How does the alternative start work? Will it erase the progress I have made in the normal game?
- Thread starter Pif paf
- Start date
Thanks for the spot, uploading a fix now
Yes - if you want to back up for your saves they are in Appdata/roaming/forestinn/
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I just played this, and had a lot of fun for the first 60 days or so. I have some feedback on the gameplay (all based on v1.81), with a focus on what I think makes the game less enjoyable later on.
First, though, a weird bug with Scout. When I defeated the miniboss, her affinity cap increased to 400. Then, I got an event about her feeding on a guest, and the cap decreased to 300. This fixed itself later, but only after reloading the game.
Onto gameplay, in no particular order.
1) Once you get the ability to go on night patrols, very weird things happen to the stamina economy.
Night patrols are just as good at improving safety (though I don't know what the negative consequences actually are of letting the area get dangerous – does it have any?) while giving more XP and possibly better loot.
This means you don't get to fight alongside Lucy any more and see less of her, which didn't feel good to me in terms of the story and relationship trajectory. Also, it makes the game less interesting because you can always ignore one of the morning activities as mechanically sub-optimal.
3) It feels bad that you can do unlimited instant magical research so long as you have enough money. On the weekend, you can spend 50GP on reagents and 100GP on a research attempt, maybe 10 or 20 times in a single day if you have savings.
From the point of view of gameplay, this makes research buffs too fungible – they just cost money and some clicks – and of course, from the point of view of making the world and story feel coherent, it's even worse.
If you'd like to keep the research system really simple, I'd suggest having the resources you spend on it apply a multiplier to how fast research progresses, instead of giving you instant progress. (It might also make sense to limit how many times the player can do this to three or something, which would also give some reason for the player to consider spending rarer resources on this instead of just spamming whatever endlessly buyable thing is cheapest.)
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I have some more stuff, but actually I'll stop for now so I can think about it a bit more (and also maybe see if this kind of thing is even helpful for you) – it's focused on the monetary economy, dominant strategies, and how the rate at which the game gives you more tools for solving problems outpaces the rate at which it introduces new ones.
Also, since this is a big list of stuff I don't think is working right at the moment, I just wanna emphasise that I had a really good time for the first 60 days or so and think you're making something neat with a lot of potential.
First, though, a weird bug with Scout. When I defeated the miniboss, her affinity cap increased to 400. Then, I got an event about her feeding on a guest, and the cap decreased to 300. This fixed itself later, but only after reloading the game.
Onto gameplay, in no particular order.
1) Once you get the ability to go on night patrols, very weird things happen to the stamina economy.
- A player might expect this would cut into their sleeping time, and make them recover less stamina overnight. There isn't a cost like that.
- Instead, they are guaranteed to be able to use the recover ability for +50 stamina. If they are able to comfortably win the fights (which are not challenging once you have some solid skills and equipment), you have a reliable way to recover a lot more stamina every evening than you would if you went straight to bed.
- Once you unlock armour enchantments this gets worse, since the best one doubles the effectiveness of the recover action. This means that you can go from zero stamina to 150 every night by going on patrol.
- Greatly nerf stamina recovery from the recover ability. Since it's free to use, it will still be good if it has its current health effect and gives +20 stamina or something.
- Replace the armour enchantment that improves the recover ability with something else.
- Have going on a night patrol cost stamina. I think it should cost more than day patrols, since it doesn't use up your morning action and is interfering with sleeping.
Night patrols are just as good at improving safety (though I don't know what the negative consequences actually are of letting the area get dangerous – does it have any?) while giving more XP and possibly better loot.
This means you don't get to fight alongside Lucy any more and see less of her, which didn't feel good to me in terms of the story and relationship trajectory. Also, it makes the game less interesting because you can always ignore one of the morning activities as mechanically sub-optimal.
3) It feels bad that you can do unlimited instant magical research so long as you have enough money. On the weekend, you can spend 50GP on reagents and 100GP on a research attempt, maybe 10 or 20 times in a single day if you have savings.
From the point of view of gameplay, this makes research buffs too fungible – they just cost money and some clicks – and of course, from the point of view of making the world and story feel coherent, it's even worse.
