| 1 |
Hey guys, I'm sure these topics have come up before, but I wanted to get your thoughts.
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1 |
Hey guys, I'm sure these topics have come up before, but I wanted to get your thoughts.
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| 2 |
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2 |
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| 3 |
I
saw
the
discussion
about
limiting
room
sizes
to
help
with
the
fact
that
the
play
population
struggles
to
fill
games.
And
it
got
me
thinking
about
why
the
game
is
having
trouble
gaining
traction.
It's
an
awesome
game.
But,
I
think
there
are
some
things
that
make
people
drop
out
too
early
and
never
come
back.
|
3 |
I
saw
the
discussion
about
limiting
room
sizes
to
help
with
the
fact
that
the
player
population
struggles
to
fill
games.
And
it
got
me
thinking
about
why
the
game
is
having
trouble
gaining
traction.
It's
an
awesome
game.
But,
I
think
there
are
some
things
that
make
people
drop
out
too
early
and
never
come
back.
|
| 4 |
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4 |
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| 5 |
I don't have any stats or anything to back this up, but my guess is that new people download the game, play a few rounds online, get stomped a couple times and bail before being able to even experience the rich strategy and gameplay this game offers.
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5 |
I don't have any stats or anything to back this up, but my guess is that new people download the game, play a few rounds online, get stomped a couple times and bail before being able to even experience the rich strategy and gameplay this game offers.
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| 6 |
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6 |
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7 |
I know these may be unpopular opinions here, but maybe that insular thinking is not helping the game reach a broader audience?
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8 |
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| 7 |
I think there are a few contributing factors to this:
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9 |
I think there are a few contributing factors to this:
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10 |
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| 9 |
1. In 1v1 games, the early game is incredibly unforgiving and very snowbally.
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11 |
1. In 1v1 games, the early game is incredibly unforgiving and very snowbally.
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12 |
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| 11 |
That's kind of par for the course for most RTS games. But ZK in particular is super unforgiving for the inexperienced. Most people who test out the game probably don't even survive to actually experience the game since it's so easy to screw up at the start. I don't know if providing some free defensive structure attached to your first factory would help. But, I think something to help prevent games ending prematurely would be good. There is probably nothing more off putting to a new player than watching a single glaive slowly tear down their factory because of some dumb luck in maneuvering or awkward llt placement.
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13 |
That's kind of par for the course for most RTS games. But ZK in particular is super unforgiving for the inexperienced. Most people who test out the game probably don't even survive to actually experience the game since it's so easy to screw up at the start. I don't know if providing some free defensive structure attached to your first factory would help. But, I think something to help prevent games ending prematurely would be good. There is probably nothing more off putting to a new player than watching a single glaive slowly tear down their factory because of some dumb luck in maneuvering or awkward llt placement.
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| 13 |
2. Don't build factories if you want more units, build caretakers...
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15 |
2. Don't build factories if you want more units, build caretakers...
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16 |
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| 15 |
I absolutely love this game, but this is just a weird design decision. For someone jumping into the game for the first time, they would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER assume that building caretakers instead of factories would be the standard way to increase unit production. I understand that the factory system is supposed to be an abstraction for a proper technology system. But, it's unintuitive, that's unarguable. In every other context in the world, more factories = more tanks. Something as basic and fundamental as increasing unit output in an RTS should NOT be this unintuitive and I'm sure that this alone has been the culprit to the game just simply not "clicking" with many players because they didn't take the time to read the wiki.
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17 |
I absolutely love this game, but this is just a weird design decision. For someone jumping into the game for the first time, they would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER assume that building caretakers instead of factories would be the standard way to increase unit production. I understand that the factory system is supposed to be an abstraction for a proper technology system. But, it's unintuitive, that's unarguable. In every other context in the world, more factories = more tanks. Something as basic and fundamental as increasing unit output in an RTS should NOT be this unintuitive and I'm sure that this alone has been the culprit to the game just simply not "clicking" with many players because they didn't take the time to read the wiki.
