Demo Feedback

[SockDog]

First, thanks for releasing a demo, it's always appreciated to test out a game, for free.

The following is what's really jumped out at me during playing the demo along with some thoughts. Some are very minor things but hey feedback is feedback right?

Inventory - Moving items from one container to another seems a bit off. It's like you need to double click to shift from backpack to a container. It then only fills an existing stack in the container meaning you need to double click again to move the remainder. Sometimes doing this on items (such as battery) shifts it to the active slot rather than the open container. Coal also seems to be hit and miss on whether it'll top off the stack in the refineries.

Having specific key modifiers to stack, split, single in addition to what you've already got would be great. Likewise some UI to do a transfer to base containers in one click is a great QOL thing.

Shooting - Aiming seems way off, especially for the smaller critters. Given how easy it is to be swarmed, overwhelmed and the limit of shots this proves frustrating in combat.

Critters - Might just be me but the telegraphing (audio) of critters coming into attack seems too subtle. I get lots of false positive text alerts of something being detected which I run/speed past anyway (ultimately undervaluing the alerts). Perhaps the alert should trigger if a critter is locked on and about to attack. Additionally it seems many can fire through doors or clip through walls/doors (the floating mantarays specifically).

Energy/Durability - I appreciate the whole food/water thing is dropped in exchange for an energy system. However, within the confines of the demo the battery use, depletion (which only gets worse as you are required to use more tools) means you're ultimately running around with a stack (non-stackable) pack of batteries to swap out. Some balance, IMO, is needed here. Likewise for durability, this seems a bit unnecessary, an additional frustration. If it stays, I think it should only apply to items that are not reliant on energy. Broken items should also not just vanish.

Questing - A bit peripheral and rough right now. The demo seems to show, collect item/ore or kill X. I wasn't overly interested in doing these beyond needing to get credits for a few items. ie, they're not really that fun and in the case of handing over ores I asked why I would not immediately be smelting all mined ores I gather for crafting. After seeing those quests i'm now in a position of storing ores and ingots, smelting ores only if I need the ingots to craft something (meaning a delay while they smelt). It's just a bit counter intuitive and those quests at least should be for ingots not ores. Quest tracking could be a bit clearer in the UI and HUD too.

Modding - Depending on your intention for the game, supporting modding should be a priority. And by that I mean deeper narrative, machines and underlying systems modding. While cosmetic mods and blueprints are neat I personally don't find a huge value in them in isolation.

Dedicated Servers - Again, intentions matter. But the ability to self host via the game and also run a headless server for you and your friends is a big factor in multiplayer. Insisting on a p2p game hosting method limits the ability of multiplayer gamers to dip in and out of a world.

Price - Very much a personal opinion, and I'm a cheap ass gamer, but I'd like to see a price down at the £15 level. Anything above that will give me pause for thought. I appreciate your plan to not adopt a pay to play model but I've seen many games gatekeep the initial purchase way too high and then fall on their swords and either give up or go totally free. IMO if you build a great game, get a big community then those sales will continue for a long long time.

Sorry again for the rambling. Again, thanks for the demo and there is a lot in the game to like. I look forward to seeing more in a future demo or early access. Please keep building and thinking galactic in your ambitions.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

I agree, the durability is 100% not needed as it hardly has a place beyond extra resource drain in a game that has no automation to make up for it.

Furthermore, when it comes to energy drain the batteries should at a minimum stack. Else there needs to be a reduction as running out of battery is a game stopping mechanic since you can not even run once you are out. With guns draining a crazy amount of battery compared to all other tools.

[Mr. Fibble]

Consumables should stack, especially if they're a high use item like bandages (which are) or batteries (which aren't).

Not sure if its planned to be something that happens later on but the output of furnaces currently doesn't get seen by crafting terminals so you have to pulls stuff out of the furnace and stick in a box first.

The things highlighted by a scanner pulse doesn't stay visible for very long given the cost of energy.

First village had a few quests, BUT all bar one was sending me off to find 50 gold or tin ore.

Ore generation feels a bit off as I never found more than a few blocks at a time rather than noticeable veins. Ore also doesn't seem to have any kind of trick to finding it such as digging down a certain depth or looking in a specific biome.

Helper bot doesn't seem to have any keybinds for things like triggering its scan or getting it to appear next to the player rather than sitting on the surface twiddling its digits. Never had it come down into the underground with me which made it kind of redundant when looking for ores.

[LordBlade]

I agree that the durability thing is pointless in this game. There's absolutely no need for it other than punishing the player for no reason.

And limited energy batteries are terrible, especially as they don't stack.
I think a vastly better mechanic would be a recharge system. So batteries slowly recharge over time.

You could give players options. Large capacity batteries with a slow charge, meaning you can get a lot done at once, but have more downtime. Or Low capacity batteries with a fast charge, meaning you get stuff done in quick bursts.
And of course let us have a middle of the road battery with medium capacity and charge.

[LordBlade]

For moving inventory, I think Shift-Click to bring up a split option (rather than just half, we choose how many) and Ctrl-Click to transfer a stack would be good.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Originally posted by LordBlade:

I think a vastly better mechanic would be a recharge system. So batteries slowly recharge over time.

