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Post by dethbringa on Sept 11, 2016 2:42:05 GMT
So, looked at this game and thought it looks a lot like another one (endciv) which has terrible reviews and almost feels like it will be another spacebase DF9 mess. This game also has massive potential but feels more large scale. So I thought I'd check it out. Also I dont feel that it is likely to be a mess or end in a firey ball of doom. I havent backed Endciv as I'm waiting on it and don't have the confidence in it like I do for Atomic Society.
Now first up, I'm a burst player. I jump on a game, hammer it till I'm bored and move on. That being said, there are many early access games I back and keep coming back to over and over to see what has changed. I hope this will be one of those that I add to the list.
I'm sure a lot of this is already planned on being looked into, but this is my 2 cents worth.
First thing I noticed is not being able to choose which screen the game runs on. I run multi screens and generally use my middle screen for gaming but this game only wants to launch on me left hand screen.
Avatar looks are kinda odd. I love the look of the character design just not the avatar model style itself. Kinda a minor thing really and even if this never changed its not enough to hate on the game.
Sensitivity needs sliders. Mouse pointer speed (although I like it currently), LMB Camera movement (also fine for now), WASD sensitivity (way to fast), RMB Camera angle (way too fast). (I'm about 99% sure you already know this and planned to add it.
Building art style is great! I love it. Building animation is great too.
People seem to die all over the place. Dead bodies everywhere. I guess this balances the large numbers of people joining. This seems too much to fast. (@day 203 current pop 87, died since start 197)
The constant auto-employ feels a little repetitive after a while.
All in all its a great start to what I hope will be a great game.
*edit*
up to year 3 and I'm not sure if the murderers are getting caught or not. Need a way to set a storage to a specific thing. So you could set a water storage, meat storage, etc..
Look forward to future patches.
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Post by ScottFarRoad on Sept 11, 2016 11:34:46 GMT
Great idea for a thread. I hope other people will post their first impressions for other people who've discovered the game.
I can't really argue with anything you've said. They're all things that we need to sort in the future.
Graphics and controls options are bare bones at the moment. We just threw them in to get the game out. Rest assured dual monitor support, rebindable controls, sensitivity etc will come.
I'm sure a lot of players will be pleased to hear Auto-Employ is going to be changed in the near future to replace dead workers automatically! It drives me nuts too.
The next building we're working on will be the crematory where the workers will dispose of those bodies.
The spawn and murder rates aren't really balanced at the moment as we have a lot more social and moral traits to add into the mix before we can. It does make the game quite intense for now!
Anyway, congratulations for getting to 3 years with a single settlement. I'm relieved the game didn't explode! There is a problem at the moment where you can only build a single town hall - so that's a maximum of 4 officers to police an entire city. That might be why it felt like your murderers were getting away with it.
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Post by dethbringa on Sept 11, 2016 19:28:45 GMT
Yes that was one thing I did notice, not being able to build a 2nd town hall. Also, When the officers arrest someone, is there any kind of notice to let you know?
After playing for that long and zooming around it kind of felt almost like a tabletop game. Something about the look of the terrain. Love it.
So much to do, I'm not sure I could do it without feeling overwhelmed but you have made a great playable start. I think most people would have a playable game at such an early stage.
Oh yea, another thing. I never got any other issues apart from murder. The others (prostitution and racism) never happened.
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Post by rendhark on Aug 13, 2017 6:31:57 GMT
I came across this game on YouTube – it sounded intriguing, so I decided to have a go.
Having just reached the end of the tutorial, I thought, I’d post my First Impressions. I am aware, that it’s still very early days, and at least some of what I will comment on, is already on the to-do-list.
My specs:
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
- Motherboard: Gigabyte B250M-D3H Pro Gaming
- Processor: Intel i7 7700
- Memory: 32GB DDR4 RAM
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB
- Resolution 1920 x 1080
Installation : Game installed with no hassles onto my “G”-drive.
Opening screen: Pretty basic – could be improved.
Intro: Didn’t really do anything for me – music and intro-movie should get the juices flowing.
Set-up: Simple, clear, no dramas.
Music (in-game): nothing special, but nicely non-intrusive.
Avatar: (I won’t argue with the style chosen for the population – from what I read, it was done deliberately. I would have chosen realism myself, but it’s not a major issue.)
The Avatar itself, needs more choices. I wasn’t happy with the finished result.
Game-play:
Entering the game, I first studied the terrain. I had chosen forested – and the few wispy trees were a disappointment. I assume, the starkness was a deliberate choice, to show that the surface was scorched and uninhabitable for 20 years. Fair enough.
Other than that - entirely adequate for this game.
Next, I noticed my citizens and the fact, that there were only a few models. Definitely needs more variety.
