I have made a very big post on Starcraft.org (really to just tell out what i had to say). This time i'll tone it down and tell you my opinions in a better way ..
eew this guy has opinions... yes I have a lot of opinions...

Astrogears.. is probably the game with the most Horrible Gameplay ... there are probably a LOT of things that can be improved to Let the players understand the game's mechanics faster or make the game mechanic generally easier (altho this may make the game less cool .. but i rather it be ez to play than being realistic)
Since I didn't make the map and I don't think I'll spend the time looking into ur triggers.. I just found a few things that can be improved right off the bat
1. You pick your class.. let's say the Probe one.. What's the point of dropping your Ghost.. getting Into the probe and then Moving ur probe out?? .. Seriously . if u picked the probe.. when you drop ur ghost from the shuttle.. the probe should be out of the CC just like that <_<
2. What's the point of having the infested terrans and scourges in the platform thing free to move? People will get confused and try to move it out of the platform to use them .. when you actually use the dropship
3. Why is there no "release all bits" but there's "return all bits".. There really should be both...
4. Goliaths seems rigged... They can beat ultras...
5. If you build spawners from the probe on the bottom or top of the map let's say.. The spawned units will not meet the line of battle which is in the middle. They attack from the bottom/top since they're spawned there.. and it really messes everything up .. I heard that you can toggle the computer ally's movements by moving this high templar.. where the hell is it?? and Why high templar? It'd be much ezier if the Computer ally had better AI or there's a big general control that orders all ur spawned units to attack from top/middle/bottom like Base storming tactics/Storm the fort/Red vs blue or whatever is the first one....
Spawned units as in the ones from the protoss buildings
6. There are WAY too much hotkeys needed. (this is why you need to have a "Release all bits") u need AT LEAST 1 for the gear, 1 for the shuttle, 1 for the dropship, 1 for the ghost... .. 4 hotkeys is too much considering that these hotkeys are a MUST .. there are times when you need other hotkeys .. (like when you use the dragoon to walk faster.. u'd want to hotkey the dragoon)
7. During MY experience (maybe not everyone does this) .. People just get the resources and then rush in with their gears REALLY EARLY in the game... and it works. ... I'd think that's the worst type of strategy but it Works in this game.
8. Overall .. spawning units = point of game .. Although I agree that even in Base storming tactics/Storm the fort etc. .. Spawning units is the best way to win ... in your game.. it's the ONLY way to win.... =/ .. Base defense is ... rare in my experience. And everything happens too quickly ... Unit spawns should be slowed down..
9. Everything really should be slowed down. Units should spawn slower/cost more .. Defenses should be built faster (this is good because one can never win with defense alone .. this adds to the strategy) Gears should not be able to Rush early in the game (but smhow defense systems can't do much dmg on Gears so ppl can't rely on defenses ... must be gears vs gears)
10. In general .. this was a VERY WELL triggered map .. as of all ur maps.. but there're SO many things you could've improved in this map that I had to tell you.. ur other maps are also brilliantly triggered but flawed in the gameplay aspects. Like ur mineral mountain... everything was so slow that it made it super boring.. Trigger happy defense.. the Gateway - weapon system is really cool but not REALLY necessary. You could've used Dropship system with 8 weapons. A good game would have 8 weapons carefully made .. 1 starter one (rifle).. 1 boss finisher one (turret) .. and 6 weapons that are good against different enemies (shotgun and miniguns are both important .. magum (like in RUSH) would be good .. and etc. ) .. I forgot the exact amount of guns u had in THD but yeah...
EDIT: also.. why do you buy weapons with Dark archon's MC? =/ IT's annoying trying to read the barrels and click on them

Oh right.. 11. You should fix how the gearmaster would go back into the Gear as you're calling the gearmaster OUT of the gear if u move it the wrong way. That's very annoying.. You should have a smwhat big location around the CC .. and set a switch or smth when you exit ur gearmaster .. and when you bring 0 gear masters to that location .. clear that switch .. and when that switch is set.. ur gearmaster cannot re-enter the CC. U can also set a time for the switch to clear if u really want to.

