Game Direction Confusion and Thoughts

[Velgus]

Subsiege's website has text describing the game as "Lovable hero units like Dota, tactical fighting like Starcraft and all of that without waiting times for matches– that’s how we like to describe the term “tactical survival game”. If that is the game direction goal for the game, I personally don't think it is quite there yet. I think Subsiege could work well either with more of a hero focus, more of a tactical/fast-paced team RTS, or a different blend of the elements. My suggestion is to try a few ideas out to make the game more engaging and have a stronger identity.

Hero units by definition are few in number and make a large impact, and are usually unique. By having up to 6 units (that can be replaced, and multiples of each), each individual unit is relatively weak and not very significant, in other words not really a "hero". I think there are a few ways to create a hero feel (if that is important for the game direction): 1) Less units per player, so each unit is more impactful. This could be done by lowering the supply cap and having less units throughout the game. Or an alternative approach might be each player brings a pre-built customized squad into the match (compare to World of Tanks, where players bring a unit with customization into battle, except in this case their squad could be a limited number of units or any number of units within the resouce limit). In an approach like this perhaps players don't buy new ships during a match, just upgrade the stats/abilities of ships they brought in combat. 2) Have a unique commander (compare to Advance Wars) that grant special attributes and abilites for the player (such as an active ability that reveals an area of the map).

If going for a more tactical/fast-paced RTS a few considerations to try might be unit build time/respawn time, not needing to return to base to deploy new ships, and encouraging more specialization and back and forth through unit upgrades (such as in Starcraft getting stim pack for all your marines)

[Icebird Studios]

Hi Velgus,

thanks a lot about your in-depth feedback and your thoughts on the game’s direction. As you noticed Subsiege is a mix of a RTS and a MOBA game, which obviously brings some confusion about which direction the game is going and during the development we had to decide for every feature again if we wanted to go with the RTS or the MOBA approach. So let’s try to bring some light into the dark =)

Designing Subsiege the core vision was about tasking you to control a squad of unique hero-like units with the goal to outlive your opponents, the dangerous underwater world and the constant oxygen depletion and therefore to create a thrilling atmosphere of struggling for your survival.
To do so we tried to combine these elements of RTS and MOBA games, which create this experience. Like you said we reduced the number of units (in the first prototypes we had 10 units per player) and in the last major update added a big upgrade feature, which makes them feel more unique and also, they become more powerful over the course of the game. Like you we also felt that the units felt to disposable, so we added the “revive” feature, so instead of building new units you will now revive your lost and already upgraded units and keep on playing with them.

For your idea about speeding up the returning to base phase of the game, you will be positively surprised in the upcoming version, because we add “kinetic movement” which will speed up units when traveling for longer time, so you will get back faster.

Feel free to tell me your opinion after checking out the updates in the next version (the update date will be released soon)!

Thanks for your help in making Subsiege every time a little bit better!
Johannes

[Velgus]

@Johannes Thanks for the explanation and info. I've yet actually be able to try a multiplayer game, since there doesn't seem to be many players on when I'm available to play (possibly since I'm in the San Francisco timezone). So all these are thoughts based on the tutorial and gameplay videos. I might have more accurate feedback and other idea considerations if I'm able to make more time to play later.

[Icebird Studios]

Hi Velgus,
if you want to play with friends, I can send you a few keys and you can round up some people and play =)
- Caroline

[DemigodofDespair]

I also really like this game and can't wait to see how it evolves, but Im with Velgus the unit's just seem way too disposable. I really wish more people knew about this game because it would be great to play with another human player instead of AI, Hopefully the playerbase will pick up considerably once it gets out of beta.

Have you guys done any advertising? I didn't know about the game until i seen it on steam's early access, just a suggestion but have you guys thought about giving out a few bundles of keys to some of the gaming sites that cater to the genre. LIke MMohuts, ONRPG, etc. I think it would make the playerbase a little bigger. But good luck to everyone working on the game I hope it gets the attention it deserves.