I read in another post, which I cannot find now, that some people wanted feedback as to why players don’t stay with the game. I can only state what has been frustrating from my point of view and why it is hard to want to keep playing. I am trying to be helpful here and this actually took me a few hours to compile, so please don’t take this as just whining.
1. Installation:
a. I did not get my initial account confirmation email. Ok, stuff happens and I may be blind, but at the time I could find any clear information in the Wiki on what to when this happens. Sorry if I missed it, but I did look although I may have not known the proper search terms. I did post in the help forum and did receive a quick reply, which was excellent and contributed to me wanting to stick around when I had future troubles. Suggestion: Updating the Wiki and putting a few account problem solutions right on the ASGS login page would be extremely helpful and might cut down on new users having to search for them.
b. Having to make a separate account for the forums. Yeah, nothing new and most games are like this, but it was just another annoying step. Suggestion: Make an option to create a forum account at the same time or even have them linked somehow. It should be quick and easy as possible. The fewer steps for new users the better.
c. Direct X 9 requirement for Windows 7. Suggestion: It would be nice if the installer told me I needed this instead of having to deal with an error message. Grrr.
d. Weird administration privilege requirement every time I need to play the game. Really? Maybe I did something wrong but this seems to be asking a lot of trust. I understand installing any program requires trust, but the fact that the game has must have admin rights every time is really off putting and annoying. I actually considered uninstalling the game right then, but the excellent help forum response on my first problem swayed me just enough. However, every time I run the game that nagging question of trust comes to the front of my mind. I keep asking myself whether this game is worth having installed every time I have to enter my admin password. If I have installed it wrong (really?), please let me know. Suggestion: (if this is actually how things are supposed to work) make it not require this.
e. It installed icons on all of my user desktops. Another annoying tick on the initial user experience, but it is not even optional or even just one account.
2. In game Training Tutorials:
a. This is huge. The default controls are crap, especially the keyboard layout. You need 4 hands with that set up once you start playing real games even assuming the user has a mouse. Once I got online I realized that you really need to be able to press many things at once to be able to effectively fly anything other than Interceptor. What is worse is that you initially think these settings are optimal because they are the default. Nothing seems be further from the truth and I ended up wasting hours learning a setup that is actually useless. Suggestion: I don’t know, but the Cadet Wiki one kinda sucks too. I am sure it will likely be impossible to find a consensus on a better layout, but it seems that the few people that have talked to me do not use the default. This continues to waste hours of my time.
b. Does any of us noobs really have any business learning command before becoming a good pilot??? Really???
c. I think the thing that was the biggest joke was the “Try to defeat at least one wave, blah blah blah before you can consider yourself ready for real combat” line. Bull freakin crap! I got my butt creeeeeamed in every dog fight once I got online. I thought that other players were cheating almost immediately, obviously not true, but this is not the kind of experience you should want new players to have. While I learned more through the observation of other players, as you do with any online game, I felt I had been misled by the training tutorials. After figuring a few things out, I spent days in the combat test just killing wave after wave of ships and did not quit until I could live almost indefinitely. Even this was barely enough preparation. Suggestion: At a minimum the whole multiple side thrusting maneuvers to avoid enemy fire really needs to be more extensively covered before players get online. Hell, the enemy ships in the tutorials don’t seem to side thrust at all so it is a whole new experience when fighting real pilots.
d. One whole training mission just on the most common abbreviations would have been a god send. I am talking about Ints, Figs, FBees, Nans (covered at least), Prox, Galv etc. Once online, I had no freaking clue what the hell everyone was talking about because it was all short hand. Hell, I am still lost. I don’t think you guys realize just how much of a language barrier there is here. Suggestion: I know there are tons, but at least cover the most important ones.
e. In general, the whole tutorial trainer is horribly minimal at best and misleading at worst. I understand now the need for the Cadet classes, but the fact that I need an actual training class to play a game is… like WTF? You know? I appreciate that players are willing to do this but wow! oO Suggestion: More detailed and extensive in game tutorials before players even get online especially for combat.
