Semondemon Thanks so much for your all your feedback, this is exactly what I was looking for and I really appreciate you taking the time to put this together! FYI I don't get notifications on the edits, so I didn't see all your edits until just now -- sorry for the delay.
My initial takeaway from your comments is that I made this game too hard, which I'm not surprised to hear. I know as the dev I'm way more familiar with how the game works and its limits, but at the same time I'd rather it be too hard than too easy, at least to start. One idea I had was a difficulty system - easy/medium/hard. There are lots of variables to tweak so it's certainly possible to do, but the ability to upgrade the character means the difficulty would have to scale with the upgrades. My vision is to have a set of levels like Search and Rescue, with mercenaries being the final one. Each level would be a little harder, so the player would need a certain amount of skill and upgrades to be successful. They would then build their character to full potential with Merc and then go back through the regular levels and kick some ass if they choose to.
While I want the game to have quality H scenes and interesting exploration, I also want the player to develop skill as they play and benefit from that. The initial, 0-upgrades state of the player is admittedly tedious for me. It reminds me of Parasite in City (which I took some of the mechanics from) - gameplay is great but limited and I often felt I wanted the MC to be faster and more capable. But it's a good way to explore the level and meet new characters as the player becomes more familiar with the controls.
Where I really started enjoying my game was when I upgraded the MC's stats. That wasn't planned and something I just decided to try on a whim, but it turned the game from tedious to fun. Mowing down lots of enemies, blasting 10+ enemies into the air with a grenade, sliding yourself out of a horde - it became an action game. Not to toot my own horn, but I find myself playing Merc with full stats quite a bit, I just really like the pace and seeing how many enemies and laps I can accumulate.
Anyway that's where I was coming from, but here are some thoughts on your comments:
My suggestions would be to have evade auto unlocked, makes no sense to have that as a mechanic but you have to buy it, same with grenades start off with at least one.
I think this is reasonable and probably a better starting point. I think a single, low-power grenade would be a good initial value.
invincibility frames after being struck or something would be nice to stop you from being stunlocked
After being hit, the enemies can't hit you for a certain amount of time. This can vary based on individual enemies, but generally speaking the faster the enemy moves the less delay they have before they can hit you. I've waffled on this, because best practices often dictate that players want enemies to be predictable, and I'm flying in the face of that. My hope is that the player can learn to anticipate this delay over time, but I also don't want them to get frustrated in the process, so I'm keen on feedback for this and other settings.
your kick being able to hit multiple enemies at least two would also be extremely nice because I was out of ammo & mags everytime I got to the prisoner which made it quite frustrating having to kick two opponents to death all to lose because of that.
That's a good idea. There would be a limit to the value, though, because the enemies stack up -- meaning they walk right up to you and 'through' other enemies, and you wouldn't want to be able to hit 10+ enemies with a single kick I don't think, so I'd limit it to 2 enemies or so. I'm not a huge fan of how the enemy stacking ended up, but if the enemies stand behind each other it is even worse -- they basically never are able to gang up on you, and instead fight you one at a time. Thoughts from the community are certainly welcome.
Treasure cache's for the survival & prisoner mode giving 250 mana per some thing don't make it hard to find but at least put it where the prisoner would be, maybe a lever?
I like that, something else to find that promotes exploration, great suggestion.
Honestly it's fairly polished for what it is but feels quite grindey (I haven't unlocked the Mercenaries mode so if you get mana much easier there fine) I'd also ask to have pickup off enemies automatically set to at least 5%.
I attribute the grindey nature to the high initial difficulty, and I can make it easier to accumulate Mana if that's the right direction. Even when I play myself I have to play for several hours before I can buy all upgrades.
I'd also ask to have pickup off enemies automatically set to at least 5%.
Starting with 5% is not a bad idea. But I've found that going past 10% on Merc with lots of enemies ends up with too many pickups - you just never run out of ammo.
I also like how the protag looks very fitting of what a female soldier would look like whilst having.. added assets to make her more appealing the only thing it's missing is more enemies, more locales (I'd suggest explore an old manor in the woods too or a cabin?) and of course animations.
Thanks! Enemies - yes. Animations - yes. My main limitation right now is background assets - I can't make those myself. I got the forest background online but I would probably need to hire out any additional backgrounds/locals to an artist. I dont plan to charge for the game so I'd have to find someone reasonable. But otherwise agree that all that would grow the game.
All spikes do is annoy the fuck out of me could we use grenades to permanently destroy them?
I personally really like the spikes, they're quick to extend and can totally throw you off when you thought you were in control. Have you purchased the spike anims yet? What I'm trying to achieve here is a sense of vulnerability for the MC - it's great when you win, but also great when you lose.
Remember, spikes can only hit you when they extend. And have you tried evading the spikes?
Zombies spawning directly underneath you is extremely annoying because there's no delay in their attack, they'll be halfway out of the dirt & animation cancel the rest of it allowing them to strike you, if they're too close you can't kick or shoot them either, I'd suggest limiting how they spawn near the player if possible.. at least in merc mode.
I can limit that, and actually tried that earlier in development, but I found I preferred the challenge of them appearing right underneath me from time to time - the surprise factor added to the immersion. You should be able to get away from them in time if you're quick with the controls. Another good place for evading. I'll keep an eye on feedback for this one for sure.
if struck it cancels reloading all together leading into some extremely tedious situations I'd like if it's cancelled on the playerside it STILL counts as reloading.
That's intentional
There's an upgrade to speed up reload time, just for that reason. The tedious situations you're talking about are intentional, too - sometimes you need to take a few hits as you try to escape the melee. Timing the reloads, gunshots, and evades requires skill but makes the game more satisfying (if the player is willing to invest the time).
Further Edit: fuck spikes allow a purchaseable toggle to get rid of them all they do is dramatically slow down gameplay, just in mercs mode at least.
One of my favorite scenarios is when I'm close to the end of a Merc lap and have a few health left, but am confident I'm going to make it. Then I mistime a spike (or don't see it) and *shtckk* I'm dead. I like the surprise factor and the sense of vulnerability for the MC. I also will stand over a spike when I'm near death as I often prefer that suicide to letting the zombie take me out. I'll pay attention to spike feedback, but spikes are beatable and I'd like folks to try them out before I limit their place in the game.
Once again, I really appreciate your time writing this up, really good feedback. I hope you get a chance to play the game some more. How built up is your MC? In other words, how many enemies spawn on the Merc level for you? It's the enemy face icon (see first reply above for HUD Icon descriptions), the # of enemies will scale based on how many upgrades you've purchased.
I'll also PM you, I had an offline question for you.
Thanks
