Future updates to the game are planning to include some controversial mechanics, the most obvious one that comes to mind being siegers digging tiles; this one in particular will be configurable by a config option according to the dev page, but casual audiences (especially paying ones that will be coming on Steam) have gotten angry about this sort of thing before with other games, even when all it takes to solve their problem is changing a config option (one example that sticks in my mind is the "auto-jump" in Minecraft, which pissed a lot of people off because it's on by default even though the majority of people want it off).
So my suggestion; step 1, when the game has an update, show the changelog on the first startup after the update has been installed. Now, that's a common thing many games do with changelogs, but I have an extra idea which AFAIK is less common:
If an update adds config/init options with defaults that are liable to be controversial, show them right there and then as soon as the game is started, right after the changelog, so that people know it can be disabled (and in fact can click the button right there and then to change the setting if they want) and so they will have no excuses/complaints about not knowing it was possible to disable the thing they don't like. Make the checkbox and message about the implications of the option nice and prominent (so they don't just click "ok" without reading it).
Also, to avoid part of the problem Minecraft has with the auto-jump, do make sure that config settings persist between updates (if the option still exists that is); people won't be pleased if they suddenly have siegers dig their way in when they specifically disabled that.
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Topic: UX suggestion for future updates (show changelog + new init options on startup) (Read 719 times)