3. Wiki (Tech and Learning):
a. To be honest, without this and people constantly being helpful, I probably would have quit last week. Suggestion: Make its existence even more in your face for us noobs. I am not kidding here; make it a big ass animated button/link/ad whatever on top of every page. Our biggest problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, ya know? Ooo, maybe a random tip on top of every page?
b. I am almost thinking that it should be a required read before even getting into an online game, but that might be too much… too… overwhelming. I swear, I have a cycle:
i. Play a game.
ii. I try to restrict myself to a few questions per game and most of the time people are very helpful.
iii. Consult Wiki, repeat. To be honest, this is not exactly fun.
c. It is still missing tons of stuff. I had searches didn’t yield any answers. Most of the time I don’t know what to actually search for… there is so much terminology to learn. Do you guys see a search history in the Wiki?
d. It is probably my lack of knowledge but it does not seem that well organized. Yeah, this is probably just me.
4. In Game Help: F1 Help is kinda useless… a mini Wiki is not what I need and the window is way too small and there are no visuals. Suggestion: I don’t know what to call it, but I want to be able to have a mode in the game where I can click on anything and the help system would tell me about them it in lots of detail. I am guessing this is hard, but really, it would be fantastic. Most of the time I just what to know what that thingy is and what it is supposed to do and I need to know it now!
5. Controls: Cool part about the game: tons of ship controls. Bad part about the game: tons of ship controls! oO Once I got online I saw people doing so many things at the same time it baffled me and still does. Forward/back thrusting, side thrusting, boosting, chaff, mines, missiles, rolling, etc. It is hard for me to imagine that people pull off these maneuvers with just a standard kb & mouse as many of the players have told me. Not that I don’t believe them, I am sure it just takes practice, but so many controls are not very intuitive for us noobs ya know? Yeah it is part of the game but… wow… oO. It is not just a steep learning curve, it is more like climbing a slippery cliff face with vicious alligators below while rocks are being thrown at your head. Even after playing with several configurations and suggestions, many thanks to BigNRich and others here, I still can’t find one that allows me to do what I want! I need to be able to aim, not take my fingers off of any of the thrust keys, use mines/chaff, roll and see behind me occasionally. It always seems like I have to sacrifice a critical ability for another. Players tell me they don’t worry about rolling/viewing, but it seems like it would be helpful. I don’t see how you can fly for Rixian Unity and not roll while side thrusting. It is all like a hellish game of finger twister like no other game I have played. Suggestion: Better tutorials I guess? Show me how to make these maneuvers before I get online.
6. Tech: I still have no clue about tech paths. Suggestion: Um… an actual detailed very visual tech tree would be nice. A real tree while in game would be great too. If there is one, I have not found it yet. I see the Tech Tree Explorer program, but it does not explain things and is not very helpful while in game where I need it.
7. Graphics: Just personal observations here. Hey, I am actually really happy this is sorta playable on my little netbook!
a. Ok… I know this game is old, but some things are fugly. It is just the style of everything, very… pixilated, bad color choices, screen resolution changes, just plain dated. I quickly found out about the Cort UI thing and modded my installation almost immediately. The default is horrible and that improved things quite a bit. There are other mods I am going to try asap, especially the transparency stuff.
b. And then there is the 3D in game stuff. Bios and Rixian Unity are the only things that looked good to me so far.
c. The overhead view is awesome though. I have learned so much by just watching people dog fight from that view.
8. Random Related Stuff:
a. You know it was days before I realized that squads and factions were separate things.
b. A list of who is in authority would be helpful.
c. Login name symbols: the ^*@ stuff. Yes I eventually found it, but it something more up front would be nice.
d. How to private chat with people in the game. People helped me in game, but I have yet to find anything in the Wiki about it.
There is so much more, but I think I have covered my biggest problems so far. The facets of this game seem massive right now.
And I need to learn how to use the forum post formating.
