Demo Feedback
by Matthew "Scandalon" Parsons · in ThinkTanks · 05/03/2003 (8:31 am) · 1 replies
(Originally was sending this via e-mail, as the links in the readme weren't working...)
First off, thanks for supporting the mac platform. Kinda nifty to have a mac-first release, too. (The mac version gets some attention, and the developer almost gets a test-release for free. ;) Thanks also for targeting lower-end computers - my aging G4/400 + Radeon1 is starting to feel unloved by the newer games.
Well, I realized I should read the other posts, so many of my issues have at least been voiced already:
1. Enemy tanks spawning on top of you. Quite annoying.
2. Fullscreen mode in demo not staying. Fixed/not in full version. I do recommend a hotkey combo. Go ahead and make it option-return to sync to windows alt-enter, if you have to.
3. Aiming "feel" - I know it's supposed to be closer to true projectile aiming and not Quake/Unreal, but still feels extrememly "off". Perhaps just takes time? When trying to hit nearby targets, I keep finding that I'm aiming over their heads even though I'm sure I had moved the turret down...This might be related to:
4. Projectile "path" - I don't know what it is exactly, but I find the targeting reticle hard to track - I keep getting distracted by the green path rings. You might look up the venerable Avara - the reticle and aiming for the lobbing projectiles (grenades) was spot-on, IMO.
5. Documentation. TT is obviously a "pick up and play" game, but a bit more explanation wouldn't hurt, esp. some of the info I picked up in the forum about the "clip" that allows short bursts (I played my first couple games single-shot), and the fact that tanks have other differences besides the 4 stats listed in the selection screen. (Clip size, auto leveling turret(?!))
5.1 In the readme.html, the link to the bravetree site is wrong. (It tries to append the web url to the local directory, probably just forgot the quotes.)
5.2 The readme mentions possible trouble w/ Ignition, and says web sharing must be on. That sounds just plain odd to me - is that what it meant to say?
Well, enough griping - I really do like the game - As it stands, the demo seems a bit too limited (yes, the eternal struggle - what to leave in, what to take out ;) and my perception of what's in the full version is just on the edge of if it's worth the money or no. You'll have to wait 'till I get to try it w/ the guys at work to see if it's worth it to me to scrape together the money. (No, I don't have a lot to spend on games anymore like I used to. ;)
First off, thanks for supporting the mac platform. Kinda nifty to have a mac-first release, too. (The mac version gets some attention, and the developer almost gets a test-release for free. ;) Thanks also for targeting lower-end computers - my aging G4/400 + Radeon1 is starting to feel unloved by the newer games.
Well, I realized I should read the other posts, so many of my issues have at least been voiced already:
1. Enemy tanks spawning on top of you. Quite annoying.
2. Fullscreen mode in demo not staying. Fixed/not in full version. I do recommend a hotkey combo. Go ahead and make it option-return to sync to windows alt-enter, if you have to.
3. Aiming "feel" - I know it's supposed to be closer to true projectile aiming and not Quake/Unreal, but still feels extrememly "off". Perhaps just takes time? When trying to hit nearby targets, I keep finding that I'm aiming over their heads even though I'm sure I had moved the turret down...This might be related to:
4. Projectile "path" - I don't know what it is exactly, but I find the targeting reticle hard to track - I keep getting distracted by the green path rings. You might look up the venerable Avara - the reticle and aiming for the lobbing projectiles (grenades) was spot-on, IMO.
5. Documentation. TT is obviously a "pick up and play" game, but a bit more explanation wouldn't hurt, esp. some of the info I picked up in the forum about the "clip" that allows short bursts (I played my first couple games single-shot), and the fact that tanks have other differences besides the 4 stats listed in the selection screen. (Clip size, auto leveling turret(?!))
5.1 In the readme.html, the link to the bravetree site is wrong. (It tries to append the web url to the local directory, probably just forgot the quotes.)
5.2 The readme mentions possible trouble w/ Ignition, and says web sharing must be on. That sounds just plain odd to me - is that what it meant to say?
Well, enough griping - I really do like the game - As it stands, the demo seems a bit too limited (yes, the eternal struggle - what to leave in, what to take out ;) and my perception of what's in the full version is just on the edge of if it's worth the money or no. You'll have to wait 'till I get to try it w/ the guys at work to see if it's worth it to me to scrape together the money. (No, I don't have a lot to spend on games anymore like I used to. ;)
Torque Owner Joe Maruschak
Thank you for your comments. I am going to try to address some of them here.
1. this is being fixed.
2. this is alos being fixed cmd-enter works (apple-enter) and alt-enter on windows machines toggles fullscreen -windowed,
3.and 4.We will call this a design decision. Yes, it is not super easy to aim.
What this means: You don't destroy as many tanks.
What this also means: Other tanks cannot destroy you as much.
We wanted the average time in game for a player to drive around and shoot to be much longer than the average online FPS. Having been killed 6 or 7 times within one minute in other online games, we strove to make to balance the game so that everyone lives longer. One of the things we did was to make the targeting system a little bit more demanding on the end user in order to land clean shots.
We struggled with this quite a bit. On one hand, there is the frustration factor of the difficulty of destroying others. On the other hand is the fristration factor of getting destroyed 50 times in 3 minutes.
As we have the added challenge of driving in there, we opted to make it harder to destory others and allow people to stay alive longer so that they could enjoy the driving.
Another positive side effect of this is that taking someone else out is very gratifying. This is especially true if you have to chase someone all over the map for 2 minutes.
It is a razors edge that one must walk, and we feel that we have acheived a good balance here.
5. I disagree here. We did not want to make a game where you had to read the manual to start playing and have lengthy descriptions of how eveything works in order to have fun.
We also did not want to make the criteria for tank selection too heavy. The clip bursts are just some of the things we added in there for players that wanted to explore the depths of the game and wanted to push it to the limit.
Having lengthy technical descriptions and giving context for the turret auto-leveling is not something we felt was necessary for the enjoyment of the game, so we did not put it in there.
We would like player to try things out and find out what works best for them.
This game, as you say, is pick and play, but I assure you, there is aenoguh depth in this game to keep you improving for a very long time. I am still getting better and improving, and all you have to do to see how good one can get is to go up against Dan MacDonald, Shark, or any of the other guys out there that are racking up a really high combat ratio.
5.1 Thanks for catching that.
5.2 The full version of the game uses an key authentication system called "ignition'.
Joe