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Post by Cory Trese on Mar 13, 2013 0:54:09 GMT -5
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Post by fallen on Mar 13, 2013 7:22:08 GMT -5
I would love some feedback on the new region briefing maps and the standardized entry, exit, and story objective markers!
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Post by johndramey on Mar 13, 2013 8:01:32 GMT -5
I'll check them out in just a minute!
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Post by johndramey on Mar 13, 2013 8:21:07 GMT -5
Just booted up the first mission of The Secrets of A Dark Age campaign and here are my comments..
First, maps are very nice! I like how everything is laid out, makes it simple to see.
Text for Secrets of a Dark Age
Background :
First sentence reads "Fleet has dispatched Captain of the Broadsword Class... " possibly change it to "Fleet has dispatched Captain (player name) of the Broadsword Class.." if possible or "Fleet has dispatched a Broadsword Class..." if having the player's name is not possible.
Second paragraph.
"A rash of Rumors..." rumors should not be capitalized. Same with "captains" and "crews." Possibly change "... on the planet and that more..." to "... on the planet as well as increasing numbers of..." just because, I dunno, I like the sound of it ;D. "... uncover a cache of dangerous..." to "uncover any possible caches of dangerous..." Generally using any + plural is better for possibilities.
Third paragraph.
"Using his ATAS system, ..." could be changed to "Using the on-board ATAS system, ..." in order to depersonalize the sentence. " ... , of ancient make" maybe remove that comma and change the wording to "... of apparently ancient make."
Primary objective
"As with any structure on a uninhabitable planet, it may have an inner sanctum with running life support systems," sounds too... certain. Maybe obfuscate it a bit with "Since the structure is on an uninhabitable planet, it is assumed that there are running life support systems inside."
Extraction text
"Depending on the situation below, your Templar brothers may not return to the surface for some time," could be changed to "Your Templar brothers are expected to deal with any possible situation and as such may want to prepare for extended duty." Or something like that?
Secondary objectives text.
"Made of metal, the buried object may be a ship or an ancient structure. Investigate," could be reworded "Since the structure returns metallic signatures on the ATAS system, we anticipate it could be either a (buried/crashed/abandoned) ship or an ancient structure. Thoroughly investigate it."
Whew. I'm done. Not to step on your toes or anything, it's just my built in English teacher kicking into gear. If you don't like anything I've written down feel free to not use it and/or tell me off. If you like what I've done I can go through all of the briefings and try to pretty them up for you. Never really thought of editing them, but it is actually kind of fun. Takes the edge off of the 8 hours of business and medical English editing I do a day. haha.
Great work! I haven't booted up TA in a long time and I gotta say that I was pretty amazed by all the changes that you guys have done over the past.... 6 months? I can't remember the last time I booted it up. ST and CK eat up so much of my time that I don't spend enough time with TA even though it was the first game I bought from you guys. TA is an amazing game that is, in my opinion, under appreciated.
**before I head off to bed I just wanted to say sorry for going through the briefing line by line. Hope you guys don't mind. Started playing and ended up editing the briefing.. Don't take it personally, please.
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Post by slayernz on Mar 13, 2013 18:30:03 GMT -5
@ John, I haven't played CK since 1.27 or so ... so I know I'll be in for a real treat. Andrew, I'll check out the briefings soon  |
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Post by johndramey on Mar 13, 2013 20:01:00 GMT -5
@slayer Yeah, I've been playing through the game since the update last night and I gotta say that I really forgot how frantic it can be. Trying to methodically clear a level without losing any Templars is a pretty hair raising experience, especially with xenos closing in on all sides!
Vae Victis, brother!
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Post by fallen on Mar 13, 2013 20:38:55 GMT -5
johndramey - we've categorized those text typos under #TA-912. Thanks! So, the images were good? I think I will work on adding a standard legend to each one showing what the symbols mean.
