Post by PJOZeus in Terraformental comments

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Heyyy, happy to see there was a new update (somehow missed it)

Playing through as I go (with the comment), just jotting down because i'll never remember elsewise
Long comment, apologies

-Various UI bugs, tooltips going off the edge of the screen, Area air not saying it's going down in it's tooltip when it clearly is (Need some lore for why area air is still decaying when you have your personal supply, as you should be the only one using oxygen)
-Rover water is displayed as possible before even knowing of the rovers existence
-Admin log doesn't play
-Appreciate the UI scaling option although should perhaps limit how small it can go (itsy bitsy mouse game)(Set the old size as default?) - On that note the ui feels.. thicker (blockier, softer), than it did before, can't quite put my finger on why (not in a good way)- redesigned skill icons?
-Some various small text missing early but sure it'll be looked at again later in development
-Talos Station, listing out all of the equipment, the mystery element held a certain captivation- what about waking up near entirely clueless and either learning about these things such as station name later on, or slowly having memories come back (sense of unease)
-Pretty sure you already mentioned death messages weren't right but reiterating so if not (also talks about an onboard food synthesizer and there wasn't one) - This occurred for the first death but not the second - Spoilers third death
-Water feels a bit free now but the ever reducing air supply certainly lit a fire under my arse (much more hurried) - as mentioned in a moment, this is bullshit?
-Power has no meaning loop 1 in the rover, expect it's another 'next patch' thing
-Why do I know about the dam before ever experiencing it? (and yeah maybe have the persistent tag hidden, in general, until you know about looping)

Wait, the cooldown says 30 seconds (air tank), yet it progresses faster than a second.. I feel lied to
(On loop in the base it seems to be near equivalent, so is it bugged outside Laurion?)- (3rd loop time is progressing normally at Laurion, unsure how it got bugged)- Managed to break it again? It may be entering and exiting Laurion Station? Or if not regularly then certainly teleporting inside with the generator

-Totally didn't misread (misinterpret) the attach generator to Laurion tooltip, though it was *too much* of a pain to drag it through the airlock and would be attached to the outside instead, like the main vehicle bay doors, got super confused on being teleported inside and caused a death
-Water pouch priority should be changing to water bottle while on the rover journey if being pedantic

The water recycler at Laurion - is that not redundant (haven't used it yet) when already having the water filter on the Rover itself - or by proxy, is that the water recycler which it isn't supposed to have from the start?

-Would be good to have reminders of certain important plot points, such as the state of upstairs machinery at Laurion, sure it's mostly a me problem but mistook the food synthesizer as functional if it had power when it wasn't
-Resources going red when nearing empty, visually annoying, would be nice if they go to grey (like Laurion power before interacting) when they run out completely

I mean yeah, it's interesting, mooostly good things and I'm looking forward to finishing this chapter although I may have a few more loops until that point hits (for another day)
Keep it up for sure, prioritise a finished update over a rigorous schedule etc although communication about timeline is always good - there was some mention of supporting but I see no links and hope you're well

It's late and I can't be assed to compact this comment but hope it was worth writing to you