I was impressed with the clear structure of the tutorial. It takes you by the hand, and leads you – step-by-step – through the initial stage of the game. At no time did I sit there, scratching my head dumbfounded.
While I was using my avatar to scavenge and then build the first storage building, I tried to send my hordes of minions to start scavenging, but I could not. I don’t think, having scores of survivors just loafing around is realistic. Surely, there must be some way to keep them occupied during the early stage?
I noticed, many minions were getting stuck up to their chests in terrain.
The first store-house filled up very quickly, but not with the resources I needed to build the town hall, forcing me to build a second one early on - while more important structures were needed. (I know, I could have destroyed content, but I think that would be extremely unrealistic for this game-setting, and I had no guarantee, that it wouldn't just fill up with the same items again). I think, storage-capacities need to be adjusted, and one should have the option of selecting which resource a particular storage unit will accept. I assume, later, there will be dedicated areas, e.g. lumberyard.
I would like to have the option of cycling through all the buildings of a type, e.g. health, morale, etc.
I was pleased to see, that Alt-Tabbing in and out of the game works smoothly, even in full-screen mode.
I am having a bit of trouble with camera-angles. As one cannot click on a structure or the ground to zoom in, I found it difficult to get just the right perspective. e.g. I wanted to have a closer look at the latrine, and found myself mucking around for quite a while, before I got it right.
I built the town hall on top of a hill. To my amusement, as soon as the scaffolding was taken down, the entire structure slid to the bottom of the hill. I do think, that should be looked at.
By this time, I had people dropping dead all over the place. I think, it should be slowed down a bit. One doesn’t really have enough time to set up the basic structures before mass extinction sets in – closely followed by plague. This is exacerbated by the fact, that you cannot (as far as I can tell), set everyone to work immediately.
Overall:
I love it!
I’ve played many town-builders in my time, but this one has the potential to be something special. I was sold, when the tutorial gently suggested that it might be a good idea to dig a latrine – before pestilence comes a-riding on his steed. This seemingly minor thing is overlooked in 99% of these games. Yet – even today - Inadequate sanitation is estimated to cause 280 000 deaths annually.
It’s this kind of realism, I hope to see more of in the game.
Excellent start – looking forward to what is yet to come!
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Post by rendhark on Aug 13, 2017 8:38:40 GMT
So, I am having a go at the Iceberg scenario. These are my observations:
At one point, the minions were sliding across the ice, instead of walking. This hasn’t repeated.
It would be good, if your minions’ clothing changed to reflect the scenario conditions. Bit strange to see them wandering around in shirt-sleeves.
So far, I have only seen engineers stuck in the terrain – after building something.
Path-finding needs to be improved. Bee-lines seem to be the norm.
Considering the game-speed, one really needs to be able to access menus and give orders while paused.
I find that I am frequently giving the Town Leader a command, and then using the arrow-buttons to move the view – thereby negating his command. Perhaps auto-disengage from your avatar, after giving a command, other than “move to”?
I’m wondering if the whole game-speed – death-rate – birth-rate – refugee-arrival-rate, needs tweaking.
At first, population growth was so fast, that I couldn’t keep up with shack building.
Later, I had 76 minions and 9 shacks, yet almost everyone was staggering around, whining about insufficient housing.
It would be nice, if one could click on a corpse, and see the cause of death.
One should be able to build structures – especially shacks (picture today’s shanty-towns) – closer together.
At one point, I sat back and looked at my little settlement. What stood out, was that most of my minions were just standing around. I felt like screaming at them: “We will NEVER survive – much less flourish – if you don’t get off your butts!” It should be possible to – perhaps using the town hall – give your minions a default task, e.g. “scavenge”, or “harvest”, for those times when they have nothing better to do.
