What's the WORST thing about FortressCraft Evolved?

[DjArcas]

Be specific and accurate. Vague "The UI is clunky" comments will just get a reminder that there's about 300 separate UI parts, they aren't all clunky, clunky isn't quantifiable, and along with words like 'polish' and 'slick', they aren't something I can attack.

There are no bonus points for naming me as the worst thing either.

[Robert]

The worst thing is that it doesn't make enough money for you so you decided it's time to stop development and move on to new projects. :P

Other than that, FCE is a masterpiece! Bit rough around the edges and it could use some more polish here and there, but considering the number of devs involved it's amazing what you have accomplished with a little help from others.

[TeeBee30]

In my opinion, the worst is the holobase design, in map mode. The regular holobase is fine (after pressing k) but if you have a lot of machines, in map mode is a struggle to find anything, especially if they're far away from you. Also, the main UI overlaps a bit over the holobase so you can't read all the info. It's not really a big deal as most people won't use it that much anyway.

If you're asking about "worst things" to fix them if possible, then I'd go after the overlap. Redesigning the holobase would be too much of a hassle. Otherwise, great game. Thanks for all your effort in developing this game and I hope you'll continue to amaze us with great games in the future.

[Manpapper]

I won't say it's the worst but a better tutorial and starting game would have probably make more people get the game.

I start the game one week ago and the most difficult part was to figure out what to do, for me it doesn't really matter because I like discovering the game by myself but I can understand if some people stop playing because every thing isn't serve on a silver platter.

Another thing, I didn't really liked is to find organic rocks to build the basic ore smelter, you can't really automate the start because finding organic rocks isn't really instinctive ( SW/SE/NE/NW). And I only got enough for 2 basic ore smelter, IMO it should be easier to build the basic ore smelter.

The last thing was the impossibility to remove the ship. I have done 2 games first one to discover the game until iron and the second one to redo the tutorial because I thought I missed something with Basic ore smelter.

On the second game a massive copper mine under the ship which I couldn't remove (Yeah I know a mod exist which remove the ship but I prefer vanilla games).

[Zentaki]

worst thing is the in game music and the lack of option to change music volume or turn it off/on switch.

Personally, hate musics in games. Dos not matter what music it is.
If i want to listen to music i rather put music on in my stereo or whatever, but it will be something i choose as my mood demands it.

About this game music it is weird. It kinda does give nice atmosphere and is a nice match for the game. But as i said i don't like music in game in general. And this one here as much as it's a good choice fpr the game it makes me nouseous.

Luckly the music is not on 100% of the time, but it annoys me to the point i really need take a break from the game.

So any way , making a game and not make music in a separate channel which players could tweak the volume or turn it off if so desires is one of the worst things a dev can do to a game. Not to mentioned it is not very friendly thing for the custumer in general.

And yes, unfortunately i can't take this game's music. Love the game though!

[DjArcas]

Originally posted by Zentaki:

worst thing is the in game music and the lack of option to change music volume or turn it off/on switch.

Ctrl-M.

[mohrad]

Inconsistency.
Machines do not follow set patterns, or have too many exceptions.

Assume any generic machine that looks like based off a conveyor belt model
(I belive You call those GAC?).

One would think such machine has one side as an input, the other as an output due to the conveyor look-alike just to some of them trying to output to the side that looks like input.

I don't know if it's a bug, intended QoL change or what, but it does confuse me - why make it look in certain way if the behaviour does everything but what You would expect based off the looks?


Also, my rotten luck, I always seem to not know/remember the block's function on only those particular blocks that ...have no help entry :c

Edit: I just "returned" to FCE and bought Adv pack, so I guess I'll edit this to be more precise in some time.

[SRR Rig]

Progression.

The game just throws things at you, very rarely with a clear purpose to each machine, or a specific challenge to overcome.

Instead of a game like Metroid, where new tools are introduced gradually as well as new challenges, FCE has always felt like a sandbox with zero purpose. It feels like a collection of mods, with some random enemies thrown in, than an actual game, with a tutorial, and clear progression.

[TeeBee30]

@mohrad There are actually 2 (at least) types of GACs in the game: the original conveyor-like ones and the newer, "smelter-like". As a rule of thumb, you can interpret it like this: if it has variable crafting based on resource (like multiple types of wires or coils, based on the main ingredient), then it acts like a conveyor. Else, it acts like a smelter. I usually tend to use conveyors if possible (single item input accepts this) or sets of 2 hoppers: add-only and remove-only. That way, I can be certain that the crafted items will be deposited in the add-only hopper. Keep in mind that conveyors don't respect those restrictions. They can pull from add-only hoppers and insert into remove-only.
I don't know the real reasoning for this functionality but it manages to make the player expand the surface area occupied by the infrastructure and keep in mind that this is a more vertical game than horizontal, meaning you can (and should) expand in all 3 coordinates: x, z and y.

