My thoughts after 10 hours.

[Ineptie]

Ok, so first i wanted to say i really like this game. Those 10 hours i am talking about were done in two days, 7 yesterday, and 3 today, so that's kinda non- stop playing. Why am i posting here then ? Because you guys at Atomictorch seemt to like having feedback, and as a new player (bought the game yesterday) i might be able to offer some advice on the new player experience.

I'll start with the good, then proceed to what imho should be changing.

The good :
1) Graphics : Really great job on them, i love everything.
2) Fluidity : The same applies here. The ships feel responsive, and I have not experience any lag of any short even in huge cluster of asteroid / pirates
3) Details : That's probably the thing i like the most. Flying parts, merchant convoys, patrols, enemy comming true warp gates, all of those feel great. I love the travel mecanic, space is huge and move from place to place should take time. I love the fact you have stars that kill you if you fly too close, it's a great idea.
4) Hull, inventory and weapon systems : they all feel good.
5) Factions : i like them, it hads variety to the universe. I read that you plan on making the pirate faction joinable, that's a great idea.

The bad :

1) No skill respec : It really is annoying for two reasons : first you can't undo when assigning skills, so sometimes you missclick and then you have to wait another level (or two) for that skill you really wanted. Second reason is that weapon mounts being hull locked sometimes you get a hull (faction hulls f.e) that is great but you can't use because you can't use any good weapons on that hull. It also makes testing all types of weapons a chore, wich isn't a big deal to veterans, but is annoying to new players (i leveled all my weapon proficiencies to level 2 to test them before choosing one, and now i'm level 42 with a very inneficient build). My suggestion would be to implement a pay-for option for respec, maybe with science points (a prototype cortex-altering machine ?)

2) Too many pirates : I know it gives players something to do, but having 10+ pirates on a faction capital sytem makes me feels a bit like patrol are just showing off. And you can't move trought a single factionless system withouth being attacked at least 5 times. Most of the time you can just cruise past those, but i doesn't feel right to have some many agressive outlaws and so few "normal" people even for a low security fringe galaxy. I believe pirate numbers should be adjusted or ways to have their population lowered added : maybe have them spawn only around dens, form groups of various size then move for pillaging ? Maybe you should have them stop attacking ships that cruise at a certain speed (not worth burning fuel and ammos since they will never catch up to them) but give certain pirate ship hulls the ability to stop cruise engines ? So it's easier to go from point A to point B but if you aren't careful you will get halted and killed ? Maybe add a new faction (merchants?) who believe then can pacify the sector and carve trade routes in it ? Maybe have the warp gates on those trades routes require some kind of toll / alliegence with that faction ?

3 ) Kamikaze pirates : It's tied to point 2, but is a bit different : pirates are crazy blood-craved berzerkzers atm (or they sure feel like that). They don't act like they want to kill you for your money and make a profit out of it, they act like they want to kill you because you personnaly angered their gods and need to be punished at the price of their lives if needs be. Three things should be changed imho :

a) Less ramming. I know there is a skill to make that efficient, and it's a viable tactics when you are aboard a sea-farring ship, but in space it really feels like suicide. I don't know if it's intentionnal from the devs but even when i'm not moving (hence it's not a miscacullation of my trajectory, they really want to ram) they trow themselves at me. And that's not only the light frigates using short range weapons, most of the Fangs hulls i meet also try to ram me even thought it feels it would be much more efficient for them to stay at range with all those missiles. I really belive something should be implemented to lower ramming from pirates (not talking about aliens here, they can act irrationnaly from a human point of view and not care about their lives). This is especially glaring when a first tier frigate rams my light cruiser and just suicides w/o even diabling my shield.

b) They should stop attacking targets too dangerous for them. I fly a t2 light cruiser atm (fanatic faction stingray) and even lowly t1 light frigates attack me whithout any support from friends. That's mad man / fanatical behavior, not pirate behavior. Pirates should focus on easy, low defended targets who can be killed or ransomed for a profit, not trow their live at a target that is clearly too strong for them.

c) They should try to flee. When they are badly wounded they should try to disengage from combat and run. That's what a reasonnable person, fighting for profit and not for glory / divine approbation would do. And unless i'm too new in the game to have missed some plot elements, pirates should be reasonnable and fight for a profit.



Ok that's my two cents. Feel free to disregard any of what i said here, it's your game and you should give it your vision of it (it's a great vision so far, it only needs a little bit of tweaking to meet my tastes) not mine. I also understand that some of my suggestion would require alot of work to implement, but if my feedback was helpful in any way, then i'm happy to have posted it.

Cheers, and keep up the great work

[ai_enabled]

Hello!
Thank you for the feedback. I agree with the most suggestions.
Some of these things are already implemented, so we could adjust coefficients and see how it plays.
The skill respec sounds good, we could add this feature to the holodeck on the science stations. Added to our highest priority tasks list.
Regards!

[MenschMaschine]

*falls in Love with Ineptie because of such fine, namecontradicting skills in Grammar and Syntax*

[Ineptie]

Glad i could be of any help !

Also about that falling in love, i believe it's a tad too early, and the game already has it's nest in my heart... sorry (joke asside it's rare to have english speaker understand my name, from your name i would suppose you are from germany, is there a similar word in german ?)

[ai_enabled]

Ineptie, we've implemented some of these suggestions in v1.4.9 (uploading now, release notes (http://forums.atomictorch.com/index.php?topic=764.msg4820)).
Enjoy!

[Ineptie]

Great ! I love being able to help , and make the game better

Also thanks for listening to me !

[ai_enabled]

You're welcome!

[MenschMaschine]

Ineptie, hmmm, the german equivalent would be "Unfähigling" (without the quotes *grin*)

About Love...
Hmpf, now i kinda hope the devs mess up the game so
you hate it. Then there would be a place in your heart for me again.
*secretly injects some code into the game so even stations,
asteroids and spacegarbage tries to ram you*