Game Feedback AKA wall of text
xRed
Italy Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223722Members
Italy Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223722Members
Hi,
So this will be probably a REALLY long post and since english is not my native language there could be some errors here and there, I apologize.
Wall of text here I come. My congratulations to whom will be so brave to read the whole post!
The game is great, when I first saw it, I thought a sea exploration game would have been totally crap and boring, but the more I played the more I enjoyed it. It's just on a whole different level then I thought it was.
I like the progression or at least how it is at the beginning. At first I thought I had just 2 achievements to accomplish in the game, survive and build a base to ease surviving. I didn't know about caves, about big sea monsters and such, I didn't even think exploring Aurora would have been possible or that there were islands in the game! Even the ability to scan things was indeed unexpected and really cool to have. I would like to write a post on just how I felt during my first playthrough but other then taking time, probably no one will care about it, so I'll move on what I feel should be addressed in the first place about the game.
As I was saying I liked the progression at the beginning, then It all becomes too predictable/linear or easily accessible once you get used to the core of the game.
I don't really like the radiation suit to be available on a destroyed lifepod or at least not a complete one. And this brings up the next point. Radiation suit should be craftable in parts. Not all 3 together. So if I've collected a part from the lifepod It makes sense to just craft the 2 remaining. Moreover having the radiation suit is a big step forward, since it allows Aurora's exploration, so it should be slowed down a bit. As it is right now, I can easily enter the Aurora in the first day having a scanner, a repair tool and a laser cutter to fully explore the ship.
Cyclops fragments and other "late game" fragments are too easily accessible. Personally I would take a totally different approach on fragments, at least on some of them included reactors and seamoth fragments.
For exemple what I would do for the Cyclops is to make just 9 pieces accessible in the whole game. So it becomes challenging to start looking for them. Maybe have them just inside some wrecks, the deepest ones for instance, and just the first piece, like an engine fragment to be found inside the Aurora so the player gets to know there's a Cyclops to be built in the game.
Some of the Modification Station's upgrades should be moved on the Vehicle Modification Station, like the Seamoth Pressure Compensator. The modification station fragments are too deep in the sea for the seamoth to be able to reach them, so you would need to have a cyclops already built, but then it makes no sense to craft the Seamoth Pressure Compensator in the first place.
Make exploring caves useful and interesting.
This is more an early game suggestion. There are those little caves in the safe shallows, but they serve no purpose. It would be cool to have some more complex, kinda like a maze, so it makes sense to craft that currently useless dive reel.
Also in my first playthrugh I was enjoying swimming through the coral tubes, hoping that some would have led me in otherwise unaccessible areas. Nope, nothing like this at the moment. But it would be cool to have!
Another problem I see is the "danger". There's really no risk in the enviroment. It's not like a big scary creature comes looking for you. You can swim around safely almost everywhere. The first time I heard the sound of the reefback I was scared as fuck. I didn't want to go outside my confort zone (safe shallows), the adventures in the kelp forest were enough for me. But then I started to realize the creature had no killing instinct and the anxiety has disappeared.
In short there's the need of something bad that comes towards the player, the risk of being traced by something, advertised just by a clear and scary sound, not letting us to guard down.
Exploring wrecks is boring. Demn if it isn't. All the time I've gotta go to the surface or inside a vehicle to replenish my oxygen. It brought me to a point where I just set oxygen cheat on to not waste time when I'm inside one. Yes, multiple oxygen tanks helps, but this should be addressed as well, preventing to stack items abilities, also when you run out of oxygen this way, it just takes more time then to fully refill the tanks.
There are streams of bubbles inside but these don't provide oxygen. In my first playthrough when I saw the oxygen coral thingy I knew it would have provided oxygen. It was obvious, so it was when I saw the leaking pipes inside the wrecks, but as soon as I found out it had just an aesthetic purpose I was really disappointed. Make pipes leaking bubbles provide oxygen = problem solved.
If you would want to add more thrill to the wrecks, I'd suggest to add some fauna inside. I'm missing the classic clichè...opening a door and suddenly being attacked. Definitely needed!