[the mood]

#1: Unclear tech progression.
I sometimes find myself having access to machines that I simply cannot build yet because I need some material that I currently cannot obtain.
E.g: Unlocking anything requiring gold foil before unlocking gold foil maker

Also, picking the next research project can be a reasearch project in itself, using the in-game manual that outlines what research unlocks what.
I personally tend to favor the visual "tech trees", as portrayed in Civilization games (Even as early as Civ II). That way it is usually clear and understandable why techs are locked away and how to reach them. IMO Tech trees can work even when most of it is hidden, revealing nodes as you go along.


#2: For me personally
The recurring attention grabbing sound for warning/problem missions (e.g. "ore extractors offline for N minutes").

I solved it by making a local mod that simply silences the offending sound clip forever at startup. This worked wonders for me and I now find the game intensly more enjoyable/less stressful, since the visual que is more than helpful (for me).

To this day, I avoid watching streams of the game because of that specific sound.


#3: Time itself.
I want to play this game more because it's unique and wonderful in so many good ways. Sadly, real life demands I spend some time doing other things than just play this game.
Please never stop being an awesome game dev and best of luck with your other projects. Will be looking forward to all of them :)

[nickbuss72]

The documentation. It's generally rather sparse and can be inaccurate. It's not as bad now as when I started 18 months ago, but still not great.

A couple of examples: I was close on 1000 hours in to the game before I discovered that the worlds name is its seed. And, only a few weeks ago I discovered that matter movers can beam directly into other matter movers, whereas the help explicitly says that they have to beam into a hopper.

[harchon]

#1 - Definitely the documentation, what is there is "generally" pretty good, though missing a lot of flavor text that might alleviate some confusion and give some guidance on what you might want to do next. I've even seen one or two things that said the was no help text available.

I've seen people mention a better tutorial (I think you added a walkthrough guide in the help but I haven't looked for that yet), but if the Help system was more fleshed out it would guide people in a general direction and a massive tutorial wouldnt be necessary.

I've also seen people mention a "Tech tree" to show reasearch branches and gets learned. A lot of the information is right there in the help but not organized in a visual tree-like way. Sure I can look at research XYZ, see that it unlocks A, B, and C. But I can't look and see that to unlock, for example, the Jetpack, I need to research A, B, D & E, then H, in that order. Thats the sort of thing people are looking for in a tech tree. Again, that would help instead of a full blown tutorial since it would offer some guidance on what you might need to do next.

For Example, I come across copper ore at the beginning. Hit H for the help and it pops up the help for copper ore, which might show it smeltable to Copper Bar. Click on copper bar and it would show you need either a basic ore smelter or an ore smelter. Hmm, I don't know how to make the Ore Smelter I click on that. Oh look, it needs other things I cant make yet, but I can see if I research This..and this..and this...it will unlock the recipe for the Ore Smelter. And I might come across some other useful research along the way.

#2 - if I had to say a #2 it would be that I only discovered FCE right before you wrapped up development on it. I really enjoy playing it and I don't see many bugs (pardon the pun). Just that programmers should program and leave the documentation to a technical writer when they are able :)

[Zentaki]

Originally posted by DjArcas:

Originally posted by Zentaki:

worst thing is the in game music and the lack of option to change music volume or turn it off/on switch.

Ctrl-M.

Can you pls tell me where that information was? it wasn't obvious. Expect that option to be on the sound options.
Thank you.

[Lunafox]

While definitely not a list things I HATE as this is more a list if nitpicks that I feel detract from the game more than anything. I should also preface this with stating that my game-time with FCE has been solo, I get the feeling that playing with a small group is more the target audience for the game.

1- In Game Links to DLC; On the startup splash screen and main menu, Awesome! I have no issue with it there. All the in game items & pointless research unlocks however, belong back in a 90's shareware title. The have a very "Buy the full game to unlock these cool features" feel and have no place in the middle of a paid for game.

2- Item Icons; Items and blocks that are placeable are 'mostly' an isometric viewpoint while non-placeable, suit equipment and crafting materials are 'mostly' flat icons. This can make quickly identifying what type of item your looking for difficult and could be frustrating for some... unless you enjoy word searches, hidden item games and the like. Mostly this is a point of communication to what an item is and a clue as to it's function.

