Wish List

[zenpunk]

First off... great game. I normally only buy games after spending a lot of time with a demo, but I bought this one sight-unseen, for 2 reasons. 1.. it's a tower defense game, and I'm a sucker for them. And 2 .... I love it when I check out the forums and I see the devs are actually active in them, discussing things with customers and taking suggestions. So, I bought that game, and must say I'm pleased with the chance purchase. A very fun game, at a great price. Thanks.

That being said, there are a few things that bugged me just in the little time I've played so far. So, here is my wish list, version 1 beta ;) ....

1) When you zoom in and out with the scroll wheel it would be very nice if the view zoomed into the mouse location, instead of just the center of the screen. This would even let you move around without using the WASD keys or anything. You could zoom out, point your mouse at another location, and zoom in. This is a far superior way to navigate, IMO... and many games use this method, and even Photoshop. This is my biggest wish for the game so far.

2) And speak of WASD ... this is another pet peeve of mine. It really annoys me when this is set as a movement default in a game with no way to change it. (or maybe there is? I only looked quickly but didn't see a way to change it.) I much prefer to use ESDF, as that is the natural position for the left hand anyway for typing on a keyboard. I'm constantly hitting the wrong keys and having to shift my hand to the left.

3) The game looks very flat to me.. is there away to turn on shadows for the towers and the invaders?

4) Why is there a 'resolution' and an 'aspect ratio' setting in graphics? Isn't that redundant? Each resolution is a specific aspect ration already.

5) I'd really really like to be able to see current stats for each individual tower ... make it a rollover or something, that pops up a little stat window. Roll over one of you towers and it would say something like...

Time alive: 12 minutes
Time active: 3 minutes (25%)
Kills: 4
Total damage: 48893

This is something I suggested to the Defense Grid devs too, and they seemed to like the idea, but it was never implemented. I still feel, however, that this is one of the most important things for any tower defense game to have. It's very helpful when trying to create a defense to know what is working and what isn't. If you roll over one tower and see it killed 30 invaders so far, and roll over another and see it killed only 2, you know which one is placed well, and which one can possibly be replaced with something else. Of course, maybe kills isn't the best stat to go by.. one tower may have done 90% of the damage and another one does the last 10% for the kill. So, maybe total damage done so far would be the most informative stat.

I'm sure I'll have more to say once I've played a bit more, but even if the game stays as is ... great job. I look forward to playing in the coming weeks.

Thanks

[cydereal]

Dealing with these in order:

1) Our concern with the camera was to give enough freedom to advanced players that they felt free enough to play, but not so much as to baffle players unfamiliar with the concepts at hand. We settled on something that I describe as a half-step between an MMO "right click to turn" camera and a traditional 3D RTS camera. Big changes to it are at this point likely impossible, or at least impractical.

2) We're going to be patching in the ability to re-bind keys after the immediate wave of release issues. We've only got access to about a dozen systems, so bugs as a result of new setups in the player base are taking priority over features. Once we get some time to think though, this is way up there both for convenience and also for foreign players.

3) If I'm not mistaken, shadows should be on the high setting for lighting and graphics.

4) It's probably a vestige of our windowed mode (hit f11). You can actually click and drag the corner to re-size it now, so it may be redundant entirely.

5) That is a good suggestion, and one we could potentially explore. We're generally focused on momentum as a telltale sign of progress in a map--you're either wasting energy to keep up or you're building up energy because your turrets are doing well. Stats on an individual turret will contribute to your knowledge, and as a stat-head, I like it, though there's a lot to be said for the rhythm of the creeps themselves I think.

[confid3nt]

One feature that I saw on a flash td and definitely love to see it here is prioritizing target. In that flash game (balloon defense I think), turrets can be configure to target highest health/closest/lowest hp/furthest.

Really neat for micromanagement, macro we have focus support ability.

[MasterOfTheTide]

Hey great game guys I really love it and for the price... wow! I have suggested it to all my friends. As a fan of Warcraft 3 TD I am really happy to see a TD game out that I can play with my friends instead of just SP.

I have a request, would you guys be able to make it so when I scroll in with my mouse it will zoom into where the mouse is and not just the middle of where the screen is positioned? I like to play with just my mouse for most of the game and that would make it so I do not have to go to the edges to scroll some where.

