So, after we had the pleasure to play the game more than a week, I feel like I could give some feedback.
General things:
This test was awesome, my personal highlight was of course the halloween cup (although I only won one round ^^).
The ranked mode seems to be good how it is right now, while you guys could maybe think about making guns a real alternative to beams again. (Stacking shields is quite hard.)
The MMO-mode:
Well, I have to say I expected more (after all the "build up your own colonies stuff". The mode was still good, don´t get me wrong but I didn ´t have the feeling of helping me or anyone else while building an Outpost or supply station. I would like to see more economy and things I can build up. But more about my ideas later on.
Bugs: There are a few bugs/things that shouldn 't be the way they are I'd like to adress.
- If you fight another fleet in MMO-mode (if the enemy fleet is attacking you), your fleet sometimes spawns around these "asteroid walls" (hope, you know what I mean). -> The fleet is split up, some ships are buggin in the wall and get destroyed.
-Another thing about asteroids: Pls dont let asteroid fields spawn on a warpgate. It is quite annoying to get trapped in a field when you want to warp ;D
Improvement Ideas:
Mining:
I don't know if I am the only one but I don' t quite like the way mining works at the moment. If I enter an asteroid field and there is just one tiny asteroid that isnt shown on the minimap that carries ressources, it is just annoying to search it. (While your fleet gets destroyed by other asteroids flying around) Would like to have the ressources either shown on minimap or be on asteroids that are a bit bigger than the normal ones and don't move.
Colonizing:
Might be the biggest point on my list.
Idea: You are able to buy terraformers in the faction store like in the last tests (while they cost much reputation).
If you find a planet to colonize, you need to first provide it with some food (if it doesnt produce food itself).
You can choose from three stances for your colony:
-Stance 1: Fully automatic-If there is a supply station near, it provides the colony with food and uses freighters to get the cargo. The player earns a small amount of reputation for every cargo deliverd ( maybe 3 or so...). Players cant take the resources out of the planet or trade with them. The planet also gets fire support by near faction patrols if attacked (did I mention you can attack planets? :D)
The planet belongs to the faction AI but the player gets the reputation because he is the "founder" (shown in planet menu)
-Stance 2: Co-op: Supply stations and co. don't care for the planet at all. Players can provide it with food (the planet buys it for IGC). They can also buy ores and other resources for not much IGC and sell it at a mothership, outpost or supply station.
The owner (the player who built the colony) earns a small provision in IGC for every cargo delivered. He/she can also order some of his ships to protect the station or freighters to provide it with food. The owner doesn't get a reward for this, only for transactions of OTHER players.
-Stance 3: Hippity hoppity, get off my property:
Only the player who built the station can take caargo from it and provide it with food. The colony doesn't pay him but he can take the resources the station produces for free (because it belong to him -_-). He can also order ships to protect the station and freighters to provide it with food. The freighters could automatically buy food from a mothership and fly back to the colony. If a player doesn't manage his colony for 20 days without switching it to stance 1 or 2 it automatically goes to stance 1
I have no idea if this is possible but it would be great.(I have no experience with UE 4, only use Unity.)
The economy system would ensure the game a giant new playerbase who wants to not only fight but build something up.
After all I can say, kepp on programming, do your thing. Don't listen to retards like me if you do not agree and keep on progRAMming.
RAM IT guys and keep on going!
Sincerely
Derhesligebaum