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DraconaIis
DraconaIis
Join Date 04/2011
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Feedback from my experience

May 6, 2015 3:05:44 PM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Allow me to start by saying, I feel like there is real potential here. I like the ability to play the game in short bursts rather than getting stuck in a game that lasts hours. It feels like it will be the kind of game where I play a little and feel satisfied, rather than slog out for hours for nothing.

 

That being said, there are a number of things that I feel are somewhat lacking.

 

The rewards after every battled are negligible, and the quests are even worse. Admittedly, the quests aren't hard, but they feel like it's for naught. The chance at gear is much more interesting that credits, I think loot crates would be a better suited reward. Let us gets lots of gear so that our mechs can diversify. right now my three mechs all feel pretty much samey, even after a number of loot crates.

 

RNG is usually annoying to deal with, but games like Diablo have turned RNG into a time sink that keeps people playing.

Win a battle, get a loot crate. each battled has a change to earn you a superior loot crate that offers better rewards.

 

Loot crates just feel more instantly gratifying to me, even if all you get out of them is junk.

 

If the credit system is insisted upon, the price difference between a 2k look crate and a 75k loot crate is far to great with the minor amounts of credits you earn. Also, I feel like what the minor and major loot crates offer should be listed. I buy minors because I get stuff quick, but at the same time, I have no idea what quality items I get out of it. It doesn't help that I sometimes get items that I have no idea where they come from. I only see 2 items when I open a crate... but then I get blues that pop up in my hanger with no idea where it came from.

 

Lastly, I honestly feel that the strip mining ability is too strong for the first pilot.

I find the easiest way to play (admittedly I've only played on medium, because I feel like this is related to gear level, and most of my hear is white) is to drop my guy and start strip mining the opposing sides mines. I get a nice little boost to push me ahead quickly, and I trickle their resources to the point where it's not even a challenge.

 

Oh... and lastly lastly for real this time. An in-game feedback button might be nice.

 

Thank for you time, and I hope my input can be of some use to you.

servo
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DraconaIis
DraconaIis
Join Date 04/2011
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Reply #1 May 6, 2015 3:37:56 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I lied...

Lastly for the third time... I think getting pilots out of loot crates would be interesting too, since they have a quality to them all their own, though admittedly I don't know how that effects game play.

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DraconaIis
DraconaIis
Join Date 04/2011
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Reply #2 May 6, 2015 4:40:13 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Well... I just tried map 3... and I used my usual, eat the resources so the Ai can't use them... and with only 2 nodes that pumped out so much pressure that I couldn't do squat...

 

All the while that I'm focusing on the AI that I'm convinced is cheating, the creeps just walk into my base and crush my defenses... I eventually run dry on resources and give up the game because every time I kill their mech, another one drops.

 

That was legit a frustrating game. I should have had the upper hand, but with creeps fighting me, it was  2 v 1 I could do nothing about.

 

Why could they re-spawn damn near quicker than I could kill them? Is there an aspect about the game I missed?

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DraconaIis
BXP_Godgib
Join Date 04/2015
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Reply #3 May 6, 2015 6:52:38 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Thanks for the feedback. In no particular order...

We like credits as the main reward for playing games because it gives us a lot more options with balance. If we give out a loot crate, then that locks us into expectations with always getting parts. We tried that. It was more frustrating because it just increased the crap part distro and you were just always selling parts.

I say that knowing/expecting/wanting the crates to feel better than they do now.

The next update will give you more starting gear to get you to differentiation faster.

The 75k crate is priced that way so that it stays the same as you level up. We could price it down, but then we'll have to raise the price as you level up to compensate for how good the rarer stuff is (price-wise) at the higher levels.

The only time you get parts "not from crates" is by completing the tutorial levels. Once you're done with those, the only way to get parts (currently) is through Drek. Unless you've found a bug;)

Part of why pilots are "parts" is so that we can eventually drop them. Not in the immediate plans, but somewhere down the road.

AFAIK, the AI isn't cheating. If it is, that's a bug. It should be playing by the same rules. There is a part that reduces the spawn time, so I suppose he could have equipped a couple of those.

Strip mine is certainly unbalanced currently. We like that it's an econ power, though, so the plan is to require it to take time (rather than instantly popping). Oh, and its cooldown appears to be busted, too.

