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A few things here. First, as compared with E.X.O, I find collecting materials here far less forgiving W.R.T. positioning and distance. I feel like I’m buzzing around a thing like a bumble bee sometimes before I can pick it up, or, I must move very slowly and make minute adjustments.

I believe that the cause of this is two fold. First, elements that appear far off are difficult to localize, because they sound wider than they are. Second, because the game seems to be less forgiving then it’s predecessor, even being slightly off to one side will cause you to miss. A third, minor component seems to be that when pulse width modulation is used, this can give the false impression that the item is growing/shrinking to either side.

This will probably be subjective, but I feel that the sound of an item is very nebulously positioned, almost like it’s within the outermost region of a cone, only when I get closer, does it seem to become clearer. By that time, it’s harder to get on target. I’m speaking of speeds less than turbo off, so with a gamepad, this means modulating the pressure on the Y axis of the left stick or on the right trigger, and on the keyboard, this means definitely having turbo off and tapping WASD to get it lined up perfectly.

Moving on, with jumping, for keyboard users, there is only two options, jump with turbo on and jump really really far, possibly missing stuff along the way and having to back track, or, jumping with turbo off, and gaining more height and distance. With a controller, it’s slightly better because you can just press as much as you feel you need to forward then jump. I do wish there was a way to limit your height. I love the amount of ground it’s possible to cover in a jump with a fully upgraded exosuit, however, I do sometimes find myself wishing I could limit the height of the jump, which would also have the consequence of shortening its distance.

One way I’ve thought about handling this would be to have the initial jump on a meter, in other words, if you tap and release the button very quickly, you won’t jump that far. But, if you hold it for longer, then you would gain a bit more altitude. To retain the ability to bunny hop, once you fill your jump meter, you automatically jump, and then subsequent jumps are always at full power.

Another issue I’ve found is that sometimes things seem to be occluded more than they should be. Though I wonder if this is intentional as it comes on somewhat abruptly as you move from one terrain type to another. This seems to affect the suit as a whole, but even items that are reachable sound as if they have been filtered.

Thanks so much for your detailed feedback. A few notes:

  • The collection radius is a quarter of E.X.O. I planned to revisit this when the new and improved Attractors are implemented in Side B. They will work differently than in E.X.O. based on your feedback last year, to make them a very important quality-of-life upgrade. However, in the next patch coming soon, I will double this radius to make it easier to position yourself and collect them without the upgrade.
  • I like the concept of charged jumping. I prototyped this on my lunch break today and have a basic version working. I think it’s missing an audio cue to indicate the charge. Let me try to include that in the next patch.
  • I can revisit the occlusion. It’s very basic and only works with the sand right now, not any other obstacles. There are already some changes staged for the next patch to share. So far I think it’s working as intended: items fade in as they become uncovered (it takes about a second), and you will pick them up if they’re within the collection radius (regardless of whether fully uncovered).

How am I uncovering them? Is this a thing that happens visually on the screen when you’re near enough? Because from my understanding, I do not have the ability to get to items that were too far down.

Good question! The sand moves on its own! Think of it as the planet being covered by glaciers, but instead of ice, it’s sand! That’s the rumbling sound you hear. Visually you’d see the surface moving as one giant slow wave, and the collectibles can be seen through the surface.

(The graphics are like a grid that covers the surface, that you can see through, but instead of grid lines, there are points at the corners of each cell. It’s very simplistic, but complemented with gradients of warm Mars-like colors: rusty reds and oranges, blending into to lighter pinks, yellows, or blues depending on the time of day.)

Anyway, you can stand over them, or come back later, to collect them. They are stationary. And with the Attractors upgrade, it has the ability to pull items out from the sand directly into your Cargo Racks.

I’ll be interested to see how that shakes out. I’m kind of hoping that they be a bit more powerful than E.X.O, sorry I’m comparing the two so much, but it’s my frame of reference. Anyway, even fully upgraded, you would have to pretty much stand still and let it come to you, which was a slow process, so it was much faster to just go the extra few feet and collect it yourself.