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So it has been 4 patches since I last played the game (December patch), so here are some of my feedback about the current state of the game (27/03 patch).

1. Cancelation: When in pause menu and build something, sometime, you might build the wrong building, upon cancellation, you won't get resources back. This is bad design, as the game is paused, thus the building order shouldn't be executed yet, if cancel, it should return all resources.

2. Icons: I actually like the old icons better, as it looks more neat compared to the new one, but that's just an opinion.

3. No Random Generated Maps: The game still has no random generated map, thus, removing the replay value of the game, as it's only a few maps you can play, which in turn makes it repeative.

4. Election Trigger: Still unfixed since the December patch, it disrupt the game flow as previously stated, it's annoying for it to be triggered every time, it's enough with an icon on the side and a sound. Pop-up at least a few times under 3 mins.

5. Battery: The battery doesn't auto disable itself after sufficient power, but you have to uncheck the policy yourself. Though, it's better than the december patch where you have to manually activate/de-activate every battery. This by itself is micro-managing, while I welcome micro-managing but this doesn't feel right as you have to check/un-check the policy as it should be auto. 

6. Colonist: The only way to get more colonist is immigrant, though it defeats the purpose of a colony if the colonist can't make kids of their own. Making the game shallow.

7. Trade: Trade still feel dead as there's no real ratio, thus making it feel dead. As previously stated. 

8. The game still lacks that mid-late game depth compared the december patch to the march patch.

All in all, a lot of annoying things has been addressed, few new buildings and features was introduced(positive ones), which is good, this at least shows the developer care but there are still quite a bit left, with the game now moving to the polishing state, I doubt there will be more changes, as stated in the latest march patch. 

I'll look forward to the release version, but all in all, it fell short, if I would recommend this to my peers, it would be to get it when it goes on a major discount. The game's core and early game are solid if not great, but apart from that, it fell short as it lacks mid-late game and part of the game feel static and dead. Hopefully, this won't turn into one of those DLC ***** where you buy the skeleton and if you want the meat, you have to puke out more cash as well (Expansion is fine as it adds more features and gameplay value to the game). 

Looking forward to the release version 🙂

 

1. Canceling a building before it's fully constructed should always refund all the nanites.

Yeah, it should -- that's actually a bug right now where if you recycle a building using the 'delete' key (or whatever key you've mapped it to), you get no refund unless it's fully constructed.  Fixing it right now.

3. No Random Generated Maps: The game still has no random generated map, thus, removing the replay value of the game, as it's only a few maps you can play, which in turn makes it repeative.

Randomly generated maps are out of scope for the game.  We've never had a plan for those and they're not really feasible.

9 sandbox maps and 9 campaign maps should be plenty, I'd think.  So nothing has been "removed."  And when you think about what random maps would actually get you -- no, it's really hard to see that it would add anything you can't get with the existing maps.

4. Election Trigger: Still unfixed since the December patch, it disrupt the game flow as previously stated, it's annoying for it to be triggered every time, it's enough with an icon on the side and a sound. Pop-up at least a few times under 3 mins.

So, you're saying after the first referendum, subsequent elections shouldn't automatically open?

5. Battery: The battery doesn't auto disable itself after sufficient power, but you have to uncheck the policy yourself. Though, it's better than the december patch where you have to manually activate/de-activate every battery. This by itself is micro-managing, while I welcome micro-managing but this doesn't feel right as you have to check/un-check the policy as it should be auto. 

Pretty sure it does ...

6. Colonist: The only way to get more colonist is immigrant, though it defeats the purpose of a colony if the colonist can't make kids of their own.

We're not trying to simulate every aspect of life.  So far, the Immigration Center lets you add colonists, and if we add other ways of getting colonists (which we might!), we'd only do so if it had really different gameplay trade-offs from the Immigration Center.  It may be more "realistic" to let people have kids, but A) we're not gunning for realism here, and B) even if we were, the time scales to get someone pregnant, have a baby, and then raise them to be a productive member of society are a lot longer than even the longest game of Aven Colony.

7. Trade: Trade still feel dead as there's no real ratio, thus making it feel dead. As previously stated. 

I don't understand what you mean by "no real ratio."

