[BETA] Dawn of the Hulker

[Awoogamuffin]

Hey Todorus!

First off, I've just got to say, great work on the changes you've made. Selection is soooo much easier, and I love how you've made the tactical screen completely interactive. It feels much more natural to manipulate now, and therefore more enjoyable! Good stuff.

You're definitely on the right track regarding the initial barrier to entry. But judging by the comments, it seems like it's still not getting through to people (we really are that stupid). Here's my suggestion for the first mission (this is really just an extension of Bluemagica's first point):

Start with a static enemy on the same opening screen as your ships (maybe a carrier, or drone), and have the tutorial guy say:

"Ok, to attack the enemy, you first need to select your ships. Click and drag over them, or press A to select them all"

[wait for ships to be selected - I don't think you need to tell the player he can add individual ships by holding down shift because that's pretty much expected!]

"Very good, now click on the enemy to have your ships attack him."

[wait for ship to be destroyed - so the player starts by destroying something! Great! He's happy!]

"Captain, there's a space station up ahead. Its shields are low, but its weaponry is very advanced!" [maybe it has big missiles or something, but will be destroyed by 8 torpedo hits]

"Sir, a full-on attack would not be advisable - those weapons would make short work of our fleet. Instead, we should use the range advantage of our torpedos"

"Select the mothership by clicking on it"

[wait for ship to be selected].

"You can change a ship's attack behaviour [brief description of each behaviour]. Set the mothership's behaviour to "prey""

[wait for that to happen].

"Now make only the mothership attack the station - the greater range will ensure success"

etc.

This approach may be a little hand-holding, but it's the best way to make sure that the player knows what is going on. I think information should be kept to a minimum, with extra information being introduced later on

"Captain, the mothership is under attack! Select all fighters by pressing D and have them come back to defend! Hold down G (for guard) then click on the mothership"

"We now have emp fighters - they will be particularly useful for shielded ships. Maybe they should have their own group. Press space to pause the game then select all of the emp fighters."

"Press SHIFT + a number to assign them to an attack group. From now on, you can select them by pressing that number"

etc.

Maybe every time a player dies or surrenders, have a randomly selected tip appear

"Remember you can select all ships by pressing A"

"Crew members with high repair skills are useful in the fighter hangers"

"After acquiring new technology, remember to go into the engineering room before starting a new mission"

etc.

(By the way, in the navigation screen you might want to have someone tell the player where the engineering room is after the first planet!)

F1 is a good key for help, but maybe you could also have a button at the top right (like the surrender button) with a question mark on it - confused players will be instinctively drawn towards it!

On a final note, I have to agree with Bluemagica that the scrolling feels weird - but as you said, that might just be a matter of taste.

Anyway, these are just some suggestions. I really think you're on to a winner, just so long as you can get players past the initial hump.

Good luck!

Awoogamuffin

[EDIT] PS: my mouse problems have gone away. Don't what was happening last time.