This game I've been working on is a mix of genres. I know that can be a problem because you end up making compromises one way or the other and no one is happy. Fangorodrim is inspired by Sins of the Solar Empire, which is an RTS. Fangorodrim has elements of RTS, RPG, base building and top down shooter. I'm afraid its becoming too much of a pure shooter. I'm looking for ideas to increase the strategic elements. If you have any suggestions on improving game design, I would be interested. Here is the download link:
Fangorodrim.zip (v1.53)

Here's a screenshot:


In latest version we have resource zones for power plants and mining stations which increases the strategic element, I think.

Admin: you can go ahead and delete/close this thread.

If people see your post and doesn't answer is probably because they just don't know what to say.
You should take gameplay consistency into account, strategy and shooters are very far away from each other. Trying to combine them could lead to a game of wich most people will like only some parts.

Meadville, eh? Well, I gotta weigh in on this.

You're right, it's an awkward mashup. I did a medium game on easy and a small game on hard, and both times it quickly became apparent that you need to do most of your resource harvesting in the first couple of systems, where hostile presence is very light and you're less likely to either get killed setting up infrastructure or have to make twelve jumps back to defend it when your sentries get overwhelmed.

Consequently, I spend half of my time building the geometrically ideal number of miners and powerplants and watching my resources rebuild, and the other half storming through the remaining systems, bombing and strafing everything I met and installing small outposts with a colony, five turrets and a shipyard, ignoring resources and generally just grinding along. I hit the research cap so quickly that I find myself grinding XP to level my ship and do the rest of the game all by myself.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Mouse aiming, WASD strafing. The q and e keys are never easy to use and it makes the controls feel clunky, as well as making aiming a pain.

2. Manual building placement, with the mouse. Having to navigate my ship to the location takes time and annoys me.

3. Defense fleets that are not bound to my ship. Let me build the escorts and cruisers and such, then leave them in a colonized system, stationed in the shipyard, to go out on sorties to defend the structures. When a system comes under siege and I have to make eight jumps back to defend it and rebuild, I don't feel like a commander, I feel like a plate-spinner.

4. Upgradeable structures. Let us research the mining/power/defense structures more than once, and then boost our yield that way.

5. Resource depletion. I can build five miners in the first system and it'll fund my entire war, making other systems valuable only as control nodes and repair hubs. That gives the shooter-heavy feel.

6. Replace the planetary surveying with research. Let me develop weapons and tech X-Com style instead of by luck of the draw.

7. Deepen the tech tree. I got a really satisfying Escape Velocity vibe from this game, which highlighted the relative lack of ways to customize and tailor my experience. Boosting acceleration, maneuverability, weapon systems etc. would go a long way to making the ship feel more awesome.

8. Fleet upgrades. If it's going to feel like a strategy game, it should be possible to have your wingmen do most of the work for you. After a while, on the higher difficulty, they barely function as meat shields. Allowing me to upgrade them would help. To help make it a decision between solo fighting and fleet warfare, you could have fleet upgrades take the form of mothership systems, installed instead of weapons or shields, that would buff up your buddies and make you use them instead of taking on the enemy single-handedly, to accomodate a variety of play styles.

9. Let me look around systems when I view them remotely. I love that I can click on a system that's under attack and see how my turrets are doing, but often as not, I can't see the fight that's occurring on the periphery of the map, even at the broadest zoom setting.

10. Non-linear system movement. *edit* Looks like I spoke too soon. The numbers confused me.

I figure ten's enough for now. The game is fun, and it has a lot of potential. I hope you keep working on it.

[Edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on July 12, 2010 5:53:59 PM]

Thanks for the great feedback, chef! I can count on one hand the number of extensive and helpful feedback reports such as this. Interestingly, they all come from the RTS camp. The biggest lesson I learned with Fangorodrim was the pitfall of trying to mix genres. I thought naively I might be able to invent an all new genre this way but alas most people are disappointed depending on whether they have shooter or RTS expectations (the RPG camp has been silent).

