I've been following the development of this game for a while now and I finally decided buy a copy and join the pre-alpha. The purpose of this thread is to provide my first impressions as a new player to the dev team (assuming they read the forums) so as to do my part in helping build the game from this point. Starting game up for the first time Love the start menu screen. The flag, the epic font on the title, the music. Very nice. The menu itself is rather plain and feels a little out of place. Click New Game Hmm... two choices of where to settle and the only difference is biome / wildlife. That's fair, it's only pre-alpha. I'm sure more will be added later. Oh, I can't rename anything. That's a little disappointing. Still, it's only pre-alpha. No biggie. Select New Antipodea Did the program freeze up? ... Ok, no. It just took a long time to load. Welcome Tutorial Cool, a tutorial. I like the stylization here. Nice blend of colors. Nice artwork. Easy to read font. Entertaining and immersive response options. (much better than simple ok / cancel) I think it's strange that moving the mouse to the edge of the screen doesn't scroll. That's what I'm used to in isometric map views like this. The tutorial box goes back to the middle of the screen when I move forward. I have to manually move it back to where I want it every time. This should probably change. Tutorial is helpful, the blocks of text just feel wordy. Alright, first step seems to be gathering resources. The click / drag / release over top of things menu is interesting. I like the animation. Not sure how I feel about it as the primary method of giving orders. It's new, which isn't bad. Feel's slow and not really intuitive right now. Maybe it will feel more intuitive the more I use it? Press unpause A bunch of large colorful icons immediately appear above my people and I am confused. *pause game* They just landed (I think? There's no shore line...) and they are already dreaming of mysterious dark figures. That seems strange. Zoom in Hey, the graphics are actually quite beautiful. I like the basket full of sausages Click on villager Not sure what all these icons are about. It's interesting though. Would be nice if they had more of an explanation. The stories for the little people are fun. Building Planning out buildings is easy and intuitive. Understanding what the objects inside the buildings do is not. Area Designation Setting an area like a farm or stockpile is easy and intuitive. Removing an already existing designation is not. Stockpile options are very basic. I'm assuming that's just because the game is pre-alpha. Military It's strange that the rally point is not available in the military menu. I was attacked by bandits. It was difficult to tell who was a bandit or where they were coming from. Production The icon based production options for workshops works but it feels off somehow. Clicking on workshops to bring up the production options doesn't work right. I usually end up clicking on someone inside the building, an object, or nothing happens at all. News The little news icons (immigration, fish-people attack, call in a favor, etc) are easily missed. Work Squads Interesting idea. Took me a while to understand what was going on. Feels clunky: the layout of the squad menu, relating squads to workshops, and controlling military... it all feels clunky and slow. Outcome after an hour of playing the game and flipping back here to log my thoughts I like it. It's still in pre-alpha but I like it. Not enough steam and gears. Looking forward to the finished product.
Welcome! You've hit many if my clarity concerns right on the head, and I'm sure a revamp of the tutorial would do wonders for much of this . Simply trying. To make sure all the important elements are in, but maybe try to keep it a little shorter to not tire people. I have never fully read the tutorial, because it's indeed a bit wordy. Om what modules do and don't i think a.small module tooltip mention should do the trick 'the power saw quickly makes logs into planks ' If you want to know more feel free to ask or check out the wiki. It's still WIP, but we're we're not that many people contributing so it takes time
I am glad to help . I love management sims and this while this game is more than just a management sim it reminds me of some of my favorites (Dwarf Fortress, Startopia) After some time to think about the game I think the problem I ran into with the icon based structure for work squads and citizens was that it didn't provide the information at a glance. I had to scroll up and down and check between multiple windows to make sure the work squad I wanted was properly assigned to a workshop. I know you want the emphasis to be on the little people and their experience, but this setup must get tedious late in the game. Have you looked into a layout like Dwarf Fortress's Dwarf Therapist? Another option might be to add the number of workers (and maybe their skills) to the workshop 'select which squad will work here' drop down menu.