8. The game still lacks that mid-late game depth compared the december patch to the march patch.

Could you clarify?  How much have you played, and have you tried the expedition system yet?

Randomly generated maps are out of scope for the game.  We've never had a plan for those and they're not really feasible.

9 sandbox maps and 9 campaign maps should be plenty, I'd think.  So nothing has been "removed."  And when you think about what random maps would actually get you -- no, it's really hard to see that it would add anything you can't get with the existing maps.

Those 9 maps are essential the same. Thus, it's always the same layout, with random generated map, the game will still feel fresh since every time you play sandbox, you will be put in a different map, thus new way to build your colony, hence, add more replay value to the game. But if the requirement of time and money needed to accomplish such a task is too great, and with the current team, it's not feasible, then it's understandable. But the fact still remains, that the replay of the game is not as great.

So, you're saying after the first referendum, subsequent elections shouldn't automatically open?

I'm refering to the overall event triggers, every single time, when the gas, spore, shards, etc spawn, and that election, it poped up, it's annoying and is a bad design. Not to mention the natual disaster pauses the game, in which is a very bad design by itself. While the idea is great, to warn the player and let them be aware of it, but at least make it so we can turn it off. It removes the immerse feeling as the game constantly pause and that screen pop-up on the face of the player. Like I suggested, make an option to let us turn it off after the first trigger, it's enough with a warning sound and the icon on the left of the screen, no need to pop up right infront of the player's face and pause the game for it. And if my conlony collapse or I lose the game because of not paying attention to it, then it's my fault, at least it gives me an immerse feeling of the game.

Pretty sure it does ...

Yes, my bad on that regards, as the policy kicks in a tad slow, so I went and cancel the policy myself. 

We're not trying to simulate every aspect of life.  So far, the Immigration Center lets you add colonists, and if we add other ways of getting colonists (which we might!), we'd only do so if it had really different gameplay trade-offs from the Immigration Center.  It may be more "realistic" to let people have kids, but A) we're not gunning for realism here, and B) even if we were, the time scales to get someone pregnant, have a baby, and then raise them to be a productive member of society are a lot longer than even the longest game of Aven Colony.

My bad for not being clear, it's not about being realism, but the only way to get more people is the IC, and if lucky you get 1 from the ES. thus, it's very limited, and like I said, it defeats the whole purpose of "colonise" when they can't even make kids and make future generations, though, if the time, money and workforce are limited, then I understand. However, it adds more depth to the game, with "generation".

I don't understand what you mean by "no real ratio."

Compared to the December patch, there aren't that much improvement when it comes to the trade system, it still feel static and dead. With "Real-Ratio" I'm referring to the game letting me chose a product I want to trade, and listed it or bargain with the mothership for the trade, as in, I would like trade X for Y, if the mothership is not interested in Y product, I can try to bargain by giving 100X for 1Y, instead of 2X for 1Y. This is just an suggestion, there are more ways to make the trade more alive and give more depth to the game, also, should give penalty if the player failed in deliver the product, as in every sol the player has to deliver X for Y, but if failed to do so the player will be at risk for trade blockaded for a certain amount of time by the mothership as they failed to deliver the product. This by itself adds more depth and importance to the trade and make the players re-think twice before they decided on a trade, as failure in delivery will result in trade blockade, instead of just accept the trade and it's done. 

Could you clarify?  How much have you played, and have you tried the expedition system yet?

Yes, I have. I really like all the new features and new buildings etc compared to the december patch (Except teh icons), the features add more depth to the game, and give a bit more micro-management, which I really like, but it's not enough for the to cover the mid-late game. At best it covers mid game. Although I like how more research was introduced to the RC, but it still becomes useless after a while, once you dont researching the Ship and the Policy, it's done and become useless, best is to add a few infinitive(continuous) researchs in which players can chose which to research based on their playstyle, thus will always make the RC relevant and important. 

Another thing I find it annoying is the Potash, as I have to go through every farm to enable it, not to mention, when you activate the farming overlay, it doens't even highligt where the farms are and which product they are producing. All buildings becomes gray, and you have to go around and find that one farm you're looking for. This by itself is bad design, if I'm to open the farming overlay/statistic, it should highlight where the farms are located at and which farm produce what.

