructions are at the top. Right now the outhouse is the first one, which you rarely build. While gas pipes, which you use all the time, is hidden.

I didn't see that you could select what kind of raw mineral you want to construct with. This is also something you might consider adding to the tutorial.

I use the prioritize overlay at lot, let me use the number keys to select priority instead of clicking the numbers on the bottom right (which took me a while to find).

Thanks!

[Lumina]

I agree the scrolling isn't obvious. And for the requirement of a building/structure, they aren't that visible, yes. I often have to look again to see that this building require water, this one electricity, and this one is emitting hydrogen. Also, when you are building the building/structure, you don't have the information like you have them when you choose something to build.

[x4550]

Agreed - scrolling wasn't obvious in build menus.

Agreed - the raw mineral selection is something that took many playthroughs for me to be remotely familiar with, and I'm still fuzzy on it.  I think it selects the most nearby mineral to build with?... which is cool, but not intuitive.  I assumed it would just stick with whatever I built with last.  Very frustrating to have unbuilt structures awaiting obsidian delivery when "I never selected friggin obsidian!"  A tutorial is needed.

Agreed - num keys for priorities.

[KrisRF]

On 5/23/2017 at 9:21 AM, Sire404 said:

It was not obvious for my first playthrough that the electrolyzer would spit out unbreathable hydrogen. It says so when looking closely, but consider mentioning this in the text description as well. Unless you find it funny that we all perish in our first base, which is an argument I understand, as long as we understand why. Perhaps enter a tutorial text about this after a while.

I'll get this into the next update, thanks for the feedback @Sire404 

[Lumina]

@KrisRF : is it possible to also have a kind of harmonization of the informations displayed ?
For example, let say i want to build a fertilizer maker.

In menu, i see this :

 

If i place it, before it's build i see this :

When build, i see this :

But if i miss a condition (empty pipe, no power, ...) i see this :

 

So if the structure isn't build yet, i have to go back in the menu to verify information like "what gaz does it emit" or stuff like this. Same if the structure isn't working at the moment. It's the case for multiple structures and not very convenient for people like me that didn't already memorize the different structures or gases and all stuff.