Mild Negativity Dump regarding PPG

[Silver]

Things I dislike about PPG, agree or disagree, discuss to your heart's content, it's why I'm posting it as opposed to simply ranting to a friend is cuz I wanna know what people think of it:

IN-GAME STUFF:
Lack of a good stabbing tool. The Knife kinda sucks, and is super particular about the angle you're using, the Spear and Lance, while fun, are entirely too large to be practical in the hands of a Human, and nailgun nails/spike grenade spikes are easily the best one, but can't be spawned singularly nor held in-hand by people.

Lack of the variety in the Powers menu. Push, pull, and explode. That's about all there is there. Even the Lightning power, which could easily be my favorite if reworked to simply discharge a directional static field, is hair-triggered and hard to use with any amount of precision due to it, and is basically another "blow things up" tool, of which there are MANY in PPG.

Lack of damage type variety in general. You can burn things, electrocute things, shoot, stab, crush, explode and disintegrate. And that's it. No suffocating, no heart attacks, no stimulus overload induced brain death. No acid sprayer, no radiation-based weaponry (or radiation in general), no extensive poisons.

Lack of utility machines. I will admit, this is a minor one, and they have been gradually putting things in that resolve this criticism (such as the Liquidentifier, Heart Monitor, Cardiopulmonary Bypass Machine, etc.), but if I were to talk specifics, there's nothing that can really tell you what specific injuries a person's afflicted by, to my knowledge.

Lack of clarity as to how the over-all kill counter works; i.e., if killing a person, bringing them back with immortality serum, then killing them again would give you two points, or just one, or if resurrection removes a point, or anything about how it works.

OUT-OF-GAME-STUFF:
The suggestions Github sucks to try and use. That's about it honestly, just not a very intuitive system.

And I bet you're wondering,
"Why don't you just mod?"
Easy answer,

OUTSIDE-OF-DEV-CONTROL-STUFF:
The workshop just sucks. You've got about 80% of mods that are human reskins, another 10% that's weapon reskins, another 7% that's props, and then the remaining 3%? That's mechanically unique, original content. And it breaks every, single update and patch.

Over-all? Love this game, fun sandbox, love making machines and finding any new thing to use against the funny little 2D ragdoll men. But over-all, I feel like there's a lot of room for improvement.
Thoughts?

[Bonus!]

I agree so much with the melee sections, especially with the spear and what not. Honestly get the military weapons and armour mod, makes the game a lot more fun. There are still some good mods just gotta look a little harder. I do also agree with the whole point on the body count that should have a "statistics" section somewhere in the menu. I try not to go too hard on the game because it is impressive for what it is but I do agree with what you're saying.

[MrNegotiator]

i agree with this so much.
i havent played ppg due to the lack of stuff. 200 hours of fun, we need more. the mods are repetitive at this point now.

[MrNegotiator]

and i would love if they added a more in depth bone and nerve system. maybe senses for humans, so they can kinda react (toggleable in settings).
i would also like more in depth brain system. the brain right now has no use except being a trigger for the human to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ die.

[MrNegotiator]

i also would like comas to be added. maybe some more human combat things

[Silver]

Originally posted by Bonus!:

I agree so much with the melee sections, especially with the spear and what not. Honestly get the military weapons and armour mod, makes the game a lot more fun. There are still some good mods just gotta look a little harder. I do also agree with the whole point on the body count that should have a "statistics" section somewhere in the menu. I try not to go too hard on the game because it is impressive for what it is but I do agree with what you're saying.

See,
The body count does have a stats menu, it's in Player Statistics, but it still doesn't clarify things very well at all. For instance,
I screw around with immortality serum a lot,
My player stats page says I've killed 13,709 entities total. But as the player, I have no idea if that includes people I've killed multiple times, if it excludes, or if it accounts for it in the slightest.
And it tracks Entities Resurrected, but it's icon is just the healing syringe, and I have no idea if it accounts for the Zombie Syringe, Immortality Serum, or the Reconstructor gun.

As for the weapons mod thing,
No thanks. I'd much rather things simply be done on an official level, whatever that may look like. But I will acknowledge there are good mods, there are, and I'll also say, again, that there really isn't anything that can be done by the devs about a lame workshop selection.

