This is going to be a long post. Thanks for your patience.
General Comments:
- Overall I like how the game startup is run. I enjoy learning about the game system components by trying things out. I don't agree with the suggestions for a more extensive tutorial and I don't think it is necessary, but then I may be in a different target audience group from others...
- Overall I like the play style. Being able to assign behaviour and issue basic commands makes the battlefield manageable. Having the option for micromanagement without it being mandatory is great.
- Considering this mini-game is supposed to be an introduction to the Battlestation universe and alien races, the "story" and dialogue really need improvement and expansion.
- The price for additional episodes seems very steep. I don't necessarily agree with people's comment that they should be unlocked for free when beating the previous episode though. In my opinion, a dollar per episode would seem a fairer price, and you may get more buyers/fans this way. Right now there is no in-game suggestion or incentive to buy episodes. It doesn't look like the game would play any differently against the other aliens. Would be nice if buying/beating episode would unlock new Alien research upgrades.
Bugs/Problems:
- I've beat Episode 1 about four times now, but the final achievement still doesn't get unlocked. I've tried doing this both while offline, and also while on Wi-fi and logged into Google Plus.
- If I click the Google Plus icon while offline, it goes into an infinite loop of trying to login. The game should stop attempting as soon as connection or login fails.
- Missile should explode on contact with whatever it touches, even if it's not the target. I've seen Missiles go "through" ships without exploding. This is especially noticeable when the Missile's original target is destroyed and it flies into something else.
- I would suggest renaming the squad Offensive/Defensive commands to something like Free-Flight/Orbit, because the names are ambiguous, and easily confused with the piloting Offensive/Defensive behaviours.
- On that topic, the Defensive piloting behaviour seems quite useless. The Fighters don't end up getting hit less, it just makes them shoot less often. This should be fixed.
- Not sure if this is just a problem on my small-screen phone (Samsung SGH-I927R on Android 2.3.5), but when I have many squads and units, and I try to click on the red button to close the right sidebar, the game thinks I'm trying to click on the squad/unit underneath the red button. I need to scroll all the way down before being able to click the button. This should be fixed such that the red button does not overlap with the scrollable space.
Balance Issues:
- Too many categories in Energy research, too few in Projectiles, and Augments just seems almost completely dedicated to Fighters. Would be great if the Fighter Bolt weapon was merged in with the Bolter upgrades, and reassigned into the Projectile category. The Fighter Jetpack upgrade seems to be completely useless, to me at least, since I have Shields all the time. I would also suggest having a separate category for Defense research, have the Shield upgrades moved here, and add a new Battlestation weapon for anti-missile defense. Borrowing a page from FTL, perhaps Ion weapons that temporarily disable weapons/shields without physical damage could fit this category.
- While the Battlestation Lasers are okay, the Fighter Laser weapon is overpowered. With 24 Laser-equipped Fighters, I can destroy a Lasership in about eight seconds. Possible fixes could be to reduce the damage, or say that the high energy output reduces available power for engines/shields (e.g. no active shields while laser is firing).
- Enemy Missile weapons seem overpowered. 4 Missile can wipe out a fully-charge Shield in Capacity mode. Possible fixes could be to reduce the damage, or have separate damage values for Shields versus Hull (e.g. Energy weapons have better damage for Shields; Projectiles have better damage for Hulls).
- Only being able to capture one enemy ship at a time makes the Marines resource a total waste. Perhaps allow more captures by building more Shuttle Bays? As someone else already suggested, being able to abandon an unwanted ship would be helpful. Even better yet, if we could launch a Marines Shuttle attack from the abandoned ship, that would be awesome. Without this, and without any way to disable a ship without destroying it, it seems impossible to capture something like a Lasership. Another idea is to allow a suicide mission by crashing a captured ship into another enemy to cause massive damage. Also, I don't really understand how the Marines "help defend the base" (I've only played Episode 1).
- Fighters play a big role in drawing fire away from the Battlestation. If I try playing without Fighters though, it's almost impossible as every ship will target the Battlestation. I would suggest allowing the player to build additional Shield modules as a defensive measure if they choose this play style.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, it's pretty fun, and visually very polished, but the above aspects could use some work. Good luck with your Kickstarter project. I hope it gets funded! If it does, I look forward to joining your alpha.