Thanks!

[Whist]

In terms of the stats thing, I think it's an obvious one to also add a pop up on the update button that shows what upgrading increases.

Ie

Damage 50 -> 250

[Kyorisu]

Our concern with the camera was to give enough freedom to advanced players that they felt free enough to play, but not so much as to baffle players unfamiliar with the concepts at hand.

Did you actually do any usability testing to determine whether or not this would be a problem. Zooming to your mouse location using a button on your mouse is a simple concept people easily grasp. If you want also add keyboard buttons that do a default zoom to the centre of the screen.

It's practically a standard for cameras.

[deebee]

1) Smooth Zoom
2) Private/Friends-Only Lobby/Games
3) Redefine keybinds
4) Maybe add what type of damage the selected towers/support do and what type of armor the selected creeps have (perhaps an icon) within the bottom tooltip without the need to open the encyclopedia
5) More maps
6) More information on power station, mass scrap, and energy regeneration itself (how much exactly does the tower give in terms of energy regen and perhaps show the current energy regen rate)

One bug I noticed:
- Joining through the friend list does not show the host's name.

Fun game so far :)

[damaged]

Not a big deal, but when everything is calmed down a bit, please make it so the sounds mute when you Alt-Tab out of the game. :)

Thanks.

[cydereal]

1) Smooth Zoom
2) Private/Friends-Only Lobby/Games
3) Redefine keybinds
4) Maybe add what type of damage the selected towers/support do and what type of armor the selected creeps have (perhaps an icon) within the bottom tooltip without the need to open the encyclopedia
5) More maps
6) More information on power station, mass scrap, and energy regeneration itself (how much exactly does the tower give in terms of energy regen and perhaps show the current energy regen rate)

All of this is good feedback. Redefining keybinds is going to happen as part of our first feature patch. Maps are likely to be added, as we're a team well-built for doing that. I'll add some more to the encyclopedia regarding power stations and mass scrap.

Just FYI, each power station adds 5% cap to the top-end. The regeneration rate of energy is tied directly to your cap, so at 150 energy your regen is 50% better than it would have been at 100%, and so on. It works the same way in lowering regen as you mass scrap.

[roman2838]

I'd like to add: Checkpoints & Fast Forward. :)

[eliminator2k]

One feature that I saw on a flash td and definitely love to see it here is prioritizing target. In that flash game (balloon defense I think), turrets can be configure to target highest health/closest/lowest hp/furthest.

Really neat for micromanagement, macro we have focus support ability.

Yeah - I love that idea too. We argued about that a lot and finally rejected it as too much micromanagement. When a battle gets intense you are too concerned with your support to be able to really micromanage the towers.

Now, what we did do was to add custom AI to several of the towers. For example, notice that the EMP tower always focuses on the creep with the highest shields. The Mortar and Silo towers always shoot the creep that has the most other creeps nearby. The Lightning bolt tower tries to only shoot creeps that have not been slowed by another lightning bolt tower.

These simple AI rules combined with the ability to focus fire and override the rules greatly reduces the need to micromanage your towers.

If you guys come up with some good tower AI rules for other towers or you observe a tower behaving stupidly, please post it and I will see if I can patch it in after we get all of the stability issues resolved.

(Oh, btw, I'm the other Sol Survivor coder... if that was not already clear)

[confid3nt]

Yay. One more thing. There's an option called scale or something that makes HUD becomes bigger. But not smaller.

IMO its default value should be like 50, and < 50 means smaller HUD and > 50 means bigger HUD. Right now it's only 0 = normal, > 0 means bigger HUD.

Oh, yea, what is the rule for silo? they're pretty dumb imo. They should target the furthest target (most crowded) or the highest HP. I just see they're shooting randomly. And slowly (>"<)

[cydereal]

The HUD issue seems a bit off, as I recall it working as you described (where it goes larger or smaller).

As for the Silo turret--it's all about timing! If you have one, watch it open and close, and use focus fire on creeps that only it can hit. If you do this on creeps that are way in advance of your regular turret battery, you can sometimes kill whole waves, or at least soften them up on harder difficulties.

Silos are rarely reliable as your main turret, but are one of the best sources of additional AoE DPS once you get going.

