My Thoughts

[Kizaray]

Hey guys!

I have logged about 20 or 30 hours on your game and I wanted to give you my thoughts and feedback. So far, for an Alpha, this game is very fun and has limitless potential. I love this genre of game and I believe this one will be amazing when it is finished.

 That being said it does have areas which need some tweaking.

First off the duplicatinator thing is very annoying. The sound it makes is in sharp contrast to all the brilliant and cute sounds of the rest of the game. Just a constant humming/buzzing like a really old TV. I get that you guys what the player to notice that there is a duplicant ready but I feel like that noise is just painful.

Next up, I feel like algae is a bit too limited throughout the game. I feel like the pacing of the game is very good but the algae stacks the player finds should be increased by about 10% in each tile. Not a huge change but I feel like this would allow players a little more breathing room (puns are fun) before they have to consider more difficult methods.

Next is the Priority system. This system needs a bit of work. Ask yourself, what does a player go to the priority menu for 99% of the time? To jump up the priority of a task. This is what I would like to see changed, instead of having 5 be the base line for the priority menu, maybe make it a 6. That way when I go to the priority option screen I don't have to keep changing it over and over again. I remember when I first played this game, it took me a very long time to figure out how to prioritize anything. This is partially because of how far off screen the user interface is and how dark the colors are on the priority menu.  Also hotkeys would be a massive quality of life improvement in the priority menu. Maybe have the number keys be the hotkeys for the different priorities, that way I can simply click on my keyboard "P" then "1-9" instead of clunky mouse clicks. I know that you already have the building tabs saved as number keys but as a Veteran Starcraft player I prefer hotkeys like "B" for the base menu then "L" for ladder as an example. My brain remembers "B" is for base much easier than "1" is for base. This is something minor and could be personal preference but, I just wanted to mention this while I was on topic.

Something on that same topic is I would like to not use the scroll wheel in the menus. It feels really clunky when I'm trying to scroll in/out and my mouse is on a menu and instead of scrolling out it sits there and the menu moves. I know that without the scroll wheel, the menu would be more difficult to read through but really, how often does a player re-read a menu vs scroll while having a menu open? I know this is a minor thing but I like this game and I want to give you guys an in-depth review. The last thing on menus is for your duplicants it would be nice to be able to set manual priorities like in Rimworld. Maybe you guys are trying to make it simple but having it be an option never hurts.

I'm already sure that you guys will add tons of stuff for the late game player to continue the progression but one thing that I would like to see is a feeling of self sufficiency in the very late game. I know that the main mechanic of the game is to stay alive and to frantically try to gather everything you need and solve problems but in the late game It would feel really good to make some real solutions to the problems. For example maybe have a system that is VERY hard to set up but once set up your oxygen needs are met for a LONG time, not just a few days. When I play your game and make it past the 100 day mark I feel like I'm just digging out into a massive endless void trying to gather what tiny bit of slime that I can find. This, I feel, needs to change. It doesn't need to change much and I'm sure when more content is added it will improve on its own. Usually when I get this far, I just restart.

Actually now that I think about, each day I have played this game, I didn't load my saves; I always just started a new game. I think this is because the early game is SO MUCH FUN that I don't want to load my lame old file. I have had all day to think about the cool solution I want to implement and that is where the fun lies in this game. I feel like a crossroads lies in front of you. Whether to make it a day of play experience of a game you play for a week per save file. I honestly feel like the game is well suited for either. If you guys can tap that aspect of this game and figure out which is best, I know it will be a huge success. I wish you the best and I can't wait to see where you take this fun game.

-Kenny

[Luponius]

Great post, Kenny!  Here's my thoughts on these points

Duplicatinator - A million times yes - please reduce the sound or change it to be some kind of occasional beeping noise (like the dupes are trying to ping our location) but not a continuous never ending buzz. I keep rejecting all immediately just to get rid of the noise.