Speaking of fauna...there should be more on islands. Right now the only creature is the Cave Crawler. And it's not even that scary. There should me more Skyrays or other bird-like creatures, even ostile ones. Skyrays should be able to lay on the water surface and catch fishes. And we should be able to catch them. It would be cool if large groups were flying toward the islands to hint there's something over there. Since as it is right now you can spot them only through a visual bug on the water surface or looking at the immobile clouds. Also more clouds wouldn't be too bad.
Walking on the islands feels strange as well as swimming on the water surface. I cannot really explain it but it does. It could be related to the fact we are in the water the most of the time, not sure. What I am sure of is to have retractable fins. It's weird to look at my feet while walking in the ground wearing fins!
Also have a crouch command would make sense to me. Adding purposes to have it would be even more cool. Like accessing crates by crouching.
Building seabases needs balance. Windows are too expensive. Glass corridors are cheaper for instance since they provide the corridor too! There should be cost differences when building a I, T or X corridors.
Also I would like to be able to build Bulkhead even to enter the base as seen for the abandoned bases.
Using dead batteries as ingredient will provide a full charged new item. It doens't really makes sense when it can be used as exploit when crafting floodlights and then deconstructing them. Same goes for dead fishes. Cooked food rots. But cooking dead fishes turns them into new and fresh food.
I feel like craftable and aesthetic objects should be placeable in a sort of grid-like system. I really don't like to see a bed not in the middle of the window or a locker not in line with the wall.
I'm a fan of the terraforming removal. I don't see a point to have such a feature, it should have been designed differently in the first place. Like you can add terrain and modify that only...something on this line.
But what I really hate is the capability of the habitat builder or the crash fish to deform terrain. That's why I'm a fan of it.
Energy-hungry equipments should list how much energy they require. So you won't run out of it while building a base for exemple. Same goes for the hull intregrity, should be displayed somewhere at everytime.
Make some of the furniture usefull. When I first saw the luggage I thought It would have been an inventory expansion kit or sorta, maybe it had something inside. Instead...IT DOES NOTHING, LITTERALY NOTHING! I was just disappointed. Same goes for bin, vending machine and lab forniture...
Same items in inventory should stack. Like have a max amount you can collect at once and then it starts taking another slot. In my first playthrough I was collecting everything in my sight ending up with a full and clutter inventory. Yes, this is a noob-like feature, and it helps mostly just new players, but you know it might be helpful anyway.
PDA should provide a map of the game. Maybe not since the beginning, maybe just through an upgrade in the scanner room, and as you progress exploring the map takes form. Also a clock is needed and the possibility to skip hours sleeping in a bed. Look at WE HAPPY FEW for references.
PDA should also be accessible inside Seamoth and PRAWN.
It would be cool to have weather. Like rainy days or stormy sea. I love the rain falling on the water surface, it's just relaxing, or imagine a big tsunami coming at you. Also some sea foam and little waves near the cliffs and the shore.
Safe shallows should be more bright at night. Same for the islands. Kinda like Avatar's Pandora.
I feel like a cold iced enviroment is missing. Like a big Iceberg floationg on the surface. Or a frozen lake that you can break with a knife to dive in with the surface getting iced again after a while and preventing you from reaching the surface.
In the lava enviroment there should be pillars on the bottom capable of firing rocks.
I don't like the 2D content all around the enviroment. The shoal of fish should be 3D, would be could to swing with or into it. I hate to see the 2D parts of the wrecks. I don't even know if they have a collide hitbox.
There should be more then one planet's satellite, and the one we currently have should be definitely changed. It looks INSIDE the atmosphere, I mean inside the planet itself. Also it's transparent. At night we can see the stars through. Props to the eclipse, really a nice touch!
Find a better solution for the map's boundaries then the void. If feels like a raw product. Yes, I know it currently is, I'm just pointing out a problem. I've read about make it more dangerous to be in, but I don't like this solution since I could prevent from dying in creative mode. Maybe Just an alert at first and then a video sequence of you getting grabbed by something enormous, like in the released trailer, also the push effect while standing on the lifepod when the Aurora explodes shown in that trailer, would be cool if applied to the game.
