Improving Frozen Synapse

The text being long, if you must only read one part it's the conclusion and the update. Then the second most important parts are Concept, Multiplayer and Essential features.
I apologise if it's not proper English, I wrote it down quite in a hurry using notes I had gathered.

Game concept

FS has a strong concept that makes people want to play it and buy it simply from knowing the genre of video game that it is.
This fact indicates that people wanted to play this genre of video game but it didn’t exist, therefor FS is filling an absence and a want.
The concept: the player has a top down view of a map on which are walls arranged in rooms without roof and units he can control to beat the other player in a simultaneous execution round game in which units movements are not limited by distance or tile number but by 5 seconds time lapse. Planning has no limit of time but outcomes are 5 seconds long.

When I started playing FS I got addicted quickly and played full-time for 3 days against other players, then, as quickly as I got addicted, I got bored. For every new game I played I thought "okkkkk lets plan for this unit, then simulate, then plan for the enemy, then simulate, then change my plan accordingly, ok now lets watch the outcome, ok, I killed that one and lost this one, next turn...until last turn, oh well, I won, oh, here comes another challenge..." As you can guess, I was not having fun, I was not getting anything from playing. So much that I completely stopped playing after a few weeks, and it seems to me that many players did the same, but why is that ?

For players to be willing to continue playing a video game, they must be getting something from it. That something depends on the video game genre. Unlike FPS or even real time strategy video games, FS isn’t about agility at all. People play FS purely to measure their skills at strategy and tactics versus other players or the AI. Planning is the phase in which you play. Outcome is the phase in which you contemplate the superiority (or realise the inferiority) of the thinking you did in the planning phase and find out with anxiety what your opponent did, if everything went as planned or not.
The problem is that planning can take (depending on the number and type of units) between a couple of minutes and quarter an hour, while the outcome only lasts 5 little seconds. In other words, your work is never fully rewarded. How to rebalance this ?
If planning is the hard work part and outcome is the enjoyable part, then simply make planning easier and outcome more enjoyable.
Planning can be made easier and thus faster by providing more information (such as "real time" field of vision, weapon range, blast radius, timestamp on WPs) and making some actions simpler (such as hitting a wall with a rocket, aiming from the path or WP and not from the order).
Outcome can be made more enjoyable by slowing down 2 or 4 times the action (currently you have to replay several time or pause to see what happened), by dramatising the action (zoom on exchanges of fire and slow down more), by showing points earned or lost ("Kill +10pts !" see my request on scoring) as well as level ups and new medals (at the end of the game).     

Implementation

FS looks very much like Metal Gear Solid VR Training while it should look like MGS story mode. By that I don't mean that it should be an AAA game but it should be what MGS's story mode is to MSG, instead of being what MGS's VR Training is.
The look of FS and VR Training is the look of a non-game. In effect, VR Training started as... the tutorial for MGS.
Can you imagine what MGS would have been like if the whole game was based on VR missions ? Certainly it would have been a great little game, but so much more could have been done with its potential (and it has been done and we got a masterpiece). 

The issue with using a simulated kind of environment (uniform and monochrome) is that it’s basically abstract and thus prevents any attachment from the player to it. In FS not only every wall, every room and therefore every map (!) look the same, but they also look like nothing recognisable. You can’t tell if a room is an office, a lab command centre or whatever. Now imagine if you related one of your FS game to a friend who never saw it, you would be repeating wall and room many times because that’s the only terms you could use and your friend would make a dull or confused face because he couldn’t picture your story.
In brief, such design is not fun.
Can you imagine most games with randomly generated levels ? No. A good map must tell a story, this is why it needs to be handcrafted. The feature list mentioned handcrafted maps, but except a handful in the Campaign (and even those had huge blocks), I haven’t recognised any.
How come I haven’t seen any circular or diagonal wall ?! In the Campaign I saw 8bit kind of circular walls, why is that ? FS isn’t retro styled nor based on tiles. Does the engine or AI choke on non rectangular ? That would surprise me. (edit 2011-12: diagonals are converted to many tiny rectangles that make pathfinding bug)


The game Commandos 2: Men of Courage and FS are VERY similar except that Commandos is real time.
Both games are about hiding, seeing and eliminating threats with the control of several units with distinct abilities in top down view.
Both games mechanics are of the "if I can see you I can shoot you", yet one has very detailed, different and realistic environment, the other hasn’t.
Video games can be much more than board games, yet FS looks like a chess game with a boring deck.
There’s no need to go as far as adding more complex 3D element, just changing the textures of the simple walls can create a recognisable environment. But currently the cold dark blue (Tron) style that has been applied to everything is preventing this.

FS being a top down view type of game where no other view is necessary as it is the case with most strategy games, it could have been in 2D, yet it is in 3D. (edit 2011-12: it's Toque 2D that is used to generate 3D) The benefits of 3D are notably 3D views & movements, realistic animations & environment. But FS has none of those benefits, worst, it brings a serious issue because we are forced to move the camera to see behind walls and where order lines cross.
Commandos 3 added 3D elements but it didn’t enhance the experience, on the contrary.
Mode7 is a Torque Game Engine specialists (see site) but doesn’t show it. In effect, Torque Engines allows for beautiful games, yet FS seems deprived of most if not all possible special effects. Spectacular explosions, dynamic light reflections, realistic textures etc are missing.
FS has about the same graphic level as Determinance released over 4 years ago !
It’s true that graphics don’t make a good game, the concept does, but in video game you have the word video, which means that everything is about graphics and eye candy is always nice to have.