You could give players options. Large capacity batteries with a slow charge, meaning you can get a lot done at once, but have more downtime. Or Low capacity batteries with a fast charge, meaning you get stuff done in quick bursts.
And of course let us have a middle of the road battery with medium capacity and charge.

Which is ironically possible give the systems for it already exist in the game. they just need to add it in for batteries opposed to making them a consumable.

[SockDog]

Another alternative for power might be to allow individual batteries for equipment with perhaps a fail safe battery/batteries in your suit/backpack. It seems there are already mod slots on items to allow tweaks to base settings. This would give the player the ability to then choose different tier batteries (or as LordBlade said) different capability batteries to be matched with equipment.

Some additional feedback.

World Exploration - Much like the questing, the demo gives the impression that this is largely superficial. Discovered chests have low value loot. POIs found are simplistic so offer no challenge to the player. Locked chests are annoying as I now need to sacrifice another inventory spot on the off chance I need a key (hint. We should be able to pick up locked chests to unlock later). From the few locked ones I opened the loot is again not really worth it.

Appreciate that this is a big one with no easy answer. How to make a procedural world valuable and fun to explore without being obviously cut and paste POIs/Events dotted around. I play a lot of 7 Days to Die and it's something that game suffered from for years, the systems they introduced helped (along with bringing their own issues) but it took them a long time.

Thinking to the obvious Minecraft. Exploration, for me, was always about finding resources or items. Diamonds, specific animals, books, portals etc. Maybe a wider gameplay loop that encourages (unlocks) progress by finding these sort of items/resources. Building outpost bases to gather those resources or provide safe havens while exploring.

Ultimately I see this has being a potential Minecraft+ style game and I'd encourage you to have no shame in "learning" from their many years of work if it fits within your spin on the genre.

Item modification I notice that items in game have stats and several have mods/augments. I've even picked up some of these augments as loot. Yet I didn't see a way to swap these out or in.

Bot - Love the concept of the bot. Ore scanning is a god send and i hope future upgrades will allow it to show multiple highllights (within the same area). Better weapons etc. On the theme of automation it seems that bots tied to a base (tied to a transmission tower?) might be a way of introducing low level automation.

Such bots could be specialised to guarding, escorting, mining, carrying etc. Make them require rare resources to make (see world exploration) and if they are locked to a base this would also then encourage making outposts in resource rich areas.

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by SockDog:

Another alternative for power might be to allow individual batteries for equipment with perhaps a fail safe battery/batteries in your suit/backpack. It seems there are already mod slots on items to allow tweaks to base settings. This would give the player the ability to then choose different tier batteries (or as LordBlade said) different capability batteries to be matched with equipment.

Having equipment based power would be nice. As long as batteries stack.
Meanwhile the player could have a regenerating energy source that works as a backup.
Honestly, the energy thing should be done away with beyond guns. Because in a game like this, it doesn't serve much purpose other than being needlessly punishing.

Discovered chests have low value loot. POIs found are simplistic so offer no challenge to the player. Locked chests are annoying as I now need to sacrifice another inventory spot on the off chance I need a key (hint. We should be able to pick up locked chests to unlock later). From the few locked ones I opened the loot is again not really worth it.

I agree. Let us pick up locked chests. We can drop them at home and leave them for later. Or just let us deconstruct them with out tool, which breaks the chest with a chance of losing some of the items inside. But at least we can smash and grab instead of having to remember where the chest was.

[reyalite]

surely you will get higher tier energy cells to use that hold more power and eventually get bigger bags to carry stuff but i do agree they are something that needs to stack

[SockDog]

Originally posted by reyalite:

surely you will get higher tier energy cells to use that hold more power and eventually get bigger bags to carry stuff but i do agree they are something that needs to stack

Agreed. Yet with higher tier batteries I expect higher power usage devices. Which is what you see happening towards the end of the demo. It might become a non-issue or it may persist so I feel, even within the limits of the demo tech tree, it's a fair feedback to give.

[GafferGragz]

A repair should not require the same items and amounts as crafting a new one. It makes no sense. No game I know of do the same.

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by GafferGragz:

A repair should not require the same items and amounts as crafting a new one. It makes no sense. No game I know of do the same.

Agreed. Repairs should cost maybe 10% of the materials of the original item.

[Muut]

Originally posted by The Seraph of Tomorrow:

Furthermore, when it comes to energy drain the batteries should at a minimum stack.

+1 - the help says "make sure to take a stack of batteries", but they don't - made me wonder if it's just a demo bug.

[MadDawg2552]

Instead of the batteries breaking, why not pop out a depleted battery that we can then recharge, assuming we come some kind of power generator in the future.

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by MadDawg2552:

Instead of the batteries breaking, why not pop out a depleted battery that we can then recharge, assuming we come some kind of power generator in the future.

I like that too. Gives us more options.
Have some basic batteries, of increasing total charge. And a charging station. So once the battery's empty, we can recharge the empty one.
And then start giving us self-recharging batteries (which recharge slower than just popping them in the recharger, but can keep themselves going out in the field).

[SockDog]

Perhaps to address the 'outpost bases' there could be wireless charging so that in a limited range around a base you actually don't require batteries at all and the ones you have charge in your inventory/devices.

This would encourage putting down a base and supporting infrastructure away from your base. Perhaps different tiers of wireless charging could have limits on power delivered and range so that it gives you something to aim for all the way up to charging ships etc.