Game modes need to be reviewed. Actually just one, the hardcore. There should be less resources available, taking hits means oxygen loss, maybe a better AI, no med kit fabricator, less supply crates around and inside the Aurora (and the ones you will get w/o any kind of batteries), decompression sickness.
Need another option to lower the water quality.
Currently Marblemelon and Chinese Potato are a bit OP. Both grow fast and provide too much food. Once I start farming those 2, I don't even need to make water. Still suit and Water Filtration machine become useless. Make them grow slower and/or provide less seeds to start with, maybe even tune down the resources both privde.
To some Floodlight, the battery can't be removed (you just can't see the option to do it). Same for some supply crates, but in this case you can move them (maybe they were too deep in the sand) with propulsion cannon and such.
Make habitat builder able to build even in the center of foundations. Fix water inside when building on the surface level.
Catching fishes feels weird, there's no animation but you end up holding the fish in your hand. It's kinda weird the way table coral samples are collected too...
So for now this is all what came into my mind, I'm sure I'm forgetting something I thought about while playing, I might edit and add things to this post in the future, problem is, this is just long "enough".
A review of my "clumsy" english and TL:DR is probably needed but I don't know how to summarize my thoughts, if someone could help...
Also probably some of the things I've wrote about have been already discussed in this forum somewhere, if that's the case I'm sorry, I haven't checked yet.
So this will be probably a REALLY long post and since english is not my native language there could be some errors here and there, I apologize.
Wall of text here I come. My congratulations to whom will be so brave to read the whole post!
The game is great, when I first saw it, I thought a sea exploration game would have been totally crap and boring, but the more I played the more I enjoyed it. It's just on a whole different level then I thought it was.
I like the progression or at least how it is at the beginning. At first I thought I had just 2 achievements to accomplish in the game, survive and build a base to ease surviving. I didn't know about caves, about big sea monsters and such, I didn't even think exploring Aurora would have been possible or that there were islands in the game! Even the ability to scan things was indeed unexpected and really cool to have. I would like to write a post on just how I felt during my first playthrough but other then taking time, probably no one will care about it, so I'll move on what I feel should be addressed in the first place about the game.
As I was saying I liked the progression at the beginning, then It all becomes too predictable/linear or easily accessible once you get used to the core of the game.
I don't really like the radiation suit to be available on a destroyed lifepod or at least not a complete one. And this brings up the next point. Radiation suit should be craftable in parts. Not all 3 together. So if I've collected a part from the lifepod It makes sense to just craft the 2 remaining. Moreover having the radiation suit is a big step forward, since it allows Aurora's exploration, so it should be slowed down a bit. As it is right now, I can easily enter the Aurora in the first day having a scanner, a repair tool and a laser cutter to fully explore the ship.
Cyclops fragments and other "late game" fragments are too easily accessible. Personally I would take a totally different approach on fragments, at least on some of them included reactors and seamoth fragments.
For exemple what I would do for the Cyclops is to make just 9 pieces accessible in the whole game. So it becomes challenging to start looking for them. Maybe have them just inside some wrecks, the deepest ones for instance, and just the first piece, like an engine fragment to be found inside the Aurora so the player gets to know there's a Cyclops to be built in the game.
Some of the Modification Station's upgrades should be moved on the Vehicle Modification Station, like the Seamoth Pressure Compensator. The modification station fragments are too deep in the sea for the seamoth to be able to reach them, so you would need to have a cyclops already built, but then it makes no sense to craft the Seamoth Pressure Compensator in the first place.
Make exploring caves useful and interesting.
This is more an early game suggestion. There are those little caves in the safe shallows, but they serve no purpose. It would be cool to have some more complex, kinda like a maze, so it makes sense to craft that currently useless dive reel.
Also in my first playthrugh I was enjoying swimming through the coral tubes, hoping that some would have led me in otherwise unaccessible areas. Nope, nothing like this at the moment. But it would be cool to have!