It seems that as soon as Mode 7 found the concept of FS, it jumped right into coding (which I agree is exciting) without much second thoughts or planning. No major feature has been added over a year since first release of FS and "suddenly few weeks before final release, half of the game (skirmish generator, campaign, music, new interface) is added ! Previous game Determinance has also suffered from this lake of organisation; it’s evident that its innovative concept of directing the sword was ill-adapted to the mouse and should have been developed for the Wiimote or at least a handheld touchscreen device, yet it was released on PC. This is surprising when we consider that "Mode 7 also enjoys consulting on early-stage software projects".


In my opinion Mode 7 is unconsciously making the video game that they would like to play and targeting it at people who resemble them: other independent developers, programmers of all kinds, hardcore gamers and not at the general public.
I get this impression from a few things Omroth/Ian said on the forum, on the blog and on IRC. But a concrete example is the option to use custom colors for units, frankly, who other than a programmer is going to be able to set the color of his choice with that RGB input form ?
I say "unconsciously" because FS is reviewed on many video game sites and is planned for release on Steam, those are signs of a large audience, not a niche.
So Mode 7 is going to release a hardcore gamers’ video game to the general public. The problem with that is, I believe, that the general public has higher expectations. (edit 2011-12: hence why so many  abandoned it)


One could regret the choice of the hi-tech/sci-fi theme because it’s the least original possible theme. It’s so not original that it was the one chosen for Determinance !!! (notice the orthogonal snakes in both interface) How could such different games have the same theme ? Where is the link while playing those games with a hi-tech/sci-fi theme ? There are evident links in the Campaign, but not outside of it. There would be if units were using plasma guns, teleporters and the likes.

Frozen Synapse is a great Name. It might be a bit too far fetched but people will remember it for this reason.
I say too far fetched because it’s difficult to guess what genre of video game it is. And unless it’s explained to you you can’t either guess why it’s named like this. At this point there’s another thing to regret, the fact that the name has been forgotten while developing the video game. Except the cold dark blue color scheme, I don’t see other references to Frozen and none to Synapse. The world described in the Campaign didn’t either recall me the name of the video game.
Looks at those pictures, don’t they inspire you ? FS could have had a radically different look.     

User Interface redesign

Unlike in FPS or race video games, in FS the design of the interface is primordial because the player uses it permanently.

I had so much to say about the UI that instead of describing it with words I decided in early March to redesign it with the vector drawing and organizing software Omnigraffle.
At first I wanted to only show a different organisation of the information in wireframe but I couldn’t resist choosing colors and fonts and icons. Half way done I decided to do it the professional way, I read a specialised book (Game Interface Design by Brent Fox) and basically restarted from scratch. After one month of work I got a little tired and got busy with other aspects of FS and other things which is why I don’t have a finished UI to show now. Nevertheless, I am sending Mode 7 a PDF to show that I have been doing something and what it was (actually the result of it).

My concern was not so much with the look itself, blue and square or not didn’t really matter, the old UI was acceptable and the last one is good.
My concern was for which information was presented and how.

What I did :
• I kept the cold dark blue color scheme dictated by the technological style and the Frozen Synapse name (but I picked it from the picture of an iceberg), I combined it with the innovative style also made of dark blues but with bright orange which was the missing complementary color (its absence is what burned your eyes so bad, at least mine, for the same reason I recommend adding orange in-game, for example in orders, shots and explosions)
• I used the golden ratio to give every element a harmonious look.
• I searched or created icons to replace as much labels as possible to make the UI more fun to use and easier on the brain.
• I "planned the menu flow" and reorganised just about everything to give the player a better grasp of the video game.

I didn’t use textures nor make ultra realistic 3D buttons nor try to bring the game inside the interface with for example sliders that look like guns because I’m not paid to do this and there’s no guaranty that it’s ever going to be included in FS.

Attached images are the menu flow and some pages of the interface to which I had time to apply the my second style (in time to publish this feedback). I provide it so that you can have an idea as to where I’m heading.

I’d like to offer my gratuitous collaboration to Mode 7 for implementing a new UI based on my redesign work.
If there’s an interest from Mode 7 I can speed up to complete the redesign of most of FS, if not I’ll just do it at my pace and for players to see the result. (edit 2011-12: having received zero comment from Mode 7 about it, I abandoned it)

Screenshots: my profile in-game menu flow

Campaign feedback and results

My first impression was to be very confused;

Where is this place on the map ? Earth, parallel world, cyberspace ?
Where are which cities on the map ??
When is it ? Distant future ? parallel time ?
What am I ? human, robot, program ? a shape ? what’s a shape ? a vat ? what’s a vat ?
Who am I ? I have no face, no voice, no history, not even a name !
Is such or such name a person or a place ?
*Why am I here and why should I bother to do what I’m told ?

