I've been playing both the PC release and the mobile beta. A lot of things have been done really well. But there are many changes I don't really understand. I have a lot of feedback to give, so I'm just going to list all my thoughts here. Some of these may seem like nit picks, but Harbinger is still so close to being amazing, I think it needs to correct these little issues before it can really take off.
-Hull and shield bars should have the same scaling. As they are now they are visually confusing. I can't tell at a glance how much health I have because it changes from ship to ship.
-Repair seems to prioritize capital ships over drones. I was so excited this got fixed. Good job!
-It is still confusing how lasers, death rays, point defense lasers, repair drones, laser drones, shield regen drones, and shield reenergizers all use the same beam color, but repair beams are green. Color coding these could make it way easier to tell what is happening in a battle. Perhaps blue for shield repair, green for hull repair, red for damage? This is an art choice I guess, but I do think we should be able to tell them apart at a glance.
-Vulcan Cannon still shows that the range upgrade affects recharge time but it doesn't.
-Repair beam repair amount upgrade says it increases repair amount by 10 per level, but it is actually 20.
-Many modules don't show all their stats. This makes it hard to decide what to buy or understand how an item works. It also makes it difficult for hardcore players to min/max.
-On mobile you can have up to 8 fighter groups, but the UI can only handle 6. Fighter types should probably be added to the targeting ring.
-Did repair drones get a new model? It's slight, but they look good. I like it.
-The fourth stage is almost always easier than the third. The unknown ships are strong enough I think, but you usually only encounter 1 or 2 at a time. On the third map you can find yourself fighting 4+ ships frequently. This needs to be fixed, it ruins the pacing of the endgame right now.
-Option to toggle off damage numbers would be really nice.
-The new ships are really cool. They aren't quite balanced, but they are still a great addition!
-Why can we only call certain ships for reinforcements? How could this limitation possibly improve the game for the player? It doesn't, it only removes choices. Right now the player LITERALLY CAN'T USE AN ALL GUNS FLEET, unless they take weaker ships like the raven. Why?
The general balance of the game is better, but it is still just weird. There are many items that are bad or have bad upgrades. This is super hard for new players to deal with. For experienced players, it just limits replayability and forces us to use certain fleet types. There are so many cool items in Harbinger that aren't worth using, this is a real shame. I'll list some of my more specific thoughts here.
-Tesla coil is weak, what is it's purpose?
-The Particle Cannon is very expensive but actually has low dps. The trolgar projectile cannon is probably stronger in most cases. It isn't very good, why hasn't this been balanced better?
-The nerf to bolter drones seems to makes sense. Now laser drones can work with bolter drones to take out enemy ships. There is good synergy here.
-I still don't understand the purpose of bolter fighters. What are they good at? If they had an upgrade for hull and were faster/more agile than other drones they would make a perfect escort for keeping bombers alive!
-Bomber behavior isn't great. On paper they are pretty balanced. However, they always approach targets directly instead of setting up an orbit. This means they coast right onto enemy capital ships and get killed by point defense, UGH. They should try to maintain range to stay alive. If they had small thrusters on their front to help maneuver they might hold range better.
-It looks like the shield reenergizer was nerfed. Why did this need a nerf? It was already way weaker than shield repair drones. Where is the balance in this?
-Some of the "super" weapons have great base stats and bad upgrades. The deathray is a perfect example. With no upgrades it is OP. The damage upgrades are too weak to matter, and range just makes it more OP. If you get one of these as a drop, it should be an item that is pretty decent, but has the POTENTIAL to be amazing if you invest in it. Right now, finding a deathray just makes the game easy, and fighting them is too hard because they are always strong.
-I still think the game needs an armor module. It should be slightly weaker than the shield module. This will help to balance out the shield/armor damage.
-Repair beams and shield reenergizers are way weaker than repair drones. Why? This makes it really hard to run a fleet without drones. Don't take that option away from the player.
-The point defense changes are interesting. They do seem to have balanced point defense, but they also made the gatling the strongest for most situations. Where is the choice in this? The player should have point defense options that are all good at different things so they can choose how they want their fleet to work.
-What happened to tractor beams? This was a cool concept that should have been improved. Instead they just turned into lasers that only target fighters.
