Testers Invited

[JonO]

I have uploaded what I believe to be a production-level version of the Rimworlds enrollment application. Its purpose is to allow a new player to design his first ship and equip it with everything necessary to give orders in the main program. The app is totally live, except for the final "launch" button which is not enabled, but would save the ship to the database and transfer the player to the log-in screen of the main app so he could file turn one. (He doesn't have to and can simply look around, check his inventory, etc.)

You are perfectly welcome to head off to http://starflight.rimworlds.net/ without doing any backgrounding but you might want to check out the overview of the game I posted here, and the the gameplay page of Rimworlds.info In designing the app, I assumed that the player would have been made familiar enough with the basic concepts from reading the wiki that the help pages would simply remind them of what they should keep in mind as they built their ship, not re-explain the basic concepts.

I would appreciate feedback from anyone who is willing to take the time to test the application. (It shouldn't take more than ten minutes, start to finish.) If you encounter a problem, 'twould help if you remembered the details so I could attempt to recreate it.

Thanks, and Good Gaming!

[Ramblurr]

My initial reactions

• The intro font, while very cool and futuristic, is very difficult to read. I had a hard time reading the blurbs before they changed.
  
• The starry background makes it very, very difficult to read. See this image for an example: http://i.imgur.com/tXILv.png and http://i.imgur.com/qvKqV.png
  
• What if during the course of the process I decide to change my mind? How can I go back to a previous section? I tried clicking on the top icons, but it didn't do anything.
  
• When assigning talent points, there should be an indicator that says how many I have left to assign. I'm not good at addition.
  

The first two are my biggest gripes, in particular the background. IMHO, text should never be placed against a lively, busy background. It makes it seem unprofessional as well as being nearly impossible to read.

Things I liked:

• Nice compartmentalization of the various steps
  
• The breadcrumb up top is nice for understanding where you are in the process
  
• The individual forms are well laid out and clear.
  
• The popup help available at each step is awesome.
  

EDIT: Added the "things I liked" list.

[ixnay]

Nice interface! Here's my feedback:

1 - please let people skip the intro/music

2 - some pages have a down-button to view a second section. this was not immediately obvious

3 - there is no way to go back to earlier pages. i might want to change earlier choices if i know what options i pick in the later pages.

4 - even though you are assuming people are educated on game play, I would still add popups for all in-game terminology. A blurb on "affiliation", for example, with 1-2 sentences on each choice.

[Ramblurr]

There was music?! I totally missed that.. my speakers were on. Herm. I'm using Chrome.

[JonO]

There was music?! I totally missed that.. my speakers were on. Herm. I'm using Chrome.

Chrome is my browser of choice (though the app is tested for IE and FF as well) I guarantee that there's music throughout out the opening sequence. And that it plays in all major browsers.

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My initial reactions

• The intro font, while very cool and futuristic, is very difficult to read. I had a hard time reading the blurbs before they changed.
  
• The starry background makes it very, very difficult to read. See this image for an example: http://i.imgur.com/tXILv.png and http://i.imgur.com/qvKqV.png
  
• What if during the course of the process I decide to change my mind? How can I go back to a previous section? I tried clicking on the top icons, but it didn't do anything.
  
• When assigning talent points, there should be an indicator that says how many I have left to assign. I'm not good at addition.
  

Interesting. Until now I have never had negative feedback about the Starcraft font. Can I ask about your screen-size and resolution?

You may not have noticed but I do actually have filters behind the frames that dim out the background - obviously not dim enough for you. Maybe I should put in a slider that lets the player decide how much he was to darken it. What do you think?

When going back, did you try clicking the back button on your browser? . . .Maybe I should have a button, too.

Best catch of the day was the talent counter. That was originally there, but I implemented it on the server and the app slowed way down (duh). I cut it out and intended to put the same logic on the client but was distracted for a couple of days and. . . That's the worst part about working alone on this big a project.

---

Nice interface! Here's my feedback:

1 - please let people skip the intro/music

2 - some pages have a down-button to view a second section. this was not immediately obvious

3 - there is no way to go back to earlier pages. i might want to change earlier choices if i know what options i pick in the later pages.

4 - even though you are assuming people are educated on game play, I would still add popups for all in-game terminology. A blurb on "affiliation", for example, with 1-2 sentences on each choice.