Another problem I see is the "danger". There's really no risk in the enviroment. It's not like a big scary creature comes looking for you. You can swim around safely almost everywhere. The first time I heard the sound of the reefback I was scared as fuck. I didn't want to go outside my confort zone (safe shallows), the adventures in the kelp forest were enough for me. But then I started to realize the creature had no killing instinct and the anxiety has disappeared.
In short there's the need of something bad that comes towards the player, the risk of being traced by something, advertised just by a clear and scary sound, not letting us to guard down.
Exploring wrecks is boring. Demn if it isn't. All the time I've gotta go to the surface or inside a vehicle to replenish my oxygen. It brought me to a point where I just set oxygen cheat on to not waste time when I'm inside one. Yes, multiple oxygen tanks helps, but this should be addressed as well, preventing to stack items abilities, also when you run out of oxygen this way, it just takes more time then to fully refill the tanks.
There are streams of bubbles inside but these don't provide oxygen. In my first playthrough when I saw the oxygen coral thingy I knew it would have provided oxygen. It was obvious, so it was when I saw the leaking pipes inside the wrecks, but as soon as I found out it had just an aesthetic purpose I was really disappointed. Make pipes leaking bubbles provide oxygen = problem solved.
If you would want to add more thrill to the wrecks, I'd suggest to add some fauna inside. I'm missing the classic clichè...opening a door and suddenly being attacked. Definitely needed!
Speaking of fauna...there should be more on islands. Right now the only creature is the Cave Crawler. And it's not even that scary. There should me more Skyrays or other bird-like creatures, even ostile ones. Skyrays should be able to lay on the water surface and catch fishes. And we should be able to catch them. It would be cool if large groups were flying toward the islands to hint there's something over there. Since as it is right now you can spot them only through a visual bug on the water surface or looking at the immobile clouds. Also more clouds wouldn't be too bad.
Walking on the islands feels strange as well as swimming on the water surface. I cannot really explain it but it does. It could be related to the fact we are in the water the most of the time, not sure. What I am sure of is to have retractable fins. It's weird to look at my feet while walking in the ground wearing fins!
Also have a crouch command would make sense to me. Adding purposes to have it would be even more cool. Like accessing crates by crouching.
Building seabases needs balance. Windows are too expensive. Glass corridors are cheaper for instance since they provide the corridor too! There should be cost differences when building a I, T or X corridors.
Also I would like to be able to build Bulkhead even to enter the base as seen for the abandoned bases.
Using dead batteries as ingredient will provide a full charged new item. It doens't really makes sense when it can be used as exploit when crafting floodlights and then deconstructing them. Same goes for dead fishes. Cooked food rots. But cooking dead fishes turns them into new and fresh food.
I feel like craftable and aesthetic objects should be placeable in a sort of grid-like system. I really don't like to see a bed not in the middle of the window or a locker not in line with the wall.
I'm a fan of the terraforming removal. I don't see a point to have such a feature, it should have been designed differently in the first place. Like you can add terrain and modify that only...something on this line.
But what I really hate is the capability of the habitat builder or the crash fish to deform terrain. That's why I'm a fan of it.
Energy-hungry equipments should list how much energy they require. So you won't run out of it while building a base for exemple. Same goes for the hull intregrity, should be displayed somewhere at everytime.
Make some of the furniture usefull. When I first saw the luggage I thought It would have been an inventory expansion kit or sorta, maybe it had something inside. Instead...IT DOES NOTHING, LITTERALY NOTHING! I was just disappointed. Same goes for bin, vending machine and lab forniture...
Same items in inventory should stack. Like have a max amount you can collect at once and then it starts taking another slot. In my first playthrough I was collecting everything in my sight ending up with a full and clutter inventory. Yes, this is a noob-like feature, and it helps mostly just new players, but you know it might be helpful anyway.
PDA should provide a map of the game. Maybe not since the beginning, maybe just through an upgrade in the scanner room, and as you progress exploring the map takes form. Also a clock is needed and the possibility to skip hours sleeping in a bed. Look at WE HAPPY FEW for references.
PDA should also be accessible inside Seamoth and PRAWN.
It would be cool to have weather. Like rainy days or stormy sea. I love the rain falling on the water surface, it's just relaxing, or imagine a big tsunami coming at you. Also some sea foam and little waves near the cliffs and the shore.