A video introduction (with voice) presenting all these informations to the player (as has been done in MGS) would allow him to grasp the world of FS. (edit 2011-12:an intro has been added, without voice)

*As for theses 2 questions, after having almost finished the campaign (due to bugs) I can answer that I still don’t know what I was doing there and that I shouldn’t have done what I was told / play the campaign because (unless I’m unaware) it doesn’t unlock anything (while in most video games it does), it is little fun (≈6 missions are fun on 54 played, 55 total), it is too easy and I didn’t feel involved. (edit 2011-12: having recently replayed the campaign an completely ignored the story I found the missions a lot more fun)

I caught on so little that I only scanned the dialogues, therefore I won’t be commenting the scenario except to say that the many humorous dialogues didn’t help me feeling concerned by the fate of anybody.
I didn’t write down fun and difficulty when I played so I can only give an overall impression.
However, I collected various values that should give Mode 7 a fairly precise idea whether the missions were as difficult as they wanted.

The first tier of the missions didn’t represent a challenge, I mostly had to kill all enemies within 15 turns (which I can do in Skirmish, no need of a Campaign for that).
The second half is more original and fun mostly I guess because the maps start to look like something.

Overall, the missions could have been : avoid being seen, lose no men, infiltrate etc
They also could (should) have been based on the other game mission types: Charge, Disputed and Hostage.
I was quite shocked that at no time I was asked to save civilians (and they were many) ! At best I was asked to escort or rescue a VIP.
The difficulty was progressive but irregular. The difficulty was easy, I expected medium, or medium to be available; the current difficulty should be appropriate for new players.
The table I made gives plenty information on the difficulty of each missions, I can only add that except a handful of times, I never planned for the enemies (which indicates low difficulty) and most of the time I tried to kill all enemies before completing the objectives, which required more turns.

I loaded a couple of Hard missions and realised that they were made hard by adding enemies and sometimes removing units.
Since the AI has levels, why not base the difficulty on it ? Level 2 for Easy (I guess this was the Campaign’s level), Level 3 for Medium and Level 4 for Hard.
I found the AI strategy to be somewhat inconsistent, some enemies would come at me others would ignore me and their behaviour could change during the game. I expected the AI to defend a zone when I was attacking and attack when I was defending a zone.

I had no feeling of infiltrating/progressing in a mission. All enemies knew I was here and we were in situation. My units were already very close to objectives. Since enemies are never patrolling and always after me, I am never trying to infiltrate (without being seen) but always trying to eliminate.

The maps are so disconnected from the scenario that you could replace the briefings and dialogues with the one of a similar game and we wouldn’t notice. The scenario talks about things that aren’t concretised on screen !
      
Multiplayer

The critical issue with MP is that it is impossible to play the game that you want with the player that you want when you want.
It is badly implemented to the point that Mode 7 added a delete game feature (hence the fact that people didn't want to play some games they were asked to play), this was of course the wrong solution to a problem that shouldn't exist. Now the delete game feature has been replaced by a hide game feature because deleted games signalled to the other player that he had been playing for nothing and that made him angry.

Remember when you were a kid, you knew who you wanted to play with and you always asked those persons if they wanted to play with you and they would answer you Yes, No or Yes but only for 10 minutes (or other conditions). And remember again how pissed off you were when the other didn’t finish the game you started with him.
In FS there are 4 ways to play a new game.
• by setting your status to "actively searching for a game" : you can choose which mission type to play but not who will be your opponent (in fact it would make no sense, but you might still prefer to play against certain players)
• by setting your status to "available for a game" : you still choose which mission type but not when anymore
• by challenging a specific player (from the online list or his profile): you do choose your opponent and the mission type but you do not know if he wants to play now, against you and that mission type
• by being challenged the same way : in this case you choose neither the opponent, nor the mission type nor when but you can decline
• by setting your status to "I am not available for a game": this is the 5th way that shouldn’t exist but you still receive challenges with this status. The 2 previous ways should also not occur when your status is not available.

It is important to notice that the game is created (it exist on the server) as soon as the challenge is made and is not deleted when the challenge is refused. I even doubt that the challenger is notified of the refusal since I personally see players challenging me over and over even if I decline, as a result many never-to-be-played games are listed in our active games list.
Another important point to notice is that it is never guaranteed that your opponent is going to stay for the next 30 minutes to finish the game you just started, worse, that he will ever finish it. So you are left alone with the game, perhaps you wasted 15 minutes planning your best strategy.
Last important note; at no time before accepting the challenge it is possible to see which units are involved (you might not want to play against explosive ones) and how is the map (you might prefer big symmetrical).


To summarise and to be clear, it is crucial that :
1) you can only challenge and be challenged when the availability, the accepted mission types (and game modes and game type) and units and map and opponents are known
2) you never play for nothing and are able to finish every games even if your opponent isn’t playing anymore.

