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Post Re: Dev flood
aeljuga wrote:
JeffL wrote:
We've never before had so many people working on the game, and I personally find it very exciting.



Then why less and less players this game has Jeff?


I think a few negative people are helping this cause. Just remind them that the SS angry bird isn't amused.
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Or the Paxians

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Tue Jul 05, 2016 9:18 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
Nice


Wed Jul 06, 2016 6:37 am
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Post Re: Dev flood
It's down a little bit because we haven't really found a good way to advertise since SS2 launched, so there is naturally some attrition, but there are still a lot of people playing. We are making progress towards launching on Steam, and that should bring a large influx of new people.

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 3:12 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
JeffL wrote:
It's down a little bit because we haven't really found a good way to advertise since SS2 launched, so there is naturally some attrition, but there are still a lot of people playing. We are making progress towards launching on Steam, and that should bring a large influx of new people.

Do you hope for it, or are you sure of it? How the Nexus is looking right now, not alot of players would want to stay after 15min of gameplay. After watching the youtube video somebody make on getting out of the Nexus, I was like "Damn I would never play this" after like ... 4min.


Wed Jul 06, 2016 3:26 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
KonanCruss2 wrote:
JeffL wrote:
It's down a little bit because we haven't really found a good way to advertise since SS2 launched, so there is naturally some attrition, but there are still a lot of people playing. We are making progress towards launching on Steam, and that should bring a large influx of new people.

Do you hope for it, or are you sure of it? How the Nexus is looking right now, not alot of players would want to stay after 15min of gameplay. After watching the youtube video somebody make on getting out of the Nexus, I was like "Damn I would never play this" after like ... 4min.


What are the concerns that you have about the Nexus?

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 3:38 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
The tutorial is not appealing at all, it is forced onto you. There are some good documentation on how to make a tutorial that doesn't seem forced and fun to do, while also skipable for players that have already done the tutorial.
The main thing in the nexus to go forward is doing missions, the missions are wall of text and the way it is presented it is like a 5year old kid that did some paint job.
The gear and augmenters you get in the Nexus are so bad that you can't reliably kill anything, you have to wait untill your energy bank is full, otherwise, you're fucked.
The game is badly presented, the early game is just grinding lvls, there are no lockouts, no DGs nothing in the nexus that is available in mid/end game. While grinding lvls at some point just happens while doing lockouts, DGs, farming. Those aspects aren't there in the early game. Slow the lvl'ing down make them farm something, now it's just blitzing through 5 Tech Lvls at once, then they hit the brick wall of T20-21-22 and they quit. Prepare them for T20-21-22.
The way it is designed currenly is that you need to do missions, and waste skill points on useless shit. Tried once to follow the missions, and I better off just didn't do the missions and do my own thing.
Classes aren't presented in anyway. But this seems to be on the drawing table, if the blog posts are still accurate.
From what I've seen people say about the Nexus, there seems to be alot of bugs. Not that bug fixes are helpfull, there are no patches with bug fixes.

Enough for now, I guess.


Wed Jul 06, 2016 4:57 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
You've pointed out things that I agree with, so be assured that as long as I'm on the team I will push for those things to be present from the beginning of the game and I will do them if they are accepted.

I agree that the missions are needless bundles of text as well... lol.

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 5:49 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
There is also the issue that the Nexus isn't fast enough if you don't know what you're doing.

I agree with everything that Kaguya said, but I think that you need to be borderline OP for the Nexus and be able to attack multiple enemies at once without worrying about death.
Death is also slow in this game and if a new player clicks to tow, they'll be even more confused as to where they are now. I would suggest allowing them the option to tow to Nexus if you're under level 20 (Which is roughly the level you leave if you do all the missions).

There also needs to be more shiny / flashy shit to make it look appealing, if the player goes in and sees they're killing space rats or volcoms over and over then they'll quickly lose interest. Put something that fucking spins while shooting pulses in every fucking direction and shooting laser beams at you, like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqN_fH2S7k
This would be a good way to introduce the player to dungeons too, currently the only real introduction is Pellets and Waste or Dagger Caprice (Which nobody ever does) and they're shitty and not consistent to a real DG.

The Nexus is complicated and empty; previously you'd start in the preload and it was pretty simple and easy to follow, you could see that each wormhole you took would increase the difficulty and teach you something new. Current Nexus tries to teach you some non-existent storyline rather than how to actually play the game and the features available, there's not even a trade tutorial to show you that you could have different prices between stations as was previous with Silicon Valley and the Microchip base.

-Needs more hand holding on a linear level (Not go to Paxius and then to the Cadets where there is another Drone mission which will distract you from what you were already doing)

-More Entertainment

-Faster paced progression with really no chance of stasis

-More evident tutorials focused on the actual mechanic the game is teaching you.

For example: The ration relief is good, teaches players how to scoop debris and mission debris.
Skill training is bad, the game tells you to train these skills but doesn't say why or show any emphasis on the skill when you do.

