Beta tester wanted: Battleship Lonewolf: Sci-fi action strategy

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by TrinitiStars, Sep 18, 2016.

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  1. hotwire

    hotwire Member

    Oct 27, 2008
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    #41 hotwire, Sep 24, 2016
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2016
    Feedback

    Hey guys! I've been playing this today and had some feedback after playing through the first 7 missions. Overall it's a great foundation you have for the game. :)

    Pros
    -the graphics are really nice, great job.
    -fulfills the space ship commander fantasy very well!
    -really like the UI. Easy to read and slick art
    -the weapon system upgrades help determine how to defend your ship by shooting down projectiles etc is cool.

    Cons
    -The very loose narrative before each mission is unfortunately pretty bad early on. It's making the captain out to be incompetent and stupid. Mainly though the quality is poor and it just doesn't fit. It feels very over dramatic soap opera and doesn't support what happens in the missions from what I can tell so far. It's just bickering and awkward dialouge. I'm not even referring to the localization either (which is spotty). Also to be clear I'm totally fine with all the drinking context. Haha

    -just a personal preference but it feels more arcadey than tactical imo but that might be what you're going for.
    -along those lines I wish there was more to do besides the in mission upgrades and kiting the enemies. Sometimes just felt like I was playing Asteroids and running away from everything.
    -during missions I'd love to have a minimap to know where objectives or bosses are, currently I just wander around which feels a bit shallow.

    -a few tactical suggestions:
    -have shields as well as HP
    -I'd love to be able to use the asteroids or debris to my advantage by flying around it as cover instead of it only being in the background.
    -dropping mines, bouys or launching fighters
    -having certain explosive objects in space that I could target manually to blow up and take out more enemies by luring them near it.
    -being able to repair in mission
    -having some sort of arc that I could rotate with the circular ui around the ship to block shots or tactically for focusing my fire.
    -in general more manual things to do since the ship auto attacks. Having a cool mega weapon that's on a cooldown would be fun and give me something to use tactically.

    -some missions I failed but didn't know why since I survived. I didn't notice any real objectives to follow once in mission? Maybe I just missed them.

    -new mission types besides just surviving would be awesome.

    -the boss bug didn't seem to have HP bars do I didn't know how well I was attacking them

    Overall I did enjoy it but I don't think it would hold my attention long to be honest. I hope that helps! :)
     
  2. Lordrdx666

    Lordrdx666 New Member

    Dec 14, 2014
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    Want to join in on the BETA

    hey this game looks very interesting.. I have already sent for a beta testing request.. I have many years of mobile gaming and game beta testing experience. Would love to contribute to you guys. My email ID is:
    [email protected]
     
  3. Gerg

    Gerg Member

    Sep 18, 2012
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    After having played missions 1-6 I basically agree with everything said up here by 'hotwire' so will not repeat it.

    Some additions and things I do feel a little bit different about:
    • * I have no problem with the 'running away' type of play. As the player you're just the 'driver' so that's what you do when the ship autofires on everything in sight... ;-)
    • * Really happy for the button that allows to skip the 'not so great" dialogue before each mission.
    • * Played on my IPhone 6plus and I feel it's really small but doable (text is just readable, any smaller would be unplayable IMHO). Great graphics by the way!
    • * About the boss HP bars: I believe it's the 2nd red arc that appears on the right side of the HUD (the left arc is your own health). Perhpaps a simple 'help' screen that explains the HUD would be useful.

    Now I need to find a way to finish that 7th mission... :cool:
     
  4. S3Styles

    S3Styles Active Member

    Jul 29, 2015
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    Totally agree with nearly everything Hotwire has said. Art is solid but gameplay, while meant to be simple, just isn't interesting enough to compel me to continue the missions when they are released beyond Mission 7. That includes new ships and upgrades as well, unless some surprising new content is there somewhere. I thought the game would play like a Strike Fleet Omega x Space Run Galaxy x Battlevoid Harbinger (originally Battlefleet: Harbinger), but it just plays like a very simple arcade shooter where you don't even say when or what to shoot. With no way to regain HP (currently) and the enemies shooting at you with such a small space to navigate in, slowly nipping away at your ship, it is hard to see how the game can evolve in an interesting direction as the difficulty ramps up but gameplay remains unchanged.

    And for those who are having difficulties with the boss on Mission 7, I've had better luck and more consistence in defeating the boss using all Optical weapons. My loadout was 2 of the lasers and 3 of the cannons. When the boss shoots out the orbs, you'll want to just spin your ship in place, moving as little as possible and then sometimes fly towards the boss to avoid certain attacks. Opticals don't shoot the orb that chases you so it is key to have the cannons hit it when it spawns near the boss.

