Hello guys. Figured that I'd post this here, because any feedback can be potentially useful when developing a game.



Name's Angelore, I got this game a couple of days ago, and already poured about 17 hours in it. Great stuff. However, it could be better, and here are my ideas why:



1. There is currently no way to find out the number of monsters in the room (or on the map in general). It's pretty annoying, considering that monsters stack easily on top of each other, and you may severely underestimate their power. I died a couple of times from what I thought to be "one" monster, when, in fact, there were around ten of them. Possible solution: mob counter, either on per room basis (questionable idea), or on per map basis (pretty rad). Here is a mock-up:





2. I'm still a new player, so maybe I don't get something right, but from my perspective, the "TD" part of the game is very half-baked. There is no point in using towers because heroes are much more useful in general, and later on, you can't use them because they either will die too quickly or do little to no damage. A big part of this problem is the prevalence of small "two-tiled" rooms, and lack of slots in bigger rooms. From what I've seen the maximum power of the room is 8 minor slots, and this is both VERY rare and still insufficient, considering current power of the towers. The most they can do is briefly slow the advance of monsters, or kill the small ones, and after that, you still need to gather the heroes to finish the job.

2.1. Also, heroes cant repair towers while there are monsters in the room, which is bad sometimes, so there could be an option to choose the preferable behavior.

2.2. Randomized research path also does no good in regards to this problem.

2.3. Upgrading towers feels unrewarding. Like, +4% slow on neurostun per level? Come on. (Dust generator is an exception though.)



3. Again, I'm just 17 hours in, but it feels like I've seen almost everything the game has to offer. Which is strange, because rogue-likes ought to be bursting with content. This impression is very subjective though.



Another minor ideas:

1. If you have more than one crystal, and the one with ongoing research gets destroyed, transfer research progress to another crystal. Because why not.

2. More info in game! I love wikis, but why not put all the possible info in game itself? Like, when hovering over a stat, you could add a tooltip, stating how exactly does it influence hero performance, or heck, maybe even implement an in-game wiki! (mainly because learning about hero skill trees through trial and error sucks)

3. Option to turn off hero speech, including elevator. Because, well, eh.



So, that's it for most part. Other that that, the game is pretty good, still feel great about getting it.



P.s. "Who the hell are you, dude?" - Just a player who enjoys rogue-likes, good design and gameplay in general. I wouldn't even try to write this if this were my first experience with such games, but I've played a lot of FTL, Isaac, Risk of Rain, etc., you can check it on my profile, though I mostly played it offline, so the time for almost all games can be freely tripled, since steam doesn't recognize offline gametime. (/id/angelore).

1 I´d say you have to be cautious here, and look at how they move, you can guess they are a lot when they stack from different rooms.



2 This has to do with the roguelike theme of the game: you have to adapt to your surroundings and open the doors acordingly. That is what makes the difference when opening one more door, whether it´s a good idea or not...

Also some heroes can boost the modules effects, but yeah you need to get rid of the monsters first ( Personally, I wouldn´t find it reasonable if some of the heroes went into maintenance/repairs while surrounded by dozens of mobs). All the upgrading seems slow but if you don´t upgrade you will notice the difference. (By the way I´m not sure but the heroes focus their attacks depending on the monster type: first the ones that go to the crystal, then the ones attacking the modules and then, the rest... I may be mistaken though)

When filling the rooms you have to consider protecting the crystal, but also protecting each room, there are modules that boost modules defense, guns that focus attack on "modules attacking monsters"... etc :P



3 The game looks simple but it has a lot behind, there are a lot of tricks and strategies.



Hope this is a little useful!

1 I´d say you have to be cautious here, and look at how they move, you can guess they are a lot when they stack from different rooms.

Well yeah, but this is very approximate, and doesn't really fit into strategic game.

Personally, I wouldn´t find it reasonable if some of the heroes went into maintenance/repairs while surrounded by dozens of mobs

That's what we call a combat engineer :P

By the way I´m not sure but the heroes focus their attacks depending on the monster type: first the ones that go to the crystal, then the ones attacking the modules and then, the rest... I may be mistaken though

Yes, they do.

The game looks simple but it has a lot behind, there are a lot of tricks and strategies.

