Intial feedback

[Killjoy]

I like the idea behind this but the game is very confusing and the tutorial doesn't really explain this so that it makes sense. I went through the steps of creating a ship assembler but it would be great to have specific positions to help the user create something that makes more sense.

[MelloBeard]

Hi Killjoy, thanks for letting us know. We spend a lot of time on the tutorial and would love to hear more about your experience. In our discord we have a feedback section that we would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

[Starbuck]

I found the tutorial satisfying but I have spent countless hours in factory games so take that with pinch of salt. I can see how it could be confusing for someone new to the genre.

[Killjoy]

Originally posted by Starbuck:

I found the tutorial satisfying but I have spent countless hours in factory games so take that with pinch of salt. I can see how it could be confusing for someone new to the genre.

One direct thing I would recommend is to switch up the combat portion of the tutorial. You go through a lot of that and then don't even use it. After the base building is complete, have them clear out one of the planets or monoliths. It'd be a good reason to use those new skills and ships.

[MelloBeard]

Originally posted by Killjoy:

Originally posted by Starbuck:

I found the tutorial satisfying but I have spent countless hours in factory games so take that with pinch of salt. I can see how it could be confusing for someone new to the genre.

One direct thing I would recommend is to switch up the combat portion of the tutorial. You go through a lot of that and then don't even use it. After the base building is complete, have them clear out one of the planets or monoliths. It'd be a good reason to use those new skills and ships.

Interesting that you mention that change. We purposefully have the combat at the very start because of the dynamic map generation and difficulty settings. Due to the fact that the Vek can spawn in various locations, it is possible for them to be near an asteroid at the very start of the game resulting in combat before advancing the tutorial. I can see how this can be a confusing step however if that isnt the players first experience.

[Robot from the future]

Originally posted by MelloBeard:

Originally posted by Killjoy:

One direct thing I would recommend is to switch up the combat portion of the tutorial. You go through a lot of that and then don't even use it. After the base building is complete, have them clear out one of the planets or monoliths. It'd be a good reason to use those new skills and ships.

Interesting that you mention that change. We purposefully have the combat at the very start because of the dynamic map generation and difficulty settings. Due to the fact that the Vek can spawn in various locations, it is possible for them to be near an asteroid at the very start of the game resulting in combat before advancing the tutorial. I can see how this can be a confusing step however if that isnt the players first experience.

This happened to me during the tutorial, and I'm not really great (or very familiar) with games in this genre. All I did was just move a little past an asteroid (as there were no warnings), and got extra super confused when the tutorial switched to building bats and giving me the top-down about combat. I hadn't even completed the absolute basic building tasks. It just ended in me panic cursing at the monitor, while getting lit up while not knowing how to defend myself.

It makes sense now, sure. But I think something like adding a temporary invisible wall or [insert other idea here] until the first basic portion is completed is more than reasonable. Separating the 2 learning points is huge imo.

Cool game tho. =)

[Spicy pineapple]

Originally posted by MelloBeard:

Originally posted by Killjoy:

One direct thing I would recommend is to switch up the combat portion of the tutorial. You go through a lot of that and then don't even use it. After the base building is complete, have them clear out one of the planets or monoliths. It'd be a good reason to use those new skills and ships.

Interesting that you mention that change. We purposefully have the combat at the very start because of the dynamic map generation and difficulty settings. Due to the fact that the Vek can spawn in various locations, it is possible for them to be near an asteroid at the very start of the game resulting in combat before advancing the tutorial. I can see how this can be a confusing step however if that isnt the players first experience.

The first thing I realised when I started playing was my ship having abilities.

It might be worth just having the player go into the first combat without additional combat ships as the first few enemies were easy to take down. I understood that I'd need to build combat ships before moving too far but if the enemy can spawn next to the asteroid I need to mine then that can prevent the player from getting the resource they needed.

Or the player can just start out with the combat ships prebuilt, or with the resources in inventory. Figuring out how to acquire more of something the player already has also seems more intuitive to me as the player can see that the ships shoots enemies making it more obvious the player needs them to better defend themselves.

[MelloBeard]

Thanks David et all - these are some interesting ideas.
I want to make sure that im captureing the thoughts on this thread correctly:
Basically the general sentiment in this thread is that the combat step in the tutorial feels out of place. It's not quite clear why it's there, and why you the player are engaging in this action. In addition to that the step itself is a bit clunky, and needs refinement to capture the moment of combat correctly.