Poll: Kickstarter for art revamp for AI War? (Tip: Vote no)

[feaw]

My $.02;

Personally, I like the current art style of AI War. It's unique, and somehow, fitting. And to be honest, the majority of the time I'm zoomed out enough to where I don't even see the art. I feel it wouldn't be worth the money and effort. I didn't buy this game for the graphics, I bought it for the gameplay. I'd much rather see the latter improved than the former.

That said, I feel there are some ship designs that could be revisted when changing from Mk1-2-3-4-5. Mainly, keeping them in line with the base ship but adding on... more, as opposed to drastically changing the model. I can't really think of any ships that are like this off the top of my head though, hah.

But that's a minor issue, and a personal one at that.

Also, I'm loving the planet/space backgrounds in this game. I love how non-standard a lot of the planets are. If not done so already though, I think it would be cool to see random scaling for the planet elements in the background though. Ranging from very small to very large in terms of how much screen space they take up. Why? Extra, easy variation sounds good (and I think some of the planets are... slightly large. Again, a personal complaint).

Lastly, as much as I love AI War, I couldn't support AI War 2 at this point, if it was coming primarily due to a desire to change the graphics. I do not like the idea of splitting the player base more than we have to, and I have no problems with the game the way it is.  I would be, however, willing to support a larger than normal expansion (or any expansion for that matter), even if that meant the price would be a bit larger (as long as the content:price ratio is reasonable).

[Side thought: If the current engine/design of the game does not allow you to follow your vision for the game and what you'd like to add, then maybe it might be time to work on AI War 2. I would just hope that there'd be some form of price reduction (wouldn't have to be major) for owning the base game as well as a small reduction for each expansion owned. I unfortunately don't have as much money as I would like to spend on games and such. AI War's prices have been fair I feel, so I wouldn't be too worried. Also, I would try to stay away from 3d models if possible, I feel there would be little benefit unless the game went full 3d, plus, we don't need more strain on peoples pc's then there already can be. :p]

Long and short of it is, I like the graphics, and I think they fit the universe. I would be opposed to spending money on a graphic-overhaul, but I can support purchasing future expansions.

[mrhanman]

I think a UI revamp would go a long way to bring in new players.  At least, that's what most of my friends seem to complain about.  New backgrounds would be great, too.  The ships are fine with me.  I think changing those would just make everyone relearn what the ships look like.

[Cinth]

But imagine that in HD!



Well, if you imagine anything other than a single frame lingering for eternity, then you need to step back inside the box for a bit, but still, HD!1!!!!1!

I honestly don't care what the graphics are like (even with most newer gen games).  I want quality gameplay since that is what is going to keep me playing.  Fancy graphics and pleasant eye-candy shouldn't ever be a reason you play a game, nor should it be a reason to shun a game.  Basically, gameplay > graphics.  And IMO, HD is overrated (and most times I can't see any major differences between HD and standard).

[Coppermantis]

But imagine that in HD!



Well, if you imagine anything other than a single frame lingering for eternity, then you need to step back inside the box for a bit, but still, HD!1!!!!1!

I honestly don't care what the graphics are like (even with most newer gen games).  I want quality gameplay since that is what is going to keep me playing.  Fancy graphics and pleasant eye-candy shouldn't ever be a reason you play a game, nor should it be a reason to shun a game.  Basically, gameplay > graphics.  And IMO, HD is overrated (and most times I can't see any major differences between HD and standard).

I know that, I wasn't being serious. As I said in my earlier post, AI War is fine as it is.

[Kahuna]

I think a UI revamp would go a long way to bring in new players.

There's nothing wrong with the UI. It's clear, easy to use and simple. It couldn't be any better.
Or do I just have a computer like brain?

[Zeyi]

My vote goes with no as I like the current art and graphics are not important to me. I would much rather gameplay improvements (the hacking changes etc) or even I think I saw someone mentioned x64 support - if that's even possible, I'd take that over graphics any-day. I'm sure AIWar could really push my computer to its boundaries then

I think a UI revamp would go a long way to bring in new players.

