Feedback and suggestions (long)

[meepmoop]

I've been playing and tracking thoughts I had about the game while at it. I thought maybe feedback from users could help Klei's developers.

I'll start with positive points to help keep the mind open.

Positive feedback:

 

• The timelapse in the 'colony summery' screen is a cool idea and is implemented nicely. I remember stuff like those from old civ games but I think its not done in a lot of sim/strategy today. I like that the developers did add it to the game.

• The animation for the most part is very pleasing, one of the best examples of clear and satisfying animation in games. Not only that the dupes and objects are drawn interestingly and its fun to just look at them do stuff (hugging eggs, ranching, stress triggers, etc...), but everything conveys a clear massage/piece of information. You can understand whats happening to dupes just by a small glance (unlike in a lot of other games, as in prison architect or dwarf fortress where unless you constantly hover over characters and check what the dry written statussays, you wont know what happening to them).

• I like how there are multiple answers to problems in ONI. Petrolium can be made by slickers, refineries or cleaver use of game mechanics like boiling oil straight up. There are multiple ways to go around energy and they all are viable, its not a definite "A2 is better then A1". Sometimes it will be more effective to go gas, sometimes you will want to go petroleum, or even just keep hamster wheels for a long time. another example is ranches vs factories, where you have a choice picking metals/plastic in a cheap way that requires labor, or in a way that doesnt require labor but needs a lot of power and creates heat. food - same thing - as you have multiple choices to go around it. ONI is not a sandbox. its a puzzle-game and the most efficient solution can be calculated. however its not the same answer every time - some games (or in some stages of the game) it will be better to go one route, other games it might be better to go another. But the choice is with the player.

• To add to the last point - the steam turbine is probably the best example for a 'give players tools and not solving the problem for them directly' (give a man a fish...). Its an excellent building that can be used in tons of ways: magma, vents, metal refinery, aquatuners, etc... so many things you can use it with.

• Building the first rocket is an amazing experience and the developers put a lot of love into that. (There is much to talk about rockets in the next points, however rn this is the positive feedback). It feels like a big milestone and the first rocket i built felt amazing.

• Game working well considering how much stuff are going simultaneously. Makes me think of victoria 2, only that here you have much more assets to manage. I think optimizing a game like oni is a great challenge and not a lot of people will accept it.

• I like how dynamic the game is. things interacting with each other. you will see slickers killing sporechilds by consuming all the co2 in the pockets. dreckos eating plants in the environment. water falling in the bottom of the asteroid gets turned to steam, then rises and makes rain. pips planting stuff around. pufts having all the interactions with the prince puft. I like seeing game mechanics interact with each other, and it gives the game more immersive feeling, like its a world of its own.

new player feedback:

• There is a lack of access to crucial information about the game and inconsistency - a lot of information is not presented in the game or taken at face value. Critters got a lot of work from the first time I played about 2 years ago. ranching is a big tool for problems in the game, and yet a lot of information like amount of food a critter eats a day or how much they excrete are not mentioned. I understand the devs tried to go the route of dont starve where 'trail and error' is key, however, having an exended section about critters in the in-game pedia or in the grooming station would improve the game experience tremendously. I think the former option would be better (adding stuff like 'critter_x eat 100-200 kg of food_x per day' and 'excrits 75% of mass eaten' for example) since it will both help new players, and will NOT cause UI cluster for experienced players as they can just ignore the gamepedia.
• The previous point should go above just critters: there is lack of information on tuning generators, rocketry and even just about regular building (no mantion of when a building stops working, like under X ammount of liquid, or in Y amount of air pressure). I know there is a point to be made for 'no need for that, since all the information could be found in the internet' because I've seen it made in a lot of other games, but I had times where it toke me a too long to check certain stuff, a lot of stuff are outdated on the internet or have counteracting answers (for example the time it takes for crops to drop when not harvesting it). Furthermore, game has preference issues (about that later) and alt-tabing can be problematic and not comfortable later on since it causes lags on some computers. In most games I've seen with this much information to convey to the player, almost never I have seen a game that lacks accessible information as much as ONI.
• As a continuation to the last point - space related info is probably the most lacking in this department as both the most less-explained concept in the game AND the most complex (I say complex instead of deep, but thats for another point). scanners, telescope, starmap and such.
• The automatic saving is unclear (the bottle thing in the top of the screen in the start of a cycle). It is set to be every start of cycle by default, which is fine. The problem is, its not clear its saving and in the start I thought there is more meaning to that then just saving. For experienced players its obvious, however new players may not understand that its saving and think its just something to mark the start of a cycle (I can bring myself as an example for a player who thought that). A simple 'saving' inside or under the 'bottle-thingy' would bring it a long way and make it more clear.

personal negative feedback:

