Hello operators!
It's been a while since our last update, so here's some news for you :)
Over the time Cyber Ops has been live and open to a larger number of players like you (yes, you champ!), we have been analyzing all the feedback and trying to improve different aspects of the game in order to make your playing experience better.
Launching your first original title as a studio is a tough process, but we have learned so many lessons thanks to your help and support. For that, we are grateful for every single comment on the Steam forums, Discord, Twitter, Instagram, etc., as you guys are helping us not only improve Cyber Ops, but to deliver much better games in the future.
For those who wonder, our studio also makes tailor-made games for different clients, and that's how we've kept the lights on for all these years, and that's why we are not lightning-fast when it comes to addressing every single bug and UX issues in the game.
However, starting with Cyber Ops, we really want to put more focus on creating original games for PC and consoles. We feel it's our duty to keep going and to make good use of all the new knowledge and experience we have gained during the life cycle of Cyber Ops. We will strive to bring progressively better gaming experiences to you every single day.
Anyway, I could go on further, but let's save some more deep reflections for another time :P
Now, straight to the point... Cyber Ops original control scheme, inputs and navigation was mostly designed as a way to reinforce the feeling of dettachment from your squad. The game tells you that your mission is to guide and take care of this squad, but we wanted you to feel that you could only do so much about it (for some spoilery reasons). There was not a direct connection between you, the Operator, and the agents, as in "go here exactly" or "do that precisely". There is an intentional gap between your instructions and the agents reaction, because we wanted the agents to feel like separate individuals, and that's why the objective-based navigation feels unnatural and even uncomfortable.
Well... that was our take and it was worth the shot. Maybe it didn't work out so well :P
We tried to do some crazy experimental stuff, but we didn't test enough with new players. Instead, we had a group of testers who eventually got used to how the game works, which didn't let us see that the first time user experience was going to be tougher than we thought.
It may sound logic to you, but we realized it is more important to have a pleasant, smooth experience than sticking to a rigid expressive intention, even if it makes sense because of the story or whatever.
So, in order to reduce unnecessary friction, we are about to roll out a new update with a more classic control-scheme to move your agents around.
Objectives and tasks remain the same, but the creation method is absolutely straight-forward: a classic one-click = go-here.
We also added the ability to pan the camera around by placing the mouse cursor at the edge of the screen, which comes in handy when you are busy setting up sniper shots, supply drops and you don't want to click again just to scroll the map.
It may not sound as too much, but all of this comes with adapting all the tutorials, in all languages, to help new players get onboard.
This, plus other new "less visible" improvements will be rolled out to the Open Beta branch, so you can test it and share any feedback with us before we officially release the new patch on the main branch of the game.
Sorry about the long post. Do you agree with our thoughts here? Let me know what you guys think in the comments.
Stay safe, and thanks again for being awesome.
Julio.-
Octeto Studios