My feedback about the game

[Vacui]

This is my first time posting a discussion on Steam, so I'm still settling in.


Firstly and most importantly, this game has potential. Not everyone can see it, but I think something good just lay under the surface.

My feedback will be divided into 3 categories:

1. Important changes: Something that needs to be added/changed or removed, to fix what I think is a problem.
   
2. Quality Of Life: A non-mandatory change that would greatly improve the players' experience.
   
3. Additional Tips: Ideas or suggestions guided by my tastes in games.

1. Important changes

The game in its current state exhibits a fun, solid, and expandable game-loop. But not before its biggest problem has been solved, the performances.

• A more stable game: There is a need for more fluidity, the loading problems that some users have encountered, and the drop in fps during battles must be fixed.
  
• Better AI: This is a singleplayer game, AI is the only obstacle and help a player has, so it must be programmed well.
  Playing the game I experienced allied tanks getting stuck on trees, missing enemies directly in front of them, or charging regardless of the situation.
  About the enemies, it is difficult to judge, since most are destroyed in one hit. The heavier ones are more difficult to kill and I am satisfied with them. But the fact remains that they have no strategy beyond a frontal suicide attack, which gets boring after a while.
  
• More settings: The possibility to reduce the volume of the music and effects, change the graphic quality, increase the depth vision (as I was sometimes hit by enemies that I couldn't even see), size and speed of the text, etc...
  
• A more active Community Management: There are a lot of unanswered discussions on steam. I'm not asking for something complex, but a "we're thinking about it" or a "thank you for your feedback" is worth a lot to a player, as long as it's written with sincerity and it's not just an automatic response. Obviously, you have to avoid making promises you can't keep, but the total lack of interaction that exists at the moment does not help the creation of a community.
  Also, it would be nice to have a Reddit/Discord/Forum where we can discuss more comfortably, rather than using Steam.

2. Quality Of Life

• Exact Number of Bullets Remaining: Instead of a progress bar I'd rather know exactly how many shells I can use, so I am able to make better choices.
  
• No double click to change shell: I understand this is an addition to reducing player errors, but I don't think it's necessary and it just slows down the gameplay, making it difficult to act in chaotic situations.
  
• Stop combat during dialogs: At the end or during a mission, stop the combat or the game, during a dialog with the NPC will be really appreciated.
  
• Voice warnings from the crew: "Charging!", "Reloaded", "Under attack!", "Behind us!". Such warnings when shouted with the right timing can help a player much more than UI. Also, don't forget to add on-screen text for those who can't hear sounds, as well as an option to enlarge the font size as needed.
  
• Pause on ESC: After pressing the ESC, adding a pause would be convenient for those who temporarily leave the computer.
  
• A key to look around without moving the cannon: In other games the C key, if pressed, allows you to look around without moving the cannon, which let you keep an eye on a place but also pay attention to your back.
  
• Faster text: The text typing effect needs to be faster in my opinion.
  
• More Personality to Characters: Adding a name, slang, and most of all a personality helps the connection between the player and its NPC's crew.
  
• More deep squad commands: The ability to order to an ally tank to attack a specific enemy, perhaps using a button that shows a radial menu, in which to select the ally. It would allow for greater strategy. And don't forget the classic commands: defend here, exterminate the enemy, follow me, etc ...

3. Additional Tips

• No Multiplayer: Difficult to implement, expensive to maintain and moderate, it attracts competitive players and brings out the worst in people. Multiplayer is attractive, the idea of being able to play against real people is tempting, but a sufficiently well created AI can reach and even exceed the capabilities of a human, without having to force him to fight against toxic players and bad teamwork.
  
• No Multiple Campaigns: The game is called Panzer Knights, the protagonists are German. If you exaggerate you will end up with 3 mediocre campaigns instead of one done well.
  Nothing prevents you from distributing a DLC with an additional campaign.
  
• Solidify simple gameplay before complicating it: You are currently working on the creation of 3 new systems: recruiting, camp, and garage.
  Don't let yourself be guided by anxiety, instead think about solidifying the current gameplay before complicating it by adding tech trees, crews, skills, etc ...
  It would just make you lose sight of the big picture.

Okay, I'm done.
Hoping you liked my post and I wish you the best.


Vacui

[Sango]

Thanks for your feedback, the suggestions above are really valuable.

After the game is released, we have seen all the feedback and written them down, no matter criticisms or suggestions. Some of them are on our schedule originally, some of them are added to our to-do list, and some of them were canceled during development because of some reasons. The team will discuss and announce the roadmap recently to let players knowing the futures of the game.

Besides, the team had thought about using Discord or Reddit, etc…. But considering the convenience of management and tracking, we still choose using the steam forum.

Thank you for the suggestions again. We will apply ourselves to let the game be better.

[Vacui]

Thanks for the reply. I am happy to hear that a roadmap will be announced and I will be following the events closely.

I wish you a good job.


P.S. If you need a hand in moderating or testing the game, I am a junior technical designer and would be happy to help and also gather valuable experience.

[Lestrad]

I agree with pretty much everything here.

I imagine if there is a recruitment menu planned, the characters will eventually have names. I also think voice alerts would make the game feel more alive. I don't think at this point that every line of dialogue needs to be voiced, but crew alerts would help.

I also think the dialogue needs to be tweaked a bit. Some of the lines seem very stilted and unnatural.

As far as multiplayer goes, I would certainly love to see some form of online coop implemented. I don't think this needs to be the next world of tanks game though. There are plenty of other games, but none that allow for coop. This could certainly fill that niche.