Time for some stats, my bot collects player numbers off the servers, here is the latest data with some older graphs for comparison. It’s the same scale, same time period, from Thursday to Monday.
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There aren’t many options with such a tight budget, but cosmetic rank improvements (badge/insignia + some texture tweaks) can go a long way.
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I’m always a bit worried that permanent rewards for winning in games (outside of the actual feeling of victory) tend to create a lot of negativity, especially if people start taking the game in question way too seriously. This is compounded by the fact that in a game which is shaping up to be as massive as this, winning or losing might be almost random (unless you have a dedicated team of players to play with).
If you’re thinking about creating long-term engagement, consider some form of XP for in-game activities which unlocks skins, ship models, etc… rather than rely on the win / loss duality.
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Are those UTC times?
Speaking of UTC… any chance for an EU server for the next beta? Or is the majority of players US-based? (I’m totally fine either way - just curious…)
You can steal some ideas from Elite: Dangerous when it comes to cosmetics:
- ship skins (obviously)
- ship decals
- cockpit decals / tweaks
- ship “skirts” (i.e. minor cosmetic changes only for certain parts of a given ship)
- engine effects (engine exhaust colours)
- weapon effects (projectile colours)
- ship / player voice packs
- customizable player avatars (think EVE Online / Elite: Dangerous) for use in leader-boards / chat animations (think Freespace animations when people / aliens were talking in comms) - lots of work, but there’s plenty of room for unlockables
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Yeah that’s in line with what we’re thinking, nothing set in stone though.
Been following the project for going on 10 years now but this weekend was my first time playing. I’ve played some space games before so the control scheme didn’t take long to get used to (except for the default missile launch key, why??). I know the game is still at a very early stage and lots of the things I’m going to mention are probably already slated to change but I’m going to err on the side of “long” in the hopes that it is useful.
Full Newtonian flight mechanics definitely take some getting used to. As a long-time fan, I understand the promise and potential of this system but it’s certainly unintuitive, even for someone knowing exactly what to expect. I overshot or rammed into things constantly. The assist functions you’ve created, the spacebar-activated flight assist, but also, more importantly, the radial menu that lets you match speeds or chase a target I think will go a long way towards helping new players get where they intend to go before they get a stronger grasp of how to fly without assistance. I’m sure it is planned but a thorough tutorial that really forces players to use and understand this radial menu would be a great help. Missions like “Follow this friendly hauler without ever getting more than 15 km away.” or “Strafe this enemy carrier without getting further than 300 km or closer than 200 km.” would force players to get used to these tools. It’s important to hold players’ hands closely as they learn a whole new way to fly so they don’t get frustrated and can come to understand why this flight model is fun.
Below are my suggestions. Obviously I have only played a few hours so take these with a grain of salt but hopefully they are helpful.
As other posters have pointed out situational awareness is very hard to come by. I’m certain various sorts of map are planned but they are essential for making sense out of battles instead of just picking a target near you and shooting it. A tactical map could be as simple as zooming out in 3rd person to a range of a few million km and being able to rotate this view. Without this, it feels like you are rushing from fight to fight with no sense of the larger conflict. Some sort of system map, which could again just be a 3rd person view zoomed out to a few billion km, would also help understand where different planets and stations are in relation to each other.
Another addition that would greatly improve situational awareness would be some way of determining the velocity and acceleration vectors of other ships. I know you can see the relative velocity of a ship you have targeted with respect to you but that is not enough to tell where exactly it is heading and importantly you might want to know at a glance which ways a group of ships are moving. Say there’s a bunch of enemy ships and you want to figure out which ones are heading for the hauler you are protecting. You can’t target them all. Some sort of UI feature that showed velocity and acceleration vectors for every ship in view would be helpful. Perhaps allow it to be toggled on and off to deal with visual clutter. These could take the form of virtual contrails for velocity or engine plumes for acceleration that the ship computer creates to aid the pilot.
Feedback on your effect in battle. I know when you get a kill it tells you the percentage of damage you are responsible for but something more immediate is needed. For one when firing at long range it’s difficult to know whether you are even hitting the target. I still have no real idea what the max range of most weaponry is. Damage numbers would probably be out of place, but some sort of visual or audio feedback for hits, a large visual effect for shields going down, a UI indicator when critical damage is dealt, and even health bars representing shield strength would go a long way towards making the player feel impactful. This is an important psychological aspect of gaming. It needs to feel satisfying to land hits and do damage and right now there is not very much visceral feedback during combat.
