Game News Sector Unknown Prologue released, Early Access coming in July

[Infinitron]

Tags: Creative Storm Entertainment; Sector Unknown

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2890980/view/546735912086668518

Well, this month absolutely flew by and it's almost time for the prologue to launch on Monday, May 26th.

The prologue includes both the prison transport intro and the starter planet of Maku, right up until you discover your first ship and prepare to explore the stars. So it’s just a matter of personal preference which one you choose to download and play.

I’ve been hard at work polishing and refining the final elements. The videos by Splattercat, Slandered Gamer, God Game Fluent, LMG, PlayWithRay, Nookrium, Wee Hours Games, and others have been incredibly helpful. I’ve spotted a number of small issues thanks to those playthroughs and have managed to fix those. I’ve also made several UI improvements based on your feedback and also what I observed in those videos.

That said, I really look forward to hearing all of your feedback! It's been a three year grind, and it feels exciting to be sharing a part of the game with the world finally.

Thanks again!​

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2890980/Sector_Unknown__Prologue/

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Strong Encased vibes

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

tl;dr good enough to keep me interested, but I'm not touching it again until full release and couple months of patches, provided it doesn't turn out like Encased - good first act and then half-finished rest.

Very strong Encased vibes indeed.

The thing is janky AF. The setup is reasonably interesting, but everything seems incredibly unpolished. The UI has placeholder feel, and having the ESC show options instead of closing current window is bit bewildering. Combat is very muddled, it's hard to say what is happening really, what attacks were applied etc. There is serious lack of animations for anything. Movement feels clunky, though given the perspective that's not too big of an issue. The starter area at least gives you multiple ways of dealing with guards, so hopefully the game will be accommodating to various play styles.

 

[JDR13]

The thing is janky AF. The setup is reasonably interesting, but everything seems incredibly unpolished.

This. I quit the demo after less than an hour. Maybe I'll try it again after they've worked on it, but right now it just doesn't feel like it should have been released.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Worse thing about this and Encased is simple success/fail actions actually take real time. For example, you're lockpicking something, and you get a progress bar that ticks down in 2s (and not even progress bar in this game, just waiting). Why? It's not that something can happen and interrupt it. It's just pointless aping mechanics from online games.

Another thing that pissess me off in SU is the world map. Nothing happens on it. It's bloody blank. There is no global time. So why does moving from one place to another take such a long time? Observing a pin moving on mostly blank screen from A to B (and not exactly B, seems to always have some offset) doesn't make compelling gameplay.

 

[Infinitron]

CreativeStorm

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Same complaint about gathering taking time. WHY? And there really needs to be a key bind for loot all. I don't see any inventory size or weight limit, so there is no reason ever to not loot everything lootable.

There is a noticeable delay between a creature being hit by your weapon projectile, and the damage being applied/creature dying. This amplifies the feel of jank.

The main crafting bench at the entrance (the one you make terminals on) doesn't pull resources from storage in base.

On research screen, on 4k resolution, some topics at the bottom are cut off. I was expecting a scroll there, but there isn't any.

Would love an ability to increase font size.

 

[CreativeStorm]

Good feedback here. Latest patch reduces gathering time to zero, and significantly reduces unlock times.

No more travel map movement either, makes sense - if there aren't random encounters (which I fucking hate in games) then why have the travel time? So it's gone now. The map comes up, fast travel is instant. Good call. The demo is of a game that's two months before an Early Access launch. I'm one person developing this thing. It's going to be rough. I'm grabbing feedback from here, from YouTube, from the prologue - and I hope I can make a game that resonates with everyone. We'll see.

 

[Hydro]

Fucking jank unity

Also vanging extra cringe writing

 

[CreativeStorm]

Fucking jank unity

Also vanging extra cringe writing

Hey hero, sounds like you're an exquisite writer, an expert. Maybe you can help me make things better then, Robert Towne? I offer you an open invitation.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Good feedback here. Latest patch reduces gathering time to zero, and significantly reduces unlock times.

No more travel map movement either, makes sense - if there aren't random encounters (which I fucking hate in games) then why have the travel time? So it's gone now. The map comes up, fast travel is instant. Good call. The demo is of a game that's two months before an Early Access launch. I'm one person developing this thing. It's going to be rough. I'm grabbing feedback from here, from YouTube, from the prologue - and I hope I can make a game that resonates with everyone. We'll see.

Really impressed with how quickly you address a lot of feedback!

