There are a few things wrong with this beta phase. I got in about a month ago and I can see this game going down the same path as tribes ascend in terms of the player difference from launch. Here are a few things.
Apparently frigates are good, i’ve only seen their only game and I can easily decimate them if you can close up on them (which is easy since the other ships have warp and invis)
This game needs tutorials and tool tips. Half the things im upgrade I have no idea what they do. The tool tips that are currently in the game are very bad. My lasers fire more efficently? What does that mean? You shoudl have more indepth descriptions and actually show the items in the tool tip that are unlocked when you invest in the skill.
Reputation gang is poor. If this game is only going to have the mode that is in beta (which i doubt) or even 2-3 other game modes, the reputation needs to be changed I’ve played a ton of games and earning 75 or 300 per game (that is only if you win) makes it so that you have to grind heavily. This game is very repeditive as most arena/heavy pvp based games are. Such as Dota, Tribes, etc. So when you make it so that you have to grind this heavily, it helps to play with friends, but there is one difference. With games such as Dota, LoL, they have high APM (actions per min) so while it is repeditive, you are constantly looking all over the place. At you mini map, friends, last hitting, etc. These keep the players busy. This game and Tribes do not have such a high APM. This causes people to get bored at increased rates, especially if you are pugging. Tribes had such a large drop in players because items and unlocks are so insanely high and the game is very repeditive, so that cause a large amont of players to eventually stop playing it after launch. You game at its current state is slated to head the same direction. While i know most testers will rush to defend it, the reputation gangs are very low compared to how much ships cost and what not. I’ve played for about 3 weeks and i’m not past level 3 (im 3/4 of the way i believe) because i get discouraged to keep playing because of the low reputation gains. Theres two things to keep in mind with this game.
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This game relies on ships to keep the player moving forward
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Ships cost money (the money gain is perfect) and reputation gangs
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Unlocks and modules can’t be used with all ships. At this current state im unlocking things in the skill tree faster than the ship tree, which means im going more and more without anything new.
So basically you guys need to adjust the gangs in reputation to help keep the new people working towards something.
This game is heavily reputaiton/gear based, so be sure to put in brackets.
Now onto the testing phase. Personally I dont have the time to keep up with the grinding this game requires. So this game needs to allow us beta testers to get to all the content easily so we can test everything out. The easier it is for us, the more we can test and the more we can give feed back on balance and such.
Along with that the Bots are killing the testing phase. I usually get paired with all bots and the other team only has one human too. I feel really isolated and it gets boring when no1 is talking and the Bots are just going in a straight line. Games are entirely decided on if the bots split up at the start, and if they do then one half goes after one fighter off in the distance, and the other half tires to take on their whole team and gets decimated. Sometimes they get stuck on astroids. Then i will try to be stealthy and they always seem to find me. All…of…them. I would be hiding behind an astroid, all of a sudden I have 6 lock ons. I really kills the whole experience and it is very hard to test the balance of things because I dont know if the bots are just good, im just that bad, or if it is unbalanced.
Lastely, keeping players attached once they reach max reputation is vital. How you might ask? While the 3 factions do add for some replay value, this is shaping to be a competitve PvP game and needs to be treated as such. That means releaseing end game ships that are different in looks and stats along with items and more things for experience. You can release different frigates that could specilize in speed, or armor, or damage, etc. You are going to have to be pumping out new content every so often to keep people interested and trying new things, like League of Legends does or Dota 2. As I said before, this is vital to the survival of the game IF it has a successful launch.
As a side note, this is not a casual game. So that means you ened to appeal to the non casual gamers. Where are these guys? While not all of them, but a majority of them will be on sites such as Reddit and {the 1st rule}. So that means creating PR and advertisments to appeal to the internet and to attract these players.
That is all i can think of right now, if i think of more ill be sure to add it in. If you read this far, thank you for your time!