Why all the vitriol?

[JFSOCC]

I got to say, wow. these forums really loaded up with negative comments fast!

I want to get this out there. I'm enjoying the game.
It is certainly flawed and I hope that Ubisoft will take the effort to address these things. But the core concept for me works.

I was raised to offer an alternative if I had criticism, so I will try to offer some constructive criticism.

1. control issues.
A lot of people have commented that this game looks like it's a direct and unmodulated port from the Xbox 360 version. I'm tempted to side with them. The controls feel very much like they were meant for a gamepad, and in fact it's an option to play it as such. Making the game completely mouse scroll free (instead of just partial, with a limited range) as an option would help. I don't know if it is a bug or a feature, but I would appreciate the option to zoom out further. Also the speeds at which you move the mouse, or rotate the map could be adjustable.

2. Difficulty. I enjoy that this game is not the easiest out there, especially because of the reasonably short campaign, but perhaps it is possible for those who have more trouble with it to adjust difficulty settings. Ideally this could be done dynamically. (IE a different slider for fire progression speed, event occurrence speeds, game speed, tribe movement speed, more or less tooltips, etc)

3. Sound and graphics settings. I haven't checked them out, but I've read here that some people are frustrated that they cannot adjust these things. perhaps it would be useful if this could be linked to a program that checks the maximum that a system can run.

4. unskippable cutscenes. I'm the type of player that watches every cutscene, but not everyone is.Why force something on them they don't care for?

5. More elements.
For me it is OK if this is only done in an expansion, if you choose to make one, but right now the game feels bare. And while there is a certain charm to this basic system, for me to keep interested in this game for a longer time, it would be nice to have more things to do. I imagine different types of growing vegetation. Perhaps allowing the tribe to evolve a civilization. I imagine growing villages, village walls, temples, trade routes that can be watched over. in return for helping these villages grow you could get different powers, such as speed settings, perhaps.
More Brushes, it would be interesting to see if you could add climates. temperate forests, ice capped mountains. this could provide a resource restriction for villages to grow. (IE temperate forest could give you better wood for village construction)
Practical structures for the tribe to build. I'm thinking canoes and bridges, roads which need maintenance. Though I would leave control out of the hands of the player.

The point is, the game has potential for growth, and a lot of it. Personally I would always enjoy the chance to mod a game, so release of modding tools would be a unique but appreciated move.

Lastly, I may have some criticism that is a bit less constructive... I don't know if it was intended as such, I know that story wise it makes sense; but I don't really enjoy the hand holding of the tribe. Personally I like the world-shaping much better. If there was a way to play that took a bit less micromanagement, at least out of the campaign, that would be appreciated.

That said, I am enjoying your game thoroughly, and I certainly do not regret my purchase.

[robinsa]

Originally posted by JFSOCC:
I got to say, wow. these forums really loaded up with negative comments fast!

I want to get this out there. I'm enjoying the game.
It is certainly flawed and I hope that Ubisoft will take the effort to address these things. But the core concept for me works.

I was raised to offer an alternative if I had criticism, so I will try to offer some constructive criticism.

1. control issues.
A lot of people have commented that this game looks like it's a direct and unmodulated port from the Xbox 360 version. I'm tempted to side with them. The controls feel very much like they were meant for a gamepad, and in fact it's an option to play it as such. Making the game completely mouse scroll free (instead of just partial, with a limited range) as an option would help. I don't know if it is a bug or a feature, but I would appreciate the option to zoom out further. Also the speeds at which you move the mouse, or rotate the map could be adjustable.

2. Difficulty. I enjoy that this game is not the easiest out there, especially because of the reasonably short campaign, but perhaps it is possible for those who have more trouble with it to adjust difficulty settings. Ideally this could be done dynamically. (IE a different slider for fire progression speed, event occurrence speeds, game speed, tribe movement speed, more or less tooltips, etc)

3. Sound and graphics settings. I haven't checked them out, but I've read here that some people are frustrated that they cannot adjust these things. perhaps it would be useful if this could be linked to a program that checks the maximum that a system can run.