Over a 1 year period more than 4000 multiplayers have registered an account of which I estimate that around 3000 bought the game, yet, after that one year, the number of most players connected at the same time is only of between 0 and 6-12 ! And among those, many are new players.
This means to me that the community is not growing, and I’m convinced that it is mostly due to the planning & outcome issue described before, to this issue and to the next one.


The second major issue is that it is not possible to communicate permanently with another player.
The in game IRC chat having never worked for me and registered players not necessarily being there and under the same name, the only moment when it’s possible to chat with your opponent is when he has the game loaded. But as soon as he does something else like simply playing another game, or going to the MP window, your messages don’t reach him anymore. Same for him, he can’t message you when he’s elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, there’s no way to chat to several players at the same time nor to all connected players. It’s also not possible to send a message to an offline player, as it would be pleasant to do when resuming playing after several days.

It was hard to believe that the server was already slow with as few as a dozen players (since I believe, very little information is exchanged, less than for a webpage)! Needless to say that such limitation will prevent the growth of the MP community (if it didn’t already).
The server was said to be faster with MP 2011-03-11 and it was for some aspect but was slower for others.
Perhaps it is the same server that is hosting frozensynpase.com or Mode 7games.com (which is slow, 200KB/s to download the game). (edit 2011-12: servers are different, game servers have been sped up but still can't host so many players and the account server is still very very slow)
MP of course needs a fast dedicated server.


There are basically 2 kind of multiplayers:
- those who connect from time to time, stay online for the time of a few turns, want to play a video game to kill time, are not interested in exchanging with other players (no chat) and consider them like AI but smarter (a bit exaggerated here)
- those who connect regularly, stay online for several games, want to "invest" in FS (level up etc), like to discuss the game while being played.
These 2 kind do not want to have the same experience but are put there to play together. The solution to make both happy is to provide a game type for each: "immediate" and "postpone" (better terms yet to be found) - see my essential feature requests for detail. (edit 2011-12: better terms: synchronous and asynchronous)

Music

The songs do match the game (as it is at time of writing) so in this aspect it is a success.
The tactical espionage theme (whose keywords are among others: uncertainty, courage, death, treason, danger, dilemma) seems to have been respected although it could be diversified for example to match specific missions/briefings of the campaign or to match planning as opposed to outcome or to match the MP mission types or to differentiate Light games from Dark ones.

I’ve listened separately to all the songs and found that some songs are too dynamic. I feel the need to bring to back to mind that FS is a pure reflection game with zero action and no time pressure. You’re hidden behind a wall watching your enemies and thinking a strategy to take them out. And of course it’s not played in real time.
So the 'boom boom chick" that can be heard in some of the songs (for example after 0:40 in A Functionning God) is disruptive of the ambiance, also is the piano melody - I think both are too "clear" and perhaps piano is the wrong instrument here (if it is piano indeed).
Most songs start really great and are right onto the theme, but they turn out into something too dynamic and too clear (sorry for lake of jargon) and sometime too burdened and sound like cheap techno. I also find that they are also a little bit too jovial, which doesn’t fit the sad emotions required by the theme.

In my mind I picture a swamp, a castle or darkness, where weird distant deaf noises makes me very uncertain of what is going on.

• A Functioning God: boom boom chick is disruptive, melody is too clear
• Concentrate: boom boom chick is disruptive here and out of place
• Deeper: not sure where this one belongs - turns into audio soup after 1:20
• Focus: too dynamic - the "tana na na na nananana" trumpet does match the theme and could be given more importance - too burdened after 0:32 - seems like a different song after 0:50
• Menu : does match
• Nightpath : does match - boom boom chick is acceptable here
• Schism: does match - boom boom chick is acceptable here - perhaps the voices could be less "enlightened"
• Switch: boom boom chick is disruptive, tiring like a hammer or hard rock
• The Plan: does match
• Triumph V2: melody perhaps too enlightened - turns into audio soup after 1:00 and worse after 1:40
• Welcome to Markov Geist: no comments

If FS’s soundtracks had to ripped off from another work it should safely be from MGS.

CODEC used is lossless is Ogg Vorbis which makes the game file size much bigger. It might seem ridiculous to quibble over a few tens of MB when nowadays games are several GB but a small file size still has advantages such as upload/download speed and bandwidth cost. Plus I believe it is safe to downgrade to lossy AAC since it is the quality used by the public (iTMS/iPod).
Of course if the album is sold separately it should be lossless. (For some reason Mode 7 prefers the other way around.)
(edit 2011-12: the game's music files are not lossless in fact (but still big) and there are lossless versions of the soundtrack)

Sound effects

SP 2011-4-3 brought new weapons sounds that I think are more realistic. However the impact sounds have a metallic rendering that doesn’t match the environment because I don’t consider the walls being in metal.
The SG reload sound is as loud as the shot itself. I don’t remember hearing the Sniper reload but it’s expected.
Sounds were added to WPs, they are too aggressive, I would prefer a soft click kind of sound.

