A16 Hype

Started by O Negative, November 02, 2016, 11:10:43 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

lc-soz

Quote from: Tynan on November 04, 2016, 04:42:48 PM

General balancing and UI improvements are the other big focus of this alpha.


Now THAT hyped me!!

demeggy

Zing! You've got a glorious brain on that head of your Tynan, a glorious, glorious brain.

Numar

Quote from: Arctic_fox on November 04, 2016, 07:51:00 PM
Quote from: Numar on November 04, 2016, 05:41:11 PM
Quote from: Tynan on November 04, 2016, 04:42:48 PM
Quote from: Numar on November 04, 2016, 03:44:20 PM
My biggest wish for updates is still improvement of user friendliness, though. Simple and small things which would really help in your daily colony life. E.g. copy&paste bills. More right click stuff directly on your colonists instead of searching the map for a single item. And many more.

General balancing and UI improvements are the other big focus of this alpha. Ison and I are working together; he's doing the code heavy lifting on the new world systems, while I do the design as well as a ton of balancing and fixing of older issues. So it's all getting covered. Expand and polish, expand and polish.

While I have a lot of respect for your work and love Rimworld, over time I've got many impressions that some QoL are...half baked, like you start working on it, but then stop at 50%. Many things feel inconsistent, to the extend that there are mods which try to close these inconsistencies. Maybe I'm too sensitive to small things because I'm a long term player since A4(?) with almost 200 hours on steam and many more in the pre-steam time that I should already be ashamed of myself... :D
The thing is, I still love to start a new colony, but at the same time, I'm afraid of all the tedious and avoidable work that I have to handle in my playthroughs.

I've already made some topics about that:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=14226.msg146967#msg146967
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5461.msg52139#msg52139
Maybe it's time for a new compilation :)

I'm happy that a lot of features were implemented, but since some Alphas now I feel like the QoL improvements are lacking too much. I'm talking about the foundation (handling of items/areas etc.) - with each Alpha there comes new stuff, adding to the complexity. But in my eyes, every Alpha expands the tediousness at the same time, with only little - and as mentioned above, half-baked - changes regarding QoL.

Despite all that, I'm really looking forward to what you have up your sleeve. As always, I'm fired-up for the new Alpha.

Well the thing with qol stuff, new content, fixing old content, expanding on content, bug smashing and ballance tweeks is he needs to spend time on them EVERY update to ensure they still work after stuff is changed or added, This is an alpha still i.e still adding to the game, hell he has even said that his strat is to get as much into the game as he can make it work reasonably well and move on until later, Otherwise each and every patch he would need to recode all the qol and bug fixes which slowly turn the progression of the game into an endless slog of qol updates and bug fixes that will slow updates to the point it turns into another "dead" half finished game, now obviously every so often it does need to be done just to tidy things up but this will be a uncommon thing every few patches as needed with only most requested being considered for every update and in many cases tossed into the do later pile as they will take too much time, honestly just expect qol, and bug quashing with more then general ballence to take a back seat to making the game work and getting everything packed into it.

As we get closer to beta you will see smaller and smaller content updates and more and more intense bug killing (too bad he introduced hives, The damn bugs breed like crazy and the code under the game where they come up must be like something from starship troopers) qol updates and fixes and ballence, then we go to beta where new content more or less stops in favor of making the game run smoothly then you get release where all the parts work together.

You gotta consider his team is small he dosent have a billion dollar budget with 6000 people working on one game he has a few dudes in a back room someplace with empty pizza boxes piling up doing all this work on their own, Also consider the game as it is, it is already as good as or better then anything say EA or blizzard would kick out and this is an alpha made by a few guys, not a game made by several hundred to several thousand workers in a fortune 500 gaming company with a near unlimited budget  that needs to bow to ceos and cram as much p2p and p2w in as they can manage and split everything into DLC while vomiting a new game put every few years.

I completely understand your points and you're not wrong. Sorry for being unclear, it's not easy to explain well. My main point is in this sentence: "I'm talking about the foundation (handling of items/areas etc.) - with each Alpha there comes new stuff, adding to the complexity." QoL regarding the foundation, which most likely won't change drastically anymore. I would be happy about small things already, I don't mean big changes.