[Nekomancer]

It would be great if we could make the HUD a bit smaller, i think it's a tad large on 1024x768, but my main complaint is the "Power increased" window with the Power Levels, this takes a lot of space on 1024x768 resolutions. Especially if multiple powers get upgraded.

[cydereal]

It would be great if we could make the HUD a bit smaller, i think it's a tad large on 1024x768, but my main complaint is the "Power increased" window with the Power Levels, this takes a lot of space on 1024x768 resolutions. Especially if multiple powers get upgraded.

That's good feedback. Going smaller should be something we can patch in, though I'd leave it to the code guys to make that call.

[Klementh]

It would be great if we could make the HUD a bit smaller, i think it's a tad large on 1024x768, but my main complaint is the "Power increased" window with the Power Levels, this takes a lot of space on 1024x768 resolutions. Especially if multiple powers get upgraded.

I play in a higher resolution and everything looks good in the HUD except the "Power increased" window. Please, make it smaller or transparent, and if possible, give a way of closing it.

EDIT: I messed this post after I typed it.
I wanted to suggest to make the middle mouse button be used to move the camera (keep pressed and move the mouse) as an alternative to moving the pointer to the border of the screen.

And also:
The ability to scroll down through the global leaderboards to see you and your friends among the rest of the players.

Other stuff that would be nice are (in no special order) a minimap to ping other players, voice chat ingame, a main chat lobby to go to before joining or hosting a game, the ability of opening the community page of people in the same lobby as you, and the ability to kickban people from your lobby.

Oh, and some times games end too abruptly in multiplayer. For instance, If you are playing 1 vs 1 and your opponent leaves, you should at least get a victory message box before going back to the menu.

[Gatekeeper]

Coming back to the stats idea, I understand if during gameplay it could be a bit much, looking at info on towers and trying to cast support etc. I would suggest perhaps a post-game summary of some kind, listing which towers did the most damage, which got the most kills etc. (And, if you want some more to do, the types they killed most, or which towers killed each individual type the most). Danger here might be people wanting to top scoreboards etc. instead of going for what is useful (people going for pure damage over any support just to try and get more damage done), but hopefully with an indie game that shouldn't happen too often!

And I also would like to voice the option of more maps where all the area is shared (for co-op), I much prefer the desert map to the others simply as we can all build anywhere we choose. Or add a map that is infinitely long, like survival mode co-opped.

Great game, managed to persuade two of my friends to buy it and trying to get a few more too! Keep up the great work.

Another idea I thought up before - when creating multiplayer lobbies, instead of specifying the player count there and then, why not just allow slots to be opened/closed?

[Katronix]

I would like to see the option in coop campaign to have both players build turrets, but divide the track where player one gets left side and player two gets right side. Or just have more 2 player coop maps (than that comes with the default 4 -- all which are very good).

[ColdEquation]

Interface scaling defaults to 0 to mean that no scaling is applied - the menus and HUD are rendered as intended, crisp and clear. But for people with larger displays, this can make everything look a bit small, so we allow scaling up to 100, which renders things as a console game would, filling the screen. The span in between allows you to use what you are comfortable with.

Thanks for all the great suggestions - the game certainly benefits from this kind of discussion. Some great ideas are emerging here, especially on the co-op end.

[Haas82]

I'd like to add: Checkpoints & Fast Forward. :)
I won't buy/play this game if it doesn't have this, I have played whole defense grid games with holding the f key. And checkpoints are essential for highscores and for people that don't want to wait all day or restart the whole map again only because 1 little crit got true.
I think these are essential commands.

[tuxdev]

But if you actually play the game, you'd know that both of those features would absolutely destroy the feel that Sol Survivor is trying to convey.

If you really feel like you need a fast-forward button, then either you're not playing at a high enough difficulty or you're just plain awesome and need to pwn Survival. Yeah, there's some lull periods near the start, but I use that time to plan out what to do for the next 3 waves because if I didn't, I'll lose.

[Nekomancer]

Fast Forward? More like Fast Death. Sorry, but Fast Forward doesn't work in Sol Survivor. Support abilities are pretty essential on Hard and especially Intense.

Checkpoints sound interesting.

