I am not finding a
heap of things wrong in the game and most things seem to work to a decent level now, but I wonder why FDev keeps sidestepping the multiplayer issues, why the communications panel STILL doesn't work properly and I get a whole game's worth of messages I never saw spam through instantly when I open the FSS or go to the main menu. Doesn't seem to matter if it's tabbed or not I just get zero messages incoming. Fyi, I do not focus the panel, it opens when I look at it.
Team activities on the ground do not work. If player 2 enters player 1's already-open instance on the ground, player 1's instance will break so that doors become locked shut and lockers become empty. Likewise, if I go to a settlement and have to exit to the main menu, when I reload the game, all settlement containers and dataports are empty.
What you need to do is, when the player exits to the menu the game needs to remember the state of that settlement and load it in when the player loads, so all lockers and containers are in the state the player left them on exit.
You have a HUGE opportunity to make the useless ships in this game serve a purpose here, for team landings. The Dropship for example is not capable of actually dropping anything, not even a full team?! The Asp Scout could have been boosted with team slots too. How you are happy to sit there with ships in the game that serve no purpose and that nobody even uses is confusing to me. It's a missed opportunity for gameplay and disrespectful to the artists. Please make the Dropship into a Dropship so I can drop my team, and vehicles (for my team to use!).
Degraded Power Regulators, Inertia Canisters, Building and Vehicle schematics, Fossils, Californium, Nutritional Concentrate... you could have made the search and use of these items into a completely colourful and varied experience but no.... All upgrades require the same 7 items and 50% of the loot in the 'jackpot lockers' is not even worth picking up. Enthralling.
How do I tell which Data is useful to me at a glance... do I need 'Photo Albums' or 'Blood Test Results'? Can I sell it?
Is it only there to be sold? How do I tell?
Also 1000 data is not nearly enough room given the number of data types.
In conflict zones, either allow the AI to jump and use thrusters (massive task due to the gravity differential) or disable thrusters on the player (damages gameplay)... pick one.
Female Drifter shoulder pads and hat are visible in first person clipping through camera when crouched (and moving). (5760x1080)
Mission-giver text often does not match the mission goal.
Player has to click 'manage loadouts' twice. Looking at panels instead of focussing them seems to have some bugs.
Executioner reticule is too blocky and hinders proper aiming at the distance the weapon is designed for. In fact,
all weapon reticules are too blocky and in most cases the white does not work properly against the background and the reticule is not clear. May I suggest you change it to ultramarine.
Some of us like to aim down our weapons and not see a reticule when hip firing and running around. Please give an option to disable it.
Player SRV often disappears in bases when a player disembarks.
Ground personnel hit by anti-ship weapons should turn into pink mist.
Likewise, ground personnel should not be able to cause so much damage to ships.
AI cannot go through security doors even when they are already wanted, under attack or the door is overloaded and wide open, so it is possible to draw all enemies outside into a clump by one door.
I know it will interfere with AI pathing but the cutter and charger need new tool settings:
Charger needs a 'Scramble' function, which is the opposite of 'Overload' and actually forces a door to lock shut. In order to prevent a player using this to create a fortress it should use a lot of power. AIs whose path is cut off by this door should be told to 'reverse course' after searching so they don't just stand by the locked door. Overcharging a scrambled door will force it open as before.
Arc cutter needs attack and weld functions, so it can be used on a sneak attack (very low damage to shields but unmitigated head shots are lethal) and to actually weld a closed or scrambled door shut, and the weld can be quickly cut away from either side with the cutter. Overloading a welded door has no effect, but a weld can be exploded away or shot several times to remove it.
Also, the arc cutter should be able to open locked crates, it's not like their contents are better than locked lockers.
Welding and Scrambling should be disabled in conflict zones.
If I use an E-Breach to override a Power Regulator control panel, another commander should not be able to operate the panel and steal my regulator. In fact, any panel I have hacked should then only be operable by me until I am dead or I leave or exit the game. Since the E-Breach is attached, a second cannot be used to override the first either unless the owner is dead and the E-Breach has been deleted.
Knocking somebody out with fists should be a stealth attack and not draw enemies from outside if the victim is dispatched quickly.
Overcharging somebody with the charger should not be lethal, but knock them out for a given time - higher ranks wake up quicker.
Overload should kill, Scramble should incapacitate.
Internal locker numbers are invisible to the player while crate numbers are not, so finding 'Locker 4 in the Lab' is pretty meaningless.
Fire, smoke and heat haze effects engorge themselves on system resources.
Need more LODs for objects inside buildings to make transitions smoother. You can't just give the computer two LODs and say 'lerp between them' because you get some seriously badly-placed vertices at the halfway point (elevators and internal geometry of spaceports) or powerful computers chugging in one room because every mesh is at LOD0.