I don't argue about this, not one bit. What I say is, there is like, maybe 10 artifacts, the rest is their variation by stats (white shirt, green shirt, purple shirt); no much difference from level to level (you basically do the same thing for 10 levels, you just get very limited supply of dust later on). There are no unique mechanics, like, say, "freezing" on ice levels, or being able to break the wall in the temple (because the rock has worn off), you get the idea.

Angelore wrote:
Well yeah, but this is very approximate, and doesn't really fit into strategic game.





That's what we call a combat engineer :P





Yes, they do.





I don't argue about this, not one bit. What I say is, there is like, maybe 10 artifacts, the rest is their variation by stats (white shirt, green shirt, purple shirt); no much difference from level to level (you basically do the same thing for 10 levels, you just get very limited supply of dust later on). There are no unique mechanics, like, say, "freezing" on ice levels, or being able to break the wall in the temple (because the rock has worn off), you get the idea.

Sure I get what you mean. And I agree in some things. But considering that this is not only a strategic game, that it´s a mix of a wide set of different kind of games... it´s clear it won´t end up like a "perfect" game.



I´ll try to elaborate:



When you aim for different things, not specializing in one, the result is bound to be full with flaws, in every aspect.

So, it will be a incomplete strategic game, an incomplete RPG/RTS/roguelike/TowerDefense... etc

But in the end it conforms a unique result, which offers something different and that a strategic/rpg or whatever can´t offer by themselves.

I can´t defend its value in those genres sepparately but I see it offers something else, by mixing them up. And looking good considering how difficult it is to do so.

The problem, maybe, is that it looks like a TD but it is not, that looks like a strategy game but it is not... But I´m not really sure if that is a problem...

Not trying to make a statement here by the way, only my personal opinion on the matter xD

Angelore wrote:


1. There is currently no way to find out the number of monsters in the room (or on the map in general).

Assume there are a lot of them. Using dust power to light up the labyrinth is a big part of the game, and I think it's an atmospheric/artistic decision to limit visibility outside of your powered region. You can re-route power to get a look at whatever slavering mass is approaching.

Angelore wrote:


2. I'm still a new player, so maybe I don't get something right, but from my perspective, the "TD" part of the game is very half-baked. There is no point in using towers because heroes are much more useful in general, and later on, you can't use them because they either will die too quickly or do little to no damage.

The balance between turrets is off, but they are extremely useful all the way through. If you get enemies to walk through a powered, turreted room before reaching the place where your heroes make their stand against a wave, you can do a lot of damage. Claymores or seblasters will soften up a whole wave, teslas or gatts will pick out particularly bad guys. Neurostuns and tear gases are damage multipliers for rooms with a lot of module slots.



Decide what room your heroes will make their stand in, and supplement them with turrets. If you have a meaty tanky armored fella(Gork, Pekenyo), put some guns behind him to shoot down the wave while he's getting his face clawed up. If you have a deadly but fragile firing line, (Skroig, Massoqui) give him a damage multiplier or tear gas, and some bio-healing piles to keep him alive for more fight.

Angelore wrote:


2.1. Also, heroes cant repair towers while there are monsters in the room, which is bad sometimes, so there could be an option to choose the preferable behavior.

I'd like that too. I'd also like to be able to tell my guys to prioritize certain types, e.g. exploders.

Angelore wrote:


2.2. Randomized research path also does no good in regards to this problem.

2.3. Upgrading towers feels unrewarding. Like, +4% slow on neurostun per level? Come on. (Dust generator is an exception though.)

Randomized research is one of those roguelike things where you have to find a way to make the parts available to you somehow useful. It's sometimes a problem because not all turrets are equally useful. (+Regen bits are way inferior to +Heal-per-kill bits, poison injectors are worse than every other offensive module, dust shields are crap &c)



But leveling them up does help dramatically. An extra 5-10 dps on a turret gets a lot better when you're putting 3 or 4 of them in a room.