Some examples of QoL I'd like to see:
- Copy&paste of bills from one table to another
- Text filter where it makes sense (ingredients, bills...)
- Why the heck is the hunting value in the colonist skill overview a mix of range and melee skill? Quite new, ok, but totally inconsistent.
- A better inventory (...with text filter ;o )
- More approaches to how to handle items, e.g.: right click on colonist, a right click context menu opens -> "Equip" -> A list of all available weapons. That's a lot better than selecting your colonist, search the map for the weapon and right click on it - all under the pretext that you don't accidentally click somewhere else, deselecting your colonist, starting the game anew. Or maybe with a better inventory system, right click on an item (which you found easily with the text filter), right click -> equip -> choose the colonist. There are already so many possbilities to make life easier in Rimworld.

Why is QoL so important to me? I've already built a lot of colonies. Not sure if already hundreds of, but certainly close to. After a lot of repetitions, even small things get annoying as hell. I may be a special case and not the mainstream Rimworld player, but that's my background.

PS: And let's cast away the alpha or beta label, after all, it's just that: a label, nothing more. Some released games can only dream of the condition Rimworld is already in.


Arctic_fox

Quote from: Numar on November 04, 2016, 08:40:27 PM
Quote from: Arctic_fox on November 04, 2016, 07:51:00 PM
Quote from: Numar on November 04, 2016, 05:41:11 PM
Quote from: Tynan on November 04, 2016, 04:42:48 PM
Quote from: Numar on November 04, 2016, 03:44:20 PM
My biggest wish for updates is still improvement of user friendliness, though. Simple and small things which would really help in your daily colony life. E.g. copy&paste bills. More right click stuff directly on your colonists instead of searching the map for a single item. And many more.

General balancing and UI improvements are the other big focus of this alpha. Ison and I are working together; he's doing the code heavy lifting on the new world systems, while I do the design as well as a ton of balancing and fixing of older issues. So it's all getting covered. Expand and polish, expand and polish.

While I have a lot of respect for your work and love Rimworld, over time I've got many impressions that some QoL are...half baked, like you start working on it, but then stop at 50%. Many things feel inconsistent, to the extend that there are mods which try to close these inconsistencies. Maybe I'm too sensitive to small things because I'm a long term player since A4(?) with almost 200 hours on steam and many more in the pre-steam time that I should already be ashamed of myself... :D
The thing is, I still love to start a new colony, but at the same time, I'm afraid of all the tedious and avoidable work that I have to handle in my playthroughs.

I've already made some topics about that:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=14226.msg146967#msg146967
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5461.msg52139#msg52139
Maybe it's time for a new compilation :)

I'm happy that a lot of features were implemented, but since some Alphas now I feel like the QoL improvements are lacking too much. I'm talking about the foundation (handling of items/areas etc.) - with each Alpha there comes new stuff, adding to the complexity. But in my eyes, every Alpha expands the tediousness at the same time, with only little - and as mentioned above, half-baked - changes regarding QoL.

Despite all that, I'm really looking forward to what you have up your sleeve. As always, I'm fired-up for the new Alpha.

Well the thing with qol stuff, new content, fixing old content, expanding on content, bug smashing and ballance tweeks is he needs to spend time on them EVERY update to ensure they still work after stuff is changed or added, This is an alpha still i.e still adding to the game, hell he has even said that his strat is to get as much into the game as he can make it work reasonably well and move on until later, Otherwise each and every patch he would need to recode all the qol and bug fixes which slowly turn the progression of the game into an endless slog of qol updates and bug fixes that will slow updates to the point it turns into another "dead" half finished game, now obviously every so often it does need to be done just to tidy things up but this will be a uncommon thing every few patches as needed with only most requested being considered for every update and in many cases tossed into the do later pile as they will take too much time, honestly just expect qol, and bug quashing with more then general ballence to take a back seat to making the game work and getting everything packed into it.

As we get closer to beta you will see smaller and smaller content updates and more and more intense bug killing (too bad he introduced hives, The damn bugs breed like crazy and the code under the game where they come up must be like something from starship troopers) qol updates and fixes and ballence, then we go to beta where new content more or less stops in favor of making the game run smoothly then you get release where all the parts work together.

You gotta consider his team is small he dosent have a billion dollar budget with 6000 people working on one game he has a few dudes in a back room someplace with empty pizza boxes piling up doing all this work on their own, Also consider the game as it is, it is already as good as or better then anything say EA or blizzard would kick out and this is an alpha made by a few guys, not a game made by several hundred to several thousand workers in a fortune 500 gaming company with a near unlimited budget  that needs to bow to ceos and cram as much p2p and p2w in as they can manage and split everything into DLC while vomiting a new game put every few years.

