Improving the experience for new and expert players
Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 6:54 pm
I have some proposals that IMHO, will improve the enjoyment of the game by new and expert players.
The basic idea is that the game should let the player learn its mechanics gradually and be rewarded by his progresses, but this doesn't happen if the game does all the difficult things for him.
I think that, for a start, we need to modify, at least, the autopilot and the time compressor.
1. The autopilot must only bring you to the vicinity of a planet or an orbiting station.
For every kind of players, having an autopilot that can land and dock your ship is a bad tempation that could turn a beautyful space simulator into a boring point-and-click trading simulation. "Select your job - click - Launch - click - select your autopilot destination - click - wait - profit"
The player should, at least, do the slow speed maneuvers. This will also be a training for more complex situations, with moving targets: fighting and, when and if it will be possible, docking to big moving ships with all the escort ships around.
From the point of view of plausibility, I understand that it may seem absurd that in the distant future, a ship can't automatically land or put itslef in orbit, but from the point of view of gameplay I believe that these possibilites should be limited.
1.1. The game should start on an orbiting station
A unexperienced player have to learn how to manouver and how to fly, but he must have the opportunity to learn gradually, so the experience could be rewarding and not frustrating.
If it's difficult to land on a planet (and for a new player, it is), then the game should start on an orbiting station, so the player could choose to move its first steps by trading between orbiting starions. When he feels enough confident, he could start to try to land: first on small asteroids and moons with very little gravity, like Phobos, then on bigger plantes (doing so, he will learn to read the informations about the planets before deciding to land on them... but with an almighty autopilot, who needs to read all those things?).
To stimulate the learning, we could choose to have more profitable contracts and better prices on planets, and anyway, I think that the view of the planet that comes closer and closer, and the land nearer with all the details, and the change of colours of the atmosphere is another rewarding experience. That's why, in my opinion, it's abolutely ok that the player can't go everywhere from start: he will start in a safe and easy to manage situation, then, as soon as he learns, he will be able to go in other kinds of places, and when he will be able to do so, he will feel rewarded. ...But whith an autopilot that does everyting, the temptation to never take away the little wheels from your bike is too strong. In that way, you don't feel rewarded, because you always had the possibility to land without any effort, simply clicking on a ground base and telling the autopilot to go there.
Option 1. Limit the autopilot to bring you only near "space objects"
Option 2. Split the autopilot in two separate equipments: one cheap autopilot that does only "Fly to vicinity of <planet or orbiting base> (not ground bases)" and an expensive one that does all the tasks.
Option 3: There's no Auto-landing/docking, but you can hire someone that does this maneuvers for you. In that way, you can't have it until you buy a ship that can host more than a single pilot, and you have to alredy be on good business to pay the crew. The new player, with his single pilot small crappy ship is forced to learn how to fly until he had made enough progresses to change ship and hire someone.
Option 4 : No auto-docking. Auto-lading is not a ship equipment, but a feaure of some ground stations.
The probability that a station have that feature could be linked to the distance from the Sol System (nearer=more probable) or the capital system of every faction. Inversely, the possibility of profitable tradings would be major on distant systems.
In that way, the player would start in an "easy" environmnet, where he will be forced only to learn to go near a starport (even ground bases, without autopilot: he must at least be able to dive into atmosphere and fly near the base) withour dying, but when he wants to go further and explore, make more money, do more interesting missions, he will be forced to learn.
2. Add more limits to the time compressor.
Something like: no more than 4 when there are objects < 20AU, no more than 3 when < 0.1 AU (or some other rational default). The gameplay will be slower, but it hopefully will be less easier to loose control of the ship... and, anyway, you can always override it.
I propose this, because I find the autopilot useful when I need to cover big distances mainly because i find quite frustraing to calculate, or guess when starting to decelerate, and then decelerate while having to adjust the time compression (in these occasions I have the feeling that I'm fighting with the game interface instead of doing a space travel), so I need an equipment that brings me near where I want to go, or some modifications to the interface that lets me pilot more easily over long distances.
For this two things I tried personally to limit the use in the way I described, and I can tell that the game felt much better and much much more immersive.
3. Instead of equipments that does the difficult things for you, having an interface that gives you the informations you need to do the difficult thing while knowing what you are doing.
For long distance trips:
1. Show the distance to arrive to a complete stop near your target: http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23
2. Improve the orbit view with more informations and the possibility to maneuver the ship from there (like KSP or this mockup). http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24
For docking and landing:
Have your hud displaying something like an holographic tunnel to help you allign to the entrance of the docking port if it's an orbiting station, and a tunnel that suggest you a recommended path to follow for landing if it's a gound station. It could even show the recommended speed at proper distances.
4. Start with a ship that can't jump
Your starting system is your home. Before leaving it, you have ho know it, to have to visit it extensely. There should be enough to play in every single system, so that when you'll feel the need to jump, it will be because you really have done almost everything and are needing something more.
A jump must be a thrilling experience, because you are going to an unknow place. You don't know what you'll find.
Having the possibility to jump everywhere from the start, kills this kind of experience. You start jumping here and there, autopiloting everywhere, and all will soon appear too similar and boring. Why? Not because it's similar and boring, but because you aren't giving enough attention to the details: you are moving too fast and watching too shallowly.