Another thing is the optimization, it's still as bad as the december patch, especially when you try to build something after you have quite few buildings.

All in all, since it's an Indie game, I would say you have succed quite well, but imho, it still fall a bit short as part of the game feels static and dead, and those annoying things poping up and pause the game is really annoying and remove the immersion of the game. I'll wait for the release version and see how it turns out. If this is the "finished product" but just lack a bit of polish then, I hope there will be an expansion which add more life and depth into the game and not those crappy DLC which add nothing to the game or tiny bit and pieces to milk people as much as possible. 

Though, I still praise the team for the solid core and early/mid game play. But I would not recommend the game under a full price tag to my peers. If I do, then it's out of support for the game because the experience I have with the game so far are positive, apart from those annoying little things.

My bad for not being clear, it's not about being realism, but the only way to get more people is the IC, and if lucky you get 1 from the ES. thus, it's very limited, and like I said, it defeats the whole purpose of "colonise" when they can't even make kids and make future generations, though, if the time, money and workforce are limited, then I understand. However, it adds more depth to the game, with "generation".

We'd originally had the ability for colonists to have children but it ended up feeling half-baked since we didn't have support for showing children in the game, sending them to schools, and so on.  After a while we realized it would be better to cut all this than leave something half-baked in the game like that.

We'll look at what we can do in future updates to get more functionality here.

 Compared to the December patch, there aren't that much improvement when it comes to the trade system, it still feel static and dead. With "Real-Ratio" I'm referring to the game letting me chose a product I want to trade, and listed it or bargain with the mothership for the trade, as in, I would like trade X for Y, if the mothership is not interested in Y product, I can try to bargain by giving 100X for 1Y, instead of 2X for 1Y. This is just an suggestion, there are more ways to make the trade more alive and give more depth to the game, also, should give penalty if the player failed in deliver the product, as in every sol the player has to deliver X for Y, but if failed to do so the player will be at risk for trade blockaded for a certain amount of time by the mothership as they failed to deliver the product. This by itself adds more depth and importance to the trade and make the players re-think twice before they decided on a trade, as failure in delivery will result in trade blockade, instead of just accept the trade and it's done. 

Those are some interesting ideas!  We'll see what we can do in the future.

Another thing is the optimization, it's still as bad as the december patch, especially when you try to build something after you have quite few buildings.

We've made some BIG improvements here very recently that should show up in the next update.

vodanh: to be sure, are you playing the game via itch.io, or Steam?  It appears that the itch.io version never quite got updated to 0.1.17105 and that could explain some of the performance issues you're seeing.

Also, we'll almost certainly be making additional sandbox maps available in some form or other post-launch.  It only takes us 2-4 days to make a new map if it's in an existing biome.  So, the existing campaign and sandbox maps should be plenty to keep most everyone busy until we can make new maps available.

to be sure, are you playing the game via itch.io, or Steam?  It appears that the itch.io version never quite got updated to 0.1.17105 and that could explain some of the performance issues you're seeing.

I'm playing the Steam version with the March patch.

Also, we'll almost certainly be making additional sandbox maps available in some form or other post-launch.  It only takes us 2-4 days to make a new map if it's in an existing biome.  So, the existing campaign and sandbox maps should be plenty to keep most everyone busy until we can make new maps available.

Good to know, but I still recommend going for the auto-generated map. 

Looking forward for the Release Version as the game is entering the Polish State :), and do let us turn off those pauses and pop-up, crisis option doesn't do anything, as far as I have tried, it's just annoying and bad design in the long run. 

And why is my post marked as spam or awaiting moderation everytime now, when I first joined, there was no awaiting moderation and it appears right away. Just wondering

Posted by: vodanh34

 

And why is my post marked as spam or awaiting moderation everytime now, when I first joined, there was no awaiting moderation and it appears right away. Just wondering

   

No clue, the forum seems to do that automatically.  I'm guessing it was the rather harsh language in your first post that somehow triggered it, but who knows.  I'll go ahead and mark them as approved now.