It took a second beta weekend...

I had an overly long previous beta weekend impression thread. There I talked about how I very much enjoyed the game overall but tried to highlight some things I either didn't get or thought might be problematic. One of the things I was musing over in particular at the time was that I didn't fully understand the design purpose and exact impact the powercore mode objectives were supposed to have on the game. Having played through a second weekend I was finally able to start seeing how they impact pacing, gameplay concepts involving playing around them, and using these new features as actual assets/objectives to be efficiently overcome (as opposed to things that just sort of arbitrarily existed and were interacted with... basically only when you happened to run into them). I don't quite know how to explain it, but that extra weekend of play just seems to have made something click in my mind. Maybe the balancing surrounding them was also changed?

I don't know, but it just felt like I suddenly "got it" out of nowhere, and everything seemed a lot more satisfying. Now I wonder how everyone else new to the game will perceive this stuff going forward. Pacing and understanding general flow of games is exceptionally difficult to relate to a playerbase, so I suppose it's just a stage everyone will have to go through? Or is it perhaps possible to somehow ease players through this sort of understanding? Well, I suppose the whole learning phase is part of the fun... At least it is for me anyway.

Looking back at the end the previous beta weekend I recall thinking I was perhaps finally starting to understand the game. Now I look back and realize I was utter rubbish. I look forward to my next opportunity to play and thinking the same of my current self : P