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18 |
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19 |
Maybe factories should have an upgrade or two to increase their build power to downplay the importance of care takers? The upshot to this is, it kind of nudges players to diversify their forces. After they have upgraded their factory, they will need to build a new one for more output, they may opt to go for a different tech. Instead of now, where it's common to have like 5 caretakers managing a single factory for the whole game. Also, it's going to make the world feel more realistic, having many factories pumping out units instead of just one.
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20 |
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| 17 |
3.
Flow
based
resources.
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21 |
3.
Flow-based
resources.
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22 |
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| 19 |
This one is difficult. I'm sure we have all seen this. A noob builds like 10 builders. Their logic is surely, "This is taking to long to build, I guess I need more builders?". Who can blame them? It works like that in almost every other game and in real life, more "labour" force, more output.
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23 |
This one is difficult. I'm sure we have all seen this. A noob builds like 10 builders. Their logic is surely, "This is taking to long to build, I guess I need more builders?". Who can blame them? It works like that in almost every other game and in real life, more "labour" force, more output.
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24 |
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The resource flow system of ZK is largely invisible unless you play close attention to the numbers. There is a UI/Graphical disconnect between the inputs and outputs of resources. It's not obvious that metal is evenly distributed to all builders, and building more builders is probably hurting more than helping.
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25 |
The resource flow system of ZK is largely invisible unless you play close attention to the numbers. There is a UI/Graphical disconnect between the inputs and outputs of resources. It's not obvious that metal is evenly distributed to all builders, and building more builders is probably hurting more than helping.
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26 |
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Perhaps just changing the colour of the nanolathe streams and construction skeletons to indicate how rich the resource stream is would give a more solid visual indication? Maybe something like, a red skeleton and or stream if it's getting barely any resources. And the stream gets greener as it gets closer to the builder's max build rate. Then if a builder hits it's max build rate, it will have a green stream with red flecks in it or flashing to indicate that you need more build power to fully utilize your input resource flow.
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27 |
Perhaps just changing the colour of the nanolathe streams and construction skeletons to indicate how rich the resource stream is would give a more solid visual indication? Maybe something like, a red skeleton and or stream if it's getting barely any resources. And the stream gets greener as it gets closer to the builder's max build rate. Then if a builder hits it's max build rate, it will have a green stream with red flecks in it or flashing to indicate that you need more build power to fully utilize your input resource flow.
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28 |
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| 25 |
I
don't
know,
maybe
that's
not
the
right
approach,
but
something
to
give
the
players,
especially
new
ones
be
solid
intuitive
visual
feedback
around
what
is
going
on
would
help.
Resource
management
is
perhaps
the
most
important
thing
in
an
RTS.
So,
the
game
should
be
provide
an
unambigious
and
unignorable
feedback
to
players
about
the
"affordability"
of
somthing.
Think
about
any
other
RTS,
if
you
can't
afford
something,
it's
obvious,
it'll
be
greyed
out,
or
you
get
an
in
your
face
message
"not
enough
resources".
|
29 |
I
don't
know,
maybe
that's
not
the
right
approach,
but
something
to
give
the
players,
especially
new
ones,
a
solid
intuitive
visual
feedback
around
what
is
going
on
with
the
resources.
Resource
management
is
perhaps
the
most
important
thing
in
an
RTS.
So,
the
game
should
be
provide
an
unambigious
and
unignorable
feedback
to
players
about
what
is
going
on
to
help
them
understand
the
"affordability"
of
something.
Think
about
any
other
RTS,
if
you
can't
afford
something,
it's
obvious,
it'll
be
greyed
out,
or
you'll
get
an
in-your-face
message
"not
enough
resources".
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| 26 |
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30 |
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| 27 |
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31 |
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| 28 |
Anyways, Thoughts??
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32 |
Anyways, Thoughts??
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| 29 |
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33 |
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| 30 |
Also, don't take this criticism as a knock to the game. I absolutely love it. It's out of love that I try to help with getting more people into it.
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34 |
Also, don't take this criticism as a knock to the game. I absolutely love it. It's out of love that I try to help with getting more people into it.
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Hangups preventing adoption