    Change suggestions below.

    Currency;
    Regardless of level, but more visible on the later levels (5,6,7), I feel like I have an over abundance of currency and nothing to spend it on. I've completed Mission 7 a few times with over 2000 currency. There needs to be more use for it.

    Ship Modules;
    This can be installed on the ship but does not take up a turret slot. Essentially, it serves to buff the ship and perhaps even to provide it additional skills - which the game really needs. Upgrades can be purchased to increase ship Module slots just like the Base upgrades. This would allow me to have something to press other than where the ship should turn and makes combat feel a bit more skillful / tactical.

    Examples of such Modules could be;
    - Fire Control - passively gives all your weapons a chance to do critical damage with a X% chance
    - Shields - activating it forms a shield around your ship which absorbs X damage for X seconds. X cooldown after use.
    - Repairs - activating it regens your HP by X amount for X seconds. X cooldown after use.
    - Damage Buff - increases weapons effectiveness for X seconds by X%. X cooldown after use.
    - Fighters - spawns a wing of fighters that can shoot down enemies with a preference for torpedoes then ships. Useful if you go full Optical as those weapons do not fire at incoming weapons. Lasts for X seconds with X cooldown.
    - Bombers - spawns a wing of bombers that can shoot down enemies with a preference for ships then torpedoes. Lasts for X seconds with X cooldown.

    Turret Behavior;
    Currently only the Vulcan is a reliable anti-weapon weapon. It seems to prefer focusing on enemy weapons, such as torpedoes, before attacking the enemies themselves. This is great, but this behavior should extend to the first Optical weapon as well. Sometimes it does behave like the Vulcan and sometimes not. I've been in situations where torpedoes were chasing me and my all Optical ship did not fire on them at all. Very strange.. makes me think that they only shoot them down if there are also actual enemy ships nearby.

    Turrets should prioritize the enemies in the direction of the turret placement. For example, all my turrets were targeting enemies that were below my ship and new enemies appeared above my ship. The turrets do not react to these new enemies until the ones below me were all gone. Ideally, the turret facing the front of my ship should immediately target these new enemies.

    Mission Variety;
    Would be great but understandably the game is simply about survival. Even if we did get new missions, I can only see it being frustrating to complete. Imagine having to keep something alive aside from your ship like an escort mission.. err.

    Environments;
    I do believe that changes to the environment could be a nice extra but with how the map behaves it just doesn't work. If there's an asteroid, that must mean the map actually has places to visit. Right now it just feels like walking in an empty room that moves with you. With the asteroid, you'd just fly around it in circles and abuse the cover - that is unless the asteroid was scrolling by briefly.. and faster than your ship so you can't just follow it.
     
  5. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    Thanks for your feedback Glen. We are working on polishing the overall script. We'll release it as soon as it's ready next week. :)
    Luke
     
  6. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    #46 TrinitiStars, Sep 25, 2016
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2016
    Thanks for sharing your feedback! Amazing how you completed Mission 7 with abundance of

    currency remaining. Figuring out the right combination of weapons to win we believe was

    tactical and fun part of this game in addition to upgrading your battleship. Many of these

    are really good ideas and we will discuss internally what we can implement on the next

    update! :)
     
  7. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    #47 TrinitiStars, Sep 25, 2016
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2016
    Yeah, it helps a great deal!
    Been working on narrative and will also take your tactical ideas,mini maps, etc into consideration. Thanks!
     
  8. S3Styles

    S3Styles Active Member

    Jul 29, 2015
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    I also wanted to add that while the game may not be for me in the long run, I can definitely see people getting into this. It is a good game for an arcadey shooter, but to be honest I personally was never a fan of such games. That being said, the Mission 7 boss was really fun and challenging :) totally not unfair too.

    Targeting;
    Any possible way we can manually target certain enemies, including torpedoes and such? This can be done simply by tapping the enemy itself. While tapping empty space would still be to move.
     
  9. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    Hope you beat the mission 7 by now.. yes? Regarding the manual targeting, it will affect the game balance to a high degree.
     
  10. ShelvsHotPencil

    ShelvsHotPencil Well-Known Member

    Jul 1, 2016
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    I am beta testing this game.
    It looks great.
    I just wish it has analogue control, and not mission base
     
  11. S3Styles

    S3Styles Active Member

    Jul 29, 2015
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    Never had a problem with Mission 7. Using either all Physical or all Optical, once you get used to the attack patterns and how to avoid it becomes quite easy. I find the difficulty to be when the homing attack goes after you and my entire Optical arsenal continues to focus only on the boss, which results in unnecessary damage. While it can be argued to pop a single Vulcan on to fix the problem, the loss in overall damage would have been too great.
     
