Post by fenrir on Oct 6, 2012 0:32:05 GMT -5
I think the game is pretty awesome so far, and I've been playing for a few hours, so here are some of my thoughts on it, in no particular order.
Graphics
I like the overall style, it gives a sense of exploring an unknown and foreign universe.
The spikes on the buildings to represent levels is convenient, though it might get messy since there's no building level cap.
The colored stats are also nice, giving newbies an easy way to know which resonator is for which stat, once they learn the colors. It would be interesting if the tank colors also corresponded to their traits (yellow/green is DPS, red/cyan is tanky, green/blue is sniper, etc).
The tooltips are great in general, they certainly helped me get info about everything. My only gripe about these is that the tooltips for enemies require you to keep you mouse over them, meaning your movement is very restricted if you want to see it.
I'm not sure if the colors of the drops and color of shields mean anything, or if they're just random, to bug me.
Audio
BGM is nice and fits the mood, but the sound effects can get annoying if you've got a fast firing tank, and even worse if you're in a crowd of enemies (or friends).
Tanks
There's a solid variety of choices already, in terms of shielding and attacks. I think movement (acceleration, turn rate, etc) could also have more variety between tanks. Seems mostly just speed right now.
For specific tanks, the Hercules could use a way to time mines, in order to position them better. I'm not sure how to do this, I suggested a "hold your fire" button, but that seems kinda useless for the other tanks.
The Scorpion missiles are fairly slow, so there'll still be a bunch of missiles flying towards an enemy even after it's dead. Not gamebreaking, but annoying.
Goals
There's a clear conflict between defeating the enemies and having an awesome tank. You can't have both, and the minority on either side will wallow in misery.
Controls
Having the mouse-only controls is refreshing, and makes thing easy to learn. However, I've had times where I was wishing I had some more control over my movements. In a game about positioning, improving the amount of control where you are/where you can go is one of the best things you can do (new stats for movement, maybe?)
Starting Gameplay
The tutorial is a nice start, it covers the basics pretty well, imo. The tooltips cover most of the rest, from what I can think of off the top of my head. Might want to explain lense sets, depositing shards, and some other stuff.
The class unlocking gives new players a nice sense of anticipation, but it's a bit bland. Maybe instead of a linear progression, a sort of class tree, organized by traits? At the beginning is a standard tank, which splits into offensive and defensive, which split into long/short range and tankers/evasive, etc.
General Gameplay
The game feels good, though it's a bit lacking in content (which is perfectly fine at this stage). The setup of enemies could use some spicing up, as a grid gets pretty monotonous. Some difference in terrain would be interesting to see as well, and gives a use for all those colors.
It might be just me, but I never liked the fact that in quite a few games, an endgame [insertclasshere] was exactly the same as another player with an endgame [insertclasshere]. I'm not sure if it's in the works (or even desired), but some way of being able to customize your tank(s) would be nifty, and it'd give players a sense of attachment, instead of just being "oh, I want generic DPS, I'll use this one".
While all the tanks interact with enemies differently, none of them interact with each other. At least one support class is included (or is a viable build) in pretty much every multiplayer co-op game for good reason, and I don't see why this one would differ. A tank that reduces enemy damage, or heals players, or slows enemies, or sets up turrets, or gives increased shielding, or even something as simple as a stat buff aura.
Suggestion
One problem I mentioned above was the endgame goal conflict. I think that fixing it will involve victory point one way or another, as they currently don't have a use (as far as I know). On the off chance you haven't thought of it already, allowing players to spend victory points on (permanent) adjustments to their tank would mean that players looking for a badass tank wouldn't mind as much if the world got reset, and players looking to "win" the game wouldn't be as far behind without resonator buffs. It'd also scratch the itch I have of being able to differentiate between classes, so I'd say that's killing three birds with one stone (quite a feat).
Might update with more things as I think of them
.
Graphics
I like the overall style, it gives a sense of exploring an unknown and foreign universe.
The spikes on the buildings to represent levels is convenient, though it might get messy since there's no building level cap.
The colored stats are also nice, giving newbies an easy way to know which resonator is for which stat, once they learn the colors. It would be interesting if the tank colors also corresponded to their traits (yellow/green is DPS, red/cyan is tanky, green/blue is sniper, etc).
The tooltips are great in general, they certainly helped me get info about everything. My only gripe about these is that the tooltips for enemies require you to keep you mouse over them, meaning your movement is very restricted if you want to see it.
I'm not sure if the colors of the drops and color of shields mean anything, or if they're just random, to bug me.
Audio
BGM is nice and fits the mood, but the sound effects can get annoying if you've got a fast firing tank, and even worse if you're in a crowd of enemies (or friends).
Tanks
There's a solid variety of choices already, in terms of shielding and attacks. I think movement (acceleration, turn rate, etc) could also have more variety between tanks. Seems mostly just speed right now.
For specific tanks, the Hercules could use a way to time mines, in order to position them better. I'm not sure how to do this, I suggested a "hold your fire" button, but that seems kinda useless for the other tanks.
The Scorpion missiles are fairly slow, so there'll still be a bunch of missiles flying towards an enemy even after it's dead. Not gamebreaking, but annoying.
Goals
There's a clear conflict between defeating the enemies and having an awesome tank. You can't have both, and the minority on either side will wallow in misery.
Controls
Having the mouse-only controls is refreshing, and makes thing easy to learn. However, I've had times where I was wishing I had some more control over my movements. In a game about positioning, improving the amount of control where you are/where you can go is one of the best things you can do (new stats for movement, maybe?)
Starting Gameplay
The tutorial is a nice start, it covers the basics pretty well, imo. The tooltips cover most of the rest, from what I can think of off the top of my head. Might want to explain lense sets, depositing shards, and some other stuff.
The class unlocking gives new players a nice sense of anticipation, but it's a bit bland. Maybe instead of a linear progression, a sort of class tree, organized by traits? At the beginning is a standard tank, which splits into offensive and defensive, which split into long/short range and tankers/evasive, etc.
General Gameplay
The game feels good, though it's a bit lacking in content (which is perfectly fine at this stage). The setup of enemies could use some spicing up, as a grid gets pretty monotonous. Some difference in terrain would be interesting to see as well, and gives a use for all those colors.
It might be just me, but I never liked the fact that in quite a few games, an endgame [insertclasshere] was exactly the same as another player with an endgame [insertclasshere]. I'm not sure if it's in the works (or even desired), but some way of being able to customize your tank(s) would be nifty, and it'd give players a sense of attachment, instead of just being "oh, I want generic DPS, I'll use this one".
While all the tanks interact with enemies differently, none of them interact with each other. At least one support class is included (or is a viable build) in pretty much every multiplayer co-op game for good reason, and I don't see why this one would differ. A tank that reduces enemy damage, or heals players, or slows enemies, or sets up turrets, or gives increased shielding, or even something as simple as a stat buff aura.
Suggestion
One problem I mentioned above was the endgame goal conflict. I think that fixing it will involve victory point one way or another, as they currently don't have a use (as far as I know). On the off chance you haven't thought of it already, allowing players to spend victory points on (permanent) adjustments to their tank would mean that players looking for a badass tank wouldn't mind as much if the world got reset, and players looking to "win" the game wouldn't be as far behind without resonator buffs. It'd also scratch the itch I have of being able to differentiate between classes, so I'd say that's killing three birds with one stone (quite a feat).
Might update with more things as I think of them
.