Weapon skins are mostly naff. Please put a bit more thought into them and use the actual shape of the weapon and real-life examples of weapon colours as a guide.
High security bases should have cameras to avoid/hack/disable.
I really hate computer panels in games that show garbage nonsense information. You have an option here to show useful information on all those panels.
- Which doors are open, closed, overloaded
- Which buildings have atmosphere
- Which rooms are on fire
- Which base defences are active
- Remaining base stock/loot of certain items
- Whether the base has incoming mercenaries or scavengers
- Views from active cameras, if cameras are implemented
- Remaining non-player base personnel
- Condition and contents of sample containment
- Details of all currently landed ships within X distance
- Number/location of commanders in settlement
- Settlement/Building Map
- Airspace Radar
Base defences should power up with the base, but not shoot anything until programmed manually. It might be a good idea to remove the charger port from turrets and replace with an activation panel (powered if the base is powered) which will cause it to actually power up and shoot anyone hostile to the player.
Starports need Interstellar Factors, Universal Cartographics, Livery, Advanced Maintenance, Security and Powerplay kiosks. The current internal starport setup is the 'Concourse', so make a new elevator destination which can contain these new parts.
Covert missions such as assassination should not give a wanted status. The whole purpose of a covert operation is that nobody knows it was you.
The exception is if the player is scanned and a record of their being there exists when the target is eliminated, regardless of whether the player is clean when scanned.
Doors are activated from too far away which makes stealth in some areas too difficult.
Some items like Microelectrodes and Circuit Boards do not sit on surfaces properly and sometimes disappear into them and cannot be retrieved. Consider making them or their collisions thicker.
Guards cannot see the player torch and do not hear doors opening. Maybe hearing doors is going a bit far, but if I am hidden perpendicular to a guard passing by and I shine my torch in their face, they should respond.
The AI does not seek cover or crouch often enough or for the right reasons. Responses should include being overwhelmed by cover fire, regardless of status or number of combatants and when reloading. Another option is to find cover if a group of friendlies is on their way to that position and that AI pawn is the only one currently on-site.
Guards under attack from the air should hide in buildings or under overhangs, not run around in the open.
Please address Anarchy System collapse urgently.
AI tends to run straight for the player, but should move in stages as a group using cover. This one's a toughie but possible; the Striker AI(s) would need to occupy a position and then have the others move to it, with Sharpshooters moving last. If there is no Striker, the computer designates a position instead.
Need two new grenade types: sticky bombs and timed explosives.
After being sent to prison, the Apex representative's text option to book a shuttle does not open the galaxy map, but tries to show a mission board, cancels it and then takes you back to the text options immediately. A re-log is necessary to fix it.
Create a strapped pile of very heavy tubes or barrels that the player can arc cut to crush somebody on the other side without being suspected if not seen.
Allow the player to cause a fire, damage a (particular) agri-tent, break a (particular) window, activate a crane object to drop a barrel or box which breaks open, or cause an explosion on a (particular) object such as one of the large gas containers outside as diversion tactics.
Create an object which the player can use (ONCE per instance) to fill empty inertia canisters from their inventory with either compressed liquid gas or ionized gas. This should also take some time to complete and set off base alarms.
New mission types:
- Activate/deactivate all turrets in a settlement - this mission should always have a minimum threat level of 3.
- Activate/deactivate all cameras in a high security settlement
- Activate/deactivate authority scans and alarms in a settlement - this is a good training mission for how to do a heist properly.
- Scan all bodies in a settlement to see if a particular person was there - this mission should always have a minimum threat level of 3.
- Blow up a given explosive cylinder or barrel to start a fire in a settlement.
- Fill an inertia canister with gas
- Destroy all (particular) gas or water tanks in a settlement with manually-set explosives.
- Overload or scramble all doors in a settlement
- Insert a degraded power regulator into a reactor and power it up to damage it. Good opportunity for some effects, shaking camera, green smoke, heat haze everywhere in the room, sounds like a cat being strangled etc.
New engineer suit upgrade:
- Stealth Composite (mask player from radar) (Enhanced Tracking either nullifies this or causes the stealth'd player to become a barely perceptible smudge on the radar).
New engineer weapon upgrade:
- Laser Sight (hip-fired weapon buff. Dot has a minimum size to stop it disappearing at distance)
Oh, and simply because the tone of this text is critical, I'd like to say that overall I think you've done an absolutely stunning job, and I wouldn't spend this much time trying to help smooth out gameplay otherwise.
I'm an MEng gameplay & production graduate, so I never suggest anything without knowing somewhere in my head how I would script it, or having discovered such scenarios where the code or gameplay to support them was weak.
