Quick First Playthrough Impression

[Rythe]

I quite like the appearance of things with the interface for the most part, although structure group icons weren't entirely clear in a few instances - Entertainment for one, and the separation between the different types of production buildings for another. I'd say they're a little vague altogether.

When looking at the structure details, those dashed blue divider lines didn't appear to have a real purpose. I expected they'd divide out info groups, but that wasn't the case. They just showed up every two entry lines and cluttered it all up visually.

I wasn't able to find an interface widgit that gave me a per territory breakdown of service production/consumption, and I really, really wanted one.

It was also unclear as to which resources were global and which were territory bound. Worker Populations and Trash, for instance. A lot of that is it being a first playthrough without any instructions though, and you're handling some of these resources differently than most games.

I'm a fan of how you set up the economy with crowns, tying production, construction and combat ordinance together.

The tech tree is set up a bit confusing based on building dependencies and bonuses. Condos get bonuses from mid-level dining which doesn't show up until act 2, but moreso it was the Commercial Offices needing computing power which requires the tech after the one that gets said offices. I can shrug off the bonus thing even if it seems that condos and the mid-level food tech should be roughly parallel, but the service dependency piece seemed very backwards.

Disease modeling is a bit nuts, which is what killed my first game. I had a hospital just in case. I needed at least three more for when an ocular implant parasite showed up because the one hospital couldn't keep up with the spread of the plague. And the disease spread across the ocean and across largish gaps between territories. So it crippled my economy with that lovely 10% efficiency mod hitting every single one of my buildings, which eventually made it so nothing could be built and no one was being cured. I saw a thing about developing a vaccine in the disease info, but it stayed stuck at 0.1% completion. So after burning many turns to see if anything would change, I killed the game as my way of conceding defeat to this holo-entertainment spawned death plague.  I'd say that the vaccine thing needs to be fixed or change diseases so that they run their course and go away in time or are simply not able to cripple you entirely so you can get down the hospitals to cure them that way.

[crazyroosterman]

I quite like the appearance of things with the interface for the most part, although structure group icons weren't entirely clear in a few instances - Entertainment for one, and the separation between the different types of production buildings for another. I'd say they're a little vague altogether.

When looking at the structure details, those dashed blue divider lines didn't appear to have a real purpose. I expected they'd divide out info groups, but that wasn't the case. They just showed up every two entry lines and cluttered it all up visually.

I wasn't able to find an interface widgit that gave me a per territory breakdown of service production/consumption, and I really, really wanted one.

It was also unclear as to which resources were global and which were territory bound. Worker Populations and Trash, for instance. A lot of that is it being a first playthrough without any instructions though, and you're handling some of these resources differently than most games.

I'm a fan of how you set up the economy with crowns, tying production, construction and combat ordinance together.

The tech tree is set up a bit confusing based on building dependencies and bonuses. Condos get bonuses from mid-level dining which doesn't show up until act 2, but moreso it was the Commercial Offices needing computing power which requires the tech after the one that gets said offices. I can shrug off the bonus thing even if it seems that condos and the mid-level food tech should be roughly parallel, but the service dependency piece seemed very backwards.

Disease modeling is a bit nuts, which is what killed my first game. I had a hospital just in case. I needed at least three more for when an ocular implant parasite showed up because the one hospital couldn't keep up with the spread of the plague. And the disease spread across the ocean and across largish gaps between territories. So it crippled my economy with that lovely 10% efficiency mod hitting every single one of my buildings, which eventually made it so nothing could be built and no one was being cured. I saw a thing about developing a vaccine in the disease info, but it stayed stuck at 0.1% completion. So after burning many turns to see if anything would change, I killed the game as my way of conceding defeat to this holo-entertainment spawned death plague.  I'd say that the vaccine thing needs to be fixed or change diseases so that they run their course and go away in time or are simply not able to cripple you entirely so you can get down the hospitals to cure them that way.

1 I agree that would be very useful.

2 I have to agree it could be made clearer something I've also been a bit confused about is weather resources give you the bonus while their being harvested or permanently till you've used them up for things.

3 aboustley agree with you on the computing power/commercial offices thing putting it before commercial or in the same tech would be a good idea I think.

[x4000]

Cool!  Couple of notes:

1. Thoughts on diseases are definitely welcome.  You may have just caught a really nasty one.  I may need to limit the severity of ones based on difficulty level and act.  That would be good to throw in mantis.  Any other specific suggestions on that, or particular problem points that need addressing (either way) also would be good there.

2. The note about confusion with what was global and not would also be good to throw up there, with whatever other details you might think are pertinent.  You're coming to this from a totally other perspective from me (hence the point of it!), so I really value whatever you can tell me on that.  The issue never even occurred to me!

3. There is a services screen that you can get to by clicking any of the icons in the second row of the top hud.  It's ugly as sin right now, but it is there.  I suppose maybe in those tooltips we need to have a little note saying something like "click to see a per-territory breakdown" or whatever.  Would that have worked for you?  If so, again a mantis ticket would be greatly appreciated just for the sake of organization.

4. I am not at all sure what is going on with those blue divider lines in the details window.  Nobody ever even mentioned them before, and I have no idea why they are behaving that way.  Mantis?

5. The tech tree notes are worth putting up there, too.  I may need to either switch some things around, or it might be a case of clarity.  For instance, the computer thing is not supposed to be a requirement anymore (though I may have left that as one by mistake, because I noticed that also), but instead a bonus that you can get but don't have to.

