It's still very early, but I think the most pressing issue at the moment is the lack of navigation tools. Without them it's very difficult to tell where you are, where you are going, and how fast.
This would also help sell the concept more since you can walk around in the cockpit and all.
Also, consider only playing music during combat because any song, no matter how good, will become grating given enough time.
I believe you also missed going outside the ship? Look up near the cockpit area... if you take some damage, you are meant to go outside and use your tool to fix the damage spots.
And yes, the map (which currently is just a debug tool) is something i want to work on ASAP. I'm already in the middle of improving game feel for flying around and such!
Played it for a bit and the controls were a bit unintuitive. Pressing number keys doesn't seem to give any feedback for which weapons you're switching to? I was also confused by what I was doing stacking the missiles in the back of the ship together; no idea what that meant. The auto-pilot when you leave the pilot seat is cool; is there any kind of auto-targeting if enemies are inside of your reticle? (Didn't seem like it.) Also, if you can, I would recommend making the map/radar three-dimensional; would be much more intuitive and easy to go after enemies this way.
Overall, kind of a difficult game to figure out as it's still so early in development, but the ship looks nice and the stars and asteroids sitting out in space look very pretty. Looking forward to how it shapes up next demo.
Hey my man, thanks for checking it out, i didnt expect you to!
Yes, there is a lack of feedbakc in regards to the selction of weapon loadouts... rn there's only 0 and 1, 0 being the mining tool. The ship stacking inside the ship is merely to showcase the extensive placement system i have made for internal storage! next demo you'll actually be able to carry the missiles outside and actually install them. There is indeed auto-targeting, i made it very subtle to give players more control over their guns. You probably missed going outside the ship, if you press P to spawn an enemy, let it shoot you a bunch of times, some decals and damage will accumulate outside the hull... you are meant to go outside and use your tool to repair those spots. To go outside look up somewhere near the cockpit area, you'll see a prompt for it. The map radar is indeed one of the next few things i'll fix, i already have a pretty cool idea of how i want it to be, the current map was merely a tool to check if chunking and infinite space was working as expected.
I recorded my gameplay, don't know if it could help you
I would add normal maps to your ships (but that's because I add normal maps everywhere in my game). or maybe turn the IOR down on the ships material so the color pops more and the sun doesn't gloss as hard on it
Nice models and textures, the "scanning ship" effect looks cool
Nice feedback my man! the normal map thing is something i want to do eventually, yes! just, upgrade the model in general. didnt think about the IOR thing tho, thanks for telling me.
Yes, the game is extremely early and most things people are telling me are already planned as things to change/upgrade, its EXTREMELY early. a good analogy would be a "grotto", i made so many extremely deep and procedural systems that, due to the lack of tangible content, cant be seen very clearly... the interior ship placement system, for example, uses real analytical geometry methods to calculate support sections and whatnot, took me about 2 weeks to get done.
Also i noticed you didnt get out of the ship, you can do that by looking up near the cockpit, the outer space gameplay is essential, out there you can use the tool to fix the ship's received damage.
Not much to do. The first person perspective will likely cause someone motion sickness with it spinning around randomly. The background doesn't feel like a sphere but rather like a flat plane while turning. Music doesn't fit. And like Why485 said, the physics needs more work.
The throttle is very confusing, it almost seems like I'm manipulating a throttle I can't see and then the speed is reacting to that. It feels very indirect and unclear how I'm meant to set a desired speed.
Music loud.
Thruster effects are neat.
I don't understand how to lock enemy ships so I can track them better. I point at them and press H and T but nothing seems to do anything.
The enemy ships fly by so fast, and are so small, that when I did kill them I felt like I was just shooting blind, especially because the target markers disappear when they get close. The difficult (unclear) speed management also meant I never felt like I was going the right speed. Not having an obvious range number makes it very hard to judge distance too since everything is so far/fast.
Seems I can only target asteroids?
The mouse flight/aiming is good.
To sell that you are accelerating/decelerating, having the camera slightly dolly in and out plus a tiny bit of camera shake will make it feel like your thrusters are doing something.
No spacedust! It's really difficult to judge how fast you're moving. I don't think there's even a speedometer anywhere.
The description said 6DOF but I don't see any 6DOF, just forward/back and turning. Where's the strafing and sliding? The ship seems to be on rails.
I pressed F to get outside my ship and the ship autopiloted and shot down some guys? I moved some missiles around in the cockpit but I don't understand what I was doing or why.
The more I mess with the throttle the less I understand how it's correlated to my speed. Like e.g. if I hold it back for a few seconds then release instead of smoothly slowing down I just stop almost instantly?
Figured out 0 is the mining laser and 1 is the gun. Ate parts of an asteroid and watched stuff float away, but I wasn't really sure what to do with it. I got out of the cockpit, and then the ship flew into the asteroid and blew itself up. I fell "down" for a few seconds before the game reset.
Great! thanks for playing and leaving this detailed feedback! yep, i get everything you are saying and the 6DOF is related to the EVA gameplay, outside the ship, that may have sounded a bit confusing...
The missiles inside the ship are merely to test the interior placement mechanic, its a demonstration of the system, no purpose as of yet, like most things in the game right now...
The asteroids are also just things to look at.
I will implement the speedometer fix and the movement feedback ASAP!
Tried your game. Right off the bat, i can say the concept is good, I see the vision. Art is good. HUD is good. Jet flames afterburn looks cool with the 2d effects.
