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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | HuvaaKoodia's comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31 22:18:00 | Space Pioneers | As someone who has worked on similar "indirect influence" projects I hope I have a few pointers to give out. <br/> <br/>Actions <br/> <br/>The actions of the player and the AI entities drive the simulation and shape the world. <br/>Needless to say they need to be in balance. <br/> <br/>-The main mechanic is simple and intuitive. <br/>Unfortunately the AI cultures can also use it and quite often the allies fall into strife by creating multiple connections between themselves. <br/>This wouldn't be a problem if burning bridges was cheap, but it's not. Another possible fix would be clear maximum amount of connections a planet can make. This would allow one to stop certain planets from expanding. <br/> <br/>-The simulation is in real time, but a pause function would really help when trying to figure out optimal connections. <br/>A turn based structure is also a possibility. <br/> <br/>Feedback <br/> <br/>It has to be very clear how your actions (and inactions) affect the world. <br/>This doesn't need to be displayed as exact numbers. <br/>Audio visual cues and text messages can also suffice as long as they provide enough information. <br/> <br/>- In the beginning of the game the allied cultures are not self sufficient. <br/>They will die out fast if the player fails to act accordingly. Thus inaction leads to rapid failure without clear indications of the cause. <br/> <br/>- The exact values don't add up. <br/>Even if an ally culture has the highest tech level and more than double the amount of strength and intelligence they are seemingly incapable of invading the enemy cultures planets. <br/>This AI handicap effectively renders these values unusable as a form of progress feedback. <br/> <br/>Effects (consequences, not snazzy graphics!) <br/> <br/>The effects of actions have be powerful enough to push the state of the world forward. <br/>If individual actions have too little effect the gameplay falls flat and becomes boring. <br/>Too powerful actions on the other hand remove any nuance and make the gameplay too easy thus boring as well. <br/> <br/>- Trying to uphold a diverse pool of cultures isn't worth the trouble. It's more difficult and doesn't seem to have any positive effects. <br/>A clear energy boost would help as well as some cooperation from the poor sods. <br/>Trying to bring multiple cultures to a high level of technology is at times impossible as they can only share neighbouring planets. A single Uranium source in the corner is only useful to a single culture. <br/>As such the top strategy is the let the other cultures die which is a shame. <br/> <br/>-Spontaneous culture creation/change is an intriguing prospect, but here it seems to be rather random. <br/>A strong culture with a dozen planets might just change in an instant. More annoying are single planets amidst war zones changing cultures. <br/>They are easy pickings for the enemy as they loose all the main culture benefits and protection. <br/>If culture changes are to happen they should be caused by actions in the world, not by random. <br/> <br/>Conclusion <br/> <br/>Overall indirect influence is quite difficult to get right. It requires a lot of balancing and well made support systems build around it. You did a rather fine job and I hope you'll take the idea further in the future. This applies to every other developer as well. Indirect gameplay is a worthy pursuit. | |
| Sep 4 20:15:00 | 93h 57m | Annex Kharon | Brilliant entry. I'm very fond of the Hack-Rogue/Brough Genre and this is spot on. <br/> <br/>Managed to find one slight error in the level randomizer though. <br/>It jammed my ship in between 2 asteroids fields making movement (without the teleporter, which I didn't happened to possess) impossible. |
| Sep 4 21:51:00 | 1h 36m | Epic Galactic Conquest | It sure is simple. I like it! <br/> <br/>Few ideas for the PostLD version: <br/> <br/>-Turn based gamemode. Points for using as few moves as possible. <br/> <br/>-AI Opponent(s). Quite obvious, but even a dumb (random) one could make a big difference. <br/> <br/>-Victory conditions. Even more obvious. You can get clever with these. <br/> <br/>Also the world generator seems quite similar to mine. Hmm. Simplicity for the win! |
| Sep 6 11:48:00 | 37h 57m | Invasion | Thank goodness for the config.data file. Otherwise I wouldn't have even gotten the entry to run on a decent framerate. <br/>A draw distance setting would've been a nice addition though. <br/> <br/>The game itself as a single player experience, unfortunately, is not very compelling. <br/> <br/>The main reason is that the warrior and ninja characters while efficient at fighting have very little use for the <br/>money they collect. Repairing the tower, that is it. The geek on the other hand can use money to build gadgets but <br/>is so woefully inadequate at dealing damage that I never got around to building any of the more expensive (and useful) gadgets which is a shame. <br/> <br/>These problems could be fixed in multiple ways, here are a few suggestions: <br/>- Give the fighter classes some skills/abilities they can purchase. <br/>- Give the geek a low power ranged weapon to make fighting a little bit more tolerable. <br/>- The cost of repairing the tower should be proportional to the damage it has taken or even free but slower. <br/>- Faster health regen or a station to refill health (free or low cost). <br/>- More impact on the melee weapons, both as a hit effect (animation on enemy), but also as a momentary stun. This would give the player an advantage that is surely needed when the enemies pile up. <br/>- Difficulty scaling to the player amount or a difficulty slider. Even with the warrior getting to wave 3 is quite the feat atm. <br/>- Redesign blocking. Currently the enemies seem to deal damage after the complete attack animation rather than when the attack connects. Communicating the right moment to counter attack by having a block hit animation would do the trick. <br/>- Less sluggish attack & block animations, for the player at least. The derps should stay derpy. |
| Sep 6 13:34:00 | 1h 46m | Universal Information Superhighway Connectivity Simulator 2014 | Overall I enjoyed playing through the game, but balancing the stats is a bit arduous as the rating value is rather arbitrary for a few reasons: <br/> <br/>- Why 16:4:1 ratio? Why wouldn't everyone just want to use the tier 3 exchange? <br/>- Who is keeping track of this rating value. Is there a Universal Telecom Council who terminate companies that hit the bottom. Wouldn't threatening with termination be a more effective option. After all it's going to be real big hassle to deal with all the infrastructure and workforce left over from the termination. <br/>-Why is there only one company in control of the Superhighway project. If this was the case there would be a project deadline rather than an arbitrary rating. <br/> <br/>So keeping these things in mind here are a few suggestions. <br/> <br/>The rating value should be indicative of how well the populace perceives your corporation and how willing they are to stick with your services. <br/> <br/>Otherwise they'll change to a competitors service, driven by AI opponents. <br/> <br/>The rating is based on: <br/>- Connectivity (how many planets/people are connected) <br/>- Speed (the less congestion the better) <br/>- Price (you can set it to whatever you want!) <br/> <br/>Upgrading hardware only increases the speed but has no other effect on the rating. Choosing between copper and fiber isn't really a question for most people. |
| Sep 15 21:01:00 | 223h 27m | Cosmic Conga | A great, simple, real time tactics puzzle game, that's the genre I'm going with. <br/> <br/>The balanced version was a bit too easy for me so I gave the original a shot. Oh boy what a challenge. It took a good few dozen tries but when I finally cracked it the elation was tangible. The trick is play just like the AI except a bit faster! <br/> <br/>What it lacks is difficulty options, preferably multiple tweakable values, for instance; <br/>- AI decision delay (to mimic humans) <br/>- AI decision type (random, tactical, strategic [Define those as you want]) <br/>- Game speed (how fast the resources are replenished) <br/> <br/>Other possible avenues of development include, but are not limited to, multiple map types, scenarios or even procedural level generation (the buzzword of the day). <br/> <br/>Good job overall. Hopefully you'll take this one a bit further. I will personally back your Kickstarter. |