There's nothing wrong with the UI. It's clear, easy to use and simple. It couldn't be any better.
Or do I just have a computer like brain?

Nope, you are just used to it like any experienced player. It isn't actually very simple, and it certainly isn't easy to use or clear to new players - I know as I regularly try to get friends involved. The learning curve for AIW is huge and this is partially down to the UI. Not that I blame the devs, its understandable a small team like the Arcen guys can't afford to hire a specialist UI designer, in the same way they can't afford professional artists. It's even less surprising when you consider how many big budget games have terrible UIs. There may well be nothing wrong with the UI, but it could be vastly improved.

Note: I am happy with the UI but if we are suggesting to improve something to appeal to new players I would work on the UI, and make sure tooltips and the tutorial are nice and polished.

[Shrugging Khan]

I actually LIKE the graphics as they are (looking so innocuous when zoomed out, but always revealing a freaky monstrosity when looking closer).
Well...I'd still support it, if only out of curiosity. BUT I would want a menu option to switch to the old graphics!

I offer 20 Euros, for now. Will increase it to 50 once my student support thing manages to make it's way through the bureaucracy.

[Mánagarmr]

Aside from HUD (which could use a touchup) I don't really see a need to update AI: War. The only art that bother me are the wierd AI specific things that came in during the Neinzul expansion. The new Hybrid graphics, the guardians and some of the guardposts (specifically the AI homeworld ones). These I'd LOVE to see remade to look more mechanical and less...wierd. But aside from that, nah. Don't bother  ^^

[Tridus]

I think a UI revamp would go a long way to bring in new players.

There's nothing wrong with the UI. It's clear, easy to use and simple. It couldn't be any better.
Or do I just have a computer like brain?

Ever tried to play it one handed because you're holding a sleeping baby in the other arm? How do you group move ships through a wormhole with only the mouse?

The UI has definite room for improvement. Newbies have the most problems with it (it takes time to learn keyboard shortcuts and if you forget one there's some stuff that just has no obvious other way to do it), but some of us more experienced players would benefit too.

[zoutzakje]

I think a UI revamp would go a long way to bring in new players.

There's nothing wrong with the UI. It's clear, easy to use and simple. It couldn't be any better.
Or do I just have a computer like brain?

Ever tried to play it one handed because you're holding a sleeping baby in the other arm? How do you group move ships through a wormhole with only the mouse?

to be fair, most games are unplayable with just the mouse. The few games in which the mouse will suffice are mostly turn based strategy or pure tower defense (or puzzle games like Tidalis). Ai war is neither.
Seriously, ever tried playing a shooter with just the mouse? Unless you have a mouse with wasd options on it, that's just not gonna work.

[Tridus]

Ever tried to play it one handed because you're holding a sleeping baby in the other arm? How do you group move ships through a wormhole with only the mouse?

to be fair, most games are unplayable with just the mouse. The few games in which the mouse will suffice are mostly turn based strategy or pure tower defense (or puzzle games like Tidalis). Ai war is neither.
Seriously, ever tried playing a shooter with just the mouse? Unless you have a mouse with wasd options on it, that's just not gonna work.

I once healed a raid in WoW with just the mouse. Granted I have a fancy mouse and it was an easy raid for my gear level, but still. The hardest part was actually going between rooms, I had to use the follow command quite a lot.

Strategy games tend to be fairly playable with the mouse only. Starcraft 2 is fully playable with just the mouse (sub-optimally, of course). Sins of a Solar Empire is also very mouse friendly.

I guess to get more to the point - AI War isn't mouse only friendly because doing basic stuff is either cumbersome or impossible. From the planet view (aka: the one you start the game in), how do I move ships through that wormhole I can see with only the mouse?

Answer: You don't. You need to hold down CTRL to do that. To do it with the mouse you instead have to click MAP on the HUD, then click the option for the galaxy map (and not the other map, there's two choices there), and then you can do it from the galaxy map. That's a very basic command. Now how do I do that while using group move, which I probably want to do if I don't want my fast ships to die because the slow ones weren't there to help them yet?

Without using the keyboard, I honestly don't know.