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Post by rendhark on Aug 13, 2017 9:01:44 GMT
Screen-shot, showing how most of my minions are just standing around (in their shirt-sleeves). This ruins immersion. Everyone should be flat-out, working 18-hour days, just to survive. Attachments:
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Post by ScottFarRoad on Aug 13, 2017 11:47:43 GMT
Welcome to the forum and thanks for buying into the pre-alpha and providing constructive feedback! I always enjoy reading posts like this and I'm glad you like elements of it. A few thoughts... - I’m pleased to say a few things you’ve mentioned, such as clicking on corpses, and interacting with things while paused, have already been addressed in the upcoming version 0.0.7. Check out the patch notes over in the news section of the forum. - The version after that (0.0.8) is probably going to be focused on bugs. Pathfinding, terrain issues, and building placement are its main focus. A later version should improve the camera. - A lot of cosmetic/graphical things, such as more leader clothing options, we're saving for the end of development. The current focus is gameplay features and bugs. - Regarding the unemployed issue, I personally disagree with you on that. I think part of the misunderstanding is that you called them "minions". These aren't your slaves, they're ordinary people who don't owe your town a damn thing. I think in real-life you would find a lot of people who don't have specific tasks shooting the breeze around the town centre while others do the hard labour and get angry at them, especially if those people they were low on energy. You often see it in survival shows - there’s no food or water – and still some people do nothing, hoping someone else will solve the problems. I certainly know from my own experience that a lot of volunteer endeavours are kept going by a hard working minority while others come along and reap the benefits (I'm not talking about making this game!  ). If it really annoys you, consider encouraging slavery in version 0.0.7. Slavers will round up the unemployed and take away their liberty to do nothing, forcing them to help out for the "good" of the town... |
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Post by rendhark on Aug 13, 2017 12:28:21 GMT
- Regarding the unemployed issue, I personally disagree with you on that. I think part of the misunderstanding is that you called them "minions". These aren't your slaves, they're ordinary people who don't owe your town a damn thing. I think in real-life you would find a lot of people who don't have specific tasks shooting the breeze around the town centre while others do the hard labour and get angry at them, especially if those people they were low on energy. You often see it in survival shows - there’s no food or water – and still some people do nothing, hoping someone else will solve the problems. I certainly know from my own experience that a lot of volunteer endeavours are kept going by a hard working minority while others come along and reap the benefits (I'm not talking about making this game! ). If it really annoys you, consider encouraging slavery in version 0.0.7. Slavers will round up the unemployed and take away their liberty to do nothing, forcing them to help out for the "good" of the town... G'day, and thanks for the warm welcome! I don't really think of them as "minions", lol. I'm thinking though, that this is something which could be addressed in the TownHall settings - similar to justice. Is your policy going to be, that you're running a Sanctuary - everyone welcome? Or - considering the precarious state of your conclave - do you adopt a policy of "You don't work - you don't eat!" I have a flood of refugees arriving at the moment, far more than I can house, feed, or provide health-care for. I'd like to see an option of being able to build a fence around your settlement. So you can decide when and how many to let in. You can then also banish the idle, criminals, the sick, elderly - all to be determined by your chosen settings. |
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Post by rendhark on Aug 13, 2017 13:29:39 GMT
So - my enclave has survived it's first year.
I would like to add the following to my earlier posts:
I have never seen one of my people carry anything in their "Inventory". I assume, that feature has not been implemented yet.
On occasion, the construction % icon disappears before the structure is completed.
An early structure should perhaps be a Midden.
This being a harsh post-apocalyptic setting, I was wondering if cannibalism will be a feature. Perhaps with a Town-Hall option, either allowing it instead of starvation, making it a crime, or perhaps even endorsing it. The side-effect could perhaps be a reduction in the number of refugees willing to take their chances in your township.
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Post by ScottFarRoad on Aug 13, 2017 23:36:32 GMT
Inventory is working . Keep watching a delivery worker or someone going to the storehouse for a drink.
Cannibalism is one of the social issues we have planned for sure. It should help with all those corpses...
Would definitely like to investigate a way to approach migrants one day, whether to be welcoming or cruel to them. Good idea!
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Post by rendhark on Aug 18, 2017 4:17:52 GMT
I am somewhat bemused by the chronic shortage of "Rubble" in the Canyon-scenario. Surely, rocks would be common as - uh - dirt..........
Also, when there is no salvage left in a structure - for example a car - it should probably disappear from the landscape.
And path-finding is still very wonky. I've had the town-leader go off on a 45 degree-plus angle one minute, and go through buildings the next. They seem to be following set paths - like rails. I noticed Town Leader dashing off at an angle, and then joining the path trampled by arriving refugees, when there was a much easier, direct route available.
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Post by ScottFarRoad on Aug 18, 2017 7:41:43 GMT
I am somewhat bemused by the chronic shortage of "Rubble" in the Canyon-scenario. Surely, rocks would be common as - uh - dirt.......... Also, when there is no salvage left in a structure - for example a car - it should probably disappear from the landscape. And path-finding is still very wonky. I've had the town-leader go off on a 45 degree-plus angle one minute, and go through buildings the next. They seem to be following set paths - like rails. I noticed Town Leader dashing off at an angle, and then joining the path trampled by arriving refugees, when there was a much easier, direct route available. Path finding hasn't been touched in version 0.0.7, so it is indeed wonky. It's the core focus of version 0.0.8, coming soon. (See the Roadmap thread in the suggestions section of the forum).  Might let players demolish an empty ruin if they want to one day. I personally like building my town around them. Some salvage changes coming up might reduce the resource bemusement.  |
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