Author Topic: MY Thoughts as a Noob  (Read 2121 times)

ColdHonor

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MY Thoughts as a Noob
« on: May 14, 2005, 03:50:15 am »
Alright I tried out the game today and thought i\'d write down my thoughts on what needs to be done to improve it to keep the noobies interested from the get go and keep them hooked all the way through.

It was just small things that would of made it alot better to play and not a struggle to control.

Navigation:

The first thing that annoyed me when i logged in was all the buttons cluttering up my screen. I couldn\'t get a full sense of my environment cause all the buttons and options looked it it was just splashed about and no real care was taken in tryin to keep them nice and tidy into an easy spot on the screen.

The buttons running along the top basically IMO all look the same. There is no real distinguishing colours or marks to tell me in a glimpse of an eye what they are for.

Camera Angles:

Starting out in Third Person is really bad. As a noob playing he wouldn\'t know what to do when trying to move his avatar through the world but the camera doesn\'t adjust accordingly. IMHO Third person camera angles shouldn\'t be used in any game EVER. They look tacky and really lowers my expectations on the overall greatness of the game.

Controls:

Using the W,A,S,D Keys now days in gaming for navigation should be a must. Its so much easier when you jump into a game and they are already mapped (Like Planeshift) and Mouse look is already enabled with the mouse in First person. But the one thing i really struggled with was the Strafing left and right. It was realllllllllllyyyyyyyy Slow and frustrating plus you couldn\'t use forward and strafe at the same time.

Moving forward and back aswell was really slow. It just needs to be sped up a touch and then it will feel really smooth. When i used sprint i didn\'t see much of a difference to just walking normally.

Also another little small adjustment, The mouse sensitivity should have a slider adjustment instead of a value one in the options.

Overall it really felt like a struggle to just walk 5 meters. A nooby who tries this game for the first time when it is released is going to play it for 10 minutes then chuck it in the heap if these basics are not adjusted.

The navigational buttons on the screen are not visually appealing and lack outstanding markings to quickily and easily distinguish them.

This game still needs ALOT of work therefore i really do believe if you fix up these foundational things then the rest of the game should follow in the same precise and awesome manner. Thank you.

Moogie

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« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2005, 04:11:16 am »
Greetings,

You can move around and resize all buttons and windows on your screen. The menu at the top can also be hidden, and so can the macro bar, and the chat window, and the stats window.

All control keys are fully customisable. WASD keys work fine for movement.

Some people like Third Person View, some don\'t. Personally I cannot play any games that only have First Person View because it gives me motion sickness. I believe it is better to have a choice in these things, rather than restricting people to one or the other. People should read at least the basic controls before they enter the game, and if they do so, they will already know that the M key changes camera mode.

Strafing and movement speeds in general is something that needs to be balanced some more. I agree that strafing left and right is slow, but it looks slower due to its lack of animation.

And yes, the game does need alot of work. Generally the public doesn\'t get to see games in this pre-alpha stage and tend to have high expectations, or think that nobody else has thought of such simple points. I can assure you, it\'s all well known. ;)

ColdHonor

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« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2005, 06:30:07 am »
Wow i\'m really impressed on how fast it took for a mod to respond. :D

Efflixi Aduro

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« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2005, 07:04:26 am »
Quote
Originally posted by ColdHonor
Wow i\'m really impressed on how fast it took for a mod to respond. :D


Don\'t expect it. :P
And hi and welcome to ps! And no I\'m not a mod so don\'t fear me.....yet.  ;)
Lol Internet

acraig

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« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2005, 07:06:29 am »
Yeah, we are trying different ways now to try to get a smaller less \"in your face\" type GUI.  All about the evolution and trying to find what works.  

I guess overall we are not really for the \'noob\' ( man I hate that word :) ) player that is looking for just a game to play.   Right now everybody is a beta tester and as such has to expect that not all the bells and whistles are in place.

Moogie is right on the fact that we know that a lot of the \'polish\' is missing but there lies the underlying fact.  This is a hobby project and as such we have limited time to work on things.  So I have to judge
1) Changing the mouse sensitivity to have a slider OR
2) Fixing it so that quest system isn\'t broken.  

So it\'s not that we are not aware of these issues it\'s just that they have been pushed down on the queue a bit :)

I would like to see a collection of all these small things because they make perfect tasks for people that want to contribute smallish things.  So keep them coming.  You can also add wishlist items to the bug tracker:

http://planeshift.oodlz.com/bugtracker/index.php

( alright these might not really be \'wishlist items\' but they are not really bugs either :) )
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Andrew
"For all I know, she's lying, everyone's lying; welcome to the Internet"

Jabren

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« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2005, 02:58:52 am »
I prefer the 3 person view myself, I know some people find it unrealistic, but personally I find I can much better immerse myself in the world while in this view. I find the 1st person view to be distractingly limiting to my situational awareness. I think the problem is the limited field of view that a computer screen can show and the lack of other sensory feedback that in the real world would give me a feeling for what\'s around me...

Actually, the avatars do not move that slow, though quite a few people seem to expect that you run by default, and walk when holding shift, not the other way around. I seem to walk more than run these days though, so I like the way the controls work.

The windows/buttons can be distracting (and perhaps a bit overwhelming if you are new) but they can be hidden, and, at least in my experience, one gets used to the interface after a while.

Elanorie

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« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2005, 08:17:40 am »
Hi, i just joined PS today as well.

Seems like a real bad time since the server is down for updates.... I did not even play the game at all.

Moogie

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« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2005, 09:59:17 am »
Welcome Elanorie. :) It should be back soon, don\'t worry.

Elanorie

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« Reply #8 on: May 17, 2005, 05:56:18 am »
yup, i do hope so...

bitula

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« Reply #9 on: May 17, 2005, 02:36:49 pm »
Moogie,
why did you change your avatar, the previous was much better! :(