4. unskippable cutscenes. I'm the type of player that watches every cutscene, but not everyone is.Why force something on them they don't care for?

5. More elements.
For me it is OK if this is only done in an expansion, if you choose to make one, but right now the game feels bare. And while there is a certain charm to this basic system, for me to keep interested in this game for a longer time, it would be nice to have more things to do. I imagine different types of growing vegetation. Perhaps allowing the tribe to evolve a civilization. I imagine growing villages, village walls, temples, trade routes that can be watched over. in return for helping these villages grow you could get different powers, such as speed settings, perhaps.
More Brushes, it would be interesting to see if you could add climates. temperate forests, ice capped mountains. this could provide a resource restriction for villages to grow. (IE temperate forest could give you better wood for village construction)
Practical structures for the tribe to build. I'm thinking canoes and bridges, roads which need maintenance. Though I would leave control out of the hands of the player.

The point is, the game has potential for growth, and a lot of it. Personally I would always enjoy the chance to mod a game, so release of modding tools would be a unique but appreciated move.

Lastly, I may have some criticism that is a bit less constructive... I don't know if it was intended as such, I know that story wise it makes sense; but I don't really enjoy the hand holding of the tribe. Personally I like the world-shaping much better. If there was a way to play that took a bit less micromanagement, at least out of the campaign, that would be appreciated.

That said, I am enjoying your game thoroughly, and I certainly do not regret my purchase. I guess this is easy for you to say. Its hard to give the game good feedback when you cant get past the Ubisoft logo where it crashes for many of us.

[Ironali]

Ditto @ Robinsa.
I was so looking forward to playing but erhh. They tell me now they don't support my Graphics Card.
What do I do now? I am sure that is counting for Fraud.

[muffinmonsta]

Easy for him to say what? He wants to show his opinions and his way of making this a better game for everyone, it looks like a neutral take on this game. I agree with you on everything, JFSOCC.

I would be grateful if Ubisoft could tell us what is going on with the things they said were already in the game. As for the extra content.......DLC would be nice, or more missions in the long run.

[Ironali]

Why are you even considering more missions?
There are more of us that can't play the game than that there are of us that are actually able to play.

So It begs to differ, whats more important, being able to play or new missions?

[Michlo]

I too agree with the OP.

I started last night and I'm enjoying it.

I would definitely like to be able to zoom in and out further and for the camera to stop moving so much when I'm not but those aren't game-breakers for me.

Cheers.

[Th3Godlik3]

I'm also one of the few who is able to play it without any problems. However I'm dissappointed by the game.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE> <LI> 1. They sell it as a "God-Sim", I would say its a rather poor "Dripping-Castle-Sim". I love the idea of it, the concept is one of the best I've seen in years. However they fail utterly to live up to it. The Game feels more like a Demo, with more features to come.
<LI> 2.The PC-Version of the game is an insult to every PC-Gamer out there. Why did they delay the game if they changed nothing for the PC-Version? FPS Limit, No graphic options, horrible controls?
<LI> 3.From the beginning on there was a sticky Topic in this Forum, stating that there would be only a one time only online activation. Now we ended up with a Digital Restriction Management Policy that forces us to be always online in order to play this game (mind you, those who are not paying for the game, are able to play it offline). I made my decision to buy this game on the assumption that there would be no such restrictive DRM.
I don't know how it is where you guys are from, but where I'm from, thats called lying.
<LI> 5. Besides the UK Forum Manager, there has been no reaction what so ever from the Dev's nor Ubi, even though this should be the first thing they should do: Damage Control.
[/list]

Ofc there are various other issues, such as Bugs (including Plotstopper), Buggy Textures, etc. but I dont want to over use your patience.

