Dear David Braben and Frontier development team,
Well done on the release of E
.
First off, I like the game. I've been playing on the mercenary pack since it was released. Different people will perceive and interpret the experience in different ways, but I like it ;-). The graphics might not be cutting edge for today, but they fit the space sim experience you have developed, very well. The sound design is a stick out, award winning aspect of the game for me (being an amateur composer, sound designer and audio engineer). Truly excellent, the team behind the sound aspect deserve an award. The explosions are deep and "sub-y" and do I detect a hint of spitfire/merlin in the engine sounds of the asp? ;-)
The game mechanics are a little hit and miss though. Here is a little (or a lot) of what I think and I will detail my adjustments at the end. I must say, I read the "Science of E" thread in the forums here and I give a huge thanks to the OP, who's name I forget at the moment.
Travel
The travelling through space part is fine and I am happy with the "heat mechanic". The FSD, jumping and super-cruise - I quite like, the mechanics seem solid enough and it works in terms of "travelling through a real 1 to 1 scale galaxy". I do have a couple of adjustments I would make, I'll get to those later. However, flying sub light and docking is neolithic by comparison and certainly does not feel like the year 3300. Modern day cars have better camera and radar options than the ships in E. Situational space awareness is handled by A) what you can see and B) the radar. It's simply not good enough - it works but it's the basic minimum in 3300. I could live with the current set of affairs, but only for buying a brand new ship with no options.
Trading.
Trading feels a little clunky with aspects of X3:TC feeling a lot more robust in this area i.e. trading computer, best buys, best sells etc. I oddly like the fact that you have to do a load of homework for working out which routes you want to fly and micro equipping your ship with the best internal components to meet the constraints without exceeding the weight and heat dynamics. But! This is the future gentlemen and with the right amount of money, you should be able to buy the systems necessary to take the hard work out of it - at a premium.
Combat
The fighting, Piracy and smuggling aspects seem well done, although I have only briefly explored these and judge myself unable to give a good account of whether these work well or not.
Weapons & Shields
The laser weapons feel slightly contrived in the sense that there is not a true feeling of how powerful they are vs. the information you see when buying them. Damage? DPS? On a 1-10 bar system? I don't like it. I would much prefer different versions of lasers based on wavelength and power. Power as described by the SI prefixes kW, MW, GW. Wavelength as in 700 nm Ruby laser, red coloured beams. 600 nm, Helium-neon, orange coloured beams. 500 nm, Argon, green/blue coloured beams. Down to ultraviolet and x-ray lasers. You get the gist. The narrower the wavelength of the pulse/beam the higher the penetration. The higher the power, the higher the damage. Penetration being how easy it is to single out a sub system on a ship vs. it's global shield and hull strength. I know that maybe chemical lasers are not the answer but I am sure it could be adapted somehow and I am sure a lot of people would approve of different colour lasers - who can resist that eye candy? I want to see the correlation between how much damage a weapon does vs. the hull or the shield it is firing upon, and this aspect is just not there right now (This maybe what the developers want, but I still don't approve). I can see how much draw a given shield is pulling but that does not give a good indication of how it fares against an F2 beam laser. Of course the kinetic weapons should fall into line against what I have just said.
Outfitting, starport services and ships
The model in E is so basic as to be off-putting against the nice immersion of the rest of the game. It is clinical and surgically sterile (as is commodities trading). I would advise you to fix this in the sense that it detracts from the rest of the game. All the options from the starport services menu are too sterile, lack personality and expose the player to a non polished underlying architecture - which is not good. Don't get me wrong, it works. But it's the minimum. Right now in 2015, you don't buy a car like that. There is a business architecture for buying goods that are configurable and you need to do at least that or better in E.
When it comes to buying a new ship I think E is letting us down. 6.6 mil for an Asp? Fine. 76 mil for a T9? Fine. But, the fact that you need to spend +/- 110 mil for a T9 to get it working as a usable trade ship - sorry FD, it's not transparent enough. Please put in the game ships with option packs to make them viable to the role the player wishes to use the ship for. Asp plus explorer pack, 10 mil, T9 plus trader pack 110 mil. It works in game as is, but you are forcing the players to do the math, which I don't agree with. It's just not in tune with a 3300 galaxy, which should be easily better than what is currently present in 2015 for buying a car! In the ship buying screen, I would much prefer to see numbers that are meaningful to the role, even if that means listing multiple versions of the same ship in the ship yard; Asp - basic 6.6 mil, Asp - Trader 10 mil, Asp - explorer 9.5 mil.
To humanise the experience of buying anything in E (commodities, ship yard) you need to create a piece of code that is immersive and lets the player think he is engaging with a controlling trader rather than the faceless algorithm that it currently is. This is really a must - don't spoil the experience you have created, immersion is key.
OK, so lets get on to the changes I recommend.
Immediate fixes
Recommendations
Wooo... anyone who gets here, well done and thanks for reading.
In summary - E is like a rough gemstone. I think it has great potential, but it needs to be ground and polished to reveal how good it really can be.
FD if you want awards;
Silver for listening to what I have to say
Gold for implementing my ideas
Platinum for listening to what I have to say and then hiring me, you've got my address, PM me
Cheers!