Shadowsand42 days ago

Noted that tooltips go off the edge of the screen. They didn't used to, so probably related to UI scaling. Resources draining without saying so is a known issue, but will need a big fix next major update. However, area resources being drained before personal ones is deliberate - your just leaving your helmet open to make use of the local air, instead of wasting your more limited and more mobile personal supply.
You're correct - rover shouldn't have water until you install it in Laurion. That bug was introduced in 0.2.5, will fix it next patch in the next few days.
A couple people have mentioned the lack of admin log. Not sure how I broke that, but I'll take a look.
The scaling is literally the only thing I've changed about the UI, and it should default to the original non-fullscreen scale. BUT it reacts differently to fullscreen now. I'll probably add an option to disable the scaling entirely.
I actually haven't rewritten the first death message since the original, so I probably should look at that...
Nothing to do with Rover power is meant to be visible in the rover until you've reached Laurion and inspected a door which needs power. I'll fix that.
The dam event being visible early is a new bug from 0.2.5, will fix next patch.
Interesting note on the air tank cooldowns... It may be the same bug as some events - if you reload the game at certain points, it progresses at double speed. I'll investigate, but that'll probably be a big enough pain to have to wait for next major patch.
Mmm, that's a fair point on being caught out by being moved. I'll look at adding an icon/tooltip to actions which will move you to a different area. I actually really like that as a slightly more subtle warning that you may lose access to stuff.
Item consumption priority is determined when you pick it up, rather than ongoing. Which I do want to change, but it's low priority.
I am interested by your suggestion of plot reminders, but I'm unsure what form that'd take just yet... Maybe just a subset of 're-explore' actions which can be hidden? I'll have a think on it.
I'll make empty resources default back to grey. The highlight was added back when there were only personal resources, and running out of any of them meant you died.

In fairness, when I released 0.2.0, I was confident it was mostly bug free. A lot of the bugs you've mentioned were added by the smaller patches I did since, which I generally test less because (in theory) they're tiny bugfixes/tweaks which shouldn't break anything. None of it was caused by trying to keep to a schedule except for the resource drain not showing on tooltips. That one I honestly assumed most people wouldn't notice/care too much.

I think that before the next major update, I'll look at setting up a discord, getting some beta testers sorted out and give them early access to new updates to help iron out the issues. That and I'll look into some automated tests. Even testing on 10x speed, the game is already getting too long for me to test every corner of it every time I change anything.

In any case, thank you so much for the detailed feedback, I really appreciate it!

PJOZeus42 days ago

Just looking at this before jumping in again

-For the UI, perhaps it is just the scale and the curves at corners looking more prominent (mb if so), but what more caught my eye was the exploration and ship icons, they seemed chunkier, as if each individual segment of the drawing was scaled up instead of a solid image icon (as in an artifact of scaling perhaps? Idk, it hit me when I first loaded as merely something was off)
-Personal/Area resources was just slightly irritating when you have the limited and ever dwindling air supply - wanting to use personal air and consume air tanks to refill them and preserve air as long as possible - limited/reducing production rather than current stockpile - releasing a canister to fill the local area? seems like the simplest option although again not the biggest priority - as Air is a very limited resource anyway they'd just be shooting themselves in the foot to waste it
-Message stating you have plenty of rover power to reach the next base as an in universe reason for why it doesn't show initially?
-I wouldn't assume the air tanks were the same bug as events, I did see the comments about that before playing and pretty expressly avoided reloading during play and ended in a stable position
-(Being moved) It's always those little comments which lead to the most interesting paths forward hey? :)
-Yep, absolutely get item pickup is low priority, not that important, just a ticket for down the line
-I think mentioning the environment a few times (like the first loop there, and then a brief mention the next two or so) would already go a long way in that - But, as another idea, you mentioned you were going to be implementing disabled resources? Surely that could fairly easily be relabelled as broken, in a collapsible heading (thinking that might get annoying after a while), issue being you don't want to trick people into thinking there's more there when there isn't (or them dismissing so when there is) - Yeah no think the occasional chat remark in further loops would just be best (First two loops, then fifth loop, tenth loop, 20th loop etc- getting further apart as it's less important) - maybe even just making notes of your surroundings in the downtime you'll always experience

For general in testing- Save states are your friend, even if it's dev only, being able to jump around locations and in different scenarios, or cheats like resources collected instantly or instant action completion

Oh and as for the comment about updates? Talking about so going forward (think it was in the 2.0 devlog), not making any passive remarks about this update clump, can dismiss it but wanted to clear up the confusion

Thanks for developing the game :)

