Things i noticed in the beta on my first two games. This is just my opinion on my first feel of the game based on my observations and experiences playing strategy games. So far I am quite impressed with everything and mildly surprised on some features I didn't expect. I dig the orbital unit T3 structure and the possibilities that open up when you reach that far in the game. There is some qualms I have about certain parts of the game but I feel overall I want all my friends to get into this beta to experience it. (which is good) Economy Automatic building I feel in the scale of this game it would be nice to have a button somewhere to automatically build a certain amount of units from each factory. I know supreme commander used this for great affect and I think it can be implemented in this game for good measure as well. Mass spot makers When initially choosing a spot for landing my commander or zooming out and queuing up a list of mass extractors for my engineers to nab. It would be super helpful if there was just a small icon on top of every mass location to see instead of zooming in and combing the surface for what looks like mass scratches. T2 Air factory? naval factory? Bot Factory? I'm not sure if this beta process will see the introduction of T2 structures phased in to keep focus on balance on a couple specific tech trees. but i'll give my two cents regarding the different ones when they come out. I do feel the T2 units could be a little bigger in general just to emphasize their T2 status. make it easier to identify when a group of T1 and T2 units are coming at your base. Land factory and Bot Factory I'm not sure what is the real difference between having these factories separate since they both make land units. unless one was easier to put into orbit I would understand the preference... Bots would make a good faction land army that simulates the land army. But as is, it seems redundant to have two factories. Army Unit pathing So Far I like how the units path on the planets sometimes. They do a good job of finding the shortest distance which is good. However other times they will get caught up on planetary nicks ( Canyons or metal walls) which makes them bounce off and slowly but surely move around it to get to their destination. I'm sure this will get improved on wards. General Hot key menu I looked at the hot key menu and have to say it looks robust in available actions a person can map which is great. The problem I see that its rather abrasive in its presentation. I wonder if it would be good to have a keyboard outline and one can then hover over the keys and figure out their own hot key preference.. right now it just seems you have to remember what you put for each one instead of seeing everything as a big picture. Extra that is just pure opinion Constant Commander Health on GUI Something I would like added would be a constant health bar/commander picture for the commander and when clicked on brings the commander in the main camera view. Playing after victory I know that in some other games its possible to play the game after you have defeated all opponents. I wish this can get implemented in this game since I still want to try various features but can't if my opponent dies. In the end, playing on the uber settings and no slowdowns (only sometimes when the sun comes into view) The game is great and I'll have to keep playing to give more feedback. Good job uber team .
You can highlight metal spots with Ctrl+N. It's not on by default which is strange because many spots can be underwater or elsewhere and you can't find them another way. You can also select several factories and spread the build load among them with Shift+F1/F2/F3/F4, look in bindings what each of them means, I don't remember honestly.
Hey welcome to the beta, just gonna comb througb the problems you've been having 1) You have do already have a feature close to that. If you hold down shift and click on a unit you want to build it will add 5-10 per click adding alont of units to the field. Ypu can compund this bys selecting multiple factories and shift click units. (double click a specific factory will select all in your view of that typw). But it would be nice to have a one time switch I agree. We might have that feature in the next ui update. 2) Crt + N, the shortcut to turn on metal icons. 3) Already all in. The removed t2 and called it advance. This is so players realize basic (t1) is still relavant to build late game 4) Its actually 'vehicle' and bot factories. Bot factories build nimbly but less armoured units. While vehicle builds heavy damage but slower tanks. 5) Pathing was actully stable in alpha but was broken with the introduction of new features in beta, this will be fixed relatively soon. 6) I'm pretty sure settings has all hotkeys under controls and is customizable. 7) I would actually appreciate that greatly. At least for annihilation game types. Other objective game modes probably wouldn't need it. 8) Probably wouldn't be to hard to implement but I don't see the point. The chrono cam is a much feature for end game because you could review your match at your liesure. Thanks for the points though. All critics are welcome! Cheers!
