Ashes Founders: Pre-Beta feedback

from AshesoftheSingularity Forums

I’ve been asking my friends outside the project to look at the game.   Here’s one set I wanted to share:

 

  • WASD should scroll

  • On my desktop PC, the selection circles don’t show up when you select a unit. (On my laptop, the blue circle doesn’t disappear when I deselect an engineer.)

  • The Actions which are shown when you select your base have no useful help. What are Quantum Upgrades, Global Abilities, and Add Destination for?

  • When placing a Factory, it seems like the ghost Factory really drags behind the cursor significantly.

  • Building a Hermes in a Factory, and the UI element for the Hermes does not show anything about how far along construction is (no percentage shown, no bar being filled). I couldn’t tell if I was actually building something or not.

  • There is some cryptic UI stuff in the upper-left. The only mouseover help I get is “Production.” Don’t know what is going on here.

  • I’m clicking on Quantum Upgrades and I see upgrades have a Tech Cost, but I have no idea how to get “Tech”. (I assume it should tell me to build a Research Center or something?)

  • Trying to build a Medic and can’t because I don’t have Radioactives. The text is colored orange, so it wasn’t quite clear to me that this is what I was missing. Should be bright red.

  • Looking at Global Abilities, it says I need “Quanta.” What is Quanta? Should tell me what I need to do to get more.

  • I took over a Power Generator, and it seems like the change should be more noticeable. I see that the team color changed, but it’s a very subtle effect. It should be glowing or even have a UI overlay to show the difference. Also, what is the line connecting my base and the Power Generator? Shouldn’t the line turn red (my color) once I connect them? Make it feel like I am controlling the map!

  • Totally confused by how the resource consumption works. I think it’s the old Total Annihilation system that I’ve heard about but never understood. When I click to build Archers, which supposedly consume 100 Metal, nothing happens, it looks like maybe my supply of Metal is going down faster, but the +/- doesn’t change, and the quantity doesn’t change. (It could be because I’m adding items to the queue, so it’s not currently consuming more resources.) I assume this is baked pretty heavily into the game but be aware that this is not a mainstream game mechanic and could heavily limit your audience.

  • Selected Orbital Fabricator and… don’t see any new buttons. What does this building do?

  • On the top of the screen, there are five icons and one of them is now blue, and it says “Haalee +0.5”. There is no popup help for any of this, so I don’t understand what is going on. I assume this has something to do with victory but there needs to be help.

  • I’m trying to build an Amplifier but can’t seem to place it near my Metal Mines. The UI needs to tell me why I can’t place it. (If it has to be placed on a deposit, it needs to tell me that next to the cursor.)

  • How can I select all of my units? I am trying to double-click on units in the Unit Tree in the upper-left, but that doesn’t do anything. Also, the icons in the tree have no popup help?

  • If I give a building a muster point (forgot the term for it - what happens when you right-click), the arrow doesn’t show up when you select the building again.

  • Trying to build an Orbital Command, but it literally will not let me select the button. I press it and nothing happens.

  • I want to build Dreadnoughts, but I need “Logistics” - how do I get those?

  • Seems like units move pretty slow. I am increasing the game speed a lot.

  • I built a Quantum Relay to get more Quanta, but I don’t see where it is stored. (Figured it out later that it was next to my name… the icon is pretty small and indistinct.)

  • I eventually figured out that if you click on the Quanta resource under your name, you get some research options to increase storage and Logistics and so on. This did not look like a button, so it needs to be made more clear that these options are available. Maybe make them available when you click on your base instead? Also, it seems like the Upgrades cost Quanta, but the help says they cost “Tech.”
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Reply #1 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Interesting to get a fresh perspective on it by someone being so thorough. Though he missed the bright blue flashing button for upgrades so not totally thorough :p

Informative pop-ups can be great. I would be somewhat hesitant to put them on everything like this guy seems to want, unless you can toggle them off in game options. They make a lot of sense in the context of v.71 but a lot of stuff would/should be explained in a good tutorial. That of course would include the streaming economy.

Talking of the streaming economy, it is different to some have been right? I notice: So you can have a rate of -7 Radioatives and have 0 radioactives in storage and at the same time have a rate of -7 metal but the quantity stored stays at a steady-ish 90, not going down. I assume it is because the radioactive and metal cost for a unit/building are linked, so if it is stalling on the radioactives it can't yet spend the metal it also needs even though there is still some in storage. Seems like something along those lines anyway. I think in other streaming games the -7 on the metal would result in the metal storage going to 0 too.

If this is the kind of feedback you like perhaps we have been too kind with our own feedback :) Some things I don't think we comment on much like building placement problems is because it appears so obviously not finished that feedback on it seems unnecessary. The fresh perspective is good though as I think a lot of founders are experienced RTS players so either we/they pick things up naturally or don't mind working a few mechanics out for themselves. Many gamers might not be like that though so yeah, some hand holding is needed.

I had already decided to be more brutal with picking apart problems I find in the Beta as Beta is meant to be about refinement so we need to get even pickier. 

 

Edit. I think pop ups over a lot of things is fine, but they should be small brief reminders/indicators and not game mechanic descriptions, that is what a tutorial is for.

Reply #2 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

We are so used to the game right now and we know everything, that why we don't really notice that kind of things.

Pop up Info is really important, it should be everywhere, on units, on structures, on Research, on Orbitals, the Question is how to put it in? Font size, color, location, Those popups should not bother the player while playing the game.

So i do recommend creating a Tutorial explaining everythin.

And while in Game you can Pause a Skirmish or single player game and then all the popups gets enabled so you can go through everything you need to look at if you are lost.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Good stuff. Having played the game many hours a lot of this stuff is natural to me and it's hard to see the perspective of someone who doesn't know much about this game and perhaps even RTSs in general.

Just a tip, Stardock went overboard with reliance on mouseover in GalCiv3. Maybe it makes some sense for a TBS game, but not an RTS game. We need the critical info on the screen by default, mouseover should be "one-time" information, as in "what is this building for?", not updateable information like "what is the DPS of this unit?".

Along with the ability to select all units, I would love hotkeys to be able to select:

- All engineers visible on the current screen

- All other units visible on the current screen

- All land units visible on the current screen

- All air units visible on the current screen

 

Reply #4 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

I have to say agreed with all he say .

With a bit more play he will get most things but the important its the 1 impact a new player will have and he is a good exemple.

 

Engineers - Showld have a coulor presence on field like medics.

Orders i like it how they are, a bit more work will be perfect ( rally points must change  )

WASD should scroll  ,make this happend the directional keys to scrool the map its confuse, have to put my left hand to the right when i have wasd there...

The right mouse key that pan must change ex (Z + mouse right key, or be able to use the side keys that mouses have to pan the view)

when you want select units have the same key that select and pan, confuse and make us do missclicks on field we cant have 1 key doing both things, have a separate key to both  like i have test change a lot the gameplay.