Alpha Test feedback, Sep 26th, 2020

events
#1

This thread was for the open Alpha playtest of Age of Ascent (AoA) that was held on Saturday the 26th of September at 1900 UTC (1400 US Central, 2000 UK time).

To reserve your place for our next playtest, sign your pilot up at https://portal.ageofascent.com

Please return to https://portal.ageofascent.com when the next playtest is due to start, and you will be automatically admitted.

We’re testing the PvP combat module again - but with the new technology base and our awesome new visual style! Everyone will be in the same ship loadout, and it’s everyone for themselves!

Other modules of the game such as trade and industry, mining and mission running will be in other playtests later this year.

After the playtest has finished, please do come back to this thread to give us your feedback and comments!

  • We are only testing the PvP experience in this playtest, not the full game!
  • You’ll get the best experience if you have equipment suitable for piloting (eg mouse and keyboard, or a gamepad controller - we do not currently support joysticks, but will in the future)
  • You’ll need to be in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge web browsers on any OS of your choice
  • For this test we’ve got the music soundtrack turned off by default

– NOTES FOR THIS PLAYTEST FOLLOW
In addition to the notes from the last playtest, available here, this playtest has the following changes:

  • The Gravidar radar is back! This is version one, and it will be further enhanced (visually and functionally) in the future. The “G” key on your keyboard cycles you through levels of zoom

  • “A” and “D” strafe keys inverted when you were flying backwards; this has been fixed

  • Speed perception has been enhanced in a variety of ways

  • The flight control graphic now shows that the “Y” key inverts your pitch controls, the “G” key cycles your radar resolution through a 5-step zoom level, and the mousewheel can be used for thrust control

  • We’re testing out a new weapon which has a much higher muzzle velocity than previous weapons, and a different visual style

We look forward to seeing you there!

2 Likes
#2

Top 25 results from playtest

Pos Player Name Shots Fired Shots Hit Accuracy Kills
1 Psycho Romeo 54464 42995 79% 69
2 CardeniaWu 41176 36019 87% 49
3 Paule96 48976 12363 25% 20
4 Regnadp 40112 10131 25% 13
5 GM Cerberus 7808 4244 54% 8
6 GM Thundercat 24512 8673 35% 6
7 GM Stormcrow 23304 5836 25% 6
8 JesusHimself 17848 4439 25% 4
9 Fiona 27992 1764 6% 3
10 Lothahnus 21544 1691 8% 2
11 Kala_Naga 17112 527 3% 1
12 ubluntu 19960 2148 11% 0
13 Snagglepuss 22288 1046 5% 0
14 kgjv 1632 514 31% 0
15 zoro 9568 465 5% 0
16 Skilletlicker 7560 250 3% 0
17 ariel5 6240 113 2% 0
18 Ivan 440 94 21% 0
19 Ewarwoowoo 18208 51 0% 0
20 mike alpha 3782 47 1% 0
21 credenza33 2814 43 2% 0
22 pete 2210 37 2% 0
23 skywalker1 1542 31 2% 0
24 mastermind 1142 12 1% 0
25 blastman 1020 11 1% 0
2 Likes
#3

Just played the Alpha test using a PS4 controller as a gamepad. I liked it more than using a mouse but i could not figure out how to roll. Also, the option to invert the y-axis would be clutch. The gameplay itself was great. My only comment would be that it would be great if I could place a special target on a single other player so i can hunt them down and they don’t get lost in a sea of red.

#4

Seemed to look a bit better this time around. And I don’t know if it was just me, or tweaks to gameplay, but I was able to track and stay with a single opponent a little easier.

The radar was nice, but too out of my focus area while trying to track a target down.

I didn’t like that it seemed to take too long to get the damage display to come up for a target. My guess this is by design to prevent folks for cherry picking the weak, but maybe it could be tweaked a to show a little sooner.

I like the balance of the weapons better this time around versus last time.

Anyway, I think it’s coming along well and I can’t wait to see the rest of the gameplay. As soon as I figure out how to liberate $10 or $25, I’ll get one of the Founder’s Packs.

1 Like
#5

Glad to have the gravidar back, made it much easier to tell what direction someone went.

Took me way too long to notice B for boost, even though it was listed in the flight controls.

Thanks for another great playtest.

#6

That was a blast! I liked how the acceleration was set up this time around with one button to accelerate, one to decelerate or move in reverse and then the boost button. My only complaint regarding this set up is that it’s not a stereotypical set up for player movement in video games and thus felt a little unnatural, which led me to misplace my fingers from time to time and miss crucial acceleration or deceleration points to be able to remain on my enemies tail or swivel quickly to discover their location and pursue whoever was firing upon me. The other thing is that B was a bit of a stretch for the fingers so in the heat of battle I either missed the button press or didn’t reach far enough.

Lastly, I kind of miss the reverberation effects of being hit that were present in last play test. Maybe they were a bit excessive last time in that they really made it difficult to return fire when you were staring each other down, but that was also a very good feeling to feel the damage you were taking and know you were in danger.

Other than that, it was a wonderful play test and I look forward to getting to kill everyone in the next one again!

1 Like
#7

Really glad you enjoyed the gameplay!

Pressing the ‘Y’ key on the keyboard inverts the pitch axis for both the mouse and any attached gamepad. For roll on the gamepad, pushing in the left joystick changes it to roll. We should really provide a complete list of gamepad controls somewhere!

