07-03-2014, 10:24 AM
Greetings, fellow pathogens!
After having a blast for more than 30 hours, eradicating humanity over and over again in the last few days,
I wanted to share my suggestions to help polish this game and make it even better, or simply give some impressions.
For convenience, I made a tl;dr version and a more detailed one where I explain my ideas further,
which might explain some weird suggestions - or not.
Also, I'd like to know what you guys think about it, specially our "patient zero", NDEMIC Creations.
OVERVIEW / tl;dr
- Pathogen list/Replay function
- Player able to select pathogens color
- Ambient sounds for event windows
- Restart/Retry button
- Remove germ-dots once country is 100% infected/leave colored shader only
- Make Pathogens spread easier/more undetected in poor countries
- More Countries
- Airport for every country (suck it, Greenland!!)
- High/Medium/Low air/sea traffic for countries according to rl stats
- Change country traits to match real life traits more (rural, arid, ...)
- Click on news headline opens up original message
- Research speed should rise slower so player can react/turn lost games around
- Much more events/not the same events every session (Olympics, anyone?)
- Remove basic game play hints, except for first session and tutorial
- Pan-Pacific traffic
- NDEMIC rocks!
DETAILED
- Pathogen list/Replay function
A list of former pathogens and how far they came, like a personal hall of fame, could also be considered a replay area with statistic windows like ingame and so on. Basically the end-screen after a round is over, yet with the possibility to see statistics and details... for the geeks.
- Player able to select pathogens color
Self-explanatory...
- Ambient sounds for event windows
Those of you who played games like Crusader Kings or the Total War series, will know what I mean. An Event pops up and we are rewarded with some nice sound effects, fitting the situation. There are already some ambient sounds in the game, like a crying woman, yet it seems random and...not enough
- Restart/Retry button
The game is a lot of trial and error, in a fun and addicting way. But it is annoying that I have to go back to the menu and create the pathogen all over again. A simple restart function could save some time and prevent becoming annoyed.
- Remove germ-dots once country is 100% infected/leave colored shader only
I discovered this after tabbing out and back into the game. A 100% infected country just had the basic color shader, while the germs where gone (due to the alt-tab thing). I first thought it IS a feature and thought "handy, now I know this country is 100% infected!" only to realize it was a graphical glitch. Here is a screenshot:
(Making this optional would be awesome!)
- Make Pathogens spread easier/more undetected in poor countries
I am not so sure about this one myself, but theoretically, any disease should have much better chances to a) spread and b) kill (in low numbers) unnoticed for a longer time in poor countries with bad health care/local habits like some Asian, African and South American countries, then in rich countries with excellent health care. On the other hand - why would a player choose to start in a rich country with such a disadvantage besides wanting a challenge or some random local events like the Space Mission (only available if pathogen starts in US, right?).
Still, I prefer realism and authenticity over balancing any day.
Another contra to this suggestion though, might be the fact that the WHO and CDC and other organizations do have field-agents in poor countries to counter that exact problem. Question is... is this really as effective? I doubt it...
- More Countries
So we get news reports about the unstoppable Danish Mafia... yet Denmark doesn't even exist?
Same goes for many African and Asian countries. I'd like to see them!
- Airport for every country (suck it, Greenland!!)
I am sure Greenland and some other Islands have no airport for gameplay reasons, so the player has to ensure he can infect ships to touch these countries.
Anyways, I honestly do not like being "forced" to develop into this direction and it is kinda frustrating to develop a good and potentially devastating pathogen...just to be unlucky again not to infect friggin' Greenland and lose - again!
To make it not too easy for the player, the traffic could be a balancing factor, which I cover next.
- High/Medium/Low air/sea traffic for countries according to rl stats
Take a look at London Heathrow's air traffic and then check the daily departures/arrivals at BGGH (Nuuk Airport, Greenland). This could be reflected in the game, so countries/areas with high air and/or sea traffic get more traffic as, for example, isolated Greenland. I am not sure but this might be already in the game, for I noticed not many boats traveling to Greenland, while other locations seem to receive more traffic. Also, main traffic to Greenland seems to come from Europe. Anyways - I am not sure about these observations, so I decided to throw this suggestion into the room.
