Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

General discussion about the game.
Tamren
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:22 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Tamren » Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:54 am

They could give systems with stores in them a special symbol. The game already uses a bunch when you have the advanced sensors augment.

It would also be helpful to differentiate between explored and unexplored systems.
Zorgul
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:52 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Zorgul » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:13 pm

Most of these improvements are really spot on! It would be great to have them (without the event-spoilers: maybe you would have the game show you not only the percentages, but also the hidden options? Come on, explore the game!).

One minor annoyance I have: the New game screen needs a close/cancel button. I know there is the escape key, but not having the button is inconsistent.
mreasydoesit
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:15 pm

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby mreasydoesit » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:28 pm

I apologize if this has been mentioned but I did a search on weapon hotkeys... is anyone else running into problems where you may miss a dialog choice because you are trying to queue up the next instance of either your number 1 or 2 placed weapons during a fight? I am not sure how to best remedy this because I do like using the 1 and 2 button to proceed through dialog as well as selecting weapon fire. I just don't want to let a dirty slaver off the hook after pummeling them down to near nothing by accidentally mashing the 1 button.
ftl_raptor
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:40 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby ftl_raptor » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:34 pm

without the event-spoilers: maybe you would have the game show you not only the percentages, but also the hidden options? Come on, explore the game!).


The problem is that when you constantly run into the same outcome, you will eventually stop trying. Like I said; I will never-ever see if the spider mission has another outcome unless a blue option shows up because it is way too risky. Same goes for the one that ends in your crew member being obliterated because he explores a monolith on a planet (I hope I remember that event right, I saw it twice or thrice and I always got the same outcome) The game would have more replayability if you can take calculated risks rather than random risks and it would promote exploring rather than always playing it safe. Or just tweak these events to have a higher chance of a positive outcome if players don't want to see what the odds are.

I doubt anyone would try to get the other outcome after they've been subject to the same thing five times in a row when it comes to survival. From a replayability perspective, these events aren't optimized for a permadeath game.
Tamren
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:22 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Tamren » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:36 pm

mreasydoesit wrote:I apologize if this has been mentioned but I did a search on weapon hotkeys... is anyone else running into problems where you may miss a dialog choice because you are trying to queue up the next instance of either your number 1 or 2 placed weapons during a fight?

Aaargh! Yes! This happens to me all the time! I'm especially terrible about skipping over "the enemy is attempting to flee!" messages and then get surprised when they jump away.

I suppose they could solve this by switching dialog hotkeys to A-B-C-D-E instead of 1-5. The most dialog options I have seen so far is 5 (with multiple blue options). Since the letter keys aren't used for anything else it should work, and A-E are all within easy reach of the same hand.
Tamren
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:22 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Tamren » Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:00 pm

ftl_raptor wrote:I doubt anyone would try to get the other outcome after they've been subject to the same thing five times in a row when it comes to survival. From a replayability perspective, these events aren't optimized for a permadeath game.

Hmm, very true. I think a lot of those events could be changed so that the player has some way of affecting the outcome instead of having the game flipping a coin to decide. It's all about choices right? In a roguelike you have the opportunity to do risky things, but the risk should scale to the reward.

For starters the player should be able to pick which crew members go on away missions instead of defaulting to ALL. Secondly the number of crew sent should have some effect on the success of the mission, the more people you send the better you will do. But crew sent on missions have a chance to be lost, so it's a tradeoff.

Secondly I think events could have "orange" choices as well as blue choices. An orange choice wouldn't be guaranteed success, but it would increase your chances. Some of them may have costs or drawbacks associated with them. A third interesting option is to have special "info" choices that allow you to make an informed decision. These could be coloured green. HOWEVER, if you take the time to use a green option, the situation may deteriorate. So that too is another risk.

Lets use the spider mission as an example:

OH GOD SPIDERS WHAT DO
- Send your crew to fight the spiders! (pick which crew members)
- NOPE the hell out of there

- (Blue) SPOILER

- (Orange) Bring your antipersonnel/boarding drone to fight with you. - 1 drone part
- (Orange) Use fire weapons to torch the spiders before you board - may cost ammo, fire may grow out of control

- (Green) Use slug crewmember to estimate number of spiders using telepathy. The number may be HIGH or LOW and this directly affects your chance of success using any of the above actions except for the blue one.
Tamren
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:22 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Tamren » Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:19 am

I just had an idea. You know how shots that miss your ship just pass on through without hitting anything? Well it can be hard to tell if the shot is going to hit or miss just by looking at it. This information may figure into your strategic planning. I know there is a miss text indicator but it's small and easy to miss in the heat of battle.

For instance if you know a missile is about to hit the weapons bay you might want to fire off all weapons or reorganize them so that the least useful one is the one that loses power.

What could be done is make missed shots pass UNDER the ship. This would clearly differentiate them.
Tamren
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:22 am

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Tamren » Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:20 am

Was playing a normal game and I think I found a bug. Two actually, the second may be a feature I'm not sure.

- I was doing a quest that had me delivering drone parts to another ship in the next sector. I did the quest and when I arrived the receiving ship was under attack. I boarded and eliminated the pirate ship that was after them and the ship then rewarded me for saving them. BUT I never got the chance to salvage the pirate ship first! In all the other variations of these quests and events I always get to scrap the ship I board before any other events happen.

- Secondly I found a random automated rebel drone in a nebula that happened to have 5 shields. Is this correct for normal difficulty? Never seen a ship with that many shield bars before.
Moosicorn
Posts: 107
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 9:13 pm

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby Moosicorn » Sat Sep 29, 2012 11:57 am

Jump planner augmentation would be nice
hborrgg
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:46 pm

Re: Suggestions to improve gameplay and interface

Postby hborrgg » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:18 pm

Here's an idea for improving the gameplay:

Every so often (either it should have a limited number of uses or recharge every other sector or so) you can choose to send out an Encrypted Distress Call. Once used, a beacon will appear on your map showing the location of the nearest hidden Federation base.

If you make it there badly damaged/missing crew/horribly underleveled for the current sector you then they will pledge to do what they can to help save the Federation and offer up some free repairs/volunteers/stuff/ etc. But if you have found plenty of scrap and your ship is already plenty powerful then they will turn you away, announcing that they have enough problems of their own.


This is the kind of thing that I would like to see more of. Mechanics that don't really make the game easier when you are blasting away everything in your path and it's getting a little boring, but still give you a little bit of hope when you are having a really crummy run and already wasting most of the scrap you pick up on repairs.