chiatt said:
Well, my excitement upon starting this article quickly died when I realized how empty and unfocused it was. Even for a preview article, this was extremely heavy on the filler and light on any real details! Nearly half the article, is dedicated to background info, personal anecdotes, and such. Mr. Vanderwall, if "there's entirely too much to go into detail with every one of the game's systems and mechanics," why would the areas you really focus on be worker placement production queue UI and management? Especially as what you've described is, essentially, the same mechanics as MOO2 with a few modernizing refinements. Why not focus on some of the changes or truly new additions?
I really hope the new MOO turns out well, but man, the sloppiness of this article is forcing me to look elsewhere for information.
I apologize if the content didn't jive with your expectations, but previews on The Escapist are typically more about our experience with the game than a bullet point list of the game's mechanics. I included a ton of information where it was relevant to the hands-on experience, but detailing every system in the game would have doubled the length of the article. I try to provide background so readers are immediately aware of my mindset and inherent bias on the subject. The anecdotes were largely to differentiate this demo from typical guided press demos, which is of great significance my actual takeaway, as well as the enthusiasm of the team for the game and franchise, which I think is critical to creating a genuinely good reboot.
To be sure, I was told the dev team more or less started with MOO2 code as a foundation, and built it out from there. I wanted to give newcomers a bit of info on important details, but didn't want to bog down veterans with information that is no different from the MOO2 experience. There aren't that many changes. That's one of the things I liked most about what I saw. The biggest changes were the interface/UI, graphics updates, and wormhole pathways, each of which I made a point to cover.
SmugFrog said:
It's one of THOSE kinds of previews; HEY look how awesome this game could be! Yeah...
WTF is this even:
Your production queue can hold up to five total projects, including the one currently in production.
That's less than you could stack up in Moo2. Late game when you colonize a world there were a TON of things to build. It was helpful to queue up a lot of things to get the foundations of industry and farming going and then set the auto governor to take over. Yet another thing that this game can't do as well as Moo2.
This is absolutely one of those articles. I made a point to make my love of the franchise apparent at the outset to avoid any deference to my opinion without a critical eye. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, and expressing our enthusiasm for what we love is a big part of what we set out to do here.
I mentioned that accessibility was important to the team with the reboot, and I don't personally see any issue with a 5-item production queue. I mentioned it so you could form the opinion stated here, and so others could come to their own conclusion. Sorry if you didn't enjoy the read, but this comment indicates that I was successful in not just conveying my experience, but offering information so critical gamers like you can decide for themselves!
In any case, I do appreciate the feedback on both accounts. We'll have more information-focused articles and news as we see and hear more about the game, which I hope you'll find more helpful!