Yeahh that's about it. =O. I don't know why ppl like the map so much . maybe they like to think of themselves as Pros by simply mastering the Rushing basics of the map and confuse the hell out of Noobs.
On a happier note =D ..
I think i could never spend the time to create the triggers in this map.. especially the Help/Tutorial .. man that was cool how you'd say smth everytime the person does smth new..
Anyways... hope this helps and don't be angry at me X( ..
I thought ur RUSH was the one that you REALLY nailed the gameplay and triggers (Altho the turret level was really annoying.. and i heard that there's a glitch in the cutscene after the turret level) .. lol

if u ever read this.. don't take it too personally ><
~Unholy

the reason your gear master doesn't pop out of the cc when you unload it is that you can buy more vehicles than the one you start in, so of course it doesn't automatically load you into one.
the terrans are in the hangar so you can load them into your bomber, and just as a container because you also launch them while in your gear.
i agree with release all bits, that would be useful.
4 hotkeys isn't all that much, you know... You don't need to hotkey the goon anyway.

Wait what? u can buy others??? ... damn ... i didn't know that then of course...
and okay for the infested terrans + bomber =/ ... but meh~
4 hotkeys isn't that much but there're a lot of units that comes and goes that you'd Want to hotkey.. like the Bits i guess ... okay it's not That bad

I don't take useful suggestions personally. In fact, the more critical, the better, since ideas like these are exactly what I'm looking for to make Mk II fun.

Unholy, you obviously have not figured out the game enough to make judgments on what is wrong with it, all your little glitches you are talking about are in there for a reason, you just haven't found that reason. Maybe next time you should play the game more than once before making calls.

whatever happend to this? The site it was once hosted on is down and thus much harder to relearn all the aspects? i take it tux is gone and onto real life which is why this fell apart?

The latest was a very bugged Mk 2, but Tux shortly disappeared after that. I have started a complete revamp of AstroGears from the ground up and Wormer has offered a helping hand, so we'll see where that goes and see if we can get AstroGears the attention it deserves.

Make it noob-friendly if possible? ;P

If anyone wants to learn how to play, PM me and we'll have a little game and I'll teach you the basics

Lol reading this a year and a half old comment now... still kinda pisses me off...

Look, just face it. Just because a Game is well triggered and complicated doesn't make it a good game. It has to have that old saying "Easy to pick up but hard to master".
Playing Astrogears is like learning how to dissect the brain of a MegaComputer with radio controlled robotic arms while simultaneously avoiding lazers shot by other robotic arms controlled by your opponents. It's fucking difficult! There's no "Oh I can do this easy.. but it'd sure be hard to make a GOOD Megacomputer".. it's "HOLY SHIT WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO *BOOOOOOM*".

Anyway. What happened to Tuxlar? He's still one of the best...
As for him getting a life... Maybe he just decided to not slack off at work (like I'm doing right now )

That was beautiful.

I laughed until I cried for some reasons on that one xD
I wasn't expecting it at all, rofl!!

And this is the kind of thing that makes people not like StarCraft immediately, they sit down to play a Melee game and don't know how, so they immediately decide the game sucks, I repeat, if you had played the game more than once, you might have figured it out, but instead you've decided to lock yourself into the mindset that "IT BE TOO HARD FO' ME!" and think it's a bad game now. I played the game twice and loved it, admittedly, the first time I was a bit confused, and somewhat bored, but once I had gotten the basics, it became much easier.

My statement still stands, play it more than once, then you can complain.

Here, I'll go through and say why all your "bugs" with the game are completely ridiculous:

Later in the game you can buy more than one, and store more than one, depending on your core, also, you may want to leave your core to grab a vehicle outside, or to simply leave the ship to nuke or enter the shop.


Because they can also be loaded into the bomber vehicle and used as bombs, so you can select which bombs to use inside the hangar.


Limitations in the dropship size, he can only have so many options, and it's pretty easy to just select and click outside the hangar.


Then build tons of them, I've tried it, they suck.


I think this is actually a nice feature, as it allows the enemy to know where the enemy is coming from and attack those spawning areas based on where the units are coming from, admittedly, it takes a game to figure it out and adjust, but once again, all it takes is one game.


For one, 3 hotkeys is nothing, since you just put the least used ones, namely the gear and the ghost, further back, and I've never really needed to use a hotkey for my gear since whenever you usually want to go to it, the screen already centers there via triggers, and I see no reason to hotkey the bits, since you click once on the minimap, then you select them all and click out.


Yes, gear rushes were a bit of a problem, and it was addressed better in Mk 2, however, if you're playing with people that want to have a good game, both sides wait a bit.


I completely disagree, using an overlord you can easily stop any unit attacks, and if necessary the gear can hold off any number of units without a problem, all you need is a couple of guardians, and almost every game I win I win by crushing their defenses with a superior gear.


