General Discussion

[ibol]

Thanks for being open to suggestions (even implied ones) at this late date.

Oh, yes! I've got tons of content planned for updates that will continue through 2015... A lot of good ideas have come from players...it's always been that way.

Trying to simulate a "supply-and-demand" economy is never "fun",

My brain was on fire with the commodities pricing remodel. You're right when you say "different people enjoy different aspects", because I could not wait to sit down and see if my formulas worked.

Here's a quick workup I did with the new model, where prices change over time, and by sector, but change in basically predictable/logical ways (no price jumps by restarting the game, etc.). Note that "time" is measured in several hundred turns, and the prices are relative, not absolute.

How to implement "the economy" could be a topic in it's own right.

Yes, I was actually thinking of changing the name of this thread... In fact I think I do need to start one called "trading" or some such, as people seem to enjoy it.

Enjoying,
Bob

[Dubious]

That animation is very interesting. My impression after watching for a while is that while the price increases are fairly gradual, the decreases are quite rapid. Especially the drops from the high prices seem quite dramatic in both scale and speed. How rapidly they occur may be exaggerated by the time scale of the animation, but it still seems much faster than the growth rates. Which gets into questions of how quickly communications between sectors theoretically occur, and the amount of abstracted "non-player" merchant activity that occurs to cover the market. But the real "meat" of the problem in gameplay terms is how well a given cargo size ship can juggle profitability versus operating costs.

Despite my current comments on the subject, I would say a separate "trading" topic should wait until the release of the game, when people have a chance to see what the manual reveals about it, and how the new model works out in action.

Any plans to "beta test" it in a new demo?

-Dubious-

[ibol]

Any plans to "beta test" it in a new demo?

It will go out to the beta group Friday, but nothing public.
I'll keep you informed. about to add some "economic events" right now.

[Cyberis]

Hmm,
I can't let Dubious have all the fun. So here's a couple of thoughts.

First, congratulations, it's a highly addictive game. The wife won't be happy.

Second, it would be helpful to click on the ship icon and have it bring up stats (slots taken, slots available in number and kind).

Third, I really don't understand the mechanics of officers other than ship effects. Maybe the manual will explain that better.

Fourth, When you have tool tips on, it would be helpful to have a tool tip for the four ship stats. I took a while to figure out that they stood for shield, hull, supplies and crew respectively.

Fifth, I never found a crafting interface so I completely missed a dimension of the game.

Sixth, as a fellow programmer (and like most programmers, really wishing I could write games instead of webapps, database stuff, blah, blah) it would be awesome to have a separate thread just for code geeks to talk. I'm amazed that you did all this in just a year and it looks like you did it from scratch. Anyway that OT for this thread and I'd love to discuss it.

I wish I would have known about the game before now and gotten in on it from your kickstarter. This would be one of those games I'd beta test the heck out of.

[Cyberis]

BTW,
After playing the demo for 15 hours, I went ahead and pre-ordered the boxed version of the game. I want to play on both Mac and Windows. Is there any plans for a *nix port?

[danopian]

Bob/ibol -

I binged my way through the demo yesterday, absolutely loved it. You've made a great gem of a game. I've really wanted a space trading/exploration game that allows planetside exploration, but then I found the caves and swooned. Thanks for making the preview available!

Couple of questions/suggestions:

- Being able to beam up the away party seems over-powered, as it heals them completely but I couldn't detect any downside to it. Do you have any plans to balance that, perhaps by making native lifeforms respawn to some extent when you return the away party? That would make a neat risk/reward mechanic: stay and potentially clear the field of enemies but risk death, or beam up but lose "progress" on that planet.

- Being able to shoot doors would be really helpful on shipwrecks, to let the mindworms out so they're not right on top of you if you enter the room.

- A screen showing what slots your ship (and away crew) has available would be helpful for knowing at a glance what's empty or what's full. (I apologize if it's there but I just didn't find it).

I'm really digging the amount of interaction you have here with people playing your game, hope I can rustle up the cash to plop on the full release and be a part of the ongoing conversation!

[ibol]

Hello, and welcome, Danopian!

Thanks a lot for the compliments. This game has been an obsession for over a year now, and the players have influenced it from the beginning. I will now address your & Cyberis's points...

-landing party take-off = heal : I have postulated several methods of limiting this. a cooldown on the shuttle, either while in space or on planets. A supply cost for every landing. etc.
Actually , monsters do respawn, but only after you've killed them all.
works exactly the opposite of your suggestion, but I do see the merit in it.

- shooting doors: that's one your just going to have to deal with. that is working as designed. Some monster can't go thru doors, and some doors don't open on their own... there has to be some risk

- A screen showing what slots your ship (and away crew) has available :
this was recently suggested. There are side menus that show what you currently have installed (click the 3 golden buttons), but I never thought to show what you have "empty". I can also see the merit in that.

Cyberis, I quoted your "15 hour demo" several times yesterday. That is just an awesome review in itself!

Addictive: yes it is, and my wife's not happy about it either I actually used to have flashing text on the screen at all times : "stop playing and program"

tooltip: there is a form of tooltip for the ship stats; it shows up in the little "explorer bar" that is a single line. Definitely explained in manual.

officers: They are people who grant you various bonuses according to their skills. They gain XP by performing class-specific actions, and level up. You can assign them to away missions but risk losing them.

crafting: this is with key [C] or [F8].
quick run-down: components & devices (weapons, engines, etc.) are made from "parts" and a "schematic" . there are 25 parts, and schematics are randomized for each new game. "salvage" an item to learn its schematic and gain 1 of each part it's made from. Building a new one takes 5 of each part, but that can be greatly reduced. Salvage more stuff to increase your crafting level, and then you can build better stuff too. wow.

Diseases: I can't believe that no one has mentioned diseases yet! You must be careful players... I respect that.

I'm amazed that you did all this in just a year and it looks like you did it from scratch

THANK YOU! Most people just don't understand the amount of work it takes to create something of this scope... early mornings, late nights, weekends, and a whole lot of "just 5 more minutes, dear...".

bob

[danopian]

Originally Posted by ibol

Diseases: I can't believe that no one has mentioned diseases yet! You must be careful players... I respect that.

I caught some kind of wheezing virus - twice! - coming back from a deep spelunking trip and caught without air a few tiles away from the landing tile. I was in the Gruff embassy sector and they wouldn't treat me, so I had to waiting nervously until I could get back to a previous sector to be treated...very nerve-wracking. Great feature.

[ibol]

I just realized, you got a Gruff embassy in the *demo* ?!
Awesome! and a 'deep spelunking trip' as well...

[Cyberis]

I got to level 3 in a cave on a planet in sector 3 and got the Spelunking for Dummies achievement, is that the same as a Deep Spelunking trip?