As you mentioned a few times, the UI is quite overwhelming. My goal being to allow for a lot of customization, I cannot simply remove options to make it more simple. Is there anything you thought of that could assist?
Perhaps only showing what is relevant at the time? If that makes sense. I can understand wanting to give players options, lots of customization, but it was just to the point of oh crap what do I do on my end. Like hero selecting, it might make more sense to show each hero's strengths/weaknesses, then have a next, and THEN let the players pick stats. That is just my opinion though, I don't typically play this sort of game so can't value my own opinion of it too much.
Despite every single UI screen having a "more info" button, you didn't even hover over one; not once. Did you simple not see them (there is a lot going on) or were you like a typical gamer and thought "I'm here to play, not to read!"? Either way, do you think trying to put more emphasis on those buttons would be a good idea? Those buttons each explain the screen you are looking at in great detail. I hate games which cover your screen in words; so I want to keep it optional; but I would really like people to click it!
I may have missed it, or may have thought, oh no, not more text!!!! Keep away!!!!
The same can be said the the "close" button, or "continue" button in a few cases. A big red button on every screen that says "close". I made some of the buttons bigger and redder so they stand out; and people have still had problems figuring it out.
I intentionally tried moving with the shop open to see if it would be smart enough to auto close at one point, which it did not. I could go about my merry way buying from the shop while out in the field, which I'm guessing wasn't intentional.
You never noticed that there were additional tiers of items; once you had 4, you never opened the vendor again. Again, is this because the screen is overwhelming and you just skimmed over the buttons on the left? Or being that the game is an alpha, and a lot of the content is missing, just assume that there were no additional tiers of items? I'm quite surprised how well you did considering the stats you were missing out on. (there are items which reduce spell damage too; so that fireball hitting you wouldnt have hurt so bad)
I actually knew about this, but only from the fact I played your last hero arena 2-3 years back, and something like that existed there. I'd say I was just so focused on finding a boss that I didn't care about that.
Again, thanks for checking out my game for me. If you are interested, you can be the first person to fight a boss in the game ^_^. you spent way more time looking to fight a boss that I thought you would spend on the entire map; I hope you enjoyed it at least.
Sounds good about the boss thing, be happy to do another video for it when you are ready.
Sure, but in a situation where I have too many requests, I'll probably try to give RTC related requests precedence as they are on a bit of a time crunch.
Next up is GlornII's creation, which he hasn't really named yet, but describes as a Warcraft 3 custom hero arena. He just wanted me to check the intro and such out, so it doesn't turn out to be the most exciting of videos. Still, if you like seeing a LOT of UIs and exotic creep grinding, you might enjoy it!
No more requests on my list for now, please let me know if you have any more.
Up next is Bilxor's creation: Lifeforce Campaign Mission 1: Genesis . Not exactly fantasy or RTC geared, but still pretty good regardless. The video went on quite a lot longer than I would have liked, and the rendering, well we don't talk about that. But anyways, due to the length, annotations have been put in to make it easier to navigate, skip to stuff you want to see easier.
Shapes up to be a pretty fun campaign, but does fall into the problems that Star Trek/Star Wars prequels has. Namely, the technology of the past is better than the newer technology? Yea, has a little of that going on. If you like what you see, please let Bilxor know so he can be encouraged to finish more missions in the near future!
Next up on the list was Ling Slayers by FunkyUserName. Video is a good amount longer than the others, and that was after editing, but is still a fun game. We broke it a few times, but still a fun game :)
Not a whole lot of additional feedback for me to offer afterwards, aside from rathering my dwarf not walk directly into the enemy while reloading, and that my shots don't get stopped by allies if friendly fire is not a thing.
Why did I feel panicked, hrrmmm. Well for one, I knew it was the type of map where getting income in a hurry then an army right away was critical to having any chance. Then I guess the fact there was tooltips, alerts, warnings, this whole new menu fluttering all about as more and more units amassed. It may just be, for that type of game some people will naturally get panicked. There wasn't really a delay before the game got rolling in full force either that I recall, just WHAM! the mod.
