[newman]

It's funny how people complain about gameplay complexity - I don't recall the same complaints for when FS2 came out. But, if we decreased complexity we'd get others complaining about it being too arcade-like. I'm thinking people just got too used to console-like simplified gameplay that today's games offer by large. I do concede that having some targeting hotkeys that let you wade through all the crap to the critical stuff would be welcome, but cutting the number of controls to simplify gameplay..? FS2 style games were never exactly Orbiter, it's a bit disconcerting seeing people completely out of their element when a game has a bit more complexity than your run of the mill FPS...

Still, mostly praise, and that's good. Just not liking the principle of gameplay having to be super-simplified for today's audiences.

[jg18]

Is IGN's review the first numeric review, i.e., the first one to assign a score, particularly from a major game review site?

Also, because of the IGN review, there's now a Metacritic page.

[MatthTheGeek]

It's funny how people complain about gameplay complexity - I don't recall the same complaints for when FS2 came out. But, if we decreased complexity we'd get others complaining about it being too arcade-like. I'm thinking people just got too used to console-like simplified gameplay that today's games offer by large. I do concede that having some targeting hotkeys that let you wade through all the crap to the critical stuff would be welcome, but cutting the number of controls to simplify gameplay..? FS2 style games were never exactly Orbiter, it's a bit disconcerting seeing people completely out of their element when a game has a bit more complexity than your run of the mill FPS...

Still, mostly praise, and that's good. Just not liking the principle of gameplay having to be super-simplified for today's audiences.

It should be noted however that the tutorial does force you to go through a lot of commands that are rarely/barely/never used. Instead of a FS-ish movement tuto followed by combat tuto, it may have been wiser to have one basic command tuto and one advanced commands tuto.

Basically what I mean is, you shouldn't need more than afterburner, glide, weapon commands and toggling auto-speed/auto-target to play Diaspora ! The rest is superfluous for first-time players.

[General Battuta]

While the tutorial was technically really well made, I think in the end it was bad user experience.

[MatthTheGeek]

I agree. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the FREDing of the tutorial, or the execution, or the ambience or anything like that, but the progression was not, imho, adapted for first-time players that would like to get in the action as fast as possible with only the most basic required keys to play correctly.

Ideally, maybe the tutorial should even be a separate campaign so players can go back to it easily after one or two mission in order to learn more advanced commands, without having to go through the mission simulator they most likely don't even know exists.

[newman]

While I see your points, it's probably best I refrain from commenting this further since FREDing isn't my department. IGN gave us a mostly favorable review, and the things they didn't like we planned on fixing anyway for the most part, so there's that

[karajorma]

I think the lack of multiplayer (both perceived and actual real players) hurt us too.

But that's what r1.5 is meant to correct.

[Ace]

I think the main issue was perceived difficulty be it controls and, namely, dying. Not a lot we can do without revamping the health system.

Working in (for players) something like the Assassin's creed system where health is divided into 5% segments that can regenerate might help a lot and could be tied to lower difficulties like autoaim currently is. (so if a missile nails you down to 83% it can regen some of those blocks back)

Of course I now feel fully justified during beta when people complained it was too easy and I said it was still too hard

We did get a higher score than BSG Online... so... there's that...

[Swifty]

I think simply having Hull Integrity just magically repair to 25% whenever it gets below that threshold (Or whichever number that causes the damage gauge to go red) would go a long way. Perhaps just in the lower difficulties.

In terms of how that would affect suspension of disbelief, we already have subsystems repairing themselves so it doesn't seem much of a stretch to me to see all numbers on your damage gauge increasing instead of just many.

We implemented difficulty conceits with auto aim and lenient combat landings. Having regenerative hit points in the lower difficulties as well isn't exactly selling our souls here.

[Topgun]

Don't ****ing ruin the game because of a ****ty IGN review. The game's difficulty and complexity are fine.

[karajorma]

I doubt we'd do anything to the standard setting, but maybe for easy.

[yuezhi]

way i see it IGN is not hardcore.

and i don't think they ever liked freespace to begin with.

[kev11106]

My 2 cents...
          I couldn't agree with Topgun more.

[NGTM-1R]

way i see it IGN is not hardcore.

...what does that even mean?

[General Battuta]

Damn what y'all upset about, that was a perfectly fair review and a fine score.

It's particularly exciting to see Diaspora get covered as a real release, rather than shoved into some mod roundup paragraph.

[Topgun]

way i see it IGN is not hardcore.

...what does that even mean?

They only like simple games.

[Flipside]

way i see it IGN is not hardcore.

and i don't think they ever liked freespace to begin with.

It's not so much they are not hardcore as they review games from the perspective of the average player. We do need to remember that this type of game, with this level of difficulty has always been 'niche'. If you compare the difficulty of Diaspora to some of the later missions in Tie Fighter or Wing Commander, the difficulty curve is not that different, the difficulty level is just fine in my opinion, the audience you aimed for is the audience you hit perfectly.

I think decreasing the difficulty of the game would be like nerfing the Minbari in the B5 project. It'd kind of defeat the whole point of the campaign

[NGTM-1R]

They only like simple games.

I doubt that extremely. I suspect you're seeing the result of a Space Sim produced by Space Sim players of years and years, i.e. the difficulty has been skewed from what a commercial product would have because we've all been at this much too long.

[Topgun]

They only like simple games.

I doubt that extremely. I suspect you're seeing the result of a Space Sim produced by Space Sim players of years and years, i.e. the difficulty has been skewed from what a commercial product would have because we've all been at this much too long.

I don't think the average player would rate party babyz a 7.5

[General Battuta]

The last thing I want to talk about is gamers' opinion of reviews of games. I disagree with NGTM1R a little, though - I think on the two lowest Diaspora difficulties the game is pretty welcoming at the mechanical level. Once players realize they only need a couple basic controls, they should be fine.