Here is described an arch of issues players faced. This is indeed a hard game, and while fixing and addressing all of these may sound like too many pillows, I think I can assure you that is not the case - my first and the most important goal is to fix confusion, so that players can solve problems and the new type of spatial puzzle ASEMA does.
Before that, a few random content updates 16 E received:
- Container has now Overseer module, but it's range is very small, so it can only command railguns attached to itself, or someone very close
- Haulers, Hubs, Beacon, Container now have Enemy Register module, so they can set targets for railguns, but only within their range
- Haulers have now Overseer modules too, so they act like moving Hubs, making them very versatile and more worth their price
Then, the arch of player experience, problems they faced and the fixes.
- Player would ignore messages, or quick browse them to find ones that open the Guide, which is a wall of text > Player experience is "had to read walls of text" > Guide is renamed as Encyclopedia to make it sound less like a tutorial helper and more like a mid-/end-game data source > Guide is also no longer accessible via tutorial tips
- Player got so many messages they probably felt less meaningful > Now only 1 message per mission
- Player would still ignore messages > Now each message is shown as a prompt that requires pushing a button that says "UNDERSTOOD"
- Players would complain lack of tutorialization > All of the above is meant to build up a sense of the tutorial being here in the room with us
- Player opens game, asks what am I supposed to do, ignores the debris field, and flies away > Gets teleported back, prompted to the direction of the debris
- Player then lands on the moon on mission 1, while this is cool, player hasn't learned how to Lift Off yet > Teleported back to space, with a prompt about the debris
- Player would be confused what to do with the debris > Glowing arrows and a phrase helps with this
- Player would land accidentally and not realize what just happened > Addressed with messages and pacing, not a large problem, but something to consider in UX aspect
- Player would mine, and get full inventory and thus be unable to produce > A marker tells if inventory is full, prompting player to think about inventory space and realize the inability to produce may be related to it
- Player would not find how to produce > Changed the wording in the tutorial texts and added a "Click to open" text to the production items in Inventory
- Player would not find the Data Core > If player goes too far, teleports back
- Player would not find the Data Core > Glowing bright arrows point the direction and location
- Player would not be able to pick up the Data Core due to full inventory > Addressed at item 9
- Player finds popups annoying > Removed popups, and replaced them with the 1 message prompts per mission
- Player would not find the Container plan > Arrow points to the direction, "back to start area" was not enough
- Player would bump into the Container plan, making it fly away > Container teleports back if it moves
- Player would bump into the Container plan, making both Pioneer and Container fly away in different directions, and player would enter the Container and lost the Pioneer to space > Pioneer now teleports back, too, with spesific conditions, in early game
- Same as 17, but player is confused, why their "ship is glowing" (the Container plan is glowing) > Reduced the plan glow entirely, so now the machine shape is more apparent and it is easier to differentiate from other machines
- Player had issues with producing and full inventory > Addressed in previous items
- Player would build Crusher, but land it on a moon > The build message pinpointed the location of builds, this is not a softlock, but it makes things harder as moving Boulders to a landed Crusher is harder > If player later builds a new Crusher, and realizes it is smart to build it on a boulder stream making it run autonomously, it feels good
- Player would fly up north with the Crusher, and place it on the stream near a place where a heavy moon emits gravity, making player confused why the Crusher moves on it's own > Tweaked the starter asteroid stream direction so that it does not enter gravitated areas
And so on; the campaign continues long after this, but these are the basics. Due to the unique mechanism, such as things can move around, be bumped and be pulled by gravity, it become increasingly vital in the recent months, that gravity cannot be introduced very early, and the start area must be simple and easy, introducing only a new mechanic at a time.
The demo world has a few moons, and only two of them are heavy enough for gravity. Players who play for so many hours that they enter the other moon near orbits, will find out about the gravity - and have likely passed the campaign to a point where they have found out about Focus and Gravity. They may then build systems to prevent gravitational pull, so they can operate near gravity wells.
Onboarding polish continues.
Feedback on UI, UX and visuals has been positive. Bug reports are so far very few - only two (maybe 3, all relatively minor) known currently. Audios may start to play weird, I consider that as a glitch, but only in larger bases. An audio engine update is planned in version 17, amongst other inside tweaks.
