Alpha 15 unstable branch testing feedback

Started by Tynan, August 17, 2016, 03:02:20 PM

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LilN

Quote from: axeladalidez on August 19, 2016, 07:58:29 AM

You are not the only one , the same happens to me , is just a bug or something from the new build , remember that this is a development build!

I know just thought I would report it :)

ruzackovich

#61
a15 ??? oh no? not again. and this mean and i must downloading , setting, playing, arranging everything including editing , troubleshooting , compiling, sorting ,picking and crashing overtimes , and doing it from a scratch ? and......that!.  is Really reaaaallly,.... annoying . can rimworld had old mod compability ? i playing game for fun, running away from confusing of the real world . like skyrim? it has update from 1.0 until 1.9.2.3.0.8 still old mod run and compatible, not the mentioning adding new 2 add on, can rimworld will become old saves and mod and setting compability.? i am sorry if this is too much annoying of me for you . its just my personal perspective feeling about whatsoever i must do.

Mag

Quote from: ruzackovich on August 19, 2016, 09:42:10 AM
a15 ??? oh no? not again. and this mean and i must downloading , setting, playing, arranging everything including editing , troubleshooting , compiling, sorting ,picking and crashing overtimes , and doing it from a scratch ? and......that!.  is Really reaaaallly,.... annoying . can rimworld had old mod compability ? i playing game for fun, running away from confusing of the real world . like skyrim? it has update from 1.0 until 1.9.2.3.0.8 still old mod run and compatible, not the mentioning adding new 2 add on, can rimworld will become old saves and mod and setting compability.? i am sorry if this is too much annoying of me for you . its just my personal perspective feeling about whatsoever i must do.

Yeah, we want a game with one update every year..
That's an alpha, it's supposed to be updated until the final release, adding new features so quickly is something really good for RimWorld.

rafjaw5

#63
It seems that I have a problem with the colonist portraits at the top of the screen, after a while it just disappears and i can't pinpoint the exact moment. The issue isn't carried over to other worlds, but after a while it disappears there too. Reloading the game isn't working, and loading the previous save fixes the problem for a short time and then it's gone again. Am I just stupid and there is a shortcut to hide it? Maybe there is a way to force it to appear via developer mode?

Nvm just found it, for anyone concerned it's a new button under the time controls.

ReZpawner

Quote from: Tynan on August 19, 2016, 01:18:03 AM
I'm thinking I will add a few more exotic drugs before release - see what I can do within the existing game systems without a lot more coding.

Of course further drug content can be added in future alphas.

Went to sleep hoping for nothing more than perhaps a reply - woke up to find it all implemented. Pretty damn awesome!

Will we be able to craft Neutroamine on our own in the future, or would that conflict with the design goals?  It feels like we should be able to, but I can also see reasons for not allowing the players to craft it.

A15 is starting to feel pretty damn good :)

Zombra

Haven't played the test, but I read the patch notes and have one comment.

I hate it when a tutorial locks controls it doesn't "want" me to use.  "Press shift+E to scratch your nose.  Good!  Now don't press that for the next 20 minutes because it won't work any more.  You already learned that so I hope you fucking memorized it after doing it one time!"  Horrible, horrible way to teach something.

Tynan

New build is up with a fix to that ManualPriorities bug.

Will look into withdrawal timing. This is the first time it was tested :)
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

Tynan

Yeah, the addiction system balance was crazy off; it's all fixed for next build (tonight probably).
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

axeladalidez

Found a bug , three of my colonist are hurt , and both of them go to bed ,one wakes up and heals one of them BUT the colonist that is being healed  wakes up and heals the other one , creating an infinite loop. Unless one of them is hungry and that totally breaks the loop.

Both beds are in the same room and next to the other.

Tynan

Quote from: axeladalidez on August 19, 2016, 04:08:39 PM
Found a bug , three of my colonist are hurt , and both of them go to bed ,one wakes up and heals one of them BUT the colonist that is being healed  wakes up and heals the other one , creating an infinite loop. Unless one of them is hungry and that totally breaks the loop.

Both beds are in the same room and next to the other.

Can you explain a bit more?

Colonists A and B and C are all hurt. All 3 go to bed? Or 2 of them do? Please just explain a bit more, thanks.
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

SimpleMachine88

#70
Okay, so I've had a little time to fool around with the alpha, mostly in dev mode.  I hope somebody has gotten a working colony for you yet.  Anyway here are my thoughts so far...

The drugs seem well implemented and balanced, although that's just an initial impression.  Quick question, no hydroponic marijuana?  The fermentation process for beer was a good addition.  The tool tips probably need to be rewritten.  It's hard for me to comment on how useful they are, since they're aimed at a new player.  No matter what anyone says, disabling melee hunting was a good choice as was the FF reduction.