Hrrmmm, how about an Ogre spectre near the area, + a permanent floating text. That might help with the confusion some. There always will be a learning curve though, is part of what brings people back. Is no fun to have something completely on auto-pilot from the first go at it. For ability useage, could just have it glow, be impossible to miss when it is full.
I did indeed use 32 bit, as was suggested. Just double checked what my options were to be sure.
I played it before Saturday/Sunday, so that fix probably wasn't in.
I do think the idea I have for units could really work, just have units become a squad of units when there is several in close proximity to each other. It could have very well been graphical lag too though. I do know I have issues with too many units in some of my maps, and had to put in certain features to combat that.
Tutorial wise, I think the icons are great, the tooltips are great, I simply was in such a panic to get stuff going that I felt I didn't have the time. I saw that they were all pretty high quality in the video editing. Something I might suggest to ease new players in is to pause the game for everyone for like 30 seconds, move their map around to show them critical things they must know in order to do well, then let the carnage begin! That is my only thoughts on what could have made it easier for me. I tend to learn by doing, not by reading, so I typically absolutely bomb maps that rely on me paying great attention to tooltips.
Nope, I totally didn't, I was just trying to build the things and make sure my guys were helping fight, mostly. Just didn't feel like I had time to play with it, I probably would if I played the game a lot more, knew what to expect more, etc etc. But that is just how these types of games go :)
Good to know about the constantly sending them into battle thing, obviously my first go at a game I'm gonna do pretty damn bad, lol. Ditto on the button thing.
No worries about the graphics/video lag, and the time to setup. Was a fun mod even though I'm admittedly awful at that type. Hope the feedback has been helpful, good luck fixing what 3.0 broke!
Hello Chewiest, so decided to render yours first, as you were my first request! Here is the video, and I have left additional feedback below as afterthoughts.
The tutorial was well written, made sense, but I feel like moving their map, giving a few word description, and highlighting the building that goes with the description would flow much better. Just here is where you build guys! Here is where you upgrade them! Here is where you get rid of unwanted units! Here is how you send them to various locations, here is your special abilities dude. Have fun! Certainly would have helped me out... Just did.... so bad.
At a few points all my units magically died, and I have no idea why. Some explanation on that one would have been nice. Also, my god's abilities, aside from healing, seemed like they did absolutely nothing.
The towers you had were pretty good as last resort base defenders, but I feel like the final spot should maybe have 2 towers, maybe an extra final challenge to overcome. Just 1 extra tower going down, rather anti-climatic.
Anywho, look forward to see how it looks a few more weeks from now, keep up the good work. Despite my lack of ability at the game, I actually did like it.
Edit: Learned from duckies that a lot of income increases, food boosts, etceteras was related to managing to complete the quests. Which is cool, but it leaves the question, how does a player effectively get out of being screwed once he falls behind, since the game definitely snowballs after a certain point in terms of one side's power.
This is totally patch 3.0 and not your video card. Try using texture select by ID, with the textures being inside Assets/Textures/ , see if that works out for you. Patch 3.0 messes up models that look for textures anywhere else.
Well, 3v3 could be a trick to get, but will do my best on that front, probably be trying this weekend as well. Will likely be posting Sunday/Monday with what I have so far.
Hi Chewiest, I will definitely have a look at it in the next few days. Not sure how I'll do on the getting another human front, as I prefer to get one I know so they don't bail on me mid-game, but I will definitely have a good look see. Do you prefer I post the video here, or just unlisted so you can see what is going on only? I can do either or :)
To anyone else who might be reading: Given patch 3.0 screwing everyone over so good, I'm not going to hold to the October 21st deadline I originally set. Any requests are fine for the time being. Please let me know the map name, region, minimum players I'm going to need, and whether to post it here or unlisted so only you can see.
No I had not, but that actually resolves that issue quite handily. Thank you very much for pointing that out, avoids the issue of some items being unable to be picked up, kind of a big deal in an RPG. You sir get a like.
I still think Blizzard should be aware of that issue as well though, is odd to suddenly be a problem.
Tried with triggers? Maybe its because it now sees <0 Z as an unreachable height (below ground). Or were you referring to absolute height and not relative height?
