accelerate time and general useability improvement

[EAGLE_75]

I know you´re still way to go before this is going to be finished, ...
BUT please finally implement an accelerate time feature !! People invest so much time testing and speeding up game time would really be beneficial for everyone.
Next thing that needs improvement is the UI and overall useabilityof the front end. Every time I start a new game it reminds me of an UI from the Settlers from 199x (or 200x).
Talking about useability, yes the feature of being able to create individual houses with different furniture is nice, but what´s the deal ?!?
I mean really there is no impact if i have a table or stool in my house. the only "required" furniture is a cot ... so all my houses look the same.
The same goes for production buildings, yes it´s a nice feature to be able to place worbenches, but other than adding unnecessary micromanagement what´s the deal?
I know that might sound harsh but a game is about abstracting, so implementing a feature that adds complexity without benefit (again, might sound very harsh) what´s the deal?
Is it bad to have a level 1 to level 3 building that can simply be upgraded with one klick ?
do i really need to tear down a building or remove each workbench one by one to finally put some "tier 2" oven there?
Acutally the way you set up buildings already reflects level 1-3 (for most buildings). why not do the complete step and allow for one klick upgrades?
You can implement some easy mouseover hover box that shows how much "wood, steel, whatever" is required for the upgrade AND provide information what the upgrade actually does! An information that is completely missing right now.
workbench vs. stone oven vs. steel oven !?!? there is no information whatsoever how the output does improve. I guess someone who has been working on implementing this micromanagemnt will hate me for that post, but i think I´m bringing up some essential flaw in the concept.
you can still leave the option to manually select the size of a building (again using some mouseover hover to show required resouces, amount of people able to work there, and average output) but you get rid of the micromanagement (that from my point of view only hinders the flow of play, and adds complexity where it´s not helpful/needed)

[Tikigod]

Regarding building design, it's about options.

The reason you can decide the contents of housing? So the player can decide if they want colonists to have individual sleeping quarters populated with nice things (and a place to sit and eat), or if they want to give their colonists a military barracks like sleeping arrangement where everyone sleeps in rows of cots next to each other in crude shacks.

Same with production, different modules offer different trade offs or production options. If a player wants to design their production a specific way, then the tools allow them to do that.

Simplifying that to deployable starcraft/RTS structures with upgrade buttons very much pisses away all that option for diversity and chocie to the player. Something the original settlers didn't offer either as that too simply opted for generic deployables btw ;).


At the end of the day, I really get the impression that this game was never intended to be anywhere close to the likes of Banished, Settlers or other colonial population/size milestone games where buildings are just pre-moulded assets you plonk down and your goal is just to build the biggest collection of generic blocks in all the land.

Instead in Clockwork Empires the colonial management seems more of a setting environment for what is probably closer to a more automonous and detailed simulation variation of the Sims, rather than a colony building game like Banished.

I do often wonder how many people bought what they thought was something along the lines of a more simulated version of Banished, without thinking that perhaps they're buying something much closer to a detailed Lovecraftian take on the Sims concept.

And by 'The Sims concept' I mean a game that is focused more toward the individuals in the colony in terms of personality and needs, where your role is more about managing their environment and then seeing how things play out with the simulation.

[[Q]uik]

This game is definitly more sims like, so to speak, rather than RTS like BUT - upgrading buildings would be nice - so you can atleast upgrade the building "tier" and just manually having to replace items inside would be great tbh

[[Q]uik]

something that would be a great addition too - regarding useability is to enable/disable specific materials in the stockpiles.

[MuthaF]

Originally posted by Quik:

something that would be a great addition too - regarding useability is to enable/disable specific materials in the stockpiles.

Nothing like to suddenly find out your stockpile has 60+ human bandit raw stakes and nothing else to eat...

[Red Knight]

I think you make some valid points and I'm frustrated as well. Thing is we don't know what they're striving for, so we don't know how close we are to the final game.

I for one think the residents of the Empire could do with second story buildings, paths/roads, and we need more knowledge of how things should work.


Take a page from Banished....Houses of would can be upgraded to stone and every house it's own stores besides the stockpiles. Fields are as big as you have space, and more choices of things to grow as well as livestock.

This might all come down the pike or never be part of the plan, but something need to be improved.

[EAGLE_75]

Originally posted by Tikigod:

Regarding building design, it's about options.

The reason you can decide the contents of housing? So the player can decide if they want colonists to have individual sleeping quarters populated with nice things (and a place to sit and eat), or if they want to give their colonists a military barracks like sleeping arrangement where everyone sleeps in rows of cots next to each other in crude shacks.
....

