About 3 Weeks in....New Player feedback
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:54 am
Playing SVN 7809 Win32 on Win7 64-bit.
TL;DR: I love it! but have a comment or two.
So I started out using those single player game options which came out of the box. After all I've played 4X games on and off since Civilisation came out (I forget if there was anything before) so did not expect to need to resort to beginner settings.
Wrong.
I had no idea how to handle the Black Krakens roaming near my home planet. Thus, restart with Monster Frequency set to low. Then I was able to progress somewhat in a game where a neighbouring AI gave Peace but another AI which out-teched me (they got good Shields from a ruin) started chewing me up. So I tried lowering the AI settings and had to go to Max AI Aggression: Cautious and then I could handle the AIs and have gradually cranked this setting back up - it's now at Aggressive but that is with Native frequency: High, which is to my advantage. Still it is best when I can get peace with one of my neighbours.
So the game is challenging and I still have a ways to go. Bravo! Me like.
I do think the Quick Play Guide could use some love. It is, I believe not quite up to date. More importantly, while a steep learning curve is not a bad thing, too steep and the game itself will not be interesting once you learned it. And with all the stuff you need to find out, it is easy to overlook crucial things.So a few suggestions for the Quick Play Guide:
- Make it very clear that "problems" such as the repairing of ships or which races can survive in which environments are generally fixable by researching appropriate technologies.
- Explain Diplomacy. It seems to me that there is only war and peace, war being the default. And I have yet to see an AI break a peace.
Next, Experimentors. Not knowing what to expect (being a newbie), discovering them smack in the middle of your empire when you're unprepared is, hm, humbling. New game.
Then in the following game I thought I had the Experimentors nailed - they were more conveniently located and I had this nice Mu Ursh battle fleet that could just repeatedly one-hit destroy gangs of more than one Black Kraken/Bloated Juggernaut. Then, along came some Psionic Snowflakes and in about 3 turns my entire Battle Fleet was gone.
I understand these Snowflakes can be countered by using telepathic and/or non-organic pilots (and so I am going to crew my next fleet with Laenfa - if I live long enough) and of course it is good that Mu Ursh piloted ships have a weakness but I feel the game would be richer if there was also a way for organic-crewed ships to stand up to the snowflakes (well, there might be a way already which I have yet to discover).
Last: A bug? When looking up my empire in the Pedia, lots and lots of fleets which do not exist anymore are listed under "Owned Fleets".
And a PS: "Head on a Spike" - hilarious!
TL;DR: I love it! but have a comment or two.
So I started out using those single player game options which came out of the box. After all I've played 4X games on and off since Civilisation came out (I forget if there was anything before) so did not expect to need to resort to beginner settings.
Wrong.
I had no idea how to handle the Black Krakens roaming near my home planet. Thus, restart with Monster Frequency set to low. Then I was able to progress somewhat in a game where a neighbouring AI gave Peace but another AI which out-teched me (they got good Shields from a ruin) started chewing me up. So I tried lowering the AI settings and had to go to Max AI Aggression: Cautious and then I could handle the AIs and have gradually cranked this setting back up - it's now at Aggressive but that is with Native frequency: High, which is to my advantage. Still it is best when I can get peace with one of my neighbours.
So the game is challenging and I still have a ways to go. Bravo! Me like.
I do think the Quick Play Guide could use some love. It is, I believe not quite up to date. More importantly, while a steep learning curve is not a bad thing, too steep and the game itself will not be interesting once you learned it. And with all the stuff you need to find out, it is easy to overlook crucial things.So a few suggestions for the Quick Play Guide:
- Make it very clear that "problems" such as the repairing of ships or which races can survive in which environments are generally fixable by researching appropriate technologies.
- Explain Diplomacy. It seems to me that there is only war and peace, war being the default. And I have yet to see an AI break a peace.
Next, Experimentors. Not knowing what to expect (being a newbie), discovering them smack in the middle of your empire when you're unprepared is, hm, humbling. New game.
Then in the following game I thought I had the Experimentors nailed - they were more conveniently located and I had this nice Mu Ursh battle fleet that could just repeatedly one-hit destroy gangs of more than one Black Kraken/Bloated Juggernaut. Then, along came some Psionic Snowflakes and in about 3 turns my entire Battle Fleet was gone.
I understand these Snowflakes can be countered by using telepathic and/or non-organic pilots (and so I am going to crew my next fleet with Laenfa - if I live long enough) and of course it is good that Mu Ursh piloted ships have a weakness but I feel the game would be richer if there was also a way for organic-crewed ships to stand up to the snowflakes (well, there might be a way already which I have yet to discover).
Last: A bug? When looking up my empire in the Pedia, lots and lots of fleets which do not exist anymore are listed under "Owned Fleets".
And a PS: "Head on a Spike" - hilarious!