Reactor is bad game design

[>//The_FALCON]

People pick focused fixing specifically because they don't want to deal with a 10 second fuse while they're trying to figure out the new thing. In focused fixing mode, it should be extra sensitive to mistakes instead of being a timebomb.

Also bad game design is kicking the player aaaaaaaaaall the way back to the beginning if they didn't manage to stabilize it. A hallmark of roguelikes is that the player can immediately go back and start again. Maybe the first time the player encounters a reactor, the game should stop time or something.

I'm at the point where I actively avoid any contract with a reactor in it, so I can actually play the game. At least the time bombs have a fair and balanced 100 seconds time limit and a single venn diagram to look at.

Also, please add a first rent skip upgrade. It's tedious to go through the first few days of low paying contracts again and again. I feel like at this point I can do these blind...

[Xaviar]

İlk olarak Daff tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Xaviar tarafından gönderildi:

I've only taken one reactor, I read the manual first, and I'm still stuck before even getting to the core. How do you know what button to push on the captcha? I read the manual before taking the job, and then when I went to the reactor I didn't know what to do to avoid locking it out, so I took the book back out and then died.

It doesn't help that I don't have sound -- the book seems to indicate that there is a beeping countdown timer, but I couldn't hear that, so it was just: Oh, I remember this screen from the book. If I do it wrong it will lock out. What was the right thing? *open book, look for answer, die*

And then looking again later it seems that the book doesn't actually have the answer, so I've just been avoiding them so far since trial and error means losing a couple hours of progress when I can just ignore it and am still seeing other new things.

its always the green button. its effectively just a question asking you if youre certified to work on reactors with green being yes and yellow being no.

Ah! Is there a puzzle aspect to this that I missed or is it just supposed to be trial and error?

[>//The_FALCON]

İlk olarak Xaviar tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Daff tarafından gönderildi:

its always the green button. its effectively just a question asking you if youre certified to work on reactors with green being yes and yellow being no.

Ah! Is there a puzzle aspect to this that I missed or is it just supposed to be trial and error?

if you translate the text, it says something like "are you competent in servicing reactors?" a is something like "yes" and b is "hell no"

[Xaviar]

İlk olarak >//The_FALCON tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Xaviar tarafından gönderildi:

Ah! Is there a puzzle aspect to this that I missed or is it just supposed to be trial and error?

if you translate the text, it says something like "are you competent in servicing reactors?" a is something like "yes" and b is "hell no"

Is there a tool or skill later that translates text? One of the locked omen upgrades? Is there a key somewhere?

How was I supposed to translate it in the 10 seconds I have between the ship landing and me dying?

Like I get it and can do it now, and maybe you don't have the answer and are just in the same position as me, but --

What is the expected path for a player to go from starting the game, to knowing how to open the panel, without using outside resources?

Is it just:
See it and die -> reread the manual -> next time hit a random button and
a) be right -> proceed with the reactor puzzle
or
b) be wrong -> die -> recognize that the captcha question is the same every time -> next time hit the other button -> proceed with the reactor puzzle

Or, as I asked above, is there a later tool or ability or key that translates the text and I just wasn't supposed to take a reactor job this early? Or like a hand-written note on a page I hadn't found yet that's like "It's always A"

Like, knowing this now, again, I can do it and continue. But the part that bothers me is that looking back I don't know how I was supposed to gain this knowledge WITHOUT the forums. Because there definitely wasn't time for me to realize I was supposed to translate it by hand and then .. do that, I guess.

[Daff]

İlk olarak Xaviar tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak >//The_FALCON tarafından gönderildi:

if you translate the text, it says something like "are you competent in servicing reactors?" a is something like "yes" and b is "hell no"

Is there a tool or skill later that translates text? One of the locked omen upgrades? Is there a key somewhere?

How was I supposed to translate it in the 10 seconds I have between the ship landing and me dying?

Like I get it and can do it now, and maybe you don't have the answer and are just in the same position as me, but --

What is the expected path for a player to go from starting the game, to knowing how to open the panel, without using outside resources?

Is it just:
See it and die -> reread the manual -> next time hit a random button and
a) be right -> proceed with the reactor puzzle
or
b) be wrong -> die -> recognize that the captcha question is the same every time -> next time hit the other button -> proceed with the reactor puzzle

Or, as I asked above, is there a later tool or ability or key that translates the text and I just wasn't supposed to take a reactor job this early? Or like a hand-written note on a page I hadn't found yet that's like "It's always A"

Like, knowing this now, again, I can do it and continue. But the part that bothers me is that looking back I don't know how I was supposed to gain this knowledge WITHOUT the forums. Because there definitely wasn't time for me to realize I was supposed to translate it by hand and then .. do that, I guess.

tbh i just figured out that its always the green button by just hitting the green button and noticing it was never the yellow button. i had no reason to hit the yellow button because the green button worked.

[shanaqui]

I don't actually remember what I did the first time I encountered a reactor. I suspect I just hit the green button because green = go, and green for yes is a pretty common UI choice. It would be helpful if they'd add to the manual precisely what each response button is, though.

[lekangs09]

Reactor, if you know what you are doing, is the most easiest joke of a module, to the point you would wonder why were you panicking necessary. I would say the best joys in this game is knowing how a tough module ends up being a joke a few runs later

If you are competent enough, you could do it without removing the core if only fuel OR cooler is damaged.
Just remove the core if both are damaged, although I think it might be possible to spam complete both cooler (have a pump ready) and fuel module.

