Author Topic: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll  (Read 8609 times)

Offline keith.lamothe

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As Chris said recently, 1.0 is coming on Monday the 18th, so I wanted to get this ball rolling again even though I won't be able to do much with it until Monday (maybe Tuesday).

Basically: what things do you think need changed about it?

If you want to suggest additions/new-mechanics you can (I want to know if that's what people want most) but we're not looking to do those in the current timeframe unless absolutely necessary (which I think it's fairly clear it's not absolutely necessary, but anyway).  Mainly looking for bugs, balance problems, user-education problems, etc.

For reference, the results of the previous poll were:

Winners
1) (implemented) Quick-start option that skips the intro and tutorial (so starting on turn 3, with tutorial actions already done)
2) (implemented0 Indicator of which regions still have perk tokens
3) (partly implemented, still working on it) Animating movement of Demonaica and the summoned monsters' on the map screen after the turn ends

Others
- Way of getting a description on a region you can see but cannot walk onto yet
- More breathing room for the first 10+ turns or so
- Overlays for "can build a farm here", "can build a factory here", and "can build a clinic here"
- Indicator of how strong a monster a deep-gate can spawn

Except for "More breathing room for the first 10+ turns or so" (which was effectively implemented before the poll based on other feedback) I'll consider the ones in the "others" list automatically renominated, so you don't need to mention them here unless you want to emphasize them.  I won't put the one winner that's partly implemented on the poll because we're already working on it.

Thanks :)
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Offline x4000

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2013, 03:32:14 pm »
- Way of getting a description on a region you can see but cannot walk onto yet

Regarding this one, I came up with a simple solution to that earlier today.  Basically: recon balloons.  The player chooses some toggle that puts them into a hot air balloon visually on the map, somewhat like what happened with the ships in the first game.  In this mode they cannot enter any regions, and they still cannot fly over oceans or unscouted tiles.  However they would be able to move over any tiles that were unpurified or impasses, and could use the normal interact-with-region menu on them to see what they are (minus the bit about embarking).

In place of the "embark into region" text while you are in the balloon, it would instead have "return to launch site" as the option.  When selected, it would quickly zip you back to the point you launched from (so you can't use the balloons to hop over impasses into purified tiles on the other side of them).  So it would need to track the balloon status and the launch point, and that's about that.
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Offline madcow

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2013, 04:05:31 pm »
My own suggestion on how to handle that would have been a spyglass, same effect though in the end!

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2013, 04:14:41 pm »
Flying over in a recon balloon... wouldn't that attract eagles?
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Offline x4000

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2013, 05:38:57 pm »
I still have the eagle sound effect in the sound banks.  I can whip that up. ;)
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2013, 05:48:52 pm »
I don't think I've heard of it.  I just have a mental one, a really loud "WHUMPF!" followed by a picture of some hapless player entity with an eagle half embedded in it.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2013, 05:50:02 pm »
We need to make t-shirts that say "Welcome to eagle-face forest, where there's an eagle in every face."  With a picture of a guy with an eagle embedded in his face.
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Offline Ipkins

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2013, 04:07:06 am »
Ok, maybe this suggestion is a little late for 1.0, but in my eyes it might be worth considering it:

Is there any reason that we have a graphical representation of the player character moving around on the overworld map?

Just thinking... it might make sense to switch the control of the strategic map to the mouse. Just clicking on a field gives infos and lets you start the mission there. In the same way you can move survivors around. This would also let you gather info on tiles you can see but not enter yet (is this tile worth purifying?).

This would really emphasize the different game modes (Strategic and Adventure) more and might make it easier for new players.

Just a suggestion. I admit the idea of introducing in-game mechanics to "scout" nearby tiles sounds nice as well, but it should be "costless" as this is information that is only useful for new players. Once you know the game and know what each tile does, you do not need this info anymore, so it should be easy to get in the first place.

Offline x4000

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2013, 06:56:26 am »
No mouse control, no. That would destroy gamepad support among other things. We have a long list of reasons why the controls are what they are, but I'm writing from my phone.
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Offline madcow

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2013, 09:10:42 am »
A very, very minor point. But when you steal a feat, they should be automatically enabled initially with the option to turn them off. Right now it's done the opposite way.  I can't remember if there's anything patched in that pops up now about using feats when you steal them,  there wasn't as I recall though (or if there was I missed it)

Offline x4000

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2013, 09:11:47 am »
A very, very minor point. But when you steal a feat, they should be automatically enabled initially with the option to turn them off. Right now it's done the opposite way.  I can't remember if there's anything patched in that pops up now about using feats when you steal them,  there wasn't as I recall though (or if there was I missed it)

This is a really excellent point -- I'll take care of that!
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2013, 10:56:25 am »
Ok, it looks like the mouse control suggestion is the only one in this thread that's new compared to the last poll, and we're not doing mouse control, so I guess I won't do a poll and will just keep the remaining items from the last one in mind ;)
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Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2013, 11:01:12 am »
Yeah, sorry. I did have one vague idea about somehow letting the player zoom to or highlight the location of an event (say survivor farmed at region 2,1) rather than having to just go by the co-ordinates you're given. Couldn't think of a more specific way to accomplish this, though.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2013, 11:07:13 am »
Yeah, sorry.
Oh, no worries! I don't mind it if people think it's in a good enough place that there aren't a ton of requests :)
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Offline Billick

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Re: Nominations for "Most Needed Change To Strategy Game, Round 2" poll
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2013, 01:51:33 pm »
Not sure how other people feel about this, but from a balance perspective, I feel like deep gates maybe need to be toned down a bit.