  12. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    #52 TrinitiStars, Sep 28, 2016
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2016
    Welcome aboard!
    Do you mean something like a twin stick control? Can you elaborate why you didn't want mission base? Did you mean more variety of mode such as arcade , mission and survival?
     
  13. currymutton

    currymutton Well-Known Member

    Oct 16, 2008
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    Still struggling with Mission 7. :D

    I think at first get 2 Vulcans to shoot down the incoming missiles first and full optical for the last boss.

    But still the attack is too hard to swallow.

    I too want analogue control (turn clockwise / anti-clockwise) and I mostly skip the story which seems has nothing much to do with the game.
     
  14. Saucepolicy

    Saucepolicy Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Feb 18, 2009
    501
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    Crispy ex-game developer
    I think hotwire presented just about the same feedback I have, very succinctly. Please note that these are early impressions, I don't know how the game progresses beyond mission 7 or so just yet.

    I'm a big fan of capital ship battles, so was immediately drawn to this. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting, but that's not a bad thing. It also seems like it's structured to be a premium game, is that a correct assumption?

    As others have said, the game is closer to a castle defense game with a slow, lumbering base than a true space flight or "naval" battle game. Not a knock on the design, just a caveat for people expecting something different. I agree with all of

    I feel your first time user experience needs some refinement, notably helping players understand the game loop, such as upgrading/changing weapons mid-battle and how exactly passive upgrades help you. My strategy between missions has been to throw almost all of my funds into increasing my starting cash pool, upgrading turret mounts at odd intervals. I'll generally leave enough funds to immediately upgrade the radius of the coin magnet so I don't have to stay in point blank range with other enemies in the early stages.

    I find that "boss battles" really boil down to making sure your weapons have enough range and kiting them until they explode. I don't see any other viable strategies to engage in more "broadsides"-type battles, which is a shame. In a practical sense it means that you're just running, firing weapons towards your rear and possibly hitting the boss ship offscreen.

    I agree with the other poster that asteroid obstacles, fighter bays, a shield that lasts for a brief time before recharge (so you to make sure you time it right) or other ways to outfit the ship would open up more strategic options for players as well as opportunities for level variety.

    I have also failed missions that I feel I should have won (still had HP left). If there are other conditions, they aren't apparent.
     
  15. currymutton

    currymutton Well-Known Member

    Oct 16, 2008
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    Some further thoughts

    1. Game type: I know what I have signed up for. No problem here

    2. Story: don't really care, too much text, too small font, characters not interesting nor related to the mission

    3. Control: as I mentioned: directional control helps to dodge the incoming, unless you get "clustered"...

    4. Presentation: don't mind about the floating background as they do not interfere with my concentration of the situation, it just drains the battery; Also the hit-point indicators of mid-boss and final boss are not consistent. Some time it is shown with the enemy but the other time, it is shown on the right side of the center circle;

    5. Game play: I am not sure why the weapon and defense are categorized this way, I choose only the Vulcan most of the time for firing rate and the big plasma gun for the punch. Missiles are mostly useless for I cannot choose target, they cannot be used a point defense, and some time, probably due to delay in targeting, the missiles fly off to the target off-screen while another group of bogeys coming in from the opposite direction! Moreover, I dunno which kind of defense to build up. I am not even told which kind of attack when the enemy hits me and how my defense acts up to

    6. Information: above points out the game does not tell you can actually change the weapon mid-game, and worse, you cannot undo what you have placed. Also, the game does not inform you that the "money" earned after each mission can be used to upgrade your ship in-between.

    Not a bad game, fun, but still need a lot of polishes
     
  16. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    Thanks for your comment. :) Yes, we plan to release Battleship Lone wolf as a premium game unless something drastic changes in our perspective based on the CBT feedback.
     
  17. TrinitiStars

    TrinitiStars Well-Known Member

    Can you vote for your favorite icon?

    #1
    [​IMG]

    #2
    [​IMG]

    #3
    [​IMG]

    Love to hear your feedback on which icon appeals to you the most. :)
     
  18. toddlinke

    toddlinke New Member

    Jul 1, 2013
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    Can't wait!

    Just signed up for the beta!
     
  19. ShelvsHotPencil

    ShelvsHotPencil Well-Known Member

    Jul 1, 2016
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    Yes twin stick controls,and I was hoping it was an exploration game.
    An exploration mode would do
     

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