Sticky Initial Feedback

Likes Vs dislikes rundown.

Lets start with likes.

I think the graphic style is amazing, very detailed, nice smooth dynamic feel, and when rotating with the camera, reveals areas that I have never noticed before, little unique beautiful scenery and thing.

I love that you can judge a characters job by the tool they are holding, excellent way of distinguishing who is doing what job.

Ok now things that I think need improving, disregarding bugs.

-As everyone has stated before me, a tutorial is heavily needed. Though you guys have already mentioned that you didn't have time to implement one. Though i expect you to put one in place eventually.

- As everyone has also mentioned, controls are kind of impractical and hard to control. I tend to move the camera instead of rotate a lot of the time. Maybe instead of the camera moving on the Y axis when you scroll the wheel. Maybe actually make it zoom into the location of the mouse pointer. Instead of space left clicking to move the camera, set it to WASD and for rotating, either have it middle mouse button by default, which is a common rotating button, or just ctrl right click. Space bar is a little annoying to push seeing as its in the middle of the keyboard, you want to group the buttons in a similar area.

-To this day, i still have no idea how to pick up and drop items, this needs to be improved to a more predictable key.

-I think there needs to be a graphical update when the containers are full versus empty. maybe have the container for the crystals lid off when its empty/ filling. Once it is full have the lid on, maybe make it glow slightly to represent it ready to be taken to the crystals for a new bricktron.

-I noticed with the miners, they would dig down and sometimes get stuck because they dug too deep or the ladder didnt connect or something, I think you need an icon to pop up above the bricktons heads when there is a problem, so the player can quickly see this and fix it perhaps. (Maybe also when all the jobs are completed that they were doing/ finished mining the hole/ no more trees etc.

Thanks for an absolutely amazing game guys! Keep up the incredible work!

-Brendon

The videos made the difference for me. Before I watched the videos I couldn't get the game to do anything, so it was very frustrating. Luckily I noticed the videos linked from the forums, and then started being able to play the game. The controls are quite weird, so at the least they need some introduction/training. Or, alternatively, the control scheme could be modified to be a bit more along the lines of what people are used to.

Something the game could use is Tillers and hunters Just for more of a survival part of the game Kinda like Age of Empires

Wow feedback.

OK, this game is very big and giving feedback at the scope of this game is difficult. I am myself a software engineer and 240,000 people a month download and use my software. So I have a little perspective when I write this.

I love the concept of this game. I see three very distinct modes to this game (you may have more I have not thought of). Modes explained below:

Player VS Environment (PvE): Typical minecraft style but with a Castle Story twist. Each day/night cycle the "Corrupttrons" (CTs) grow in numbers (and strength/diversity?). I might make the day night cycle a little longer and definately start at dawn for this mode. I'd like to see it scale to the size of the castle the player is building. So, each night, more CTs would attack, unless they were winning (breaking the castle) then their numbers would backoff. Catapults would have a range limit. Diversity of CTs could include the standard CT, wall crawlers, the "big brother rock thrower" (from the kickstarter film), sappers (who can't dig through castle walls), and a very strong fellow who can actually smash castle walls.

Player VS Player (PvP): Ah, I am so looking forward to this. I think the crystal/barrel/crystal reproduction of BTs is too slow for this type of game. Instead a special building should be built that spawns BTs. Each player begins with one building (or more depending on game setup). These are Multiplayer duels (think Supreme Comander), and need setup options. Players might be able to build more spawn buildings or not depending on game setup. There might be a no rush timer as well - give time to build a small castle to start. I think I would remove catapults from this game or limit them to being built on a castle (rock floor above ground), and limit their range. What makes this game work is building under enemy fire. You'd have to have faster controls than we have now to tell BTs to build protective walls even as archers were fireing on them. Then allied archers could stand behind the newly constucted wall and return fire. Of course archers higher up could fire further. I might add siege towers and battering rams, to counter the well archered castle. The game is to destroy each enemy spawn building (or optionally all enemy BTs). Castles, and walls have to matter to this style of game. Flaming arrows might be a nice touch as they could light wood structures on fire (forcing you to use stone to protect your castle).

