First Impressions

DaulDaul Member
in General Discussion

Just my first impressions

****Pro's -****
1. Super easy to install
2. Load times are much shorter than I expected
3. Variety of "Squads" greater than I expected
4. The respawning units - is a neat idea - will it remain or is it just for testing
5. The bots didn't let me win the first time I played - which I liked.
6. The two videos to watch were succinct, to the point
7. Being able to watch games of others, great.
8. Load times excellent - I thought this was pre-alpha - this lack of "suffering" to test is annoying
9. The "squads" play different or at least feel different
10. Unit blocking - I think I like it
11. Smooth - the game feels smooth - so nice!

Cons
2. Pathing - units take non-optimized routes around objects - the more units you have the more it occurs. But I thin this is tied to one of my pro's - Unit blocking
3. Lack of contrast with ally units/enemy units - maybe just because I am old but there seems to be a lack of contrast - waiting to see what the art test looks like.
4. You can glich the neutral mobs into going back and forth never shooting at you while they are getting shot at by a tower.

Thoughts
Spectate mode :)
Please think about if you are going to implement a "skins" system similar to CS:GO - its a money maker and it give the game a lot of attention for the pro-level
Other maps? Or just one map like League of Legends?
Do the respawn timers increase enough as you level up?
Is there a max apm? What is the timing format? (Son hovering over shoulder asking, he has apm, I have aph)

More to follow - thanks!

PS - the peeps in chat are great - both the Atlas team and testers - really nice to see.
Cheers!

Comments

  • epicurusepicurus Member

    Following up on this thread...
    First off, good work so far, I enjoyed the couple of matches I tried. I much appreciate being part of the early test - very interesting to see a game in development.

    Likes:
    * The limited number of units types with abilities - made me feel like I was in-control, and I could make my units do what I wanted, good spells are fun
    * Select all units and use their abilities - awesome
    * Unit re-spawn on a timer - more forgiving, and possibly more strategic
    * Haven't tried all the squads, but they seem quite different

    Thoughts
    * Would like to be able to see the stats on my own and enemy units in game
    ** I like the that the stats are not "in-your-face" - abilities are more qualitative to start; however, sometimes I would like to know ...
    ** How can I tell what upgrades my opponent has?
    * I feel like I am competing more with my allies for gems than the enemy

    Dislikes
    * The early game feels very static - I can't go and harass my opponent, only the very middle portion of the map is open for contention. One suggestion is to limit the presence of towers in the early game, and leave more / most of the map open.
    * Identifying units health seems more difficult with the round bars and the subtle coloring. This could be just me
    * The middle mouse button click to drag view, with inverted mouse unchecked: the mouse moves and gets stuck at the edge of the screen

  • DracoslayerDracoslayer Member

    My first impressions
    I want to say thank you for letting me be a part of the early testing! I've tried each of the squads and they all feel very solid, each with a different feel. As i started to play i really appreciate how the overall squad is like a hero, being able to activate abilities of multiple units with one selection without having to tab through each one.

    Likes:
    *Currency. Coin for units/upgrades. Gems for Tier and buildings. simple

    *Respawning units. losing a fight is more forgiving than some other games.

    *Swarming / body blocking. Positioning is important.

    Dislikes:
    *Pathing is a little wonky. some units would loop around towers if i tried to move across map.

    *Values on Gems/Mines. Not knowing when the expansion was going to run out of coin was a bit frustrating. And seeing the different sized gems was fine, but numbers or symbols might be nice.

    Thoughts:
    *Making Hero kills more impactful? While killing heroes are great for xp and eliminating the builder/gem collector, it doesn't give me a sense of impact. This goes both ways for me, i like that if your hero gets picked off that your squad is still capable of fighting, but if you pick their hero off it doesn't give you much benefit. Maybe have them drop one of their gems on death?

    *Stats on Units. not sure how much info you want to be revealed. Seeing damage and upgrades on units might be nice, whether it's an ally or enemy.

    *Are there plans for more maps? I know its still early and its more or less to test function but curious if there will be more maps like Starcraft or a more focused core map?

    *Will there be more squad choices? While i like the current squads so far, i couldn't help but think what if each squad had alternate heroes or the heroes had alternate abilities. Even if the tiers had more options.

    Overall, Atlas is off to a great start. I can't wait to see where it goes from here!

  • ArchibobArchibob Member, Administrator

    @Daul I'm curious about your comment on "Lack of contrast with ally units/enemy units" - are you finding that they look too similar to each other? the units themselves need more contrast? I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this topic :D

    @epicurus have you tried the Tab and Shift Tab keys in game? Tab shows you an overview of all players stats, and Shift Tab shows a more detailed breakdown of your own army stats

    @"A Wild Draco" On Dec 13th we'll be adding an arted map (different from the current map you've seen) to the PvP rotation for an hour or so. Check it out! i'm interested to see what your thoughts on it will be.

  • OptInOptIn Member

    First impressions-
    I could not of been more happy when I found out I would be able to play this at such an early state THANK YOU!

    • Most of the issues I had were because of the fact this is in an early state so pathing and little added features here and there are probably already on the table.
    • The games that I had played with people of equal skill level felt very enjoyable. I've seen a lot of posts about it feeling one sided and I don't get that feeling at all. Certain hero combinations will be stronger then others and is part of the strategy involved. I'm assuming later that there will be open picking so you can see your opponents picks.
    • I didn't have any down time rather it was geming, counter geming, trying to expand, or countering the expanding it felt very back and forth. The flow of the game felt pretty solid with a few slow down times between gems spotting but nothing to serious. I used the time to double check opponents upgrades to not fall behind them or counter with armor or magic resist.
    • Gem "neutral" squads were being used for "controlling space" in the games I played in. I like the build time on the ion turrets you could see them being constructed so it forced battles. You could use this as a bate as well and have your 3 heroes jump when they came to destroy it.
    • I would almost like to see upgrade costs decreased a bit "25 gold maybe" to see how this would lend to better options in the early/mid game. It feels like I need the functionality of my units more then the upgrades themselves. Rarely have i seen anyone get more then 1 tier 3 upgrade since there are other upgrades for the individual squads for their individual abilities. This may help with late game as well where the neutral units become more abundant.
    • Honestly I can't go more into detail of what balance or changes need to be done on such a small window of playing. There is always a meta, and as such the community will find the best opening and optimization on how to play out the beginning parts, and will again change after pathing changes since certain units will become stronger.
    • I've had a blast playing and chatting with Artillery. Very quick and eager to answer questions, throw out jokes, help with support, and share their passion for this game. I can't wait to get my hands on more PvP!
  • QuadFormQuadForm Member
    edited December 2015

    @OptIn said:
    * I would almost like to see upgrade costs decreased a bit "25 gold maybe" to see how this would lend to better options in the early/mid game. It feels like I need the functionality of my units more then the upgrades themselves. Rarely have i seen anyone get more then 1 tier 3 upgrade since there are other upgrades for the individual squads for their individual abilities. This may help with late game as well where the neutral units become more abundant.

    This is a great point, I would say at least drop the cost of tier 1 upgrades. Or maybe make some upgrades cost gems (other than tier upgrades)???

  • DaulDaul Member

    @Artillery.Archibob said:
    Daul I'm curious about your comment on "Lack of contrast with ally units/enemy units" - are you finding that they look too similar to each other? the units themselves need more contrast? I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this topic :D

    Thanks for the response, I am referring to two aspects:
    1) There are some units that are too similar in shape. I think these are easily identifiable.
    2) The color palette seems not "crisp" enough. The palette seems too muted, flat. They need more "pop" if that makes any sense?

Sign In or Register to comment.