A neurostun makes passing monsters linger for 20% longer, effectively meaning every other turret in the room can dish out 20% more damage to the mob. Five turrets & and a neurostun are as effective as six turrets. Level it up to 24%, then four turrets & a neurostun are as effective as five. If you math it out, they're useful damage multipliers for many turrets. And they give you more time for your guys to deal with shit. A slower trickle of incoming monsters, or another few seconds to run across the map after dealing with something else, or enough time to kill that walking guy who just goes straight for the crystal.

Angelore wrote:


1. If you have more than one crystal, and the one with ongoing research gets destroyed, transfer research progress to another crystal. Because why not.

2. More info in game! I love wikis, but why not put all the possible info in game itself? Like, when hovering over a stat, you could add a tooltip, stating how exactly does it influence hero performance, or heck, maybe even implement an in-game wiki! (mainly because learning about hero skill trees through trial and error sucks)

3. Option to turn off hero speech, including elevator. Because, well, eh.

1. Deciding to commit to research is a strategic choice. Sometimes it's better to wait until you can fully power or defend the branch with the brain crystal.

2. Yeah that'd be good. I think so far they've held off on polishing any documentation because a lot of stuff changes in development and it'd just have to get rewritten.

When you aim for different things, not specializing in one, the result is bound to be full with flaws, in every aspect. It´s clear it won´t end up like a "perfect" game

This is a very dangerous approach. If they will be like "well, this will not be perfect anyway, so whatever" - the game will never reach it's full potential. I'm exaggerating, of course, but point stands.

Assume there are a lot of them

I would like to know, not assume. Yeah, this may be considered as additional difficulty, but when you have multiple directions to defend, you can easily lose track of the monster count.

If you get enemies to walk through a powered, turreted room before reaching the place where your heroes make their stand against a wave

Actually, it's better to have modules and heroes in the same room, because modules will damage much more. But then the problem arises again - the modules should be able to defend a route by themselves, that's the point of "tower defence". If I already have heroes in the room, I don't really need any modules besides supportive ones. And if you want to make, like, two or three rooms in a row packed with modules... well, let's say, that this will be pretty costly for you.

A slower trickle of incoming monsters, or another few seconds to run across the map after dealing with something else

Well, this, without doubt is really useful indeed, I usually put some of them in vanguard rooms, but still, there are like, two or three useful modules, which is sad.

Randomized research is one of those roguelike things where you have to find a way to make the parts available to you somehow useful

Whilethis statement is absolutely true, I would also like to point out, that making all aspects of the game dependent on RNGesus is very dangerous idea. However, giving every ship the ability to choose science route may be a bad idea indeed, since it will simplify the game, but for science based runs (read: library ship), this should be a must.

"When you aim for different things, not specializing in one, the result is bound to be full with flaws, in every aspect. It´s clear it won´t end up like a "perfect" game

This is a very dangerous approach. If they will be like "well, this will not be perfect anyway, so whatever" - the game will never reach it's full potential. I'm exaggerating, of course, but point stands."



No, that´s not what I meant.

I was trying to say that the game will be off if you judge it from a RTS point of view, or any other genre point of view.

Because it´s impossible to make a perfect mixture of all of that. Some things of each genre will be featured where others will be sacrified. You have to see beyond all of that and consider the game one different genre.

One addition:

Knowing the exact number of mobs won´t help so much to deal with them. I´m not saying it´s useless or anything, but I´ve realised that the way I deduct how many monsters there are is how fast the hero life decreases xD

It´s the only thing that matters maybe.

Angelore wrote:


Actually, it's better to have modules and heroes in the same room, because modules will damage much more. But then the problem arises again - the modules should be able to defend a route by themselves, that's the point of "tower defence". If I already have heroes in the room, I don't really need any modules besides supportive ones. And if you want to make, like, two or three rooms in a row packed with modules... well, let's say, that this will be pretty costly for you.

> Seblasters. If you put them in a good place (i.e. at least 5 slots) + a neuro or a tear gases, assuming you built some others in the path the mobs took = no hero needed.



If you never had the possibility to research it : aim for the claymore. Still no claymore ? Tesla. No Tesla ? > Try to put some hero strategy based on support and defense module and vth. There is a lot to come with

1. ....

But I totally agree with your first point, as it is it's just messy, we should be able to know how many mobs are coming for us when they reach the light, or at least a room with a hero... and not just relly on the life decrease