Some quick feedback on stuff

[Misery]

Okay, just a few things while I'm thinking about it... I'll probably add more to this later, dont want to take too long typing right now.

Note that I'm not an absolute expert, but I have done alot of runs now, and can get decently close to 100k much of the time. I havent yet found the secret to passing that (I have no idea what this "end game structure" is, for instance, that I've heard mentioned a couple of times... is it the city?). But, that fact might make this feedback useful simply due to it being from the viewpoint of someone that isnt an expert yet.

1. Lasers: Too good. Definitely too good. Whether it's dangerous grounded sentries, or planes, these are the fastest way to take out most things. They're just sooooooo easy to aim, and often do pretty darned good damage. I'd really like to see the weapons be more rounded out, to encourage the player to use different types. The others are definitely fun to use, but right now the laser (and similar weapons) is just too strong. Not to mention too easy. AND they're common as heck. This also means that many item finds just arent as interesting as they otherwise could be, entirely because they arent lasers. Seriously, lasers, way too important/strong.

2. Heat. Maybe it's just me, but I never seem to have to worry about this. I get heat sinks frequently, but I've hardly ever had to actually use them. It feels like a mechanic that isnt getting to show itself very much.

3. Power is kinda the same way so far. I typically have the reserve battery, and the aux generator, and.... that's pretty much all I need for most situations. I'm always finding other power things, which often sound pretty interesting, but rarely do I ever see a need for them. Some of them, also, are a little confusing. I have no idea what a load bank or a surge capacitor does. Since I never have power issues, there's not much reason to try and figure them out.

4. Keys (or whatever they're called): They seem REALLY rare. Too rare. Way too rare.

5. Arrow Indicators: These confuse me. Mostly, because they always look like they're going to point out something extra important.... but then I find out they're just leading me to the usual sorts of derelicts that I'm going to constantly find anyway.

6. The city: This seems stupidly important, when it comes to getting a high score. Or at least, that's the impression I've gotten of it. If the player cant locate it, they cant score too high. I *usually* have great trouble ever finding the bloody thing.

7. The ship: I wish there was more stuff that would happen with the various terminals and such. I mean, there's all these rooms and terminals, but most of the time, aside from the bridge, you'll just be using the screen for unloading cargo, and the garage, and the med doc. The engineering one quite rarely, and when it is used it's very simple, and there doesnt seem to be too much danger in taking too long to go reboot something.

More to come later!

[Khallis]

Thanks for the commentary!

I agree re: lasers. Funny thing: I've doubled the damage of flame projectors and arc weapons *twice* and I still rarely use them. Unguided rockets probably need to be more accurate, but that'll make the sentries using them scarier too. Guided missiles are, I think, extremely useful once you figure out to give them a screen, and how to get a lock - they'll lock on all by themselves, a target computer just makes it instantaneous.

Heat and power, I think you aren't trying to run a lot of the gadgets that make them critical. The rover can get some way without bothering, and you can choose to be a minimalist and avoid needing augmented power/heat capacity entirely, but some fun toys use a lot.

Load banks are useless as far as I know - they consume power and make heat. That's all.

Surge capacitors are batteries that don't hold much but can charge or discharge *extremely* quickly. Particularly useful for power-hungry weapons that need a lot of power but only for a moment.

Key transmitters: They are only one way into a vault. You could also shoot the door open, though this damages the contents or use an IFF transmitter, it also has a credential, though often a lower one or use hydraulic jaws as a manipulator to pry the door open without harming the contents or ignore them.

Arrow indicators: They can do a lot of things, and they don't tell you which. Sometimes they're pointing you to the nearest of every derelict that has a specific type of module in it. Sometimes they're pointing you to every enemy. Sometimes they're pointing you to the city. There's about fifteen possibilities in there. If you use one, and look for a pattern in what it's doing, you may decide it's useful or not. I may in a future patch make them explicit about what they are doing in the research text, because I don't think anyone has had the patience or time in a run to play them the experimental observational way I thought they'd get played.

The city: It's an endgame of sorts. The game feels incomplete without one I think.

The ship: I'm thinking of adding a "Sort by value" button to the storage room terminal where the EVA suit is. It would fire off a bubble sort of move and swap commands in the storage rack. That'd make that room more useful, spare you some busywork when it comes to deciding what to keep and what to trash, and make sense as something the ship could logically do.

[Khallis]

I've added the sort by value button in the current dev build, it'll go live when v1.03 does.

[David]

Just want to add to this that I find fire weapons the scariest weapon when the bots have them. I've lost 2 rovers that way. Maybe they're too strong for bots or I just need to dodge more? (of course I don't see fire that often but if I do now I will hightail it, both times I died I was trying to get close and didn't have a telecam).