Hi all,
So it's been just over 2 days since our release and we're already getting a lot of feedback from you guys. Some of it we expected (in relation to difficulty, lack of tutorial etc) - but some was also unexpected! We believe in innovation, and took some big risks with the design of the game, but rest assured that we are nowhere near done with this title just yet!
Stormtide is a 2-man dev team, with only one full-time developer (myself), so we're stretched pretty thin most of the time - but we're looking at putting out a small hotfix by the end of the week that addresses some of the initial gameplay troubles.
Some of these items will take longer to implement - so will be available in a patch towards the end of January. We have divided these changes / fixes up into two categories - a December Hotfix and a January Patch.
- Pausing During Tutorial & Mission Completion - Hotfix Although 90% of our prompt / short tutorials DO pause the game, there are a few that we feel made more sense without the game paused. We have had some strong opposition to this, and so as of this patch ALL tutorial windows will pause our time management - meaning Satellite state and mission timers will be frozen during any tutorial. We will also pause the game during mission completion stage. This is an oversight on our part, but don't forget you can view and read all of your missions in the Catalog on the main menu! The long-term aim of the game is to unlock all of the Catalog items to gold level!
- Tutorial Improvements - Patch This will not be included in this weeks patch, but we're looking at designing a new interactive tutorial that walks you through the first couple of missions, and docking. Our short prompt tutorials are clearly not enough to get people into the swing of the game.
- UI / UX Improvements - Hotfix Some small tweaks to the UI will be made for the first hotfix to display additional information with ease. We're sticking to our compact UI because it makes much more sense as you become more adept at the game and learn the keybindings (and we don't want our pretty graphics covered in UI!), but we can certainly make some information easier to see. These changes are on-going, but some will make it into this weeks hotfix.
- Video Tutorials - Post-January Patch Satellite Command is a tough game to tutorialise without giving away all the gameplay. We want our players to discover how to play on their own, but that gamble we took currently isn't working out. Nobody likes to read large blocks of text, so instead we'll be creating a video gameplay series that will introduce players to the game. These will be linked and watchable with the game open. This way, you have the option to have the gameplay explained to you - or to work it out by yourself.
- Easy & Hard Modes - Patch This may take more than a week to implement so for the meantime we'll be addressing some balance issues and the length of certain timers, but in the long-term we're going to look at implementing a more forgiving 'easy' mode for newcomers, and a more difficult 'hard' mode. The key differences will be that 'easy' mode will be a more casual experience, and will not count towards your leaderboard scores. 'Hard' mode will essentially become our 'ranked' mode, which will count towards leaderboard scoring and have a more difficult balance. This ensures that seasoned players still have a challenge, while newcomers can enjoy a more relaxed game.
- Overheating / Hibernation Rebalance - Hotfix We will be reducing the amount of heat generated by the spacecraft, particularly when idle and during tool use. Overheating management through hibernation is part of the gameplay, but seems to confuse players when they only have one Satellite at the beginning of the game. Until we implement our new gameplay modes, we will be reducing this to prevent frustration.
- Reduce Wake-Up Time - Hotfix We will be reducing the amount of time it takes to wake the Satellite significantly. Waking exists as a punishment for using Time-Warp - but currently takes far too long.
- Disable Auto-Wake - Hotfix Auto-Waking occurs when a Satellite is able to come out of safe mode. We will change this so that the satellite just switches straight into hibernation mode, rather than waking up. This is more useful for later games where the player has multiple Satellites.
- Targeting System Damping - Hotfix The targetting system in the early game is extremely loose by design (you must RESEARCH more accurate target tracking) - but clearly at the moment it is far too loose. We will be adjusting this to make the initial tracking a bit tighter. Don't forget to assist the Targeting with the WASD keys, and (once researched) by using the Gyro.
- Bugfixes - Hotfix & Patch We will always be releasing hotfixes to fix bugs. I will be adding a known-issues list to the Technical Support forum shortly to let you know what we're aware of and working on.
January & Beyond
We are commited to making Satellite Command a success to the best of our capabilities - and post-janaury we will be taking a look at some new more in-depth features to improve and add depth to the gameplay. Although we have added and changed a huge amount of content since the mobile edition - we know that the PC edition still needs much more.
Additional gameplay and new content will be part of this plan - and we will post as soon as we have any teasers or more information. In the meantime, we thank those who remain invested in us and look forward to the future!
Also, if you are enjoying the game be sure to leave us a review! It helps us a lot!