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DraconaIis
SneakyMax
Join Date 12/2011
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Reply #4 May 6, 2015 7:56:50 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting BXP_Godgib,
reply 3
The 75k crate is priced that way so that it stays the same as you level up. We could price it down, but then we'll have to raise the price as you level up to compensate for how good the rarer stuff is (price-wise) at the higher levels.

From this it seems like there's then no point in buying an epic crate until you're max level, because you'll just be wasting money. Am I correct in thinking that 75k at level 1 will get you a much worse epic than 75k at max level (whatever that is)?

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DraconaIis
BXP_Godgib
Join Date 04/2015
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Reply #5 May 7, 2015 1:07:24 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Anything at level 1 is much worse than anything at level 10.

The issue is that the value of gear is not linear. The higher level cost will cost more (proportionally) than the low level gear.

We could put it at 25k to start, but then we'll have to raise the price as you level up.

Clearly the feedback is that it's a crappy price. We'll tweak it and see how it feels.

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DraconaIis
Skoolbus
Join Date 07/2013
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Reply #6 May 7, 2015 11:45:46 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I totally get that you don't want players to be able to pound through a few missions and then unlock all of the best gear right from the start.

That said, it has to be kept in mind that a single servo has a total of 9 part slots, 8 if you use a 2-handed weapon. Assuming you had no overlap on part slots beyond what you wanted, that would be 300k-375k credits to outfit a single servo with premium loot box gear. If we now triple that for the base of three servos, that is around a million credits to get a complete lineup with the best gear. If we say that the average mission pays out 750 credits between a win and a mission, that is more than 1300 games to make enough credits to outfit 3 servos if we assume that there are no excess parts on any slots at all.

I'm totally okay with having a level-up process and some grinding for credits and gear, but that's a lot of time to reach a complete endgame.

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DraconaIis
BXP_Godgib
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Reply #7 May 7, 2015 2:56:56 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Yes, the math doesn't look good when you do that.

The 75k cost is likely too high.

That said, to some extent, that crate is also not really supposed to be your goal. The system should be fun with the basic crate. The 75k crate is really there for the "folks who have almost everything and really just want that last big thing". In that context, having it priced high is the right thing. We don't want you scrimping and saving for that crate whilst you're in the meat of the leveling up.

Which is a backwards way of saying that we need to make the default crate better. The next build should be better (but certainly not "there" yet, either).

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DraconaIis
Skoolbus
Join Date 07/2013
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Reply #8 May 7, 2015 3:31:18 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Maybe it would help if we had another loot crate in the middle.

We have the Better crate and the Epic crate, why not put a 10k or 20k artisan crate?

Or make it so that the crates unlock at certain levels.

If we have 3 crate levels, the 2k crate is the only thing you can buy from lvl 1-4, the 10k crate unlocks at level 5, and the 75k crate at lvl 9.

It could be a good way to make sure people buy enough cheap crates early on to get parts, but then have options for finding better loot.

As ut stands though, the first four levels gave me pretty terrible loot as the starting weapons were often better. Since level five, I have found way more unique, useful, and high quality parts. It seems like the progression is more messy on the ends than in the middle. Low levels give out way too much junk,  while high levels just are too expensive to max out your units.

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DraconaIis
DraconaIis
Join Date 04/2011
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Reply #9 May 7, 2015 10:20:55 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I finally got the play with a friend today.

 

The wave based gaming is intense, I'm not even sure how the meteor one can be accomplished, we got overwhelmed every time. Maybe it's a gear/level thing.

 

I wish there was a co-op against an AI human faction. Servos vs Servos.

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DraconaIis
Skoolbus
Join Date 07/2013
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Reply #10 May 8, 2015 12:12:55 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I've beaten the meteor one, though my fully-built servos help a lot.

The best thing for that is to just blast the meteor so they stop spawning in my experience before focusing on the spawn. Of course that has it's limits, but that works the best for me. I'd play that mode more often but the AI can't handle the massive spawning of creatures either so if I play with AI it's on easy and there's not usually anyone online to try it out.

While I'm not sure if co-op vs AI will be implemented the same way as the bloomspawn are now, I can't imagine that there won't ever be a possibility for 2v2 with a buddy against AI.

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DraconaIis
BXP_Godgib
Join Date 04/2015
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Reply #11 May 8, 2015 12:30:10 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

We're still working on the balance there. There are some new features in the update after the next one that will smooth it out and keep it interesting as you level up.

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