Woah man, thanks for the response I should comb through the hot keys to get familiar with the game but I have limited time to engage in the beta so I try to do my first glance. Not sure why you have to Ctrl+N to turn it on.. I think it should be standard since its not an invalid eye-sore. But we will see in time. I just learned today that there is advanced air and bot units... I just find it peculiar that it is organized by builder and not every builder can build everything. It's different, not sure if i'm truly against it or for it. I will add on to this first glance with some more issues ( last post in this thread since it won't be a first glance for very long) Army Building collision I am used to the concept of building factories next to power generators and mass extractors to get build bonuses however it seems to introduce another problem where they can potentially block the exit of a land/bot factory unit and bunch them up on exit and can't be moved. Maybe this has something to do with building collisions, but it is something that needs to be fixed. Orbital unit collision I've built quite a few orbital units in my 3 games and noticed they stack on one another when they have been launched into space. It would be nice if they kind of collided with each other and then spaced them selves apart from one another Rallied unit collision I've done a little building and rallying of units to one spot to grab and send somewhere. This isn't really a game breaking issue but its a little weird seeing the units all try to go to one exact spot (the size of a land tank) and squeeze ever so tightly but fidgeting none the less to get to that one spot maybe if they gave up half way just to limit CPU usage... not that its huge but its something i'm sure isn't intended. Satellite differentiation This is more opinion but I thought I would chip in on that the satellites and orbital units are pretty sick. I know one of them is still in the phases of getting a nice paint scheme on it. The problem I feel is that the radar and orbital bombardment one look too similar. I know they have small icons that help differentiate but even with that its hard to tell the two apart sometimes. If they had a different color solar panel or a yellow charge panel on the back of the orbital destroyer it would help. Economy/Building Expansion of repeat automatic orders for factories The point I was trying to get across is that it would be nice to have a Que of Ex: 1 Engineer, 2 Anti air, 10 Tanks, 1 scout in a constant Que instead of having to click those individually and hope you kept the right order. not that order is important but that those units come out in intervals. But its a suggestion, not trying to hammer this in. Wall building So i noticed walls are built individually.. maybe there is a shift hot key i missed but in case I missed it.... I think it would be great if you can click on 1 wall and then hold down shift and a line of walls will form when you drag the cursor. instead of clicking, clicking and clicking. Unless there is a hot key i missed, I think this would be good implementation. Planet rockets Maybe you forum guys can help but I was building the halcyon... planet mover rockets on a planet hoping to get an activation of sorts saying that the planet can be swung out of orbit. However I'm not sure if there is a certain amount that needs to be built before they activate... point being, it would be nice to have somewhere in the build description.. how many is needed to move an asteroid or small moon or if it is even worth it to build in the first place. ( found this in forum... must of missed it in my first pass through) Builders automatically reclaim when sent to build Currently the process involves telling the engineer to reclaim, and once the reclaimed building is gone, to build in the spot you wanted to build originally. I think it would be easier if a build command would overlay on top of the reclaimed material and the engineer would automatically reclaim to make room for the structure. pure opinion Scouts start with hold fire I only mention this because I want my scouts to only reveal map information, not stop and shoot something to only get detected. Formation moves When holding an army or selecting them, it would be cool to put them in formation so they don't form a pile of units when attacking bases. (maybe its a hot key idk) Orbital lander has Ferry command this ferry command will allow the orbital lander to pick up units that are qued up on the ferry location and eventually keep taking them to the place that is on the other planet. Camera zoom out from single planet to view other planets weird I've done some planetary expansions where I've colonized and took a lot of mass extractors. I find myself annoyed that I have to zoom out of the planet level and then zoom in on my home planet to do stuff there... Again, if I missed the hot key its fair game to shoot me on this one but I think it would be nice to just have the planets on the right top of the screen for easy switching. Not to big but maybe if i scroll my mouse over, i can then see the planets I've landed on. End Feedback. Thanks for reading, hope this stuff helps... or is just a giant wall of text.
There is no Adjacency, but otherwise don't block the ramps on your factories. Don't use Attack move? If you give a chain of move orders they shouldn't stop to shoot anything. There isn't any formation move stuff yet, it's coming. That's not really different at all from prior games, Only Advanced constructors and build advanced Structure, the only catch is that Basic Fabricators only only build the same type of Advanced Factory, so a Basic Bot Fabricator is the on'y Fabricator that can build the Advanced Bot Factory, same thing for Tanks, Aircraft and Naval. Mike
Building collision: no adjacency bonuses in this game, for balance reasons, and also so that players aren't restricted in base layout. orbital unit collision and rallied unit collision: I'd say it's safe to assume that collissions such as this will be fixed up in future builds. Satellite differentiation: We'll see how this pans out, icons/ models may well have tweaks over the course of the beta. repeat orders: It's safe to assume that a factory build queue loop button will be implemented, just not in yet. Wall building: likely the same as loop button. planet rockets: when you zoom out onto solar system view, in the top right you see a list of planets, there are icons next to each planet indicating how many engines you need to gain movement control, above a certain planet radius, the planet becomes too big to move at all. formation moves: will probably come in later.
I had the units in patrol. Again, its just an opinion, since scouts are rather weak to confrontation.