Not sure what you mean by tried with triggers, but yea, pretty sure it is what you'd call absolute height. I placed items at varying elevations, everything lower than Z = 0 was unable to be picked up. Just to be sure, I made sure the ground was perfectly flat at each check. Was the same item every time as well.
0
Perhaps only showing what is relevant at the time? If that makes sense. I can understand wanting to give players options, lots of customization, but it was just to the point of oh crap what do I do on my end. Like hero selecting, it might make more sense to show each hero's strengths/weaknesses, then have a next, and THEN let the players pick stats. That is just my opinion though, I don't typically play this sort of game so can't value my own opinion of it too much.
I may have missed it, or may have thought, oh no, not more text!!!! Keep away!!!!
I intentionally tried moving with the shop open to see if it would be smart enough to auto close at one point, which it did not. I could go about my merry way buying from the shop while out in the field, which I'm guessing wasn't intentional.
I actually knew about this, but only from the fact I played your last hero arena 2-3 years back, and something like that existed there. I'd say I was just so focused on finding a boss that I didn't care about that.
Sounds good about the boss thing, be happy to do another video for it when you are ready.
0
@Trieva: Go
Sure, but in a situation where I have too many requests, I'll probably try to give RTC related requests precedence as they are on a bit of a time crunch.
0
Next up is GlornII's creation, which he hasn't really named yet, but describes as a Warcraft 3 custom hero arena. He just wanted me to check the intro and such out, so it doesn't turn out to be the most exciting of videos. Still, if you like seeing a LOT of UIs and exotic creep grinding, you might enjoy it!
No more requests on my list for now, please let me know if you have any more.
0
Up next is Bilxor's creation: Lifeforce Campaign Mission 1: Genesis . Not exactly fantasy or RTC geared, but still pretty good regardless. The video went on quite a lot longer than I would have liked, and the rendering, well we don't talk about that. But anyways, due to the length, annotations have been put in to make it easier to navigate, skip to stuff you want to see easier.
Shapes up to be a pretty fun campaign, but does fall into the problems that Star Trek/Star Wars prequels has. Namely, the technology of the past is better than the newer technology? Yea, has a little of that going on. If you like what you see, please let Bilxor know so he can be encouraged to finish more missions in the near future!
0
300 MB storage now eh, that is good news. Means I can reconsider having actual voice acting in my maps again.
0
@GlornII: Go
Will do Glorn when we can figure a schedule out.
Next up on the list was Ling Slayers by FunkyUserName. Video is a good amount longer than the others, and that was after editing, but is still a fun game. We broke it a few times, but still a fun game :)
Not a whole lot of additional feedback for me to offer afterwards, aside from rathering my dwarf not walk directly into the enemy while reloading, and that my shots don't get stopped by allies if friendly fire is not a thing.
0
@TheSkunk2: Go
Why did I feel panicked, hrrmmm. Well for one, I knew it was the type of map where getting income in a hurry then an army right away was critical to having any chance. Then I guess the fact there was tooltips, alerts, warnings, this whole new menu fluttering all about as more and more units amassed. It may just be, for that type of game some people will naturally get panicked. There wasn't really a delay before the game got rolling in full force either that I recall, just WHAM! the mod.
Hrrmmm, how about an Ogre spectre near the area, + a permanent floating text. That might help with the confusion some. There always will be a learning curve though, is part of what brings people back. Is no fun to have something completely on auto-pilot from the first go at it. For ability useage, could just have it glow, be impossible to miss when it is full.
Have attached the replay to this message.
0
So next up on the list was Shamans of Conquest by TheSkunk
@TheSkunk2: Go
I did indeed use 32 bit, as was suggested. Just double checked what my options were to be sure.
I played it before Saturday/Sunday, so that fix probably wasn't in.
I do think the idea I have for units could really work, just have units become a squad of units when there is several in close proximity to each other. It could have very well been graphical lag too though. I do know I have issues with too many units in some of my maps, and had to put in certain features to combat that.