Well, yes my impression of that game was more in the area of Banished than Sims, you got a point there. The thing that makes me wonder about the furniture options is, do they have ANY impact on the gameplay !? As i said i need cots for people to sleep in everything else is not required. If i compare this to a more "Sims" kind of game, every piece of funriture has some kind of capability or satisfies a need. I´m missing this in the game. I can build a nicely furnished 2 cot house or a massive barrack but the people don´t care where to stay. They even don´t sleep in the same house every night, and they don´t care who sleeps next to them. Actually i haven´t seen people sharing a kingsize bed at all!
My "impression" is the developers themself haven´t yet decided which way they want to go (Sims vs. Banished), but that´s a crucial point of the whole game, isn´t it !?

[EAGLE_75]

Originally posted by Quik:

something that would be a great addition too - regarding useability is to enable/disable specific materials in the stockpiles.

Yes the break up of materials isn´t very helpful right now. It would really be nice to set a stockpile for a specific production run. like everything required for metalworks or anything related to the kitchen (pre- and post-production). Weapon stock next to the barracks...
Using the cabinet as a storage!? ...

[EAGLE_75]

Originally posted by Red Knight:

I think you make some valid points and I'm frustrated as well. Thing is we don't know what they're striving for, so we don't know how close we are to the final game.

I for one think the residents of the Empire could do with second story buildings, paths/roads, and we need more knowledge of how things should work.

Take a page from Banished....Houses of would can be upgraded to stone and every house it's own stores besides the stockpiles. Fields are as big as you have space, and more choices of things to grow as well as livestock.

This might all come down the pike or never be part of the plan, but something need to be improved.

If we look at the development report (http://clockworkempires.com/development.html) the game is 91% finished, buildings 94%, maybe what we are looking for is "hidden" under events, metagame !? which is at 31%. The 91% overall finished number was making me feel a bit uncomfortable when I see the current state of the game.
Paths - very good point there !
Fields - also agree that it´s pretty weird that you can create a 20x20 houde but only a 7x7 (!?) field

[Tikigod]

Originally posted by EAGLE_75:

Originally posted by Tikigod:

Regarding building design, it's about options.

The reason you can decide the contents of housing? So the player can decide if they want colonists to have individual sleeping quarters populated with nice things (and a place to sit and eat), or if they want to give their colonists a military barracks like sleeping arrangement where everyone sleeps in rows of cots next to each other in crude shacks.
....

Well, yes my impression of that game was more in the area of Banished than Sims, you got a point there. The thing that makes me wonder about the furniture options is, do they have ANY impact on the gameplay !? As i said i need cots for people to sleep in everything else is not required. If i compare this to a more "Sims" kind of game, every piece of funriture has some kind of capability or satisfies a need. I´m missing this in the game. I can build a nicely furnished 2 cot house or a massive barrack but the people don´t care where to stay. They even don´t sleep in the same house every night, and they don´t care who sleeps next to them. Actually i haven´t seen people sharing a kingsize bed at all!
My "impression" is the developers themself haven´t yet decided which way they want to go (Sims vs. Banished), but that´s a crucial point of the whole game, isn´t it !?

A good post to read regarding colonist simulation and how currently a lot of the colonist personality/needs system is disabled or scaled down so that people can actually play and test things without the additional colonist aspects getting in the way.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/224740/discussions/0/598199244893323195/#c530645446315724391

So things like additional modules not appearing to have a net impact on your colonists could potentially be put down to the fact that colonist simulation at present isn't running in full swing.

But when it eventually is, colonist personality traits like being materialistic and wanting to 'own' lots of things, or being drawn to more rustic needs and not caring about material wealth will likely factor in to how your colonists react to living in fancy dwellings or living in shared barracks and other environments too, llike their work place etc.

It's hard to really tell how it will have progressed until the simulation is going full steam once again. But it would all make sense in terms of tieing together.

[[Q]uik]

Originally posted by EAGLE_75:

Originally posted by Quik:

something that would be a great addition too - regarding useability is to enable/disable specific materials in the stockpiles.

Yes the break up of materials isn´t very helpful right now. It would really be nice to set a stockpile for a specific production run. like everything required for metalworks or anything related to the kitchen (pre- and post-production). Weapon stock next to the barracks...
Using the cabinet as a storage!? ...

Exactly, just having wood next to my carpentry, and being able to set priorities of stockpiles would be awesome too.

[Tikigod]

It may be my memory playing tricks on me, but I believe the original idea was for workplaces to have exterior areas that could be used as loading bays for materials specific for production, and that the behaviour was in the game but was removed as it wasn't quite working properly.

So a kitchen would have a space where stockpiles could be placed that would hold raw food and cooked food

Ceramics would have a space where stockpiles could be placed where clay and bricks could go.

And so forth.

[[Q]uik]

that sounds like a greater idea :P

[Tikigod]

Potentially outdated now, but a earlier development idea behind it: https://www.gaslampgames.com/2013/08/14/from-the-humble-loading-bay-all-things-follow/

[[Q]uik]

I hope that A; vehicles is still planned, and B - they keep that original idea of stockpiling. That would make it sooo much fun.

[EAGLE_75]

Originally posted by Tikigod:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/224740/discussions/0/598199244893323195/#c530645446315724391

good link, thanks