Beta Feedback Roundup

[LadyD]

OMG its baconziller!

[burfl]

Hey devs. I just discovered from another thread that there's a thing around here with titles.

Unless somebody claims they discovered it first, I think I deserve "The Pine Piper"

[Toaster Fu]

Maybe you should find the cheaper way to fight Optimus pine first.

[burfl]

But then it would be "The Pine <other thing that has nothing to do with my discovery>", haha

[Toaster Fu]

If, and that's a big IF, you get a title it will most likely be something you never thought of. You don't pick a title, a title picks you. *kung fu master voice*

[burfl]

Yea, I honestly didn't expect to get one. The joke was just too good not to share and that was the best means of delivery. C'mon, you can't tell me you think "Optimus Pine" is funny, but not that title.

[Toaster Fu]

I don't like to talk about titles, let's just say there was a incident involving some ego and a temporary loss of title…And look, now your a full member. And yes pine piper is funny, but Optimus pine is funnier.

[burfl]

Dwight knows the score.

[LadyD]

yes beware talking about them....And once you find the cheaper way let me know. I have been throwing all kinds things at these trees.

[baconcow]

My first plays on Chrome browser demo, I got to day 2 and 3. Then I played on Steam and got to 5 then 18. The hunger and health aspect of the game is done well, until you farm around a base. The tree creature is difficult and causes survival issues, but I wasn't found by it until around day 15 or so. I think the game needs more than one difficulty setting. This game is a survival simulation, but I didn't feel like I would die when staying on the main island. When I moved to the other islands, I felt urgency of survival more because there was less food and more enemies.

Before I mention my suggestions, I want to mention that I am loving this game and see the amazing potential it has.

(1) Circular Islands, Bridges, and Random Generation

My suggestions are to get rid of the bridges. They create an unnecessary safe-feeling area between the islands. Not only this, but they can take forever to transverse and makes that part of the game boring. I would suggest making the world a randomly generated land mass with lakes, rivers, and such... not much different than the areas that were generated in Diablo II (while not really random, as they were seeded from a smaller amount of generated areas, their design felt ok). In creating a more fluid area, people will easily wander from one "zone" (possible more inhabited and safe) to another much more commonly. The circles islands also let the players immediately know how big the landmass they are on is and also how far they need to travel. Having one side against the water, there is also a blade feel when traveling around the circumference. In conclusion, I suggest doing away with circular islands, removing land bridges, and making the area a more fluid and diverse randomly generated world. The idea would be to make this a large unknown where the player must explore and adventure into the unknown, dangerous, world to progress.

Will upload a rough sketch, shortly.

[2] Camps and Farming

From my limited experience, and from what I have read on these forums, the campsite is not dangerous enough. Sure spiders, tree enemies, and other enemies can wander by and into it. However, they rarely cause any issue. Having a handful of traps, spiders are easily contained (at least, early on). The tree enemy that I encountered is too slow to catch up or kill me, and running in circles was enough to fool his tree-person AI. Same deal with spiders. Their AI is not threatening enough in the campsite. I suggest making AI for the creatures far more aggressive, at night, actively searching for the fire. If you are an enemy in the world, you will see a large burning fire and be immediately attracted (or scared away) from it and those around it. Spiders turn away and ignore you far too easily. There needs to be a much larger sense of urgency in a survival game. The lit campsite should not be an easy place to survive. However, by bringing more conflict into the campsite, I also suggest increasing the amount of healing that flowers to, to partially balance the fact that you are likely to take more damage. As it is, flowers take 30+ to do a significant amount of healing, yet are the most abundant resource for healing at low levels. Next, once you have a self-sustained farm of trees, twigs, grass, and berry plants, you can essentially survive there without needing to leave. Where are the enemies with fire breathing capabilities (i.e. fire breathing lizards in Ocarina of Time or enemies with other fire properties)? Put the players crops at risk: rabbits eat crops, or should. Make it essential to protect your campsite with traps. Give players a bow (unless there is already one) so they can attack rabbits that are feeding on berry plants. Add beavers that will decimate tree and twig plants, if unchecked, not allowing them to grow into larger trees (potentially making them remain in a small tree or cut down state). Make enemies attack crops and such. The idea here is to give the player more risk in this survival simulation. Make it so that, once they are self-sustaining, the game isn't on-rails and limited to dangerous exploration.

[3] Research Points

Having the research points carry over from game-to-game makes them, in the end, unnecessary. Finding the necessary items to craft the item/tool/etc. should be enough along with a proper set of prerequisites to do so. This removes the grinding aspect of the game in an early stage. Players will just play to unlock everything, then be able to full enjoy the survival aspects of the game which are much better. Removing research points will not make Wilson any less of a Scientist, as he still will have all of the same science-based capabilities. The research points, to me, just come off as fluff to add length and grind to the game. Having played for several hours, already, I don't think there should be any worry for game length. It just makes your first plays more restrictive, and unfortunately, more boring. My subsequent plays, with items unlocked, were far more enjoyable. An indie game such as this will thrive on initial impressions. Boring players with unnecessary grinding is, in my opinion, not the best way to start the players out in a players survival simulation.

[4]Difficulty

One of the reasons games like Minecraft are popular is that they have several ways to enjoy the game: creative mode, survival mode (with differing difficulties, including hardcore). Being that this game is a die (without effigy resurrection) once and it's over, the game should provide a challenge from the get go and throughout so that players will want to have another go. If I played today for 200 days, and then just stopped playing because the game was too easy, that would be the last time I played and I would end up liking the game a lot less than if I was challenged. Games such as Binding of Isaac challenge players with fairly high difficulty. The game takes memorization and skill to succeed and not just farming. While these two games are not very similar, they both have aspects of a roguelike nature. I believe the players should be given difficulty settings so that the game will play to their enjoyment: in words, an easy, medium, and hard. Where easy would be much as the game is now. Starts out more difficult but can be easy to sustain later on. Medium would add elements as suggested above, or other. Hard would add all sorts of elements of difficulty: increased enemies, more aggressive behaviour, etc. People will talk about "how far did you get on hard"... and be impressed with people who made it 30 or 40 days.

Once again, these are just my feedback from the Steam Alpha (Beta aspect of the game). I know people may not all agree with everything mentioned here, but these are the aspects of the game I would modify and work on in order to improve an already incredible concept. I wouldn't bother posting this if I didn't think the game had nearly unlimited potential. As far as graphics, music, and effects, these are excellent.