05-22-2020, 11:20 PM
Here is my constructive reply. Unlike many other comments in this thread, I don't have any ill intent, and actually enjoy and play the game currently.
1. You need critics, not yes men.
6. Gameplay and recent features
9. Warp progression
1. You need critics, not yes men.
- I don't think Haxus intentionally surrounds himself with people who always agree with him. If you feel there is a lack of criticism, you should be the first to step up and deliver some. This post is a start.
- In terms of player count, this universe is definitely pretty weak. I can tell you players old and new are dropping off like flies over freezes and limbo. The game is just not stable yet, and it generates a lot of frustration when you finally make the time to sit down and play some Hazeron only for your only avatar to become disconnected 10 minutes into your session, you have an asteroid that destroys your world in a matter of hours, and there is nothing you can do but wait for Haxus to personally attend to you. I have thankfully not encountered too much of this, but I can guarantee every single player experiences it several times in their first week. That is substantially higher than your standard video game where it should be a one in a million occurrence.
- To your point about "This game is breaking apart and loosing everyone's interest." how about we look at that. The lack of new players is due to the ridiculous learning cliff. The game is easy once you have a grasp, but there are not a lot of resources or support for new players. We could all be helping with this if we want to play with more people.
- It's pointless to complain about there being bugs. Unfortunately we have to accept that this one-man project will have bugs. He doesn't have a QA team at his side, and this game is too complex for him to run through for every patch. The difference between this, Minecraft and Rimworld, is Haxus is the only one-man team in the world trying to develop a totally persistent MMO, which many would say is a stupidly unrealistic project. We are facing those reasons why it is so.
- Right. I joined at the tail end of the etherium troubles, and most of the issues seem to have left by now. I don't know if there is much point in complaining about that event because I don't know how he could practically test for the issues he ended up facing. He does have a test universe to himself, I believe. However as we know there was a lot of trouble anyways.
- You'll have to get a real answer from him on this point, and why problems exist in Hazeron.
- Sure, why not. It shouldn't need to be a discussion.
- Again, it will need a direct answer for why there are problems. Don't read the armchair developer replies. Another space game developer spoke of a system where if a server crashed, it's state would be transferred to a fresh new server where it could continue. Idk how feasible that is here, but it's a thought.
- Limbo will be the breaking point for many players, and will kill any steam release unless they are ironed out. It's also something you can only fix after finding occurrences of it in the universe. It absolutely needs work or at the very least get workarounds for the players. Avatar recalling is already a kind of work-around for getting stuck. I would endorse an avatar rollback feature or a "Spawn at home" option at the character select screen, which always works, but it doesn't solve the issue of ships or systems getting stuck.
6. Gameplay and recent features
- I would like to open up this topic more. I suspect Hazeron might be becoming a different game than you expected. Haxus eluded in his "When will hazeron be done?" post that what the game is now is not the same vision he had decades ago for the game. I just came from a terrible Warframe binge, a game that just added multicrew spaceships after starting out as a run and gun ninja shooter. The game is nothing like they envisioned it to be 7 years ago. My point is that it's not unusual for games that run this long to change very much over their lifetime.
- Now the features. After using the new ships and buildings for some time now, I am satisfied with their additions and find they create a significant amount of role playing potential. I do plan to publish a full designer guide along with techniques as I seem to be the only active proficient user at the moment, and it is a hurdle for newcomers. There are no stability issues here, but room to improve. There are many many blueprints available now, and almost everything you could ever need, but it is also flooded and difficult to navigate. We can talk more about this. I don't want to have to make a list of ideal designs, because they are scattered between different publishers, and there are a lot of designs with substantial flaws and noob traps. The wiki also needs to document more of it.
- I would like to start the discussion that while the conquest gameplay of Hazeron is utterly unique, it is and always has been broken by design. Trying to turn this into a competitive game I feel is unrealistic. It's just far too easy to exploit, and it's not well designed for fun or accessibility, the objectives aren't good. One man will never keep up with whatever metagame is formed. The best strategy will be made, and that will be it. There's no space fleet RTS, or LotGH style battles. The community first needs an attitude to have fun. Organize space battles, but losing territory can be a soul crushing loss. I believe and I find the game plays best as a role playing game. That means casual space encounters, not all out eternal war. That means getting into character and declaring and organizing formal battles, not stabbing someone in the back while they are offline. There can be mechanisms added for this, and I'd love to see something like the story editor return.
