First impressions..

[Pepisolo]

Sat down for only 20 minutes to start off with. Firstly, the good stuff:

Presentation-wise, this is the best looking Arcen game so far. Everything looks quite slick and futuristic. Some thrusters on the title screen spaceships would be nice, though, at the moment they just look like cardboard cut-outs.

Minor quibble. Some sound effects on the menus select buttons would be cool.

Major annoyance. I got completely paralyzed and even a bit pissed-off once in the game proper (the combat bit). I just didn't seem to have a clue what to do. I wanted to just escape without engaging the enemy and couldn't figure out how to do it. I then looked at the amount of turns left, which was 112 or something, and pretty much just gave up there and then. Quit the game.

... now, I'm putting a lot of this down to me just being derpy and in a slightly impatient mood, but I still wanted to get my raw feelings out there. This definitely doesn't seem like an easy to get into game. I'll play some more, and try to be more patient.

Oh. Not much you can do about this I guess, but the individual music pieces seem a bit short. Seemed like they were constantly switching to a new song.

[Cinth]

Did you read the intro bits?  You stole a prototype flagship and are being chased.  You need to get away

Easiest way to get away is to kill your pursuers.  It's just the thing to do.  They aren't going to hate you less  >D

[Pepisolo]

Did you read the intro bits?  You stole a prototype flagship and are being chased.  You need to get away

Easiest way to get away is to kill your pursuers.  It's just the thing to do.  They aren't going to hate you less  >D

Absolutely. Maybe I skimmed and missed something, but I was under the impression that escaping (without destroying the enemy) was a viable option. If the text had said "destroy these guys now" I would have concentrated more on that, and maybe got less frustrated. Just posting up my initial experience, which was one of annoyance followed by frustration quit. I'll try to think about what exactly caused me these frustrations, so as to provide more useful feedback.

[Mick]

Your experience matched mine. I wanted to escape without fighting and got frustrated by the absurd number of turns I would have to click through. 120 might as well be 120000000.

[Cinth]

Mkay, just looked at the intro again and can understand where you're coming from.

The wording in the "First Encounter" window also leads you to believe you can escape (120 turns is way to long to wait for a withdraw option).

If you look at the TT for the withdraw button, it says the enemy has you trapped.  Having to fight to get way is implied (I think it is typical phrasing in TBS games).

If anything, the language in the "First Encounter" window should give you your mission objective, in this case, eliminate all enemy ships.

[keith.lamothe]

Previously it was like 4 minutes.  Or may 2, I forget.  It's probable that during the conversion to turn-based that the number was simply translated (2 second turns, at the time) rather than rebalanced specifically with this experience in mind.

[Cinth]

Previously it was like 4 minutes.  Or may 2, I forget.  It's probable that during the conversion to turn-based that the number was simply translated (2 second turns, at the time) rather than rebalanced specifically with this experience in mind.

4 minutes fits.

30 turns per minute x 4 = 120, which is where it is XD

Edit: For me, on normal, it takes about 10 turns to kill both ships (focusing on them). 

[Kingpin23]

To prevent this from happening to others its maybe a good idea to make the first mission a oversimplified
Scripted tutorial mission. Learn how to move the ship and wich weapons to use with not to much text and all that.

A very straight forward tutorial so a reviewer or 10 year old would say wow that was easy.
And ofcourse an option to turn that off.

[x4000]

If you do a quick start, the idea is that it would take you into a simplified mode, yeah.  I can see why the wording there is unclear.  Part of the problem is that I actually do intend to have non-combat ways of resolving the intro mission, and even have that designed, but it's not coded in yet!  So there is that, heh.

And in general, there is going to be a mission objectives display at the top of the screen that is super explicit and brief ("6 remaining flagships to kill" or "3 pirate bases to kill" or "one orbital science lab to dock with" etc).  Keith has coded that general thing in as of several weeks ago, but I have not had time to make it pretty, or to actually get the specific logic for each mission type in there so that it tells you the correct things.

[Cinth]

And in general, there is going to be a mission objectives display at the top of the screen that is super explicit and brief ("6 remaining flagships to kill" or "3 pirate bases to kill" or "one orbital science lab to dock with" etc).  Keith has coded that general thing in as of several weeks ago, but I have not had time to make it pretty, or to actually get the specific logic for each mission type in there so that it tells you the correct things.

I remember you telling me before   Gotta harp on things sometimes 

[x4000]

Oh, please do!  If I don't hear about something repeatedly, sometimes it gets forgotten.  I don't take offense in the slightest to people saying something to me more than once if it hasn't been done yet and it's something I had even a possibility of doing.

[Cinth]

Oh, please do!  If I don't hear about something repeatedly, sometimes it gets forgotten.  I don't take offense in the slightest to people saying something to me more than once if it hasn't been done yet and it's something I had even a possibility of doing.

I've been here for awhile now, bossman! 

[x4000]

Hahaha, yeah, I'm sure you've noticed.