Alpha Testers

I'm just curious... How many Alpha players do we have here? And how has your experience been?

Comments

  • The game is pretty cool, I really like the web browser feature. Easy drop in for players. Sadly my group has not gotten together to play horizons yet, so sorry for that. But I am going to run it tonight (first thing) now with about 5 new people and 3 regulars. So I will try and get feedback tonight. Also. Just my son and I have been playing. Sometimes I find it hard to get the laser turrets to fire.
    Lots of neat little features that I really enjoy. Such as the comms, only being able to load or raise shields unless yellow or higher alert.
  • Tonight:
    The game ran pretty good.
    Did the main scenario two times and the waves about 2 times, getting to wave 4 I think before we quit.

    The guy on flight didn't like 3 d, but that is not a real bug, said he had a hard time telling where he was oriented and couldn't tell where he was turning to.

    Another was how hard it was to see ships from afar on the main screen.

    we had 7 players, so a few people were just watching screens. The setup was quick.

    Familiarity was the biggest problem. Was some concerns about graphics, but they understood since it is alpha. I will try and get more feedback tomorrow. We played late so everyone bugged out pretty quick.

    The distance to get to things was a bit long for some of the players, but I don't if that's because I don't know how to jump or whatever yet.

    But most say the game is promising in the long run and will play again.
  • edited July 2016
    Thanks for the feedback!

    A new training video is on the way, which should help first time players. Issues with familiarity is understandable until you've learned the ropes. A lot of Artemis players have a tendency to be uncomfortable with certain aspects of Horizons. That's OK ultimately as we are trying for more of a simulation than the simplified arcade-action style of Artemis. In fairness you could have that in Horizons as a Mission style but it has not been a focus for us.

    For distances, we feature the 'On Screen' button for targets, which is closer to Star Trek style of gameplay. It's the monitor icon that is visible in the Target Intel section.

    And distance is an understandable game-balancing topic. Since we are going for more of a galactic scale, distance becomes a whole different topic. The BURST concept will evolve, certainly.

    We are at the content and game balancing stage for the existing functionality as we get into the late Alpha. Look for more of everything coming as we continue.
  • Awesome. I like it, knos most of it. We tried every screen. The target one was nice but it shares interface with tactical. Two players were asking me "something is wrong the targets keep glitching". Little did we know that the two share points. It's an awesome setup which I like, but needs more screens!
  • Is there ability to get headings to targets without useing the arrow indicators? There is heading listed in flight, but don't see where it is when selecting targets or waypoints?
  • Target and Scan are considered 'Secondary Screens' for Flight and Sciences. Ultimately all roles will have multiple consoles available to 'expand' their experience.

    Yes Bearing will be included for any target/waypoint. Just haven't gotten that off the list yet =)
  • Awesome, thank you.
  • Flea11 said:

    The guy on flight didn't like 3 d, but that is not a real bug, said he had a hard time telling where he was oriented and couldn't tell where he was turning to.

    The biggest reason why I kept EE 2D. 3D makes everything harder to see/communicate/visualize.

    Still, I applaud the effort that you ARE doing 3D. The added difficulty can also be seen as a positive challenge.
  • It's a personal thing but I'm not a fan of the 2D space sim. When you come from the era of Elite, X-Wing, Wing Commander and so on, it's hard to swallow 2D-only tactics. What we will be doing better is improving the top-down radar, frankly.

    Experienced players use the 2 circular 'fish eye' radars in the top corners of their console. One is dead ahead and one is straight to the rear. so you know where things are relative to you. This style is often referred to as the 'X-Wing' radar style.
  • Note that I love the X-Wing and T-Fighter games ;-) one of the first things I tried and failed to copy as a hobby project.

    I think the X-Wing style radar works for short range "knowing where stuff is". But the "homeworld" style works better for getting an idea and overview of what is where and how far.
  • Yep. Hence my reference to updating the 'top down' main radar view to include elevation data. That will provide a good overview.
Sign In or Register to comment.