At release, WarlordToby user took time to post their initial though on our discord (Original posts here). I kept a copy of their feedback and referred to it a few times this year to keep a focus on the long term needs of our players. I think now is a good time to revisit their comments and talk about what we've addressed and the work that remains to be done. This is also an opportunity for any of you to let us know which of these issues you feel is not yet significantly addressed in the updates we've done this year.
Currently we have a mix of completed descriptions and partial descriptions. We still see writing final descriptions as low priority right up to full release. With the addition of the "Leads to" feature, players can see the long term related techs to decide what to research next. Mostly it seems to be about unlocking ships, buildings capabilities and some effects. A few techs to still lack effects, those that relate to planned features around social aspects of a faction in particular....The game is clearly missing features. Matters like research are extremely simplified and have little content to them.
All research lacks descriptions, many of them even lack a purpose, as a ton don't have any effects
I really don't think we'll change this. I've seen lots of game use this approach. Random unique names could easily communicate less to the player....with most of the unit research being in form of tiers. "Tank chassis I", "Tank chassis II", "Tank Chassis III" and so forth...
This has changed significantly. With FTL, FTL range, Shields, system level harvesting, spaceships, ship improvements and more to come, research is now a fundamental part of the game....All in all, research is really basic and there's no real purpose to get invested in it...
Resources have been rebalanced to create scarcity of a resource. Right now it's almost always energy, and the balance is off (it's much too harsh currently) but we always planned to do balancing in late stages of development, ideally balancing multiple areas at the same time. Balancing is currently our expected focus for Q1 of 2022....All materials can be found on your homeplanet in very plentiful amounts...
Again, lost of changes since that first build. Your engineering ships can create space docks and allow you to spread through out the galaxy. Buildings at system level exist for spotting, weapons, unit production and resource exploitation....You can build space buildings only on a single tile...
Also expanded and rebalanced. Factions begin with 3 fighters and must build the rest. More ship types where added (with new models to go with) and this ties back to what made research meaningful again....Currently you have one ship of each type...
This is an interesting comment, one that I'm not sure we have reacted to - or should. How fast should ships travel within the system? It's somewhat subjective. This is an area we could use more player feedback....Ships travel extremely slow in space...
Another area with big changes - FTL beacons were implemented and totally changed our design. This change came directly out of analyzing player experiences....minus FTL, which is an instant jump to another system, though you can't choose where exactly. It is a drag to mount any assaults on enemies...
Partially fixed. Both the pirates and the AI factions can pose a serious threat. A key limitation is still planetary invasions by the AI, but that's also due for Q1 2022 so won't be long now. AIs definitely expand/explore in the current version....Talking about enemies, there really are none. Your foes, the AI, have not reacted to anything...
This is another that is mostly improved, but has a few remaining issues. The changes to the diplomacy system, trading and making resources planet bound should be making trading necessary and meaningful. One big issue that remains is the exploitation of non-habitable worlds. That's about 80% working with the related tickets being actively tested by the team....All resources are local to planet, but this amount is never indicated. Anywhere. You have to guess the amount of resources in store on a planet. You can move materials using cargo ships between planets, but I never figured that out. Infact, I already found an exploit...
This definitely plays different now, with each world establishing a colony status immediately and annexing is simply removed, it doesn't fit the GR game mechanics....You can just colonize a planet, gift them large amounts of materials and then instantly annex them. The materials are moved over instantly and you don't have to bother with cargo ships at all. Then you can just build a small hexagon and some buildings of each material production type...
Large scale optimization is still something we're holding off while so much of the underlying code is still being written, but there have been many fixes that address the bigger performance drains....The game is extremely unoptimized aswell...
So that should hit on the major concerns brought up by this user's post. What do you think? Anything here seem like it's not being fully addressed? Any areas that you have concerns about? We look forward to more feedback from everyone.
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