[deloreanz]

As to a fast forward button - this is something we explicitly set out to avoid. Yes it works in some cases, but we didn't want to make a game that was so boring you wanted a fast forward button. Instead we made creeps with very different characteristics so it was more than just a numbers game of damage and hp. We also allowed several waves (sometimes up to 5+) to be present at the same time on the map. We didn't want to make busy work for the player, but rather to engage them more through orbital support powers and get them thinking about what turret combination would defeat the types of creeps approaching.

If you've not experienced much beyond simple levels towards the start of the game (or demo), then I would suggest checking out later levels - I can't imagine using a fast forward on those.

[nemesis519]

I wish for a multiplayer co-op endless mode or at least an increase in the wave count. It seems that once my defenses are finally getting well developed and the tension of the monsters to break them is finally mounting, the level is about 1-2 waves from the end and it feels like its over just too early. I wish I could play on through another 10-20 tougher waves.

The game length currently is nice for casual games, but I wish there was a 'long-mode' in co-op that doubled in length or so.

[Haas82]

I tried the game and I disagree the game is to boring due to the lack of a fast forward button, I don't want a super hard level I just want to chill and kill stuff. Waiting till the crits are finally at my choke point, is not cool it is booooooring.

[cydereal]

The words "co-operative" and "campaign" were used a few times in a lunch meeting with the devs. Don't take it as gospel yet, but it is being considered.

[Modularized]

I'd like to request a feature where you can alert your teammates to a location on the map with a flare of some sort. This would help me point out where I want them to do something. Or did I really just miss this in the game?

Edit: also I feel that the chat gets a bit in the way, the bottom left corner would be a more suitable place for it in my opinion.

[tuxdev]

On aspect ratios vs. resolution.. The aspect ratio is the physical aspect ratio of the physical screen, not the aspect ratio of the resolution settings. When the screen resolution aspect doesn't match the physical screen, the screen will scale the image to fit. For example, on my ridiculously min-spec system, I pretty much have to play at 800x600 (that's because I'm fill-rate limited), but my physical monitor is actually 1680x1050. Those aspects are, of course, 4:3 and 16:10. Without correction, it'll stretch out the image horizontally and look rather bad (blurry). If I set the aspect ratio to 16:10, the renderer will squish the image horizontally to fit, then my screen will stretch it back out to the right size. Of course, it's still somewhat blurry, but it's a whole lot less noticeable because it doesn't look stretched out anymore.

[Nekomancer]

I'd like to request a feature where you can alert your teammates to a location on the map with a flare of some sort. This would help me point out where I want them to do something. Or did I really just miss this in the game?

Agreed, a signal flare that alerts your teammates (should leave an indicator on screen if out of sight) would help a lot. Not everyone uses voicechat like TeamSpeak, Ventrilo or Skype.

[Modularized]

Even when using such programs, a signal flare is easier than having to describe the location. They implemented this feature pretty well in BattleForge.

[confid3nt]

How about a "pause" button?

[tuxdev]

Use ESC to go into the menus.

[confid3nt]

A "pause" so I can build up turrets while destroy them with my arsenal "death from above". As things get hairier, especial on intensive, I almost have no time to upgrade anything for a while.

[VoodoO Shoe]

Fast Forward. :)

i second that emotion! ;)

A speed up button would be nice!

[Kaese]

I'd like to see the missile tower get a little nerf.

No Lets-make-it-useless nerf, just a tiny bit to encourage other settings.

As much fun as it is figuring out nice combos and strategies,
the fact that spamming missile towers lets you play without much effort always has you thinking
"Should I do it the easiest way or build a more strategic defense?"



Another thing I would like to see is the ability to join running multiplayer games.

I know multiplayer isn't so populated because the game is new and all.

But Indie games usually suffer from having their own small online community, so it is hard to find games.

It all depends on luck that there is one lobby open or that there are players checking while you have the lobby open.

If there aren't any lobbies I would like to just join a running game,
most suffer from disconnects or did not have full playercount to begin with.

Not beeing able to select your officer or continuing someone elses strategy are things I can live with.

You could then also add a function that keeps the slot of a disconnected player only open for him for 5? minutes so he can rejoin the game and noone else "steals" his place.



As this is my first post in the Sol Survivor board, here is the obvious thing to say "I really like your game" :)

[DasMatze]

I'd like to have a next-wave button where you get a little bonus mass/energy for when you click it.

