first impressions beta 4

from Sins Forums
I haven't played online yet because I've only had a chance to play a few games and think I would suck too much online at this stage so this is my feedback for the SP.

The Good:

First off, it's a lot of fun and I found the tutorials useful. When you enter the map it looks very pretty and having played GC2 the learning curve is gentle. Overall I find beta4 to be a fun game and although I'm going to talk more about improvements in this post a critique of the game would be 80% positive.

The Bad:

1. Later on in the game when I zoom right out to view the local cluster of stars the zoom often doesn't go far enough out to view all the planets from a birdseye perspective which I find quite annoying.

2. Colony frigates take a little bit too long to colonise once they reach the planet.

3. I think that locking the zoom or camera to the ship or object that you have selected should be done by default. When I first played the game I found the camera control to be very strange i.e., zooming in on the crosshair.

4. It might be a good idea to have tips to remind new players how to do useful things like scuttling ships.

5. When the voice says my fleet is being attacked it would be nice to have a location

The Ugly

1. I can't get artefact research to work, assuming it has been switched off in the beta?

2. Autosaves would be more useful with time and date stamps because if you play a few games and they start to be overwritten the new autosaves just blend in with the old

3. Culture only seems to retreat if you destroy the broadcasting station which seems strange when you destroy planets of a culture and then can't colonise them because they still belong to that culture even on the fringe of their empire.


I haven't read any other posts so hope my feedback is useful and looking forward to release.
5,036 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Where you getting beta 4 at?
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
oh thought that was the latest beta, don't know why must have read a ref to beta 4 somewhere. It's 0.90[b].035
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
It is the latest beta :P
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

2.Colony frigates take a little bit too long to colonise once they reach the planet.
End of quote


You have to make sure the ship has enough antimatter, it looses around 100 units per hyperspace jump , then it starts to recharge again.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
The Bad:
1.
Its still beta 4
2.
Its still beta 4
3.
Its still beta 4
4.
Its still beta 4
5.
Its still beta 4

The Ugly
1.
There is no artefact research in Beta 4, youll find em on planets if you spend money for a "scouting party or Tomb Raider" on a planet
2.
Its still beta 4
3.
Your Cap Ships are spreading culture as well, but not as much as the stations.


And as youve seen its still beta 4, this wasent build to have fun :p
Next week youll see the full :)

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Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top


1. Later on in the game when I zoom right out to view the local cluster of stars the zoom often doesn't go far enough out to view all the planets from a birdseye perspective which I find quite annoying.
End of quote


Actually, if you rotate / play around a little, its always exactly enough room to view everything, from precisely the "right" angle. Which... isn't enough, agree.

3. I think that locking the zoom or camera to the ship or object that you have selected should be done by default. When I first played the game I found the camera control to be very strange i.e., zooming in on the crosshair.
End of quote


Zoom-on-cursor is the default -- and the expected behaviour, for me. If you want to zoom on a specific unit, just mouse over it, or select it and mouse over its "portrait".

4. It might be a good idea to have tips to remind new players how to do useful things like scuttling ships.
End of quote


Thats what loading screens -- which we don't have yet -- are for. All we have is a basic "this is a beta, warning, warning" screen.

5. When the voice says my fleet is being attacked it would be nice to have a location
End of quote


There is a location given -- check the info cards in the lower left.

1. I can't get artefact research to work, assuming it has been switched off in the beta?
End of quote


You don't "research" artifacts -- once you find an artifact via exploration, its yours. Untill you loose the planet, anyway.

3. Culture only seems to retreat if you destroy the broadcasting station which seems strange when you destroy planets of a culture and then can't colonise them because they still belong to that culture even on the fringe of their empire.
End of quote


Say again? The Culture stations broadcast culture, whats wrong with that? You can't colonize until culture retreats because otherwise, the people on the planet so love the other culture they'd flip instantly.


Your Cap Ships are spreading culture as well, but not as much as the stations.
End of quote


No... capitol ships only reduce hostile culture spread in friendly systems. Which means they can help prevent your planets from flipping, and not much else.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I know it's a beta that's why I'm posting in the beta feedback forum...

The problem I have with culture which may or may not be true (I only noticed this once in the 4 times I have played the game) is that say the opponent builds one culture broadcasting station on the deepest planet in their empire. Then the culture spreads from this point expanding throughout the empire and eventually beyond. But this spreading doesn't seem to be modulated by the planets ie., its spread seems to be determined entirely by the broadcasting station in orbit.

Therefore when I started to destroy the enemy colonies one by one, the culture did not retreat because the broadcasting station was on the planet I destroyed last in the deepest part of the empire. I think having the propogation of culture determined solely by the broadcaster and not by the colonies is unrealistic. So for example in GCII the culture can be enhanced by influence buildings but it is mainly determined by the planets. This I think would be a better idea that what is currently in the beta - again assuming I am correct which I understand I may not be.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I know it's a beta that's why I'm posting in the beta feedback forum...
End of quote


Its a 3 month old beta, with little or no connection to the release in 6 days :D
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I have played the game a few days by now and find it highly addicting. I am looking forward to the release. However there are some things which could be improved.

1) When I have several ships selected (in zoomed out view) I can see which one of my selected ships I have as my main (light gray circle around it). However when I zoom in closer, the circles disappears and I can't see which one of them is it anymore. It would be nice if the one who is my main (who has its icon in the middle bottom of the screen) had little bigger flag icon (+25% to +50%) above the ship than the other who is selected, so you easily can see it.

2) All ships cost lots of credits, some metals and little crystal. It would be nice if the cost of some of the ships, were more focused on crystal and metal, while others are more on credits, percent wise.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
1. Later on in the game when I zoom right out to view the local cluster of stars the zoom often doesn't go far enough out to view all the planets from a birdseye perspective which I find quite annoying.
End of quote

that screams broken, I play on 100 planet 1 star maps and the zoom is dynamically sufficient.
2. Colony frigates take a little bit too long to colonise once they reach the planet.
End of quote

its part of the game flow, works perfectly and yet might still be tweaked yet.
3. I think that locking the zoom or camera to the ship or object that you have selected should be done by default. When I first played the game I found the camera control to be very strange i.e., zooming in on the crosshair.
End of quote

button, top left of the screen
far too many people disagree that it should be "default" so lets not get into a personal preferance competition.
5. When the voice says my fleet is being attacked it would be nice to have a location
End of quote

there are far too many planets for that. look at the bottom left under the announcements you can find out there.
1. I can't get artefact research to work, assuming it has been switched off in the beta?
End of quote

still there, different system.
2. Autosaves would be more useful with time and date stamps because if you play a few games and they start to be overwritten the new autosaves just blend in with the old
End of quote

already are, but they look like a stream of numbers. will probably get fixed.
USED to be based on game ticks, is no longer.
3. Culture only seems to retreat if you destroy the broadcasting station which seems strange when you destroy planets of a culture and then can't colonise them because they still belong to that culture even on the fringe of their empire.
End of quote

this is for culture takeover reasons, so that the culture strategy doesnt become too OP
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Another thing I would like to have is...

3) When I have a factory selected I would like to right click on the "ground" (space) to set a rally point as we can do in any RTS game out there.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
You can in the release version.