I felt the new Trailer was underwhelming

[Zeba]

I disagree about the guitar ones being the best of the bunch...

True from your point of view. I suppose it is a matter of personal taste after all. But imo I got a kinda 'stodgy' feeling from the specific music that was put into the trailer even if said tracks are quite excellent in the context of a normal game. ;p

Contests for fan-made trailers sound great, and we might do that for LotS, but bear in mind that it's well past where this trailer will benefit from any criticism, constructive or otherwise.  It's done, it's submitted, I couldn't change it if I wanted to (on Steam, etc, where it most counts).

And, I disagree very much about the music, etc.  There are more moods than just "exciting."  In this case, my goal was "haunting / fascinating." It paints a picture of a world unlike anything quite seen in other games.  The goal of the trailer is not to educate, but to pique the interest of players that might be interested.  It's to get them to read the features text or to try the demo.  The goal of the features text is also not to get anyone to buy -- it's to get them to download the demo.  The goal of the demo, then, is to get them to buy.

I think I felt like a lot of the criticism here was so harsh because this is wholly done and not something I can change at this point.  So to me it kind of feels like "neener neener, I didn't like it and there's nothing you can do about it, but here's what you should have done."  But that's not exactly fair to you guys, because you didn't necessarily know it can't be changed.

Anyway, if there is one thing AI War is not, it's exciting in a visceral, FPS hacksaw sense.  I like exciting games of that sort as much as the next person (Red Faction: Guerrilla or Left 4 Dead 2, anyone?), but this is not that sort of game.  Sure, it's exhilarating when a plan comes together, or heart-pounding when everything seems about to fall apart, but that's different from glitzy excitement.  A lot of my favorite games are not exciting: Mario, Zelda, Silent Hill 2, etc.  None of those are fully of explosions or excitement, but they each have their reasons for being fascinating and awesome.  With AI War, people in the past have talked about the desolate themes and story as being such a motivator and a draw for them, and so after I saw a great minecraft trailer that focused on the same, I thought I'd try my hand at doing something similar with the material here.

The reason I didn't have larger battles from the AI, etc, is that specifically the talk of massive fleet battles turns off a lot of strategy gamers.  That makes them think it's going to be a click-fest, etc.  Obviously many people here disagree, given that you already have the game.  So in some senses it even makes sense if an older trailer works better on you, since it got you to buy the game (if it was a factor).  But, with the new trailer, I'm trying to get a subtly different (but somewhat overlapping) segment of the strategy game audience.  So if the trailer doesn't appeal to you... maybe that's okay, it's not like you'd buy it again and most people like you (who also heard of the game) have already bought it.  And for those that haven't, I'm not sure that the new trailer would be such a turnoff that they wouldn't read the features or progress to the demo.


Wow, this has turned into a long post.  But at any rate, the considerations that go into something like this are many and varied... I have learned.  Personal reactions to something like this are great, but you also have to consider if it's really targeting you, etc.  The message of this trailer is intentionally much slower, darker, and more emphasizing of strategy/tactics and the unique environment.  I'm pretty sure we've mostly tapped out the audience that is primarily excited by massive space battles over the elements I mentioned there.

As noted, this doesn't mean I think this trailer is perfect, or that a much better one couldn't be done, but I think that a lot of the feedback ranging from the music, to the lack of explosions, to the lack of tutorial-ness, to the lack of glitz -- or whatever else along those lines -- are sorely missing the point entirely.

Anyway, I'm off for some sleep, and then tomorrow is the last set of changes before this thing gets marked gold and sent out to the distributors.  Exciting times, even if you don't like the trailer.

Fair enough.

I guess my reply might have been a bit 'harsh' too but its what I genuinely feel and I'm not one who is known for holding back on my opinion be it popular or moar likely less than.. ;p

As you said though the trailer is supposed to garner interest for the demo which is what will ultimately sell the game over any amount of flashy gameplay footage and narration after all. It's just to me it could have been done a bit  better to make people want to try the demo is all.

Again not trying to be negative but simply tossing out stuff for future consumption and eventual marketing deployment. Seriously this 4.0 release has all the needed stuff to attract a greater slice of the rts segment with the vastly improved gameplay(imho) and the now nearly up to date gfx for the fights themselves which was to quote many a person I tried to get into the game "retro at best" and not in the good way that say a game like minecraft is retro.

But otherwise ai war still rocks ur socks and word of mouth along with a bit of steam marketing magic should get you guys Back in Black financially. 

[Fox Soul]

Well, at least its not a trailer that shows this REALLY awesome game but then when you play it it's nothing like the commercial both graphically and gameplay.

[Spikey00]

The first Supreme Commander trailer was just perfect, in my opinion. 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHothxZQoWo)

Lots of combat, showed quickly how a base and an empire could form, the zooming mechanic, naval, land and air theaters, a TON of action, zoomed in on some units and experimental units, and honestly, it worked out if you ask me.  It IS fair to say that that is a realistic amount of units at a given time, and that SupCom definitely does have strategy involved and it is not _completely_ about unit spam.

The music was fine, IMO--it fit in with the trailer and general sense of direction.

[Lancefighter]

supcom's trailer was largely more about effects tbh - it showed what stuff could do (although for some reason that fatboy didn't have its shield up?)

It showed very little actual gameplay, just stuff blowing up. And well, the zooming bit was the /only/ gameplay it really showed.

[Ranakastrasz]

One of the things you could have done would be piss off the AI, either cheating up a really high ai progress, then wait for a wave, or attack a very heavy system with underwhelming ships and hope they retaliate (and wipe you out)

[Collic]

SupCom's trailer is a far easier sell. They get to show the massive armies, the effects and the big game hook which was the super far zoom - all highly visual, arresting, and obvious innovations. Now, for AI war its not so simple. Communicating what's different about AI war, that its a 4x/rts/tower defence asymmetrical strategy game is a different prospect. You just have to pick on a few aspects and try and focus on it - the lore is a good choice I think; I've always liked the games premise.

I quite liked the trailer, in any case. I would have  preferred a little more action in the ending segment (especially as its so much prettier now), but theres nothing wrong with the approach taken imo.

[TheMachineIsSentient]

I liked the way the turrets were placed around the AI home and ending the trailer showing a loss. It certainly wasn't a pulse pounding trailer- it wasn't supposed to be- although I guess that's what we are all used to. When I bought the original game, that trailer sold me as well as the forum over here. It showed actual gameplay, which this trailer does as well, and I'm sure a lot of gamers appreciate that.

[dlcooper]

Just wanted to say that I liked the new AI War trailer and I thought you did a good job with it.  I liked that when the AI came through that it was only a few ships.  My problem with huge swarms of ships in the trailers is that you can't see any detail.  It just looks like a huge swarm of "something".  With the few ai ships attacking, you're able so see more detail.  When I look at a game trailer, I'm looking to see what the game looks like and some examples of gameplay, not to see all the features in the game.  I thought it showed enough fighting and also enough close shots to see what the ships look like.

Thanks.

[snelg]

I kind of liked the new trailer as well, although I think the "huge ball of something" (depending on how huge) dlcooper mentioned might've worked better at the end.
A couple of starships doesn't look all that impressive if you haven't played the game already.