It would be nice if the game interface itself is integrated in the game universe. Starting the game would present the player with a ship 'dungeon' comprised of very few rooms in a fixed format (the ship).



The would be a 'main' room, an engineering room (settings), a 'simulation' room (tutorial), and escape pods (each of the starting ships). The escape pods would only be unlocked for the game modes the player has already unlocked.



Other niceties could be added to flesh out a non-verbal mood-setting for the game. A mess room with all the characters; could have a darker corner where the locked characters would mingle, and a lighter side where the unlocked characters would chit-chat and fumble around. There could be also a science/achievement/encyclopedia room decorated with hydroponics and large collection of vats. One monster/module/hero per vat would be a very large room, perhaps too large, so a computer could store statistics about monsters, modules and heroes.



Monster stats:



kill count;

damage inflicted;

damage received;

heroes killed;

major modules destroyed;

minor modules destroyed;

crystal damage;

crystals destroyed;



Major/minor Modules stats:



number deployed;

number destroyed;

kill count;

damage inflicted;

damage received;

dust collected; (where it applies)

food collected;

industry collected;

science collected;

friendly damage;

heroes killed;



Hero stats:



Deaths;

Damage taken;

Kills;

Damage done;

Items equipped;

Dust collected;

Doors opened;

Steles found;

Research crystals activated;

Turns operating;

Module HP repaired;

Crystals carried to exit;

Crystal carrier deaths;



Tutorial



The tutorial is not fleshed out yet, since the game mechanics are not finished, which makes sense because it saves work.



The tutorial would be a dungeon simulation inside the 'intro ship', before it crashes.



It could be a 'mandatory training program' by the ship's AI (which could be skipped regardless, by the brave and the fool, with a snarky comment of course {ain't nobody got time fo' dat} ). A training room in teh ship would provide an encyclopedia with information, gossip, trivia and a survival training program for the planet Auriga.



The Survival Training Program a.k.a. Tutorial



Starting the training would let the player select an unlocked hero to start the training program.



Startup differentials:



(first playthrough) Lots of resources; no enemies on first doors; less enemies on later doors.

(other playthroughs) Not so many resources; more enemies; difficulty equal to 'very easy', or a bit less, until just before the very end.



Tutorial dungeon structure:



The tutorial dungeon would have a repeating basic structure of rooms repeating until all instructions are given:



- contains a basic instruction about one feature instead of research.

- a room where the player can act the instruction from the previous room. IF FEASIBLE (programming time): Door remains locked until the player performs the action.

- a room where a tiny little bit of monsters, easily winnable, are spawned to test the player and show the effectiveness of the just performed tutorial step.

- the above 3-step goes for as long as necessary to give instructions on the game features.

...



The tutorial dungeon has a single floor. Taking the crystal to the exit ends the tutorial.



Multiple tutorial playthroughs



- the first time the player finishes the tutorial dungeon he just receives a congrats and a notification that succesful completion of the training will auto-tune the training program difficulty. Subsequent playthroughs will have a reduced amount of resources, and stronger monsters, but should feel 'winnable'. Removing the crystal to go to the exit would spawn a huge mob which almost completely trolls the player. It should be unwinnable, unless the player has the right set of heroes and items spawned in the tutorial; such as skills to slow/aggro the mobs while the crystal carrier is Skulking to the exit. Only an advanced play would make it possible to survive the absolute onslaught, and would absolutely require the sacrifice of at least one hero to make the crystal carrier survive. The point is to teach at least one more advanced strategy to the player, and would unlock an achievement.



The third difficulty level of the tutorial would (just unlock an alternative look for the intro ship) simply trigger a malfunction on the ships' AI which would cause it to fall into Auriga. The AI would tell the player that 'besting the tutorial second difficulty should be impossible, the only thing harder is to survive on Auriga itself'. The ship would turn off the lights and start klaxons and emergency lights on the 'intro ship' interface, as a prelude to the ship going bonkers and falling into the planet. If the player gets bored with the 'klaxons mode', there should be another hidden something somewhere to turn off the emergency lights mode and make the 'intro ship' back to normal, since it's just a cosmetic thing.

That's a lot to read there. I agree and your ideas are interesting concerning the "stats room" and "unlocked hero hangout" this would be really cool.

I really like the idea of a main ship and the canteen where the hero's could mingle and hang out but AFAIK some of the hero's are from the ship, some are mercenaries and some are Auriga natives so having them all on the same ship might not pan out too well or go with the games lore.



I'd definitely love to have a statistics screen with kills, completed runs and the like.

I think that it does not matter that some of the Auriga natives show up in the mess room, because GAME!



The canteen could alternatively only display unlocked heroes. After the hero is unlocked, it's as if it was rescued and is now up in space. Of course it is on a groundhog day scenario, so he falls back in its own planet. Because, you know, GAME!



The point of the mess room with heroes is to have a collection, like a trophy room, of unlocked heroes. Don't overthink it, because ... GAME!

Any official word on the possibility of making the main menu a ship-dungeon itself, similar to my idea?

Hello,



Your different ideas are really good but to be honest, very expensive to implement.

For example, your intro ship and your tutorial ship are full of code exceptions, special behaviours and scripting events, which are the developers' sworn enemies

However, even if we can't going this far, we will try to go in this direction: we will add some ambiance in the start of the game, give access to these types of stats and try to have a more interactive tutorial