• Jet suits and atmo suits have an inconsistent art design. At first, I wanted to write this point just "inconsistent art design", however, after previewing all the buildings again I found the biggest offender as the jet suit dock/checkpoint, and all other buildings being moderately drawn well (maybe the only other two possible buildings are skill scrubber and exosuit forge). Its ok to have a wacky-cartoony artstyle. Some of the most iconic and loved buildings are drawn this way (microbe musher, gas pump with its accordion sides, etc...) and people love it. however, as dupes descover 'higher-tier-tech' it feels like the equipment should be more precise/modern/professional, not less so. The jet suits are a dirrect upgrade to the atmo suits. its a high tech suit that requires both more resources and provides more. The atmo suit itself looks really good. it looks simple and believable, not over the top. So why does the jetsuit docks and checkpoint look so much worst? it seems like atmosuit docks were made by dupes and jetsuit docks where made by the orcs from warhammer 4000. If it was the other way around I would at least be plausable - the atmo suits will look like they were made by scrap-engineers and the jet suits will look more human-made-type looking, but its the other way around. I feel the same for skill scrubber and exosuit forge. however, one of them is used rarely and usually destroyed right after, and the other one is not even close in how out-of-place it looks. The jet suits is something that stays with you until the end of the game and is constantly used. TBH, I feel like it was made as a placeholder as in 'ahh we will put this meanwhile Colbert but we will replace it once the game's out' and forgot to change it, or just felt uncomfortable to tell the artist to redraw it. I think art-wise its biggest mistake in the game.
• Late game feels lacking. There is a desire in a lot of players to have a better 'end' then the current one after getting to the temporal tear. Maybe an option to start over in a special asteroid with the one dupe sent. maybe a better/more fulfilling end scene. Right now its just a bugged small cut scene that doesn't even work most of the time

Bugged interactions and design feedback:

• Some interaction with eggs are bugged. I noticed it happens frequently that a glossy drecko egg is created, drawen, but I cant select it.
• resource tab (where your resources listen right side) and the selected item info interfere with each other. if you want to go through an item through the resource tab  (as in clicking on item so you go through where instances of it are) it also opens the resource bar info. its good idea but the thing is that if you select a resource from the bottom of the resource list, sometimes the info-bar will over lap and prevent you from going through the rest of the instances.(EXAMPLE_1)
• sushi and stuffed berry use the same image.
• rust oxygen maker does not mantion salt used.
• obvious performance issues later in the game: The game runs very smoothly on even weak computers on the early cycles. However at later point when there are a lot of gases, liquids and objects interacting with each other the game performance becomes a big issue that even very strong computers find hard to handle. As I got it, the game does not use an original engine and there was not hard emphasis on multi threading, and those stuff may not be easy to fix. However, I think its one of the biggest drawbacks that the games experiences and a cleaning/optimization update/fix should be a high priority.
• shift queuing research should be implemented. right now only available to either pick one tech, and it will learn all the techs that relate to it, but it is not possible to to queue research techs on different branches. I imagine it was done to underline and make each tech to feel more impactful when learned, however it just feels tedious and like a chore.
• When things being repaired, sometimes the repair bar will be abstracted by the 'broke' pop up.

Suggestions (none of those are my ideas. I was going through the pages and collected ideas that I liked)

• This one is not as suggested as the next few points, but I want to put it first as I think it is ABSULOTLY something that should have been added/fixed long, long time ago (since it was brought up since the EA). Generated objects should be distractable. There should be an option. it doesnt have to be default, but at least make it possible. as of now, it can be deleted using debug mode but it should be more accessible.
• another transit upgrade: teleporting stations/devices (or printing devices to follow the game logic) as a next level to transport of dupes, after tubes.
• more critters: liquid critter (addition to pacus). preditore/hunter critter (hunting other critters). heat producing/reducing critter. critter with multiple stages (like a worm-cocoon-butterfly kind of thing). bee-like critter that pollinating plants/produce food source from certain plants.
• custom massage options in option menu. like in HOI where you can filter what massages would be delivered. (check box for stuff like: finish research massages. building lacks material massages, rocket read to land). No reason to hide those options from the player.
• more types of energy: critter based / neclear / space material (I guess there are gassy moos but...) / pressure (to reflect either hydro or wind turbines in real life). From those, I see nuclear suggested the most and it seem like the community is interested in seeing Klei implement it in the game
• more elements or materials: lithium, sulfur (in the game but no current use), rubber (as in plant based matirial), radioactive elements (maybe in the game will be perceived as 'heat-active?' that produce small amounts of heat and take long time to disintegrate oxylite-style).
• more ways elements interact with each other - in a way petroleum can become gas through multiple state-changes(sour gas->mathane->netural gas). or where water becomes oxygen and hydrogen with electrolyzer. maybe add carbon into diamond?
• androids
• swim suit/divers suit that prevents soggy feet/wet. 'beach sign' (inspiration from park sign) as in it marks a certain area as ok to get wet in. recreational thing.
• Alcohol like substance - I saw it recommended and rejected because of it being not family-friendly. I hope it finds a way-around as a big portion of the players is over 16 years old.
• robo/auto moppers.
• Selecting / controlling dupes as a group. Be it movement, priorities or permissions.
• smart reservoirs, improve on the smart bin to be more like the smart battery and not just 'true bool when its full'
• Option to disable achievements (here it is said perfectly). It doesnt have to be the default, but at least give an option to disable those.
• area disable of auto features (currently done on auto harvest) like auto repairs.
• soap (like table salt, but for bath). As of now showers are not so beneficial late game anyway so might as well buff them.
• alternative space biome, (one example might be dust storms or some liquid rains instead of meteor showers).
• food/s for extra effects. (one example might be stress reduction, could be ice cream or something sweet)
• air pressure overlay. can be as simple as green when pressure over X, red when below. or more complex like the temperature overlay.
• stabilize summery graphs.
• improve medical tech tree and buildings. As of now they fulfill no real use.