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[tjcbs]

This game was written in C++ using OpenGL 2.0 and SDL. It took me... too long.

There is already a tutorial, so I won't explain anything. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Download (Windows only):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/399pm44q13oiw45/PlanNet.rar?dl=0


Video:

[tjcbs]

Any feedback then on why you aren't interested?

[nucleartide]

Hmm, I get a black screen when I run the game...could it be attached monitor setup?

[tjcbs]

Sorry! Please download again.

That was the ANGLE build, which doesn't work on all configurations. This is the OpenGl build, which I've never seen fail, except on very old PCs (like mine).

[Quicksand-S]

I get a Dropbox page that says "Link not found" when I click your download link.

[tjcbs]

I get a Dropbox page that says "Link not found" when I click your download link.

Weird, some kind of Dropbox screwup, but it works now.  I had to copy, delete, and copy back.

[Quicksand-S]

When I try to run it in Windows 7 64-bit, it crashes right way. The fault module is "MSVCR90.dll" and the exception is the relatively common "c0000005".

[Quicksand-S]

The latest version you asked me to try worked, so I'm posting here instead.

-This is not a game that people can pick up and play. Wow. I started a game, hoping to figure it out as I went and couldn't even figure out which planets were mine (I'll get to that) or what was clickable. Nothing seemed to do anything. I even did try clicking planets and dragging (because that part seemed obvious, watching the AI) but since I didn't know which I owned, I was probably clicking the wrong ones.

-When it first shows up, the main menu looks incredibly dull compared to the rest of the game I find that bluish grey background really unappealing. Also, the title is about 50% transparent and doesn't show up very well at all.

-It's weird to see a cursor on the menu for my gamepad, while I'm controlling a different one with the mouse.

-I like the atmospheric music.

-The tutorial is pretty decent. The only thing I didn't like was that sometimes I knew what I was going to be asked to do and it wouldn't let me until I was told. It would be nice if it realized that I was trying to attack a planet and just went on to the next step, for example.

-At one point, the tutorial says something about "Blandons". It just comes out of nowhere, and without knowing the story of the game it seems completely random and weird.

-There's at least one comma in the tutorial that is at the end of a complete sentence and should probably be a period. I forgot to write it down, but it comes before "attack!" if I remember right.

-In the AI Button tutorial, it says I lose "5 men" when everywhere else it talks only about "pulses".

-The icons at the bottom kind of all blend together because they're so close to one another. It looks like there's some space on the right too, so I'm not sure why things aren't more spread out.

-Those icons also don't look like much because they're covered by numbers. When it said "the sword icons", all I saw was weird bug things, with two wings sticking out above the numbers.

-I'm not sure what I think of the lack of clarity. What I mean is that some planets are considered "bigger" than others, but it's not clear how much size affects things. It's also unclear how much of a defense bonus planets get, or if it is affected by anything.

-When there are multiple colors present, it's hard to tell which planets are mine. They all have a blue glow around them (atmosphere?) while the actual player colors are more subtle. I feel like it'd be better if the primary glow was the player color.

-Even after playing for a while, it's a little unclear how I get new pulses, or if there's any way I can produce them more quickly. Do bigger planets make them faster?

-Attacking someone much weaker counts as betrayal? I'm not allied with the little, wimpy nations, so why is that betrayal?

-It's very easy to click on a planet to change the direction of its pulses and have it just cancel the pulse-transmission instead. I think that got a few of my planets captured.

-It would be nice if I could click/drag on the timeline on the victory screen to view specific points in time. I was reading the bottom part of the screen at first and missed the recording of my victory.


I guess the tutorial did it's job pretty well. I went and played a normal game right after it and beat it pretty easily (about 6min). It was pretty fun and worked great for the most part. I like that there are a lot of things I CAN pay attention to, but I'm also able to ignore all the icons and just focus on making moves organically.

[tjcbs]

Thanks Quicksand for the very detailed feedback! If anyone else wants to try, the link on the first post is always up to date.

-The tutorial is pretty decent. The only thing I didn't like was that sometimes I knew what I was going to be asked to do and it wouldn't let me until I was told. It would be nice if it realized that I was trying to attack a planet and just went on to the next step, for example.

The problem is that it is sometimes very easy to accidentally skip, especially when the mouse is already by the planet because of the last segment, so I went out of my way to prevent that. Hrm..