Safe shallows should be more bright at night. Same for the islands. Kinda like Avatar's Pandora.
I feel like a cold iced enviroment is missing. Like a big Iceberg floationg on the surface. Or a frozen lake that you can break with a knife to dive in with the surface getting iced again after a while and preventing you from reaching the surface.
In the lava enviroment there should be pillars on the bottom capable of firing rocks.
I don't like the 2D content all around the enviroment. The shoal of fish should be 3D, would be could to swing with or into it. I hate to see the 2D parts of the wrecks. I don't even know if they have a collide hitbox.
There should be more then one planet's satellite, and the one we currently have should be definitely changed. It looks INSIDE the atmosphere, I mean inside the planet itself. Also it's transparent. At night we can see the stars through. Props to the eclipse, really a nice touch!
Find a better solution for the map's boundaries then the void. If feels like a raw product. Yes, I know it currently is, I'm just pointing out a problem. I've read about make it more dangerous to be in, but I don't like this solution since I could prevent from dying in creative mode. Maybe Just an alert at first and then a video sequence of you getting grabbed by something enormous, like in the released trailer, also the push effect while standing on the lifepod when the Aurora explodes shown in that trailer, would be cool if applied to the game.
Game modes need to be reviewed. Actually just one, the hardcore. There should be less resources available, taking hits means oxygen loss, maybe a better AI, no med kit fabricator, less supply crates around and inside the Aurora (and the ones you will get w/o any kind of batteries), decompression sickness.
Need another option to lower the water quality.
Currently Marblemelon and Chinese Potato are a bit OP. Both grow fast and provide too much food. Once I start farming those 2, I don't even need to make water. Still suit and Water Filtration machine become useless. Make them grow slower and/or provide less seeds to start with, maybe even tune down the resources both privde.
To some Floodlight, the battery can't be removed (you just can't see the option to do it). Same for some supply crates, but in this case you can move them (maybe they were too deep in the sand) with propulsion cannon and such.
Make habitat builder able to build even in the center of foundations. Fix water inside when building on the surface level.
Catching fishes feels weird, there's no animation but you end up holding the fish in your hand. It's kinda weird the way table coral samples are collected too...
So for now this is all what came into my mind, I'm sure I'm forgetting something I thought about while playing, I might edit and add things to this post in the future, problem is, this is just long "enough".
A review of my "clumsy" english and TL:DR is probably needed but I don't know how to summarize my thoughts, if someone could help...
Also probably some of the things I've wrote about have been already discussed in this forum somewhere, if that's the case I'm sorry, I haven't checked yet.
Comments
If you started a few builds ago, you can merge the updates into your current save by following the guide below. I think some of your issues have been addressed already.
EDIT: To add, I know for a fact that at least the retractable fins are already in the game.
The safe shallows caves already do have things inside them, some rather critical (Crash Powder for one). You do find a piece of the Cyclops inside the Aurora, and the rest are in fairly un-safe locations or very deep un-safe locations. You need a Diamond to get a Laser Cutter, and those aren't exactly easy to get, especially on your first day.
The terraforming being removed was the most cost-effective method Unknown Worlds could find. No matter how "balanced" people could suggest it be made, it just wouldn't change the fact that the mechanics being there period was dragging the entire game down with it. If they had the resources, I'm sure they'd try and optimize and fix it up so it'd work. It's possible, other games have done it even on the limited consoles. However, they don't have those same resources, the best solution for them was just to nuke the whole thing.
Some things like trash cans are being considered as serving some use, but what's wrong with some things being purely aesthetic?
I don't really agree that things should be brighter at night. If anything, one of my nitpicks was things being TOO bright. As for the 2D fish, the game's resource demanding enough as it is - having huge shoals of 3D fish would just make the game unplayable for a large number of people.
Maps aren't gonna happen. The developers have been quite firm on "No Maps" and have been for some time.
There was an Arctic Biome in the concepts, but it's unknown if it'll ever be implemented or not.
