What do people like/dislike so far in the new alpha?
A 3D space station builder with characters that matter · By
I really love the way this game is designed as a manager, but still akward getting used to controls and navigating systems.
Lack of save hurts especially if want to waste time trying to generate a species.
No sound or occasion beep is odd, not even background music.
Still trying to figure out what is essentials as didn't realize had 1 hub to start with, but will figure it out. Trying to see what can/cannot build at start without running out of resources and learning how to get more.
Only played a little while to get the hang of it but like been said, lack of saves right now makes it too hard to invest time unless can do a long sitdown with it,
I like the artwork for the quarters, havent been able to tell if storage has any visual clues on how full/empty it is.
Some of the inbox gets filled with warnings/updates is nice but they get hidden behind personnel files so didn't even notice them until I cleared some out. Maybe separate inbox for them? not sure.
But I am really excited to get a taste of this game and looking forwards to the updates and when I can run my own Babylon 5 in style.
I played for a few minutes this evening. I found it annoying that my datapad acted differently than papers I picked up (click and hold vs click and release) and the stamp is slightly different as well. I'm also having trouble with the Rolodex, not sure how to flip through crew members. What is the drawer to the left for? I was able to file a personnel file there when I couldn't throw it away.
Picking things up, holding them up, and putting them down again was un-intuitive to me. Hopefully this is something we will be able to customize in the future, as there are many different solutions that will work for different people. I agree with the need for a save function and some sound effects would be nice too.
I'd like a cartridge that allows me to assign crew members to jobs and quarters.
I'm excited to see how the game grows and changes!
I think solved rolodex part, if highlight it below the pictures but still have it highlighted , can scroll the mouse wheel.
Played a bit more and getting used to the system in place but still a lot of polish, not to mention, having to request a sheet on the inbox for existing crew just to refresh skills. Would be nice if rolodex card had at least their best skills.
Loving it but as someone else said, you really need a save. :) I spent a couple hours creating and getting the hang of the game but finally ran out of time and as much as I want to dive back in today, not saving is a bit of a drawback.
The controls, a tutorial (if only a pop-up at the start that says how to grab and place things would be very helpful - if nothing else on how to pick up and view the datapad's help). I finally was able to get the datapad help up and read it (the reading it up close took a long time to figure out yet it so simple once you know). It took hours just to get that far. Sad ... I know since I live and breath computers. :(
The flow, the feel and potential are all just perfect. It's not so chaotic that you are stressing on every little detail and you can sit and watch a game you create. I think when you get to music and background stuff -- being able to choose your style would add so much -- it's already got a great ambient rhythm to it.
I can't wait to see more.
Ok I just made it to my desk, and wow, I desperately need a list of keybinds. lol
For keeping potential recruits, when have a sheet selected I believe can just right click to lower it and then drop on desk, it should stay there til want to hire someone or throw it away. If you meant sheets of hired crew, to the bottom left of the desk is a drawer they go back into if done with them.
Been trying to get the bigger station modeules like garden, life support, but the time to collect the resources just takes awhile and only so much can do right now. Was hoping to have more station type rooms but I know it will come eventually. :)
i like the cartridge system but i think its time consuming and maybe an alternate menu system should be made optionally
just tried attaching a pipe to the first dome and for some unknown reason the station blew up
i dont know how to place cards in the card holder getting them out is easy
i like the different species
need to play again to give more feedback
So far looks alright for early alpha!
Things so far:
More to follow as I explore I'm sure.
I love the cards informing me of issues with the crew but they really need to be expanded for events such as the explosion in one of the sections and other things going on. I delete the cards I am done with but I put others on the desk as reminders. I'd been working at the desk when I exited and noticed that two of the sections had filled with smoke but no idea why or how long it had been. Still not sure what one explosion was, it happened but nothing appeared wrong.
Very interesting so far, took me a while to work out how to move and access things on the desk and then finally stumbled across the help cartridge which made a few things easier (ordering supplies for one)
I managed to build a second module easily and assign crew members to quarters, built a power generator and next I'm going to try and build a garden so I can grow food rather than import it however I note that you need to import waste in order to do so (even though we have toilets which I would have thought would create waste by themselves) but unfortunately waste doesn't appear on the supply order manifesto every month so that could take a while.
I echo other peoples thoughts of needing a save game option but that's pretty obvious isn't it lol so I'm guessing that's pretty high up in the devs pipeline of things to do, I also echo what people said about not having music in the game yet -isn't it eerie playing a computer game without any background noise, you don't notice how important that a basic feature is until you don't have it anymore.
Oh I also had a module completely fill up with smoke without any obvious cause too but I haven't had my station blow up yet lmao.
Hello, happy to help test.
Right away I think I found an issue by accident. I started the game up and went to go help my son with something. The time was already ticking, I hit escape but that didnt pause time either. So when I did get back to the game i was already doomed haha. I was fighting with the tablet and rolodex cards so long that I didnt even notice papers coming in to my right. The applications i was stamping (idk why i was stamping them) seemed to have all the same peoples pictures on them. The Rolodex also has all the same placeholder names so I am not 100% sure what thats for.
One issue I had the whole time was one person would keep sleeping in some work room even after assigning her to a real room to sleep.
The main thing I found from my playing of about 30 minutes was that the controls for the desk part of the game needs to be perfect. We will need to be using everything on the desk quickly and often. So if we're struggling with picking stuff up and holding it close then dropping it, people will get upset.
One issue I noticed and was able to recreate is that if you are viewing the tablet and right click it will place down as you were viewing it (portrait or landscape). But if you view the tablet and hit tab to quickly look at the base, it will always place it down landscape. It should place it down as you were using it last like the Right click does. Small thing but thats ok.
