I've been looking forward to this game for a while and just bought into early access. I played a couple of levels on Easy and then decided to bump it down to Very Easy to get a feel for the whole arc.



Positives:

1) Once I grasped the purpose of lighting rooms (other than powering modules), I really enjoyed that mechanic. I always liked being able to control monster paths in Defense Grid, and I really liked that mechanic here, especially dynamically changing them later. I'm glad that wasn't explicitly explained and that I had to figure it out.



2) Game length felt fairly good at 10 levels. I understand it might go to 12 - that also seems fine - but I don't think I'd want 20.



3) I appreciated the humor in the item/character descriptions.



Negatives:

1) The anti-module crystal blasters that started showing up around dungeon level 7 are way too nasty. I like the idea of attackers that threaten your mini-modules, but even when I built a room that seemed specifically designed to defeat them (4 Tesla Mark IVs and 1 Tear Gas Mark 1), they would still destroy those modules and barely take damage. My heroes seemed pretty good at killing them, but only if they chose to target them.



2) I expected more RPG elements. There's some of that with the artifact research (which modules do I upgrade), and gear - but I often don't feel like I'm making a lot of choices. The same hero always levels up the same way - and I often am limited in my gear choices by what actually drops.



3) Samus Aran(or whatever her name is) seems really weak. I tried her a bit on Easy and even on level 1 she was getting destroyed by enemies.



Suggestions:

1) Feature: In order to add some more RPG elements it would be nice to be able to make a level up choice either on my modules or my heroes.

2) Feature: As some have suggested - I would like to be able to set targeting priorities on my heroes like the modules (target anti-hero, target anti-module, target large, target special)

3) Balance: Modules (like tesla) that target anti-module monsters should be better at those. Perhaps those monsters could take more damage from teslas?

4) Feature: A bestiary to show information on monsters, and modules you've encountered in this or previous games before.

My thoughts on your negatives:



1. I agree,there are a few threads about this too, and while they are doable, so far, they can only be contained with your heroes.

My Thread

Steam Thread



2. I think with heroes your "choices" are going to be more who and what you find in the dungeon. There will be more heroes which will make it more varied come release and hopefully more items. The RPG element is only 25% or less of the game, adding too much detail here would refract from the balance of the game and make people focus too much on this element, IMO.



3. She's a runner, so you can't have her on the from lines for long. I like to make a healing room behind the lines and run her back and forth between it, after I stack her with tons of +Speed and +HP Reg items. I think melee heroes need to do some sort of AOE, but if they're really fast, it makes sense that they would die so quickly. Stocking food for heroes like her also helps, if you have excess healing your heroes isn't always a bad idea, because runners like her don't need to be leveled to 15 by end game. You have to choose which heroes are worth their expensive food upgrades which is more strategy than RPG, but an important mechanic to the game-play as the Devs so intend.



About your suggestions:



1. A simple choice, like option 1 or 2 could work. I like it. Maybe instead of adding additional skills, for balance purposes, you could have the option to rush certain skills on a hero faster if their bonus skill option is rolled, per say, when you level them up. More luck, always gets my vote. Rouge-like random for the win!



2. This won't happen, the Devs say that it is no their vision for the game, or something along those lines.



3. Agreed, or my idea to put some sort of shielding module in the mix.



4. Agreed, either found throughout randomly, or as you come across them, knowing what each monster does and how he attacks should be in the game. Especially as it updates and changes. A wiki, come release, is fine, but annoying to use mid-game.

1. There is a level up on your heroes, you spend food. Or did you mean choosing their skills aka a skill tree for each hero? That could be interesting.



2. I concur.



3. Balance is still undergoing as far as I know, and I haven't hit floor 7 yet.



4. This would be so awesome. I agree so much.

thenightninja wrote:
1. There is a level up on your heroes, you spend food. Or did you mean choosing their skills aka a skill tree for each hero? That could be interesting.

Not necessarily a full skill tree - that might remove differentiation between heroes too much.



Two possibilities I was thinking of:

1)When I level up Samus, for instance, I could pick either additional +speed or additional +defense. Each level I get a choice of 2 options. This means your heroes will be slightly different in the endgame from the default version - you can slightly shift them to fill in holes. Next level might be +attack or +HP max.



2)Samus's level 2 is Active Speed boost (I think), and level 4? Is +Dueling. At level 2 let me pick between either of those two powers. At level 4 let me pick between the one I didn't take, and whatever her next power is (I forget). This would leave level 15 heroes the same, but let you focus on other powers earlier. Might be too tempting to always take Operator early though (not for her, but for others)

Harwin wrote:


2)Samus's level 2 is Active Speed boost (I think), and level 4? Is +Dueling. At level 2 let me pick between either of those two powers. At level 4 let me pick between the one I didn't take, and whatever her next power is (I forget). This would leave level 15 heroes the same, but let you focus on other powers earlier. Might be too tempting to always take Operator early though (not for her, but for others)

Ya I think this would work. Maybe make it luck related and you have a really good idea there

The problem with Silics Zoners, that they attack all modules in room simultaneously. And have a pretty hight base damage. Can accept this, but i'm definetly not amused, that because of this some other monsters lose their unique attack pattern. Like zombies and, probably, silics bulldozers (those small flying crystals).