So I finally had a chance to sit down and play through a normal game with the new builder in the stable release branch.
Happily, most everything worked exceptionally well. Where things are still a bit soft, is where I will focus my feedback and suggestions:
- Templates basically work, but my suggestions to improve the UX are:
- Make the default template numbering scheme silent (hide it from the user), and require the user to name it before allowing it to be saved. This will ensure each template receives a name, and we don’t end up with a bunch of numbers-only template names.
- If there is a way to rename a template from within the UI, it’s not obvious/I couldn’t find it.
- Likewise, if there is a way to overwrite/update a template from within the UI, I couldn’t find that either. This one is actually a larger problem because I ended up with a dozen or so copies of VERY similar looking templates and it made it very hard to find the right one and prune out the outdated versions.
- Please consider adding a toggle in the decorations menu to display all decorations vs the ones I am currently able to make. This is especially important because I can’t overwrite a template right now, so I can’t easily go back, add new decorations that I’ve recently unlocked, and save again.
- I’d really like the ability to take a new thumbnail pic of the building if I don’t like the one the game chose for me during creation.
- Template groups / folders. I often build structures in pieces, so I can easily re-use them in a modular way. I’d love a way to group related templates together for easier navigation and use.
- The old builder had an on-screen hotkey pop-up that showed the player how to rotate a template when placing it. The new builder does not have this pop-up, nor are there on-screen rotate buttons, so there’s no longer any visual indicator that a template can be rotated at all.
- Builder
- I was using the hole and block tools a lot, and it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to switch between click-drag drawing horizontally vs vertically. I tried messing with possibly hotkey options like holding down CTRL, Shift or Alt while click-dragging but nothing worked. It always just wants to draw horizontally only. I’d like a way to do both. Maybe even combine both keys to draw in both directions at once (like drawing out a cube in one move). Again, if this is possible today, I could not figure out how from within the UI.
- Crenelated flat roofs don’t rotate well when a template is rotated. The crenellation pattern changes based on the building’s orientation. This is a bug and not a suggestion, but I only really wanted to post once and not clutter up the forum with a post about something so small (@not_owen_wilson FYI)
- Editing buildings after they’ve been constructed doesn’t seem to be possible yet. Is it supposed to be possible? If it’s not in yet, I really want it to be.
The UI is unclear as to what my options are on a constructed building. The old builder had a building window when you clicked on it, where you could destroy it, etc. I don’t recall the new UI being as clear in this regard. - Is there a way to designate areas of slab as floor/walls/roof after the building as been built? If so, didn’t see the option.
I think that’s all my notes for the moment. I’m still building my new town, so I’ll comment here if I run into any other UI confusion.