Author Topic: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)  (Read 12477 times)

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Offline The E

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
And this is why numerical scores are bad.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
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Offline Flipside

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
Well, IGN's review of God Hand is famous for the ire it stirred up among fans, and even four years later, long after the person who wrote that actual review left the site, people still rage about it.

As for the second review, I'm not entirely certain what it is trying to say, that because a childrens game got a high-score for being well targetted and executed from the reviewers persective, that it makes the company less 'hardcore' for not only having reviewed it, but enjoyed it as well?

 

Offline swashmebuckle

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
Hehe, they've misspelled "Armistice" on their front page.  Seriously though, congratulations on getting reviewed (and very positively, too!) by one of the hugest mainstream gaming sites out there.  Hopefully it'll help FSO reach a bunch of new people :yes:

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
I don't think the average player would rate party babyz a 7.5

Pretty sure the average player who bothered picking it up would. Also, timely and clearly related, this is not.
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Offline Flipside

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
What it boils down to, I suppose, is that this is perfectly fair and accurate review. Consider, is the reviewer actually saying anything that we didn't already know? Freespace and its kin were famous for their vast plethora of controls, some even blamed that as part of the reason that Space-combat sims faltered as a genre, and the Multiplayer is still in Beta, this site makes no secret of that fact.

All in all Diaspora gets very positive comments for presentation, atmosphere and story, and justifiably so, there are still weak spots, the developers would be the first to agree with that, and this review identifies the weak along with the strong, it wouldn't be a very good review if it didn't.

All in all, I think both the Diaspora AND the SCP teams should be incredibly proud of that review, you got a rating that wouldn't be insulting to a moderate commercial release based on work done on an entirely voluntary basis and purely out of affection for a ten-year old game engine and the BSG Universe. To see the SCP Engine not only throw down the gauntlet to more modern games, but actually have its visual quality commented on is a far more incredible achievement than I think many people realise.

 

Offline newman

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
I don't see why this topic was split. Now it looks like I was bothered enough to start a new topic when it was just a passing remark to an existing one.
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Offline karajorma

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
I'd rather keep the other thread just for links rather than discussion. I'll rename the thread to make it clear though.

I tend to agree with Battuta and Flipside on the issue of the score. The issues the review brought up are ones we're perfectly aware of and have taken steps to mitigate in R2. And the fact that we've achieved a score that says "If you're interested in BSG or Space sims, you'll probably want to try this out" when compared against games from commercial studios, is pretty impressive. I'm not at all unhappy about that.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2012, 01:31:27 am by karajorma »
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Offline newman

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
Fair enough, and thanks :)

And yes, numerical scores can be misleading, depending on the kind of player you are. If you already have space sim experience and don't care about multi, you'll probably find Diaspora better than the overall IGN score suggested.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2012, 01:36:23 am by newman »
You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til ya understand who's in ruttin' command here! - Jayne Cobb

 
Re: Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?
I would like to know what difficulty he was playing on.  Also if he had space sim experience as he claimed, I feel like the control scheme is pretty standard for the important stuff.

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
Don't ****ing ruin the game because of a ****ty IGN review. The game's difficulty and complexity are fine.
Since when is helping newbies on lower levels of difficulties "ruining the game" ? If you want to play the game à la hardcore, play Insane, that's what it's here for ! Diaspora has to worry about all the new players that want an enjoyable experience without hours of training. Level of difficulties are here to satisfy both ends of the player spectrum.

Which get us back to square 1 : I can see the way training missions are right now being a barrier to entry for first-time players.
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Offline Ace

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
One thing I've always been for is making sure that the game is approachable. R2 will add some more complexity, but doing things like an alternate damage system that is more lenient on easier difficulties is an idea that we should go forward with.

I've never bought into the "hardcore" or "e-sports" mindsets because such things often are used as justification for bad design decisions intended to make games harder for no reason.
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Offline Sushi

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review
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.

Yep, that was my thought as well. I thought the reviewer was bang-on for all of the highlights and lowlights (although I do wonder if they played through on the default difficulty level).


I am curious to see how things like alternative damage systems work out, and I agree that trimming down controls to the essentials is possible and largely desirable.

Multiplayer is tricky, since we never got enough players to make it self-sustaining. A multiplayer-focused release might possibly fix that, I guess, but I don't think anyone is surprised that Diaspora (and Freespace) is first and foremost a single-player experience.

 

Offline Rodo

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
Congrats on getting a good review on IGN, this only reinforces my idea about you guys on the backside being awesome.
el hombre vicio...

 

Offline Master_Drow

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
I seem to remember that in the FS2 campaign there are two sets of training missions. The first set does a lot of the basic flight and targeting controls and the second set (several missions later) teaches the advanced controls. I always wondered if Diaspora should follow a similar model. But then I realized that with only six mission it would be hard to fit in a second round of training without breaking the action.

If Diaspora ever does a Saga release (aka R1, R2, R3, etc. all in one release) then breaking up the training into basic and advanced and placing them throughout the campaign would really flatten that learning curve, and help bring in new players.



I don't recommend changing too much with the damage system. That is what has killed many a good game, when a fun (yet difficult) health system is replaced by a system that tends towards casual gamers. (I'm looking at you Halo 2) I think the idea of regenerating a 'section' of your health is viable, but don't turn the health system into pips. Just have the ship heal up to the nearest 10% (for example) and that should help a lot of those newer players. Maybe even have the easier difficulties heal to the nearest 25% while the harder ones heal to the nearest 10% and have the hard difficulties just not heal at all, some sort of sliding scale.



We should also have a screen right after the training (or before) that asks the user to select their difficulty. I think a lot of nuggets jumped in on normal difficulty when they were only ready for easy and that lead too a lot of frustration.



As for multiplayer, would it ever be possible to get AI working in some of the more basic mission types. Then a few permanent servers could be set up where slots are filled with AI. That way people wont be turned off instantly because they cant find a game. With AI they could play a few games while other players queue up for the next game.

 

Offline newman

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
If Diaspora ever does a Saga release (aka R1, R2, R3, etc. all in one release) then breaking up the training into basic and advanced and placing them throughout the campaign would really flatten that learning curve, and help bring in new players.

That won't be possible, though - Shattered Armistice concluded the Theseus storyline, and the next release will focus on a different story. So even if we'll have one big release containing all campaigns, they'll still be separate ones.
You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til ya understand who's in ruttin' command here! - Jayne Cobb

  

Offline The E

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
It would, however, be possible to split the tutorials out into their own, separate campaign, wouldn't it?
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
Yes but it would seem rather odd that way as we have all kinds of story hooks in the tutorials that don't pay off.
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Offline MatthTheGeek

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
BtA has a demo as a separate campaign, with a lot of story hooks in it. I don't see how that would be any different from having the tutorial as a separate campaign.
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

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666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
I love how rethinking and softening mechanics that lead to frustration (like purely attritive damage) would be "****ing ruining the game". I guess it's the same as how the new XCOM sucks because it removed number-munging and how DX:HR sucked because it removed the tedium of scrounging for medkits.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Reactions to the IGN Review (Split from Where Have You Seen Diaspora Mentioned?)
Yes but it would seem rather odd that way as we have all kinds of story hooks in the tutorials that don't pay off.

The idea that someone is going to play the tutorial and not proceed directly to play the campaign because it requires a number of extra mouseclicks under ten is remarkably strange.
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