I just uploaded v1.63 which addresses some of your suggestions:
Fangorodrim.zip (11 mb)

1. I added < > as strafe keys
2. see note
3. Hangar construct added = Sector Defense ships
4. see note
5. Done! great suggestion on many levels.
6-8. see note
9. added zoom level to show entire sector (changed to = key).

note: this is not a pure RTS. There are boatloads of great RTS's out there so I was aiming for something different. Honestly, 1 programmer and 1 artist can't compete with the huge teams out there making great RTS games. I aimed for a niche and got caught in no man's land. Lesson learned. I'm getting ready to finalize this game and move on to the next one. Thanks again for the considerate review!

First of all, shame on me for missing this game. Hybrid space games are right up my alley. I've played a few small galaxy / easy games and found it REALLY fun.

A few comments:

I like the whole concept overall but the shooter portion feels underpowered compared to the strategy portion. I wasn't sure if you were going for 50/50 or 60/40 or what but it feels about 75% strategy and 25% shooter. I really like that I can actively take a role in holding down defenses while a colony gets up and running but so far my fights have been "hold strafe and fire." I never get a feel of flying the ship and since the AI makes a beeline for me it's really easy to drag them into my defenses.

One main problem I have with the shooter component is that the star systems feel really cramped. Because I'm in a small box, there's no real need to maneuver and I can't see myself getting into extended turning battles. Again, this may be "as designed" but I'm not sure yet why I wouldn't just want to just spam fire. One thing that might help would be to add behaviors which cause enemy ships to try take different vectors, especially sense they're pretty much drones anyway. Maybe they try to circle strafe the player!

I'd like a better indication of damage and status for the mothership itself. At times I saw a green arrow which I think was telling me I'd better go home but I wasn't sure what it meant.

A few other notes:

• Remappable keys for the win! Just finished playing and I got a serious hand cramp with the WASD + fire and found bombs on Enter to be awkward.
  
• SHIFT pressed too many times activates sticky keys. At first I thought I had to tap it repeatedly when I nosed to the edge of the system and warp refused to activate.
  
• Fixer needs a more visible indication of fixing
  
• Normally I eschew tutorials but this game might cry out for it in order to frame the player's expectations
  
• Not sure I completely understood the survey thing but found a powerup in one game for 25% engine speed which I assumed was a benefit of researching survey
  
• On task out game should pause
  
• Loved the trade bases. I wanted to see more growth and development in that direction because it made the systems more alive (trade ship movement made me laugh thinking of that hokey movie "Space Truckers")
  
• Even on easy the enemy should go after my construction when I start building turrets around its base. It was fun to do but felt like a cheap tactic.
  
• I'd like the whole warp thing to be more clear, maybe with a "Warp to Location X" indicator
  
• Really need upgrades for range on turrets and escorts. At present enemy fire range vastly dwarfs my own and it's annoying to lose them because they can't shoot until the enemy is knocking on their front door
  
• Did I say this concept is awesome? This concept is awesome.
  

Oh yeah, and what Iron Chef said. [grin]

Wavinator, thanks for playing! What version do you have? The green arrow is an indication that you just leveled up. The tutorial pops up on new game, I guess you missed it (or its so crappy you don't credit it as a true tutorial).

Also, your suggestion about the Warp function has been made before. If you think these sectors are cramped, you should've played pre-v1.53 where they were 50% smaller. Anyway, there are other issues at play besides the need for bigger sectors as you indicated. Btw, on hard difficulty some of the aliens take a different vector.

All of these great reviews may motivate me to issue another version (you got me thinking about the warp thing). Thanks again!

Edit: v1.65 is uploaded which includes an alternative warp method and a notification when your mothership gains a level. Its a lot easier to traverse the galaxy now. Good suggestions, Wavinator.

[Edited by - djcityscapes on July 15, 2010 2:11:35 PM]