Beta Feedback

[Topher]

I am a veteran board gamer that absolutely loves Terraforming Mars, and have played it about 50 times (give or take). I understand this is a Beta and I'm interested in helping make the final version as amazing as the board game it simulates. Also note that I was able to win my tutorial match. As such please take the following criticisms as constructive:


1) The art for the board, city, ocean, and greenery tiles are wonderful but as a slightly colorblind person I had a hard time discerning the ocean tile plots from the rest. Perhaps a blue filler shade rather than a border can help make them more visibly distinct?

2) The font used in the tutorial, while thematic, has a potential lack of clarity due the the lower case versions of "O" and "A" being nearly identical. Giving the "A" a little more of a backbone would help readability of the font.

3) The current level of Oceans is fairly clear to read, however the current and next spots for O2 and Heat are much more confusing. Having the bars fill up to a number and then the number ABOVE that filled bar being the current level is a rather unclear method of visualization. I suggest filling the bar to include the current level and simply changing the font color of the current level so that it appears bold and distinct to make the current value "pop" rather than having to search for it. This way the current O2 and Heat are read as the bold numbers at the tops of, but within, the filled in bars of progress, leaving the next step to be gained as the normal font number just above the bar.

4) The game currently ignores/breaks some core rules that should be resolved. The most prevalent ones are in regard to the AI attempts to increase terraform levels (Oxygen, Heat, Oceans) even after the bar is capped. The rule that blue cards can activate the turn they are played is also apparently not coded in yet and can be important in actual play.

5) Many blue cards, especially those that generate and store microbes to perform actions, are being misused by the AI. During my tutorial the AI player used Regolith Eaters to raise the Oxygen once per generation, apparently ignoring the need to spend 2 microbes stored on the card to be able to trigger that second action. I have seen this behavior from the AI on Nitrite Reducing Bacteria to gain 1 TR every generation as well.

6) The AI placed Noctis City wherever it wanted, ignoring the reserved location for it.

7) The Tutorial goes out of its way to teach you to play the game poorly. This is the big one, the one that bothers me the most so it will be a bit long. AI improvements and bug fixes are a given, but the scripted tutorial itself needs a complete overhaul. When teaching a game I always caution to do things the long and completely correct way the first several times to learn good habits, because breaking bad habits is harder than learning good ones. So when I see things in the tutorial like forcing me to end a generation when I have 8 plants or 8 heat I simply have to speak out against it. A tutorial should start someone on the path of making good habits and choices that will aid them in succeeding, not simply hamfist rules explanations in a predetermined order. There is no reason that every rule and mechanic cannot be shown and played by the character within 5 Generations. Why force me into Beginner Corp and then take away the single benefit the corp has (10 starting cards)? You can literally force their hands to have the perfect low cost starting cards to demonstrate everything. At the very beginning they can have a red, blue, and green card in hand with a multitude of tags as well as cards with requirements of both tags and terraforming goals (heat, oxygen, oceans). Immediately start off with an explanation of the differences between the card colors and how they work, as well as how tags work. Explain the differences between gaining resources and gaining production. Then have the player play cheap production cards early because that should be your early game goal. My tutorial gave me Micro Mills in my starting 3 cards and then made me end multiple generations with more than the 3 credits needed to play it. Have the player play Nitrite Reducing Bacteria on turn 1 to learn about action cards, storing resources on action cards, spending resources from action cards, gaining Terraform Rating, and how it improves income. Then have the player play Fuel Factory to learn about spending production and gaining production. Give the player Noctis City so they can learn about the need to generate energy production to play city cards. Then teach about standard projects to get that energy production. Then play Noctis City and teach about Steel resources being used to play building tags, then teach about reserved spaces when it is placed on the board, then teach about gaining resources when you cover them with tiles. That's 1 card with several key mechanics that's very playable in Generation 2. Have the player play an event that drops an ocean to learn about events, spending titanium for space tags, and placing oceans. Then go over the milestones and awards, then let the player simply play until they hit 8 plants or 8 heat resources where you interject a tutorial on spending those resources to place greenery tiles or raise heat. Just give a few good advice choices for early and then remind the player when options are available. For the love of a pretty green and blue Mars do NOT teach them bad habits like this tutorial currently does.

8) Don't show the other players resources automatically on their turns, let me see my own cards and resources so I can plan my moves. If I want to see their stuff I can click on it myself. Actually, what would be great would be small iconography next to the player name to show remaining credits and show a heat icon when they have 8 heat and a greenery tile icon if they have at least 8 (7 for Ecoline) plants.

9) For action cards the player has, don't just list how many they are but also list how many can still be activated, like a "1/2" display for having 2 action cards, one still unused and then "0/2" after using both actions.

10) The total number of resources on blue cards really doesn't matter by itself except for a single Award for an Expansion. Instead of showing the number of resources, list the cards that can hold resources and use that button to bring up the list of the cards, their current resource values, and how they gain new resources on them.

11) Milestones and Awards sections should always show how many have been claimed of each at all times. Simple and small change for the milestones, just have something like checkboxes that fill in when they are claimed or just show a "0/3" at start ramping to "3/3" when all done. For awards do the same as for milestones and when you hover or select an award show the current status of the award as a table of the players and their current status for scoring the award in descending order (winner at top). Also have Awards and Milestones display their current cost for easy reference if it can fit.

12) Lastly, please don't have the planet move and tilt with moving the mouse. It looks really cool and might have been real work to program but it distracts from rather than complements the game.



If you made it through my wall of text, thank you. I look forward to the end results of all of our feedback and your hard work making this into the game we all know it can be.

Topher

[lewkiz]

I strongly agree with all points made by Topher. My only exception is point 8, which I think should be as is. I want to know what the opponents are doing.

I also really want to emphasize point 7), the tutorial was really strange. I think Topher already have outlined a much better approach to the introduction.

Finally, on my laptop, going back and forth between different menus and players is very slow/laggy, and my guess is that there is something that takes a lot of graphical resources (maybe point 12?). This was very frustrating at points. For example when I was selecting cards, and I wanted to check my opponents resources, the board position, and available awards. Often resulting in me clicking multiple times before the game "reacted".


Edit: Realized that I should add my previous experience. I have played the game one time before, but I still beat the AI on the first try. (Experienced board-gamer though :)