Slitherine

First of all, great game. This is easily my second pick on non-combat space games after KSP.

Second of all, you should have called this game "Buzz Aldrin's Praying Simulator," as I start praying uncontrollably every time a yellow light starts blinking! Seriously folks, the game has a way with building tension and getting you immersed. Good on you ;b The cut-scene graphics do not detract at all, and I personally find them a refreshing take.

The gameplay is fun, but the UI is a bit of a click-fest. Even after you find in which screens the critical info is, it is still distributed over too many screens. A few examples to illustrate:

1- I do not like the fact that rocket and program management are on different screens. It makes it harder to reassign scientists between rockets and programs. It would be much easier if all projects were on one screen, and it had an "un-assign all" and "assign best candidates" button just as the controllers do.

2- Performing the next launch in a project series should be simpler. Right now, you have to go to the HQ building > manage projects > select project and then hunt down the next mission for the project. It would be much easier if it took you automatically to the next launch in the series that offers prestige.

3- It is truly annoying to get to the "schedule mission" button and then find out that you're short on controllers/astronauts. The interface should check if you have extra personnel that may be pulled from training to fulfill the launch, allow you to select the personnel from the appropriate building, and finally RETURN you to the mission creation page without having to click fest your way back through the HQ building.

4- Please allow players access to the "assign rocket" button on projects that are not yet opened. It would make it way more efficient if you could see the "short list" of rockets that can fulfill the project. Mind you that all the information to make the correct rocket choice is available through a variety of screens. "Open rocket program" tells you everything the rockets can do, and a variety of additional information "I" screens for the different project missions tell you the payload weight and to where it's being lifted, but it is a bit of a grind to wade through it at this time.

Finally, and most importantly, the game is too short for its cost. I've played the game through four times, twice with the GSA and once each with USA and USSR spanning normal to Buzz Hard difficulty in about 30hrs of gameplay. For about an hour of content per dollar. In comparison, for the same 30 dollars I have close to 800hrs of KSP and I still play it. Please give us orbital construction, extended stay programs and manned Mars landings ASAP to keep the game going.

Regards,
Bolter

1. You need at most a few clicks to take everyone off something, and then put them on something else. As well, it's actually a strategy to have just (say) 3 SETS on a project and have one constantly training, rotating in and out with whoever is lowest.

2. It's often prudent to skip missions, eg if you've already done durations I and II with Mercury, you don't need to do them with Gemini and can just go straight from orbital to duration III.

3. You will notice in the top right of each mission the nauts and MCs required for that mission. Pay attention, and plan accordingly.

4. no comment

5. Great. Now play with a different strategy. Or set yourself new challenges, like "landing by 1965," or "from start to moon landing with the least number of launches" or "while using only 7 SETs, 3 nauts, and 15 MCs," or "shortest time to complete every possible manned mission." Or PBEM.

You stated above that the game is too short. Well, you're in luck as the devs plan on releasing two more parts with one being based around the shuttle era and the other being based around manned missions to Mars.

And the dev is releasing an extra mission for the russians. I agree that it would be really nice to see the list of missions gradually extended over time - especially the more interesting ones like the space plane testing. And what about that funny testing hover rig for the lunar landing practice than almost killed Armstrong? Adding these sorts of little things over time would be really cool.

I would also like to see more Steam achievements.

And perhaps the further moon missions could be reasonably easily added into the game at some point?

And what about some new goals like be the first person to send a lander to Mars, etc, etc - all could vastly increase the longevity of the whole game whilst we wait for the Shuttle/Mars part.

I wonder how successful the game has been and whether Ignacio has got enough from it to keep developing it further?

I really love the concept of the game, but found the ending very disappointing. One way to improve it would be to offer a better recap of successes and failures. Allow the user to see all their stats one final time. They made history. Let's be able to read it. Where did the Russian beat us? Where did we we beat them? Show some graphs like the original. They handled this aspect better I believe.

How many missions did I launch? What were the outcomes? Who were my best three astronauts, controllers, scientists? What was their highest level achieved? How many different people were launched into space? Who what the first? What were all those events that I blew through during the game? did any of them matter? Who were the astronauts I killed? What was their skill? Let the ending be at the museum.

If I have a long mission in progress, let me know the outcome when the game ends. Did we ever see Jupiter/Saturn? What's the highest prestige I achieved in all my games sorted by level?

Create achievements that make me want to do better. I enjoyed the game, and loved the original, but I think there's lots of room for improvement.

My first game ended with 177,007 Prestige, $195455.3 in Q4 1971. I want to have a reason to play again.

Useless thought, but this game goes very well with Yanni's "Dare to Dream" or "In My Time" albums playing in the background.

BARIS70 wrote:I really love the concept of the game, but found the ending very disappointing. One way to improve it would be to offer a better recap of successes and failures. Allow the user to see all their stats one final time. They made history. Let's be able to read it. Where did the Russian beat us? Where did we we beat them? Show some graphs like the original. They handled this aspect better I believe/

How many missions did I launch? What were the outcomes? Who were my best three astronauts, controllers, scientists? What was their highest level achieved? How many different people were launched into space? Who what the first? What were all those events that I blew through during the game? did any of them matter? Who were the astronauts I killed? What was their skill? Let the ending be at the museum.

If I have a long mission in progress, let me know the outcome when the game ends. Did we ever see Jupiter/Saturn? What's the highest prestige I achieved in all my games sorted by level?

Create achievements that make me want to do better. I enjoyed the game, and loved the original, but I think there's lots of room for improvement.

My first game ended with 177,007 Prestige, $195455.3 in Q4 1971. I want to have a reason to play again.

Useless thought, but this game goes very well with Yanni's "Dare to Dream" or "In My Time" albums playing in the background.

Those look like some goods ideas I could live with being implemented. You should post this in the section titled Ideas for the Future of SPM under announcements. By the way welcome to the forum!

Hello guys,

Thanks for the feedback. Notice that in the next patch you'll get an 'Final Stats' overlay, with some interesting numbers from the game, among other information. I've also changed the code so that you can continue playing the game. That way, you'll be able to find out what happened to your long duration probe or be able to conduct more advanced lunar missions.

We're planning to extend things a bit more in future patches, yes. Unfortunately we're quite underpowered, but we'll do our best to introduce further improvements to part 1 over time (personally I'm quite eager to add more Steam achievements!).

Cheers,

Yesss! Thank you.

Maybe you could ask for people to suggest some Steam achievements on this forum and pick the best ones?

No problem, yes. Will do that once we get the iOS version out, as I don't want to get (too) sidetracked at the moment.

Cheers,