[confid3nt]

Also would be cool to have the "stats" for your steam profile show the number of creeps killed, number and types of turrets built etc.

nuff said

[Breet]

Some type of feedback for tower crits? (atm, I cannot tell if its worth putting it there, or slamming another lv3 tower there instead)

Range towers: Placement mode of new tower near a range tower to show how much 'extended' range they would get from buff.

Stats: Damage per shot, shots per second > (damage/sec) (towers/support)
Slow percentage / DoT dps (goo/radiation)
How much mass spent on tower group.

Global Stats: Creeps killed, Support used the most (times) tower upgraded the most, officer used the most. total mass spent on towers. Total colonists saved/lost

[Exaltedlegions]

Range towers: Placement mode of new tower near a range tower to show how much 'extended' range they would get from buff.

Stats: Damage per shot, shots per second > (damage/sec) (towers/support)
Slow percentage / DoT dps (goo/radiation)
How much mass spent on tower group.

Global Stats: Creeps killed, Support used the most (times) tower upgraded the most, officer used the most. total mass spent on towers. Total colonists saved/lost

I added some of this to the Collaboration of Sol Survivor Suggestions (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14089820#post14089820) (#11).

As for the range towers, do you mean having a special radius that shows the extended range of a tower when the player goes to place a tower near a range tower?

[Breet]

Yeah. Maybe something like shown when you upgrade a tower but different colour

[Exaltedlegions]

Yeah. Maybe something like shown when you upgrade a tower but different colour

Added, Collaboration of Sol Survivor Suggestions (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14089820#post14089820) (#22).

[thebriarfox]

Not a big deal, but when everything is calmed down a bit, please make it so the sounds mute when you Alt-Tab out of the game. :)

Thanks.

This! Please. And Thanks

[thebriarfox]

I'd like to see the missile tower get a little nerf.

No Lets-make-it-useless nerf, just a tiny bit to encourage other settings.

As much fun as it is figuring out nice combos and strategies,
the fact that spamming missile towers lets you play without much effort always has you thinking
"Should I do it the easiest way or build a more strategic defense?"



This strat does NOT work later on.

[Exaltedlegions]

This! Please. And Thanks


Collaboration of Sol Survivor Suggestions (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14089820#post14089820) (#9). Thanks for showing your support for the suggestion!

[Humphrey10]

I'd like to add: Checkpoints & Fast Forward. :)
I'd like this too. It's so boring just having to sit there waiting for the next wave. Checkpoints would be nice as well.

[thebriarfox]

I'm finding the curve on survival to be a little tough. It's like there is a sweet spot where you have to know to when to switch from building to upgrading, but it is far too short and subtle. One minute creeps are falling like flies and the next wave rolls out and I get steamrolled, especially playing coms with less then stellar shield penetration. And THAN the invisibles show up. At this point I'm still scrambling to upgrade or in some cases place turrets, and I rarely have 50 spare mass for a pretty limited range inhibitor, or time to spend flarespamming.

So here is what I would suggest.

A) Make the invisible units a little more distinct. Having them somewhat transparent is a good idea, but I need more. The transparency gets lost when I'm zoomed out, and in a clump of creeps, they are difficult to pinpoint with my support fire. While a targeting hotkey would be too much I think, how about a different color or colored border around the life bars of the invisibles?

A.2) How about some sort of turret, again, akin in price to a silo or two, that does the job of an inhibitor, only map wide. Maybe it has an unstable reactor that causes it to blow after a certain amount of time? Or maybe it charges and you activate it and for a set period it blankets the map with flares? It's just that you either spend your time flarespamming, or you have to build your entire defense around the placement of the inhibitors which, given how early invisible creeps show up, is entirely cost prohibitive.

B) Tweak the curve, or make survival waves a little more distinct.

C) Mass collection is painfully slow, and mass primarily off of creeps is a significant hindrance. Maybe some sort of unit akin in price to the silos that provides a boost to mass production. Maybe a slow trickle like a mine? Or maybe some sort of processing facility that gives you more mass per creep killed?