3- Surface Attack; From where, what direction as I didn't see where spiderbro wobbled off to. Possibly having the threat scanners stop spinning and point at the direction of the attack while it is underway. Possibly even having a suit up-link item to add an icon to the hot bar muck like the directional arrow that always points to the CPH. Again falls under communication to the player.

4- Worms; more clearly defined hit boxes would be an improvement. especially worm attacks, where is that goo going, why can they not aim up, why do I die from touching a dead worm? They still have a very placeholder feel to them. At least give us the option of pewpewing them even if it only registers as 0 damage, making is very clear that your popgun laser is ineffective. This could also be applied to the Overminds.

5- What the Smeg; Please do not take this as a personal attack on the developer however I get the feeling that a lot of these issues that I've brought up are coming from the fact that they have fallen into the trap that a lot of other artists have fallen into with their projects. After spending so much time with the work at hand it becomes second nature as to what things are, what they do and how to work around the problems, that they forget what it feels like walking in on it the 1st time. While I concede that learning the quirks and mechanics of the system is kinda the point of it all. Making things that are a challenge and engaging for people who have been around from the start may end up making things obnoxiously obtuse for those just walking in and may not give them the feeling to stick around and truly dive deeper into the artwork you've created. With this I may be off mark as to how challenging learning the mechanics should be, however it is something that I feel should be held in mind

[Wariat117]

As achievement hunter I find unobtainable achievements the worst thing :V

Join server with 50+ people in a game where even best internet and PC won't handle 30 or so :D
On the other hand I doubt that anyone has seen more than 20 different nicks on forum/discord in short period of time, there is not enough community to do this...


Host server with 50+ people... Only 1 person gets achievement, so you have to repeat it 50+ times... and it seems it has to be done with in-game hosting (which is said to be unsupported and we shouldn't use it) because Dedicated Server doesn't unlock hosting achievements...

For example "Hosted Multiplayer World" won't unlock if you host dedicated server, funny enough you will get "Joined Multiplayer World" achievement if you join this server.

Originally posted by Pix:

For an infinitely generated world and having to share one CPH with threat, did not make any sense to us in multiplayer. More of a co-op based game as the name suggests, cooperative.

Isn't that the point of cooperation? To share and work together?
Having 2 CPH would make it into competitive "who will build better factory faster"
Having 2 different threat meters would kill all PCs, think about wasps attacking 2 different location at the same time.

Originally posted by the mood:

I personally tend to favor the visual "tech trees", as portrayed in Civilization games (Even as early as Civ II). That way it is usually clear and understandable why techs are locked away and how to reach them. IMO Tech trees can work even when most of it is hidden, revealing nodes as you go along.

Many people wanted tech tree, but not even single one of them was able to picture good tech tree :D
Example of very old tech tree:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fortresscrafte/images/4/4f/TechTree_%26_Frozen_Factory.png/revision/latest?cb=20161115201407
And now imagine face of new player seeing this.

Current handbook allows you to see recipes/researchs unlocked by currently avaible research but it's half-fake...
If you need 3 researchs for certain item then each research will say in handbook "You need only this one research to unlock this item" instead of "It's one of the research required for this item".
btw I didn't test it... but... Can you even press this item in the handbook to see researchs needed? (in the handbook where research lists stuff it unlocks)
Currently can't test, if noone answers then I will do it later.

Originally posted by Sky Demon:

the worst part for me is while many players may claim fortresscraft is 'complex' there is no such complexity in a game made primarily of straight lines,

Actually... new players hit walls like
"You need special ingredients to progress which you don't know how to make"
Many will quit before they find out how to make wire because sane person wouldn't read descriptions of everysingle avaible recipe just to find that something random, named "Extrusion Plant" is needed to progress.

Handbook doesn't have search function, you have to look throught everything to find out what you need, it discourages people. (and the fact that stuff is shuffled to random categories like "Organic Rock is machine" doesn't help)
(Keep in mind that new players don't know about hidden features of handbook like "press H on something in inventory" but even this one can't help them because they don't have any wire :D)

Even if you read the guide from handbook you are gonna hit page 2, saying that you need ingredients but doesn't say how to make them.
Page 3 will randomly throw names of the machines at you... but if you are new... how are you supposed to know that they are machines?

[wombat]

I'd have to say the color palette has too much fluorescent colors (textures etc are really green, really purple, really blue) and the textures aren't very interesting or diverse.

I feel like another pair of eyes (and hands: for better model design: e.g; more artistic types) would be helpful in the development process.

The gameplay is spot on however.

And the fact that we cant persistently mute the music is very annoying. (And that we cant rebind the console key, which overlaps with the key 4 on my keyboard).