That said, there are a few issues, or maybe just things I don't like. Red blips/markers on enemy ships, uh, need to scale with how far it is. Otherwise it's hard to tell, yes there is a minimap, but still.
Secondly. When they fly past you it's disorienting, there needs to be an arrow marker/indicator to help reorient yourself to aim at a ship flying past you.
There's already a marking system for asteroids, there needs to be something like that for ships.
You'd probably add that later tho this *is* an early prototype.
Also some ideas, but maybe you can add homing missiles? For when you lock onto an object, you would be able to fire a homing missile or two. That'd be fun.
Aiming is very hard. Especially the enemy that moves a lot (though that was the intention, I guess). You could make that easier? But then again the only plane fighter I played was on the PSP.
Anyways, all over, good demo. promising. Good luck!
Comments
An interesting prototype.
It's still very early, but I think the most pressing issue at the moment is the lack of navigation tools. Without them it's very difficult to tell where you are, where you are going, and how fast.
This would also help sell the concept more since you can walk around in the cockpit and all.
Also, consider only playing music during combat because any song, no matter how good, will become grating given enough time.
Keep up the good work.
thanks my man... yes, its very early!
I believe you also missed going outside the ship? Look up near the cockpit area... if you take some damage, you are meant to go outside and use your tool to fix the damage spots.
And yes, the map (which currently is just a debug tool) is something i want to work on ASAP. I'm already in the middle of improving game feel for flying around and such!
Played it for a bit and the controls were a bit unintuitive. Pressing number keys doesn't seem to give any feedback for which weapons you're switching to? I was also confused by what I was doing stacking the missiles in the back of the ship together; no idea what that meant. The auto-pilot when you leave the pilot seat is cool; is there any kind of auto-targeting if enemies are inside of your reticle? (Didn't seem like it.) Also, if you can, I would recommend making the map/radar three-dimensional; would be much more intuitive and easy to go after enemies this way.
Overall, kind of a difficult game to figure out as it's still so early in development, but the ship looks nice and the stars and asteroids sitting out in space look very pretty. Looking forward to how it shapes up next demo.
Hey my man, thanks for checking it out, i didnt expect you to!
Yes, there is a lack of feedbakc in regards to the selction of weapon loadouts... rn there's only 0 and 1, 0 being the mining tool.
The ship stacking inside the ship is merely to showcase the extensive placement system i have made for internal storage! next demo you'll actually be able to carry the missiles outside and actually install them.
There is indeed auto-targeting, i made it very subtle to give players more control over their guns.
You probably missed going outside the ship, if you press P to spawn an enemy, let it shoot you a bunch of times, some decals and damage will accumulate outside the hull... you are meant to go outside and use your tool to repair those spots. To go outside look up somewhere near the cockpit area, you'll see a prompt for it.
The map radar is indeed one of the next few things i'll fix, i already have a pretty cool idea of how i want it to be, the current map was merely a tool to check if chunking and infinite space was working as expected.
I would add normal maps to your ships (but that's because I add normal maps everywhere in my game). or maybe turn the IOR down on the ships material so the color pops more and the sun doesn't gloss as hard on it
Nice models and textures, the "scanning ship" effect looks cool
Nice feedback my man! the normal map thing is something i want to do eventually, yes! just, upgrade the model in general. didnt think about the IOR thing tho, thanks for telling me.
Yes, the game is extremely early and most things people are telling me are already planned as things to change/upgrade, its EXTREMELY early. a good analogy would be a "grotto", i made so many extremely deep and procedural systems that, due to the lack of tangible content, cant be seen very clearly... the interior ship placement system, for example, uses real analytical geometry methods to calculate support sections and whatnot, took me about 2 weeks to get done.
Also i noticed you didnt get out of the ship, you can do that by looking up near the cockpit, the outer space gameplay is essential, out there you can use the tool to fix the ship's received damage.
Not much to do. The first person perspective will likely cause someone motion sickness with it spinning around randomly. The background doesn't feel like a sphere but rather like a flat plane while turning. Music doesn't fit. And like Why485 said, the physics needs more work.
My raw thoughts as I played:
Great! thanks for playing and leaving this detailed feedback! yep, i get everything you are saying and the 6DOF is related to the EVA gameplay, outside the ship, that may have sounded a bit confusing...
The missiles inside the ship are merely to test the interior placement mechanic, its a demonstration of the system, no purpose as of yet, like most things in the game right now...
The asteroids are also just things to look at.
I will implement the speedometer fix and the movement feedback ASAP!
Tried your game. Right off the bat, i can say the concept is good, I see the vision. Art is good. HUD is good. Jet flames afterburn looks cool with the 2d effects.
That said, there are a few issues, or maybe just things I don't like.
Red blips/markers on enemy ships, uh, need to scale with how far it is. Otherwise it's hard to tell, yes there is a minimap, but still.
Secondly. When they fly past you it's disorienting, there needs to be an arrow marker/indicator to help reorient yourself to aim at a ship flying past you.
There's already a marking system for asteroids, there needs to be something like that for ships.
You'd probably add that later tho this *is* an early prototype.
Also some ideas, but maybe you can add homing missiles? For when you lock onto an object, you would be able to fire a homing missile or two. That'd be fun.
Aiming is very hard. Especially the enemy that moves a lot (though that was the intention, I guess). You could make that easier? But then again the only plane fighter I played was on the PSP.
Anyways, all over, good demo. promising. Good luck!