I also try not to go terribly hard on the game, because again, I do love it, I have a lot of hours in it and will have plenty more, I just figured "Y'know what, I'm gonna go find out if my few criticisms of this game are widely agreeable or not", and so here we are.

[144hz_pistolmaniac]

please define "human reskin" and "weapon reskin" for me please, what even qualifies as a reskin? your extremely vague about what is a good mod and what is a reskin

[Silver]

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

please define "human reskin" and "weapon reskin" for me please, what even qualifies as a reskin? your extremely vague about what is a good mod and what is a reskin

Pardon my vaguery, I just didn't expect I'd have to redefine basic terminology regarding the digital medium for somebody.
But basically,
Mods that
A, Add nothing but humans with different textures and no separate functionality
B, Add nothing but weapons already present in the game, with different textures and no functionality beyond what the weapon already in the game does.

And don't you dare tell me they don't exist, they do, I've seen them, you've probably seen them, everybody I talk to who plays the game has seen them and, while mostly ambivalent towards them, agrees that their majority presence in lieu of genuine content additions on the workshop as a whole is just a teensy bit underwhelming.

[Silver]

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

please define "human reskin" and "weapon reskin" for me please, what even qualifies as a reskin? your extremely vague about what is a good mod and what is a reskin

And, even though the workshop thing was a miniscule part of my over-all post, and seemingly the only part you read- Or at least, the only part you acknowledge -I am willing to link examples of what I, personally, consider both good and not-so-good mods.

[144hz_pistolmaniac]

Originally posted by Liz:

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

please define "human reskin" and "weapon reskin" for me please, what even qualifies as a reskin? your extremely vague about what is a good mod and what is a reskin

Pardon my vaguery, I just didn't expect I'd have to redefine basic terminology regarding the digital medium for somebody.
But basically,
Mods that
A, Add nothing but humans with different textures and no separate functionality
B, Add nothing but weapons already present in the game, with different textures and no functionality beyond what the weapon already in the game does.

And don't you dare tell me they don't exist, they do, I've seen them, you've probably seen them, everybody I talk to who plays the game has seen them and, while mostly ambivalent towards them, agrees that their majority presence in lieu of genuine content additions on the workshop as a whole is just a teensy bit underwhelming.

and what does that functionality include? custom powers? hats?

[Silver]

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

Originally posted by Liz:

Pardon my vaguery, I just didn't expect I'd have to redefine basic terminology regarding the digital medium for somebody.
But basically,
Mods that
A, Add nothing but humans with different textures and no separate functionality
B, Add nothing but weapons already present in the game, with different textures and no functionality beyond what the weapon already in the game does.

And don't you dare tell me they don't exist, they do, I've seen them, you've probably seen them, everybody I talk to who plays the game has seen them and, while mostly ambivalent towards them, agrees that their majority presence in lieu of genuine content additions on the workshop as a whole is just a teensy bit underwhelming.

and what does that functionality include? custom powers? hats?

Hats aren't functionality, they're cosmetic. Cosmetic functionality isn't functionality.

But generally,
It's either just a separate human NPC with a different texture, but ultimately the exact same as a human. No "custom powers", no nothing, a human with a different texture. Y'know, a reskin.

What are you getting at, anyways? It's a discussion, not a game of 20 Vaguely Upset Sounding Questions, feels like you're one post away from blowing up at me lmao

[144hz_pistolmaniac]

Originally posted by Liz:

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

and what does that functionality include? custom powers? hats?

Hats aren't functionality, they're cosmetic. Cosmetic functionality isn't functionality.

But generally,
It's either just a separate human NPC with a different texture, but ultimately the exact same as a human. No "custom powers", no nothing, a human with a different texture. Y'know, a reskin.

What are you getting at, anyways? It's a discussion, not a game of 20 Vaguely Upset Sounding Questions, feels like you're one post away from blowing up at me lmao

i make mods or your so called "reskins" silly, i know a thing or two about ppg

[144hz_pistolmaniac]

Originally posted by Liz:

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

and what does that functionality include? custom powers? hats?

