Feedback Welcome

[wedge2211]

We already know that travel times and build times were sped up for the demo...2 and 4 are non-issues in the full game.

[Darth_Torpid-PG]

Now that the game has gone gold, are you Petroglyph guys still interested in feedback from the demo and/or the early days of the full game, possibly to incorporate into major or minor patches, expansions, et cetera?

 

I liked the demo a great deal and am really looking forward to getting my hands on the full product, but I know there were a few additional things about gameplay or the interface that gathered interest here. (I'm not counting complaints about the lack of base-building or some specific EU ships or other silly things like that.)

 

Feedback is always welcome, and you can bet that your feedback up until this point will play a part in future patches and whatever comes after. However, we will probably compile all of the demo feedback up to this point, since there's a lot of repetition going on across forums (not that this is bad - it just means that lots of people agree with those points).

 

We will be back on the fan sites paying close attention to the feedback once the game is in your hands. That's when we start looking for things like unforseen balance issues, exploits, and things that just generally irritate people. Hopefully we got them all before shipping, but based on previous release experience, that's likely wishful thinking

 

We look forward to supporting the game as long as needed. And we will probably be around on gamespy looking for some multiplayer action as well

[wedge2211]

Excellent news...thanks Darth!

[jasonirma]

First off, I want to commend a lot of the posters: excellent feedback which is well thought out. Second, I love Petroglyph's ongoing excellent interaction with the community. I'm very pleased with this and I don't know how to say thx enough. A couple of other thoughts:

 

***There is a very nice list of comments regarding HUD issues/unit assignments in a separate thread. Won't repeat that here, but want to make sure you look at these. Some similar comments have been made in this thread already. Thread is here: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=159847

 

***Build pads are very random in the demo. I'm not sure why they're where they are. They're not necessarily next to cities or command stuctures. Why would one be next to the Sarlaac pit? It seems they should have a rhyme or reason to them. Attached to cities, or attached to command strux areas. Like reinforcement points, it seems to me they should be visible from the overhead map. Also, I definitely think there should be a limited number of build pads that I can place where I want. I like that this RTS doesn't require me to be a build-monkey during battle, but I really am not sure why my buildings need to be predesignated in location. Feels weird to me.

 

***The hurculean task of building 40 planets is amazing and commendable. But one of the problems I'm foreseeing is that while we're getting all these historical and EU locations, the planets themselves really are barren. For example, Tat has no named cities: where's Mos Espa? Bestine? Mos Eisley (scum & villany )? Perhaps there should be multiple maps per planet to incorporate these locales. Tat just is too desolate (even for a desert planet). Since SWG and BF fleshed out a lot of these locales, diehard fans are going to want them to exist in this RTS as well. While I loved the demo, it was hard for me to believe that Tat was almost 60% occupied by a single base and was populated by only men and Jawas (plus a rancor, some random mercenaries, a single camp of wandering Tuskens, and a Sarlaac).

 

***I don't like that my bombers can only attack areas where I have clear sight (ie, no fog of war). The bombers are in the air and have a pretty good panoramic view. If I call in a bombing run in an area where I briefly got view of an important hard target (ie, a turret), I should be able to assign a bombing run to that location whether I can see it now or not. The turret isn't going to move and the location is now known to me. One side note...I love calling in a bombing run and then immediately switching to cinematic mode: you get an amazing camera lock on the bombers as they approach their target and it's just awesome.

 

***Not sure I understand why a mercenary base allows my stormtroopers to move faster and not be affected by weather. Seems like these need some more fleshing out. It would seem that the things you get from the mercenary base would be better served from a research facility. The mercenary base should be an area where you could physically send units to be trained in mercenary tactics. It shouldn't provide a planetary-wide bonus to all units. Also, I think--similar to the bonuses you get on space stations--you need to make "hard choices". As it stands now, I basically click on all four training choices as soon as I've assimilated the mercenary base without even looking at what the bonuses are that they provide. There should be more than a monetary choice to make (ie, the cost of these bonuses). There should be disadvantages to them (such as gaining bonus against planetary weather at the expense of decreasing the armor of a unit against projectiles, etc).

 

***As above, same goes for space stations. It also seems weird that I can't activate those bonuses from the galactic map, but have to wait until there's a space battle to activate them.

 

***I should also be able to explore the planetary and space locations in depth prior to battles. For example, I can't defeat the Tusken Raiders until I'm attacked and then have access to the planetary map itself. I also can't strategically place units until the battle itself. There should be some way to balance the ability for the enemy to land on the planet and me to have the tactical advantage of having the planetary control.

 

***If I install a shield generator, most of my structures should have protection. The mining facility on the Tat map (and yes I know that there will be other planetary maps and layouts ) is outside the shield. What's more, there's really no need for me to defend that building since in the planetary battle it doesn't help nor hurt me at all. Again, it leaves me thinking that during the battle there's no good reason for it to be visible at all.

 

Thanks again for your attention to the community. You are setting a high precedent for subsequent games (as it should be).