Feedback

[Licho1]

Some feedback from player who has 5 games released on steam.

To sum it up:

• old lobby was better at leading players to PW or making the community
• community is weaker than it was due to lobby changes
• he liked MP unlocks and PW a lot

Recommended things:

• improve map list
• cleanup options/settings - dual settings schizophrenia is bad
• changes to menu layout (replays not important etc)
• try to remake "home" page from old lobby better (improve community show it in better place)
• try to make PW section to make people learn about it

GordonAM - Today at 6:15 PM
Good news
The 4k fix is great
and works perfectly(edited)
Licho - Today at 6:19 PM
good to hear that!
GordonAM - Today at 6:26 PM
from what i have used of the windows 10 scaling
its shit
this is a good solution thanks for doing it
found a minor issue
the map list, is pretty annoying because it doesn't have a list of the maps you have locally or have at one stage selected
that might be something that needs fixed
another thing was, opening a browser to select a map is probably too much for users, could you guys not use a electron style web view, so you don't need chlobby?
Licho - Today at 6:48 PM
hmm not really we cannot integrate browser with the lua lobby
GordonAM - Today at 6:49 PM
yeah i know that
Licho - Today at 6:49 PM
but ingame there is a button that opens the browser
GordonAM - Today at 6:49 PM
yeah
planetwars isn't on t here
and my friends couldn't even find it without me directing them to it
the older lobby was slightly more annoying for some things
but better for playing imo
the flow of the new one is better and clearly not a website or anything
but it prob needs work before you go on steam so that you have the users being made aware of the planetwars thing immediately
Licho - Today at 6:50 PM
why was it better for playing then ?
hm
GordonAM - Today at 6:50 PM
because you could see all of the upgrades, and buildings
Licho - Today at 6:50 PM
you think planetwars is interesting for people?
GordonAM - Today at 6:51 PM
and it made it easier to play because it was really simple
yes
very
my friends are very competitive
planetwars was your USP(edited)
it was amazing, no other game had mmo style galaxy things
your player base has dropped down a bit since you have replaced the lobby right?
i think the planet wars was a great way for people to play
additionally the leveling system for commanders was fucking awesome.
like, really awesome.
that is another USP
Licho - Today at 6:52 PM
leveling you mean unlocks?
GordonAM - Today at 6:52 PM
yeah
that's only available via the website
it makes it harder for players to find and use that feature in the new lobby
Licho - Today at 6:53 PM
there are still unlocks in campaign
GordonAM - Today at 6:53 PM
yeah but the multiplayer unlocks were a cool feature imo
some of them needed tweaked so that all low level stuff was available
but that's all
I think the niche of the game is planetwars and the unlock system combined
that was always why i kept playing zerok back in the day and dumped spring lobby
because zerok had planetwars and more of a community
Licho - Today at 6:55 PM
hmm yeah community thing is a bit diminished but we added community tab to lobby do you think it helps?
GordonAM - Today at 6:55 PM
not really
it doesn't provide enough of an enguagement
lots of games have that button
nobody clicks them
the other lobby made sure you knew about the planetwars, community and the game, and the skirmish
it wasn't perfect
but imo it did that better
Licho - Today at 6:56 PM
you think we would be better of with old lobby?
GordonAM - Today at 6:56 PM
IMO for steam it would need some serious upgrades
you guys might be better using a web view and electron
right now, I would recommend you look at all your options and see if you can make the new lobby have this in a more engaging way(edited)
Licho - Today at 6:58 PM
well its quite hard we can however remake some web things in lobby style
GordonAM - Today at 6:58 PM
Yeah, that might be a good plan
I'm unsure how you would go about this with the others
I don't really know who is in charge
I think it just needs extended a bit
Licho - Today at 6:59 PM
adding thigns in lobby is not a problem it is mostly google frog's domain
GordonAM - Today at 6:59 PM
the map interface should be in the lobby, that's a definite thing to do
Licho - Today at 6:59 PM
yeah that is on todo
GordonAM - Today at 6:59 PM
oh good
Licho - Today at 6:59 PM
even before steam we think
Licho - Today at 7:00 PM
what else you think would be good to improve community engagement?
GordonAM - Today at 7:00 PM
Make sure to tidy up your UX a bit
so right now
the main menu is named in a different way to normal games
Multiplayer -> should immediately show you the server list
no hitting battle list
the replay's aren't normally bothered about much, unless you have huge competitive leauges
so making the replays a button off to the side is a good idea
the singleplayer menu could do with a few tweaks too
so imo remove the 'tree style' buttons, when the player hits singleplayer they should get their singleplayer options immediately, otherwise it's kindof too complex for users
people are silly and don't get the game
make it easier
I know where everything is now, because the options menu is OK
but the options menu has 3 options menu's
or 2
I'd recommend that the 'scaling options' are the same for the game and for the lobby
so don't let the user independently set those values
they're roughly the same value on my screen
200 - 200 for my dpi
That menu is what I miss

