Yep, in this version the start of the game is by far the hardest part
The theme of the mod is that you're
one of a whole bunch of dragonlings periodically released to the Kingdom, and only the fittest survive. After that, you become more and more powerful and get to play more and more of a 'dragon does what dragon wants' sim.
In any case, I strongly suspect at least half of the difficulty is due to lack of systems mastery, not actual difficulty. Mods are usually meant for 'veteran' players, after all. Maybe that outlook isn't entirely justified here, but I'm sticking with it at least until the mod is feature complete.
Ive tried suggesting so many little ideas that I think would make the game so much better in so many little ways and he just brushes them aside...
Not true. If you come up with something genuinely better, I'm not averse to adding it.
Lillibilli's animal/monster hunts, better evolution UI, demon invasion warnings, various people suggesting more quests, making crafting profitable, etc. I also tell you
why I dislike your proposals, and if you can convince me the fears are unfounded, I'm capable of changing my mind. '
I think it would be
so much better!' x100 does not work, and is the reason most actual game devs don't interact with their player base.
So it basically comes down to play it the way it is, or mod it yourself
Yes. And I'm willing to tell you how to mod things if you really,
really want them changed. Maybe even add a little mod support, as with the permavirgins who exist only for
zzczys.
It just means you can spend money instead of satiety to build cages and traps.
No, it means you spend money instead of satiety and
stamina, which is huge.
Whats the point of being a big mean dragon with minions if you cant make them work for you.
You're a big bad dragon who magics tentacle pits out of thin air. Or at least summons and tames them. Why should gremlins be able to do that?
Making gremlins your dedicated builders also does nothing for
gameplay except make money and satiety less distinct. Which is bad, IMHO.
Edit: Basically, all the 'why can't minions do X' requests lead to one of four approaches:
- Undercutting an existing game mechanic, meaning the mod's resource management part loses out, all in the name of making the game 'more balanced', i.e. easier, the latter of which can be accomplished easier and cleaner via other means, mainly difficulty settings. I don't like watering down the mod like this, but you're free to do what you want with your copy.
- The easiest solution: removing the minions altogether and going back to a more DW-style game. Not a fan, especially after all the work I've put into minions, but probably the most reasonable from both a game design and technical POV.
- Adding minions everywhere they might have a reason to be and rebalancing the whole game. The effort to do that would be roughly comparable to what I've already spent on the entire mod so far, thus not going to happen.
- Telling people to learn to play the mod as it is and patching only things that can't be bypassed or are broken in some manner. Which is what I'm doing right now.
Also I would like to see some purpose to hiring actual gremlins for your lair. They cost more than a goblin but are far worse fighters and dont do anything?
They have armor-ignoring poison damage (mostly for flavour) and man your workshops. I think you can also hire them in addition to goblins if you need
a lot of cannon fodder.