Build mode: No day/night cycle - just day. Build to your hearts content.

Oh I just thought of another!!

Co-op VS Environment (CvE): Two (or more) players play together (with random start locations or not) and attempt to survive the mounting attacks of the CTs.

In the XvE type games, the CTs can win, if they kill a players BTs. So guarding them is important. Also a uncontrolled breach of the castle might reduce the BT numbers so low a player can't defend the next night. That's OK, they lose that game. But on the other hand, if they build over the face of all the land, no more CTs can spawn, and they win. It might be very important to build a castle over the central crystal in this mode.

Also, I think trees should grow. In agressive modes they might even grow between stones and knock castles down.

Thank you for such an inspiring game. Can't wait for the save issues to be fixed (hate losing my work). Best of luck on everything.

Edit: Spelling and clarity.

Edit 2:
I think managing groups would be easier if there was a right-click context menu for rhe groups. I have shown a sample one here with simple functions like "Pause", "Select BrickTrons", but some advanced functions that let you delete the group (oh yeah, there should be a "Create new Group") and delete the associated Mine or both. Also clean-up tasks would work here too.

I'm loving the game so far. I can't wait for the full release!
Here are some of my suggestions and feedback.

Controls and Keymapping:
Currently, the controls are far from intuitive and are a pain to get used to. Once you have them down its not so bad, but it might make the game more enjoyable from the start if the controls are easier to use. Even if you don't feel like changing the controls, you should at least add a keymapping feature so people can map each button to exactly what they want.

I propose to you this: To pan your camera across the game world, all you should have to do is move your cursor to the edges of the screen and you will pan in that direction. Forget about WASD and the SPACEBAR. To rotate your camera all you should have to do is hold SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK and move your mouse in the direction you want to rotate. And when you want to zoom in and zoom out all you should have to do is roll the SCROLL WHEEL on the mouse.

As the game is now, the controls are my only issue. I think once the full release is out and things start working properly this game will be amazing.
Thanks for all your hard work Sauropod Studios!

What about altitude change? Shift + Scroll?

That's what the zooming in and out is.

I personally really enjoy playing the prototype. But a few suggestions. I think the camera controls are quite different, I've gotten used to them, but it took a couple days to get them down. The other thing is that the guys are really bug, and they like to just not move a lot. Also, the mines are a bit buggy to. But other then that, it's an awesome game. The other thing I have a question on is how do you mine the big crystal?

No there is a distinct difference between zooming in and out and changing altitude. Altitude is used to control things like xray level.

Hiya!

First of all thank you for the prototype and congratz on delivering it on time.
I like the steep learning curve, cause it rewards you if you finally do succeed in creating something nice.
I'm already jealous at many of the designs I've seen passing through on the forum, srsly where do you get the time and how do you manage it without spending hours of micro managing the pathways yourself?

As a developer myself, I could rant about the bugs for hours. But almost everything has been mentioned already.
I'd really suggest to fix the 'Clicking on resume game-crashes the whole menu' ASAP, lets be real, that could've been fixed already and you could have sent an update for that.
For the controls, take a look at any other RTS (eg. Supreme Commander/ C&C / ... ) and see why we're frustrated
As a development tip, try to code everything in English instead of French, especially for config files and describing comments.
+1 for not pausing the game when the game loses focus plz!!

To end on a positive note: I like it and I'm a proud backer, hope to see some updates really soon!

Realy enjoying the Prototype, took me a while to realise i needed to add some Barrels else the miners stop after a while with bags full of gems.

Also like the way the Bricktrons take shortcuts when going down stairs

Edge scrolling would be great though.

cant wait for move block types, doors, windows etc... and a corner arch piece, both outwards and inwards.

Thanks for letting me play with the Prototype. I'ts just too much fun

Loving the prototype at the moment, I have to agree with the common thought of it being hard to grasp at the beginning though, but without a tutorial in the game at the moment it's no surprise. Camera controls are a pain as well, would like to scroll around the map without having to use the keyboard. Other than that the other annoying elements are bugs that I'm sure will get ironed out in the future, so good work guys.