CMDR XOR
Well done on the release of E
.First off, I like the game. I've been playing on the mercenary pack since it was released. Different people will perceive and interpret the experience in different ways, but I like it ;-). The graphics might not be cutting edge for today, but they fit the space sim experience you have developed, very well. The sound design is a stick out, award winning aspect of the game for me (being an amateur composer, sound designer and audio engineer). Truly excellent, the team behind the sound aspect deserve an award. The explosions are deep and "sub-y" and do I detect a hint of spitfire/merlin in the engine sounds of the asp? ;-)
The game mechanics are a little hit and miss though. Here is a little (or a lot) of what I think and I will detail my adjustments at the end. I must say, I read the "Science of E
" thread in the forums here and I give a huge thanks to the OP, who's name I forget at the moment.Travel
The travelling through space part is fine and I am happy with the "heat mechanic". The FSD, jumping and super-cruise - I quite like, the mechanics seem solid enough and it works in terms of "travelling through a real 1 to 1 scale galaxy". I do have a couple of adjustments I would make, I'll get to those later. However, flying sub light and docking is neolithic by comparison and certainly does not feel like the year 3300. Modern day cars have better camera and radar options than the ships in E
. Situational space awareness is handled by A) what you can see and B) the radar. It's simply not good enough - it works but it's the basic minimum in 3300. I could live with the current set of affairs, but only for buying a brand new ship with no options.Trading.
Trading feels a little clunky with aspects of X3:TC feeling a lot more robust in this area i.e. trading computer, best buys, best sells etc. I oddly like the fact that you have to do a load of homework for working out which routes you want to fly and micro equipping your ship with the best internal components to meet the constraints without exceeding the weight and heat dynamics. But! This is the future gentlemen and with the right amount of money, you should be able to buy the systems necessary to take the hard work out of it - at a premium.
Combat
The fighting, Piracy and smuggling aspects seem well done, although I have only briefly explored these and judge myself unable to give a good account of whether these work well or not.
Weapons & Shields
The laser weapons feel slightly contrived in the sense that there is not a true feeling of how powerful they are vs. the information you see when buying them. Damage? DPS? On a 1-10 bar system? I don't like it. I would much prefer different versions of lasers based on wavelength and power. Power as described by the SI prefixes kW, MW, GW. Wavelength as in 700 nm Ruby laser, red coloured beams. 600 nm, Helium-neon, orange coloured beams. 500 nm, Argon, green/blue coloured beams. Down to ultraviolet and x-ray lasers. You get the gist. The narrower the wavelength of the pulse/beam the higher the penetration. The higher the power, the higher the damage. Penetration being how easy it is to single out a sub system on a ship vs. it's global shield and hull strength. I know that maybe chemical lasers are not the answer but I am sure it could be adapted somehow and I am sure a lot of people would approve of different colour lasers - who can resist that eye candy? I want to see the correlation between how much damage a weapon does vs. the hull or the shield it is firing upon, and this aspect is just not there right now (This maybe what the developers want, but I still don't approve). I can see how much draw a given shield is pulling but that does not give a good indication of how it fares against an F2 beam laser. Of course the kinetic weapons should fall into line against what I have just said.
Outfitting, starport services and ships
The model in E
is so basic as to be off-putting against the nice immersion of the rest of the game. It is clinical and surgically sterile (as is commodities trading). I would advise you to fix this in the sense that it detracts from the rest of the game. All the options from the starport services menu are too sterile, lack personality and expose the player to a non polished underlying architecture - which is not good. Don't get me wrong, it works. But it's the minimum. Right now in 2015, you don't buy a car like that. There is a business architecture for buying goods that are configurable and you need to do at least that or better in E.When it comes to buying a new ship I think E
is letting us down. 6.6 mil for an Asp? Fine. 76 mil for a T9? Fine. But, the fact that you need to spend +/- 110 mil for a T9 to get it working as a usable trade ship - sorry FD, it's not transparent enough. Please put in the game ships with option packs to make them viable to the role the player wishes to use the ship for. Asp plus explorer pack, 10 mil, T9 plus trader pack 110 mil. It works in game as is, but you are forcing the players to do the math, which I don't agree with. It's just not in tune with a 3300 galaxy, which should be easily better than what is currently present in 2015 for buying a car! In the ship buying screen, I would much prefer to see numbers that are meaningful to the role, even if that means listing multiple versions of the same ship in the ship yard; Asp - basic 6.6 mil, Asp - Trader 10 mil, Asp - explorer 9.5 mil.To humanise the experience of buying anything in E
(commodities, ship yard) you need to create a piece of code that is immersive and lets the player think he is engaging with a controlling trader rather than the faceless algorithm that it currently is. This is really a must - don't spoil the experience you have created, immersion is key.OK, so lets get on to the changes I recommend.
Immediate fixes
- Route navigation - Please save my preferred navigation type - currently, when I log in, I have to change the route type from economic to fastest. Every time.
- Docking computer - Please make it put back the power distribution to my levels when it is finished.