Missiles also suffer from poor awareness. Incoming missiles should be strongly highlighted by the UI even when out of vision. The bright red missile incoming warning is much less useful than a UI element actually showing me the missile, it’s bearing, distance, and relative velocity.
I didn’t get any sense of how sensors work in the game right now. The fact that a power switch exists intrigues me as it suggests all sorts of possibilities in conjunction with Newtonian mechanics. Like could a player lay in a course and power down to coast towards its target without being seen? This sort of unique gameplay should be capitalized on as much as possible as it will elevate the game above simply being a dogfight simulator.
Some balance suggestions that you should take with two grains of salt:
I don’t think small weapons like those on interceptors should be capable of damaging stations. My main rationale for this is that sitting in some corner inside a station emptying your weapons endlessly into a wall seems like an effective strategy, but not a particularly fun or engaging one. A secondary reason is that defending interceptors shouldn’t have to worry about accidentally inflicting damage on the station with missed shots or it gives the attackers a significant advantage.
I don’t think interceptors should cost credits. Or, at least there should be a free ship class. This cost seems to me like it will make comebacks difficult as the losing team will be forced to fight superior ships in the cheapest available ship. If that ship costs money then the losing team will only lose money and will never be able to save up and recover economically.
A final random suggestion. Put a station in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. It would be a unique experience fighting in the low visibility atmosphere without a surface to run into. If there already is one and I missed it then good job!
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There was indeed such a station in past versions. 
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I also agree that rewards should be heavily weighted towards objectives, rather than team win/loss. It will encourage focused playing as well as being fairer for the players.
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There is already an audio ping on hit.
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Maybe I just never hit anyone 
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Yes, the times are UTC and there is absolutely no need for another server, the current one is empty 99% of the time, with an all time peak of around 25 concurrent players in an hour. A single server is supposed to be able to handle over 100 people.
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I didn’t meant to suggest that the server was overpopulated, nor was it my suggestion to set up multiple servers at the same time. Instead, I wondered if future beta tests would have the server hosted somewhere in Europe so that us Europeans can accurately test things like pings and lag… anyway, as I stated - not a huge deal for me at this time. 
I can see from the usage that US players likely make up the bulk of the current player base, so I fully understand if there’s only a US server for now.
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Well, you didn’t say that and I was simply stating why having another server is not necessary.
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So, I finally have some time to post some feedback. Unfortunately I didn’t have nearly as much time as I would like to have had to play the Beta, but enough to spend some serious time on it. With my feedback, keep in mind that it was the first time I played I:B.
Controls
The biggest miss for me was not being able to look around using my mouse. Anytime I want to look somewhere else, I have to turn the entire ship around. This makes it hard to really plot a course.
Trying to pilot a ship for the first time (interceptor) was incredibly difficult. Eventually I mastered simple point-to-point flight (e.g. from planet to planet, or orbiting etc.) but dog-fighting? Forget it! I think this is in large due to my own noobishness, but I also think that controls can be much improved. Using the mouse to steer the ship is (to me) counter intuitive, and on more than one occasion my ship spun “out of control” in vacuum.
My improvement suggestions:
- Allow users to look around the cockpit with the mouse, and point and click. This also solves a bunch of issues I mention under “HUD” and it will simplify long distance travel.
- Simplify long distance travel. I would like to point and click on another planet / station / factory and just tell my ship to go there and orbit/ sit stationary or land. The fun (for me) is in the fighting, exploring and escorting. Not so much in going from A to B.
- Provide greater variety of controller input (couldn’t get my Xiaomi controller setup).
Right now, if you’re a new player the controls are off putting. I think some simplification would allow new players to participate quicker. Of course, any simplification should not replace skill. It should just lower the entry barrier, and make simple tasks less complicated.
HUD
To be frank: the HUD is horrible.
- Hard to read: characters are too small, colors not enough contrasting with environment.
- Provided information is all over the place, and I have no idea what is important, and what number or symbol stands for what.
- The HUD looks like it’s an overlay on the screen, instead of being part of the cockpit.
- From the symbols, I couldn’t read whether a scouted factory was on my side of the planet, or on the other side of the planet. Same goes for players / stations.
- Tracking or selecting a player/planet/station/factory is a mess. Point and click would be so much easier and so much more intuitive
- Team stats are minimal, and get lost in all the other information on display.
- Rocket warning is insufficient (just a beep, where is the radar?)
- Couldn’t read from the HUD how many flares I have available.
- Hard to read how far away objects/players are.
- No solar system mini-map?
- Lack of feedback in the circular mini-menu. I pull up the mini menu, click something, but did it work?