Can I also just say that I love the small feature you've added that allows bricktrons to pass their loads to other bricktrons. For example, if they're building a castle with only one staircase and "Phil" is carrying a brick up the staircase while "Fred" is coming down to collect another brick, I imagined this would create a block on the staircase (especially in the prototype), but to my surprise Phil actually gave the brick to Fred (this works with bags as well) which freed him up to go and collect another brick, while Fred placed the brick he was given. It's little features like this that really bring a smile to my face.

I'll keep this pretty brief as there is already a wealth of information. I have been thoroughly enjoying the game, albeit a few frustrations (bugs aside), some of the path finding algorithms etc can send you a bit crazy ... but overall, just a stunning game ... the brickton's are beautiful and animated well. I look forward to some more block types (corner archs etc).

Multiple CPU support would be awesome, not sure what limitations the Unity engine has in that department. Also the ability to replant trees would be great too, they add so much character to the environment, it would be nice to be able to plant some around the castle for asthetic purposes (not to mention resource renewal, I've chopped down like a third of all the trees for the project below). Also as others have mentioned, wooden version of bricks/walls, stairs, arches etc would add another dimension asthetically too.

Anyway ... after about 3-4 days of game play I present my first large scale castle! I learnt an awful lot about the mechanics of the game, and workarounds to coax the bricktons to do what you want them to do. Such fun! Thankyou guys ... keep up the great work.

The game has a pretty harsh learning curve... well, thats to be expected since there are no tutorials in place. The UIs can use improvement especially since the Lumber and Mining menus have little quirks that differs from the build menu.

Can we not have the Lumber and Mining groups auto create new ones every single time we set a new job?

The bricktons however can be quite buggy with their path finding and does not seem to know how to get out of each other's way. Once they run out of jobs, they simply halt on the spot and become an obstacle. This causes problem when you are mining with a large group of people and the game auto features only builds one set of stairs. Dun think we can build those stairs on our own either..

But definitely the game has potential as an RTS / free-style setting

Okay, here's the suggestions I can think of, (some of these may have been planned anyway for future releases)

1.) Mouse over state on stockpiles showing how much more rubble is required until bricks are completed.

2.) Alter the destruction of trees, (maybe force them to collapse inland, or script tree destruction which places the logs in a fixed fashion in the area around the tree) This is because trees at the edge of the island often lose all their logs by rolling off the edge.

3.) Make BT's more inclined to complete half full stockpiles before going to the closest one.

4.) Include the option to have multiple staircases in mines, to improve workflow.

5.) half block stairs / wooden stairs would be useful.

6.) Wildlife in the woods (just for aesthetics?) rabbits/ducks etc. just to make this look a bit more alive.

General non constructive feedback.
1) The graphics are awesome.
2) Some of the music reminded me of Transport Tycoon. Good job!

Edit:
Also, it might be useful to have a blueprint mechanism, where you can place ghost blocks for pre-designed structures. Might be useful for getting the BT's to build a small tower/outpost early on in the game, i.e. before an initial attack.

I just wish i knew how to build those huge structures without spending mindless hours figuring everything out. At most, i can only get like a 3 story building and i can't build a staircase for anything I want how to's and such on those little things that would help.

Awesome game, and well worth the wait. Best part is Sauropod delivered AS PROMISED!! Been waiting ages to play it. Called in sick at work on release date . Controls, well... could be better. I wonder if they've played Sins of a Solar Empire. Perhaps they could adopt a few of their tricks in camera control. Otherwise, I've spent sleepless nights and dog-tired evenings building SOMEthing or the other, even though I can't save. I shudder to think what the full release will mean for my employment status, as shaving off work every day on some trumped up excuse is beginning to be an irresistible urge already.

Rock on Sauropod!! And thank you for giving us something this amazing in a very long while!

I'm pretty sure they said something like this will be available. Ofcourse not for entire castles, but at least for small outposts/towers. I don't know where I read/saw this and I can't find it, but I'm pretty sure it's in one of their video's.

hey, i think the game is awesome and i like the way the controls are! beautifull grafics! very positive about the game

Ah okay. I haven't seen any plans for it, but yeah cool. I think it would be useful if you need to knock up some defences quickly on the first night.