- Change country traits to match real life traits more (rural, arid, ...)
Personally, I'd consider India a very poor country and North America also rural, not only Urban. I guess this is again for game play reasons, so it is not too easy, since a country with urban and rural traits would be open for pretty much everything. Yet again - it is in rl, so why not? Something to experiment in with mods though, I guess, rather than wasting dev-time to fool around with this... still, crossed my mind when I found some weird ones.
- Click on news headline opens up original message
Big one for me. Sometimes you miss the message window, close it accidentally or whatever and then you wonder what is behind that vague headline. I also like to read those news reports for immersion, they add so much to the game and I hope to see many more as well as more diversity.
- Research speed should rise slower so player can react/turn lost games around
It happens a lot, at least on the highest difficulty, where you make good progress and all the sudden it is over because global research went through the roof. I understand the challenge, yet I'd like to see it accelerating slower, so the player might have the time to react and adapt - instead of being forced to end the game early because he knows there can be nothing done anymore. Some random events might also help at this?
- Much more events/not the same events every session (Olympics, anyone?)
Like I said above, the events are all so great, yet they lose their charm if they happen every single time in every game. The Olympics are a perfect example, I get them every session. Yes, it might makes sense since the Olympics are scheduled like that, but still... you sure pick up what I put down.
- Remove basic game play hints, except for first session and tutorial
I've seen this mentioned elsewhere, but it deserves to be mentioned everywhere, for it has to go, really xD
I like getting many info windows (more deadly than, ...) but the basic controls/game functions...every time? Come on... We unfortunately live in a time where too many players have become lazy and kinda stupid, so you have to remind them every time that 'R' is Reload... (yeah I'm talkin' to you, CoD!), but this should really not be necessary and only in the tutorials or first session, not every time. Please.
Pan-Pacific traffic
It is odd, there is no visual hint that there is traffic across the pacific which makes me expect that there just is no such traffic. No need to explain how weird this would be, since an awful lot of traffic, if not the most(?), happens right there between Asia and North America.
Random@NDEMIC Creations:
- You guys rock! This game is fantastic, addicting, I'd even dare to say: Contagious
PAX-12
After having a blast for more than 30 hours, eradicating humanity over and over again in the last few days,
I wanted to share my suggestions to help polish this game and make it even better, or simply give some impressions.
For convenience, I made a tl;dr version and a more detailed one where I explain my ideas further,
which might explain some weird suggestions - or not.
Also, I'd like to know what you guys think about it, specially our "patient zero", NDEMIC Creations.
OVERVIEW / tl;dr
- Pathogen list/Replay function
- Player able to select pathogens color
- Ambient sounds for event windows
- Restart/Retry button
- Remove germ-dots once country is 100% infected/leave colored shader only
- Make Pathogens spread easier/more undetected in poor countries
- More Countries
- Airport for every country (suck it, Greenland!!)
- High/Medium/Low air/sea traffic for countries according to rl stats
- Change country traits to match real life traits more (rural, arid, ...)
- Click on news headline opens up original message
- Research speed should rise slower so player can react/turn lost games around
- Much more events/not the same events every session (Olympics, anyone?)
- Remove basic game play hints, except for first session and tutorial
- Pan-Pacific traffic
- NDEMIC rocks!
DETAILED
- Pathogen list/Replay function
A list of former pathogens and how far they came, like a personal hall of fame, could also be considered a replay area with statistic windows like ingame and so on. Basically the end-screen after a round is over, yet with the possibility to see statistics and details... for the geeks.
- Player able to select pathogens color
Self-explanatory...
- Ambient sounds for event windows
Those of you who played games like Crusader Kings or the Total War series, will know what I mean. An Event pops up and we are rewarded with some nice sound effects, fitting the situation. There are already some ambient sounds in the game, like a crying woman, yet it seems random and...not enough
- Restart/Retry button
The game is a lot of trial and error, in a fun and addicting way. But it is annoying that I have to go back to the menu and create the pathogen all over again. A simple restart function could save some time and prevent becoming annoyed.
