My feedback on Phase 3

Alright, so I’ve been giving Phase 3 a shot. I decided to give myself until the weekend hits to decide how I really felt about the game in its current state. I know I’m not the first on the scene to spout my opinions, but I wanted to take the time to form a genuine opinion and let the initial shock wear off. Without further delay, I would like to say what I liked about the Phase 3 changes.



CREW EXPERIENCE: Finally, a new way to progress towards legendary crew (without depending on the Wheel of Progression). This gives me a long-term grind goal, and it gives me comfort knowing it can’t be ‘short cutted’ by platinum.



ARMOR INDICATOR: Demanded for quite some time, I’m glad this has made an appearance. It’s a vital indicator that can prevent disasters if the data is used wisely.



UI CUSTOMIZATION: I’m glad to see that I can toggle on/off various widgets in game. Props.



DAILY LOGIN: Perfect overhaul. Rewards that increase over time will definitely encourage players to keep returning.



MEDALS: I’m glad we didn’t dump ship-mastery levels, and still gave old and new players alike a chance to reap the rewards for achieving certain accolades.



DEATH TO DRAFT DODGERS: o7



JUMPING POINTS IN HOME BASE: It’s both frustrating and good that this change came along. It means that the defenders have a bit more of an upper hand than they did before, but it also means that if I jumped home from a dangerous scenario, I’m not left to crawl even FURTHER to receive repairs. I’ve both killed and been killed when returning home for repairs.

(Balance Change Notes)



AEGIS: Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for giving the blink buoy a CD if it fails. It was beyond annoying to knock a buoy out just in time for the oversized sentinel to launch another.

RANGER/RAIDER (Mines): It’s clear that the changes to mines were with the intention of making them actual mines, instead of ‘space grenades.’ While I was unsure how it would play out, I’m glad to see that tactical usage is still a great boon for the ship’s team.



Now, for the other side of the coin.



SECTOR SIZE: We went from a bar-fight to an ugly brawl in a janitor’s closet. Perhaps I’m not keeping up with the main demographic, but if people are really so keen for instant gratification that eschewing the spacing that provided opportunities for various tactics is worth it, so be it. It’s just not something I’m quite down for, myself. I suggested to move the jump points flanking the Forward Bases closer to the middle mine if they wanted to offer the chance for people to mindlessly blast away, except not at the expense of depth. With this change alone we’ve seen a shift from Arma to Call of Duty, in terms of action and gratification.



GAMMA TIMER: Not so much a change brought with Phase 3, but the short timer at the start of each match doesn’t help the overall theme that really hurts Phase 3, and Fractured Space as a whole; instant gratification. “I want gamma, I want it now!”



MINIONS/CREEPS/MINING SHIPS: Good god, I didn’t think it would be /so/ annoying to deal with these things. They’re not difficult to kill (we’ll revisit this), but I’ve had people die on me because a mining vessel took target priority. They’re good time-killers if a lane isn’t seeing action and can help scrap enough resources for a team down on their luck to pull ahead, but that’s IF the vessels can be destroyed. I’ve had mining ships that ignore the rules of the game (missiles, projectiles, etc do nothing to them).



ABILITIES (AKA, SECTOR SIZE PT. 2): With the lanes being condensed, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in balance. The Enforcer has went from laughing stock to god-tier, snipers have little/no breathing room, and we’re currently getting fossil fuel from the remains of cloakers (Get it? Because they’re extinct). The current set-up benefits heavies (4 Heavy Comps are a whole new breed of ‘nightmare’), and ships that excel in closer-ranged combat. Ships that were better when they stayed at distance are biting the bullet in most cases. Most – if not all – abilities were not changed for the Sector Adjustment, leaving Enforcers boosting Forward Base to Forward Base, Aegis blinking over halfway across the map, etc. Cloak ships are screwed with FAR less room to evade detection. It’s just a real mess right now. Of course they could adjust EVERY skill in the game to work with the new Sector size. Or, or, OR, they could just revert back and save a LOT of balancing on that end.



IMMORTAL SENSORS: I get it. You guys made the 15km Sensors on forward bases indestructible because pushes would be FAR more devastating for the defending team with little/no time to react otherwise. But this setup has screwed over strategies I’ve employed time and time again to pull a difficult victory. For instance, if the enemy team has a level advantage, my team secures a forward station after knocking out the sensor and holds that station to maintain resource security. Unsuspecting players jumping into the lane quickly regret their decision and get their faces melted off to leave us at a numbers advantage. Since the enemy team can CLEARLY tell how many ships are waiting outside their Forward Station, ambushing ships reclaiming stations is no longer viable (unless the stray ship is a bonehead). Why not just have Sensors rebuild over time?



PERFORMANCE HIT: I ran, recorded and streamed Fractured Space various times on Phase 2. At the worst of times, my frames would dip down to 10. That was fine, it only really happened during a fight where everyone was spewing something out, and I was recording/streaming. With Phase 3, I have been running without streaming/recording and have watched my frames eat garbage when there’s only 4 people in a sector.



VERDICT: Phase 3 brought a lot of change, but what I think really ruined it was that there were so many changes that didn’t /have/ to be there if other changes were implemented earlier. What may be more beneficial for the development of Fractured Space in the future is to A: apply smaller updates over a shorter period of time, allowing the player base to adjust/give feedback on what works, and what does not. B: Re-activate the Test Pilot program to gather genuine player feedback on possible changes. C: Make an ‘Experimental Branch’ build that is running during a certain time/day (as to not disrupt the stable branch’s player base too badly) which people can test works in progress, and find any kinks in the works. There are many things that developers/content creators can miss that is only really caught by an extra (hundred) set of eyes.



TL;DR (for those who can’t manage to read ~1200 words): Phase 3 did some things right, but flopped because a lot of changes that were introduced simultaneously broke a lot of things, or outright killed off others.



Thanks for reading.