Increasing the work required to grow was a good idea, it focuses the game back on survival a bit and reduces the problem where players were bringing in absolutely massive harvests in a way that's balanced across biomes.  Debuffing corn was a good idea, although it's hard to comment on balance because we don't have access to units per harvest info (unless I'm misunderstanding something, I've never quite figured out how nutrition value works unless it only applies to uncooked food).  By the way, that would be good, and should probably be included in the crop info.  There's a lot of stats in this game that are quite difficult to parse.  For example I have been trying to figure out for a long time whether dairy is at all a viable option for colonies, but no one on the internet seems to know what "hunger rate" translates into. 

Actually, when you hover over a potential crop choice relevant crop info should become visible.  Also, I'm pretty sure this is an issue with this alpha, unless it's always been this way and I forget, but "rose and day lily" probably shouldn't be the first and second crop options ahead of potato, but placed with dandelions right before trees in the list.

The changes to agriculture make me realize that really growing should be a three step process, tilling, sowing, harvesting.  And then I realize that's about to drift off into a suggestions thread (tractors? plow animals?).

The thing though is that I realize I'm probably not actually going to use drugs in my colony.  It's just people have a tendency to roleplay "good", you start to kind of care about your colonists and not want them to be crack addicts.  For instance, I find that of the colonies I've made, I just spend less time at the ice sheet one.  I just like the cannibal engie, legendary constructor of human-leather armchairs, less than my party-throwing night-owl engie.  Not that cannibalism, like drugs, doesn't add a lot of breadth to the game.  My concern is just a lot of people won't actually use these new crops, even though they are balanced.  Compare that to lets say the hypothetical ability to plant an orchard, that wouldn't add much to the systems, but it's something you'd see in every colony. 

My other point, which I think some people have brought up, is that it does seem an odd focus right now.  It's a well appreciated addition, but some changes to the core game should probably be a higher priority, such as improving the UI.  I know this belongs in the suggestion thread, but please indulge my nattering.. (no way to quickly scan moods across the colony, no way to quickly figure out who is carrying which weapons, no way to get pets to easily stay when their master is drafted, no button to toggle colony-wide outfit change, no button to assign all pets to their bonded companions colony-wide, and no space-saving storage containers: mostly all available with mods that, when playing the new alpha, really remind you how much they're missed from the base game). 

Finally, the fast pace of these alphas is really staggering, and it shows how much you as the developer are dedicated to this game and its players.  With it out now on steam, even on early access, from the number of people concerned about backward compatibility, and the size of the modding community, maybe larger updates on a slower schedule might be a good idea. 

But let me just say, this update, like the rest of this game, continues to impress.

Tynan

Thanks for the feedback SM88, very helpful.

I actually don't think most players will use drugs a lot in later game. Some will have to deal with recruited pirates who have addictions and such. In other cases chemical interest pawns may be a problem. But certainly the goal here was never to make every colony into a drug hub, and if they don't become so that's fine. I think players may run a lot of drug colonies soon after A15 but over time it'll reach a more reasonable balance point and we'll hear things like, "arg, I keep capturing pirates but they're all addicted to flake" or something, which I think would be kind of cool.

As for UI improvements, I am always working on these sorts of things but it's an endless task of solving some issues and then seeing what new suggestions come into focus. It's more complicated by the fact that what seems like an obvious need to you may be totally countermanded by things others want. What I've observed in absorbing large amounts of feedback about this is that individuals tend to have personal wishes they think are really obvious and necessary, but that often they're very different between different people, and quite playstyle- and skill level-specific. So it's really a process that necessarily takes a long time and a lot of feedback absorption (which I do at several hours per day). In any case, it's not really a matter of either/or, so the UI improvements will necessarily come along with features additions.

Next alpha will probably be bigger and take longer than this one because I agree about the release pacing, I just really wanted to get the tutorial in.
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

axeladalidez

Quote from: Tynan on August 19, 2016, 04:22:31 PM
Quote from: axeladalidez on August 19, 2016, 04:08:39 PM
Found a bug , three of my colonist are hurt , and both of them go to bed ,one wakes up and heals one of them BUT the colonist that is being healed  wakes up and heals the other one , creating an infinite loop. Unless one of them is hungry and that totally breaks the loop.

Both beds are in the same room and next to the other.

Can you explain a bit more?

Colonists A and B and C are all hurt. All 3 go to bed? Or 2 of them do? Please just explain a bit more, thanks.

(A) , (B) and (C) go to the bed . (A) decides to wake up and heal (B) , but (B) wakes up and heals (C) so (A) goes to bed , and now (C) wakes up and heals (A) so (B) goes to bed , and this creates an infinite loop but thanks to the new update they don't do this all day and they go to get some food , it was just a bug that lasted half a minute , after that they healed each other without any problem.

RemingtonRyder

That will happen if A B or C are doctors and have the priority for the Doctor job set higher than Patient and/or Bed Rest.

axeladalidez

Oh thanks , I didn't know , but it's set to automatic priority.