13 September Update

I don't really like the texting. Maybe theres a way to just tell them to EXPLORE THE DAMN SHIP before beaming down without any equipment?

 

Because Duncan, like a lot of other people, just rush in. Might be a bit excessive, but I think players should be punished for not paying attention to details. How HARD is to notice the goddamn chest? xD

 

I like that you guys have made it easier to find the locker, including placing the locker and teleporter so that you have to pass by the locker first. It seemed obvious when those two guys from the Yogscast didn't know how to open their lockers.

However, the text does seem a little out of place. Maybe make the text into signs of some sort, and make them a little... sci-fi-ish? Otherwise, I'm happy with having the text turn off after the first few visits to the ship.

Another thing you might do is remove the text altogether, and just add a locked door in the ship separating the teleporter and the locker. Meaning, when you spawn, you have to open your locker before you can beam anywhere because your access is restricted to it by the locked door. When you open your locker and get your stuff, it opens and you can beam down. :U

 

How about a crafting recipe to make these signs then you can make your own as well as take the ones provided on the ship ?

 

Something like this would be nice. Having a way to remove them would be great, be it an overlay that could be toggled off, or a way to physically remove them from the ship.

 

I kinda like the way this looks. Much better than just putting text above all the objects.

 

Meh. Seems a little obtrusive.

Honestly, I feel like people that rush through this game deserve to be on an alien planet with no equipment.

 

I'm sure it's been said, but why not just have the ship's computer refuse to activate transport without the survival gear in the players inventory. If it gets tried, they get a message saying "Transporter Systems inactive due to missing transporter recall signal" or something similar. They literally can't leave the ship till the locker is opened

 

Why not simply lock the teleporter until they open the locker?

On another note, this daily update has a lot of 'beta soon' painted on it. "makes me look forward to the Beta Testing" - George VAnd if there wasn't a beta for ages, why would they work on user-friendliness?

 

I don't like the new placement of the teleporter. It seems to be out of place, rather than before rear the cockpit.

 

Perhaps the starting quest instructions could be explicit not just about going to the locker first, then the planet, and putting fuel in the fuel port, but also about where on the ship each of these things is. i.e. "Your ship ran out of fuel over this planet. You should probably use the transporter in the back of the ship to go down and look for more, but first you will want to get your gear. Your gear locker is in the middle of the ship, just to the left of the fuel port, which is where you will put the new fuel to power up your ship. Good Luck!"

Anyone who doesn't bother to read the quest, or rushes down to the planet without exploring the (at this point in the game rather small) ship, quite frankly deserves to suffer. Teach 'em with tough love.

Also, maybe the transporter should go behind the cockpit, and the fuel port in the back, by the engines?

 

or this

 

Something tells me that Yogscast would still find some way to bumble through without checking it.

 

How about you find a component to the beamer inside of the locker? repair/craft it before you can actually use it. That way you could do without the labeling all together.

 

Of course! Thats why they are fun to watch

 

As mentioned a dozen dozen times so far, my first instinct would be to mouse-over parts of the ship, looking for names of things.
I throw my lot with mouse-overs.

 

Instead of constant labels, how about you see what things are by moving your mouse over them? And at the beginning of the game maybe have a marker pointing at the locker then to the beam.

 

I suggest watching some of the bonus commentaries Valve made for Left 4 Dead or Portal 2 or Team Fortress. They explain some of the design elements that teach players stuff and lead them though the game. Pretty much half of the story in their games is told by visual stuff and not dialog and text.

The general idea is to explain and show things not by text but by visual aids. I.e. special infected in L4D, you can distinguish them from far away because of their posture, size, shape difference, sound.

When players had difficulty where to go in beta testing of some maps they didn't make arrows saying "this way idiots". They simply lit the "right way", so the players could even instinctively go towards the light.

In case of starbound just as hopoo suggested in another thread and Forb.Jok above, highlight, animate, give a visual bar or symbol...The text is ok, but it stands a bit out of place.

 

tab turns on labels

 

Well, i got a negative opinion:
It's pretty out of the place, i think. Now it feels like i can't change the ship in sectors where this text is located. It's like whatever i wish to do with the ship - this texts must stay there. Kinda slap to the freedom of action.
Maybe some flashing would be enough? Maybe highlight or something?