6. The bottom and left interface is getting a complete overhaul in terms of where things are positioned and how they are broken out.  I've been finding it awkward to find things in categories like this and I made them up, haha.  Some of them are good, some are less so.  After some discussions with some other players in the past, I've settled on a model that is a kind of "multiple ways to find stuff" approach.  I think you'll like it, but we probably won't have it in until next week.  The current one is serviceable at least, yeah.

[crazyroosterman]

Cool!  Couple of notes:

1. Thoughts on diseases are definitely welcome.  You may have just caught a really nasty one.  I may need to limit the severity of ones based on difficulty level and act.  That would be good to throw in mantis.  Any other specific suggestions on that, or particular problem points that need addressing (either way) also would be good there.

2. The note about confusion with what was global and not would also be good to throw up there, with whatever other details you might think are pertinent.  You're coming to this from a totally other perspective from me (hence the point of it!), so I really value whatever you can tell me on that.  The issue never even occurred to me!

3. There is a services screen that you can get to by clicking any of the icons in the second row of the top hud.  It's ugly as sin right now, but it is there.  I suppose maybe in those tooltips we need to have a little note saying something like "click to see a per-territory breakdown" or whatever.  Would that have worked for you?  If so, again a mantis ticket would be greatly appreciated just for the sake of organization.

4. I am not at all sure what is going on with those blue divider lines in the details window.  Nobody ever even mentioned them before, and I have no idea why they are behaving that way.  Mantis?

5. The tech tree notes are worth putting up there, too.  I may need to either switch some things around, or it might be a case of clarity.  For instance, the computer thing is not supposed to be a requirement anymore (though I may have left that as one by mistake, because I noticed that also), but instead a bonus that you can get but don't have to.

6. The bottom and left interface is getting a complete overhaul in terms of where things are positioned and how they are broken out.  I've been finding it awkward to find things in categories like this and I made them up, haha.  Some of them are good, some are less so.  After some discussions with some other players in the past, I've settled on a model that is a kind of "multiple ways to find stuff" approach.  I think you'll like it, but we probably won't have it in until next week.  The current one is serviceable at least, yeah.

1 personally I think its just because having to manage persifick resources is something I'm not really used to it was for so long that I would plan my buildings to benefit my over all city(before the split happened and needs) that I have a habit of putting down need fixers and just assuming that it its fine now and then I usually get confused as to why my needs aren't being fixed I'm not sure if this is just me or a thing that needs actual clarification
2 is that the same case with the philoshiphum(sorry I've probably butchered its name) having a building in act one with a need that doesn't even seem to exist in act 3 is a little strange to me.(unless I've missed something there)

[x4000]

For your comment on the lack of clarity with the resources in your prior post (two back), could you throw that on mantis if it's not already there?

As to your response to #1, the idea of the "problem bar" is to make it so you can basically look at that bar and if it says things are fine, things are.

Regarding #2, what race are you playing as?  Some races have needs that others don't, and in some cases I may have overlooked something.  Lots of buildings have needs that aren't serviced (and which don't even appear) until later acts.  So buildings that have few needs early pick up new ones as they go.  I'm not sure which ones are out of place right now, though.

[crazyroosterman]

For your comment on the lack of clarity with the resources in your prior post (two back), could you throw that on mantis if it's not already there?

As to your response to #1, the idea of the "problem bar" is to make it so you can basically look at that bar and if it says things are fine, things are.

Regarding #2, what race are you playing as?  Some races have needs that others don't, and in some cases I may have overlooked something.  Lots of buildings have needs that aren't serviced (and which don't even appear) until later acts.  So buildings that have few needs early pick up new ones as they go.  I'm not sure which ones are out of place right now, though.

1 I just keep assuming that my need fixers are city wider not territory wide its me being old I think ill bring It up again if I don't get past that and it starts driving me nuts

2 as it turns out I just started out a felyn game to take a look and its gone I guess something must have changed there since version one of acts I was playing as the felyn before and I needed devotion for the philoshiphum not that it matters now also I have to assume that the method of acquiring monster pits is intended to be completely different now since there's a start condition for it.

[x4000]

Generally speaking if one person has a bit of confusion, that means that ultimately hundreds or thousands of other people will as well.  With a small number of testers -- even a few hundred is "small" -- it might only be one or two people.  But when you extrapolate to then tens of thousands of customers, suddenly it can be rampant as an issue.

With the need for devotion, that probably showed up because you were already in act 2.  In act 1, it wouldn't appear there since that wasn't unlocked yet.

For the monster pits, or any other later-act thing that is mentioned in a goal for act 1, it gives you those for free at game start if you choose that goal.  Lucky you!

[crazyroosterman]

Generally speaking if one person has a bit of confusion, that means that ultimately hundreds or thousands of other people will as well.  With a small number of testers -- even a few hundred is "small" -- it might only be one or two people.  But when you extrapolate to then tens of thousands of customers, suddenly it can be rampant as an issue.

With the need for devotion, that probably showed up because you were already in act 2.  In act 1, it wouldn't appear there since that wasn't unlocked yet.

For the monster pits, or any other later-act thing that is mentioned in a goal for act 1, it gives you those for free at game start if you choose that goal.  Lucky you!

1 yea actually I've been sqetting and I've noticed that some new blood have bee having the issue as well so I guess I'm not just being old after all
2 nope this was before act 2 but its changed now so it doesn't matter
3 o oops I assumed I wouldn't be able to get past the first act but now I'm curious how they've changed if its acceptable to give them away for free.

[crazyroosterman]

I'm going to bed since I need to be up early in the morning so toddles to yawl and sorry for (kinda) derailing your post rythe.