Hello! Brand New Player - First Impressions

Greetings! Firstly, let me preface this by saying I've been watching/following the game via "Call Me Al" on Youtube for a few months or more so the credit goes to him for bringing me on board as a new Colony Builder! I have watched intently and had the game on my Steam wishlist waiting for the right time to buy it. Alpha 42 really seems to be moving the game in the right progression and so I picked it up this weekend.

My first impressions were much different once in the driver seat as opposed to watching someone else in a Let's Play. The game is deceptively simple looking and actually has a bit of a learning curve to it. Not all of the UI is intuitive but it's fair better than it was six months back I'm happy to see.

Here are some things I really enjoy about the game:

• The artwork and animations are absolutely splendid. I really appreciate the attention to detail here!
• The humor and smarmy text used in the character sheets, tutorial and other areas is just right, not overdone or too campy.
• The building tools are fairly straightforward and easy to understand when laying out a blueprint - no complaints there.
• The UI looks good and seems to be coming together in an orderly fashion that makes sense and is not cluttered.
• Gameplay progression is straightforward and well explained in the tutorials - good job on that.

And here are some things in the 8-10 hours I've invested in my first colony that are not so enjoyable:

• Work Crews are very confusing for the new player even with tutorial help. I was lost, even having watched Al do it quite a few times. Granted it has changed a lot with R42 but it was really frustrating for me to figure out how the labourers were to go in the work crew, how they were added (randomly?) and how to manage them efficiently. I'm still struggling with it but I think I have it figured out now. Not so intuitive here. Need better ways to remove/add individually.
• The Job Queue is a bit clunky and buggy. I am reading the issues with this and understand it's still under constant development. I think you're getting close - but it's another frustration. Using the "X" to cancel things really causes it to bug out and halt things. Better optimization of queue order and canceling please.
• Will there ever be individual colonist control options? I have had several starve to death because they were stuck inside a pixel or something from a recently constructed building part or sleeping cot. This is making me sad, I have no way to help them other than to have the rest of the colony kill them. Maybe a colonist reset button?
• Stockpiles still need some further optimization and detailed organization. I come from playing games like Gnomoria and Rimworld where stockpiles are very specific and can be broken down much further. I had colonists stacking bricks, glass, coal, all sorts of things in my food stockpile. This game attracts the micromanagement type player like me so it has to be high priority that we can break down our stockpiles into very specific goods. If I want a stockpile next to my coal mine that's only for coal, I need that ability to specify it.

I'll stop with the list for now, those are my biggest complaints and I'm very understanding with a good perspective on these development cycles, having participated in many over the years.

I took the effort to join the community with this one where I don't often (I am in the RimWorld Alpha community) with other games under development because I think you have a winner here! It's got a lot of promise and is already a lot of fun even with the bugs and glitches. I love colony/city builder games and this is a fun genre to do so within - love it! I'll continue to play test and give feedback from here on out.

Thank you and keep up the stellar work!

 

I agree fully with the stockpiles, once the settlement becomes spread out, it will be important to have specific goods close to the industry that utilises them, at the moment the categories are too general.

Even if we could create pallets while we are actually building the workshop, as an example, I decide to build a ceramics workshop, I place the work benches, the doors, and windows, but I also have an option to place a pallet, this pallet is tied to the ceramics workshop, I would have two to choose from, one a clay pallet, the other a sand pallet, this way if I only want bricks built at this workshop, then I place a clay pallet, then the plebs carry clay to this "minor stockpile"

 

Welcome to the forums. Hey, 'Call Me Al' is me! In fact, I post announcements of new videos in a thread here on the forums (as do a couple of other folks). I'm very flattered you seem to have watched my videos so regularly, and I hope they were able to communicate the tone and 'feel' of the game, which is what I look for when I watch the videos of others. If I've made Clockwork Empires seem easier than it actually is, that's an unintentional side-effect of playing it for over a year, apologies!

Regarding Work Crews, they used to have a drag-and-drop functionality that many people miss now - I also hope that will return, but I think it's more important opening the menu doesn't lag your computer out (which it doesn't do anymore, in part because it no longer has to draw the faces of your entire colony).

I agree with most of your thoughts regarding stockpiles - while we were talking about stockpile filters in the Wiki thread, the Devs mentioned that the existing filters are subject to change, and not necessarily set in stone, so there's still hope.

 

Oh Hi there Al! I didn't know if you posted here and wanted to make sure you got some credits. Your videos are well done and I have enjoyed them over the months while I waited to see if I was ready to jump into the game during it's Alpha development. I don't usually post comments, am somewhat of a lurker on youtube but I am subscribed and do enjoy your work - keep it up! No apologies necessary on making it look easy, that's a good thing! A lot of games look easier on video and can be quickly overwhelming when you take the driver's seat. I learned a lot from your explanations so it wasn't as overwhelming as other games I've played. Only the work crews seemed to confuse me and feel like they need a bit more optimization. I get it that the old ones were too laggy so the new is better there. I would just like a way to reorganize them a bit and manage new laborers better. Thanks again for all your hard work on the videos!

 

Hey there and welcome aboard the cult simulator 3000. Your one stop for starvation, madness, communism and conversations about hats.
Also yea, the stockpile/hauling thing is a bit of a pain right now, and probably one of my biggest grumbles. However, I do like how it gets a little better with each iteration.

 

Thank you for the warm welcome. Everyone here, players and devs alike seem earnestly invested in making the game great and that's a positive note. I do understand you guys are constantly tweaking most of those things I was frustrated with.

As for the colonist stuck issue ... I think I am ok with there not being total control of the colonists because that would require a lot of programming and added layer of AI you don't need to do. Rimworld doesn't have it and I love that game even when I wish I could make one colonist DO something else haha. I was thinking more along the lines of a simple UI reset button when one gets stuck. I realize the stuck modules and cots inside buildings is just a process of elimination in your pathing fixes so maybe the reset function would be too much work as well. I will try to upload a save file if I have another one ... so far tonight none have gotten stuck though the one who died at the end of the cot was never buried and her skeleton is still lying under the cot. The colonists moan about a dead body but sleep on the cot nonetheless. It's pretty hilarious.

 

Welcome aboard.

Have a cabbage!

 

The cabbage spoiled before you could fully offer it.

Would you like to substitute cabbage for pumpkin? Or perhaps some nice Opium?

 

Haha true that on the spoiling cabbages!

Opium would be a dangerous gift. I'm sure I probably have a hidden Laudanum Fiend trait.

 

Please take the cabbage!! I'm up to my neck in them and the bottom layer is starting to smell.
I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

 

Is that the cabbage, or lack of proper facilities to practice civilized hygiene?

 

Do you see an official authorised outhouse blueprint anywhere?

 

[Thread crashes to desktop.]

 

Yep. It's called the mac build!

*runs flailing arms around*

 

Wanted to say Alephred's videos are why I'm here also!

I congratulate him on his new high-salary position as Executive VP President of Marketing for Gaslamp Games!

 

Hello! It was a long time ago since I played this kind of game, (I think it was Age of Mythology when it came out... bad comparison I know). I read about this game in the swedish PC-Gamer mag. and being a huge fan of HPL it immediately caught my attention. I´ve played for app. 30 minutes know and although I´m confused as hell I love it. The graphics and the details when you zoom in is very good. And the music... my god a masterpiece. Keep up the good work. When I´m writing this I have about 2 people still alive in my colony. I got hammered by bandits and fish people. Well that´s all, don´t have time for this, back to the game...

 

Ahh, the music. I love the dreamy synth line that sounds like a Arp 2600 or something much like it. Very prog rock.