Voices

Voices have not been given enough importance, yet the voice is a very powerful tool for a video game as it ads many things to the characters, the ambiance and the action. Hiring an actor is expensive, perhaps a good synthesised voice could be used somehow in the campaign.
Units don’t talk either. They could speak during planing for each order you give them. During the outcome they could shout when being shot at and when dying, also when spotting an enemy (check) or encountering one.
I would prefer this to the cold system voice that says "please login" and "tank you".
(edit 2011-12: in MGS VR Training for example, even if it's supposed to be a virtual environment, it would feel weird if the voices and all characters sounds were removed - sounds which are absent in FS)

Development
 

• MP 2010-4-19
Having bought the game on the 2011-2-23 I was particularly disappointed to find that it was in such early stage (by early I mean tardiness) and that no more recent version had been released (not counting the patch, said not to be stable).
Even knowing the list of future features, I didn’t feel the game was worth 19€ especially when compared to the level of cheaper or even free games. It’s true that I got 2 copies for the price of one, but I can’t say that I got something more.

• MP 2011-3-11
Considering what was added in this version (better AI, Skirmish, UI enhancements) and that the previous version came out 11 months before one could wonder with reason if FS is a game being developed full-time. And it could be full time if the following estimation is correct:
4000 multiplayers less 25% free keys multiplied by $25.99 less 2.5% of fees divided by 12 months divided by 2 game designers equals $3167.90 (2189,42€) per month which is very comfortable. (edit 2011-12: one programmer one tester and one audio/marketing, said to have raised 100000€)

While the UI answered various requests, it also became more visually burdened, the profile page and game page look like puzzles. It also didn’t improve on information organisation.

The encounter details ("I have superior cover" etc) has disappeared ! It is vital for progressing and for this reason it must absolutely be brought back !

I don’t see the use of the "Show…" options, everything there is required to play, why would I hide them ?
The Plan Layers feature is quite obscure and I think that to solve the problem the size of the path and WPs could simply be reduced.

I Don’t know what slightly favoured could possibly mean especially on a symmetric map.
What does Very Dark and other Skirmish features mean ?

Surprised not to find a changelog anywhere and that the version in the readme was not up to date.

I think it was in this version that pathfinding was ameliorated, it’s smarter around corners but when you manually put a WP as close as possible to a cover, pathfinding will place the next WP very far from the cover because the unit would be blocked (edit 2011-12: still the case). Being blocked is the other issue; I shouldn’t be able to place any WP that is going to block the unit.

• MP 2011-4-14
The new look of the UI (translucent with only borders) as well as the new FS background and various logos give it a more finished touch.
On a sidenote:
- The transparency is too high for when 2 of those windows are superimposed as text becomes unreadable.
- The background’s integrated circuits drawings fade in and out way too quickly which brings the attention to them (while a background must be forgotten).
- The Unit & Planning window was given an awkward inverted colors look instead of taking the same direction as the rest of the UI.
- There is inconsistency in the Modes window where buttons seem to be all already selected but the selection is a stronger white gradient, different from the one used in the Main Menu.
- The path and aiming of enemies have become red while mine (green) have stayed white.

• MP 2011-4-20
In the Result screen, the Rating is not clear what it is. I just see integrated circuits.
AI Level 4 has (regrettably) disappeared.
Order of Chat messages is reversed. I don’t know of any chat software that does this, few will find it more intuitive.

• SP 2011-4-1 (spoiler free)
A skip dialogue button is missing, it’s useful when I’m restarting a mission which has prior communications (every 3 levels).
The mission’s name is only known after it is won, not even after it’s lost. It should be displayed while playing.
The menus (help, quit, main, option etc) don’t appear on the Campaign screen.
In the Communications window it’s not made clear who is talking to who.
The mission briefing doesn’t appear once I regenerate the map. A player might not want to read it until he’s happy with the map.
Scoring is very odd. I expect it to be based on kills, losses, saves and objectives (pick up objects).
I find it absurd that Campaign maps can be regenerated. It causes me not to be able to relate to another player because we didn’t have the same experience. I also cannot compare my score to his for that same reason. It would be very exciting to compete against other players for the best scores (see my table) just like it was done for MGS VR Training.
I noticed that the MG had the advantage versus SG if it was aiming and had first visual. I’m not sure that this is the best way to rebalance both units because now I’m going to aim with the SG all the time and the MG will lose every time it will try to make use of that advantage (making it useless). In addition it slows down the SG which is supposed to be a fast close range unit.

Essential Features
 

• Show units visibility (cone of sight) and weapon range (circle around unit and/or target) AT ALL TIME {greatly eases planning}
• Allow creation of multiple plans for each unit so that it’s easier and faster to compare which is best for other units’ plans.
• Snap rocket target to grid so that it’s easier to hit the wall without zooming etc.
• Show rocket’s path (and not rocket aiming direction) when aiming from a WP.
• Shortcut to create the WPs and orders to take a corner.
• Display unit on selected WP
• Display estimated timestamp on WPs.
• [new control] Cycle through WPs.
• [new control] Go back to 0 on the timeline.
• [new control] Rock map (North, South, East & West) - replaces scroll & zoom to see behind walls {in the manner of a balance board game}
• Keep orders at the same "time" when stretching or shrinking path (moving WP)

