Hey guys, just wanted to say, great alpha! Wasn't fun at all, half the features missing, exactly what I expected! I left my feedback below. Some things I am aware are not in the game yet, so I've tried to keep those points to a minimum.
I played one full game against 4 AI's, as Humans. These suggestions are just my opinions and it's entirely at the developers discretion.
Galciv3 feedback
Just want to start by saying I was writing this while playing, alt tabbing in and out of the game. I don't know how you did it but when I alt tabbed into the game, while some games might have to load graphics or take a moment, the alt tabbing was instant. Like I said, don't know how you did it but I really liked it.
Menu:
The design of the menu is fine, I really like itand I like the 'quickstart' button. I can see why its there, so you can start a game in one click from the menu, its a good addition.
I think you should move the Load Game button under the continue game option, so it goes
New Game
Continue Game
Load Game
Multiplayer
Unless there is a reason for having it 3 away from the bottom?
Choose civ screen:
I can't remember what they are called, but you know when you mouse over an option and it gives you a bit of info? Like how it does with the species abilities? (Manufacturing +15% when mousing over productive?) I'm going to call these tooltips.
Give me a tooltips on the technologies that each species starting tech, I want to know what these techs mean and what advantages these have over other species starting techs. A quick description and what the techs give me in the game. Also, give the species different starting techs.
The design and interface of the screen is fine though.
Galaxy Settings:
Have the size of the galaxy animation change when the player picks different sizes of galaxy.
When adding species, they all join on team 0, I don't know if this means they aren't on a team or if they are on the same team. Have it so the either start on no team (With their team number say 'None' or something) or that the team number increments when you add the team. Also, changing tab on that screen/going back to civ select resets the team numbers all back to zero.
Ingame:
Why can't I pan the camera with the mouse?
I love the new UI, everything is very clear. I do think everything should be minimizable though. I don't ALWAYS need a list of everything I have at all times. Also, my minimap doesn't pan and I can' zoom in or out of it (Though I assume that's simply because it hasn't been added yet)
When I hold down right click, I would like to be able to see the route my ship will take there. Add it so the green line appears when you hold right click and moves around as you move your mouse around.
I LOVE dust clouds and nebulas. Great idea, well implemented. Need to go back and check if they're amount is configurable
Colony ships do not appear as idle starships when idle.
Sometimes, I'm not sure if I have selecteed something. Add a highlight around selecting units thats obvious when zoomed out.
The new turn noise gets really annoying really quick.
The numbers on the planet list on the right hand side do not match the numbers on the actual planet screen at all.
When Multiple ships are on the same tile, the ability to guard seems to dissapear, selecting 'manage' brings up survey , explore and construct, but no guard.
If 2 AI send colony ships to the same world, when the world is colonized, the 'loser' will simply leave their colony ship near the planet and won't do anything with it.
I like the new starbase system, and I can't wait to see the starbase ring idea implemented
Would like some indication to when ships/improvements have been completed.
When I tell a unit to move, I assume the green line that ends in a 1 is supposed to represent how far that unit can move in one turn? It seems my ships normally stop one or two tiles from the end of this point. It's hard to tell as the end of the green line updates while the ship is moving. I would rather the line didn't update until after the ship had finished its movement, or even wait till the end of the turn.
It took 4 tries for my CONFIRM BATTLE? DONE. To actually have my ships attack and destroy enemy fleet.
I attacked a planet with a fleet next of 5 snipers next to it. I invaded the planet, won, and then my sniper fleet had vanished
Research:
I don't like this way of categorizing the techs. I see a button in the corner for a tech tree and I think once the tech tree is done, either get rid of this screen or piut it as a list option on the tech tree.
I don't understand what these drive technologies do. Recpaturing says 'Moves cap +1' and the others say 'move cap manufacturing cost -10%' and 'moves cap mass -10%'. What does 'moves cap' mean? I assume that the first increases moves per turn, and the other two are obvious, but why do they all start with 'moves cap'? It is confusing.
Also, I think only the drengin should start with space militirization.
Make it clearer what I'm currently researching.
Planet screen
Fix yo' Earth guys, I'm getting prairie lands in antartica and mountainous regions in the middle of the atlantic.
Instead of clicking on a tile, clicking a building then clicking build to add it to the queue, take away the build button, make it so I just click the tile, then the building I want there.
When I buy something in the production queue, then cancel that production, I then cannot buy anything else for that turn from anywhere.
Right clicking on something on the production queue should remove it.