NOTE: After perusing some of the suggestions for myself and reading the GDDs that the devs have posted on this forum, the summary from Steam has changed. I've taken out one of the sections mostly referring to various improvements and tweaks that could be applied to the UI and suggestions regarding the Tactical Overlay of the game. Those I feel are better taken up in their own sections of the GDDs. This post here will mostly be about addressing the current gameplay as of DotE alpha 0.1.0. Chances are I'll probably be updating this post as time wears on.



Since I've somehow found myself pretty invested in this game, I've been paying attention to a bunch of the suggestions that have been said and thought I might be able to give something of a summary of them; by no means am I taking credit for any of these, except for ones I note as such. (Incoming wall of text, btw. :P)



DISCLAIMER: The suggestions contained within are ones that I thought were pertinent to the discussion of current gameplay. You may disagree with what is in this summary.



1. Current Progression

As of now, with the game still in its very early stages, there has emerged a simple strategy to beating it: have a witty hero, build a food mod (and some industry ones too), build out a little, get a lot of food (or industry), fill out your roster of heroes (and thereby produce more), find the exit, run the crystal to the exit. If you're careful with the way you explore, by the time you finish the first floor, you'll have a fairly large pool of resources to fall back on if things get hairy in the second or third.



Wit at the moment is the main reason why this is happening; the bonus you can get from having a 10 (or if OPbot 20+) wit hero on a mod is huge and the cost of things is relatively low comparatively (you can easily produce +20 of either resource per door if things are going well; levels/heals/turrets/mods are easily financed at that rate). The result is a big snowball effect, which in turn makes the game pretty easy to complete (probably 80% and above) and doesn't encourage a lot of thinking outside it. As a note: this is still pretty fun (though some would disagree), but could be improved.



Some of the suggestions have included:

• Tone down the Wit bonus somehow or change how mechanic works
• Add some kind of risk/reward element to Wit keeping mechanic roughly similar
• Having to choose between economy or defense: rooms could only support an econ mod or a number of defenses but not both
  
  

Personally, I kind of like how the mechanic works right now, since it's rather simple to understand. One of the things that I found while I was spelunking on these forums was the GDD on Energy & Modules, which I think has a good solution to the current problem. That is, if Wit gave a low set bonus which increased over time (greater Wit means bonus accumulation is faster) provided a lack of interruption such as not having to fight monsters in the room, then we could have a mechanic which rewards the player for keeping that hero out of the way, but at the same time, means one less hero to fight with which could be risky; a particularly strong monster wave might call for it, thus causing you to lose the bonus you've worked up. This in tandem with the third suggestion feels like a solid answer to the problem of the game's current progression.



2. Risk and Reward

As it stands, there isn't a lot of incentive to play differently than what I've described; it provides the safest way to finish the game. But more often then not, the safest way isn't always the way that's the most fun; I take it the player wishes to have to take the various situations he or she is presented with and make the most of them, that's part of the excitement of the game. This is well done in the example of merchants (I note that others don't share my opinion on this subject) you encounter in the dungeons: Do you spend your dust now or later? If you do it now, your heroes might be stronger but you can't power certain rooms you need. If you do it later, the merchant might die if you aren't able to power and defend his room (this is why I think the crystal exploit ought to be removed; decisions like this can be easily side-stepped, which detracts from the game ultimately). The point is that a good risk/reward mechanic makes the player think about his or her decisions, and those decisions will matter in the game.



A few suggestions have been made to this effect like:

• Multiple party member exploration - opening multiple doors at once, some sort of bonus (additional resources, etc.) could be applied
• Certain rooms powered positively or negatively affect those within (room types is already a discussion being had)
• Rooms, once powered, can't be powered off - maybe a separate mode?
• Separate risks involved with different heroes - bonuses for doing things out of role? (eg. speedy hero opening doors, witty hero fighting, etc.)
• Pseudo-experience - heroes that do a lot of front-line fighting (and thus are more likely to die) also level in so doing.
• A command point cap on turrets/mods so as to prevent spamming
  
  

As something I thought of just recently, if there was something like damage types with regards to turrets that makes them effective against certain kinds of mobs but useless against others, or as I saw mentioned elsewhere, a bonus against certain sized mobs, it might make things a bit more interesting than just spamming claymores when you have the industry to do so. I don't think this should apply to heroes, as it would make them more difficult to use; I feel as though the defences should aid in the heroes' ability to kill monsters but not overshadow them.



3. Final Notes

This isn't really a suggestion but I think it's pertinent to say; in summarizing I don't mean to say that this is all the game is, there's obviously a lot more that is to be added to the game that is going to change it: there's science, skills, Endless ruins, other monster types (we haven't seen a summoner or buff/debuff monsters yet), and oh so much more. This isn't meant to be a judgement. However, what the developers have said is that they wish to test the core gameplay and get feedback about it; that's exactly what we are doing. I'm really excited for this thing, I think it's going to be great, and it's only going to get better especially if we lay it out for the developers in a well-organized fashion. That's what this aims to do and I hope it will generate some good discussion about the game in its current state.

It good to bring up these points still, even though the game is still bones and little meat right now with "design flaws" simply because its missing a key element like or what not.



Pfff... wall of text. I've seen much worse, I've seen the text form its own motte and Bailey complete with guards and a keep.