Somebody else posted those links alrdy elsewhere on the Forum, but they sum up almost everything:
1up.com (http://www.1up.com/news/pc-gamers-angered-from-dust-drm-shoddy-port)
Platformnation.com (http://www.platformnation.com/2011/08/17/pc-port-of-from-dust-is-a-technical-mess/)

[Brochacho]

I totally, completely agree with you, JFSOCC! I did not regret my pre order at all. The game is fun and challenging, and I hope they'll add a sandbox mode.

But before they add anything else. Though it'd be nice to optimize this game so that other people can also enjoy this game.

[Shigawire]

Vitriol? I think you have a mismatched supersensitivity to general criticism.

The control scheme is not a nuisance, it's a GAME BREAKER. Me and tons of people are NOT playing the game until this is fixed. If your tolerance for lazy console-to-pc ports is very high, and you accept this - lucky you.

So yes, we're not playing the game until the control scheme is fixed. That's reporting the problem AND delivering a solution. That's constructive criticism for you. We're explaining the major problem - with a sense of urgency. If we just add a humble and unassertive criticism - you think they will listen more? The only thing that works is volume (number of people criticizing), and the urgency implied with that particular problem.

[JFSOCC]

Originally posted by Ironali:
Why are you even considering more missions?
There are more of us that can't play the game than that there are of us that are actually able to play.

So It begs to differ, whats more important, being able to play or new missions?

You got to understand that I don't have that perspective. the frustration many players have with being unable to play is absolutely legitimate, but I cannot comment on that intelligibly. That there seem to be so many people having trouble with that is obviously not good. And I do expect that Ubisoft will do it's best to fix this.

I want to add one other thing to my OP:
my comments are towards this game, and I feel that DRM is an issue to be tackled separately. However, I will touch on it briefly:
I am no fan of digital rights management, mostly because it doesn't work. a friend of mine pirated the game yesterday, and it was playable for him. That's the same day it came out and already it's pirated. I do not understand why Ubisoft would call it a success when it so blatantly doesn't work.

[JFSOCC]

Originally posted by Shigawire:
If we just add a humble and unassertive criticism - you think they will listen more?

I'm not sure, but I think it's not impossible that the negative tone of many of the posts might discourage the people at Ubisoft from taking it seriously.

But people are free to express themselves the way they want to, within forum guidelines. I'm exercising my right to do the same.

Perhaps hearing the same comments in more than one way helps.

One other thing. You mention I'm overly sensitive? I wouldn't say so. I've been active on many bulletin boards for over ten years now, and I believe that forces you to grow a thick skin. (that is not an invitation, btw.)

[Patrick957]

I'm willing to bet this game won't receive any significant fixes or a patch.

They've obviously just used this as a way to make a few more bucks on a PC version while spending as little possible time and resources to do it.

If they actually cared AT ALL about making a port of this game they would have at LEAST removed the 30 fps cap.

Halo PC was the original awful console port and even there they left me the option to turn of the FPS limit.

[Fazzelen1]

Who cares fps is capped at 30, this isn't CoD or some type of FPS shooter where max fps is a must. A 30 fps cap is hindering your system in no way at all. This game run flawless on my computer, if you cannot run it then I suggest getting the xbox version or upgrading something on your PC. It doesn't take a NASA computer to run.

[Patrick957]

Originally posted by Fazzelen1:
Who cares fps is capped at 30, this isn't CoD or some type of FPS shooter where max fps is a must. A 30 fps cap is hindering your system in no way at all. This game run flawless on my computer, if you cannot run it then I suggest getting the xbox version or upgrading something on your PC. It doesn't take a NASA computer to run.

Have you any idea what you're saying? Because I don't.

The game is capped to 30 FPS not because of my computer but because of the software. How is playing on an xbox with it's same 30 fps cap going to help me.

Upgrade? lol I've got a 6 core i7 at 4.5gHz on a triple channel memory platform with 2 GTX 580 GPU's in SLI. I'm sure I'd get at least 80-100 FPS with this system yet the devs decide for me to cap it to 30?

Anyways thanks for showing us all your immense ignorance.