by pinback » Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:13 pm
pinback wrote:RetroRomper wrote:Anyway... I learned the basics and many of the ins and outs of SotS II because 1) I was playing with a developer and 2) the game seemed to be blunt, obvious. Straight forward with a learning curve tossed at the player like a jumping is in a Legend of Zelda game.
So basically you're calling me a retard.
Adam Solo at SpaceSector just got done ripping the game a big gaping bloody ass:
Unfortunately, the UI has not evolved much since SotS2′s initial release. Even if you excuse the lack of polish and occasional glitches, like non-fitting strings or erroneous numbers – that show up from time to time – it’s still extremely hard to grasp what things mean and what you can and can’t do. So, there’s no way you will learn how to play this game just by playing it. It’s imperative to read the manual (since there’s no in-game tutorial) to search for clues and to learn what things are for. However, a top to bottom read approach is probably not the best strategy, at least at first. The best is probably to play the game, and when you have doubts – and you will have many – switch to the manual and read the particular chapter about what you don’t understand. But, a full top to bottom read is imperative at some point in time.
But, even with the improved manual – I know because I read it top to bottom at first release and now – it’s still hard to understand some of the game’s concepts. For example, the game’s support concept requires that your systems have enough of these “CEs” or Cruiser Equivalents. So, if you have a fleet with 5 cruisers, you will need at least 5 CEs support capacity to allow that fleet to be stationed on a particular system. Ok, simple enough. The problem is that this, and other concepts, are poorly described in the manual, and many times you end up discovering what things are for only after playing hundreds and hundreds of turns across several games.
As an example, I discovered only very recently how to calculate distances between systems in light years. Or, what about those small numbers “26/100″ that are shown below the system name? These numbers mean, in this example, that you have 26 CEs (cruisers) stationed in that particular system at the moment, and 100 is the cap. But, why is it 100? No clue at first. You need to dig up the manual again, or even search in the sots2′s online wiki (and sometimes the game forums), to understand how certain things are calculated. The problem is that these are basic concepts that should be presented by the UI in some way, being it via tooltips or in a simple tutorial. But no, everything is still very hard to figure out in SotS2. So, be prepared for probably the steepest learning curve of space 4X gaming history.
So you're calling Adam Solo a retard, too. And everyone else who has struggled to understand even the most basic mechanics of the game. Are you comfortable with that,
sir?[quote="pinback"][quote="RetroRomper"]Anyway... I learned the basics and many of the ins and outs of SotS II because 1) I was playing with a developer and 2) the game seemed to be blunt, obvious. Straight forward with a learning curve tossed at the player like a jumping is in a Legend of Zelda game.[/quote]
So basically you're calling me a retard.[/quote]
Adam Solo at SpaceSector just got done ripping the game a big gaping bloody ass:
[quote]Unfortunately, the UI has not evolved much since SotS2′s initial release. Even if you excuse the lack of polish and occasional glitches, like non-fitting strings or erroneous numbers – that show up from time to time – it’s still extremely hard to grasp what things mean and what you can and can’t do. So, there’s no way you will learn how to play this game just by playing it. It’s imperative to read the manual (since there’s no in-game tutorial) to search for clues and to learn what things are for. However, a top to bottom read approach is probably not the best strategy, at least at first. The best is probably to play the game, and when you have doubts – and you will have many – switch to the manual and read the particular chapter about what you don’t understand. But, a full top to bottom read is imperative at some point in time.
But, even with the improved manual – I know because I read it top to bottom at first release and now – it’s still hard to understand some of the game’s concepts. For example, the game’s support concept requires that your systems have enough of these “CEs” or Cruiser Equivalents. So, if you have a fleet with 5 cruisers, you will need at least 5 CEs support capacity to allow that fleet to be stationed on a particular system. Ok, simple enough. The problem is that this, and other concepts, are poorly described in the manual, and many times you end up discovering what things are for only after playing hundreds and hundreds of turns across several games.
As an example, I discovered only very recently how to calculate distances between systems in light years. Or, what about those small numbers “26/100″ that are shown below the system name? These numbers mean, in this example, that you have 26 CEs (cruisers) stationed in that particular system at the moment, and 100 is the cap. But, why is it 100? No clue at first. You need to dig up the manual again, or even search in the sots2′s online wiki (and sometimes the game forums), to understand how certain things are calculated. The problem is that these are basic concepts that should be presented by the UI in some way, being it via tooltips or in a simple tutorial. But no, everything is still very hard to figure out in SotS2. So, be prepared for probably the steepest learning curve of space 4X gaming history.[/quote]
So you're calling Adam Solo a retard, too. And everyone else who has struggled to understand even the most basic mechanics of the game. Are you comfortable with that, [i]sir?[/i]