-At one point, the tutorial says something about "Blandons". It just comes out of nowhere, and without knowing the story of the game it seems completely random and weird.

Inside joke, I probably need to get rid of it.

-The icons at the bottom kind of all blend together because they're so close to one another. It looks like there's some space on the right too, so I'm not sure why things aren't more spread out.

The space on the right is reserved for the AI/Continue/Resign buttons

-Those icons also don't look like much because they're covered by numbers. When it said "the sword icons", all I saw was weird bug things, with two wings sticking out above the numbers.

I was worried about that. I don't know what I can do, apart from finding a really good icon designer who can work around the limitation of the numbers obscuring the center.

-I'm not sure what I think of the lack of clarity. What I mean is that some planets are considered "bigger" than others, but it's not clear how much size affects things. It's also unclear how much of a defense bonus planets get, or if it is affected by anything.

Planets produce pulses at a rate proportional to their 2D area. Defenders have an advantage over attackers at a ratio of 6:5. It seemed a bit much to tell players this, I was hoping they would get a feel for these factors through play. You think it might be a good idea to explicitly state this?

-When there are multiple colors present, it's hard to tell which planets are mine. They all have a blue glow around them (atmosphere?) while the actual player colors are more subtle. I feel like it'd be better if the primary glow was the player color.

I'm a bit surprised you were having this problem. I've gotten this complaint before, but I thought I solved it by tinting the planet's surface with it's color, as well as the surrounding space. What kind of display are you using? The blue glow signifies that a player is weak, not atmosphere (explained below).

-Attacking someone much weaker counts as betrayal? I'm not allied with the little, wimpy nations, so why is that betrayal?

Ok, so I've been having a *huge* problem communicating this concept, you are in good company!!! Here's the deal: When you're power (the sword/bug icon to the far left) falls below a certain level for more than a few seconds, you are considered "weak". You then get the blue glow, all your associated numbers turn blue, the spacey "wubwubwubwub..." sound plays and your planets flicker. When you are in the weak state, you are implicitly allied with all the other weak players. If you attack another weak player, it triggers the "Traitor!" effect and all the weak players will consider you an enemy for 15 seconds. If your power then climbs above a higher threshold, it plays the "Rowwwrrrrr" sound, your planets glow, the blue glow fades away, and you aren't allied with anyone.

To me, it seems simple enough, but I invented it, and I'm used to it. NOBODY ELSE gets it. NO ONE. I have to explain it in person, every time.I'm going to add a dove icon on top of all the weak planets, to try to further reinforce this signal. But what else can I do???

-It's very easy to click on a planet to change the direction of its pulses and have it just cancel the pulse-transmission instead. I think that got a few of my planets captured.

If you continue playing, let me know if you still have this problem, it seems to be a newbie-only issue.

[Quicksand-S]

I don't know what I can do, apart from finding a really good icon designer who can work around the limitation of the numbers obscuring the center.

Maybe just lower the numbers slightly? As long as a slightly larger chunk of the icon is uninterrupted, visually, it might be enough to tell what they are.

Planets produce pulses at a rate proportional to their 2D area. Defenders have an advantage over attackers at a ratio of 6:5. It seemed a bit much to tell players this, I was hoping they would get a feel for these factors through play. You think it might be a good idea to explicitly state this?

Yeah, I think so. While I enjoyed just feeling things out, it's still nice to have that information even if it's not absolutely necessary.

I thought I solved it by tinting the planet's surface with it's color, as well as the surrounding space.

My display brightness is turned way down, so the surrounding space is barely noticeable. Tinting the surfaces just added to the confusion, I think, because the mixed colors meant I couldn't always tell what color the planet was owned by.

As for the blue glows, I wrote that during the tutorial because there's one point where almost all planets are surrounded by blue and I couldn't tell what color anything was supposed to be. In the real game, that sort of "everything is blue" situation never came up.

When you're power (the sword/bug icon to the far left) falls below a certain level for more than a few seconds, you are considered "weak".

This is what threw me off, I think. I'm pretty sure my power was at 65 or something, so even though that wasn't great, it was still much higher than most of the other players at the time. If I remember right, I was attacking a player that had a power of 20 or so.

