Hello, Scrappers!
First and foremost a tremendous THANK YOU to the over 500 players who have participated in the Playtest and those who have provided feedback, whether that be through Steam discussion posts or the [Feedback Form].
The Playtest will continue to run until the 12th, after that it will be taken down so that there is time to iterate and improve based on the feedback I've received. Another Playtest will return in the coming months!
In the meantime, here are a few feedback highlights and points that I'll be working on.
Overall
Overall, players enjoyed the current gameplay experience but performance still needs work. I've noticed the second underground/refinery level in particular seems to be quite problematic. So that level will be getting an overhaul and change in approach to address those performance issues. Additionally, there have already been a few memory leak fixes and some improvements to ai behavior reducing slow down when several are active.
Upgrades
In terms of Mech Upgrades the current offering was not meaningful enough (though this was expected as the game is not feature complete), with players wanting more. In particular the most desired Mech features are:
Hulls: Mech bodies with different stats
Modules: Playstyle modifiers for things such as stronger Ramming Attacks, longer distance Side Boosts/Dodges, etc.
Additionally, the current "Upgrades" system will be reworked into "Tuning" in which the Upgrade Cores that players collect will instead be made into Tuning Points, which can freely be spent to increase or decrease the same stats as before but without needing to spend Scrap on every upgrade.
Weapons
In regards to weapons, most enjoyed the current selection but a few weapons (particularly the Beam Laser, Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, and Gatling Gun) need various number tweaks to Damage, Heat Generation, and usability improvements.
One common feature request was for a weapon ready indicator so here is a preview of the current WIP Fire Rate UI for when the weapon has finished 'reloading', as well as weapon barrels getting hotter the closer to Overheating! The UI prompt will go away when not in combat to avoid clutter.
Additionally, there is currently a Cool Off mechanic, which would activate a quick weapon Heat level cooldown if the player hadn't fired their weapon after a few seconds. That mechanic will be moved to an input to act as a "reload" of sorts where the player can choose when to initiate a quick reduction in Heat level, but it will go on a cooldown afterwards.
Settings
Finally, in terms of keybindings, options, and adjustable settings there are resolution display settings not saving correctly that will need to be fixed, as well as requests for Use/Interact prompts, FOV sliders, invert settings, and frame rate locks. So I'll be looking into all of those and seeing what can be provided in future Playtests.
Whew! That wraps up most of the big points, I think.
Thank you all again or your time and for playing. I had initially signed up for the upcoming Steam NextFest in February however after this Playtest it is clear the game is not ready and that a larger public demo at this time might do more harm then good. As such, I'll continue to iterate and work through improvements for now. I'll also work on improving the narrative and providing more context to the world and environments.
A reminder that the current Playtest will run until the 12th, then it will be taken down to provide time to work on these things.
Cheers all!
Harrison / Knight Division Games