General Gameplay Thoughts

[treyra]

There isn't really a thread for this yet, so I decided to create one. I wanted to focus on things other than bugs, since most of the GUI is going to be scrapped anyways.

Two things I noticed right off the bat were both map related. On map generation you can see the mark levels of the planets, which seems to give the player a bit too much information about their environs, especially since you could just screenshot it and have a filled in galaxy map.

Second, I noticed there seems to be a lot of Mk I and IV planets, and not a lot in between. Probably something that will be tweaked in later balancing, but it certainly is an immediate wall to any player looking to take out the scramblers, especially since the planets have 1000+ ships on them. Again probably not a huge issue at this point but noticeable.

Finally, my roommate's first comment on seeing the game is "It looks a lot like Homeworld." He has a point, the art style certainly seems inspired by Homeworld, although I'm sure as it matures differences will become more apparent. You are probably well aware of the similarities, but I thought you might be interested in someone who has not been following any of the games development's first impression.

That's all for now, I'll probably add to this after playing around a bit more.

[bladeravinger]

Homeworld? your roommate has good taste, but i wouldnt have said so,

Perhaps if you look at it  squinty-eyed, in the right places, there is some resemblance, but that could just be down to the fact there both space-combat-sim's
the artwork does not seem inherently Homeworld to me,

But hey, if it looks as good as such a great game, AI:War 2 is going to look good.

But all-in-all The game is coming along great, it still has ways to go, gameplay is shakey and al previously mentioned problems, with more bugs to come.
its Pre-Pre-Pre-Pre-PREEEEEE-Alpha
the fact it even available for us to 'playtest' is amazing, games this early ar usually hidden, because they like to misbehave and require discipline

[treyra]

Agreed, most of what I'm saying there probably isn't even on the to-do list for another month, but as part of my (and others) first impressions I wanted to record it. I would say having this much progress barely two months after the kick starter ended is extremely impressive.

[BadgerBadger]

On the galaxy map, I really want to be able to tell more clearly which planets are mine or the AIs. I can only tell if I'm zoomed almost all the way in.

[Draco18s]

On the galaxy map, I really want to be able to tell more clearly which planets are mine or the AIs. I can only tell if I'm zoomed almost all the way in.

Agreed.  Their little orbit circles should fill in with team color, and probably the connecting lines given some sort of coloration to them too.

It'd be really freaking sweet to get that "controlled space" empire border from games like Endless Space.  Even if utterly useless, it always looks cool.

[treyra]

On the galaxy map, I really want to be able to tell more clearly which planets are mine or the AIs. I can only tell if I'm zoomed almost all the way in.

True, especially since I find it easy to forget to capture a system currently (Although I do like that your units won't auto increase AIP).

It'd be really freaking sweet to get that "controlled space" empire border from games like Endless Space.  Even if utterly useless, it always looks cool.

That might be dangerous. In those games I always feel the urge to blob over everything. I feel like the AI's rapid engulfing of my territory in response might be depressing....

[bladeravinger]

That might be dangerous. In those games I always feel the urge to blob over everything. I feel like the AI's rapid engulfing of my territory in response might be depressing....

Its also spirit lifting when you surround an AI's Level 4 planet and you chuckle thinking "nice, il save you for later"