Disappointed ...

Hi,

I'm french, so my english is not perfect at all but i ll try to be as clear as i can.
First of all i play harbinger and buy it on PC and smartphone finish it, i loved that game and i spend a lot of time it have some limit but anyways that's not the subject, just to say that i did not post any message but i follow you since a long time ...
I was really excited when i bough Sector siege when it cames out but now after more than 3 hours of playing i m quite disapointed ...

Why ?
There are several reasons ...

The first is the feeling about it, i always have the impression to restart everything again and again, u can answer me "it s a rogue like dude ..." well yes i understand what it is but every time u have to ugrade restart generally the same strategy 'according against who you are). By strategy i mean do the same first ship the same set up and go.
About the tech tree, well like strategy generally you do always the same thing (according if u are on defense or on attack),but there is one big problem for me here, even you unlocked a "package" weapons drone etc ... u have to research it in the tech tree again, so you lose time at doing and you are always stuck in early game with the same set up, even you unlocked a lot of option.
As for me the objective is to create diversity is strategy and that's the not the case in early game so it gets boring.

Moreover, i saw that reparation cost, Ugrade points !!! what ? i just dont understand, about the reparation i dont understand why the cost is so high sometime i pay nearly the cost of the cost the ship, i try to repair infight and outfight it s the same amount, that's strange.

About the ugrade tree well it has the same problem than the tech tree and the early gameplay u are always doing the same thing u adapt a bit but generally it's still the same.

To conclude about the game it give the impression of having a lot of potential about the star map for exemple.
Here is a few thing i though about :
- what about move the tech and/or ugrade tree in the map and every ugrade u made are definitive, for this campaign of course ?
- Personnaly i always play in X2 more challenge the game is to slow in normal in my point of view what about define a defaut speed in options ?
- Why should we begin in center, why about beginning in the side of the map and each race fight each other ?
- What about define different objective to win especially in attack rather than always attack the space station ? for exemple the first at controlling 3 of the fight asteroid win the round, it ll make battle shorter it could be cool sometime and create variety, or the first at losing the first ship lose the round.
- About the marine what about a natural regeneration / or when u go back to the space section it give you new recruit ? Board is quite fun but really risky once u have board a ship u fleet can be really vulnerable to the enemy board i lost one time my entire fleet cause of low crew. so i prefer dont board and invest some point in marine to avoid that.


There is a lot of things that i like in this game for exemple the the engeener scienstist etc system it's really adaptable and u do it one time at the beginning of each battle, that is ok, but for the rest in my point of view is not.

Quite tired of the game after only 3 hours =/ i ll continue to play until the next udapte because u are a litlle studio u need time no worries bu tplease do something.
Sorry guy i insist a lot on negative point, but i think we progress really fast by taking them in consideration.
Sorry for my english i hope you understood what i say =)

Best regards,
cpt Norman =)

Hi,

I'm french, so my english is not perfect at all but i ll try to be as clear as i can.
First of all i play harbinger and buy it on PC and smartphone finish it, i loved that game and i spend a lot of time it have some limit but anyways that's not the subject, just to say that i did not post any message but i follow you since a long time ...
I was really excited when i bough Sector siege when it cames out but now after more than 3 hours of playing i m quite disapointed ...

Why ?
There are several reasons ...

The first is the feeling about it, i always have the impression to restart everything again and again, u can answer me "it s a rogue like dude ..." well yes i understand what it is but every time u have to ugrade restart generally the same strategy 'according against who you are). By strategy i mean do the same first ship the same set up and go.
About the tech tree, well like strategy generally you do always the same thing (according if u are on defense or on attack),but there is one big problem for me here, even you unlocked a "package" weapons drone etc ... u have to research it in the tech tree again, so you lose time at doing and you are always stuck in early game with the same set up, even you unlocked a lot of option.
As for me the objective is to create diversity is strategy and that's the not the case in early game so it gets boring.

Moreover, i saw that reparation cost, Ugrade points !!! what ? i just dont understand, about the reparation i dont understand why the cost is so high sometime i pay nearly the cost of the cost the ship, i try to repair infight and outfight it s the same amount, that's strange.

