Alright. Let me start off by saying that while I like strategy games, I don't play them often. So I'm pretty bad. Which means any complaints I have could just be because I'm bad. But after starting a game and playing for awhile, I figured I could do a first impressions kinda thing. I used Alpha15D. Everything here is my own opinion.
Sounds fair, we'll try to help out when we can.
So, I started as Humans on Normal, on one of the Spiral galaxies, I think. There were two of the same type with three variants each if I recall correctly, I chose one of the three towards the bottom.
The Spiral Galaxies. Did you start in the Center or one of the Arms? Also, Colonizers are really important Early game so you can get the resources you need to start- Plutonium is the biggest issue early game, followed by Reidium and Burmington (not always in that order).
Now, I don't know if this is intentional, but I feel like the game plays really slowly in the beginning. Nuclear engines and generators don't really work all that well for a proper military. And that would be fine, but I found if I wanted to leave my home world's solar system, while still allowing my Corvettes to have a decent amount of weaponry, I had to wait until impulse engines, the large 9x9 generator that I forget the name of, and fuel tanks mk. II.
Large 9x9? I believe that's the Proton Generator, good choice. Since you're Humans, I'd suggust putting a generator or fuel tank in center Weapon slot, the big one. You ony need about 5000 fuel to get to the frontlines if you Colonize planets with no resources. If you are unlucky and get a few systems of Gas Giants, relax- it doubles as a buffer between you and your enemy! Research Frigate, you'll be amazed at the difference in capability.
AT the start on Easy-Normal I tend to go Automation -> Mark II Fuel -> Antimatter -> Proton Genrator, this tend to give you more options (Admittedly not as much for Humans, they have the
worst Corvettes).
And by the time that happened, I pissed off the Logans because some pirates attacked me right off the bat and when they told me they were pirates, I chose the option saying "Apology accepted, just don't let it happen again" and they got angry and flew off.
Pirates are a special 'race' of their own and aren't Logans, but tend to be composed of Logans... also, don't choose the 'don't let it happen again' option unless you want your Homeworld to be less productive & under threat, it slows you down drastically.
Fast forward hundreds of years, and now they're allied with the Arians and demanded I give them my scientific oceanic planet. Having no military, because of aforementioned reasons, I agreed. Arians then captured the planet the Logan pirates were on, and then they both started extorting me for resources. Good teamwork, but I'm barely keeping up with their demands.
You'd have been better off refusing them, having them declare War then begging for Mercy- the A.I is a sucker that way.
Haven't done enough combat to really comment on that, but regarding ship design, it kinda bothers me that it's misaligned. At first I thought the dots were the spacing, but it's actually the space in between them. And no matter what, it's always misaligned. But honestly, that's a really minor complaint. The system works, and that's all that really matters. Far better than not designing ships.
Yeah, the spacing is a little wierd at the moment. It's a boon on a few of the larger ships since you can put a bunch of one thing on one side and something else on the other, but again Human Corvettes are the worst in the game.
The Corvettes feel really cramped. I think the main reason for that is fuel tanks take up a lot of space. To make it so that my Corvettes can travel across solar systems, I had to sacrifice radars.
Human Corvet- well, you know. Also, Radars don't play a really large roll early game- I tend to go without.
The Fighters are pretty good given their jobs, and I almost feel like Interceptors are almost too big. I managed to fit something like 3 or 4 missile traps in one of them, and put a radar in another. Though they have less firepower than fighters, so that might make up for it.
Fighters
are pretty good in numbers, and if you researched a medium pylon Interceptors could actually have either more weapons or bigger, better ones.
Also feel like ship components should have tool tips like they do when you click on things to research them, but again, it's a minor thing.
Agreed.
Researching works well. I like the sheer amount of things there are. I like things. I like researching. Especially like how you can research multiple fields at the same time.
It is really well thought out and works well gameplay-wise.
Diplomacy is odd, in my opinion. I don't really know how to increase people's opinion of you other than just giving them resources. Also don't know when I can and can't do something. Could just be me being bad.
Diplomacy is really simplistic and wierd at the moment, but once you understand it really easy to use or even
abuse.
The maps are cool. Kinda feels like a more in depth game of Risk, except you actually fight the battles. Definitely like the different shapes and sizes of the galaxies. The different types of planets are nice as well, kinda wish you could do something with gas giants though. But maybe it's better to have a type of planet that's useless.
Ufnv has said it's planned to have 'Artifacts' or 'Wrecks' in the Future, and Gas Giants may well have some use in the future. I'd also consider the possibility of other features popping up (I'm personally hoping for Gas Mining Platforms, Star Wars Style).
All in all the game's good, and it's still in alpha. It's fun, and it seems like a lot of work was put into it. Hope you continue working on it!
Here Here!