Hats aren't functionality, they're cosmetic. Cosmetic functionality isn't functionality.

But generally,
It's either just a separate human NPC with a different texture, but ultimately the exact same as a human. No "custom powers", no nothing, a human with a different texture. Y'know, a reskin.

What are you getting at, anyways? It's a discussion, not a game of 20 Vaguely Upset Sounding Questions, feels like you're one post away from blowing up at me lmao

and the thing is, people go crazy for human reskins, every high res military mod for example, or gun mods such as magdump mayhem or firearmada

[Silver]

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

Originally posted by Liz:

Hats aren't functionality, they're cosmetic. Cosmetic functionality isn't functionality.

But generally,
It's either just a separate human NPC with a different texture, but ultimately the exact same as a human. No "custom powers", no nothing, a human with a different texture. Y'know, a reskin.

What are you getting at, anyways? It's a discussion, not a game of 20 Vaguely Upset Sounding Questions, feels like you're one post away from blowing up at me lmao

i make mods or your so called "reskins" silly, i know a thing or two about ppg

Well, I don't recall namedropping your mods in particular, nor do I recall saying you didn't "know a thing or two about ppg", in fact, I remember expressing basically the opposite sentiment when you played dumb about what a reskin is.

That said, I did get the feeling in my gut I was talking to a workshopper when you immediately came off slightly bitter and condescending. Rest assured, I wasn't talking about your mods. I've never seen them, and whatever they may be, I probably didn't have them in mind when I wrote the post, though if you'd like, I can take a peek at them, give some honest feedback on the overall quality.

But, back to the topic at hand,
Did you have anything insightful or constructive to add to the discussion?

[Silver]

Originally posted by skalesfan2011:

Originally posted by Liz:

Hats aren't functionality, they're cosmetic. Cosmetic functionality isn't functionality.

But generally,
It's either just a separate human NPC with a different texture, but ultimately the exact same as a human. No "custom powers", no nothing, a human with a different texture. Y'know, a reskin.

What are you getting at, anyways? It's a discussion, not a game of 20 Vaguely Upset Sounding Questions, feels like you're one post away from blowing up at me lmao

and the thing is, people go crazy for human reskins, every high res military mod for example, or gun mods such as magdump mayhem or firearmada

And?
People go crazy for crystal meth, that doesn't mean crystal meth is a healthy addition to the medicinal industry.

[zooi]

Originally posted by Liz:

Lack of a good stabbing tool.

The stabbing system could use some work, especially to do with slicing. It makes no sense that it's a direct stab or nothing.

Originally posted by Liz:

Lack of the variety in the Powers menu.

You are right. Powers just weren't as much fun as I thought they were going to be.

Originally posted by Liz:

Lack of damage type variety in general. [...] No suffocating, no heart attacks, no stimulus overload induced brain death. No acid sprayer, no radiation-based weaponry (or radiation in general), no extensive poisons.

I'd love to add a fully realised radiation and disease system. Aside from that, you can suffocate people by puncturing their lungs or drowning them.

Originally posted by Liz:

Lack of utility machines. [...] there's nothing that can really tell you what specific injuries a person's afflicted by, to my knowledge.

You can always open the Inspect view to see what entities are suffering from exactly. I am avoiding adding objects that are too specific, and adding some kind of general medical analysis object would be kind of strange. I do want to add a lot more medical machinery though.

Originally posted by Liz:

Lack of clarity as to how the over-all kill counter works; i.e., if killing a person, bringing them back with immortality serum, then killing them again would give you two points, or just one, or if resurrection removes a point, or anything about how it works.

Death is vague. The game considers brain-death as "real death" but you could argue that a person with a stopped heart or no blood at all is also dead, even though this may not immediately cause brain-death. The kill counter can only ever increment. Murder -> revive -> murder will count as two deaths.

Originally posted by Liz:

The suggestions Github sucks to try and use

Issue trackers are widely used... it doesn't seem that complicated. I can't think of anything better.

---

Cool post, genuinely helpful. I rarely get valuable feedback so this is neat. If you want to know what I hope this game is going to turn into you can read the project board[github.com].