List of glaring game design flaws and list of useful suggestions.

[colinmcrae12345]

Daedalus - No Escape has several design flaws that must be addressed. On the other hand, the game has huge potential, and to fully unlock it, it would be beneficial to implement several highly useful features that seem naturally suited to this game’s mechanics.

Dodging should be made optional, and the game menu should include an option to disable it if the player does not want to use dodging during gameplay. I constantly find myself accidentally dodging when I simply want to make a slight move by double-tapping the strafe key. This is extremely frustrating and ruins the experience when my character keeps jumping to the side when I don’t want them to.

Players should be able to assign two keys to the same function in the control settings, as is done in Half-Life.

In FPS control mode, the game doesn't use the vertical axis of the mouse, as if the mouse doesn’t have vertical freedom of movement. This is a major oversight in gameplay, because all input possibilities of the gaming devices should be fully utilized. Since the player has a mouse with two degrees of freedom, horizontal and vertical, the game should take full advantage of this. In FPS mode, the vertical mouse axis should control the analog movement of the character forward and backward, with a speed that directly corresponds to the speed of the mouse movement on the pad in the vertical axis, with a maximum movement speed limit for the character. This would allow much more precise, analog-like control of the character, greatly improving game dynamics.

The two gameplay modes, FPS and Classic, should switch between each other during the game with the press of a single button, without the need to go into the game menu and navigate through it.

In Team Play mode (Red vs. Blue) and FPS mode, the player’s attention is focused on the top part of the screen. However, this is where the game score is displayed—semi-transparent blue and red rectangles with the score numbers inside. These rectangles block the most important part of the player's field of view. The score should be moved to a different location so that it doesn’t interfere with the player’s ability to monitor the game.

The "Smooth Camera" option, which is currently toggled via the game menu (Player -> Smooth Camera), should be enabled and disabled with a single keypress during the game. Some weapons and situations work better with one type of control, while others benefit from a different one.

When assigning keys in the control menu, in the current version of the game, it’s possible to accidentally assign two functions to the same key. For example, assigning a specific weapon and the flashlight to the same key means the player turns the flashlight on and off while selecting the weapon. This is a serious error. As soon as a function is assigned to a key, all other functions previously assigned to that key should automatically be removed.

In the current version of the game, the Tab key always displays the game score, which prevents assigning other functions to the Tab key, such as weapon selection, turning on the flashlight, etc.

For more precise character movement around the level, analog control via a gamepad should be used instead of discrete WASD input. A gamepad allows the player to control both the exact direction and speed of movement. On the other hand, for more precise aiming, it’s better to use a mouse rather than a gamepad. This creates a paradox where, for ideal control, the game needs to handle input from both a gamepad and a mouse simultaneously. The player would play holding a gamepad in the left hand and a mouse in the right. This seems unusual and strange, but if this control scheme were implemented, the game would become much more dynamic and intelligent than it currently is. In the original version of Mutant Storm, this control scheme is technically possible. Based on how Mutant Storm's gameplay improves with this setup, we can estimate how much Daedalus - No Escape would benefit from it.

It would be highly desirable to add a 'zoom' button to the game. In Classic mode, this button would move the game camera (the field of view) toward the crosshair so that the crosshair is centered in the game camera (in the center of the field of view). In FPS mode, the game camera should simply move slightly forward, showing the player what is in front of the character at a distance of half the game screen.

The use of the flashlight introduces a very useful gameplay mechanic: on one hand, the player can better see the surrounding area and enemies, but on the other hand, the player reveals their location to enemies even before appearing in their line of sight, for example, while being around a corner. The disadvantages of using the flashlight far outweigh the advantages, and I believe this should be addressed. For instance, if the flashlight were made stronger, illuminating the surroundings more effectively, the drawback of using it would be balanced.

The game mechanics of quiet movement using walking seem underdeveloped to me. Enemies should be more audible when they are running, and they should not be audible at all when they are walking.