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[Ramos]

That is a nice twist. I remember that panic in the original X-Com was very frustrating, because you lost control of that character. It would have been great if a panicking character would at least have punched some Sectoids into the groin with their bare fist!

Yes, actually that is exactly what I was aiming for, the panic version of Xcom but in RTS environment
Let's hope we will not have any inspiration from mind controls Ethereals in my game

ups, too late

Thats good news, so less than 1 year left

Yes, I hope so

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Small update

So we decided to add a reset skill button, the twist is in order to have this option you need to first research it in the R&D screen. Mostly of R&D upgrades open actual features, not stats bonuses, another example would be the minimap, you first need to research it in R&D, and after you can build it in Car workshop as a permanent upgrade and one of the most critical features is the active command mode aka (tbs), in order to have this feature you must also first research it and after building it in Car workshop

[Alain]

Yes, actually that is exactly what I was aiming for, the panic version of Xcom but in RTS environment
Let's hope we will not have any inspiration from mind controls Ethereals in my game

ups, too late

Oh noes, I'm going to hate this!

[vdapps]

Panic mode in UFO was always like 'FFFFUUUUUUUUUUU....' :D So I do agree, less frustrating panic should be better.

[Beastboy]

I like the menus and by the looks of them, it will be good amount of content.
But you know what is missing? A skyranger, altough that aliens inspired apc does the job in this case.

[Ramos]

Oh noes, I'm going to hate this!

To hate it you must love it first 

Panic mode in UFO was always like 'FFFFUUUUUUUUUUU....' :D So I do agree, less frustrating panic should be better.

I do try to make it challenging not frustrating, I will see if the spot is good after I receive beta test reports.

I mean in UFO you lose control of the unit while here :
- if 1 zombie is close the character will enter hand combat mode and lose the ability to shoot
- if more than 2 zombies are attacking the same soldier then the soldier will enter hand combat mode but will not be able to move/escape unless another soldier helps him or he kills the monsters

But yea, avoid close combat as much as possible.

I like the menus and by the looks of them, it will be good amount of content.
But you know what is missing? A skyranger, altough that aliens inspired apc does the job in this case.

Thank you Beastboy!

[bryku]

I mean in UFO you lose control of the unit while here :
- if 1 zombie is close the character will enter hand combat mode and lose the ability to shoot
- if more than 2 zombies are attacking the same soldier then the soldier will enter hand combat mode but will not be able to move/escape unless another soldier helps him or he kills the monsters

Yup, it does not sound frustrating at all. Especially as it's a set of clear rules that you simply need to take into consideration when playing. That's pretty different from a random panic mode which causes havoc.

[Beastboy]

I agree with bryku, and also this mechanic seems like a good adition considering the zombie theme.

[Ramos]

Yup, it does not sound frustrating at all. Especially as it's a set of clear rules that you simply need to take into consideration when playing. That's pretty different from a random panic mode which causes havoc.

I do try to cause havoc but not at the cost of frustration, to be honest I do not know if this will work, I will see after the first test reports.


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Update and tests on the Telepathic flesh creature grown in walls

[bryku]

I do try to cause havoc but not at the cost of frustration, to be honest I do not know if this will work, I will see after the first test reports.

Are you using any analytics engine to gather data from the test runs? I know that it can't measure frustration but still - having it might help.

[Ramos]

Are you using any analytics engine to gather data from the test runs? I know that it can't measure frustration but still - having it might help.

At the moment no analytics but I get detailed reports from private testers + some of them share the screen while testing.

Found many problems but the most serious ones are an alt+tab bug that makes shadow layers disappear + causes many other visual bugs and a serious design problem on the learning curve. And I am tired af 

[Beastboy]

Interesting mechanic on that enemi. Is that also mobile or it acts like a turret?

[Ramos]

Interesting mechanic on that enemi. Is that also mobile or it acts like a turret?

This one is turret based, we really tried to make each creature with some unique mechanic

[Beastboy]

Interesting mechanic on that enemi. Is that also mobile or it acts like a turret?

This one is turret based, we really tried to make each creature with some unique mechanic

Nice. Just give enough time to the player to get used to all this mechanics or he will be very confused

[Ramos]

Since we started the Beta we realized that we have a ton of mechanics that are not explained. so we now work on bug fixes and on making the learning curve more clear & user friendly.

We are also going to lock many features from the game and make them unlock gradually to give the overall feel of a reward rather than an actual tutorial.


Here is a mockup of the AP system explained.

Variant A



Variant B

[Alain]

We are also going to lock many features from the game and make them unlock gradually to give the overall feel of a reward rather than an actual tutorial.

I feel like it is a really hard job not to overwhelm the player and gradually introduce features.

Every player of the genre knows the various action point systems, but still they are a bit different everytime. I am sure it is tough to decide how deep you need to go and where to give the player the satisfaction to figure out things themselves. I am curious to try it out for Chromosome evil myself, although I know you want to do some more work on it first

[logophil]

Since we started the Beta we realized that we have a ton of mechanics that are not explained. so we now work on bug fixes and on making the learning curve more clear & user friendly.

Sounds like a good plan - and I am reassured to hear I'm not alone in the challenge of making complex mechanics clear to the player!

Here is a mockup of the AP system explained.

Variant A

Variant B

For what it's worth I prefer Variant A, because of the way it explains clearly what each colour means. In my experience it is also worthwhile spending some time on the exact wording for this kind of explanation, as that can make it clearer. E.g. instead of 'Yellow AP is displaying the cost amount for current action' I would say 'Yellow pips show the cost of the current action'.

[Alain]

I forgot to write that I also prefer variant B, simply because is has a clearer reading order (top to bottom).

[Beastboy]

Version B is more easy to understand because of the layout

[vivaladav]

I wanted to comment days ago, but it's been  a very busy week at work... anyway, better late than never!

Here is a mockup of the AP system explained.

Unfortunately none of those 2 options is ideal as both suffer from a common issue I see way too often in games: suffocating the player with too much information.

Ideally you don't want to use these kind of static cards to explain things and a better approach is to integrate little bits of information in the normal game flow.

Obviously that's hard and it might take too much work for a small team, so for now you might want to start with the static cards, but at least you should use version A and show only 1 sentence at a time (you can hide the ones you already showed or you can make them darker to keep the focus only on one sentence).

That's not perfect, but at least it's better than a wall of text!

Creating good engaging tutorials is very hard and it takes a lot of work, but it's one of those things that will make you stand out from the majority of indie (and bad AAA) games on Steam, so it's totally worth it.

[bryku]

Unfortunately none of those 2 options is ideal as both suffer from a common issue I see way too often in games: suffocating the player with too much information.

Ideally you don't want to use these kind of static cards to explain things and a better approach is to integrate little bits of information in the normal game flow.

Obviously that's hard and it might take too much work for a small team, so for now you might want to start with the static cards, but at least you should use version A and show only 1 sentence at a time (you can hide the ones you already showed or you can make them darker to keep the focus only on one sentence).

That's not perfect, but at least it's better than a wall of text!

Creating good engaging tutorials is very hard and it takes a lot of work, but it's one of those things that will make you stand out from the majority of indie (and bad AAA) games on Steam, so it's totally worth it.

Yup, I 100% agree with that.