I attacked one of those much weaker players and was called out as a traitor and the glows changed (It seemed like it was because I had become a "traitor"). I then attacked another weak player, because I thought I might as well, and it said "Traitor" again but the glows disappeared so I was confused. I guess that was just because I had become more powerful and left that "weak player" state.

I have two suggestions:

-Don't use glows for multiple things. It's too confusing to have a glow be "allied/weak" and also show player ownership to some degree. The idea to put a symbol like a dove on allies might work better.

-Tweak the "weak player" threshold so that attacking someone 30-40 power levels below you isn't considered betrayal. It just didn't seem to fit. I didn't feel weak. I was probably the third strongest player in the game at that point.

If you continue playing, let me know if you still have this problem, it seems to be a newbie-only issue.

If I click on something and drag the mouse, I expect it to react as if I clicked and dragged. It seemed like it may be that I tried to attack something before I had enough pulses to, so the "drag" didn't work and it just acted as a single click instead. If I remember right, I was selecting multiple planets to send pulses to the front, so the original planet that was in the string got removed from the path when the attack failed.


I hope more people try out your game. It's really good, but I think it initially comes across as overly complicated even though it's pretty easy to play.

[tjcbs]

-Tweak the "weak player" threshold so that attacking someone 30-40 power levels below you isn't considered betrayal. It just didn't seem to fit. I didn't feel weak. I was probably the third strongest player in the game at that point.

The reason I implemented the alliance system is to facilitate come-from-behind victories. So that is why the threshold is high, if your power is in the 60-70 range it can be hard to come back, if you are busy fighting other lesser-powered nations. Whereas, the higher that threshold is, the more opportunities you have to win as the underdog.

If I click on something and drag the mouse, I expect it to react as if I clicked and dragged. It seemed like it may be that I tried to attack something before I had enough pulses to, so the "drag" didn't work and it just acted as a single click instead. If I remember right, I was selecting multiple planets to send pulses to the front, so the original planet that was in the string got removed from the path when the attack failed.

So, if your planets are numbered and the target is T, it was something like
1----2----3----T
And you selected 1-3, targeted T, and 3 didn't have enough pulses to attack?

I hope more people try out your game. It's really good, but I think it initially comes across as overly complicated even though it's pretty easy to play.

Do you think that perception would improve if all the numbers on the bottom were hidden, and only enabled with an "advanced mode" setting?

[Quicksand-S]

The reason I implemented the alliance system is to facilitate come-from-behind victories. So that is why the threshold is high, if your power is in the 60-70 range it can be hard to come back, if you are busy fighting other lesser-powered nations. Whereas, the higher that threshold is, the more opportunities you have to win as the underdog.

I see. Well, I'm glad you had a good reason for it, but I'm still not really into that setup, personally. If I'm third-strongest, it's almost insulting to be grouped with the incredibly weak nations. It's also a little disappointing that I can't use my incredible power to freely destroy the weak. It kind of forces me to avoid the best targets.

This is just a random idea that I haven't thought through much, but what if you had three tiers instead of two? Let's say something like 0-45 is one, 45-75 is another, and what's left has no alliances. That way, medium-strength players aren't lumped in with weak ones but still have the opportunity to team up with maybe one other player in order to take out the strongest.

I guess the issue with that is the possibility that weak players won't have anyone to team up with. Maybe weak ones without allies produce pulses more quickly (in-universe explanation: they're desperate and pushing themselves harder to avoid destruction)? I don't know. Just throwing ideas out there. Feel free to completely ignore me, of course. I'm only one person with opinions that may not be shared by others.

So, if your planets are numbered and the target is T, it was something like
1----2----3----T
And you selected 1-3, targeted T, and 3 didn't have enough pulses to attack?

I think that's what happened, but I could be wrong.

On a related note, this is one area where the tutorial felt unclear. When it teaches about selecting multiple planets, they're all in a line so I didn't initially catch one that it wasn't just determining the path from beginning to end automatically. I only realized after that part that I had to actually pass over all the individual planets with the cursor. I imagine that's easily fixed by just making them more scattered in that part of the tutorial.

Do you think that perception would improve if all the numbers on the bottom were hidden, and only enabled with an "advanced mode" setting?

Maybe. I think it might help if the screenshot here didn't have them...but then I guess you run the risk of the game looking too simplistic because it'll just seem like a bunch of planets with nothing to them. I really don't know which is better.