The single most important thing though, IMO, is the lack of clarity of what is happening during combat. That really needs to be addressed. Better animations would be good, but I think the cheapest way is to have better log of what happens in the lower right corner.

Also, why the "Preparing fight" pause and fade to black? I was halfway expecting some JRPG style separate combat area when first saw that, so was surprised to see everything being on the main map. If you can, get rid of it, feels really janky.

 

[CreativeStorm]

Good feedback here. Latest patch reduces gathering time to zero, and significantly reduces unlock times.

No more travel map movement either, makes sense - if there aren't random encounters (which I fucking hate in games) then why have the travel time? So it's gone now. The map comes up, fast travel is instant. Good call. The demo is of a game that's two months before an Early Access launch. I'm one person developing this thing. It's going to be rough. I'm grabbing feedback from here, from YouTube, from the prologue - and I hope I can make a game that resonates with everyone. We'll see.

Really impressed with how quickly you address a lot of feedback!

The single most important thing though, IMO, is the lack of clarity of what is happening during combat. That really needs to be addressed. Better animations would be good, but I think the cheapest way is to have better log of what happens in the lower right corner.

Also, why the "Preparing fight" pause and fade to black? I was halfway expecting some JRPG style separate combat area when first saw that, so was surprised to see everything being on the main map. If you can, get rid of it, feels really janky.

Thanks for that. Yeah, combat is definitely a work in progress and is the biggest thing that will be addressed. A few people also mentioned on the forums that there needs to be more clarity for the combat.

The fade to black is to move your companions to the grid, many times they're trailing a bit behind, so they get auto-moved to the grid.

Thanks again.

 

[AndrewCC]

and I hope I can make a game that resonates with everyone

Don't. That's just corpo slop.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

The thing is janky AF. The setup is reasonably interesting, but everything seems incredibly unpolished.

This. I quit the demo after less than an hour. Maybe I'll try it again after they've worked on it, but right now it just doesn't feel like it should have been released.

I must admit I was a bit disappointed, but not surprised. I was also not able to muster up enough interest to want to finish the demo.

I think there is some potential with the game but it felt like virtually everything was lacking. I thought the graphics were actually fine though. Apart from graphics though everything felt superficial. It felt like I was playing something along the intellectual lines of a school project.

I do not think you should try to widen the appeal. Do the opposite, lock it down what it is you want to do. You seem to have the technical ability to finish the game (thats great) but I think you need some advisors who you can council with for the game design.

 

[AndrewCC]

Gonna document some feedback, literally as I play the prologue.
- Please add a + and - on the attribute increase/decrease buttons, it's unintuitive where you need to click at first. Tiny changes like these add a lot of functionality/perceived polish.
- Intelligence seems insanely powerfull, it not only increases skill points per level, but +10% XP per point AND how many attribute points that you get every 5 levels? Is there any reason not to have this absolutely maxed out?
- There's a bug where, if you chose female, then click reset, it resets to male, but visually it keeps the female model, until you actually start the game.
- There's (I think) no way to tell how many AP a melee attack will cost, during the first fight.
- Took the diplomatic option with the guard, and I have to say, that's ridiculous. You convince this guy to literally quit his job and take an escape pods to who knows where? Instead of just shoot you? Seems far fetched and something that 100 Diplomacy should be able to get me, not 10 Diplomacy. Writing makes diplomacy sound like a superpower. Happens again with 2nd group of guards. I'd say just have the AI contact you in your cell with the exposition you're gonna give anyway minutes later, and use the imminent crash of the ship as the argument to convince the guards, not this "oh you could be living the dream, why not throw yourself out the airlock" you have now.
- I did enjoy the detail that the AI copies itself to go with you, but the original copy stays on the ship, and dies with it.

 

[AndrewCC]

Well died to the fight with the 3 Gunts in the crash site, and I'm not replaying that whole zone, so for now this is the end of my feedback:
- too many containers with a few resources each, that come in groups. Just loot them all together and reduce the busywork.
- the combat needs serious balance rework. the way that damage over time effects work is absolutely brutal, is that intended? Every enemy has a DoT effect that will kill you in a few turns, is applied even on Grazes and that lasts until combat ends. Same for the initial pistol, it has a fire dot that can (eventually) burn down any enemy, and it's 100% applied, even on Grazes. It also has a -AP debuff that can criple any melee enemy, also applies 100% on Grazes. Any fight with a single enemy is a cakewalk. Any fight with multiple enemies results in unavoidable damage. Yes, I did have the robot companion with me.
- The (very) poor performance is to be expected, but definitely needs fixing.