General > Discussion

Hello and Excellent Game!

(1/1)

Mustang:
Hey Devs,

Just wanted to post to thank you all for a great game.  I've been following this one for a long time now and seeing it come this far is truly a credit to you guys.  Fantastic job.  The concept that is coming together is solid, and the play experience I'm having right now on version 2.1.1 is very reminiscent of UFODefense.  I think it captures it better than anything I've played in the past few years.  I can't wait for all the planned additions and improvements you have coming.  

And playing native in Linux, wow.  Just wow.  One of the best experiences I've ever had installing anything on Linux.  I hope more people see this and emulate it.  For reference, I'm playing in SuSe 10.1, and have not experienced a single crash of the game, though I'm not too far into it, prolly 6 or 7 months of game time.

Which I think is my only criticism I'll offer up.  Balance seems to be an issue with a lot of what is implemented.  Completely understandable given the nature of the development you're in, but it seems every mission has jumped up the tech level by one, and it seems too fast given the pace of the game considering I've only had one UFO encounter, and approximately 1-2 terror missions per month.

For reference, as I recal, it was a while before you saw Heavy Plasma Blasters in UFO:D, but comparatively, I'm seeing them now.  The time I've had to research things doesn't seem in line with the tech I'm supposed to go up against.  It may be mistakes on my part too, but given the beta nature of this product, balancing might need more tweaking.

Beyond that though, it's a great game.  Just wanted to drop a word of encouragement and thanks.  Now back to playing.  8)

Wanderer:
Random map encounters when you can shoot down ufos and not needing to test the mission advancement schematic will probably go a long way towards a more 'epic' length game.  So will a more fleshed out research tree.

Winter and/or Mattn can speak more to the intended direction of this, but there are/were development items still in progress that will help extend each section of the game buildup. :)

Mustang:
Still playing this great game.  Enjoying it very much and love the whole feel of it, the tension of TURN-BASED play again, yes!  

Some things I'll offer up constructively though after playing for a while.  I don't think I've read any of this on the version pages, but could have missed things.  I play on Linux 10.1, with an ATI Radeon 8800 series card.

1.  Tooltips will help tremendously, and I believe you have that set for the 2.2 build.  Beyond that though, the overall screens need some work.  The soldier/etc selection lists needs some scroll bars (mouse wheel works great, but still need some bars).  Also, allow us to switch bases when we're on these screens.  I do a lot of popping in and out.  Maybe a side panel of bases that you can pick from.  There seems to be plenty of room for it.  The inventory area  on the load out screen need to be expanded or scrollable too, or maybe select additional pages.

2. On the battlescape, need some indication of who can see what.  A hot key to display the visual line of sight indicators would work just fine.

3.  Playing in 1280x1024 messes up the text formating and some of the production/research lists.  I could also live with a smaller text font to tradeoff more text on screen at a time, thought that is personal preference.

4. On the battle scape interface, you could really lose the weapon attack buttons and move the function to the weapon icons themselves.  That would give you more room and then move the side pannel buttons (options, character, inventory) buttons down onto the lower panel.  The more screen space the better.  The buttons seem to take up too much space.

5. A key to cycle through soldiers would be good.  Maybe it's there, I'll check. EDIT: I see it, Tab.

6. I know more balancing is being done, but I still don't see a more effective weapon than an assault riffle on full auto.  I use other weapons, and on the tech tree just starting to research particle weapons.  Maybe I'm missing something, but a kill is a kill.  The whole tech tree needs tweaking imo, though doesn't seem to be ruining the game any for me.

7.  Add my vote to an in-battle save feature, selectable if need be.  I too often have to leave in the middle of the battle and hate to have to start over.  Minor quibble though.

8. Please work on supporting alt-tab to other applications.  I think this is more of a Linux problem, but if there is anything that can be done, would \appreciate it.

9. Lastly, I'll just reiterate that you should look at redesigning the screens a bit more and optimizing the layout some.  Things are blocky and not very effective.  You should also consider bringing mouse clicks in-line with other games.  There are kind of standards that I have been using for years, but this game doesn't use them, and it throws me off sometimes.  I am not sure if remaping keys is supported at this time, I'll check that, but for instance, right click in many of these games will make the character look in that direction, but here it moves him.  I've lost a few chars simply by moving him when I only wanted to turn him.  The middle mouse button has been used often for slewing the view, but here it turns him.  Just little things like that, and if there is a key mapper, then I would be happy with that.

Again, great game.  You guys are doing a fantastic job at this and only doing what works.  I have not had a single crash yet.  Everything works as billed, and that is a credit to your project.

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