Feedback after playthrough

[Harris]

Folktails, Plains, Normal difficulty

Sluices

I love them. At the bare minimum they allow to negate the entire Update 5 by regaining the ability to leave the game overnight to get a lot of science in the morning. I came up with elevated side passages for badwater to offramp that only come into play when sluices close automatically, so that's pretty cool.

I was also able to build a large water reservoir with a sluice at the very bottom to provide water as needed, and the dams at the very top as to not overflow. The problem I ran into was the need to keep everything on the way to my reservoir the same height as its top, else the stubborn water would do everything else but not reach higher levels.

Wonders

And these I don't like. I mean, it's not really a game if there's no way to beat it, so I suppose the wonders kind of address that? But still, it was a boring "throw a ton of resources to build it, then throw another ton to activate it". And there wasn't really any payoff or achievement, like it could be that droughts stop. Or you can discover new water sources on the map, not affected by seasons. Or your beavers learn to fly. Or.... as it stands, that boost to happiness is whatever, because by that time you're most likely to phase your beavers out for bots anyway - the game really encourages doing that. So I suggest looking into making some really cool, thematic and distinct rewards for it, that would make all the grind feel worth it.

Changing starting position

In order for this feature to make any sense, the maps would need to be redesigned with that in mind, it obviously wasn't intended initially. For example, Plains has the balanced central location with lots of wood, berries, water proximity with room to divert badwater away. The only potential alternatives are two spots to the north and to the south, which are way worse for their own reasons. I would theoretically want to start somewhere which makes sense long-term - like near a badwater source or a mine, but... those are not of any relevance in the early game, so I don't think that feature is really useful right now.

General impressions as of now

A year ago I reviewed the game negatively, and I had two major criticisms at the time.

First one is the game got too little to do with water and instead wants you to build those engines, gravity batteries and other stuff that frankly belongs in a different game. I was disappointed that water wheels is by far the worst way to generate power. And way I see it, update 6, despite water physics and all, does not really do a lot to change it.

Droughts make it impossible to rely on water wheels and basically force downtimes on you until you get to gravity batteries. It wasn't fun a year ago and isn't fun now. Folktails feel real handicapped this days without the ability to get infinite badwater flow for water wheels. They need some kind of thematic alternative, maybe badwater purifying.

And my second issue was that I don't really feel progression, and this complaint is still valid today. Everything is just... slow. It takes ages to get anything done. I recall being a tester for an indie game that had about 1.5 hours of content, and then they turned it into 100 hours by artificial padding of everything. That's the vibe I'm getting here. The districts system feels unwiedly and not feasible in the early game, like I'm not building and staffing all that's needed to get it work. Overextension then leads to beavers taking infinite time to get anything done. Low carry weight and low time before having to replenish needs is not helping either.

I wish there was a way to get handcarts for your beavers so that they carry more. A way to travel around the map faster, like maybe hand gliders or jetpacks. Elevators to make building those gravity battery skyscrapers actually tolerable. Maybe Folktails would have a mechanical beaver-operated elevator while Iron Teeth had a proper one? I wish there was a way to better organise where your beavers work and rest without making districts and building logistic chains to keep them running.

Right now part of me wants to fill that big map with life, plant fields everywhere and have a huge population of beavers. And another part of me realizes just how many hours it's gonna take of watching how logs get carried around one by one and my enthusiasm quickly goes away.

[jamiechi]

1. Sluices are good. Although as others have mentioned, their are still ways to improve them.
2. Also, don't care for the Wonders.
3. I find that editing the maps to change the starting positions works best.
4. I find that the Waterwheels work Much better in Experimental. Always getting power out now.
5. Droughts can be adjusted in the Custom settings when starting a new game. Also with Badwater. Editing the map helps with Badwater issues as well.
6. Districts work fine. They are not really useful or needed in the Early game anyway. Or even needed with the smaller maps.
7. I like the handcart idea. Maybe as something that can be researched for the Haulers.