If you'd like to keep the research system really simple, I'd suggest having the resources you spend on it apply a multiplier to how fast research progresses, instead of giving you instant progress. (It might also make sense to limit how many times the player can do this to three or something, which would also give some reason for the player to consider spending rarer resources on this instead of just spamming whatever endlessly buyable thing is cheapest.)
---
I have some more stuff, but actually I'll stop for now so I can think about it a bit more (and also maybe see if this kind of thing is even helpful for you) – it's focused on the monetary economy, dominant strategies, and how the rate at which the game gives you more tools for solving problems outpaces the rate at which it introduces new ones.
Also, since this is a big list of stuff I don't think is working right at the moment, I just wanna emphasise that I had a really good time for the first 60 days or so and think you're making something neat with a lot of potential.
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Thanks for taking the time to leave all that feedback. I will say balance is far from final, and there's a bunch of systems, specifically combat systems, that aren't there yet. Lucy is missing over half her intended kit, and the Winter Season will be putting a bigger focus on daytime patrols.
Night Patrols + Recovery isn't a downside as is, as far as I'm concerned. If you are willing to use your night slot to go on patrol, you will get the benefits of doing so. If you are strong enough that you can reliable regain stamina, that's also fine (at least in principle). But the exact numbers are all subject to balancing changes. Once I get more of Winter implemented I'll be able to balance a little better. Bigger monsters and new combat mechanics will shake things up soon.
There are many events which really only occur during the day. I don't think patrolling is particularly useful, and general think hunting / gathering reagents are the better options for fighting monsters / getting events during the day slot once you get night patrols unlocked.
As far as the economy goes, the game just needs more things to spend money on - which will very much be the case in the spring. The speed of research being too fast is something I will look at that point as well. But there's just too many missing pieces for me to want to spend a lot of time on it right now, because I'm just going to have to balance it again after. Once the game is out of Alpha, and the core systems are in place, it'll be easier to get everything sorted.
All that being said, you can only leave feedback on the stuff in front of you. You don't have a way to read my mind or know what is planned, so I still really appreciate the feedback. I've made some notes for when I start a balance pass, and some changes may find their way into the game sooner rather than later.
Thanks for playing!
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I think there can be problems when people minmax the fun out of the game, something I am guilty of for many games I play. When the mechanically correct choice (patrolling for stamina and experience) compete for the cozy or feelgood thing to do (giving Lucy and crew the attention they deserve) some people will repeatedly choose the mechanically optimal choice, when they would enjoy the feelgood choice more.
One of the most important parts of balancing is making sure the "correct" way to play is also the most fun way to play.
One of the most important parts of balancing is making sure the "correct" way to play is also the most fun way to play.
FinderX
Newbie
- Jan 15, 2018
- 99
- 76
Oooohhh Ellie is Eleanor, I'm non-english gooner, I didn't know was her.
Thanks.
I found another bug — Greenhouse always shows that some project is complete, even though everything is still in progress. The bug appeared somewhere after I planted a heartseed.
Check the .rar that's attached to the update post, I've played through it and it's most definitely a past alpha version - it's a smaller file size, it has the chromatic filter, there aren't any companions, it's using a legacy version of study mechanics etc
Oh jeez you're right. Many apologies it's fixed now. That'll teach me to upload before I've had coffee.
Quite the nice game, now that I've tried it. Downright charming.
I never managed to finish the Dryad quest by mid autumn, but I guess I must've missed something. It's probably a goodidea to take a look later, anyways, when development is further along. Edit: is that how one gets the third extra companion?
I never managed to finish the Dryad quest by mid autumn, but I guess I must've missed something. It's probably a goodidea to take a look later, anyways, when development is further along. Edit: is that how one gets the third extra companion?
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Dryad is 3rd companion, you will just need to finish her quest.
I assumed as much. I just have no idea how to.
The quest says I need to research heartwood, which I can't do again, and I've also donated health at least three times and gotten some heartwood from her.
So either I managed to get it stuck, or the quest log is just particularly unhelpful.