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.