• Scoring: killing enemy 10points (reference), killing enemy while unseen by him 15, taking hostage 20, killing taken hostage 5, killing friendly -15, killing self -20
• Dramatization of outcome - use unfreeze/faster motion sound and animation, zoom on gunfights and slow down action
• Varied environments - could be snow and ice, sand desert, forest, jungle (ideally for Camouflage mode) or office, laboratory, street, airport, factory, hotel...
• Less explosive units by default, 1 for 5 seems a good maximum {they make planning a lot more complicated and change the goal from killing to surviving}
• [new game type] Postponed game - replaces the current MP game type, now the player has one week to submit his turn, if he doesn’t it is submitted for him without any units doing anything so that the other player who wants to finish the game can. (*1)The auto submitting should only kick in in the second turn because FS currently doesn't guaranty that players play the games they want, so a player can legitimately not play the first turn (same for Immediate type) {ideal for players with little time}
• [new game type] Immediate - 30 minutes per turn, maximum of 1 other immediate game can be created or played, no other postponed game can be created or played until all immediate games are finished. {ideal for players who want to have another player in front of them to chat with}
• Smaller path and WPs for an easier planning of dense WPs.
• Handcrafted maps, they were listed in the features but there aren’t any since they are all partially or totally generated.
• More varied death and corpse animations.
• Units voices
• Customizable controls
• No notification displayed while playing a game.
• Access main menu without having to quit a game and then reload it.
• Remove transparency of the map that shows background cubes that are confused with walls.
• Show in detail which game you are challenged to (type, mode, mission, map, units) and by who (stats)
• True MP chat system
• In-game manual with full details on maps, game types, game modes, mission types, units (range speed etc), orders etc
• Redesign UI from scratch.
• Base Campaign scoring on kills, losses, saves, objectives and turns.
• Submit Campaign missions’ scores online.
• Better OS integration for saving options, username, campaign etc
• Encounter details {bring the feature back}
• Complete tutorial {after having followed it I still didn't know how to move or delete orders}

Wishlist
 

- Planning:
• [new order] Take hostage if not seen by target (thus by behind), hostage can’t do anything anymore, both can be only killed by explosions, hostages can then be moved with unit or knocked out for a turn (5sec) or killed (unrelated with Hostage camp)
• Programmable orders (if/then)
• Switch weapon from hand {can make an advantage when to the right side of a window}

- Gameplay:
• Wounded unit (loses blood tracks and is 50% slower) when grazed by death (explosion or losing gunfight, at beginning of turn) - {Death is a mistake of the strategy so changing destiny (plan) seems like cheating, this makes things more fair.}
• Default of 6 turns in Extermination to kill all enemy units.
• [new unit] Dual submachinegun (uzzi), can AIM and fire at 2 enemies at the same time {shotgun countermeasure, gameplay diversification}
• [new unit] Sapper, can place C4 on walls if near enough and detonate them with another order, can booby trap doorways. Explosives are invisible, only a planting sound is heard.
• [new unit] Shield, slow moving unit carrying a bullet proof shield in front of him, cannot fire, other units can take cover behind him.
• [new order] Climb windows (windows only not other covers) - strategic action to move faster (than if going around the wall) but at higher risk (defenseless)
• 2, 3 or 4 players mode with any of them being ally or enemy and any of them being human or AI
• [new game mode] Camouflage - units and maps are textured the same making them very difficult to spot, this is a mode between light and dark - the talent of the game designer will be to avoid possible cheating.
• [new mission type] Race - 2 players in 2 tracks whose goal is to have as many units reach the finish zone, walls prevent killing in the start zone, kills and losses are not counted in the score
• [new mission type] Capture the flag - as the name says, capture the enemy’s flag in his zone and bring it back to yours to score.
• [new mission type] Find and rescue hostage - Preferably in Dark mode, the hostage is in one of several guarded rooms and must be taken back to an exit zone
• [new mission type] Escort/Eliminate VIP - player escorts VIP from zone A to zone B within N turns while opponent tries to eliminate VIP
• [new mission type] Destroy - Mission for Sapper unit backed up by other units. Must destroy a block within N turns.
• Campaign difficulty levels
• MP mission types for SP
• Doors and orders to open, close, break open them. {gameplay enrichment, the door is a very ancient human concept, most if not all tactic games use them, FS doesn’t}
• Different blood - less bright (same brightness as corpse) and color of the unit (green for my blood) {should make game less gore and less confusing since here colors have strong meanings (green me, red enemy, blue everything else)}
• Superiority for MG and Snipers when crouching (ducking) VS same unit type not crouching {it’s a fact that it makes aiming more precise, here it should make firing faster for Sniper and/or require less bullets to kill for MG}

- Interface
• In game notification (the only one) when other player has submitted his turn.