- I must stress that as a player of a small empire, I will argue it is actually way easier. The Land system gives empires a suitable expansion limit that is super easy to manage within, but an empire such as yours should have no problem acquiring thousands of systems with so many players. The land system however reduces the value of scoring empires by system count. It never really represented empires well, and imo should be some significant objective such as a ringworld count instead or special research, another discussion for later. I don't think the reasons would be limited server resources, I find it to be a an equalizer between large empires and newer empires. Did you see Weltreich in U5? That was the largest empire ever made, the vast majority by a single player that actively crushed newcomers. Nobody was ever going to match up to that. The tighter expansion limits are harder on those that seriously want to expand, and you still can, but it's far easier for those that expand within their means. My account alone could double your empire's score on the leaderboard in a day, but that would be it. I don't want 60 systems because that's stupid. Combined with the removal of ship and crew size gates, the game is more fair towards new players, which we all want.
- The loss of ghost cities is a bit sad, I do remember those being cool, but I think this is a net positive change. Now the cities you find will be of active players instead.
- Asking why he's not open about server costs might be a cultural difference, but his finances are private and they should stay that way. This is a level of transparency we don't need because it's just not appropriate to ask for. It's also not really our problem to speculate on if the hardware can handle the universe, it hasn't been an issue ever.
- I suspect you play Hazeron mostly, if not solely for the war. There are a lack of players to destroy, the space is too big to find them, your interactions often mean conflict. The space might be big, but that's because it is. There are too many galaxies, and the fact there is a single bottleneck to pass between them locks almost all small empires out of ever travelling to them. Large empires such as your own ensure that, so you are off and away in a galaxy nobody plays in. I am in agreement actually that they should almost all be removed. While I don't play for the war, there is too much space to meet other players. I actually think there should only be a single path, and just between Shores of Hazeron and Veil of Targoss. It's harmful to segregate the two, and like EVE I think it would be more natural to have an accessible safe zone. There could be a true social hub in the center of the veil to show off ships and stuff, it would be a lot of fun. The incentives to enter the conflict zone would be for greater chance at higher quality resources, but also ringworlds, which should be substantially rare if not impossible to occur in the veil. Stargates should also be impossible to the veil.
- It did seem super common to see Q255 resources now, I wasn't aware it was intentionally made more common, but this again equalizes the empires. We can now truly have a level endgame where the last measure is ship designs, fleet sizes, and space battle tactics. I do desire some objective worth contesting, such as ringworlds, but they too can offer like 21+ remote controlled ships which is a large advantage. It should be a discussion though, Haxus probably doesn't know what he would change to make a reason to fight. The last reason would be for role play. Many games play just fine using this, so I don't feel it to be too much of a sticking point.
9. Warp progression
- The last gate. Warp has a lot of value now, it always sort of has. It produces emissions even from ships, which is awesome, but also helps detect and find empires. It is a whole era of an empire's gameplay. Each level of warp opens them up to more and more of the galaxy, and in the meantime you can be playing around the smaller spaces of sectors you have.
- Progression has always been a problem with the game. The patent system was an attempt to flatten it versus the rng of the TL system, and we know the attempts after that. I think it is best that it be playable for new empires, otherwise regular galaxy resets can be used to repeatedly level the field.
- I think they're hilarious. The resource usage is a bit concerning, but they have boobs so it's okay. I hope they are given the crazy monster-making sliders like Gen 3.
- It's useless to complain about a fix coming too late. He fixed it, and it should be celebrated. You're just complaining about stuff he added that you've wanted for a while. What do you really want? It's too late, maybe he shouldn't have bothered? It's not constructive, I think your frustration is just coming through strong in your final words.
- I think you need to step back and ask yourself what you want from the game, and constructively work with Haxus in achieving that. I too wish the conquest gameplay could be good, but I just don't think it's possible with one man. The game has other unique qualities that still sets it apart from all other games, and I'm certain there is a market for, such as it's numerous role-playing mechanics and emergent gameplay with other players, plus player designed empires and starships. The conquest should be a side feature of that and not the center, because it will sink.
- Being constructive means being open about what you want, with good intentions. Most of us want the game to succeed and to play the game we want. It's can be frustratingly slow to watch, but If you want to play old hazeron, that time has past. It's a new Hazeron now with new strengths and it's still changing. We need to be realistic that Haxus is one dude and he also wants a certain game, but despite that I believe that the game is still groundbreaking and will greatly improve.
- Help report bugs, tell Haxus what you like, make suggestions that you think he can feasibly add. Just motivating him will develop the game faster. Otherwise, enjoy the game and helping new players will solidify the playerbase.