Absolutely wonderstriking
First things out of the way, I found this by Twitter. I downloaded it because I was curious, and I played this on a MacBook, so many of my performance criticisms will need to be taken with a bit of skepticism, but may be applicable universally.
My thoughts will also be extremely general and first-in-mind kind of deal, so if you want me to clarify on anything specific, I'll do my best.
GAMEPLAY -
Tank combat is very responsive. I don't think I've ever had a moment where I've said to myself "damn this sucks." But occasionally, tanks will run over heavy obstacles (gas trucks, destroyed vehicles). Maybe this is intentional, maybe not, but it'd be a bit convenient for the player to have them navigate around it themselves rather than me having to babysit Aspera when I notice she's moving too slow. Like, c'mon woman, I know you have eyes.
UI serves its purpose. Aesthetically, I don't have any complaints, but it'd be neat to have a section titled "model viewer" within our armory. Not a huge deal, but I like seeing with my own eyes the detail of the vehicles.
Okay, let's head a little deeper.
Infantry is fairly wack. I don't mean to say they're useless, but I've cleared almost every level in the game with 3 medals using only tanks. All I had to do was cycle the first two tanks, then when they fire, bring the rear row forward to quickly deliver the next volley, repeat (like musketmen or some other generic tank tactic). The only time I ever found myself considering not using this maneuver was when enemy armor started moving to flank me-- or if I was too far out of range. I heavily suggest playing around way more with infantry with longer, more obtuse angles with better armor support.
Not saying it wasn't fun or a bit of a brain teaser. The game did make me think. But not a single point in the game made me go into the pause menu for more than 3 minutes, and then nab 3 medals.
PERFORMANCE -
Mmm. My favorite. I've only included the one's I've been able to repeat (so no one-off glitches.) Okay, so I've noticed a few things you might want to take a look at.
When issuing multiple orders simultaneously (moving forward, rearing, queuing smoke or supplemental rounds, turret direction and infantry movements), usually if you queue four of these, the game dips into 4 FPS for a brief second, then reset to normal.
Occasionally switching to freecam will launch your camera into orbit. I see it happen the most when my units are in combat, but I've seen it happen when nothing's happening (albeit, once).
Other than those two, no major complaints on performance. It runs well.
WORLDBUILDING -
At the end of the day, this game has what? Lore. What kind of lore? Anime women tank lore. How exciting.
The one thing that bothered me a lot was that the descriptions for some of these items cut off, and when I try to select them-- oh, what do you know, they only appear when my mouse is hovering over it.
I'm trying to read and Aspera snatches my dossiers away lol
But truthfully, much of your worldbuilding will have to come from the briefings and your commanders. Unless you want to include cutscenes, and I'm fairly certain that's not coming anytime soon.
The game by itself is super fun, and there's not much for me to say on the lore. But what I do know is the world seems to be established on an alternate Earth (assuming it's Earth, some folk like it to be Not-Earth-but-kinda) where people accidentally-on-purpose destroyed the ozone layer. The factions with the most power seem to be akin to mercenary militia groups that run under countries. Or these countries subsidize said militia in order to maintain territory. I dunno.
There's many super fun and equally (super) exciting ways to exposit your world without vomiting it into my ear (or eyes if you like typing as much as I do). But I'm not the one making the game, so that's none of my business.
SUGGESTIONS -
Hi.
Okay, so some things I'd like to suggest are the following:
* Queuing firing commands.
I mean like, firing the turret when they reach a certain location- like how you did with queuing turret turns. I'm super annoyed when I see someone there, but they have an angle on me. So I want to tell my commander "Hey, the second you peek that corner, drive a round through that motherfucker." But Aspera's brain is on airplane mode, so she's like "aye sir" and now I have to throw in another tank to cope with the damage she sustained and her ass is on fire.
* Purchasing units and modules.
Ditto.
* Sickbay/Medical center.
Certain characters may survive being blasted by armor-piercing discarding-sabot fin-stabilized rounds. I wouldn't, but let's pretend I did and I live in this god-forsaken world known as Armaphract. First, we'd need to requisition medical supplies, personnel, then therapy (as required). But oh no! What if we're broke-as-fuck and we need to perform a mission ASAP? (There are no limited time missions so who cares) Now we have supply missions! Rob those mean foreign motherfuckers for all of their money and medical supplies and give them to that one woman who refuses to speak our language, but can somehow communicate her status to us in-real time and we just kinda understand her.
* Logistics
Y'know, speaking about wounds is making me hungry. That reminds me, we need to feed and take care of our troops! But wait, what happens if we idle on main missions for too long? Some additional missions may appear that we can only tackle on a limited time-frame. Say, protecting persons, buildings or vital routes. Losing or failing these missions apply significant debuffs on our future campaigns. What a thrill... In darkness and silence through the night... Also food animations mmm delicious. Anyways, you get the idea.
* F-16 Fighting Falcon
Wouldn't it be cool if we had air support aha aha nooo don't drop that thousand-pounder danger-close your so sexy aha aha
I'm actually super biased because I work on military fighter aircraft but y'know if you wanted to add air support I think that'd be jackpot frfr no cap
* Interaction with named characters
Why wouldn't I want to talk to Aspera about uhm uhh uhmmm uhh idk how's the weather
Or maybe more interaction with each other depending on how long they've spent together in battle.
1-3 missions Aspera might say "We've lost armor. Recommend vacating the area." But say 6-7 (67 mmm sexy number) missions with the same commander and they die, she might mourn the loss, complimenting their competence in battle. Or perhaps 10 missions down the line, she'll comment on their personality, suggesting that they've begun interacting on friendly terms outside of firefights.
* Elevation
This simple change (and its inevitable accompanying changes to angles and range by introducing another dimension to ground combat) will give you significant leeway to play around with the map, unit movement and maybe even utilizing the destructible environment in order to prevent enemy movement while helping your own objective. (Destroying bridges, hiding in trees and the ilk. All that fun stuff.)
Ok im tired goodnight