About the ugrade tree well it has the same problem than the tech tree and the early gameplay u are always doing the same thing u adapt a bit but generally it's still the same.

To conclude about the game it give the impression of having a lot of potential about the star map for exemple.
Here is a few thing i though about :
- what about move the tech and/or ugrade tree in the map and every ugrade u made are definitive, for this campaign of course ?
- Personnaly i always play in X2 more challenge the game is to slow in normal in my point of view what about define a defaut speed in options ?
- Why should we begin in center, why about beginning in the side of the map and each race fight each other ?
- What about define different objective to win especially in attack rather than always attack the space station ? for exemple the first at controlling 3 of the fight asteroid win the round, it ll make battle shorter it could be cool sometime and create variety, or the first at losing the first ship lose the round.
- About the marine what about a natural regeneration / or when u go back to the space section it give you new recruit ? Board is quite fun but really risky once u have board a ship u fleet can be really vulnerable to the enemy board i lost one time my entire fleet cause of low crew. so i prefer dont board and invest some point in marine to avoid that.


There is a lot of things that i like in this game for exemple the the engeener scienstist etc system it's really adaptable and u do it one time at the beginning of each battle, that is ok, but for the rest in my point of view is not.

Quite tired of the game after only 3 hours =/ i ll continue to play until the next udapte because u are a litlle studio u need time no worries bu tplease do something.
Sorry guy i insist a lot on negative point, but i think we progress really fast by taking them in consideration.
Sorry for my english i hope you understood what i say =)

Best regards,
cpt Norman =)

You do bring up some very interesting points and yes it does get a bit repetitive after a time don't even affect you have to constantly upgrading and stuff and sometime it does drive me a little crazy as well but I have some of the great ideas that you have about keeping some of your upgrade in the campaign or part of some of your upgrades I know they're a small studio and I supported them battlevoid but I know that they are looking for suggest only they can approve the game and you did

I hope the dev will answer this post, fews shortcut should be good such as :
- buy multiple auxiliary at the same, i mean generally we use the same auxiliary on a ship and instead of buy four, one by one allow the player to buy 4 in 1 time. This should be good especially for space station.
- They could create "general" or a cptain for each race which have different play style (Rusher, kamikaze, sneaker, careful and more ...)
Let's see what the dev will say.

Hey there!

We can try to improve the game according to feedback with time. The research trees were designed for allowing different strategies. They're meant to force the player to choose which trees he wants to try to unlock during a game. It would not make sense to have all technology open at the very beginning, that would make the player completely overpowered and he would be able to just steamroll enemies in the beginning.

About ship repairs. Ship repair cost has to be high, because it is a very big advantage to the player. The enemy cannot repair ships at all. So let's take an example:

The player has taken many points and is closing in on the enemy base. The player ships are very damaged, meaning he cannot attack or he will lose them all. The player now has 2 options, he can repair the ships on the spot, or sell them and build new ones. If he chooses the second option, then he would still have to send them to the point. All of this would take a lot of time and distance to travel, and the enemy could recaptures some points during this time. If we compare repairing on the spot versus building new ships at the human base and sending them out to the same point, you can realize how much time and distance is saved by being able to repair anywhere on the map. For balance purposes the ships will cost some upgrade points to repair.

Regarding marines regeneration we might be able to come up with some way for that! We have some ideas.

@Sayanel. It's true that buying multiple items at once would be good, currently you can "save" ship designs in every sector play. If you use the same point defense you can save a unit with those, and use it for a base design.

Believe me, I understand all issues brought forward here. Creating a lively galaxy where factions attack each other would be better for sure, it's just so much work! I'm exhausted after 14 months of coding this game, I did not have anything else in my life except creating this game. But I will try my best to make as many improvements I can, it's going to take a little bit of time.

Hi @AdmiralGeezer !

As i said i insist a lot on negative point but congratulations for your work, it’s still a good game and far different from the other, that’s why i bought it on PC and android, sector siege not yet on android, later according to update.
I hope the launch has been successful and all those efforts, and stress have been rewarded.

