Yet another first impressions post

[Eleazzaar]

Medium size, all else default. Playing as tech guys

5 mins:
* Civ & SMAC experiences is serving me well, the interface and concepts seem comfortably familiar. Was briefly confused at how to get out of the production screen. (Tip window covered "return to map" button)

* Hurrah, somebody is continuing the SMAC legacy!

25? min in:
* Doesn't make much sense that i need to copy a different type of unit to build a new class. Perhaps the discovery of a new class should add a new item of that type in the workshop.

* I want to name my unit designs.

* Aliens are putting a fair amount of pressure on me-- i've never been afraid of loosing my city, but exploration has been limited, and expansion hasn't happened yet. I think having pushback from aliens/barbarians whatever from the start of the game is good.

Later:
* I feel like i pretty much know what i'm doing-- though i'm sure my strategy is bad. Haven't found any other factions. Destroyed a nearby hive, but the pressure hasn't let up -- maybe i was just in time to avoid being overrun.

* Heart lurched when i first saw a leviathan.

* Aliens got my second base -- i'm not quite sure how that happened. Major notifications blend in with minor ones.

* Edge of the map looks identical to the undiscovered areas-- would be nice if you could tell it was the edge before you went right up to it, and didn't uncover any more.

* I'm confused about where i can plant a colony. Sometimes it won't let me, but i'm not sure if it is a distance based limitation or terrain type. Would be nice if i could tell before sending the colony-builder all that way.


Mid-game?

I've explored more than half the map and met 4 of 5 AIs. The Aliens are no longer a significant threat. I'm feeling lost -- i don't have a clear idea how i'm doing or what the consequences of anything is. I get to see bullet points for other empires (Qasdan Military 4 dots, for example) but my faction is not listed, so i don't have a context to understand those ratings.
All the AIs are friendly, and want to share tech with me (naturally since i'm the tech faction). I don't know what paths to victory there are, so i don't know what i might be working towards.

Found the "Help" but currently it only has terrain info. I hope this includes more types of info in the future.

To be continued...


Random Comments:

* Would be nice if the "Hold Postion until healed" button was grayed out when unit was fully healed.

* Ruins explored text: IMHO The word you want is "inscriptions" not "scriptures"

* "Automatize" would normally be written in (at least) American English "Automate" or "Automatic". Example: "I'm setting my formers to 'automatic'."

* Observatory looks like human tech.

* When you zoom out the "fade to blue" effect is pretty but hides too much IMHO.

[SephiRok]

Thanks for the feedback.

I like the random comments -- I've fixed the first 3!

[Eleazzaar]

Thanks.

I've read some of the other threads now. No need to comment on the issues/concerns that you've commented on elsewhere.

[SephiRok]

Would it make more sense to you if the Copy button in the workshop said New instead? It would still work the same way though -- duplicate the design.

[Eleazzaar]

Would it make more sense to you if the Copy button in the workshop said New instead? It would still work the same way though -- duplicate the design.

Yeah, i think so.
I think a new player, not knowing exactly what that button did would be more likely to try to use it with that label, and end up being able to get what he wanted.

[whaleberg]

Would it make more sense to you if the Copy button in the workshop said New instead? It would still work the same way though -- duplicate the design.

Definitely make this change.