It's a fast paced game, it's exciting, it already lasts about an hour per game, if not more, there's no reason to slow it down even more. Defenses can be built instantly with the overlord, and those defenses, especially air barricades, can easily stop gears.


I think he did a pretty impressive job as is, with the entry and exits, yeah, it's sometimes annoying, but all you have to do is walk away for a second, then walk back, and he is already doing your suggestion, hence your gear master not reentering the gear if you let him sit still next to the gear.

Honestly, dude, it sounds to me like you played one or two games with people that weren't playing to have a fun game, but to quickly beat newbs, you have to play with someone who is playing because they want a good game, rather than someone who just wants to win no matter what.

ROFL Awesome comparisons....

Just because it's hard to pick up and play doesn't mean the game isn't fun. I have played this many times and I enjoyed every game. Having to practice isn't too bad. I think the concepts are amazing and this is very professional. I even suggested this game to friends and they enjoyed it, too xD

I think I've played it at least 4 times before I said "Screw it... life's too short"...
It's biased, obviously, as 2 of the times were me against two people that knows what they were doing somewhat. So I was the newb in the "beat the newb" scenario.... Twasn't fun...

Nevertheless, I agree it's an awesome map, and if they were playing to have fun, it'd be a good game. But your Starcraft comparison isn't legitimate, as people are given a Single Player campaign which carefully leads us through every race and allows us to learn. The premise of SC itself isn't too hard to understand. You must build certain buildings to make certain units... you must gather minerals and gas to build more units and more buildings which can give you bigger and better units...
... Thenn... you start going into the spells, and expo, and micro...

Astrogears doesn't have that, as it's not really possible to carefully lead a person through the game unless they have very patient friends...
And in the end, it is STILL too complicated to squeeze any fun out of it unless you're perfectionistic/nerdy enough to figure it all out...
In comparison, let's use Temple Siege.. (only cause I know the game well)... It is relatively ez to pick up because the concept of AoS and the overall Hero Running around killing other things with his crazy spells is easy to grasp. It also allows the player only one of the 12 (now 15) heroes, so that they can concentrate on it and learn it from that hero's perspective.. Imagine if you had to play all 12 heroes really well right from the beginning!! That's what Astrogears would be like...
Finally, once you're comfortable with what hero you picked (or not so you'd play again to switch), you start seeing counters and complications to the game and start exploring these.

You don't Jump at the player and make them do something complicated right away...
Like your reply... why doesn't the probe thing just come out right away... because you can buy more later on.. Well, make them choose only when they have 2 or more. And also WHY would we want 2 or more classes? it IS a multiplayer game.. Making Teamwork a requirement, and more so by limiting you to 1 class, is a good gameplay mechanic that should be a GIVEN for these types of games.

The bomb thing is just more ridiculous and complicated now ... but you still have a point.

Annnd I have the need to know where my CC is at all times... so there IS many hotkeys. This is a personal thing, where I like to hotkey everything I need.......

err Anyway.. w/e I"m going to eat...
It's still a very awesome map, but not a good game... :\ .... I really REALLY appreciate it for trying to be something different, but it clearly didn't work for Mk1 ... I hope Mk2 will work... because the Ideas were certainly good, but it didn't transpose into the gameplay.

Another good example of a (popular) map that starts off seeming easy, but then gets more complicated as things go on is Heaven's Last Stand.

At first it seems pretty straightforward. They attack you, you send your hero, you kill their stuff. You try not to die. If your not an idiot you realize you have other units to, and try not to lose them. This means you can get into the game.

And then eventually you end up playing w/ some ppl who are good and then it becomes:
"set up clave, damnit blue set up clave ur blocking. Oh shit clave rush, powers now, blue where are your powers! JEH JEH JEH! fucking n00b omg"
And then you end up banned, and end up thoroughly confused. That is until you use that as an opportunity to get better.

I think you missed the extremely newbie friendly origanal starcraft terran campaign. There's like 4 levels of tutorial.

Nostalgia++

I really need to learn how to play this again.

I just played a game with someone, and he seemed to get how to play the game almost completely just by using the built-in tutorial, there were only a few small things, just like with SC, that he had to learn from me, mostly strategies that you would figure out on your own after a couple games anyway.

Hmm. Perhaps I should give it a shot then. The problem I had with it initially was lag more than anything else, but supposedly that's fixed.