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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.
Post edited September 10, 2021 by StahnAileron
Hey there!

Glad you are enjoying the game! Sorry, it took so long to reply to this, I was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of feedback I got from you guys after the GOG release.

Ships: I was planning to have 3 fully playable ships by 1.0 and another 6 after that (released in content patches). Right now we have 5 fully playable ships in the game so we are already over the quota - it's really unlikely that you see more before 1.0. It takes quite a long to design each ship as there are no cheats and I need to actually place all the thrusters and systems, design a heads-up display and a lot of other ships. My aim is to have ships that actually feel like different ships, not just skins and a few different stats.

Combat: while the ships' hulls are quite durable (as they are designed to operate in quite a dangerous environment), your fire can and will damage or destroy systems on your opponent's ship. While the destruction of a ship requires overloading its reactor safeties there are other ways to incapacitate opponents.

Autopilot: You have lateral controls of your autopilot with either mouse or gamepad. Controlling autopilot with mouse drag is probably most convenient since you are most likely using the mouse already to pick targets.

Enceladus UI: Unfortunately UI needs to be usable in multiple circumstances - not only on PC controlled with a mouse but also on a 7" touchscreen. This puts some contains on the design I need to keep in mind when adding things. Said that 0.395.8 contains some improvements in the Enceladus Station menu layout. If you have ideas on how to improve further, a screenshot with a mocked image will tell much more than a description.
Here is my feedback: I love how much there is to figure out in this game. Like the controls and how there are different ways to mine (exavator/weapons) and sell minerals. I also love how much useful data is in the UI but it takes a while to learn it all. And the simulated look and feel is great.

I found the dead people in space and the cave and both things like these are reaaally awesome. Like a crime novel in space and mysteries. It's the part where I really started to love the game, and of course the super cute crew avatars :3

I haven't finished the game yet, but I hooooooooooope so much to find aliens. Wild animal and also worm/dragon like aliens that nest (eggs) and hunt for food and are territorial. Like mining alien eggs is worth a lot of money and different kinds of aliens.
And also 1 or 2 communicativeable aliens, not necessarily humanoid. Maybe one that is huuuuuuge, that would be super spooky and only noticeable once you get close to its mouth, because around it's large "body" it's foggy and dark with some weird black purple goo fog or grey green... and how about big gas clouds with thunderstorms inside of them.

And small insect like swarm aliens... :o

This would be great in this game that is so mixed in it's content.