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Complaint Department / Impressions of a Nub
« on: September 28, 2008, 12:27:53 am »
Firstly, I'd like to say that this isn't an aimless complaint, my intent is to provide information as to why I (as a nub) am unable to bring myself to play PS in it's current state. I understand that PS is under development and that these problems will be addressed eventually, but I am just giving my experience as a new player so that the devs can lump my impressions in with everyone elses and infer what the most immediate problems are.
I only really have two major issues:
Lighting: If I cannot see, I cannot play or test. Maybe the pitch black shadows don't bother people who have been playing for a while, but I honestly cannot play with the lighting in it's current state. I have turned the brightness up, but still cannot see most of the time unless I'm in direct sunlight. I tried to leave the main city, but it's even worse outside in the woods (i.e. the forest is completely black). Maybe this is an issue with my computer, but it seems that other people have similar problems. I have played Planeshift a bit in the past (before the combat system) and all the visual components worked fine then.
Communication: Talking to NPCs is really time consuming and requires a lot of clicking. They speak in large blocks of text and you have to constantly scroll back up the chat to read things they just said. The chat bubbles above their head are a good idea, but they don't stay around long enough to read all of it most of the time (unless you're a speed reader). The chat bubbles also tend to wander outside the screen.
While I really appreciate the system the devs are trying to develop, it's currently very clunky and in need of a lot of work. In my humble opinion, this is one of the most distracting problems at the moment. My suggestion would be to implement more user control in terms of pacing the conversations and the rate of text.
Those are the only two big things that prevent me from playing. Minor glitches and bugs I can handle, but these are show stoppers. They make navigating and communicating a real chore.
On the bright side, I must say that PS has come a long way since I last checked in and the game is showing a lot of promise. My intent of posting is in no way to belittle the work of the devs, on the contrary I applaude their efforts and I look forward to playing Planeshift when these issues are eventually resolved.
-Furthark Sheerlegs
I only really have two major issues:
Lighting: If I cannot see, I cannot play or test. Maybe the pitch black shadows don't bother people who have been playing for a while, but I honestly cannot play with the lighting in it's current state. I have turned the brightness up, but still cannot see most of the time unless I'm in direct sunlight. I tried to leave the main city, but it's even worse outside in the woods (i.e. the forest is completely black). Maybe this is an issue with my computer, but it seems that other people have similar problems. I have played Planeshift a bit in the past (before the combat system) and all the visual components worked fine then.
Communication: Talking to NPCs is really time consuming and requires a lot of clicking. They speak in large blocks of text and you have to constantly scroll back up the chat to read things they just said. The chat bubbles above their head are a good idea, but they don't stay around long enough to read all of it most of the time (unless you're a speed reader). The chat bubbles also tend to wander outside the screen.
While I really appreciate the system the devs are trying to develop, it's currently very clunky and in need of a lot of work. In my humble opinion, this is one of the most distracting problems at the moment. My suggestion would be to implement more user control in terms of pacing the conversations and the rate of text.
Those are the only two big things that prevent me from playing. Minor glitches and bugs I can handle, but these are show stoppers. They make navigating and communicating a real chore.
On the bright side, I must say that PS has come a long way since I last checked in and the game is showing a lot of promise. My intent of posting is in no way to belittle the work of the devs, on the contrary I applaude their efforts and I look forward to playing Planeshift when these issues are eventually resolved.
-Furthark Sheerlegs