[Xaviar]

Okay, so I think the consensus is that everyone just tried the green button.

I assume the difference is that without audio, I had not realized that the reactor was breaking behind the door, and so the pressure of possibly failing the captcha was stronger to me in the moment than the perceived pressure of the meltdown, and if I had had any idea how tight the time limit was I would have tried a random button because "f- it, gonna die anyway."

tldr final feedback:
There should be a visual indicator along with audio alert, visible from the front cover.
Currently, without audio, there is no way to know how urgent the reactor situation is, which can lead to players like me spending too much time trying to overthink the captcha panel due to the warning in the manual.

[Daff]

İlk olarak Xaviar tarafından gönderildi:

Okay, so I think the consensus is that everyone just tried the green button.

I assume the difference is that without audio, I had not realized that the reactor was breaking behind the door, and so the pressure of possibly failing the captcha was stronger to me in the moment than the perceived pressure of the meltdown, and if I had had any idea how tight the time limit was I would have tried a random button because "f- it, gonna die anyway."

tldr final feedback:
There should be a visual indicator along with audio alert, visible from the front cover.
Currently, without audio, there is no way to know how urgent the reactor situation is, which can lead to players like me spending too much time trying to overthink the captcha panel due to the warning in the manual.

The first page of the reactor grimoire page reads "DO THIS FIRST THESE THINGS LAND READY TO BLOW" if that isnt enough of a warning for how urgent it is i dunno what to tell you.

[>//The_FALCON]

İlk olarak Daff tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Xaviar tarafından gönderildi:

Okay, so I think the consensus is that everyone just tried the green button.

I assume the difference is that without audio, I had not realized that the reactor was breaking behind the door, and so the pressure of possibly failing the captcha was stronger to me in the moment than the perceived pressure of the meltdown, and if I had had any idea how tight the time limit was I would have tried a random button because "f- it, gonna die anyway."

tldr final feedback:
There should be a visual indicator along with audio alert, visible from the front cover.
Currently, without audio, there is no way to know how urgent the reactor situation is, which can lead to players like me spending too much time trying to overthink the captcha panel due to the warning in the manual.

The first page of the reactor grimoire page reads "DO THIS FIRST THESE THINGS LAND READY TO BLOW" if that isnt enough of a warning for how urgent it is i dunno what to tell you.

I did. I was. It still blew up before I could do anything.

[Daff]

İlk olarak >//The_FALCON tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Daff tarafından gönderildi:

The first page of the reactor grimoire page reads "DO THIS FIRST THESE THINGS LAND READY TO BLOW" if that isnt enough of a warning for how urgent it is i dunno what to tell you.

I did. I was. It still blew up before I could do anything.

you have plenty of time to disarm a reactor even if it has no coolant and no fuel, the only thing remaining is that you just didnt do it. its by far one of the easiest modules in the game and any difficulty is entirely psychological.

[You know my name.]

İlk olarak >//The_FALCON tarafından gönderildi:

People pick focused fixing specifically because they don't want to deal with a 10 second fuse while they're trying to figure out the new thing. In focused fixing mode, it should be extra sensitive to mistakes instead of being a timebomb.

Also bad game design is kicking the player aaaaaaaaaall the way back to the beginning if they didn't manage to stabilize it. A hallmark of roguelikes is that the player can immediately go back and start again. Maybe the first time the player encounters a reactor, the game should stop time or something.

I'm at the point where I actively avoid any contract with a reactor in it, so I can actually play the game. At least the time bombs have a fair and balanced 100 seconds time limit and a single venn diagram to look at.

Also, please add a first rent skip upgrade. It's tedious to go through the first few days of low paying contracts again and again. I feel like at this point I can do these blind...

This issue is no way to practice before finding one. After the 3rd time i did one i havent failed em. They arent to hard, the one i hate is the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pipe bomb when i was going so fast i snipped the wrong wire and i knew i couldnt fix it and i was just like. sigh man this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. i shoulda just tried to see if i could complete the job rather then dying.

[inconn]

Hey Devs, this is just stupid. I just spent 8 hours to get a great build, and then I die without even understanding what happened. Sucks assss.

[shanaqui]

İlk olarak inconn tarafından gönderildi:

Hey Devs, this is just stupid. I just spent 8 hours to get a great build, and then I die without even understanding what happened. Sucks assss.

Aww, that genuinely sucks. What's your suggestion to fix this for your situation? That kind of thing is probably most helpful for the developers in understanding how to make it less frustrating for everyone, if they can get an idea what the big stumbling blocks are.

I think for me, I could've done with a more detailed description of focused mode (i.e. specifically say that pipe bombs and reactors are still under a time limit). I thought that since it wasn't under time pressure, reactors would give me time too. I was prepared to die and start over, because it's a roguelite, and I saw the fatal tag and the warning to read the manual first... but then I got really flustered in the moment when I realised the reactor was gonna blow quickly, and forgot to turn off the fuel pump before I yanked it. If I'd realised it could be so time-pressured in focused fixing mode, maybe I'd have done better that first time.

...Or maybe not, who knows.

[Ultimoron]

even after watching video, and all the reading here i still ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up on my 2nd reactor, lol...

fuel was empty, cooler was empty
so i was "allright straight to removing the reactor",... to the turn off the fuel pump ( fliped down) and it blew off ( after rereading ,i see up is the off state, that counter intuitive to ever flipswitch i now.... ugh... maybe next time ... :(

[Kito Ballard]

I pissing hate this module. I'd rather do more pipe bombs. At least I can understand that one