- Docking computer - If 2001 can have starships perfectly matching station rotation, I am pretty sure E can too - It's a bit of a jerky affair at the moment.
Recommendations
- Numero uno - create a new category for ship outfitting - "Systems" (next to hard points, internal and livery). This is ship equipment and upgrades that are 0 tons and have minimal effect on operation and power draw. This is items that enhance the ship without adding to weight and power draw. Number of systems installable on ship should be linked to hull mass - as long as you have the money and regardless of ship type you should be able to buy what you want.
- Move the docking computer to systems. It's a computer, not cargo and does not really have to take up an internal positions slot.
- New items for systems.
- Rear camera - placed at the top of the HUD - shows rear view
- Left camera - placed at top left of the HUD - shows left view
- Right camera - placed at top right of HUD - shows right view
- Target camera - placed at top of the HUD, can be toggled to replace rear view if you have both - tracks and shows current target.
- Vector plotting computer - Shows on screen routes to get to in front of your target (i.e. the best driving line in Dirt3). Used mainly to get in font of a station and be aligned with the docking port before disengage from supercruise.
- Radar I - (shown in the same display that cargo scooping shows) shows basic information on what is to your left, right , up and down - used for docking and ship collision
- Radar II - (shown in the same display that cargo scooping shows) shows detailed information (i.e. graduated effect) on how close you are, up, down, left, right to a body - used for docking and ship collision
- Basic trading computer - Adds a feauture to the galaxy map - shows the current buy/sell price of anything in system.
- Advanced trading computer - shows the current buy/sell price of anything in system. Shows what ships & equipment are available in a system.
- Galaxy map trading extension software - Adds an extra filter criteria to the galaxy map "show profitability". Toggles with "show trade routes" - calculates the best trade route with the highest selling commodity between stars in your jump radius. Has min/max sliders.
- Navigation computer - Couples with vector computer and autopilots the course it plots.
- New items for internal components.
- Magnetic repulsor - pushes you away from other metallic sources - easier docking and ship collision avoidance.
- Lasers.
- 700 nm Ruby laser, red coloured beams/pulses.
- 600 nm, Helium-neon, orange coloured beams/pulses.
- 500 nm, Argon, green/blue coloured beams/pulses.
- 300 nm, Xeon-chorline, black beams/pulses, blue tinge.
- 200 nm, Helium-argon, ultraviolet, black beams/pulses with a purple tinge.
- 50 nm x-ray lasers, Black beams with a white tinge.
- The colours of the laser will give the the player an idea of what he/she is facing. Here goes for an example of the fixed item class span and of course, these could be bought at different powers as described above.
- G1 - Ruby pulse laser
- G1 - Ruby beam laser
- F1 - Helium-neon pulse laser
- F1 - Helium-neon beam laser
- E1 - Argon pulse laser
- E1 - Argon beam laser
- F2 - Helium-neon pulse laser
- F2 - Helium-neon beam laser
- E2 - Argon pulse laser
- E2 - Argon beam laser
- D2 - Xeon-chorline pulse laser
- D2 - Xeon-chorline beam laser
- D3 - Xeon-chorline pulse laser
- D3 - Xeon-chorline beam laser
- C3 - Helium-argon pulse laser
- C3 - Helium-argon beam laser
- B3 - x-ray pulse laser
- B3 - x-ray beam laser
- Missiles and torpedoes.
- I think it would be better to have *a* missile/torpedo launcher per class and then let the player decide what ordnance they wish to fill it with.
- An extra selection in the starport services screen for buying ordinance maybe
- Different sizes of warhead on dumb/seeker missiles. Again, these would show on info what kind of resulting energy the explosion would cause so players can gauge what it would do against an x MW shield for example.
- FSD and super-cruise.
- You could embellish these little meta facets of E by rewarding the players that align perfectly. Maybe you would be better aligned with your destination for example when exiting supercruise?
- You could embellish these little meta facets of E
- Galaxy map.
- It would be kind of nice if you could place your own persistent personal "pins" in places of interest.
- I think that a route history overlay would be a nice cosmetic enhancement to the game, so you can see where you have been.
- On the subject of useful overlays on the galaxy map - A "zones of unrest and conflict" overlay - this could help people looking for battle to find it and help traders avoid these areas.
- Humanisation.
- I know this is a tricky one and I am going to be probably superficial here, but just as you have the stellar forge, creating this great rendition of the galaxy for us to fly in, you need a "humanization forge" to populate the galaxy with characters, people, places, events. There are a lot of sharp edges currently that need rounding off and given a bit of TLC. I don't have an answer or a solution (yet!) as it's a complex affair, no doubt, but the problem is pretty evident. A lot of people have picked up on "1 billion miles wide, but only 1 inch deep" for a good reason. It is my opinion that the game has got to have that missing depth, or it will not thrive.
Wooo... anyone who gets here, well done and thanks for reading.
In summary - E
is like a rough gemstone. I think it has great potential, but it needs to be ground and polished to reveal how good it really can be.FD if you want awards;
Silver for listening to what I have to say
Gold for implementing my ideas
Platinum for listening to what I have to say and then hiring me, you've got my address, PM me
Cheers!
CMDR XOR
