Alpha Build 07_11_13 Notes Thread - Interplanetary

Here's my preliminary notes on the game from what I've played so far. These aren't really in any particular order, just jotted them down as I was playing.

• Options menu would be grand inside the game
• Tool tips for F2, F3, and F4 should have the "view" separated from the other word
• Focusing on a planet from overview mode into building mode should attempt to keep the player's current view as much as possible
  • ideally, more lerping and less camera rotation to get the planet in view
• There's no indication in the tutorial or as a tool tip what the vertical bar next to a structure indicates
  • although upon further play it's health, there should be some indication to help explain that
• Better indicator of impact would be nice, possibly with concentric circles showing major damage, moderate damage, minimum damage.
• Are speeds from projectile and projectile sizes taken into account, especially after positive or negative acceleration, when impacting the planet?
  • What about location on the planet?
    • i.e., hitting water would do far less damage than hitting land.
  • If so, projectiles with higher speeds, depending on the mass of the projectile may cause ancillary damage because of the shockwave and dust/debris thrown into the air.
    • Is there intent to include these types of things?
• Ability to upgrade?
  • (if you're planning this already, then sorry for redundancy)
  • I'd love to see a progression system within the game, such that you can start with a Tier 1 Railgun and can upgrade various parts of that weapon to improve it.
    • For instance, I might start with a 50 kg projectile and be able to upgrade to 100 kg, then 250 kg, and so on.
    • Or, utilizing different types of materials for denser projectiles
    • Or, ability for multi-stage projectiles that might disperse numerous smaller warheads when nearing the planet surface
      • possibly arms race from simple ballistics to nuclear weapons, etc.
  • Include a tech tree so that the player can research things, including new weapon techs (like laser or missile) and modifications to existing
    • Perhaps new discoveries in physics which allow for more precise targeting, stuff like that
• I feel like instead of going to Overview mode by default, you should start in build mode by default.
  • I find myself going there almost immediately anyway, and I don't see a particular use for overview mode.
• Hotkeys for weapons.
  • The first 10 should be 1 through 0;
  • Possibly Tab to switch between each 10?
    • (I haven't spent enough time to know how many you can realistically get)
• I had a railgun round explode before impacting the planet, is it supposed to do that? (playing in hotseat mode)
  • There was no defense on that planet.
  • Is any damage done from that?
  • Is there an automatic defense part of the cities?
• Projectiles should be color-coded to match which planet they're coming from.
• Speed option to slow down the round playback? Or a way to rewind/view the attack over again?
  • This may be a tactical design decision, which is fine, but if not, it would help to see what's going where from both sides.
  • For instance, I might want to see where the enemy attack is going first so I can plan defenses, then look at where mine was going to plan offenses.
  • Alternatively, show a less prominent line that is the full course the projectile took; this would also include a faded version of where the planets started that round.
• Need a fine-adjustment capability for aiming.
  • If I'm zoomed out to the default Targeting view, I would like to be able to press Shift or something similar to move in smaller steps than normal.
• Locking in a target doesn't happen when I click the mouse button.
  • Currently it takes a moment and then locks when the message comes up.
  • What should happen is that when I click, it locks.
  • (I find myself clicking and then moving the mouse away, causing me to lose the target path I had set because of the delay)
• No indication as to how much you're selling a structure for.
• Tried to repair, but the message only said "REPAIR FAILED" with no indication as to why.
  • Need a repair cost next to the repair button.

I've only been able to play for about an hour, so I apologize if some of this is covered elsewhere or upon longer play sessions. I am enjoying myself though!

Jason
@farginnoob

Excellent suggestions! I'll just try to comment on them all.

farginnoob wrote:

• Options menu would be grand inside the game
• Tool tips for F2, F3, and F4 should have the "view" separated from the other word
• Focusing on a planet from overview mode into building mode should attempt to keep the player's current view as much as possible

Options are being implemented and the camera is being fiddled with at the moment. It does bounce around way too much.
Must have missed those tooltips. Have to take care of them.

farginnoob wrote:
There's no indication in the tutorial or as a tool tip what the vertical bar next to a structure indicates

True, we'll add that to the tutorial and also try to modify the UI to make it clearer.

farginnoob wrote:

• Better indicator of impact would be nice, possibly with concentric circles showing major damage, moderate damage, minimum damage.

Absolutely, the smoking impact points are basically placeholders at the moment, anyway.

farginnoob wrote:
Are speeds from projectile and projectile sizes taken into account, especially after positive or negative acceleration, when impacting the planet?

• What about location on the planet?

Speed doesn't factor into it at the moment, but we've been thinking about it. It would seem like a nice mechanic, but there would be difficulties with balancing, since it's easier for the furthermost planet to get a higher velocity to its shots due to the sun's gravity. Lesser damage from water impact is also planned, but not implemented.

farginnoob wrote:
Ability to upgrade?

Yes! The structures will be upgradeable and a version of a tech tree is already in our internal test builds.

farginnoob wrote:
I feel like instead of going to Overview mode by default, you should start in build mode by default.

There are many ways to think about this. It's also important to be able to first visualize the battlefield. Maybe the player wants to start firing immediately. The location of the weapons on his planet should then depend on the planets' positions.

We have been thinking about streamlining this, though.

farginnoob wrote:
Hotkeys for weapons.

This will be implemented, as well as alternate multi-targeting methods.

farginnoob wrote:
I had a railgun round explode before impacting the planet, is it supposed to do that?

I think what you saw was the railgun slug fragmenting. When a slug gets close enough to the enemy planet, it breaks into smaller particles that all hit the planet. This is a normal feature of a railgun.

farginnoob wrote:

• Projectiles should be color-coded to match which planet they're coming from.

They will be!

farginnoob wrote:
Speed option to slow down the round playback? Or a way to rewind/view the attack over again?

This one is also not yet implemented, but worked towards.

farginnoob wrote:
Need a fine-adjustment capability for aiming.

Also coming soon!

farginnoob wrote:
Locking in a target doesn't happen when I click the mouse button.

Huh, interesting. I haven't noticed that before. We'll fix it.

farginnoob wrote:

• No indication as to how much you're selling a structure for.
• Tried to repair, but the message only said "REPAIR FAILED" with no indication as to why.
  • Need a repair cost next to the repair button.

These values have been added to tooltips, so expect them in the next release build. That "REPAIR FAILED" should also be fixed already.

Thanks a lot for your comments! Glad you're having fun!

Hi one sugestion. railguns are OP ^^. My question is how big splash they have? Couse my defences cant protect me :/ Does kinetic even works against railguns ?

Hi!

The splash effect is quite large at the moment, but this will change as new features are added. At the moment, railguns are the weapons you use to deal bulk of the damage, while the other weapons work as support to make more accurate strikes.

There is actually a problem with the shields, at the moment, and they don't work as intended. We're working on fixing them.

Thanks for the feedback!

Trying to host an online game with a friend on version 0.0.3202.

We can see and join each other's games, but clicking "Start" does nothing.

Hints/tips?

Are you sure you're both running the same build?

The main menu reported that we both had the same version (0.0.3202), beyond that I do not know.

This is a problem that was supposedly fixed in an earlier version. It sounds like it could be a problem with your firewall or router. Have you or your friend set those up properly?

Yes, I double checked my firewall settings, and Interplanetary successfully added an exception to the list when it installed. I can't speak for my friend, but since he was able to see and join the room I created, I would venture that his firewall was allowing the game as well.

It would seem like it. We can't replicate the problem, but I would bet it's something to do with your routers. Not sure if there's anything to do about it at the moment, but we'll try to get to the bottom of this.