Some Feedback

[Nanashi]

This brings up a specific point I keep meaning to mention.

Purification, there's one big problem with it: You cant tell just which tiles are going to be purified.   There's been times when I'd kinda like to avoid opening up another warp, but I purify somewhat near it, and bam, it opens up even though it looks like it shouldnt.   Also the game doesnt point out when the tiles you use to purify are actually in those "wall" tiles, the ones that you need to knock down with survivors to enter.  It can make it seem like a strange dead end at times, when in fact the tile you need to unlock further tiles is right next to you.

I actually covered this point awhile ago in http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=10031 , but maybe it needs to be split apart into a separate suggestion. I'd like either the rules to be laid out in black and white (although Keith described them a bit), or for the area to be purified to be highlighted, mainly because this becomes unintuitive and annoying once you have a desert expansion tower.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Mayhaps, a function to hold a key to preview the area to be purified.

[Oralordos]

Maybe if I can succeed at this game, I'll try the highest or smallest map size and see how the game scales on those.

I would wait until the next patch on the smaller map sizes. There's a chance that it won't give enough Skelebot Research Stations. Which means you won't get triple jump, which is required to win the game.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Thanks for the heads up. Larger ones it is then.

[chemical_art]

I hate to say it:

But beta should have waited to next year.

I'm getting tired just seeing the moaning of things that can't be addressed because the second most critical time for dev interaction, the first beta, was quickly followed by vacation.

At least alpha is closed so the public well would not be tainted from a vacation.

[Misery]

I hate to say it:

But beta should have waited to next year.

I'm getting tired just seeing the moaning of things that can't be addressed because the second most critical time for dev interaction, the first beta, was quickly followed by vacation.

At least alpha is closed so the public well would not be tainted from a vacation.

I dont think anything is really tainted, to be honest.  Doesnt seem so to me anyway.

Heck, I've certainly had my complaints with it so far, but.... that doesnt change the fact that my overall opinion of the game even in this early phase is very very positive.    And I'm naturally very very negative, so it's rare that I find a game that I like as much as this.

I cant speak for everyone, of course.

[chemical_art]

I hate to say it:

But beta should have waited to next year.

I'm getting tired just seeing the moaning of things that can't be addressed because the second most critical time for dev interaction, the first beta, was quickly followed by vacation.

At least alpha is closed so the public well would not be tainted from a vacation.

I dont think anything is really tainted, to be honest.  Doesnt seem so to me anyway.

Heck, I've certainly had my complaints with it so far, but.... that doesnt change the fact that my overall opinion of the game even in this early phase is very very positive.    And I'm naturally very very negative, so it's rare that I find a game that I like as much as this.

I cant speak for everyone, of course.

I mean on the steam site, if you look, you see over 80% of the threads bashing the game.

I mean I know the internet is mean, but from a big picture standpoint, I think the 2ish weeks of having the beta be open with interaction isn't then worth it when it is 2 weeks of no development. Every day that goes by in a beta less and less people play without a push.So when the game does start resuming the updates, there will be a lot less of a pool of fresh impressions, and also less of a pool of people who are playing it to provide feedback. Especially when the beta when left still feels like an alpha in a lot of ways.

[Oralordos]

Oh no, the alpha was pretty bad. There was quite a bit of bug fixing and balancing going on there.

[chemical_art]

Oh no, the alpha was pretty bad. There was quite a bit of bug fixing and balancing going on there.

I know, I was there 


But for example some things do feel like alpha, like animation. Or that terrible aiming bug. Or unassailable slices. Or lack of content (game is very bare bones).

[Nanashi]

One problem with open betas is that most people these days think of "Beta" as "Preview" (though not without justification), and people in general have a disturbing tendency to think their opinions are so-very-important that the entire world needs to hear them since it's easier to crap on everything else to lower it beneath their standards than to elevate themselves. It's just an evolved form of catharsis.

On the positive side, most people don't have the patience to actually read or do research these days, so I doubt the Steam forums will influence anything since many people on the internet have gotten jaded. If you want to sell many copies of a game, the most effective way to do so is to bribe Metacritic.

[Panopticon]

The Steam in-community forums have gained a reputation as being one of the worst places on the net with people I know, so I don't worry too much about opinions there. Dropping the beta and taking a two week vacation probably wasn't the best idea in hindsight but it's done and the Arcen guys should be able to do their holiday thing like normal people and not live in a constant crunch-time.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I feel in this case that they would have benefited from having people take turns doing light work and damage control over hte course of vacation, so it turned out it was more of a case of not going completely dark on development, rather them dimming the lights.
Otherwise, yeah, the beta really probably should have waited until Arcen were actually doing work on the game. But, people will be people, and these people won't realize that "beta is beta". Anything I look at that isn't polished, or that anybody reasonable looks at that isn't polished, is going to get glossed over with that same philosophy in mind. For the sake of any betas, you need to have a gigantic disclaimer saying "This game isn't actually finished, so bear that in mind" and you need to be actively working on it. I hope the situation doesn't turn out to be as bad as it sounds.

[Misery]

The Steam in-community forums have gained a reputation as being one of the worst places on the net with people I know, so I don't worry too much about opinions there. Dropping the beta and taking a two week vacation probably wasn't the best idea in hindsight but it's done and the Arcen guys should be able to do their holiday thing like normal people and not live in a constant crunch-time.

This.

As much as I love Steam, the forums attached to it are by far the worst I've ever seen.  They're even worse than the Minecraft forums, which is quite a feat.  It doesnt even matter what game it is, the Steam forum for it WILL be a hideous, screaming mess.

[zaaq]

As much as I love Steam, the forums attached to it are by far the worst I've ever seen.  They're even worse than the Minecraft forums, which is quite a feat.  It doesnt even matter what game it is, the Steam forum for it WILL be a hideous, screaming mess.

That's likely because they're poorly moderated... and all of the people that could say positive things are busy playing games

[Professor Paul1290]

The thing is, in the end the Steam forums do tend to represent a large portion of the majority as unfair as it is, and in that regard it's not looking very good.

I like the game the way it is, I like the way it's going, and I'm pretty sure by now (barring a major change in direction) that I'm going to like how it will turn out at release.

However, I'm not holding out much hope for a positive reception at this point. I'm pretty much expecting the controls are going to be a major complaint for this game regardless of the intent. I'm not so sure it's going to be received much better than AVWW 1.

As cynical as it is, for me I'm pretty much expecting this to be one of those games I play on my own time and not say much about elsewhere.



Hopefully I will be wrong though...