I completely understand your points and you're not wrong. Sorry for being unclear, it's not easy to explain well. My main point is in this sentence: "I'm talking about the foundation (handling of items/areas etc.) - with each Alpha there comes new stuff, adding to the complexity." QoL regarding the foundation, which most likely won't change drastically anymore. I would be happy about small things already, I don't mean big changes.

Some examples of QoL I'd like to see:
- Copy&paste of bills from one table to another
- Text filter where it makes sense (ingredients, bills...)
- Why the heck is the hunting value in the colonist skill overview a mix of range and melee skill? Quite new, ok, but totally inconsistent.
- A better inventory (...with text filter ;o )
- More approaches to how to handle items, e.g.: right click on colonist, a right click context menu opens -> "Equip" -> A list of all available weapons. That's a lot better than selecting your colonist, search the map for the weapon and right click on it - all under the pretext that you don't accidentally click somewhere else, deselecting your colonist, starting the game anew. Or maybe with a better inventory system, right click on an item (which you found easily with the text filter), right click -> equip -> choose the colonist. There are already so many possbilities to make life easier in Rimworld.

Why is QoL so important to me? I've already built a lot of colonies. Not sure if already hundreds of, but certainly close to. After a lot of repetitions, even small things get annoying as hell. I may be a special case and not the mainstream Rimworld player, but that's my background.

PS: And let's cast away the alpha or beta label, after all, it's just that: a label, nothing more. Some released games can only dream of the condition Rimworld is already in.

Fair enough, i understand what your saying but again if he adds those he needs to update them every patch why bother when there are actully more then a few mods that adress the problem already? Granted some are bundled and some arent but everything you want is avalable in one mod or another, plus what your asking are things he likely has planned to add as the game matures.

Honestly your best bet for those is mods right now tynan is focused on the core first with all the fiddly bits in a minimalist setting, As for lables i only use alpha/beta as refrence points in language as its easier to say alpha then in stage where ty is adding and expanding crap primarally and polishing later.

But i do understand where you are coming from but for now i would rather him focus on content while mods and modders fill in the qol blanks for now.

carbon

Please, for the love of all that is scrolly, stop!

Daman453

Every time a alpha teaser comes, it just makes me very happy that i'm a public tester to make the game better! I can't wait for A16!
Quote from: StorymasterQ on February 02, 2016, 08:19:52 PM
For flu, try a cock. If that doesn't work, try boobmilk. Nice.


Numar

Quote from: carbon on November 04, 2016, 10:06:03 PM
Please, for the love of all that is scrolly, stop!
Yup, don't worry, I already feel guilty :D (...it's in the middle of night here, I need some sleep...)

Alpha393

The hype train has arrived at platform 16 A, all aboard!

doesn't look like new mechanoid types are coming in this update, but that's what mods are for. Yay for new stuff!

carbon

Anyone notice the rather high number of pawns (28) in the screenshot? Does it imply that recruiting for an individual colony is going to get easy, that caravans and secondary colonies have their own separate population caps or is it just a figment of a poorly staged screenshot?

Also, I'm now taking bets on who dies of dysentery first.

Alpha393

Hmm. I wonder if we can get a battery suit so colonists could power equipment next to them. Maybe a wrench for faster repairs? Or a fire resistant suit? Hopefully something to fend off giant spiders. Those things are NOT a joke. No? No one gets it? Ok ;~;

Mr.Cross

Anyone else see that Tynan is misusing the colonists like we do? 3.6 days of food for a 4.4 day travel to fight a presumably pirate raid or base of operations? Sounds like a setup to me XD
Claims to know most things.

RawCode

more content != better, stop suggesting your wild dream about rimsims already...

Alenerel

With all the micro I think this caravan thing is going to be killing, not in the good way... I really hope that they improve the not necessarily micro management.

BTW with these teasers, is there a release date yet?

RawCode


SuperSuit12

Quote from: carbon on November 04, 2016, 10:33:09 PM
Also, I'm now taking bets on who dies of dysentery first.
I like you already. I played that in, like, fifth grade. That one or one similar. Sadly I don't think caravans will be quite like that  :P