I'd say spend it away :-) Tomorrow I will be releasing 0.6 which, among other things, will significantly change connection logic and implement the ability to hard reset the game to account for new balance changes. It being a prototype, I'm expecting a lot of swings until I get the content, the features, and the balance right.
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Major problem with the game: It does not collect any research when unfocused or minimized. only when focused, or closed entirely.
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i think you should get research points every time you level up a building, and have the thresholds 10, 25, 50 etc, give a production boost or something. you would have to raise the research point requirement for new paths, but i feel like you could choose your progression better if you chose how you leveled
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nice at first but get boring pretty fast. the gain for upgrading first science doesnt feel really appealing to me because it doesnt really help getting more science/sec and it give low amount of discovery points. Its pretty easy to get all the science on the map and once you got them, the goal of playing the game get really confused to me. so Thx for the game but i think, in 1 hour, im saddly already done with it. 3/5
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i misclicked a boost upgrade and am now 200 discovery points down, there should REALLY be something to prevent this from happening
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A visual indicator of the tier each technology is at (0-9, 10-24, 25+, etc.) would be extremely welcome. Otherwise, it's a bit tedious to have to click each technology one at a time to check which one is at a lower level compared to the others. A zoom function would also help the process. :)
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Thanks for adding more content!
Kind of sad about early research being made cheaper as i am now permanently down some research points unless i start the game over.
Of course this could be fixed by... adding a prestige system :D i'm not saying that it would have to be added soon but eventually there's going to need to be one. Also it would just immediately max out replayability so you don't have to pump out new content as fast and will actually have time to work on it
You're right, and a prestige system is coming (soon), as is a "Hard Reset" button for those inclined to experience the game from scratch with every version release!
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Good news, everyone - I finally succeeded in replicating the "Fetching UI Objects" issue. I'm still not sure what's causing it, but I at least know the broad circumstances under which it occurs. One step closer to fixing it!
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Mouse scrolling: People probably expect it to be more "click to grab the canvas that then gets dragged around" and less "click and then move to get continual scrolling"
Thanks - but that's the weirdest thing, I don't experience continual scrolling at all - as soon as I stop pressing the left mouse button, the camera stops moving as it should. Will keep digging!
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Would be good if the production of an item doubles when reaching a trier of 10, 25, 50 etc. Otherwise the progress gets very slow pretty fast.
Thank you for your feedback! Currently, reaching a tier earns you discovery points, which you can use to unlock new research nodes and upgrade the boosts of existing ones. That said, I'm currently re-examining the boost system so there will be some changes to it.
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To everyone having issues with mouse scrolling - can you please describe what you are doing so I can replicate the issue? I'm working hard on fixing it, but I cannot seem to reproduce it on my end. In my case, I hold down the left mouse button, drag the camera around while holding it down, then let go. But maybe I'm just weird in the way I use mouse scrolling? :-)
Working on it :) In the meantime, if you could give me any information on the exact steps to replicate the issue, I'd be ever so grateful On my end, things seem to work fine - but I do know that a lot of users are encountering this problem, and I really want to address it.
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I reckon the way the multiplier is set up at the moment is fine, maybe you could add some sort of short tutorial when first playing it to explain it to people
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Really good concept. This game is promising and rather satisfiing to play.
I wanted to write down some features, that would make it even better, but you implemented half of them overnight - this is the attitude, that will bring you happy fanbase.
So no suggestions from me, just holding thumbs up.
I will be observing and come back now and then to see, what will this potential gem turn into.
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maybe have the colouring of the numbers and the moving white dots in the background different colours, so as to see the numbers clearly
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Hi all -
Firstly, thanks a bunch for all the feedback you've provided - it's been really great!
While I continue to address hot-button issues (crashes, control issues, missing must-have features like the multi-buy button, etc), I wanted to get your opinion on how to fix the multiplier system. Right now, it feels obtuse, black-boxy, and confounding to anyone who doesn't want to read through a whole bunch of explanations here and in-game. So here’s what I’m thinking:
- Each research would ONLY boost the researches connected to it; there will be no multiplicative effects up or down the tree. This would make the interface more straightforward and the whole thing a lot easier to understand
- The user should be able to pick and swap which boost a particular research provides
That's just what I've been thinking based on your feedback (special thanks to @Arkatar_K and the good folks over at the incremental games sub-reddit). But do let me know what you think!
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@luistin123 After 100 it's 150. Look at the dark hex line forming inside the hexagon, at 125 it's half-complete. That dark line is the progress to the next milestone.
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could this have a more unwieldy method of scrolling around? not only is it click & hold then the screen moves based on the direction you move the mouse but it's that and INVERTED! that's one of the worst approaches to something so simple i've ever seen.
Thank you for your feedback! Interestingly, I had a lot of users also request the opposite - that movement controls be inverted like on mobile. It might be a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation :-) By the way, you can also use WASD/cursor keys to navigate.