They're looking into addressing the void, but right now it seems that solution is just "Stick a bunch of dangerous creatures in it". What I'd like to see is an abyssal plain sort of biome that circles the boundaries, and provides a more smooth gradual transition into the void and THEN the bunch of dangerous creatures, so it's noit just an abrupt dropoff.
Yeah, I just checked about the fins my bad! I was remembering about it from an old build but I'm playing on 40062 right now, and it's already been addressed, I hadn't read about it...but still, the whole walking thing needs to be revamped.
If the only relevant thing is crash powder, I'm sorry, but I don't think it's enough. It's not what I meant...they are just not interesting enough. Also crash fishes can be found near the entrances so it's pointless even exploring inside when you already know there's nothing to be found.
I knew there was a Cyclops piece (sometimes even more then 1) inside the Aurora, but again, It's not what I meant. I'm talking about just 9 unique pieces scattered around the planet.
You can easily get diamond just by going to the mountains...it's fast and reliable, you don't even need to swim in depth. Of course you can't know about it in your first playthrough, but right now, as I said already, it's easy to get in the Aurora with all what you need by the end of the first day.
Yeah, I knew these reasons, I agree in fact...I don't mind if it's being removed.
It doens't feel right...look at it from the perspective of a player approaching the game for the first time, you kinda expect those things to do something, you get hyped...you start scanning this cool vending machine, you build it and then guess what?! Nothing happens. Also I wouldn't mind to be able to throw away things I don't need, and leaving things out there in the ocean is not the right answer!
About this, I didn't really mean things should be brighter, but there's should be more of them, there are just too empty spaces. Also not all over the planet, but just on islands and safe shallows. Anyway I'm fine as it is right now, but it could be improved...I would like to have something like this:
About the perfomance, I don't think shoals of fish in 3D will be a problem in that sense, also it could be addressed lowering the graphic quality, maybe have on option like "hide eye candy".
I kinda expected it, but I don't see why It couldn't be implemented as a late game feature, not available at the beginning of a new game and obtainable after having explored almost the whole map already...people will go on the internet anyway to look for it, it won't ruin the fun to anyone.
Thanks! Good to know...There's always hope! =P
A lot of games have elements that are purely aesthetic in nature, and there's really nothing wrong with that. I expect those were put in the game just so you could spice up the appearance of your base's interior so it didn't look so sterile and lifeless.
Right now the only way to truly 'delete' items is to stick them in a locker then deconstruct it. The items are gone forever and you get back the resources you put in it.
I honestly think there's plenty enough glowing flora in those areas. The Sparse Reef has huge empty areas still, but the Floater Island and Safe Shallows are just fine. The Mountain Island on the other hand is still being worked on, so that's subject to change.
Unknown Worlds seems to disagree about the maps thing, even late-game they just don't want maps in the game. I don't see the harm honestly, since the playable game area is small enough that it wouldn't matter, but at the same time it's small enough that a map isn't needed either. So I don't really have any opinion on maps - implemented or not, I don't really care.
I'd love to have an Arctic Biome yes~
As for weather.... I don't think there's been any mention of that yet, but it'd likely be a post-1.0 thing atfer they've got the core game finished up. I'd like to see ocean currents as well tbh.
Weather is a common answer to the polish question recently asked and has been incorporated in the list: "Any weather other than "bright and beautiful" would help with immersion."
Of course, I don't know what UWE can deliver on short term and I doubt it would be anything significant. A little bit of rain at times, maybe, but probably no changes in animal behavior or something that affects gameplay (cold damage when on land in a storm? device to catch lightning?). But this gives me good hope for post-V1.0.
Ok, but it would make more sense if you could showcase your cool and fancy base then. That's only possible through screenshots since multiplayer won't be a thing. And frankly I don't care if my base has something cool that does nothing if no one other then me can see it. Furthermore you gotta then show your screenshots somewhere (forums, reddit, etc.) and not all the players are willing to do that.
I don't mind having some aesthetic object, rather it's cool to have such feature, but not for something you normally expect to be useful somehow.
Yeah, I knew this too, but it's tricky...is not something that everyone can think about straightaway. Also I don't think is part of the design process!