Concerning the tech tree, I think I did not express myself clearly of course, like this it ll be overpowered, I clearly agree with different strategies, but not like that.
I mean if you buy something in the unlockable you don’t have to research it again during a battle it ll be opened at the beginning, of course those advanced technologies would be more expensive than normal one, this is just a question about price,
The objective is to create more option especially in the first minute of a round. For example, I wanna try a Vulcan Scythe at the beginning it would be really fun, but really risky if I lose the ship with a Vulcan on it … That’s the idea,
Finaly what about a queue in tech tree ? to place several technologies one by one and have a sort of notifications to be advert when one is over, this could create power spike for player and time my assault with it.

I understand what you say about the ship repair. Sometime i sell everything before a ship get destroyed, or i use one as tank during reparation to let the other regen shield.
Do you think it should be good to repair only on points that you own ?
- Decreases the cost by X %
- Increase time repair by X %
- Increase the damage taken during reparation by 40% to avoid the fact that some player could use it during a fight or just near an enemy station.
- Suppress the need of upgrade point to repair ?
Concerning the save system yes it’s so good! but buy multiple auxiliary could be too, i think.

I forgot the point about coding, ideas are good sometimes but make them in application is quite different. I clearly understand you are exhausted, so take time to rest, just take what you want in consideration my objective is to help this game at getting better.
This type of game is clearly my favorite, so again congratulations for it guy !

I have similar thoughts like Sayanel. I think some gameplay elements were rushed or not considered well while adding great depth to game on other levels.

I respect that AdmiralGeezer has done so much work by himself in these 14 months. He created a very valuable product. But sometimes valuable products are not appreciated well, because we customers are only expecting to be happy for the amount we pay. If not happy, we are just bashing the product without knowing how much investment (money, sweat, time, etc.) had been done on it, but as reviews get negative, ratings get low, product doesn't sell well too.

What to do?
In Sector Siege's case, more time needs to be invested in Concept Design, Gameplay Design, Coding, Marketing. If it is an indie studio, delegation is the answer. (Such as getting assistance, sometimes in form of freelance work, sometimes voluntary, or getting partners. Sometimes I am able to find 10 times cheaper freelance work from somewhere with same quality than a more expensive place, we need to find the right platform sometimes)
Therefore some tasks we discuss here can be handled better thus Admiral Geezer can spend better time on Game Development with ease too.

I always believe the power of delegation, because we have limited hours a day to use it for efficient work, when we humans get together and delegate the jobs well, we are able to fulfill bigger works and produce more successful results.

I would like to share my feedback about several topics:

1) Technology:
I don't agree with current Tech system, because Tech is always a "Knowledge" Asset. Once it is known, you own the knowledge and you can apply it in everywhere. You don't reinvent the wheel everytime.

But in every Campaign Mission, researching same technologies again and again is not meaningful. Same applies to Upgrades. Let's think, we have a Fleet, we upgraded it to the full, now we want to send it to another sector to invade it. It won't be meaningful, when your fully upgraded ships reach to their destination without any upgrades, any tech they owned previously. 

Also in this point, I would like to suggest you using Battlevoid Harbinger style Main Fleet in Sector Siege.
When we invade a Sector, our Main Fleet (Let's call Invasion Fleet) jumps alongside the Battlestation, similarly our enemy can have its own Invasion Fleet when Attacking (We start with a single big capital ship representing the invasion fleet, we develop it throughout the campaign and we add ships to the invason fleet with glories we earn or with campaign income from sectors). Battlestation can offer smaller ships. We upgrade them, but they don't move to next Sector, because they stay in the defence of sector next time the sector is invaded. When enemy attacks, our already captured mining stations stay with us, but they arrive with an Invasion Fleet instead. When we attack, they own all the Mining Stations and we need to capture them with help of our Invasion Fleet. (Currently, when I attack to Trolgar territory, Mining Stations are not owned by Trolgars, but some by neutral or Guardians).   

2) Start Positions:
Sector Position in every Campaign restart is not meaningful. I would like to start at random position in a galaxy, which all races are distributed randomly on it and they fight with each other too regarding to where they are.
You can give Galaxy options like Spiral, Elliptical, Irregular, Scattered. So each gameplay can be different and galaxy formation can change game experience very differently, increase the replayability highly.
At the moment, each gameplay is identical and offers repetitive experience.