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Good game! A bit short for now. I enjoy that you can't/don't have to "ascend" and earn % increased income scaling. Looking forward for more content!
I just added seven new tech, but, you're right, more content is needed (and will be added once I'm done putting out the proverbial fires). By the way, later on, there will be a prestige system (likely tied to completing a historical epoch - not yet sure).
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I like it so far.
As mentioned in previous comments, the distances are too great, the early game is confusing (No tutorial needed, make it so you start with nothing but the ability to unlock your first place, the user learns the game, and then you start from there) and the early game is a little slow.
Next, there is little content beyond the tiny % improvements and repetitive unlocks. Obviously this comes with a WIP game, so nothing against you there. Finally, I wish there was some features that came with each upgrade; why buy the horse for x cost instead of the pottery for the same x cost? Perhaps the horse gives some boost to speed, while the pottery gives a boost to the max resource you can hold.
Just some thoughts :)
Thank you for your feedback! I love the idea of each upgrade providing some sort of a unique boost that, in turn, can help feed into adding more complexity to the game.
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Okay, so I think this is a good start, and it's not buggy from what I can tell, but I do feel that it would be VERY good with certain elements to increase the depth of the game.
For example: each of the elements you purchase seem to have no specific function as they are, but what if each node produced a certain product, and those products could be used in part to buy other nodes, or upgrades for other nodes? An upgrade for an axe might require 500 wood and 100 stone. Maybe the stone could be used with fire to upgrade pottery, etc.
Also, there are some paths that require more than one prerequisite node to purchase, maybe provide an incentive to buy the compound node. If you spend more research here, maybe you get access to a special feature.
Thank you - I love the idea of each nodes doing something special! And I'm definitely going to change the design so that you only need to unlock one link per technology, with any other links only providing additional boosts.
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It's a good initial release, though I feel like everything is stretched out far too much height wise. Are you able to put the unlocking points for each tech on the spaces rather than the links? That would let you bring everything in closer, i think.
I will definitely look into it! One of the reasons for the spacing was to leave enough room for the unfolded user interface when examining a selected node - but maybe I can compress it just a bit.
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@FroggerbobT Just use WASD or arrow keys until he improves mouse dragging. Or just get used to it like I did, it's pretty much like using the middle button in a browser.
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To clarify my previous comment, what I meant by "a 5% speed-up is flat" is that there's no increasing nor diminishing returns, always a 5% improvement no matter where you stand on progress.
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Is the 1% time reduction intentionally small because stacking it gives exponentially increasing returns? If so, you have to realize that it'll take quite a while to make them worth as much as the 5% gain boost, and then they'll become forever better. I would think it best to stack duration multipliers rather than reduction multipliers, e.g. (1/1.05)^x instead of 1.01^x. That way a 5% speed-up is flat just like the 5% gain boost.
Yes, the initial design was to keep the boosts small in the knowledge that, over 10 connections and with a few levels of boost, the net result would be quite substantial. But, to be honest, I'm looking at both simplifying the system (removing the tree effect and just making each node boost connected nodes) and letting the user choose which boost they want to apply. Among other things, it would make the whole system easier to understand (as right now I can totally see how boost mechanics seem a bit black-boxy).
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I'd add a button to upgrade to the next milestone and some upgrades that affect everything. I can't rate it highly because it is only a prototype, but I look forward to the full game.
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Regarding boost stacking, all you get from a 5% boost is a x1.05 multiplier on that tree except for techs at/following path splits/merges. In other words, that 5% from Farming boost was only x1.05 on Pottery, Irrigation and the whole Animal Husbandry tree, and only x1.05^2 on the Food Stockpiling tree. So there's really no "stacking", only a small multiplier for a huge price.
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The dragable background is pretty awkward to use; why not just have it sit still like any other interface of its kind?
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Good prototype I like it. The developer is highly responsive and the only fault I can think of is the lack of content which is acceptable as it is a prototype.
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Problem, i cant buy anything because when I move mouse over upgrade it always moves the camera down and left so I can't click on upgrade
Chariots in space are the cruise control of coolness... Seriously, though, thank you for taking the time to play! Today's was just the prototype release, and I will be adding more content tomorrow and in the coming days!
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Please add a full reset button. Reason I'm asking is because when you make important changes (and I trust there'll be a bunch), it'll be nice to start from scratch and experience the new gameplay.
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The grind for upgrade boosts is way too rough for the tiny boost it gives. Either make them much cheaper or much more potent, or a balance of the two.
Thanks for your feedback! Boosts stack throughout the research tree, so later level researches will benefit from all the boosts in the researches that precede them. But I agree that some re-balancing is in order.
Thanks for flagging! The workaround is to refresh and it should work fine - but what you just wrote might help me in narrowing the issue down a bit. Sorry, I know it's a pain!
Thanks for your feedback! Question - in what cases do you see yourself using it? The game saves to the cloud every 30s, so you can easily switch between computers as long as you're logged into your Kongregate account.