I'm not saying that in a game with this many commands absolutely everything has to be mouse friendly. I don't expect to be able to line place mines 17 at a time in various places without needing both hands. But there's a number of simple things that are not as simple to do as they could be, which both makes it harder for me when baby is sleepy, and more importantly to the subject at hand makes it difficult for a newbie to be able to remember how to do it from the tutorial. (Assuming they did the tutorial and didn't just dive in, of course. This is definitely a game where you want to play the tutorial.)

If the goal here is to try and draw more people in to the game, IMO you'd get a lot more bang for your buck out of some UI work than out of a graphics overhaul. Both because it'll help people who do try the game stick with it and convert demo downloads to purchases, but also because it'd be far, far less expensive and would not increase the ongoing cost of creating expansions.

[zoutzakje]

I do agree that there are a lot of keyboard commands that are difficult to find out/remember. Personally I really don't mind using a lot of keys for any game. mmo's often make you use a lot of keys and combination of keys and I've played many. But there should be an easy accessible ingame list that shows all the controls and commands and what they do.
Right now I got about 1000 hours on AI war and attack and defender mode is still pretty much all I do with my ships. I know there's other stuff I can do, I simply don't know what.
I'd make a mantis suggestion for this, but I'm assuming it's already there.

[Kahuna]

to be fair, most games are unplayable with just the mouse.

QFT.

how do I move ships through that wormhole I can see with only the mouse?

--->MAP--->GalaxyMap--->Click and ---> MAP to return to planetary view.
Takes about 5 seconds.
And if you have a gaming mouse with 5k buttons you can bind TAB to one of those buttons.

You need to hold down CTRL to do that.

Bind CTRL to one of the buttons on your mouse.

Now how do I do that while using group move

Bind G to one of the buttons on your mouse or enable "Ship Movement Defaults To Group-Move"

and more importantly to the subject at hand makes it difficult for a newbie to be able to remember how to do it from the tutorial. (Assuming they did the tutorial and didn't just dive in, of course. This is definitely a game where you want to play the tutorial.)

I've never played the tutorial.

If you use mouse with your right hand you can also bind stuff to numpad.

Boom! Problem solved!

I'm a bit annoyed by the fact that very few people check options, controls and bindings etc. Now I'm not talking about anyone specific. About people in general.

Maybe I have a computer brain after all.

[zoutzakje]

lol keep editing your post, eh Kahuna? but you're right, the controls are all there at the settings, where they're supposed to be. What they actually do could be made more clear, but it's all there.

[Tridus]

how do I move ships through that wormhole I can see with only the mouse?

--->MAP--->GalaxyMap--->Click and ---> MAP to return to planetary view.
Takes about 5 seconds.

Yeah, I already said that.

Bind G to one of the buttons on your mouse or enable "Ship Movement Defaults To Group-Move"

A newbie is never going to know to change those options, and they're also not going to know about G if they haven't done the tutorial (and if they're like me, they'll have forgotten it between doing the tutorial and when they finally realize why doing it is useful in a real game). It's not a very discoverable command in game.

I'm annoyed by the fact that very few people check options, controls bindings etc.

Maybe I have a computer brain after all.

Probably. Newbies also don't check control bindings very often, particularly if they don't know the name of the thing they want to do. (That's harder in AI War just due to the nature of the game, a button labelled "Jump" is naturally easier to understand than one labelled "Free Roaming Defender".)

The problem is that it's hard for people to think like someone who hasn't played the game before. I've learned to do it only because my job requires it, and that took a lot of standing over people's shoulders as they tried to do things in a business application and watching them get confused over stuff that I thought was perfectly straightforward. It's a common, difficult problem. The ribbon redesign of Office in 2007 was entirely because Office has a ton of functionality that over 90% of users had no idea existed just because it was too difficult to find out where it was. (And at that goal it worked really well, I lost count of how many times someone told me they discovered a "new" feature that had actually been there for years. Only difference was that now they could find it.)

I've actually seen it happen in AI War too, when I introduce friends to the game I tend to stick around so they can ask questions. There tends to be a fair bit of "how do I do this again?" It's a steep learning curve, for sure.