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General / My feedback after playing through Alpha 0.1.6.0
« on: January 20, 2013, 11:55:33 am »
(Trying to avoid spoilers)
1. Awesome atmosphere. For me it is a mix of metro (the book)/stalker/old-shool-fallout
2. Nice range of enemies in the alpha build. The most interesting from a tactical gameplay point of view for me were the burrower thingies that you could only meet up with if you did some "stuff"
3. Some of the NPC stories were pretty cool - Esp the really old bloke near the end of the playable part of the main questline.
4. Lots of tactical options available in the PC build - I didn't try melee
5. The Alpha main-plot-line was nice and involved. Several options (at least 2) that I discovered (besides genocide) that would allow me to enter the place where the "thingy" could be found.
6. The early game combat difficulty seemed about right. I would get spanked if I was out of my league or if I did a dumb thing. Later on it became a lot easier once I learned the way to play with my PC. Hopefully the difficuolty progression can be managed as well across the larger scope of the final product.
7. Loved the vents/ducts system for sneaking around.
Overall this is a really nice game in its current Alpha state and I am looking forward to seeing how it develops.
Some suggestions...
1. Grenades - yeah I know you know but they are a game breaker at the moment
2. Skill progression - I suggest reducng the skill points available on level up. My lvl 11 gun/xbow/psi guy was maxed out on gun/xbow and nearly maxed out on psi stuff. Plu he had a deep level of skill on crafting stuff as well.
3. Feats - Seem pretty bland and mostly useless - I was struggling to pick a feat at level up that would not feel like a waste - I know its subjective but I have read some pretty cool sounding feat suggestions in other threads.
4. Inventory management - At the end of playthrough I had a bajillion inventory items - Mostly crafting related - It was getting hard to identify the valid choices for the recipe from the pile of components even using the "Show" seletion. Perhaps a "highlight" of valid components for a chosen recipe would assist in making this more manageable.
4.a Inventory Management continued - How much can you actually carry? There is a delicate balance between reality and annoyance to be found here. There is no way that my strength 5 character should have been able to carry all that crapola
He would have needed a truck (or two). I suggest fiddling with the inventory system to include some sort of limit on how much can be carried. Perhaps link it to stength and to tactical combat MPs. (I neve did figure out the encumbrance thing on armour - perhaps this needs to tie in as well). But don't make my PC walk like an old man at sloooooooowwwwww speed if he is carrying too much. And don't give my PC a penalty on inventory space/weight/amount if getting back to a merchant to sell stuff is a chore (see point 8 below)
5. Xbow seems overpowered compared to guns. This was my feel anyway.
6. Graphics glitches - In a few places my PC would pass behind an environment object that he should have passed in front of. Does that make sense? In other words - The z-order of the environment object was lower than that of the PC when it should have been the other way around. I didn't note the locations but I thought I would mention it
6.a In the ducts that form an element of one of the ways to get to the "thingy" there is an impassable section of ducting. Visually it looks like you can walk through but there is a kink and you have to walk the long way round to get through. I am guessing that in the map layout editor you intended for this duct section to be a straight section but misaligned the two halves. (Again sorry no screenies)
7. Hard to navigate around at times. I found myself wanting a mini-map. But then I realised I hate those things So then I found myself wanting to know the "name" of the area I was in. For example if NPC Bob says "Go to the ruined KFC outlet in Upper Bogan Town and get me two moist towelettes" then unless I guess or talk to an NPC that mentions the area I am in I don't know if I am in Upper Bogan Town or not.
8. Some sort of limited quick travel would reduce the tedium a bit. Early on I was back and forth like a *insert relevant metaphor here* from tunnels/caves to home base. Perhaps some sort of limited quick travel between adjacent "noes" with chances of random encounters would make repeated travel less of a chore.
9. Save games started to chug noticeably from middle game onwards. Save game file size jumped from about 7mb to 35mb. I can only imagine this will become a bigger problem in the final game. Not a deal breaker at the moment but I suggest keeping an eye on it.
I was left wanting more when I finished the Alpha play through. Really good job so far.