So after a few replays, messing around I am still missing out on a few things and few questions. BTW think we need a thread for known bugs, or posting them here. Here goes tho.
1. Cant seem to figure out a way to fire someone or have another take over there job.
2. Not sure how I feel about a random supply package, sometimes they dont have what I need and waiting for something to do or for it to recycle seems tedious.
3. Time controls
4, Better worker feedback, they are sleeping on floor? why? They have an assigned room, were they too tired to make it? bug ? All the alert card says is that to make sure to assign them room.
5. To much talking and not enough work! :) I think I might get 1 storage ball per shift moved because every few minutes they stop to talk.
6. I dont know if this is a bug but once I tried a second power source on a module the combustion one we start with goes black and not sure they work there anymore, yet it seems to degrade all the same and explodes.
7. Way to dismantle/rebuild a room. See above from 6, if something becomes obsolete, then want a chance to decommision it.
8. Better way to review current workers. Right now to see who I start with I have to goto Promotions cartridge, pull sheet and then review, should be a way to do this via rolodex.
thats about all off top of my head, I still had fun even with the basic build there is, I tried to get some of the larger structures built but with no way to ff time and the random supply issue and no saves, just didnt have the patience. Will wait til more module types come down the pipe and try it again.
Ok tried new build, took awhile to adjust to the controls after got used to last set,
1. Had weird glitch which I lost a rolodex card on desk, was sitting there, right click to zoom to player and it changed to another card and now was missing 1 for worker. Never duplicated.
2. I do like the info cards now, was at least able to realize why combustion was shutting down as I ran out of fuel.
3. Lost a crewmember during some explosion, yet no card for this at all. We get alerts if no bed or eating out of dining but no deaths or injuries yet?
4. Finally able to build a life support but gave up soon after as was getting tired and that room wasnt really telling me much what it did, kept giving a storage option and not sure if wasnt glitched.
5. Supply system still is kind of sucky, most of my game had my combustion plant without power as never got fuel for a stock option. If this is going to be RNG, then need a way to prioritize a needed resource somehow.
6. 2 custodians can never keep up, storage was constanly showing balls unstocked, food taking forever to stock. It seems they might get 1 item stocked per shift, for such a big room would think had more space for employees.
I think got upto 30 days, forgot to check but did at least finally get to see skill increase happen.
Anyways thats all for now, feel like I am the only one posting issues and not sure if might need new thread for issues, observations. :)
Oh almost forgot , had a few applicants come thru with blank white pictures, and they even seem to fill rolodex with that when hired.
Hi Everybody!
We've had busy times recently, as you might imagine. And somehow that resulted in being active on here got lost in the shuffle! We did read all of your feedback and have fixed a few of the issues reported.
Some stuff, like save games is now a high priority for us, but it is a very big thing to add in and we're a tiny team so it will take a while for us to get it in to a quality level where we're happy with it.
If you want more direct contact with us, join us on our discord.
I tried 2.4 last night, not sure where you want us posting issues/bugs, I was going to add to patch notes but apparently that thread is visible in twitter so didnt want it showing there. :)
Love the location option and jobs to crew list, altho kind of making rolodex obsolete, speaking of which, would be nice if new employee popped to top of it once added.
Not sure if was intentional or not but every new employee arrives tired and never have enough time to assign them a bunk before they are crashing on floor and getting pop up for it.
Job eperience. Only got 16 days in last night but at that time, my 2 custodial folks got a few skillups in all their required fields. Maintenance guy I dont think ever skilled up in anything but was fuzzy and my reactor worker may have gotten 1 skill up or 2, but nowhere near the custodial guys. This going in with 2 folks who had at least a dot in engineering doing the power and maintenance, the other 2 we just put into custodial to fill jobs.
Life support and garden - not really sure the purpose of either and neither required any jobs and while they required resources to maintain wasnt sure if they produced anything. I imagine garden for chlling but not sure about Life support.
I added a cargo bay(the half module 1) and soon after a resupply I had some green stuff on the ground that looked like some type of acid with fume affect, but nothing showing up on task tracker , the module itself, to indicate what it was or if any issue.
Still no warnings for explosions, I had the same module explod by a crew quarter that wasnt used yet, with purple smoke coming out, but again no card, no real info in task tracker or module to tell me what happened.
I havent tried growing further than basics and unsure if new modules become available at a certain point or if all we have is whats there now. I understand a save is hard to do right now, but not sure what playing longer accomplishes other than adding alot more power and maintenance jobs, but with the rng of applicants, out of probably the 10-20 I recieved in 16 game days, only 2 had engineering and not sure wether I want to put unskilled folks in those jobs.
I do like the improvements tho and didnt have any weird glitches that I noticed, I did get 1 expired supply order but once swapped out cartridges and put back I realized a new supply came in,
Hey Lochar,
Thanks for the feedback! Great stuff!
An interesting game... It's difficult to keep up with the game and understand while translating English and i need to translate / find out a lot of unusual words.
its difficult to get used to control with the mouse. (i guess that if you play it a lot you will get used to it)
Also when i am reading the desk (it takes lots of time to read as non English ) i can't see what happens with the station.
it would be nice to be able to slow down the pace. (or at least a stable starting position so i have time to get used to what i see / read)
I find it funny that there is a space station, but not 1 single bed(ish thing)
i am happy that this isn't some pixel crap "C64 from 1980's look and feel" game (as i see dozens of those in steam...) and therefore i support this game.