Is this some kind of 'trial and error' type of game? Or am I missing some piece of documentation that adequately explains what it is I'm supposed to be doing?

It does lack a really adequate tutorial, but here is the basics.



You start with 2 heros, you open up doors, which reveals a room. There are 2 possible types of nodes in it, major or minor. You build industry or food nodes there on major and build defense/support nodes on the minor ones.



Once you find the elevator on a floor, you take the crystal there to go to the next floor.



You also see monsters which you kill for dust (the currency and energy source).



That's about it now, but they are adding more that they are back from their holiday break.

While I appreciate your reply, it has left me even further in the dark than I already was... only upon reviewing the tutorial for the third time have I become aware of how to build nodes, although there is still no indication of why, or what purpose they serve.



I really don't want to be the "whiny noob" here, and I recognize that the game is in an Alpha stage of development, but in my experience (having alpha- and beta-tested roughly half a dozen other games) the first thing you figure out is the documentation for how what little IS working, works. I am totally willing to figure some of this shit out on my own, but if "nodes" are a critical aspect of surviving in this game, it might be a good idea to highlight that aspect in the tutorial (better yet, have more than one sentence explaining the subject).

Well that is odd. I found the game to be rather intuitive and was up and making progress on my first attempt... had beaten level 3 by my 3rd or 4th attempt. It may have to do with previous roguelike, real-time-strategy and tower defense experience. Though, the short tutorial appeared adequate given the relative non-complexity of the game and alpha state. Each construct-able object has a mouse-over tip and resource expenditure listed so I quickly realized nodes could prove useful.



I'll try to explain my understanding of the game, and apologize for any mistakes...



DoTE is a tower defense game. You are trying to protect your crystal from monsters trying to destroy it. Preventing your heroes' death, and protecting your defenses and node machines are secondary objectives.



Your resources are DUST, INDUSTRY, SCIENCE and FOOD. These are all earned when you open a door. You can look at the resource bar to see the amount to be earned when you open a door.



DUST represents the hit points of your crystal. For I believe every 10 DUST you can power one more room by middle-clicking it. Powered rooms do not spawn monsters. A room must be powered for the nodes and defenses there to work. DUST is also used to buy items from merchants. It is not carried with you to the next level.



RESOURCE NODES give bonus research with each door that is opened. Some Heroes can "work" on a node to increase the resources it will generate. This leads to a common strategy of using 1 hero to open doors, leaving the remaining heroes to work on nodes. A Heroe's "wit" attribute determines how many resources they generate. Some enemies can break down resource nodes - and will do so quickly, requiring you to power adjacent rooms and build defenses to wear them down ahead of time.



INDUSTRY is used to buy defenses, nodes and other room upgrades. INDUSTRY is carried with you to the next level. It is a good strategy to try and fully explore a dungeon after locating the exit, to build up surplus INDUSTRY to get a head start on the next level.



SCIENCE is not implemented yet.



FOOD is used to level up and heal your heroes. It is also required to "buy" new heroes if you find them in the dungeon. FOOD carries over to the next level.



DoTE is rogue-like, so each play through is randomized. Rooms, heroes, items, merchants... it is up to you to find a strategy that works in your attempt to make it to the end.



Rogue-likes often don't have super tutorials. Like take FTL, I can't actually say I ever used its Tutorial? After some time I watched a Youtube playthrough and was happy to learn some things I'd not picked up on my own. It seems almost a badge of honor to be able to figure them out and part of the attraction. Granted, as I get older re-figuring out Dwarf Fortress gets a bit more difficult each time :P Some part of me hopes it keeps my brain in good shape at least!



And sure, this may not be fun for you. I'm not against a tutorial but feel it can come later once alpha testing is done. Any tutorial now would just have to be constantly updated as the game changes in radical ways.

I don't want to come across sounding rude with this comment but oh well let's dive in.



I want to mention Minecraft real quick. While it isn't the first to utilize the 'allow players to buy in during alpha' style distribution it is certainly the most successful and definitely brought about a large surge in popularity to the distribution style. The reason I mention it is because it was easily the most difficult to pick up and un-noob friendly game during alpha and it had absolutely no tutorial whatsoever, not even anything to explain the very basics of gameplay. One had to intuit you must punch the tree for wood.



My point? Sometimes discovering things on your own through trial and error can be the most fun part about trying a new game, in my opinion. Eureka moments are just oh so satisfying. And a game that then gains new content for you to continue to discover is what makes the whole alpha play process such a joy. I believe very much that the success Minecraft had, using this process, shows just how fun and addicting that discover and learn through your mistakes play style can be.



So while I'm sorry you're finding the experience frustrating, and I do hope you keep with it cause the game is so much fun, I just wanted to throw in my two cents that trial and error play style may not actually be such a terrible thing.

magicbacon wrote:
While I appreciate your reply, it has left me even further in the dark than I already was... only upon reviewing the tutorial for the third time have I become aware of how to build nodes, although there is still no indication of why, or what purpose they serve.



I really don't want to be the "whiny noob" here, and I recognize that the game is in an Alpha stage of development, but in my experience (having alpha- and beta-tested roughly half a dozen other games) the first thing you figure out is the documentation for how what little IS working, works. I am totally willing to figure some of this shit out on my own, but if "nodes" are a critical aspect of surviving in this game, it might be a good idea to highlight that aspect in the tutorial (better yet, have more than one sentence explaining the subject).

Here are the documents you're searching for : /#/dungeon-of-the-endless/forum/47-game-design

Just read all the "GDD" topics that are pinned (start with overview).

Thanks very much for all the replies, folks. Having slept and come back to it with fresh eyes today, it makes a lot more sense to me now lol. My apologies. I was looking at the problem with grumpy-tinted glasses.



@Juason thank you specifically for your detailed post.



@Jangles I agree with you, I had just lost my cool a bit because I hadn't immediately wrapped my head around the game and was already kinda annoyed from earlier in the day, lol.



Although I must say, using the scroll wheel as a button is unforgivable. lol

magicbacon wrote:




Although I must say, using the scroll wheel as a button is unforgivable. lol

I keep forgetting it is there I'll have to look at the tutorial again to remind me what it does...

you can also ctrl+click to do the same thing. To be completely honest it took me 4 tries to figure out how to power rooms... totally thought you had to bring the crystal into each room and I kept getting wiped out. That being said I absolutely love this game now and I keep getting a better feel for it. Soo much fun

Cyphs wrote:
you can also ctrl+click to do the same thing. To be completely honest it took me 4 tries to figure out how to power rooms... totally thought you had to bring the crystal into each room and I kept getting wiped out. That being said I absolutely love this game now and I keep getting a better feel for it. Soo much fun

I'm with you on that one... now if I could just figure out how to get the crystal to the elevator without losing everyone <_<

You miss to read gigantic message when you install that game and read about game and read FAQ before post that reply.

what i found that works is I explore everywhere I can, use the resources to power all the rooms on the way to the elevator, and level at least one strong character to hold junctions while i move the guy with the crystal to the room. You dont have to have everyone in the room to win and they all live if they are alive when the crystal gets there.