D)I realize that slow mass gathering was an intentional choice as a way to encourage people to use orbital support more. The problem is that all too often when I turn to my orbital support, I find myself staring at a box of magic bullets and nifty tricks, none of which apply to my situation or would help enough to make a difference. Even stuff that seems like it would be of help isn't. I'm lucky if a nuke kills creeps! It's a nuke! What's this barely half a life bar of damage crap? I strongly feel that the emphasis the game forces you to place on orbital support needs to be revisited, as well as the available support options themselves.

E) How about the means to pick your own turret/support combos? Even if only in some unlocked form of survival. Maybe after a certain number of badges? Or getting bronze in all the regular survivals?

Don't get me wrong, this game is phenomenal. The issue is that it introduces several new and unique mechanics to the TD genre, but doesn't do a very a good job of giving players a chance to adapt to it, or, in some cases, clearly explaining what those mechanics are and how to adapt them effectively.

[cydereal]

With the way the Survival creep spawning works, there are "intro" waves" that are short durations of increasing difficulty before you ramp up into the next tier of creeps. You get about 30 seconds to a minute of warning that it's going to get difficult, and really you'll want to have planned for that point well in advance.

Survival is about finding the right balance of slow, area of effect and single target damage. Sometimes you'll curve out well, and other times you'll have to try again. Speaking compared to the design of a game like Plants vs Zombies, we have many points of failure for the skilled player, so it keeps you on your toes a bit more.

As a final bit, we're seeing a lot of comments about making the invisible enemies a bit more distinct to the eye. In-house, most of our reactions are "@*! @*!*#* cats!!!" I for one think the game loses something if we make revealing the area too easy, but I'm sure we'll discuss both the graphics and the mechanics.

[thebriarfox]

With the way the Survival creep spawning works, there are "intro" waves" that are short durations of increasing difficulty before you ramp up into the next tier of creeps. You get about 30 seconds to a minute of warning that it's going to get difficult, and really you'll want to have planned for that point well in advance.

Survival is about finding the right balance of slow, area of effect and single target damage. Sometimes you'll curve out well, and other times you'll have to try again. Speaking compared to the design of a game like Plants vs Zombies, we have many points of failure for the skilled player, so it keeps you on your toes a bit more.

As a final bit, we're seeing a lot of comments about making the invisible enemies a bit more distinct to the eye. In-house, most of our reactions are "@*! @*!*#* cats!!!" I for one think the game loses something if we make revealing the area too easy, but I'm sure we'll discuss both the graphics and the mechanics.

Way to do your homework, lol!

I very much appreciate the adaptive, if brutal, experience you've created. Replaying the story mode a few more times helped me gain a little better perspective. My initial frustration had been with what appeared to be a severe discrepancy between the difficulty of the story mode versus that of the survival mode. What it seems to me now, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that the story mode is intended to be far more gentle as a way for you to get a feel for the COs and their style, try out combinations, etc... and use that to go into survival with a tried and true strategy, as opposed to a more organic, in the moment sort of play.

So often TD games, and PvZ is a particular culprit, design themselves in such a way that the only real challenge to offer is being ridiculously overwhelmed in a way that is unreasonable. In Sol Survivor, while this may be the case, it's usually because it's my own damn fault (bloody probes), and it has proven to be an enjoyable challenge on subsequent playings.

I appreciate the attention to the invisible unit 'issue'. I realize, also, that it is a fine line one walks balancing comfort vs intended experience. I just wanted to reiterate that it doesn't have to be much. They don't have to be painted day-glo green and listening to New Kids on the Block. A slight aura around the life bar, or maybe a slightly different colored one. Enough that you will see it readily if you're looking for it, but subtle enough that you'll still have to be looking for it to see.

[cydereal]

They don't have to be painted day-glo green and listening to New Kids on the Block.

New (un)official patch notes:
Invisible creeps will be wearing fluorescent glow-in-the-dark snap bracelets and blasting "Step by Step."

[damaged]

New (un)official patch notes:
Invisible creeps will be wearing fluorescent glow-in-the-dark snap bracelets(...)

I've been to nightclubs with patrons like this.

[thebriarfox]

New (un)official patch notes:
Invisible creeps will be wearing fluorescent glow-in-the-dark snap bracelets and blasting "Step by Step."

I gotta say I figure The Ascendancy more likely to blare "Hangin' Tough". That'll strike fear in the heart of any colonist.