the tweaks i'd make would probably only take you an evening to implement
the harder ones are the profile and the planetwars stuff
Licho - Today at 7:06 PM
we would like tthe community ta bto basically be like this .. show profile, show posts, maybe last batles
GordonAM - Today at 7:06 PM
yeah
I'd recommend making the multiplayer view auto open the community on the right pane
left pane server list
then bam, you're good
Licho - Today at 7:07 PM
ok, thx for tips!
GordonAM - Today at 7:07 PM
oh, just seen the community tab
sorry yeah that is the right way to go about it
np, I really like this game and want you to do well on steam
I might nark and nitpick but I really like what you have all done and I've been playing this for 3-4 years now probably
I know what gdev is like, it's annoying too
Licho - Today at 7:09 PM
oh its good, we are free to ignore any suggestions anyway :smiley:
GordonAM - Today at 7:10 PM
haha :smile:
Licho - Today at 7:10 PM
but there is certainly plan to address some
GordonAM - Today at 7:10 PM
yeah, I didn't like that the community felt a bit more empty recently
I liked the old lobby a lot, it's got some serious competition xD```

[GoogleFrog]

I think the summary is factually wrong.

[gajop]

So I read the entire thing and I don't agree with most things. I think this is here mostly because the person "released 5 games". What are those games?

The only thing he said I think makes sense is to include multiplayer unlocks - but I also feel he didn't explain why ("fucking awesome" is pretty vague). Personally I think it's useful because of the gamification aspects and leveling/unlocking mechanics similar to RPG games, that hooks players into leveling, unlocking and obtaining more.

[GoogleFrog]

I don't think they had enough knowledge of ZK to say many specifically useful things.

oh, just seen the community tab

To me this invalidates most of what they said earlier about the current state of the lobby. The community tab pops up on every launch so they must not have seen the lobby for a while. They are giving feedback about something that doesn't exist.

They also seem to think that planetwars is hard to find and use at the moment, when in fact it is not actually running.

The reduction in playerbase is primarily due to a large drop that occurred after a few ZKL and server updates. ZKL was updated to the shiny blue version (that may have not worked for some people) and something in the server broke SWL and other 3rd party lobbies so many of those players gave up. Look at the stats for a significant dip in player numbers around august 2016.

[Licho1]

Oh I think it is quite correct. If he could not find or notice community tab thats something to look at.. he already introduced the game to plenty of friends (gradually requested about 10 keys) , so he should not be new to modern-day ZK. His steam games are: "Cool, just a few Infection: Humanities last gasp, Tank Battle: East front, Tank Battle: Normandy, 1775 Rebellion., a few more than that but, they're all strategy or turn based"

I do agree on these points:

• community elements are a bit weaker now (can be improved by improving community tab and showing in better place)
• people wont discover PW when its not running (could be fixed by having menu entry)
• map list is suboptimal (worked at)
• settings duplication is horrible - people will set 4x in lobby and will expect this to be applied in-game as well
• replays are mainly for pro's (but thats fine because it can also do community service)

[GoogleFrog]

This is too unfocused (and wrong) for a ticket and I have made a few more specific tickets.

• https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/issues/2817
• https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/issues/2816
• https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Chobby/issues/499
• https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Chobby/issues/500