I'll be watching with interest as this game develops
Cheers
1. Awesome atmosphere. For me it is a mix of metro (the book)/stalker/old-shool-fallout
2. Nice range of enemies in the alpha build. The most interesting from a tactical gameplay point of view for me were the burrower thingies that you could only meet up with if you did some "stuff"
3. Some of the NPC stories were pretty cool - Esp the really old bloke near the end of the playable part of the main questline.
4. Lots of tactical options available in the PC build - I didn't try melee
5. The Alpha main-plot-line was nice and involved. Several options (at least 2) that I discovered (besides genocide) that would allow me to enter the place where the "thingy" could be found.
6. The early game combat difficulty seemed about right. I would get spanked if I was out of my league or if I did a dumb thing. Later on it became a lot easier once I learned the way to play with my PC. Hopefully the difficuolty progression can be managed as well across the larger scope of the final product.
7. Loved the vents/ducts system for sneaking around.
Overall this is a really nice game in its current Alpha state and I am looking forward to seeing how it develops.
Some suggestions...
1. Grenades - yeah I know you know but they are a game breaker at the moment
2. Skill progression - I suggest reducng the skill points available on level up. My lvl 11 gun/xbow/psi guy was maxed out on gun/xbow and nearly maxed out on psi stuff. Plu he had a deep level of skill on crafting stuff as well.
3. Feats - Seem pretty bland and mostly useless - I was struggling to pick a feat at level up that would not feel like a waste - I know its subjective but I have read some pretty cool sounding feat suggestions in other threads.
4. Inventory management - At the end of playthrough I had a bajillion inventory items - Mostly crafting related - It was getting hard to identify the valid choices for the recipe from the pile of components even using the "Show" seletion. Perhaps a "highlight" of valid components for a chosen recipe would assist in making this more manageable.
4.a Inventory Management continued - How much can you actually carry? There is a delicate balance between reality and annoyance to be found here. There is no way that my strength 5 character should have been able to carry all that crapola
He would have needed a truck (or two). I suggest fiddling with the inventory system to include some sort of limit on how much can be carried. Perhaps link it to stength and to tactical combat MPs. (I neve did figure out the encumbrance thing on armour - perhaps this needs to tie in as well). But don't make my PC walk like an old man at sloooooooowwwwww speed if he is carrying too much. And don't give my PC a penalty on inventory space/weight/amount if getting back to a merchant to sell stuff is a chore (see point 8 below)5. Xbow seems overpowered compared to guns. This was my feel anyway.
6. Graphics glitches - In a few places my PC would pass behind an environment object that he should have passed in front of. Does that make sense? In other words - The z-order of the environment object was lower than that of the PC when it should have been the other way around. I didn't note the locations but I thought I would mention it
6.a In the ducts that form an element of one of the ways to get to the "thingy" there is an impassable section of ducting. Visually it looks like you can walk through but there is a kink and you have to walk the long way round to get through. I am guessing that in the map layout editor you intended for this duct section to be a straight section but misaligned the two halves. (Again sorry no screenies)
7. Hard to navigate around at times. I found myself wanting a mini-map. But then I realised I hate those things
So then I found myself wanting to know the "name" of the area I was in. For example if NPC Bob says "Go to the ruined KFC outlet in Upper Bogan Town and get me two moist towelettes" then unless I guess or talk to an NPC that mentions the area I am in I don't know if I am in Upper Bogan Town or not.8. Some sort of limited quick travel would reduce the tedium a bit. Early on I was back and forth like a *insert relevant metaphor here* from tunnels/caves to home base. Perhaps some sort of limited quick travel between adjacent "noes" with chances of random encounters would make repeated travel less of a chore.
9. Save games started to chug noticeably from middle game onwards. Save game file size jumped from about 7mb to 35mb. I can only imagine this will become a bigger problem in the final game. Not a deal breaker at the moment but I suggest keeping an eye on it.
I was left wanting more when I finished the Alpha play through. Really good job so far.
I'll be watching with interest as this game develops
Cheers