- Miscanelous
• frozensynapse protocol - example: frozensynapse:loadgameid=39842 {useful to view games "from" the forum}
• Stereo sound for units on the left and on the right.
• MP medals
• Change SFX volume with camera distance

Conclusion

I see 3 possible direction FS can take toward final release:

1) (edit 2011-12: this is precisely what happened) Do as initially planned: don’t add new feature, don’t change anything and release final version in late May.
I see 3 inconvenient in this case;
- it’s my opinion that while FS is likely to be a commercial success (many sales) it will in the long run appear disappointing to players, they will stop playing it (rather quickly) and the online community’s presence will not follow the sales’s growth.
- later changes will be unwelcome by a part of the then larger userbase
- later new essential features will come too late to make up for the disappointment.
2) Take the time to add the features and changes I listed as essentials.
FS will then reach a satisfying base of features for a "solid video game". There won’t be any major lacuna and later features will only be extras. The online community’s presence will match the sales and even stay high after the sales drops.
3) Take all necessary time to release a perfect video game.
FS will blow people’s mind, be remembered in history of video games and will still be played after 10 years.

Mode 7's Answer

18:38icebrainhere's my feedback http://forums.Mode 7games.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2529
18:39 Omroth thanks icebrain
18:39 Omroth I will read it on several different levels at several different times
18:41 Omroth yeah, this seems at least reasonable
18:41 Omroth I'm going to react to this very quickly
18:41 Omroth and, to be clear, I don't care about your reactions to my reactions
18:41 *** Goateh joined #Mode 7games
18:41 Omroth first - you don't like the theme, that's completely subjective and doesn't belong with such an otherwise well reasoned document
18:41 Omroth I reject that outright
18:42 Omroth second - not being able to play with who you want, when you want, at what you want
18:42 Omroth FS does this better than any other turn based game I know
18:42 Omroth it's not ideal if you use treaffic lights and you have strong felings about what you want to play
18:42 Omroth if you do, just organise with someone via email
18:43icebrainI would prefer you to reply on the forum coz I said a lot of things
18:43 Omroth there's a lot of assumptions in what you write which are wrong, which unfortunately makes it quite upsetting to read at times
18:43 Omroth no, I'm not making a considered response
18:43 Omroth I'll let others do that
18:43 Omroth in terms of the visual aspect
18:44 Omroth I understand the critism, and we'll leave it at that
18:44 Omroth saying things like "it was hard to believe this was developed full time"
18:44 Omroth is never going to get you anywhere
18:44 Omroth and you have some insightful comments
18:44 Omroth which I appreciate
18:45 Omroth most of which I generally agree with you on
18:45 Omroth I'll say the same thing to you which I said to lyx
18:45 Omroth if you come into a game which is 75% complete
18:45 Omroth you will not think it is 75% complete
18:45 Omroth it's about as simple as that
18:46 Omroth perfection is an enemy at times
18:46 Omroth if you'd come into the development of, say, half life
18:46 Omroth at this stage
18:46 Omroth you would have felt the same
18:47 Omroth in terms of "this is good, but it could be so much better!"
18:47 Omroth everything could always be better
18:47icebrainbut are we at 75% ?
18:47 Omroth no, we're at 98%
18:47 Omroth you came in at 75%
18:48 Omroth anyway
18:48 Omroth honestly, I appreciate the feedback
18:48 Omroth and I hope you can appreciate my response
18:48 Chemeleon my first question, after reading just one line: do ya'll actually eat frogs, or is that just a stereotype? 
18:48 Omroth we don't agree on a lot of things... something I find difficult
18:49icebrain Chemeleon  you can find snails and frog legs in most of our supermarkets, I never tried them 
18:49 Chemeleon the terms list is impossibly small font for some reason, had to zoom in to read that
18:52 Chemeleon (note, anything I say is just my opinion, not reflective of Mode 7,  Omroth , etc)
18:52 Chemeleon and I'm just commenting as I read through it 
18:52 Chemeleon I like the outcome ideas at the end of the first part
18:52 *** wonderhero joined #Mode 7games
18:52 Chemeleon feedback on score as the game goes, rather than just at the end could be a nice touch
18:53icebrainyou mean points on kills ?
18:53 Chemeleon kills, deaths etc
18:53 Chemeleon the little flyaway numbers that are popular in rpgs could fit there like you say
18:53icebrainyes
18:54 Chemeleon style is all opinion, most people seem to like it
18:54 Chemeleon and it has the benefit of being relatively inexpensive to render
18:54 Chemeleon we've got people playing the game on netbooks
18:55 Chemeleon the custom color ability, iirc, came about because some people are color blind
18:55 Chemeleon lets them tailor things to colors they can easily see
18:55 Omroth did icebrain complain about that??
18:55 Chemeleon didnt complain
18:56 Chemeleon just used it as support for an argument
18:56 Chemeleon "In my opinion Mode 7 is unconsciously making the video game that they would like to play and targeting FS at people who resemble them: other independent developers, programmers of all kinds, hardcore gamers and not at the general public"
18:56 Omroth blimey
18:56 Chemeleon I would say making the game you want to play is a standard hallmark of the most popular indie games
18:56 Omroth I don't think targetting hardcore gamers is a sin
18:56 Omroth I shouldn't get involved in this anyway
18:57 Chemeleon steam doesnt necessarily mean it has to be a mainstream game, plenty of niche stuff on it