For a good HUD: I like what I see in Star Citizen, but I admit I haven’t played it. Else; the fighter jets / helicopter HUDs in Battlefield look great as well.
Graphics
First off: wow! Keeping in mind that the game is still in alpha, and has placeholders in it, it looks amazing! Especially the sensation of leaving a planet or entering the atmosphere is amazing. I loved it. The only challenge I had was reading and understanding the distance between myself and the object/player I’m approaching. On several occasions I smashed into planets (purple one) and objects, and on other time I jumped out of warp much too soon. I’m not sure what the fix would be for this, other than making it more obvious in the HUD.
Weapons
Overall, the weapon system works, and does the job. However I felt it lacked sophistication. Selecting a target and firing a rocket is needlessly complicated (see my feedback on Controls), and I wasn’t quite sure how much damage each weapon did (I assumed that energy weapons can’t penetrate an energy shield, but ballistic weapons can?).
Last but not least; the ballistic machine gun for the Interceptor is under-powered and does not match the role of the ship. This ship needs a GAU-8 Avenger style gun (see also the series “The Expanse”). The name suggests that the Interceptor is a the space equivalent of an F-15; it’s weapons systems should match that role; either more rockets or a GAU-8 
.
Sound Design
(I know; no sound in a vacuum, blablabla… it’s a game) The music scores are nice, and provide a good ambiance to the game. However, the FX is pretty minimal, and sounds small and static. I miss the roar of a full throttle jet with afterburner, the cracking thunder of rapid firing guns and the deep and heavy “BOOOM” of exploding things around me. Battlescape looks and feels epic. It should sound epic too.
Overall
Currently; I:B feels to me as a huge sandbox environment, with a crude layer of game play on top of it. In my opinion; visually, I:B is near complete. Game design wise, there’s a lot of work left.
I really enjoyed playing the game for the first time past weekend. It looks simply stunning, and it’s amazing to see this project come to live and transform from idea to reality. I am a new player, and as such, I can imagine that some of my feedback may well be due to my newness. Other parts are of course entirely subjective, and just my opinion. Keep up the good work! I look forward to the official Beta-release.
If any of my feedback is unclear, please let me know. Happy to elaborate
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First time player on a Core i7 laptop, which has recently decided I don’t have the secondary AMD Radeon chips so had to use the Intel HD 4600 chips. This does bring up a warning that it’s not supported. When not freeze framing the renders are stunning so I hope there will be support of this chipset at some point.
Found that I could configure my Logitech Gampad F710 in the pre-game panel (it would be nice to do this from within the game but can see that this would be low on the list as it’s not something you’d change often) but seemed to be unrecognised in the game.
I could not get used to the controls (not helped by the fact that I was using the touchpad not the mouse) but figure this had more to do with the constant freeze frame.
You can hold CTRL to look around, double tap to reset the view.
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Interesting! A very long time ago, I managed to get Battlescape to run on my laptop too, which didn’t have a graphic card. It was a complete slideshow, worked only once, then never worked again. When I asked about it, Flavien told me he didn’t know how I had got it to work, as integrated graphics weren’t supported!
Now I have a gaming PC thankfully.
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Man… I wish I would’ve know that last weekend :D. Good to know for next time!
It’s nice to have that option, but I still feel that the mouse should be primary used for looking around, point & click etc. When you’re in a dog fight, I don’t want to have to choose between looking around or piloting my ship. Basically, I want to be able to control the course of my ship with my left hand (minus speed maybe), and any actions that I take during flight with my right hand.
Actions can then be contextual, depending on modes selected in the HUD/ Dashboard (e.g. if I have the HUD set to “Exploration”, the mouse clicks/ scroll will function in line with that, same goes for “Warp”, “Combat” etc.).
My suggestion for mouse use:
Mouse Axis: Defining view port
Left Click: Primary actions (Fire weapon, Select Option, Select Target, Go to Object/User etc.)
Right Click: Secondary actions (Fire secondary weapon, Zoom, Scan areas etc.)
Scroll: Increase/Decrease Speed
Scroll + CTRL: Cycle secondary weapons
It’s a matter of drivers. We display a warning if you don’t have an NVidia or AMD card, but otherwise we don’t prevent you from playing the game ( or at least trying ). If Intel has fully DX11 compatible drivers, I see no reason the game would fail to run or crash. Performance however is another issue. I’m not aware of any Intel chipset that’s good enough to run the game is good conditions. You might have partial luck in 720p + low settings, but even then it’s unlikely to run at more than 10-20 fps.
So the short answer is: yeah, it could run on Intel chipsets, but a driver could have broken compatibility.
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