3) Illogical Difficulty - Intervening Fleets
Currently, battles in both Skirmish and Campaign are ridiculously difficult.
For example, let's say we are fighting against Trolgars. Seeing Wanderers or Schillae making a parade (with most advanced ships) across the map and moving directly to Player Battle Station and capturing Mining stations along the way in every map I played are not logical to me.
I am fighting against Trolgars, invading Trolgar territory, why and how Wanderers or Schillae intervene my invasion everytime? This question is  valid especially when they are on the other side of the Galaxy.

Such occurence can be acceptable as a rare event (and a reason is given: An event message pops out "A big Wanderer fleet warps in to this sector commander, please be careful, we don't know their motives" or something else)

No need to mention their intruder fleet contains at least one very strong ship with many support ship next to it. They easily disturb the balance of the battle.

Such usual disturbance creates added difficulty to Normal difficulty, which makes the game like Insane difficulty for this reason. I had to restart campaign for 5-6 times (I usually play games on Hard level in average) and everytime I started again, I experienced similar visitor factions, therefore now I play on Easy just to experience the game before I stop playing any longer or until a new update comes to fix the problem.

Therefore, seeing 3-4 parties in every Sector Siege battle destroyed my motive to play Campaign anymore.

Also for example seeing Guardians warping when we attack to a Mining station is not meaningful, why this is happening about Guardians needs to be mentioned in the game as a Lore.
After I finish my letter, I played another session, this time I was sieging a Wanderer battlestation, Guardians warped to my defenceless station nearby, when they attacked, they directly went to assault Wanderer Station. It was meaningless (OK, they warped and captured a Mining Base. Stay there and defend, or attack to other weak stations. No. They wanted to suicide through my fleet and then die next to Wanderer station.)

4) Sectors - Variations
Battlevoid Harbinger's levels/scenes (location nodes) were designed very well, every location were offering variety of different environments like Asteroid fields, nebulas, blackholes, factory planets, all were adding value to our strategic decisions "where to invade, move our fleet next?"
But in Sector Siege, there is no such thing. All sectors look identical to each other, only threat levels get higher.

5) Boarding system is not feasible, buying a Boarding Ship module is expensive (1200) and boarding is risky (host of boarding ship gets weaker) to use, requires too much micromanagement in order to capture, needs more simplifications (maybe a more direct UI button instead of choosing Hangars).

6) Squad Buttons: I still couldn't succeed using Squad Buttons on Mobile, I need some explanation if possible or if there is.

7) Repair
When a Unit needs 7000 cash to get repair, but we have 5000 cash, it should start repairing the 5000 amount. (After repairing complete and we open repair menu again, it can show "1000 more repair" is needed)

This is especially important, when we need immediate repair while under attack and we don't want to lose the ship, but still waiting the cash flow reach to 7000 leads me to lose that ship very easily and unncessarily.

_
I am hopeful Sector Siege will be great soon. 
Best Regards

1) Ok guys... Having to redo research each time is a STAPLE of EVERY RTS game ever! All the way back to warcraft 1 and command and conquer.
You don't start with level 15 towers in any Tower Defense ever. Right? ANY game where you play a map and then play a different map tends to work this way. I agree that it is illogical. But that is the way it is done. You always re-obtain all research and tech and upgrades.

Research is utterly pointless if you do it once and then never again. Obviously you would start with uber weapons every map past the first and make the game trivial.

I just don't see what alternative you would suggest.


2) Agreed that some alternative campaign galaxies might be interesting. I don't see it as a huge limitation though.


3) Bugbyte has a history of roguelike-games like harbinger. To add interest and replayability you use random events. Sometimes life is not fair. I had the same complains and I am in favor of limiting randomness. I did manage to get some things changed...like the fleets USED to literally appear right on top of you and take over via marines and it was Game Over. Within 2 seconds.
As they tweak the game, they add more constraints. Ive been in favor of time-related ones, where early game the reinforcements are pretty limited and grow over time. They are working on it. Ive given a few examples to devs on how to do this, but I am sure they are quite competent and know how to program a game better than myself.
They are gathering feedback and will make changes.

