Post by Daza in Little bit of feedback so far..

Viewing post in Little bit of feedback so far..

I checked out a Starport for the first time today and i liked how there was internal traffic, and lines. However at junctions the traffic is a mess, going really slowly if you make contact by accident with another craft you enter a conversation mode which often can be unwanted. Perhaps when the player bumps into another craft at slow speeds and a conversation is possible the game auto-pauses if it doesnt already and a dialogue icon appears over the other vehicle and player has to click on it if they do want to talk to that npc, else if the player moves on the icon disappears. This would speed up play. Getting back to the traffic jams, i think there could be lanes- that have intermitted blinking lines (like a runway) which having corridors for the Ai to follow and cannot cross over might make things look better and flow better. These could have invi boundries that even the player cannot cross over? this could be only inside Starports. And possibly use decent size roundabouts for junctions for better traffic flow.

Also while here i got pinged by Federal Security for some reason and they wanted me to stop, which i did and demanded i pay 50k for unknown reasons. I am not sure if this was too many road rage i accumlated over the course or the game or it was a case of extortion. I didn't have enough so they threatened me with a laser gun, the window said choose Action. It took me a minute to realise my action choices were in the far right slot panel after i noticed the usual icons where gone and thus i must need to click on something there. I only had the choice of inaction. Long story short i was shot to death. So thoughts on that..ouch lol. Perhaps the popup encounter window could be moved to be adjacent the choices slots, which maybe a white border could go around the encounter window and merge with the choices slot panel area as if they are one. Or there could be choices slots below the encounter icons within that window.

Also some better information why i was being fined. I might of clicked on something to fast to not have re-read it but it would be nice if some dialogue could be had, not sure if there is a stat for charisma or conversation skill where you could attempt to talk your way out of it or at least reduce the fine. Such a conversation mini-game here might be fun. However some NPC could get impatient if the conversation goes around in circles and decides to shoot you.

mosgrom4 years ago

I like your idea of dedicated lanes in stations. I have this sort of already on some planets where there is a traffic grid. I am going to leave some planets and stations this busy because I want it to be like you're in an annoying traffic jam sometimes. I don't think it takes too much time. I've been in them many times myself, it just takes a bit of concentration to navigate them.

I don't know why you got a fine for 50k from security. It sounds like you ignored traffic-control. When you enter a star-system keep an eye on your bulletin board. An orange message might appear there that you can click on. You will then be asked to state your destination planet. Ignoring this message is taken very seriously by most factions. The fines will normally appear in your item panel and you can hover your mouse over them to see what they are. However ignoring traffic-control is like flying a plane into US airspace without clearance and without identifying yourself. Maybe 50k fin is excessive but in the beginning even if the fine is 10k many players won't be able to pay it.

As I'm thinking I might make the traffic-control message blink continuously to alert players more to the fact that this needs their attention.

Daza4 years ago

Ah that makes sense now. What about having a decent size pop up window that appears lower bottom when arriving will appear, since it has to be addressed having it appear so will not be annoying and we can just interact with it and move on. But i have a feeling you intended it to something the player must remember and if you forget you get fined. Just like irl with speed signs if you forget to look at them you take a risk of going too fast, unless you are a local and know where the speed changes are on the roads. So if that is what your intention is, then perhaps in tutorial mode (like when you arrive at a motel for the first time player gets some tips) you could have a window popup as suggested above and telling player about this custom of Stations. I am not sure if you have specific colors of text in bulletin board window? like red for very important messages? perhaps for important ones they could be in red and BOLD, so the player who is a skim reader can quickly check if they do need to read something carefully. Just some thoughts.

mosgrom4 years ago

That's a good idea. I think I should do something more explicit like a popup the first time you get a traffic-control message. They are in a different color but they are not that different (they're orange). I am going to make 'm flash anyway to make 'm stand out but having a popup or something when it's the first time is a good idea. Or I might do it that the first time you are caught for not following traffic control (or not responding to traffic control) that they let you off with a warning and an explanation of how it works.

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