My First Impression
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:01 pm
I thought the opening was pretty good. Had some nice artwork and a little music and action going on which is all good.
After the landing sequence the box popped up for choosing faction, etc. I thought the window for that part could be bigger. It should take up most of the screen on non-widescreen monitors and a good chunk of the center on a widescreen versus being a tiny box. The world set-up/faction choices would probably work better/look more impressive with a "Choose faction big, impressive description --> to go through different factions, choose and continue option, then another larger slide for world type, etc. Then the player again hits continue--> next choices---> launch game button at end" This would make these choices seem more interesting and focused versus the one little box choose all and go current configuration.
5 Minutes in- I was impressed with the artwork and looking forward to exploring. I don't know what the coding/engine restrictions are but if you could implement tiny animations like leaves moving, fungus pods poofing out spores, etc to the world it would really add to the initial wonder at seeing a new alien world. I don't know if this would impact performance, etc so just tossing it out there.
30 minutes in- I was a little surprised at how fast combat is. Seems every time you fight it is all or nothing. There are advantages and disadvantages to fast combat in a game, but to me it seems there should be a bit more back-and-forth going on to increase the strategy of defending and healing, etc. I lost troops instantly that take many, many turns to replace and it didn't seem to matter if they had troop specific weapons or were garrisoned in cities. Of course I was very early in the upgrade trees, etc so this may be addressed more in the later game.
Some early things I noticed having played many games of this type in the past are worth mentioning. There is no information displayed on the fungus land tile that indicates this will hurt troops. The large alien creatures just appear from the start and seem to have really impressive stats, for instance my first boat was crushed by the huge leviathan even though I retreated to the shallow water tile graphic. Tweaking production and growth and all that takes a lot of testing but for the scientific faction I chose for first run-through seemed to have population complaining about space, etc very soon and I only had one farm and had not gotten to any of the techs that make population happy even with my significant research boost.
Of course, this is my first and only time playing so now I have much better information to proceed with attempt #2. Your email said you wanted first impressions though, so that is what I am doing. I will have a much more detailed email after several more attempts with different factions and different starting area and enemy placements, etc.
Oracle
After the landing sequence the box popped up for choosing faction, etc. I thought the window for that part could be bigger. It should take up most of the screen on non-widescreen monitors and a good chunk of the center on a widescreen versus being a tiny box. The world set-up/faction choices would probably work better/look more impressive with a "Choose faction big, impressive description --> to go through different factions, choose and continue option, then another larger slide for world type, etc. Then the player again hits continue--> next choices---> launch game button at end" This would make these choices seem more interesting and focused versus the one little box choose all and go current configuration.
5 Minutes in- I was impressed with the artwork and looking forward to exploring. I don't know what the coding/engine restrictions are but if you could implement tiny animations like leaves moving, fungus pods poofing out spores, etc to the world it would really add to the initial wonder at seeing a new alien world. I don't know if this would impact performance, etc so just tossing it out there.
30 minutes in- I was a little surprised at how fast combat is. Seems every time you fight it is all or nothing. There are advantages and disadvantages to fast combat in a game, but to me it seems there should be a bit more back-and-forth going on to increase the strategy of defending and healing, etc. I lost troops instantly that take many, many turns to replace and it didn't seem to matter if they had troop specific weapons or were garrisoned in cities. Of course I was very early in the upgrade trees, etc so this may be addressed more in the later game.
Some early things I noticed having played many games of this type in the past are worth mentioning. There is no information displayed on the fungus land tile that indicates this will hurt troops. The large alien creatures just appear from the start and seem to have really impressive stats, for instance my first boat was crushed by the huge leviathan even though I retreated to the shallow water tile graphic. Tweaking production and growth and all that takes a lot of testing but for the scientific faction I chose for first run-through seemed to have population complaining about space, etc very soon and I only had one farm and had not gotten to any of the techs that make population happy even with my significant research boost.
Of course, this is my first and only time playing so now I have much better information to proceed with attempt #2. Your email said you wanted first impressions though, so that is what I am doing. I will have a much more detailed email after several more attempts with different factions and different starting area and enemy placements, etc.
Oracle