We will be adding targeting and target lock for the next playtest, and we hope to see you there!

#8

Awesome, seemed to have more control this time

#9

will targeting be tied into the mouse somehow?

#10

Great to see you again!

Did you try the 'G" key, which cycles through different levels of radar zoom?

Damage actually only appears at a certain range to target, rather than damage done. When we have target lock in place, that’ll provide detail on shields and hull health status, all the time the target is locked. In the fuller game, the range at which you can initiate and maintain lock on a target (as well as number of concurrent targets, and speed-to-gain target lock) will depend on the default sensor package for the hull you’re flying, whatever sensor package module upgrades you have installed on the hull and your trained pilot skillset.

Awesome!

Even more awesome! :wink:

See you next time!

#11

What a great time.

I died a lot. If I died, I just kinda decided to blame Cerberus and immediately hunted him down to enact my revenge. I was probably right at least half the time.

I very much prefer the high velocity weapons. A longer engagement range means I spend more time aiming/shooting and less time trying get point blank with my target. I’d say that 75% of your success in the current game comes from your aiming skills, 20% comes from piloting, and 5% comes from overall tactics. I guess, to put it another way, I feel like most of the time I avoided death by simply out DPSing my opponent. Sometimes I could out maneuver them, though usually the better shot is going to come out ahead against the more tricksy flier.

Very very occasionally did I feel I was able to alter my fate through a more macro/strategic decision like “go here instead of there”. A large part of that decision making process was choosing to orient myself to attack someone’s flat side, for a better surface area profile and therefore increased accuracy. In essence just out DPSing the target.

Speaking of, it’s incredible how potent of a defensive measure it is to roll and point your side to your attacker. Imagine you are attacking and following an enemy and you come under fire. Your attacker lines up behind you, but you decide to continue pursing your current target. Instinct instructs you to use all your maneuvering thrusters as you can to avoid your pursuant’s aim. However, I found this not to necessarily be the best move. Instead, I found much more success in being as small as a target as possible. Introducing up/down lateral movement means you need to compensate to stay on target with pitch. Pitching means you orient more of your flat side to your enemy. Orienting your flat side to your enemy increases your profile, and gives your enemy greater surface area to hit.

I found that exclusively using left/right lateral movement greatly extended my lifespan. Especially of note, I often found myself being chased by three or four attackers. In these scenarios, I would throw it in reverse, hit the clockwise roll, hit the left strafe, and turn to my attackers. By going in reverse, my attackers would tend to group up and I could face all of them all of them and reduce my geometric profile as much as I could. The roll + left/right strafe meant that I was moving along two axis compared to my attackers. After that, it was just a DPS race to see who could stay on target better.

Overall, it was a great run. I hope fullscreen gravidar makes a comeback soon! Got myself the biggest founder pack. Looking forward to the next test.

#12

Yay!

The plan is to have all controls (keyboard, mouse, gamepad and joystick) be user-configurable to whatever each pilot prefers.

heh, it may have been a bit excessive though! The plan is to have a more visual sense of incoming impacts, with directional damage indication and screen edge flickers. But we will also probably scale the ‘rocking’ effect according to the amount of damage delivered by each weapon. ie, a missile impact would shake substantially more than a blaster impact.

Fantastic to hear, and look forward to seeing you next time!

#13

Top 25 results from playtest

Pos Player Name Shots Fired Shots Hit Accuracy Kills
1 Psycho Romeo 54464 42995 79% 69
2 CardeniaWu 41176 36019 87% 49
3 Paule96 48976 12363 25% 20
4 Regnadp 40112 10131 25% 13
5 GM Cerberus 7808 4244 54% 8
6 GM Thundercat 24512 8673 35% 6
7 GM Stormcrow 23304 5836 25% 6
8 JesusHimself 17848 4439 25% 4
9 Fiona 27992 1764 6% 3
10 Lothahnus 21544 1691 8% 2
11 Kala_Naga 17112 527 3% 1
12 ubluntu 19960 2148 11% 0
13 Snagglepuss 22288 1046 5% 0
14 kgjv 1632 514 31% 0
15 zoro 9568 465 5% 0
16 Skilletlicker 7560 250 3% 0
17 ariel5 6240 113 2% 0
18 Ivan 440 94 21% 0
19 Ewarwoowoo 18208 51 0% 0
20 mike alpha 3782 47 1% 0
21 credenza33 2814 43 2% 0
22 pete 2210 37 2% 0
23 skywalker1 1542 31 2% 0
24 mastermind 1142 12 1% 0
25 blastman 1020 11 1% 0
Join us for our live-stream Steam Q+A and playtest!
#14

LOLOL

Fab! I’m guessing you might be a prime candidate to fit out a sniper hull…?

I suspect your K/D ratio reflects a fairly advanced level of spatial and situational awareness, but it’s great to hear your realtime thought processes.

That’s great to hear - see you next time for the Steam Festival (details on the AoA homepage).

1 Like
#15

AWESOME! Wishlisted!

#16

Heyya Snags,

Good to hear!

I’m not precisely sure what the mechanism will be for initiating target lock, but will let you know. Obv, in the fuller game, all keybindings and flight controls will be customisable.

#17

Enhancements to the gravidar are in the works.

Glad you enjoyed it, and ‘B’ is very useful for getting out of the situations where PR is behind you :wink:

See you next time, I hope!

1 Like
#18

Video from the playtest!

See you next time!

2 Likes