Posted September 10, 2021
So far, so fun. The gameplay reminds me of an older game I had, Starscape, but with more focus on the mining instead of combat. (And no upgradeable "homebase/mothership".)
Comments:
Ship selection - A bit lacking, but understandable considering the state of the game. I'm looking forward to more ships in the future. Especially given that 2 of 3 designs look more like side-grades to the starter ship. Only one looks like a pure, straight (though expensive) upgrade currently.
Combat - is a bit odd with how I can pump an opposing ship full of laser wattage, but won't do too much of anything unless I can get a bead on the ship's reactor. I haven't done much combat using massdrivers. (I do know that MDs can screw me over...) Again, early game state, so maybe combat will get fleshed out more. Though a lot of my fights wind up as high-speed (like 100m/s) chases through the rings as the pirate tries to run away...
Critiques:
UI - I'm not a big fan of the current base UI. It's unwieldy and, IMHO, doesn't use space that well.
You have a main menu taking up the upper right, large crew portraits that take up the lower right, leaving only 50%-60% of screen space for the main part of the UI most of the time.
The collapsing menu system kinda sucks in terms of practical utility: it's too small of a space to cram that into, despite using said systm to make it "fit".
The "Tuning" and "Upgrades" menu could be fullscreen instead. I don't see a practical reason for keeping those two menus so cramped. This would make it easier to see your options.
Also, given the text size in other elements of the UI, why is the text size so large for those menus? I understand they're the main focus for that menu, but do they need to be 3x bigger than the text in the demo/decription window above the menus?
Upgrades (UI) - First, I think I would rename this "Outfitting", "Loadout", or something similar. As your tips state in-game, not all "upgrades" are true upgrades. Second, have you considered using a graphical UI for this instead of the collapsible menu? I eventually wished it was more like the Starsector ship editor. (Pick a hardpoint/system on the ship, get a menu of equipment for that slot.)
Autopilot - Is there any particular reason the autopilot mode doesn't have dedicated lateral controls? I use that mode as an "augmented/self-correcting" manual mode. The lack of lateral control without a selected target is strange to me. (Especially if I want to just coast deeper into the rings: turning the ship to change course to avoid ringroids seems wasteful in terms of fuel usage for the same deflection.)
I hope some of this proves useful during development. Definitely liking the game so far.
EDIT: Removed reference to Mineral Market UI being "fullscreen". Not sure why I thought that... (Maybe because all of fits in the window without scrolling.)
Also, FYI: I play in borderless fullscreen @ 1920x1200.
Comments:
Ship selection - A bit lacking, but understandable considering the state of the game. I'm looking forward to more ships in the future. Especially given that 2 of 3 designs look more like side-grades to the starter ship. Only one looks like a pure, straight (though expensive) upgrade currently.
Combat - is a bit odd with how I can pump an opposing ship full of laser wattage, but won't do too much of anything unless I can get a bead on the ship's reactor. I haven't done much combat using massdrivers. (I do know that MDs can screw me over...) Again, early game state, so maybe combat will get fleshed out more. Though a lot of my fights wind up as high-speed (like 100m/s) chases through the rings as the pirate tries to run away...
Critiques:
UI - I'm not a big fan of the current base UI. It's unwieldy and, IMHO, doesn't use space that well.
You have a main menu taking up the upper right, large crew portraits that take up the lower right, leaving only 50%-60% of screen space for the main part of the UI most of the time.
The collapsing menu system kinda sucks in terms of practical utility: it's too small of a space to cram that into, despite using said systm to make it "fit".
The "Tuning" and "Upgrades" menu could be fullscreen instead. I don't see a practical reason for keeping those two menus so cramped. This would make it easier to see your options.
Also, given the text size in other elements of the UI, why is the text size so large for those menus? I understand they're the main focus for that menu, but do they need to be 3x bigger than the text in the demo/decription window above the menus?
Upgrades (UI) - First, I think I would rename this "Outfitting", "Loadout", or something similar. As your tips state in-game, not all "upgrades" are true upgrades. Second, have you considered using a graphical UI for this instead of the collapsible menu? I eventually wished it was more like the Starsector ship editor. (Pick a hardpoint/system on the ship, get a menu of equipment for that slot.)
Autopilot - Is there any particular reason the autopilot mode doesn't have dedicated lateral controls? I use that mode as an "augmented/self-correcting" manual mode. The lack of lateral control without a selected target is strange to me. (Especially if I want to just coast deeper into the rings: turning the ship to change course to avoid ringroids seems wasteful in terms of fuel usage for the same deflection.)
I hope some of this proves useful during development. Definitely liking the game so far.
EDIT: Removed reference to Mineral Market UI being "fullscreen". Not sure why I thought that... (Maybe because all of fits in the window without scrolling.)
Also, FYI: I play in borderless fullscreen @ 1920x1200.
Post edited September 10, 2021 by StahnAileron