Comprehensive writeup w suggestions
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 2:16 pmSo in the grand tradition of opening too many threads and wasting everybody's time, here's a nice list of my findings about the early game, some old kinks and all the new stuff that was added since the last time I did this. I had time to think on stuff, reflect on my notes and all that. Most of the stuff here is ultimately fixable and it would be beneficial for it to be adressed. If anything needs further explaining I'm perfectly willing and I don't want any trouble - all this is done out of earnest love for this game. I feel like most of this stuff is legit future changelog material.
Stuff that probably needs no discussion (and I'm guessing a comparatively small ammount of work):
1) Having an indicator simmillar to the star in the shape of a small puzzle token for undone puzzles at the guild of exploration would also be much appreciated by players, I'm sure. It would certanly steer them towards the educative tutorial, glyph and god puzzles.
2) The little arrows that indicate that you can upgrade something only become visible after you acquire the needed ammount of gold. This has led me to spend stuff on blacksmith and alchemist upgrades on instinct while saving up for guild upgrades might've been something I'd much rather do (and which I assume is what is the intended way of developing the kingdom). Having the grayed out arrows visible would let people plan and ease the sense of being at a loos about objectives which can appear and has for me.
3) The puzzle selection scroll needs a button that would let players contract it back. The way it is now it obscures the screen and there is no obvious way of getting rid of it. I'm reffering to the pop up that contains puzzles within a pack.
3b) Puzzle packs could really use a small icon to the left of the name indicating what they are related to (gods, trolls, glyphs, whatever) so that they can be identified at a glance. They are a bit jumbled as is.
4) There isn't a proper advisor introduction to god puzzles. This looks like something that is probably on the way, but I'm noting it anyway.
4) The red flash indicating danger when mousing over a monster is quite a bit too agressive. This is especailly dettering thinking through puzzles for me and I can immagine other people having the same experience. I would do away with it, but simply toning down the inital flash might do the trick. Other missclick failsafes are working wonderfully.
5) The small graphic that indicates a monster is slowed can be almost unnoticable on snow backgrounds.
6) The puzzle token as a part of the inventory can cause people to involuntary restart puzzles by missclicking. If possible it would be really helpful if it were a part of the interface rather than an inventory item, or adding a confirmation checkbox. This has happened to me an many occasions, especially ones where there is need to repeatedly click on something in the inventory (Binlor 3), and the player is pretty much unaware of such a hazard as it's otherwise not present elsewhere in the game.
7) The warlord's "Below half heath buff" doesn't have a status effect icon. Knowing when this is active is important in many scenarios, and every other temporery bit of nonsense has such an indicator and this doesn't. A simple one with the exact same icon as the ability would do.
Ok, so those are the things that probably need to be done, and can be done. I'm sure there's priorities, and lack of time and money and stuff, but I'd hate to compromise those getting done by flooding you with other stuff. And i feel like other stuff should also be done but I'd hate it getting lost in the shuffle again. I don't think there's anything too controversial here or anything thats just my opinion. It's a long read that you migt've allready done in the notes thread, and I'm sorry if it's irritating, but I'd a appriciate a small comment ammounting to "got it on a list somewhere", so I can wait a changelog or two and then post the next batch. Or any arrangement you might prefer. Please understand that I don't feel like you ought to make anything a priority because I said something, or that there aren't more ellegant solutions, etc. etc.
Stuff that probably needs no discussion (and I'm guessing a comparatively small ammount of work):
1) Having an indicator simmillar to the star in the shape of a small puzzle token for undone puzzles at the guild of exploration would also be much appreciated by players, I'm sure. It would certanly steer them towards the educative tutorial, glyph and god puzzles.
2) The little arrows that indicate that you can upgrade something only become visible after you acquire the needed ammount of gold. This has led me to spend stuff on blacksmith and alchemist upgrades on instinct while saving up for guild upgrades might've been something I'd much rather do (and which I assume is what is the intended way of developing the kingdom). Having the grayed out arrows visible would let people plan and ease the sense of being at a loos about objectives which can appear and has for me.
3) The puzzle selection scroll needs a button that would let players contract it back. The way it is now it obscures the screen and there is no obvious way of getting rid of it. I'm reffering to the pop up that contains puzzles within a pack.
3b) Puzzle packs could really use a small icon to the left of the name indicating what they are related to (gods, trolls, glyphs, whatever) so that they can be identified at a glance. They are a bit jumbled as is.
4) There isn't a proper advisor introduction to god puzzles. This looks like something that is probably on the way, but I'm noting it anyway.
4) The red flash indicating danger when mousing over a monster is quite a bit too agressive. This is especailly dettering thinking through puzzles for me and I can immagine other people having the same experience. I would do away with it, but simply toning down the inital flash might do the trick. Other missclick failsafes are working wonderfully.
5) The small graphic that indicates a monster is slowed can be almost unnoticable on snow backgrounds.
6) The puzzle token as a part of the inventory can cause people to involuntary restart puzzles by missclicking. If possible it would be really helpful if it were a part of the interface rather than an inventory item, or adding a confirmation checkbox. This has happened to me an many occasions, especially ones where there is need to repeatedly click on something in the inventory (Binlor 3), and the player is pretty much unaware of such a hazard as it's otherwise not present elsewhere in the game.
7) The warlord's "Below half heath buff" doesn't have a status effect icon. Knowing when this is active is important in many scenarios, and every other temporery bit of nonsense has such an indicator and this doesn't. A simple one with the exact same icon as the ability would do.
Ok, so those are the things that probably need to be done, and can be done. I'm sure there's priorities, and lack of time and money and stuff, but I'd hate to compromise those getting done by flooding you with other stuff. And i feel like other stuff should also be done but I'd hate it getting lost in the shuffle again. I don't think there's anything too controversial here or anything thats just my opinion. It's a long read that you migt've allready done in the notes thread, and I'm sorry if it's irritating, but I'd a appriciate a small comment ammounting to "got it on a list somewhere", so I can wait a changelog or two and then post the next batch. Or any arrangement you might prefer. Please understand that I don't feel like you ought to make anything a priority because I said something, or that there aren't more ellegant solutions, etc. etc.
I hope they get around to the other stuff it's mostly all like that. Then next batch of stuff (it's important too, but as they said in the suggestions thread, suggestions tend to get lost if there's too many).