Harbinger PC Early Access Feedback

My impressions after a quick game:
I love the new mouse controls and the ability to independently control the small ships/drones/escorted ship !
Zooming with the mouse should be smoother. Also I would like to easily scroll with mouse maybe with Alt+Right Click or add the ability to customize some controls.
When selecting an escorted ship (colony ship) a big translucent square with engineering logo pops up. It's annoying and useless.

WASD is more sharply functional than any mouse pan, I should think . . . as well as being a gaming industry standard. If neccesary, edge-of-the-screen pan would be useful and intuitive, too, panning the screen when you move your cursor close to the edge.

I've worked with a few indie devs, and have learned that if possible, it is best to avoid any use of modifier keys. The majority of players will never know they exist. If at all possible, every command that isn't geared toward hardcore precision gamers should be a single keystroke, click, drag, or etc.

Not only does it make the game easier to pick up, but the controls become intuitive faster.

Love the game and I want to test it more, but is there some way to get max rank? I really hate to start from rank 1 and want to use the newer ships. Is there some way I can change my level? Thanks

@x2ruff4u. Unfortunately no, not at the moment at least. I guess you have played the game on mobile already and want to test the new ships?

Anyway, it would be good to get feedback played starting with Nightengale, since that is what new players will face.

Hope to see more feedback from you guys!

((haven't read any of the above yet, as I don't want to be influenced by other's))

Just downloaded for PC (64bit Win7 system)

My first game was on EASY - so I skipped the tutorial initially (to see how intuitive things were). My second game was using the Tutorial. I then played several more matches on EASY.

What I Like:
- Really like the music, very simple and subdued - very nice for background music!
- The 'Jump' animation is smooth, and feels appropriate.
- Selection of languages is staggering
- The 3D feel - even though it is a 2D top down - the multiple layers are a nice touch!
- Story lines have been entertaining. The aliens stealing our men is a fun twist
- Look and feel of the ships are quite nice.
- Love the ability to have my own little fleet


Problems:
- Game crashed after jumping through a dozen systems (1920x1200 windowed, vsync off). Was jumping into a sector that had an enemy ship.
- Options button doesn't seem to do anything yet.
- In the Tutorial : The TAP HERE for buying the turret did not seem to work. Had to ESC out and then buy it. Everything else seemed to work when I clicked on the TAP HERE alerts.
- On one of my restarts I could not equip my ship, even though it looked like I had enough funds.


Requests:
- When you zoom in/out on the map, would it be possible to auto center on your selected ship? Or zoom where the mouse pointer is?
- I couldn't figure out how to scroll around the star map. ((Figured it out during the Tutorial! Hold left-click and drag around))
- Instead of just On/Off for sound effects and music, could there be a volume slider? Or at least 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% and Off?
- Allow the side cannons to have a little more of a forward arc. If I go head on at a ship, the Port/Starboard forward guns should be firing.
- Allow the turn to be sped up / slowed down. Even if just double and half speeds.
- I haven't made it very far into the game yet, but will there be upgrades for maneuverability and speed?

I'll post more after I play a few more rounds!


The game screams for a Babylon 5 style mod

Forgot to note that I was using the most recent update as of 01/22/16 : Ver 1.3.3.4

More Likes:
- Environmental hazards, with quick easy info in the corner.
- Simple and intuitive system for arming and upgrading the ship.

Another Problem:
- Game crashed when auto-traveling through a sector that had an enemy in it.

Another Request:
- More in depth Tutorial to teach some basics (using drones, managing more than one ship, targeting in a fight).

Options menu button did not work.

No sound mute key. (The sound in BS:H is quite loud and harsh in comparison to almost every other program I run - appropriate volume for BS:H is much lower than almost anything else.)

WASD seems less responsive than it was before?

Mouse zoom is WAY too touchy. Seriously, this is important. You're either at max zoom, min zoom, or you're trying to find that 'sweet spot' on the mousewheel that represents normal zoom.

Zoom needs to take the mouse cursor into account. When I zoom in to try and gain an understanding of the battlefield, and my ships disappear, then I have to use WASD, which is not responsive enough to quickly acquire your ships, and meanwhile rockets are hitting your hull . . . . hulk smash!

Clicks on enemies need to have an effect, even with no friendly ships selected. Right now, clicks with nobody selected are useless. This is a wasted opportunity to grant the player more precise control.

Formations. What happened to them? They seem worthless. Are formations going away in the PC game? I can't find a way to make ships move in formation.

Also . . . need select all. Trying to get a view of my ships, then select them without selecting fighters, (so they fight autonomously instead of following move orders,) which requires getting the right zoom, then panning with middle-click-drag or WASD, can sometimes take long enough that the enemy's dead by the time I've issued a move order. Hitting a select-all key, or better, double-click on empty space selecting all capital ships, would make this much simpler.

I found the sound mute key after I hit ESC. I had the option to mute SFX and MUSIC.

I like the idea of a select ships v. the current select everything button - wouldn't hurt to toss in a fighters/drones only option as well. Though, I have found the fighters usually zip off ahead, so I then do a select BOX while holding down the mouse button.

Love that the enemy will pursue you if you try to jump away - that was a surprise that I couldn't just run and lick my wounds!

The Warp shadows as ships are incoming are a nice effect!!

Are there going to be neutral encounters? Maybe trade/transport ships that need rescuing or escorting? Would be neat to have the distress signals (like they did in FTL) that could entice you into entering a sector - could even provide some degree of flavor text to the signal.

eg :
- You receive a spotty distress signal from a ship that is being attacked by X race.
- There is a faint signal coming from an automated distress beacon in this sector.
- A warning buoy tells you to avoid this sector.

etcc