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Post by johndramey on Mar 13, 2013 21:19:28 GMT -5
fallen, Yeah I think the maps are pretty great. Nice and clear with everything pretty apparent. A key would be nice, but by no means necessary. Might I suggest a different symbol for secondary objectives though? The one you are using now really looks like a medical cross, which could be a little misleading. Maybe having a simple white circle with a light green circle and objective number in it? I'm away from my phone at the moment, but when I can boot it up I'll grab a screenshot of the map and doodle what I mean on it so you can kind of see it.
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Post by fallen on Mar 14, 2013 8:05:24 GMT -5
johndramey - great suggestion, I will get away from the cross. Using two concentric circles will be nice because then I can change the color of the inner circle to identify primary vs. secondary. Great suggestion!
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Post by johndramey on Mar 14, 2013 8:18:18 GMT -5
Yeah! That's actually a better idea than mine. You can simply change the color of the inner circles in order to signify objectives. e.g. Blue = first, Green = Second, Yellow = Third, etc.
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Post by johndramey on Mar 14, 2013 18:42:39 GMT -5
Hooo boy, going through the Secrets of a Dark Age campaign on Brutal and am having a blast. Lost a soldier early on to a holding action, but since then my team has been rolling with the captain (exo-scout), 2 soldiers, and a scout. Actually speccing one of my soldiers towards melee and splitting the squad into two fire teams of a melee tank and a ranged striker. Works wonders, especially with the captain and the scout paired together to get to the more distant objectives. Can be very tense though, especially when a xeno gets close in and beats on one of my tanks.
Basically.... I love this game haha.
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Post by fallen on Mar 14, 2013 19:27:01 GMT -5
johndramey - glad you are loving it. I am blasting my way through Vengeance of the Templar, this time on Brutal, so that I can be sure to get all the objectives correctly marked in the briefing maps. This game is hard and so much fun to play! I've got a similar combo -- focusing on training 2 scouts, my captain, a soldier and a Neptune to bring in for the right levels. Basically, I also love this game. I especially love seeing my Templar's Kill and Level counts go up and up!
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Post by johndramey on Mar 14, 2013 21:10:59 GMT -5
Exactly! My captain is sitting on 50+ kills at the moment and racking up more every mission. Having the kills and number of missions be displayed when you are looking at your squad makes it so much more stressful. I don't want to lose my scout that has been on 5 missions! Oh no, a xeno will get two swipes at my captain, please don't damage him below half health!
On a side note, I've been screenshotting all of the briefings and conclusion screens in this campaign. Would it be ok for me to go through them and make text changes that I like? I realize that you guys might not agree with all (or any) of my changes, but if you think it would be helpful I'd be happy to do it in my downtime and pm you guys a text file with the changes marked clearly for your review.
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Post by johndramey on Mar 14, 2013 21:34:45 GMT -5
Ah, and if I might make a small suggestion about the maps? I'm sure this would be a huge pain in the ass to change and is actually quite low priority, but would there be a way to color swap the out-of-limits areas on the map? As it is the out-of-limits areas and the extraction points can be the same color (kind of a burnt orange). This can cause some confusion for newer players. A good example of this is found in mission 3 or 4 of the Secrets of a Dark Age campaign. Just after your team busts through the security door. On the mission map the other side of the security door is highlighted in orange. Admittedly, now that the map has nice icons on it signifying extraction/insertion/objectives it's not a necessary change. Just might be something to think about.  A screenshot showing what I mean. *edit* Man the later missions of Secrets of a Dark Age are really sadistic. Going through and destroying the egg sacs is taking its toll on my troopers. Last batch of eggs and I'm down to a total of 5 (!) bullets between all four troopers. Make 'em count, brothers! Death before dishonor! |
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Post by fallen on Mar 19, 2013 10:21:49 GMT -5
**before I head off to bed I just wanted to say sorry for going through the briefing line by line. Hope you guys don't mind. Started playing and ended up editing the briefing.. Don't take it personally, please. - thanks for the help. Cory and I have no grand delusions that we are good at grammar, so we can always use a little extra help! This feedback is folded into the next release! |
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