Leaving the small church at the very beginning of the game, I killed a hunter and suffered a few hits. While I was still struggling with my keyboard (I’m used to controllers) and trying to understand what had happened, I got what I originally considered to be a new, totally unknown, and a bit obstrusive red notification about something-something-Iboholmen-something becoming an… underground(?!).
Fast Forward 2 minutes later: Well… The French word for “underground” wasn’t on the screen… I should have read “sovereign” (souverain) instead of “underground” (sous-terrain). I don’t know how I managed to read “sous-terrain”… Well… I do know why…
TL;DR: That notification seemed to be using a new layout/template and was dismissed so quickly that I did not have time to read it.
Problem 2
When I tried to understand what had happened and what that underground thing was (I still didn’t know it was “sovereign” instead of “underground”), I couldn’t find the answer in the tutorial log. Because I’m a total noob, that’s where I looked.
TL;DR: The notification was to inform me that a “rival” had spawned, yet the game gives no information as to what a rival is or what the notification was about. (mug shot below) There is no tutorial notification, no entry in the tutorial log either.
Hello,
this message of the “sovereign” has informed you that a rival has spawned. Tat is dependable from the among of robots you have killed. The more Robots you kill the more Rivals will spawn. The Rivals have a special title like “The sovereign of Ibboholmen” “The ruler of the Fields” “The warrior of the framlands” and so on. A Rival is a special robot, that is more dangerous then the others of its class. A Rrival could be a runner, a hunter, a tank or a harvester. When you are at the level 25 than it is very inerresting to kill a rival, because you can gain a experimental weapon or experimental clothes from him. But unfortunately at the level 25 and above.
When you look on your map you can see where the rivals are. It is a orange ring inside black and white crossed swords in it.
see picture below
move your mousecursor over the sign and do a rightclick, then a popup appears from this menu you can choose the rivalprofile and you cab see what kind of robot the rival is.
When you encounter a rival you will see it because he is marked like the photo below
I fully agree with you @Snipergirl. The game hold so much mystery for you and it forces you to use your brain, learning tactics and smart duping of the robots.
I have startet after two years a new Generation Zero Game from the scratch. It is fun but for me as a veteran the mystery and the fear factor is away because i know what comes and how i have to fight the robots. But it is nothing to blame the game it is my knowing about the game but anyway the game stays exciting and is worth a replay. Because i know where the best places in the game are i can enjoy the environment and let me hijack to sweden.
I’m just suggesting a more consistent use of the tutorial log because I don’t understand why the Rival feature does not have its own entry. If I remember correctly, crafting, storage boxes and base building have their own tutorial entries in the log.
I’m not asking for a rebalance or a revamp like you both seem to assume I do.
I think you missunderstood us a little. We don’t want a revamp or a rebalance. We love to let the game as it is. When you will look for more Informations about the Rival so use the search Function of the Forum. Click on the little spyglass in the right upper corner, a line will open and type in “Rival” There are many topics about the Rival. In the log you will find nothing about the Rival. The only information about the Rival you will find when you click the symbol in your map. Than you will see what kind of Rival it and on which level he is. Read the Topics there are so plenty of in the Forum and use the search as i suggested.
Also… I was not asking for help here. I was reporting a UX “bug”. I wasn’t asking for community help about Rivals. I did check on the Wiki and asked on Discord.
IMHO, people who would like to report an UX oversight can report it here or in “Feedback / Feature Requests”.
Are UX oversights subjective? Yes, but I think my thread belongs to this sub-forum.
I repeat, I’m not asking for help. I’m suggesting improvements to the UX and the UI.
Than sorry i get you wrong. I have thought you need help and informations about the Rivals. But allow me one Question, what do you mean with UX and UI.
I’m definitely not an specialist in either of those disciplines, and I also problably have misconceptions about both concepts and their definitions.
I consider User Interface to be things like:
Head-up Display (HUD): health bar, stamina bars, middle dot/crossair, compass, notifications… Basically, anything that is probably appearing only for us, the gamer in front of a computer or TV screen.
uh… Well… I guess some people would put “mouse and keyboard”, “game controller”, audio cues, and other things in the “UI” category, but I don’t feel like diserting about that.
