Observations from the stream

[cKnoor]

Its not about playing competitively, I never said that. Its just about giving a good image of the game. I really enjoyed the beta, I think its going to be a great game, and it makes me sad to read a lot of negative feedback here and on the reddit, just because the guys on the stream didn't know how to play. People complain about the cartoony look of bombs and explosions, yet it can be disabled in options. They complain about the lack of action, but the players had like 500 reserve points in the end of the game... They also could have explained the mechanics better, a lot of them are made to improve some of wargame's flaws.

For the record Peter knows how to play just fine, and the idea that we'd play "properly" on the gameplay reveal is just silly and I think you know that. The idea is to show off the game and explain the mechanics to those that have not played the game before. Which is going to be pretty much everyone. It's also important to note that we're not trying to explain the game assuming people have played Eugen's previous games. That would be equally confusing for those that haven't.

With that said, if it was anything you felt was explained poorly please let me know, which the caveat that the stream is aimed at players that know nothing Eugen's previous games or have been in the beta.

 

[cKnoor]

Please pardon me for saying that, but in my opinion the recent stream didn't do the game justice it deserves. I understand that the main purpose was to highlight new features, but please don't assume up front, that people cannot comprehend a normal gameplay. There was no need to run the game on v. slow for third of it's duration. RTS arena is very small and struggles at the moment and there were players from other games present during the stream, that we really need here. I believe, that even at this stage, the game is able to do just fine without babysitting. So for the next stream, if we could please have a game/map preloaded before the stream launches, and a normal gameplay would be most welcome. You can always pre-record it, just in case more of those "hot codes"

I do apologise for harsh words, but it just saddens us to see all the unjustified forum threads poping up around.

Here's the thing, running it faster so that RTS players that are already familiar with the game type would alienate those that might be interested that haven't played a similar game recently. And to get a large playerbase those are the players we need to reach. We'll get to fast gameplay with more strategy focused as we get closer to release, but right now we can't afford to alienate those that may not understand the core mechanics of the game. And I can see that in some cases we did push how fun the frontline mechanic is as some viewers have commented that they want it removed. I take that as me not explaining it well enough, and a case of us going slightly to fast over certain issues.
Which incidentally is why we skip building battlegroups entirely, as that is so integral that it needs its own stream to explain.

While replays may work for later streams I don't think it's a good idea for early streams, as that would make us unable to focus on questions raise by the chat, and it can also interrupt the flow of a conversation on stream. So for those reasons I prefer live gameplay.

Personally, I'd prefer if they took request and then pre recorded a game of the most requested things (within reason of course, no 20 King Tiger roflstomp) and then commentated on the replay. I watched half the live stream before I got really bored and just exited out and didn't watch the rest. Thankfully, I got to play in the beta, so it doesn't crap on my thoughts of the game, but if this was all I had to go by, I would be disappointed.

Pre-recording a video would kind of go counter to a live stream of the game, but it is definitely something I want to look into for future coverage. But if/when we do replay casts of games, it will probably not be live but on Youtube. And like I mentioned (I think it was in this thread) if you played in the Beta then this stream wasn't for you. I am glad you watched and have comments. But the focus is to get those that don't know the game on board, and for that you really can't go too quick.

That said, that's for the comments both of you, I do appreciate feedback, even if I sometimes disagree with it.

 

[cKnoor]

cknoor, I'd like it explained further where infantry can take cover and how they physically do it outside of buildings. I want to know if infantry conform to the terrain when taking cover or just remain standing. Do infantry in fact hide behind terrain such as walls? I really want to know if eugen got over the circle of infantry standing in the middle of a green field getting shot at in circle formation. Company of heroes and me of war are good examples of smaller scale games that do this, it would be amazing frankly forna game of sd44s scale but I have to ask.

We kind of covered this in the stream in that your cursor shows the type of cover the unit will get, but we'll definitely cover it in more detail in later streams.

What about having someone else in PDX to be the opponent instead of an AI? In the stream most mechanics were kinda cut short mid-explaination despite on very slow speed because the AI was playing to win and constantly pushed on all fronts. Which meant you guys kept jumping all over the map to deal with a single unit.
Instead, having someone like LetterZ or somebody playing the enemy team would allow you guys to script/plan the general flow and you guys can actually show off gameplay with the enemy units involved with no time constraints, and react to chat as well. That way we as viewers would get focused and spectacular gameplay/explosions while you guys can take as long as you need to show off what you want. Instead of having the AI distracting you guys with like a jeep or something across the map every 5 minutes, and you guys end up having to use very slow speed which makes the game look boring when it isn't.

Like we mentioned on stream MP stream will show up later on, in fact we'll probably see some next week. But we can't jump straight into MP if viewers don't know the basics of the interface. Having a second player control the other side would lead to people complaining about us not playing against the AI. Because that's a thing. I also wanted to make sure we could showcase how much of a reactionary game this is once you get into the game. So having the battle be to scripted I don't think would have worked as well.

 

[cKnoor]

If you prefer live streams, might I suggest someone else commentate on what the player is doing, or at least have the player focus on the gameplay as much as possible. For me, good gameplay makes me want to watch and play the game that's being showed off.

Once again, to show gameplay you first have to explain gameplay. Which is much harder with someone just playing the game.

On the contrary. You were trying to show it off on over exaggerated examples. You kind of played the way to force the a pocket, which in normal gameplay happens extremely rarely.

The amount of pocket in gameplay really depends on divisions and battlegroup build.

I always find these paradox at bit of a waste of time, they seem to try too hard to be witty and comedic rather than just concentrating on giving us the features and facts.... for me Programmers are never the funniest guys.

I hope that the next streams are more informative.....

I'll have you know that we have the funniest programmers in the biz, and that we rarely have them on stream. You're more likely to see a game director, QA, community people or producers.