Hi everyone,
I’m Alex06, I’ve been playing RTS games since I was a kid and I am a huge fan of Halo and the first Halo Wars 1. I don’t post very often on here, but I thought I might as well give feedback on the beta. I was a community leader for Command & Conquer and I’ve played the C&C and StarCraft games since I was a kid. I think RTS is a great genre and with so few good (and still alive) RTS games and franchises, I thought I’d help make this the best RTS it can be. So here we go, my feedback from playing the beta and being a generally huge RTS player and Halo fan.
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You should be able to see a progress bar that shows exactly how much is left until the supply boxes are harvested by the unit (when sending a unit to harvest supply boxes).
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You should be able to give an order to a unit to actually harvest the supply blocks and the resource should flash when you click “X” on it, so you can tell the unit is going to harvest it, instead of just staying next to it.
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I love that the game has drones for the UNSC. This is something that makes sense, notably because of how common drones are today, both with civilians and the military.
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The game needs more than just Power Generators as civilian structures, but Supply Lifts, etc.
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It would be interesting if you could capture enemy tech and bases, even if you don’t get to use their support powers.
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I’m not sure if the way Power Generators work right now as a secondary resource should be kept. I like it, but I think using it as a way for the UNSC to tech up individual bases and for the Banished to use them as a means to research and build faster and/or augment their population cap could be interesting. The capturable Forerunner Generators could be repurposed to give supplies faster per Generator captured, as a result.
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Opening the Command Point and Menu while in a game lags the game and sometimes the menus refresh awkwardly, with the buttons disappearing and reappearing.
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The Wraith model looks pretty low-res compared to the other units and it doesn’t look as intimidating as the cinematic render.
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Spartans and Rocket Marines are a bit OP. Veteran Rocket Marines and Cyclops can seemingly beat anything.
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Atriox’ Support Powers are a little too good compared to Cutter’s, but not by THAT much.
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Recentering the camera lags the game a bit and sometimes the units, sometimes the ground texture take a second to load.
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It should be more obvious on the interface when you have an unused command point, sort of like in C&C Generals. It should also be obvious how to access the command points menu, and to see how many command points it takes to unlock Level 5 Support Powers.
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The loading times are extremely long, and you’ll often end up getting stuck on “Waiting for Players…” after the loading screen menu, for a long while.
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Sometimes, I’m about to win and either an ally leaves the match, or I receive a “Defeat” screen. My guess is this is a desynch or a disconnect that’s happening due to server issues.
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Even after the first update on Tuesday or Wednesday, the game would still get stuck in the main menu or before getting inside a lobby. It seems like an issue with the tutorial video, with the game trying to download the latest matchmaking data or with server authenticating the player.
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The ground textures seem awfully low quality compared to Halo Wars 1, especially on the desert map (The forest map looked fine). The desert map looks very stylized (read: cartoony) instead of realistic, too. The reflection the terrain looks, good, though.
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The textures on some parts of certain UNSC buildings seem awfully low-res, case-in-point: The UNSC Mini-base door/hatch, the Power Generator’s triangular metal frame (the triangular part that’s on the ground), certain parts of the UNSC Armory and even the Combat Station/Fortress.
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Whereas Halo Wars always had 2 factions, 3 factions is sort of a mainstay in RTS games today. It seems possible, too, given the amount of factions that exist within the Halo universe. We could have anything from The Flood, The Created, Human Rebels, The Swords of Sanghelios to even an ancient but reawakened Forerunner, Precursor or Prehistoric Human faction. I’m personally in favor of having either The Flood, The Created/Prometheans or The Swords of Sanghelios. They don’t have to be in the campaign, necessarily, but that would be a bonus, of course. Perhaps in an expansion?
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We should be allowed to pick our own player colors for 1v1 or FFA matches, as well as in custom games (IE non ladder games), like with StarCraft 2 (And Halo Wars 1). I want to be able to play as the dark green UNSC from the campaign in multiplayer if I chose to. I can understand that ladder/matchmaking matches may not allow for the inclusion of player-chosen team colors. We should be able however to change the team colors to indicate who is our ally and enemy, and we should be able to have up to 3 or 4 teams (currently there are 2 : Red and Blue) in multiplayer. Perhaps Team 3 could be Green team? 4 Would have to be Purple/Pink…Maybe Yellow.
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You should be able to choose “Random All”, “Random UNSC” and “Random Banished” as well as each of the 6 Commanders, like in Halo Wars 1.
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You should be able to select AI difficulty and playstyle (rusher, ) in custom games. Playing VS AI should be possible, both online and in a local (offline) skirmish mode.
22.An observer mode and commentating features, to go with live streaming, really need to be in the game, as well as a spectating mode and replays. This will help players get better at the game and favor the game’s survival as an eSport.
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The “waiting” icon when a unit is harvesting supplies keeps moving when you move the screen.
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You should be able to hold the right mouse button and scroll across the map like in Command & Conquer on the PC version.
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You should be able to right-click on any place on the mini-map to order a unit to go there, and left-click on any place on the mini-map to center your camera on that place, on the PC version of the game.
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You should be able to rotate your camera and zoom in using the mouse buttons and wheel on the PC.
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There should be keyboard shortcuts to build each respective building or unit and research each respective upgrade or research on the menu wheel. (Example on a QWERTY keyboard: W for Top Right, A for 2nd down Right, Z for 3rd down Right, X for Bottom Right, and so on (Note: Doesn’t have to be the same keys I listed here)).
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Each keyboard and mouse key should be modifiable on PC, like how you can change which key is assigned to specific commands in StarCraft 2. For example, I can change the Build Pylon key to P instead of E, or change the “Rotate Left” camera command from “Insert” to “O”.
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You should be able to have 9 or 10 control groups on PC, which are visible on the interface once assigned, like in StarCraft 2.
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Atriox should receive Scarabs in multiplayer and Cutter should get the Elephant or Mammoth, while his Scorpions should be upgradeable to Grizzlies.
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You should be able to cycle between bases like in Halo Wars 1.
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The secondary ability button (Y) should be more visible when you can use a unit’s secondary ability. We should be able to tell when a secondary ability was activated, too, like in the 1st game.