“User Experience” seems even more complicated to explain though… I know at least one game studio which tasked one person to work on both UI and UX design.
User Experience design is an interdisciplinary job which is meant to present a product or a service to its intended audience in the optimal way. “Optimum” is an especially important word when talking about works of art like video games and movies, because while artists usually want to “meet” their audience, they usually–and rightfully so–care about respecting their own artistic vision.
OK… That is a very general definition.
Here are some things that I think can be considered “UX Design”:
Do you want some or every gameplay mechanics to be obscure; or would you prefer to explain all of them to the player? Do you want them to be hard to master or simple? Do you want the player to struggle as a way to convey a message or to convey emotions?
How much do you want (or need) those aforementionned design choices to be consistent? Do you plan to strip the player from something, or to voluntarily subvert player’s expectations; or do you prefer (or need) to stick to the same formulas for your entire game?
Now that you designed your learning curve/journey/whatever; did you actually managed to stick to your plan? You decided to have Tutorial pop-ups, right? Do you cover all the topics you planned to cover? Did you forget anything, or are some omissions voluntary.
Are you concerned about cultural differences in your audience? Are there things in your game which could be confusing to other cultures? Do you need to explain a few things to make them more accessible?
Is your game accessible to people with functional challenges?
I recommend you read at least the introduction to this article. Weirdly enough, I think that the paragraphs about “User experience in video games” is very unhelpful. The previous sections in the rest of the article are way more helpful:
From what I understand, you want the game to be more clear about the information given to the player, and perhaps adjust the user interface so it’s easier to access at any given time. That makes sense, and is important feedback.
Ingame, it could perhaps be changed to “Rival has begun patrolling near area X” to draw the player’s attention to that area on the map. They could then click on the Rival’s icon, and see the relevant info.
A notification log listing a fixed amount the the most recent notifications in the menu would be a solution.
I honestly think that the only problem here is how the information is delivered more than the amount or the quality of the information itself. A second rival spawned today and I managed to understand what was happening this time because I knew what it was, but it still disappeared very quickly.
You are right, the message that a Rival has spawned dissapears very fast. But this message could appear in the mid of a fight and it isn’t good when it distracts you from your fight. At this point it is better that it dissapears fast. The should implement a list in the log about the spawned rivals in order of appearing. The last two years i thougt when i heard the drums and saw the message ohh!!..okay, another one.
Best is you avoid killing a Rival till you are above level 25. And then take a rival what has level 4. The possibilitie to earn a experimental weapon is higher.
I’d honestly think something less artificial than a tutorial box would be better to explain what a rival is. Potentially a letter you find or something.
That way you can go back to it at any time. Either that or a FNIX document.
This would be far cooler and I feel it could explain rivals more in depth.
Better to learn from the game than having to ask people on the discord.
Also, the message that a rival has spawned, is of no significance, really. It is only there to tell that a new rival has spawned. If you miss or half miss the message it doesn’t affect the gameplay at all. I think it’s rather peculiar that the message exist at all, from a ‘would-it-happen-in-reality’ point off view.
After a couple of times any new player recognises a rival spawn message, and perhaps wondered what that is about, but that knowledge will also come as time in the game passes on.
I’m reviving this thread of mine. Hopefully I can sum it in on sentence:
The Rival System could be explained a bit better, because it is not right now, and this can play out different depending on someone’s play style:
Case 1: The “completionist” person who loots and kills meticulously while still paying attention to the story, and ends up having 2 or 3 rivals without even entering the first bunker.
Case 2: Someone else go in full “stealth mode” and focuses on the story. By the time they reached the second bunker (with the first FMTEL Station), they did not raise a region’s level and have no rival at all.
In both “cases”, the players want to have a good time with the story, but because of the way the game works, both players will have a very different experience, especially if the first player keep playing like they did initially.
Whether or not that was design intentionally, I still think Rivals and Region Level (I’m not sure on the wording here) could be explained through the tutorial log; same thing for the Relay Beacon.
Anyway, those are just suggestions while I take a break.
(By the way, I played like “case 1” before the Landfall Update; and I now play like “case 2” because I don’t want to spawn a bunch of rivals. )
I know you are not asking for such thing.