18:57 Chemeleon look at the train simulator thing
18:58 Chemeleon has something like $1000 worth of dlc available
18:58icebrainwell why do developers use Steam ? it's because it reaches many people
18:58malakiani think you're wrong about that, icebrain...i mean, yes it might be a surprise if an entire major studio had worked on it full time, but consider the size of the team...the focus has got to be on the core mechanic, which has shaped up very solidly. 
18:59malakianand hardcore gamers/tactical gamers will appreciate that 
18:59 Chemeleon icebrain, theres actually a lot of pc gamers these days who refuse to buy a game if its not on steam
18:59 Omroth icebrain, honestly I respect a lot of your gameplay feedback
18:59wonderheroSorry  Omroth  this time I submitted. 
18:59 Omroth wonderhero...?
18:59 Omroth oh that wasn't a bug?
18:59 Chemeleon imo, steam is essentially a requirement for any game you want to succeed, niche or not
18:59wonderherono is not. sorry
19:00Goatehi'd agree that the lack of a full chat system does make it a little impersonal
19:00wonderheroonly the first game
19:00Goatehi've played some people quite a lot and yet i don't know them at all, i only recognise a name
19:00wonderherovs limavictor
19:00Goatehsimply because i don't sit and play for a long period at a time
19:00 Omroth thanks wonderhero
19:00 Omroth our chat system is a complete mess
19:00 Omroth completely agree
19:00wonderheroit's ok
19:01AgentIcarusit's okay as a general chat lobby, I don't think it scales though
19:02AgentIcarus(sorry to weigh in on-channel too)
19:02wonderheroI thought the bug repeated but I'm wrong. It's happened only once. I wrote about it on forum you know
19:02 Omroth thanks wonderhero, appreciate the follow up
19:03 Chemeleon om admitted chat is bad already, but I'll just add, seems to me most games have lost that sense of community these days
19:03 Chemeleon especially in fps, I blame consoles starting the trend of putting you with whatever server it deems best
19:03 Chemeleon so you arnt playing with the same groups of people regularly
19:05AgentIcarusyes, the demise of the dedicated server is a sad trend
19:06 Chemeleon as far as your salary estimates, theres 3 full time devs, plus a few part time contractor types
19:06 Chemeleon and its been over a much longer period than 12 months
19:07 Chemeleon I've been woring on it part time for about 2 years now, and thered been some work done previously to that
19:07icebrainyes but it started selling a year ago, before that Derterminance and other services should have earned the money
19:08 Chemeleon so in short, so far its not paid for the time spent on it, thats expected to occur after the main release
19:08 Omroth Determinance earn money
19:08 Omroth lol
19:08malakianlol
19:08nervous_testpilotlol
19:09 Chemeleon heh 
19:09nervous_testpilotactually, Determinance earned way more than the majority of indie games, but not in direct revenue AND THAT MARKS THE END OF THE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF DETERMINANCE
19:09 Chemeleon I know they've done contract work, not sure what % of time was on that vs fs over its lifespan though
19:10 Omroth and it's not public business certainly
19:10 Omroth but I can assure you that we work full time on this ridiculous game
19:10malakiani think the root of the problem from this forum post seems to be that you're considering the game as if it was developed by a major studio...you mention MGS, but mgs was a triple-A made by konami...
19:10 Chemeleon even weekends a lot of the time
19:10 Chemeleon mgs was what, 100-200 guys, and 10s of gigabytes of final data?
19:11malakianexactly
19:11malakianscale the effort put into this up by 40 to reflect that team
19:11malakianand you certainly would have all your suggestions with bells on
19:11 Chemeleon on the conclusions, 3 is impractical, if you go that route, a game never gets finished, at best, you continue to release beta versions, but even so, eventually you just get sick of it and release it as is at that point
19:11malakianbut i think when the studio is this size the focus has got to be on quality of what is there
19:12Jimmeh-Macnearly 50GB for MGS4 on the disc, but most of that was uncompressed audio for some utterly bizarre reason
19:12 Chemeleon 2) could be doable but is a very slippery slope, at some point you just have to say "this is 1.0, anything else is an addition later"
19:12 Chemeleon leaves 1, which is the most practical at this point
19:12 Chemeleon as long as its a commercial success like you say you expect, that will allow plenty of effort on future additions
19:13 Chemeleon and I would argue that the game is polished enough at this point, if its not successfull, more polish isnt likely to make a huge difference in that

Update: December 2011
As Mode 7 said in its answer, it's direction 1) that was chosen and the game was release as planned with none of the modification I recommended.
At the same time I started to make daily statistics of the game's usage and they have confirmed, along with players feedback (in the forums, chat, and private) my prediction that while it would be a commercial success, players would be unsatisfied and leave quickly. 
After release Mode 7 did very little to fix the many old and new problems and also very little to add the desperately needed enhancements. It's only the numerous sales that prevented most indicators from reaching pre-release values too fast. 
Mode 7 has promised many things but months after months we have seen very little progress. The community has become so small that most projects (fan sites, collaborations etc) have been abandoned or not taken further. Two threads explain this.
My guess is that the newly hired programmer will fix bugs and add little server related features while the rest of Mode 7 finishes the DLC and works on the next game (for which there's already a new contractor).