Steam Next Fest has ended - during the event, quite a few new players have tried out the game and I received some valuable feedback. As to what's next, I will keep the free demo up and updated - think of it as an open playtest. if you want to be part of the development, you should join our Discord channel.
New Matchmaking Algorithm
Among all the feedback I've received, two of them stand out:
- The game is too focused on ship battle and not "incremental" enough
- Permanent element boost is meh: XP multiplier doesn't feel significant enough
Both are very fair, and I kind of agree as well. I am very concerned about making the ship battle "fair" - therefore, prestige boosts (Permanent Elements) cannot affect in-battle balance, which severely limits the type of boost they can provide. And a fair matchmaking will result in a 50% win rate, which kind of goes against the spirit of incremental games. That's probably why there are almost no incremental games with PvP mechanism.
After some thoughts, I have figured out a potential solution. To start, I've made a completely rewritten matchmaking algorithm. Matchmaking used to be based on Quantum, which works okay but results in the above limitation. The new matchmaking is based on a calculated ship rating, which is derived from defense rating (total HP) and attack rating (DPS). This will allow ships from different quantum levels to be matched against each other, while still keep the match more or less even. From my testing, this rating is about 80% accurate.
The new matchmaking algorithm is live with Patch 0.4. And it will allow me to make Permanent Element boost more "powerful" in the future (for example, they might provide Production Multiplier, just like in CivIdle).
And with this new matchmaking algorithm, I am also thinking removing the two-strikes rule for ship battle. So instead of being forced to prestige after losing two qualifier battles, you simply get 5 quantum if you lose a qualifier battle, compared to getting 10 quantum if you win. This will make sure even if your current ship is less optimized, you can still progress, which is the spirit of "incremental" games.
As you can see, the new matchmaking algorithm is very important to the next evolution of the game. So let me know if you have any feedback.
Cooldown Indicator
A cooldown indicator has been added - now you can clearly see the cooldown of each individual weapon module.
In-Battle Popover
Now you can inspect the detail info about each individual modules (include your enemy's) during battle, which makes it easier to gather more intel and further optimize your ship.