1. Okay. (the code is actually there as a back door; clicking on the logo up left jumps to the first screen.)

2. I'd love to make them more apparent. But here's what is there now: The buttons are mentioned on both help pages, they blink when the player first arrives and again if he tries to leave before clicking them, and they're tool-tipped. Any thoughts on something else I can do? Maybe play a recorded ("Press the frackin button before you leave the page, buster!") ?

3. Hmmm, Looks like I definitely should add the back button instead of depending on the browser. (A long time ago I was told in no uncertain terms never to have a back button because that was the browser's job, but if two relatively sophisticated folks never considered that, I'd say there's a new paradigm.

4. On the help page for that screen, I note that if the player isn't clear on affiliation or species he-she needs to jump back to the wiki and read up on 'em. They are too important a choice to be handled any other way.

Thanks very much for the feedback. You are a prince!

[JonO]

I've got a new version of enrollment up now - I guess this is the playbymail.net version. My thanks to both of you!

[GrimFinger]

I tried connecting to your test link, yesterday, and again, last night. Being on a very slow dial-up Internet connection, I'm probably going to have to try it, again, when I get a chance to borrow someone else's broadband Internet connection. It took six minutes on my end for the music to even begin to play, and then that was just the first couple of note.

[JonO]

I tried connecting to your test link, yesterday, and again, last night. Being on a very slow dial-up Internet connection, I'm probably going to have to try it, again, when I get a chance to borrow someone else's broadband Internet connection. It took six minutes on my end for the music to even begin to play, and then that was just the first couple of note.

Arrrggghhhh! Okay. Some of my braintrust had convinced me that there was no need to be able to skip the opening since no player would ever see it twice - of course we're all broadband and never thought of the dl time on narrow-band.

However, there is a back door cutoff for the opening. - click on the Rimworlds Logo in the upper left hand corner as soon as it starts to fade in. You'll jump cut to the end of the sequence after the opening crawl.

Looks like, at the least, I need to add a "no-sound" option.

[GrimFinger]

Arrrggghhhh! Okay. Some of my braintrust had convinced me that there was no need to be able to skip the opening since no player would ever see it twice - of course we're all broadband and never thought of the dl time on narrow-band.

However, there is a back door cutoff for the opening. - click on the Rimworlds Logo in the upper left hand corner as soon as it starts to fade in. You'll jump cut to the end of the sequence after the opening crawl.

Looks like, at the least, I need to add a "no-sound" option.

Well, designing the game for broadband play is probably wiser than designing a game for dial-up play, from a business perspective, these days.

Clicking on the Rimworlds Logo in the upper left hand corner does work, to take me to the menu at the end of the music sequence. However, to someone who happens upon your site for the very first time, how are they supposed to know about that trick? It is a helpful trick to know, but on its face, it's not very intuitive. I wouldn't simply know that, by looking at the screen, as currently designed. You know it's there, because you programmed it that way. If you're going to incorporate tricks to skip various things, then why make them hidden/non-obvious to those who you want to give your game a try?

[JonO]

Arrrggghhhh! Okay. Some of my braintrust had convinced me that there was no need to be able to skip the opening since no player would ever see it twice - of course we're all broadband and never thought of the dl time on narrow-band.

However, there is a back door cutoff for the opening. - click on the Rimworlds Logo in the upper left hand corner as soon as it starts to fade in. You'll jump cut to the end of the sequence after the opening crawl.

Looks like, at the least, I need to add a "no-sound" option.

Well, designing the game for broadband play is probably wiser than designing a game for dial-up play, from a business perspective, these days.

Clicking on the Rimworlds Logo in the upper left hand corner does work, to take me to the menu at the end of the music sequence. However, to someone who happens upon your site for the very first time, how are they supposed to know about that trick? It is a helpful trick to know, but on its face, it's not very intuitive. I wouldn't simply know that, by looking at the screen, as currently designed. You know it's there, because you programmed it that way. If you're going to incorporate tricks to skip various things, then why make them hidden/non-obvious to those who you want to give your game a try?

The trick was a backdoor for me and other testers who were running through the sequence multiple times. I had originally intended to kill the code before releasing to the public. There are actually all kinds of back doors throughout the app right now. Clicking on "Rimworlds Enrollment" on the player-data screen will fill it out; clicking on the word "Captain" will assign all the talents and fill in the blanks on the officer profile screen - any screen that requires more than a couple of mouse-clicks has a backdoor. - Makes it a lot easier/faster to run multiple tests, but isn't for public consumption.

In the case of turning off the sound/skipping the opening screen, I will be adding a labelled button.