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[The Scout]

These are not the settings you are looking for, move along.

I love you. :3

[alexm]

Hi guys! Wanted to tell you that Dominic over at DIYGamer recorded a "First Look" video for Starfarer.

You can find the full 2-part video here, along with his overall thoughts on the game:
http://www.diygamer.com/2011/05/starfarer_alpha_video/

The video is very nicely annotated and tells you a lot about the game.

[Fikes]

I pre-ordered and played the alpha. It took me two tries to beat the first mission and I still haven't beat hornet's nest.

I generally like the game but I do have some critisims. Let me prefreace by saying “I understand this is an alpha and a polished one at that”. My suggestions are only about making the alpha more playable/enjoyable.
First of all, it is impossible to tell what your ship is effective at or which weapons to use from the mission screen or even from the tactical screen. It would be really nice if we could get an info screen on the weapons and hints as to how they are to be used.

Secondly the tactical screen is a bit of a mystery. I’ll have to play it again to figure out what I am doing wrong, but we could definitely use a tutorial on it (maybe a mission without a command ship?).

Finally, controlling on the action screen is confusing. There are lots of icons but they don’t seem to give you the information you need, namely, where the fight is happening and where the enemy is coming from. It would be nice if it had a simple message over a battle icon saying something like “fighter wings (72%) vs cruiser(43%)” that way you retain some tactical awareness while on the action screen.

[alexm]

Thanks for the feedback!

First of all, it is impossible to tell what your ship is effective at or which weapons to use from the mission screen or even from the tactical screen. It would be really nice if we could get an info screen on the weapons and hints as to how they are to be used.

Fair point. Once the refit screen is in, I think a lot of that will be addressed - you'll have access to weapon descriptions/detailed data, etc.

Secondly the tactical screen is a bit of a mystery. I’ll have to play it again to figure out what I am doing wrong, but we could definitely use a tutorial on it (maybe a mission without a command ship?).

Right. We'll be adding a warroom tutorial, just wasn't in the cards for the first release. It's definitely needed, though.

But in the meantime, the manual can help explain a lot of things. Having to read it less than ideal, of course, but there are a *lot* of things going on, and it would take an extremely long tutorial to cover everything. So long that it might be easier to read the manual

Finally, controlling on the action screen is confusing. There are lots of icons but they don’t seem to give you the information you need, namely, where the fight is happening and where the enemy is coming from. It would be nice if it had a simple message over a battle icon saying something like “fighter wings (72%) vs cruiser(43%)” that way you retain some tactical awareness while on the action screen.

Hmm... I think some of that is just getting used to how that display works. It's just you the range and direction of any ships/fighter wings you can see in the warroom. Adding some indicators to the icons might not be a bad idea though (perhaps a hull bar?), as long as it doesn't get too crowded.

[Fikes]

I agree with all your points and figured the refit room would be the perfect explaination for the weapons. It would be nice to be able to see these in the war room also.

I think the trick to the icons on the action screen is to try and figure what information we need to see to win the game/make good decisions. For example, we abosultly need to know if a ship is an enemy or friendly as soon as we see it. This should not be mouse over information. On the other hand, we don't really need to know where the objectives are, that is information we don't need to make a split second decision on and is fine either as a "show objectives" button, a minimap function, or as a war room function.

[alexm]

Hmm... I'm not saying it's ideal, but as far as friendly vs enemy:

1. You can see their icon being either green or red as they approach your view
2. Any friendlies on-screen automatically get a minimal green overlay w/ hull + flux bars (no mouseover required) - so any ship that doesn't, you know it's an enemy. Except for fighters, adding overlays to all of those got cluttered fast.

The objectives locations, I personally find those pretty useful when moving to capture one... before those, I'm ashamed to admit, I'd get pretty far off course


I completely agree with your main point, though - exposing information you need to make good decisions. Info that can be learned, on the other hand, isn't as important to display.

[Fikes]

You know, for as closely as I followed this thread and as excited as I was to play it, I have no idea why I didn't read the manual sooner.

Looking forward to future releases!

[SeaBee]

The manual isn't bad at all right now, especially considering where we are on the overall project roadmap. Was surprised!

+1 anticipating the next alpha release. For anyone wondering, Alex has Live Patch Notes on the Fractal Softworks forum for the next version.

[alexm]

You know, for as closely as I followed this thread and as excited as I was to play it, I have no idea why I didn't read the manual sooner.

Well, the manual usually is only used as a last resort

[Bien]

So a friend bought me the game... and it's awesome! Everything from the graphics, sounds, and even what little gameplay I have at my hands! The difficulty on the 'medium' missions should be ramped down a bit though. I'm using .33a if that's anything.
ED: Begs the question, so if I download and install later versions of the alpha, I won't have to re-input the registration key?

[alexm]

So a friend bought me the game... and it's awesome! Everything from the graphics, sounds, and even what little gameplay I have at my hands! The difficulty on the 'medium' missions should be ramped down a bit though. I'm using .33a if that's anything.
ED: Begs the question, so if I download and install later versions of the alpha, I won't have to re-input the registration key?

Thank you, so glad you like it! Good point on the difficulty, it'll def. be addressed.

To answer your question - you won't need to re-enter the activation code. That would be a little annoying

[alexm]

Wanted to tell you guys that there's now a roadmap you can look at if you'd like to know about the the near-to-mid future plans for Starfarer.

Oh, and Sergius - I installed the Metallic Abyss theme, just for you Thanks for finding it!

[Sergius]

Glad to be of assistance

[inteuniso]

The roadmap sounds absolutely crazy. I can't wait 'til 0.36

[Flying Dice]

Looking over this has really got me interested, and I'm planning on preordering as soon as I get my next paycheck. Always glad to find new indie games with this sort of depth in the works.