- Remove germ-dots once country is 100% infected/leave colored shader only
I discovered this after tabbing out and back into the game. A 100% infected country just had the basic color shader, while the germs where gone (due to the alt-tab thing). I first thought it IS a feature and thought "handy, now I know this country is 100% infected!" only to realize it was a graphical glitch. Here is a screenshot:
(Making this optional would be awesome!)
- Make Pathogens spread easier/more undetected in poor countries
I am not so sure about this one myself, but theoretically, any disease should have much better chances to a) spread and b) kill (in low numbers) unnoticed for a longer time in poor countries with bad health care/local habits like some Asian, African and South American countries, then in rich countries with excellent health care. On the other hand - why would a player choose to start in a rich country with such a disadvantage besides wanting a challenge or some random local events like the Space Mission (only available if pathogen starts in US, right?).
Still, I prefer realism and authenticity over balancing any day.
Another contra to this suggestion though, might be the fact that the WHO and CDC and other organizations do have field-agents in poor countries to counter that exact problem. Question is... is this really as effective? I doubt it...
- More Countries
So we get news reports about the unstoppable Danish Mafia... yet Denmark doesn't even exist?
Same goes for many African and Asian countries. I'd like to see them!
- Airport for every country (suck it, Greenland!!)
I am sure Greenland and some other Islands have no airport for gameplay reasons, so the player has to ensure he can infect ships to touch these countries.
Anyways, I honestly do not like being "forced" to develop into this direction and it is kinda frustrating to develop a good and potentially devastating pathogen...just to be unlucky again not to infect friggin' Greenland and lose - again!
To make it not too easy for the player, the traffic could be a balancing factor, which I cover next.
- High/Medium/Low air/sea traffic for countries according to rl stats
Take a look at London Heathrow's air traffic and then check the daily departures/arrivals at BGGH (Nuuk Airport, Greenland). This could be reflected in the game, so countries/areas with high air and/or sea traffic get more traffic as, for example, isolated Greenland. I am not sure but this might be already in the game, for I noticed not many boats traveling to Greenland, while other locations seem to receive more traffic. Also, main traffic to Greenland seems to come from Europe. Anyways - I am not sure about these observations, so I decided to throw this suggestion into the room.
- Change country traits to match real life traits more (rural, arid, ...)
Personally, I'd consider India a very poor country and North America also rural, not only Urban. I guess this is again for game play reasons, so it is not too easy, since a country with urban and rural traits would be open for pretty much everything. Yet again - it is in rl, so why not? Something to experiment in with mods though, I guess, rather than wasting dev-time to fool around with this... still, crossed my mind when I found some weird ones.
- Click on news headline opens up original message
Big one for me. Sometimes you miss the message window, close it accidentally or whatever and then you wonder what is behind that vague headline. I also like to read those news reports for immersion, they add so much to the game and I hope to see many more as well as more diversity.
- Research speed should rise slower so player can react/turn lost games around
It happens a lot, at least on the highest difficulty, where you make good progress and all the sudden it is over because global research went through the roof. I understand the challenge, yet I'd like to see it accelerating slower, so the player might have the time to react and adapt - instead of being forced to end the game early because he knows there can be nothing done anymore. Some random events might also help at this?
- Much more events/not the same events every session (Olympics, anyone?)
Like I said above, the events are all so great, yet they lose their charm if they happen every single time in every game. The Olympics are a perfect example, I get them every session. Yes, it might makes sense since the Olympics are scheduled like that, but still... you sure pick up what I put down.
- Remove basic game play hints, except for first session and tutorial
I've seen this mentioned elsewhere, but it deserves to be mentioned everywhere, for it has to go, really xD
I like getting many info windows (more deadly than, ...) but the basic controls/game functions...every time? Come on... We unfortunately live in a time where too many players have become lazy and kinda stupid, so you have to remind them every time that 'R' is Reload... (yeah I'm talkin' to you, CoD!), but this should really not be necessary and only in the tutorials or first session, not every time. Please.
Pan-Pacific traffic
It is odd, there is no visual hint that there is traffic across the pacific which makes me expect that there just is no such traffic. No need to explain how weird this would be, since an awful lot of traffic, if not the most(?), happens right there between Asia and North America.
Random@NDEMIC Creations:
- You guys rock! This game is fantastic, addicting, I'd even dare to say: Contagious
PAX-12