PJOZeus42 days ago

Some more notes while going

- On reloading, there's no events, woke up in cryopod (think they were there) but 20 seconds later looking again, there's no events, no air, no hunger - hunger did kick off so the events are still going but it's not displayed
- Bear in mind that reducing actions also means reducing the xp a player has at any particular stage, early on when you have infinite resources is a much better time to level than arriving at Laurion on a clock (Speaking of which, no extra metal plates when the repair is streamlined, you can otherwise leave with 5 spare, like the coupler)
- Could right click be a distinct action in the queue rather than replacing existing actions? Like say 4 stacks of collect water pouch and then another independant stack of 'prepare' water pouch (not sure your terminology for it)

I'm curious about balancing without the cheated water - I'm dismissing it right now because it's just not an issue, but it's a free extra 3 minutes 20 seconds up to Laurion
- This run I'm on now, I make it to Laurion with 3 minutes 14 seconds of water, tried not to create any more water on the move (although I did *before* leaving), and I'm not inside yet - I could maybe cut down on some oxygen or some other small parts just to make it there but, that's pretty tight - I think it will cause *many* more deaths
- Actually, that was in the rover, I'd need another 30 seconds or so and couldn't do the quick way i'm doing now.. hmm, very tight, might need some thought

- When installing the water generator (0.2.5), the collect water option actually disappears, parked inside Laurion currently but air is still available so I assume bugged
- No power drain on the airlock, allows you to jump back and forth at almost no cost, farming tech instead of burning time waiting
- Still no water option when not in Laurion, i'll be dying soon (what I get for playing fair) but assume it won't be an issue when the water is as intended
- Clicking on the new action button would be nice (to dismiss), made the UI small enough that it doesn't matter and I can sweep over all, but it would be preferable to me to practically click snooze
- Air tank may be speeding up, each time going in and out of Laurion? - Instead of 30 seconds it looks about half refilled after the 3 to prep a new extraction (so 6 second cooldown instead of 30, 5x the intended speed)
- Every so often when doing an action that consumes a resource, such as the metal plates, it consumes an item - Currently looking for the rover, typing while time goes, would it not be an idea/would it not be possible to give some chat messages while exploring, remarking on the area etc? Either that or maybe some way to fast forward, it's interesting to explore sure but as you said regarding testing, that time adds up, and you're sitting there for 2:30 doing nothing
- Install empty power cell action doesn't go away after installing all you have access to
- Being able to see the Rover's power without driving it (such as inside Laurion but when the power is off) would be nice - especially as you presumably get access to more fuel later or another chapter

All for now, sure i'll keep rambling later
There is little need to read all these if you don't want to but hope it's helpful

PJOZeus41 days ago (2 edits)

Third log (v0.2.5)
Almost feels like writing a journal, suppose it is, but with a point

Hit the end point for content this chapter (7 loops to finish, but still exploring
-Monolith drill doesn't seem to properly take power away- clearly slower than intended
-Events (namely oxygen) disappeared at the start again without reloading (at least noticed it again, might be happening more)
-The obvious issue of you can't drink your supplies of water as fast as it's consumed - maybe just a debuff that you get half the amount of water if you drink at that point? (Alongside the losing water faster modifier - understand if it's left as it is)
-Looking at the water timer a little closer, it's already faster before ever stepping in Laurion proper, so it seems to be when getting in/out of the Rover, as it's already going double speed
-Monolith water makes more sense the second time visiting, but still you die with left over resources, and I think you'll be dying even sooner once the water generator is fixed and you should have one less water resource to use by the time you make it to Laurion

-Typo in monolith artifact interaction, 'name storage'
-After the monolith, if you don't have the capacity for a resource, you will die rather than use it (such as buffed Water bottle before the emergency suit), something to bear in mind - this becomes even more of an issue when dealing with priority, tested with a small water bottle, which has a lower priority than a regular water bottle, and even though it wouldn't drink the regular before dying, it still refused to drink the small water bottle and prolong life
-Bug with the optimised journey to Santori - Either it shows two actions as possible when there shouldn't be two, or it lets you complete both actions at the same time, I guess the first one

itch.io

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