Simple fix would be to have certain AI only visible if you have the next tech radar and making that clear to the player that the AI they need to kill for "Mission Debris" fly ships that have more advanced cloaking methods. Boom, they equip the radar and holy shit there are heaps of AI surrounding me that I totally didn't see before!
Also giving the player enough credits to buy the next ship upgrade and making them understand why that ship is better, for example:

"You're still flying that Zebucart, hey? Well, that's not going to fly against the flylets... Here, take this money and buy yourself a Wingship, it has increased Energy resistance to negate their weapon-type and a faster speed to out-maneuver them".

Then drip feed them the next ship and tell them they can now use Tech 2 augmenters with it.

-Wider idea of what they can actually do, teach them about slaves and drones as combat methods and maybe even have them setup a trade slave to make a bit of money while they're doing missions and teach them that there are more advanced methods of automated credit generation.

I feel like they should be given every 'feature' skill to level 1 by the time they leave The Nexus.
Leadership 1, so they can start their own team.
Tractoring 1, to see that there are push / pull / energy xfer tractors.
Remote Control 1, so they learn to use a combat slave to fight for them and run a trade route.
Drone Deployment 1, to teach them about having a combat drone to fight for them.
Station Management 1, further learning of automated credit farming, etc.
Quilting 1, give them a selection of those shitty flags the AI have and then make Quilting 2 allow you to upload your own flag for approval.
Class Skill 1, and just teach them about shield transference anyway... Have a mission where they need to heal a cadet who is being attacked by AI that won't shoot you but are invulnerable and the only way to beat them is to have the cadet retreat from the galaxy while you heal him to safety.
Cloaking 1, and have an AI that has the same aggression and movements as a vulture so that the player can actively see that they're being locked up and when you activate it, the 'vulture' goes back to wander mode because it can't see them, visual queues.

I am sure there are more I am forgetting, but you get the general idea.


Wed Jul 06, 2016 6:06 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
I do and appreciate it. I don't think the Nexus is the appropriate place for all of that, but I do see some things that should definitely go in the Nexus.

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 6:40 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
I'm currently halfway through a redesign of the pirate side of the Nexus that takes away almost all of the forced tutorial stuff and is instead more puzzle-like.

We are redesigning the low level classes so that players get their classes earlier and easier in Nexus.

We are potentially making a lot of the enemies in the Nexus a lot easier to fight, and with more interesting game play.

I do agree that maybe we could make things a bit more flashy. I don't have any particular ideas on that at the moment, but maybe I will give more of the enemies more interesting super items that can spray bullets all over the place.

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 7:08 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
Sounds amazing, any type of work to early game will be great for new players <3

Have you considered making the ships a lot faster and more agile at the begining of the game, nothing is more annoying then slow fat unagile ships!



Also yay for Jeff being active on forums!

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 7:16 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
redalert150 wrote:
Sounds amazing, any type of work to early game will be great for new players <3

Have you considered making the ships a lot faster and more agile at the begining of the game, nothing is more annoying then slow fat unagile ships!



Also yay for Jeff being active on forums!


Yes that's one thing I think would be useful. Agile more than speedy though.

Keep the positive and useful feedback up and he'll keep coming on the forums. JeffL is a pretty nice guy! :P

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Wed Jul 06, 2016 7:20 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
MasterTrader wrote:
I do and appreciate it. I don't think the Nexus is the appropriate place for all of that, but I do see some things that should definitely go in the Nexus.

I disagree, everything mentioned by Fleet General should be added to the Nexus, I think even The Building Academy, Vulcan, Arctia should be added to the Nexus. Get the new players in Earthforce with some stuff, some lvls & some knowledge.

You've created a zone for new players, but then there is nothing that explains anything. If you add every zone there, and have a guideline mission that point at your screen, shows where to go, and how to kill said AI. So when people enter Earthforce they know what to look for.

Make that if you enter Earthforce that you're lv200, in a good ship, with a class, Station Managment, ... They have knowledge on what to do, and they will be able to get ahead by themselves.

You need to push new players, they need to have it easy and have as much knowledge, while also having alot of fun; so that when it goes harder to do something, they still got the motivation to go further and to continue doing stuff.


Thu Jul 07, 2016 3:44 am
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Post Re: Dev flood
I already made all the low level ships faster and lighter a few years ago. Don't know if you've noticed. You can't really make the low level ships too agile, because the more agile they are, the harder they are to control. You also have to think about it from a new players perspective, and not everyone is so good at controlling a space ship with a,w,d or the arrow keys like we are.

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Thu Jul 07, 2016 12:10 pm
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Post Re: Dev flood
JeffL wrote:
I already made all the low level ships faster and lighter a few years ago. Don't know if you've noticed. You can't really make the low level ships too agile, because the more agile they are, the harder they are to control. You also have to think about it from a new players perspective, and not everyone is so good at controlling a space ship with a,w,d or the arrow keys like we are.

There is more to the early game that needs to be changing, only thing I would say is change the Thrust & Speed of the early game ships. The Speed if far too slow, and the Thrust needs to be higher so you don't start circling around wormholes when you autopilot.

Get the list I wrote or Fleet General wrote about the Nexus, I did the Mzungu Lore skills & I was so annoyed that you can't read the mission text because you get wall of texted by the mission; you lose alot of important data. Nobody cares about the side story, go straigth to the point. If you ask somebody to do something for you, you go straigth to the point. Do this with Missions too, and everything would be far better then it is currently.


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