Algae - I never encountered an issue with lack of algae, however I swapped to Electrolyzers the moment I mined out my first water source.

Priority System - Default being at 6 instead of 5 is a great idea.  It's all I ever do.  Hit P, then move my mouse awkwardly to 6 and back to what I want to up the priority.  Being able to at least hold Ctrl and scroll up and down to change priority would be a welcome addition, and I'd prefer it over having static numbers being pressed, since priority should be relative, the scrolling in my mind makes more sense.

Letter keybinds for build menus - I also would prefer pressing B for building, and then once that comes up you can press T for Tile, L for Ladder etc with nested menu hotkeys, Dwarf Fortress style.  I think the relevant of the letters makes it far more viable long term.  And also yeah - menus should seriously lose their scrolling functionality.  Going through the piping menu is a pain once research is fully completed.

Long term - I don't really know what I'd want from the long term, I don't mind the game being a short term process for now, because setting up and seeing its strengths and weaknesses is where all the fun is in it for me.  Plenty of projects I still want to try on my own before I will start demanding the game to give me things to do.  Permanent self sufficiency might not be my first pick for the end game.  If that's the route they'll take, I'd expect to see some type of tragedies or boss fights that will have your base scrambling itself for recovery of what was damaged and lost.  Once a base is fully self sufficient, it would sort of make you as a player redundant.

[jambell]

16 hours ago, Kizaray said:

First off the duplicatinator thing is very annoying. The sound it makes is in sharp contrast to all the brilliant and cute sounds of the rest of the game. Just a constant humming/buzzing like a really old TV. I get that you guys what the player to notice that there is a duplicant ready but I feel like that noise is just painful.

 

10 hours ago, Luponius said:

Duplicatinator - A million times yes - please reduce the sound or change it to be some kind of occasional beeping noise (like the dupes are trying to ping our location) but not a continuous never ending buzz. I keep rejecting all immediately just to get rid of the noise.

Hey folks! I've put some work in the next update into making this sound a bit more elegant in how it plays. Hopefully it will solve the issues you and others have had with it... of course, the last thing we want to do with any sound is cause annoyance

This sound is tricky because we want it to be a cool and monumental experience for brand new players ("whoa! my printer is calling me! what the heck!") without getting annoying over long play sessions. I think we did a good job on the former, but the latter was obviously lacking!

This is one of the things I'm really thankful for y'all having your hands on the game now - you can give feedback on stuff like this which is important to you but I never ran into when playing (I always accept or reject right away!).

Anyway, thanks for your feedback and keep 'em coming!

[Luponius]

20 hours ago, jambell said:

Hey folks! I've put some work in the next update into making this sound a bit more elegant in how it plays. Hopefully it will solve the issues you and others have had with it... of course, the last thing we want to do with any sound is cause annoyance

This sound is tricky because we want it to be a cool and monumental experience for brand new players ("whoa! my printer is calling me! what the heck!") without getting annoying over long play sessions. I think we did a good job on the former, but the latter was obviously lacking!

This is one of the things I'm really thankful for y'all having your hands on the game now - you can give feedback on stuff like this which is important to you but I never ran into when playing (I always accept or reject right away!).

Anyway, thanks for your feedback and keep 'em coming!

That sounds very promising, Jambell!  And I think it's only fair to give a BIG thumbs up on the sounds, the dupe printer is literally the only issue I have ever had with sound.  The other sounds and the sound engine itself is flawless from my experience thus far!

[Luponius]

On 3/14/2017 at 9:25 PM, jambell said:

Anyway, thanks for your feedback and keep 'em coming!

A quick update since the Thermal beta is out - I like the changes!  It's definitely less annoying - one final suggestions is to make the sound modified by the zoom as well.  If I center on the Printing Pod, the sound is the same whether I'm fully zoomed in or fully zoomed out.  I'd like it to be much fainter when I'm zoomed out, and full sound (like it is when it starts) when fully zoomed in.  Great change though, can actually tolerate it now!