You cannot have it both ways though. You cannot gripe about the random events being too random, AND also gripe that the game feels repetitive. I am not sure how else do you expect them to add interest other than random events?


4) Agreed. Would like sectors to look a bit different. At least more background changes, or some permanent fixtures such as storms, nebulas, etc. This could cause issues with framerate however, so they have to balance this.


5) Yes boarding has been a complaint of mine for ages. It IS feasible, but cannot be overused. Your boarders tend to launch at semi-random times, have no shields, and go in circles first. So you need to be RIGHT ON TOP of them.
But if they make it too easy, then this becomes the de facto strategy. ESPECIALLY if you can just get more marines!

6) You have to ENABLE them in the options menu. I think this should be default as I whined for ages to get this implmented. Select ships, HOLD DOWN button till it double-blinks. Then you can select/deselect with that squad key.

7) Agreed. Partial repair is a good idea.

As with a lot of people here I have played my fair share of Harbringer and now spend my time directing my fleets across sectors sieging them. For a game that was just released I am very impressed by what you have wrought here. Is it perfect, no. Does that mean it isn't good, no either! I understand the blood, sweat, tears, time, money and lack of sleep that went into this endeavor. I'm happy with what I have and hope for better in the future. Here is my thought change:

Tech Tree: I don't mind this so much. I don't really think it gives that much variability to the game at current. The in game upgrades work well for what they are at first, but once you get the hang of the game the high tier is just a time sink. By the time I unlock the Death Ray I'm finishing the map. The solution that I see lies in the unlocks on the map screen.

First, and it must be said, I hope this screen will get more options as time goes on. Love it as is but have high hopes. Now, my suggestion. The tech tree unlocks are fair, allowing for a different twist to the game and different strategies. Once you unlock all tech trees, and I say all for a pseudo balance, you could have the option of researching the individual techs. first level tech cost 300 xp, second level tech 400 xp, third level tech 500 xp, and fourth level tech 600 xp. For example, I have finished purchasing the extra tech trees and decide I really like the Photon Bombers but do not have the time during a match to get it and have it make a lasting impact. Now, for 300 experience points I can permanently research and unlock the Missile Turret, thus starting each map with that already opened. That cuts down research time for the Bombers. I can play more, refining my play style and strategy, and eventually pay 400 experience points for the X1 Missile Bomber.

This rewards the player for playing, gives a feeling of growth in game and serves to build on immersion. When you feel like you are actually building and training your fleet it can only serve to help the game.

More to follow!

@joe1512 
I do not agree with almost none of your points, also I don't get it why you behave like defender of Bugbyte against my feedback. When a customer writes his/her suggestions, feedback, even criticism, it always means "that customer valued the product, thus allocated his/her time to write the opinion, thus he/she wants its development". If nobody writes anything, the product is not cared at all. You defend, because you like some features in your perspective. I respect that & you, as long as you respect mine or others. 

Secondly, the way you talk like a teacher sounds very arrogant to me. I am a Marketing Executive and probably I am much older and have more gaming and business experience than you. For that reason the way you write sounds arrogant and disturbing to me personally. 

Thirdly, I don't need your confirmation to my statements or opinions. I write to @AdmiralGeezer only. I believe he will decide what is best, what to discard, what to implement in his own convenience. ("Convenience", because not everything is possible {time, money, work, sweat, necessity, etc.} even they sound good. But we all give feedback. So it is wise to not prevent them, even a dumb idea according to your perspective could be golden for others.)

I aggree with joy on most of the point than with Farwest, i ll try to be short this time.

I aggree with research that s why i say a "queue" could be good, but as for me item unlock with victory points should be immediatly available when you begin a battle.

Roguelike yes that's what i want, i understand that, but there is too many repetitive things (i didn't have this feeling with harbinger despite the amount of hours i spent on it) with too few options, random event add sometime difficulty sometime it made the level easier i like it.

But dude write in cap or being a sort of aggressive or something look like is clearly useless we are just here to share idea =)
This is the first time i post a review or a topic on a game, i think it clearly show my interest for this one.