PvP Feedback
So first off I will say that this iteration of the game is substantially more fun to play than the last play test. Mercs are much more dynamic than the weapons and it leads to way more strategy and build orders, which was one of my complaints last time. It is a major improvement but after a couple games it led to a clear "optimal" build that I should probably just use every game.
- First thing I noticed getting into the game, was the tooltips on the loading screen and this. If you can't tell from the picture, when I moused over the ability at the very bottom of my screen it cut off the description so I couldn't read it.
- When I go out to see if the enemy is taking over new expansions and killing the titans I can hear them attacking the titans before they are even on my screen, letting me just back up before they can see me. This lets me get some very valuable information without them even knowing that I know. I don't know if this is intended, or just a bug, but I don't think that that mechanic is good at all. It gives up way too much information for no risk.
- I'm glad that air units made it into the game and I think they are pretty cool. When I first saw the Leviathan I thought it was badass because of how much bigger it was than everything else.
- Sounds is pretty bad, but I assume it isn't done.
- Observers seem to be really, really good. For the price of a normal ward, I get one that can fly around and scout everything. Maybe the towers should be able to detect invisible units, because I can just place 3 of them where ever I want and it lets me essentially see every path to where I am or where I am going.
- Gold is not a very fun resource. It seems like it is just a timer to artificially slow the game down at the start. I assume you did that because late game you actually have nothing to buy with gold so it becomes useless and you want to delay that as long as possible. It feels like it limits the game though, if everyone has exactly the same amount of gold all the time the only thing that separates the players is the Mercs. Maybe someone will be crazy and buy an upgrade for 200 gold instead of a T2 unit, but other than that everyone pretty much always has the exact same amount of units.
- I played a game with Celesta and at the end of the game the stats screen had me and the other Celesta with almost identical builds. We had the same amount of T1 units, T2 units, and I had one more T3 but one less upgrade after a 40 minute long game. I might expect identical builds in a game of SC2 where everything has been optimized for years and years and the players know exactly what they are doing, but in the first PvP game of a brand new game? That just sort of puts a dimmer on the game for me, there just aren't a lot of options besides the Mercs. Think about SC2 again, if you watch two, new players with no concept of build orders or strategy play. Their builds will be completely different and I bet that there is no way they would be anywhere close to one another. This is what leads to people playing games like SC2, DoTA, LoL, CS, EVE, TCGs, and fighting games for decades. There are so many options and everyone can play a different way. So far, I just don't see that happening with the respawning units and the limits that gold puts on the game.
This is all I got for now, if you want any clarification then please let me know.