Tutorial wise, I think the icons are great, the tooltips are great, I simply was in such a panic to get stuff going that I felt I didn't have the time. I saw that they were all pretty high quality in the video editing. Something I might suggest to ease new players in is to pause the game for everyone for like 30 seconds, move their map around to show them critical things they must know in order to do well, then let the carnage begin! That is my only thoughts on what could have made it easier for me. I tend to learn by doing, not by reading, so I typically absolutely bomb maps that rely on me paying great attention to tooltips.
Nope, I totally didn't, I was just trying to build the things and make sure my guys were helping fight, mostly. Just didn't feel like I had time to play with it, I probably would if I played the game a lot more, knew what to expect more, etc etc. But that is just how these types of games go :)
Good to know about the constantly sending them into battle thing, obviously my first go at a game I'm gonna do pretty damn bad, lol. Ditto on the button thing.
No worries about the graphics/video lag, and the time to setup. Was a fun mod even though I'm admittedly awful at that type. Hope the feedback has been helpful, good luck fixing what 3.0 broke!
0
@FunkyUserName: Go
We actually considered messing around on it some, but wasn't sure if you still wanted it played at this point.
Is it safe to assume you mean this one? battlenet://starcraft/map/2/183358 (ling slayers)
0
@Chewiest: Go
Hello Chewiest, so decided to render yours first, as you were my first request! Here is the video, and I have left additional feedback below as afterthoughts.
The tutorial was well written, made sense, but I feel like moving their map, giving a few word description, and highlighting the building that goes with the description would flow much better. Just here is where you build guys! Here is where you upgrade them! Here is where you get rid of unwanted units! Here is how you send them to various locations, here is your special abilities dude. Have fun! Certainly would have helped me out... Just did.... so bad.
At a few points all my units magically died, and I have no idea why. Some explanation on that one would have been nice. Also, my god's abilities, aside from healing, seemed like they did absolutely nothing.
The towers you had were pretty good as last resort base defenders, but I feel like the final spot should maybe have 2 towers, maybe an extra final challenge to overcome. Just 1 extra tower going down, rather anti-climatic.
Anywho, look forward to see how it looks a few more weeks from now, keep up the good work. Despite my lack of ability at the game, I actually did like it.
Edit: Learned from duckies that a lot of income increases, food boosts, etceteras was related to managing to complete the quests. Which is cool, but it leaves the question, how does a player effectively get out of being screwed once he falls behind, since the game definitely snowballs after a certain point in terms of one side's power.
0
@egodbout: Go
This is totally patch 3.0 and not your video card. Try using texture select by ID, with the textures being inside Assets/Textures/ , see if that works out for you. Patch 3.0 messes up models that look for textures anywhere else.
0
@Chewiest: Go
Will likely do that as soon as this weekend, just have a few other things going on up until then. Look forward to checking it out.
@TheSkunk2: Go
Well, 3v3 could be a trick to get, but will do my best on that front, probably be trying this weekend as well. Will likely be posting Sunday/Monday with what I have so far.
0
@Chewiest: Go
Hi Chewiest, I will definitely have a look at it in the next few days. Not sure how I'll do on the getting another human front, as I prefer to get one I know so they don't bail on me mid-game, but I will definitely have a good look see. Do you prefer I post the video here, or just unlisted so you can see what is going on only? I can do either or :)
To anyone else who might be reading: Given patch 3.0 screwing everyone over so good, I'm not going to hold to the October 21st deadline I originally set. Any requests are fine for the time being. Please let me know the map name, region, minimum players I'm going to need, and whether to post it here or unlisted so only you can see.
0
@Rohime: Go
No I had not, but that actually resolves that issue quite handily. Thank you very much for pointing that out, avoids the issue of some items being unable to be picked up, kind of a big deal in an RPG. You sir get a like.
I still think Blizzard should be aware of that issue as well though, is odd to suddenly be a problem.
0
Not sure what you mean by tried with triggers, but yea, pretty sure it is what you'd call absolute height. I placed items at varying elevations, everything lower than Z = 0 was unable to be picked up. Just to be sure, I made sure the ground was perfectly flat at each check. Was the same item every time as well.