0.4.7.0 Feedback Thread

I’ll start the feedback thread again, starting with my 2c ~

First off, the flight model is a lot better compared to last patch imo. It feels pretty much perfect.

At first I wasn’t a huge fan of the speed cap (FA on), especially on the interceptor. However, when I got into combat, it really wasn’t that noticeable. I can live with it. EDIT: …AAAaaand I just noticed the Flight assist speed cap button. Nevermind then lol.

Flying the capital ships was much more enjoyable. I had an absolute blast in the cruiser, easily my favorite ship (pretty please make a Homeworld-themed skin).

Concerning the UI, obviously there’s a lot to do, but I like the set up. I don’t know how I feel about losing the quick-tab though. Looking at teams and such by just quickly holding down tab was helpful. I don’t know what the plans are for the UI on that front, so it might become a moot point because there’s a better option. I’ll reserve judgment until the menu is more fleshed-out.

Really solid patch, great work. It’s really shaping up, can’t wait to see more! :smiley:


Some more cents ~

Out of combat repair for large ships at stations takes a while. It’s a lot of time just sitting and waiting. It took about 5, 6 minutes to repair my cruiser from ~ 10% health to full.

NPC fleets like to fly into the ground sometimes when initiating a factory battle.

Missiles seem to turn really slow. It’s extremely difficult to land them except when attacking a completely oblivious pilot.

NPC corvettes are weak. I can easily farm them in an inty if there’s even one other target nearby. When I’m by myself in an inty, it’s not overly difficult. NPC’s in general don’t seem to use their weapon selection very well.

5 Likes

2 Km/s was always the minimum auto-warp speed.
I would like to try 1 Km/s to see how it feels to go through a battle like this.

I don’t understand that statement. What do you call “minimum auto warp speed”?

If you reach a certain speed, you auto-enter warp. It’s currently set at 2 Km/s, last I checked. I haven’t used the feature in a while, so I don’t know for sure.

@Arkenbrien It’s not set at 2 km/s though, but x2 the manual min warp speed. For the interceptor the min warp speed is set at 240 m/s, so the auto warp speed would trigger at 480 m/s.

I’m probably going to review these numbers, I’d like them to be more coherent. The min warp speed could be set to 2/3rd of the speed cap for all ships, and the auto warp speed would trigger only after exceeding the speed cap, maybe 50% above.

I mean: If you are in warp and you are near a station. Speed will slow down to 2 km/s.

So I’ve had some time to play around with this patch (feels like the first time in ages).

Flight model is excellent right now. That’s all I have to say on that!

Great to see some menus being integrated. Obviously there’s a lot of work to be done on them, but I like the ideas. Just a couple of thoughts though:

  • I initially found it somewhat counter-intuitive to navigate to see scores and select a ship to respawn (as in, which buttons to press). Perhaps consider integrating the Escape menu with the Tab menu so it’s all in one? IMO, it would be simpler to press Escape and have the entire menu interface available, including Game Options/Quit etc. Tab could then remain a quick scoreboard link, or be freed up for controls.
  • I got a distinct mini-freeze in my framerate when entering and exiting the Escape menu.

In other news, torpedoes up the backside of a destroyer with no shields = much fun.

Also, I think Gallia could do with a minor art tweak. The dark vs. light lighting effect is fine to have given the lack of atmosphere, but combined with the patchy dark/light textures, it makes my eyes kinda go funny. Could it be smoothed out or something? It’s a slightly strange effect that doesn’t quite look realistic. Compared to the way the asteroids are lit, it looks odd.

Lastly, with the addition of menu capabilities, could this be an opportunity to streamline the wheel menus a bit? With power selection, weapon selection, safety lock, not to mention chatting and various other functions scattered across 3 wheels… It’s confusing.

1 Like

That will be addressed later on, at the moment, there is no caching of graphics, so every time you open the menu ( or navigate to a tab ) it reads some data from disk.

You mean it has too much contrast ?

That’s a good point. I wanted to do this for quite a while. I think the weapons can be moved to the ship management tab menu ( you’ll be able to see the hardpoints, manage groups, safety lock etc… ), however the X menu also contains formations, and there isn’t enough room in the systems menu to contain formations too. Maybe ship abilities ( ex.: warp jam, scan, mines ) could be moved away and be somehow merged with weapons, but keep in mind the game needs to be playable on gamepads too, so we can’t rely on hotkeys for everything…

Feedback welcome on improving / getting ride of radial menus.

3 Likes

I’d look at Warframe’s wheel menu.

Right clicking changes the current wheel, so potentially you can have all three current wheels under a keyboard button, although you have to right click to cycle through them.

Furthermore, Warframe also has a spiral menu, if there are too many items to fit on a single wheel. The disadvantage is that you can’t do a quick-snap to stuff later.

Here’s what I mean:

20190623085634_1

That would be a succinct way of putting my ramblings! It’s very speckled (another way of putting it). I like the sharp shadows which are the inevitable consequence of zero atmosphere, but with this effect on such a bumpy landscape, PLUS the contrasting texture colours, it’s a bit much.

For power management, I would just have a single, 4-option wheel with Balanced/Shields/Weapons/Engines. Possibly warp jam as well for those ships that can do it.

Weapon choices can certainly be in a tab menu. I’m in 2 minds about safety lock - I feel this could be eliminated entirely by having an automatic recognition: lock = 1 keypress to fire, no lock = double keypress to dumbfire (probably with a prompt or hint until people learn it).

Formations do make sense in a wheel menu. I can’t think of another way to do that. Unless we only have Match Speed and Free Flight, which frankly are the only two I use anyway. In which case, only a toggle is needed.

Also, I think the voice command wheel menu key needs to be defaulted far away from the other two. Chances are you’re only going to use it in short breaks in combat, so it makes sense to move it away from the important keys to avoid confusion.

Just throwing some ideas out there!