HyperKat Support and Tester Forum

You might want to change the thread name to Game Help Guide, Frontier Help Guide, or something like that. At first glance, I thought this was recruiting players to test something.

Anyhoo. Do you need feedback on this or are you still writing it?

Also, could you fix the text shifting between green and black? It's annoying.

Here is a link to extended help files for the game. As questions come up we will add more explanation to the content.

http://www.hyperkat.com/FrontierGame/mcfinfo.html

I see more content has been added since yesterday. Do you want feedback now, or later? I have a few comments now based upon a quick glance.

Is there any good material for getting nickel? I find that the only source of it is Olivine, but it is an ore that has nickel as a secondary material so you don't get a whole lot per batch. A bit of a pain back in Challenger as I had needed to make several trips just to get a few units of nickel.

I see that stuff like magnesium has a use now. They appear to be used in player made parts. They didn't have a use in Challenger.

Do repair kits do anything this time around? The NPK fertilizer sounded like something you could throw into the fertilizer bin in the farming module to get more NPK fertilizer, but that didn't work back in Challenger.

Hi Lost,  I agree Help sections needs attention in spots (partly along lines you suggest), but on other hand I've never liked it when everything was spelled out in specific detail. Part of fun on a new game is figuring out the details.

I've watched some let's plays where some players really showed that they didn't know how to play these games. Some have thought that the separator was just for drinking water or that the sabatier was for making oxygen for the base. They didn't do well... Maybe watching those videos will make anyone think that all new players will need special help... Perhaps it is a coincidence that people who had trouble were the same ones making let's play videos.

Realistically, I think that competent workers and good help guides are important for any mission to Mars. The costs of sending a small team to mars will cost 10s of billions to 100s of billions of dollars. This number varies depending on the hardware used, what you intend to do, and how you intend to do a return trip (if that option is even on the table). With that much money involved, it pays to have people who know what they are doing and have the guides that the crew needs. Without, it would make the people in charge of the project look dumb. I think it would be more realistic if it wasn't hard for the players to get started as the people they are playing as should know this stuff. It is hard to make a good excuse for not hand picking the best. Maybe there should be stuff like a popup warning or reminder for players when they try to do something they should know better than do, such as trying to buy an auger before any ore deposits have been found. For instance, "You should try to find ore deposits before using an auger. See the help section for more details.", or something like that.

Edit: I don't mean to sound heavy handed, but I think it hurts immersion if characters don't seem trained for the job.

Hi Lost,  I agree Help sections needs attention in spots (partly along lines you suggest), but on other hand I've never liked it when everything was spelled out in specific detail. Part of fun on a new game is figuring out the details.

Phases of Game:  It would be great if at some point, aspects of those earlier Phases (Explorer, Surveyor, Challenger) could be integrated into the Frontier game as start options.  For actual Mars settlement enthusiasts (and there are many of us!), these earlier phases add considerable interest -- not necessarily in competitive multiplayer mode, but as a long term civilization-building game.

Initial Credit: Your point well taken.  I was only suggesting lower amounts as game-start OPTIONS.    Cheers, Andy