A star system is an enormous place, you can't jump from star to star just like you are watching a catalog of planets.
The basic idea is that the game should let the player learn its mechanics gradually and be rewarded by his progresses, but this doesn't happen if the game does all the difficult things for him.
I think that, for a start, we need to modify, at least, the autopilot and the time compressor.
1. The autopilot must only bring you to the vicinity of a planet or an orbiting station.
For every kind of players, having an autopilot that can land and dock your ship is a bad tempation that could turn a beautyful space simulator into a boring point-and-click trading simulation. "Select your job - click - Launch - click - select your autopilot destination - click - wait - profit"
The player should, at least, do the slow speed maneuvers. This will also be a training for more complex situations, with moving targets: fighting and, when and if it will be possible, docking to big moving ships with all the escort ships around.
From the point of view of plausibility, I understand that it may seem absurd that in the distant future, a ship can't automatically land or put itslef in orbit, but from the point of view of gameplay I believe that these possibilites should be limited.
1.1. The game should start on an orbiting station
A unexperienced player have to learn how to manouver and how to fly, but he must have the opportunity to learn gradually, so the experience could be rewarding and not frustrating.
If it's difficult to land on a planet (and for a new player, it is), then the game should start on an orbiting station, so the player could choose to move its first steps by trading between orbiting starions. When he feels enough confident, he could start to try to land: first on small asteroids and moons with very little gravity, like Phobos, then on bigger plantes (doing so, he will learn to read the informations about the planets before deciding to land on them... but with an almighty autopilot, who needs to read all those things?).
To stimulate the learning, we could choose to have more profitable contracts and better prices on planets, and anyway, I think that the view of the planet that comes closer and closer, and the land nearer with all the details, and the change of colours of the atmosphere is another rewarding experience. That's why, in my opinion, it's abolutely ok that the player can't go everywhere from start: he will start in a safe and easy to manage situation, then, as soon as he learns, he will be able to go in other kinds of places, and when he will be able to do so, he will feel rewarded. ...But whith an autopilot that does everyting, the temptation to never take away the little wheels from your bike is too strong. In that way, you don't feel rewarded, because you always had the possibility to land without any effort, simply clicking on a ground base and telling the autopilot to go there.
Option 1. Limit the autopilot to bring you only near "space objects"
Option 2. Split the autopilot in two separate equipments: one cheap autopilot that does only "Fly to vicinity of <planet or orbiting base> (not ground bases)" and an expensive one that does all the tasks.
Option 3: There's no Auto-landing/docking, but you can hire someone that does this maneuvers for you. In that way, you can't have it until you buy a ship that can host more than a single pilot, and you have to alredy be on good business to pay the crew. The new player, with his single pilot small crappy ship is forced to learn how to fly until he had made enough progresses to change ship and hire someone.
Option 4 : No auto-docking. Auto-lading is not a ship equipment, but a feaure of some ground stations.
The probability that a station have that feature could be linked to the distance from the Sol System (nearer=more probable) or the capital system of every faction. Inversely, the possibility of profitable tradings would be major on distant systems.
In that way, the player would start in an "easy" environmnet, where he will be forced only to learn to go near a starport (even ground bases, without autopilot: he must at least be able to dive into atmosphere and fly near the base) withour dying, but when he wants to go further and explore, make more money, do more interesting missions, he will be forced to learn.
2. Add more limits to the time compressor.
Something like: no more than 4 when there are objects < 20AU, no more than 3 when < 0.1 AU (or some other rational default). The gameplay will be slower, but it hopefully will be less easier to loose control of the ship... and, anyway, you can always override it.
I propose this, because I find the autopilot useful when I need to cover big distances mainly because i find quite frustraing to calculate, or guess when starting to decelerate, and then decelerate while having to adjust the time compression (in these occasions I have the feeling that I'm fighting with the game interface instead of doing a space travel), so I need an equipment that brings me near where I want to go, or some modifications to the interface that lets me pilot more easily over long distances.
For this two things I tried personally to limit the use in the way I described, and I can tell that the game felt much better and much much more immersive.
3. Instead of equipments that does the difficult things for you, having an interface that gives you the informations you need to do the difficult thing while knowing what you are doing.
For long distance trips:
1. Show the distance to arrive to a complete stop near your target: http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23
2. Improve the orbit view with more informations and the possibility to maneuver the ship from there (like KSP or this mockup). http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24
For docking and landing:
Have your hud displaying something like an holographic tunnel to help you allign to the entrance of the docking port if it's an orbiting station, and a tunnel that suggest you a recommended path to follow for landing if it's a gound station. It could even show the recommended speed at proper distances.
4. Start with a ship that can't jump
Your starting system is your home. Before leaving it, you have ho know it, to have to visit it extensely. There should be enough to play in every single system, so that when you'll feel the need to jump, it will be because you really have done almost everything and are needing something more.
A jump must be a thrilling experience, because you are going to an unknow place. You don't know what you'll find.
Having the possibility to jump everywhere from the start, kills this kind of experience. You start jumping here and there, autopiloting everywhere, and all will soon appear too similar and boring. Why? Not because it's similar and boring, but because you aren't giving enough attention to the details: you are moving too fast and watching too shallowly.
A star system is an enormous place, you can't jump from star to star just like you are watching a catalog of planets.