Hi there new test pilots

Welcome to the HDog Ace Access thing, please hit me with your feedback whenever you see fit!

I'm especially interested in hearing how the game feels after a few round/ a few days in. How do you feel about replaying it? What might keep you from it? Anything that feels lastingly annoying? Does the game feel fair? Is it too slow/ too overwhelming at times? How does enemy spawning and difficulty feel? Any particular sucker punches? Your take on the difficulty? Any items feel too powerful/useless? (Some stuff is supposed to be real good or even broke, but I'm interested in hearing if certain stuff feels like it doesn't impact the game much.)

As for bugs, bad descriptions, stuff showing the wrong graphic, etc: that goes into the bug reports thread.

Thanks for your help! Lets make this thing the best alpha experience it can be!

-Stefan

People on steam greenlight brought up the idea of enabling the player to aim with the mouse, meaning making your cursor visible permanently and have your jet turn towards it (at your current turn rate). Thoughts?

I would probably prefer it, though it might be hard to balance it? Aiming would be far easier.

While on controls, is gamepad gonna be available?

It's under consideration, but hard to test on Linux. I'll look into it at some point.

Greetings! Came over here from your FTL Captain's Edition Mod (great work on that by the way), and did I find quite the "stellar" game.

To be honest my review will be slightly biased because I don't particularly enjoy fast-paced, much rather prefer slower, more strategic experiences, and also the art style is a bit to "comic-ee" for me (I don't know how to describe it :3), but I definitely see potential in this game, is it coming along nicely!

My thoughts (take it as a grain of sand):

1. The UI is a bit difficult to understand, and so is the damage - I have my ship continuously crash into the ground because I suck at real-time movements, but it seemed that my shields took it just fine (I can't tell if it was shields or not, there is a diamond around my ship that increases/decreases depending on shield health status, from what I think, but not sure), but then I got shot a handful of time then died. Basically what I mean to say is that it may be nice to add a Health/Shield bar somewhere on the screen to more Math-y people like me can better calculate how to play in a given situation (ignore this if I'm just not understanding the UI yet O.o)

2. Game Interface - The way a player controls a game definitely has a huge impact on how the game feels, and I do indeed like the feeling which you are trying to go for, very arcade-y, but having the primary fire on the mouse seems like a step in the wrong direction. It felt awkward having the mouse do nothing except act a button, so, perhaps, would it be better to...

A: Move the main fire button move to a key, perhaps even make that fit the experience by binding keys such as changing weapons or deploying flares to let's say [Space,J,I,O,;], which will make the player have their hand interacting with the controls such as the older games. I would prefer this because it keeps the movement of the ship difficult to manage and unique unlike option B.

B: This is what the viewers on Steam Greenlight said, having X and Y movement with WASD and controlling pitch with the Mouse. This seems a bit too simple and streamlined, and I think that keeping the controls as is (Using S and D to change direction) will keep the game fast-paced and difficult.

Anywho, in conclusion:

Love the art style, very impressive for a single man, the art style is interesting (I especially love the icons which display the directions where user is being fired upon from ground-side units), and I can see this game becoming a success!

If you want to talk to me for perhaps a more in-depth review I can do that, or maybe if you would like to work with me! (I am a hobby/casual writer if you want some fun lore stuff added :3)

Anywho, have a great day, and keep up the good work!

Best regards,

David, theTurncoat.

Hi David

Thanks for the feedback! More direct shield status visualization is under consideration. Although you understood it pretty well so far. But I can see that an actual bar/something might be more feasible, I'm still looking into that.

Togglable mouse aiming (controlling pitch with mouse that is) will come with the next update.

And thanks for the colab offer! I'm a little occupied with managing the project as a whole, as well as with my freelance gig, so I'm not sure if I'd have time to spare for managing that. Also I'm poor and you shouldn't give me your words for free. <3 But out of curiosity, have you read anything by Iain M. Banks?

I'm having a silly amount of difficulty evading missiles, but I'm still learning the basics of the game. I was surprised to find I couldn't shoot them down. Was that a balancing decision, or more of a technical one?