Some feedback about balancing

[Luna plays]

Upfront: I really love the game, it is as cute and detailed as Stardew Valley and Graveyard Keeper, not developed as far, but I can see where it is heading. The pub is and stays fun thanks to the magic broom, just a fabulous idea ;)
Now to the downsides: The balancing at the animals is a bit off, to say the least. First of all they should not get that fast ill at good weather. My one cow got on the second day ill because I forgot to put her into the barn for one night. You should not get punished this fast. I would say maybe after 3 days outside the animal should get ill, not any earlier, because you still want the game to stay fun for the player and it is far too frustrating to see your animals ill.

Also the path finding seems to be a problem if you plant trees, hops and vines in front of the stable. My cow got stuck although I rang the bell and stayed by this outside. My cow gets also without any reason stuck inside the barren, it stands in the middle and doesn't come out although I rang and rang again ...but nothing. Then she slept in the middle of the barren, I believe she is suppost to go to her place for sleeping... but she didn't.

Second is the medicine. It is that expensive, that you could easily buy two new cows for the same price. I do believe it should be a quarter of the price of a new cow, because I slattered mine instead of buying medicine, because it was just not worth it. Honestly noone would buy such an expensive medicine if he is smart, except he hates slattering. It shouldn't cost more than 50 silver.
.
Next thing I would wish to see would be some water pump for the kitchen, because running back and forth to the well makes the game really grindy. It would be awesome to have somewhere the chance to learn to build a waterpump for inside in the crafting menu. Not in the beginning of the game, but after a while it would be a great help.

The employees are pretty expensive and useless. Compaired to what they earned. I believe the kitchen boy should cook meals, and the barkeeper should serve the drinks and food and clean tables as I do too if I open the pub. Only then it would be worth hiring them. As it is right now the player gets forced to run everything himself, because the money the employees generate is just far too few and the kitchen boy just stands around most of the time. Forgive me my direct words. It might still help you to balance some stuff :) At least I do hope so.

Thanks for reading and happy developing :)

[Aki-San]

for the water issue, just buy buckets until you have 99 buckets. you can click so fast, that filling up all 99 buckets only takes like 5-10 seconds.

nah, the kitchen staff early on still makes you more profit than if you would stuck in the tavern. you can craft tripple ingredients foods and beers and you need like 2 foots per hour to pay them, everything else is profit. but i get what you mean, i think adding a bouncer is not the best. the clerk should do that as well, since hes standing around 99% of the time..

[Luna plays]

Lol ...just buy 99 buckets instead of improving your game, just leave the grindy system and think the players will feel happy about it ...lol ...sorry can't take this serious. in early access it is of course understandable, but the game is so nice that the developer for sure doesn't intend on a long term to keep the players buying 99 buckets ...haha and a waterpump would be definitely great in the kitchen. You can of course keep running to the well if you don't want it :D

And the employees seemed really too expensive compaired to what they earn you, that is at least my humble opinion, you can of course feel different ;)

[admos]

Originally posted by Luna plays:

Lol ...just buy 99 buckets instead of improving your game, just leave the grindy system and think the players will feel happy about it ...lol ...sorry can't take this serious. in early access it is of course understandable, but the game is so nice that the developer for sure doesn't intend on a long term to keep the players buying 99 buckets ...haha and a waterpump would be definitely great in the kitchen. You can of course keep running to the well if you don't want it :D

And the employees seemed really too expensive compaired to what they earn you, that is at least my humble opinion, you can of course feel different ;)

The employees are cheap, 12s/h since even the starter items sell for 2s/3s per customer, and each hour is a minute. I agree with the other poster that once you can add 3 ingredients comfortably to any of the initial recipes, the employees will just make you profit while also giving you time to do crafting and gathering.

However, I agree with you that they should also kick out rude customers, because it doesn't make sense for you to keep coming back to the inn even though the busboy isn't doing any wiping, this issue leads to gaining negative reputation which is not ideal.

TLDR workers are worth if for money, but not for reputation.

[Luna plays]

I only tryed the employees one time, because they did earn me in a night maybe 50 silver while I did earn 3 gold or more. Not even mentioning what I payed for them. It is only something for lazy butts in my opinion. You just earn much less than you yourself do. And yes they should also throw rude customers out.

[Philtre]

Originally posted by Luna plays:

I only tryed the employees one time, because they did earn me in a night maybe 50 silver while I did earn 3 gold or more. Not even mentioning what I payed for them. It is only something for lazy butts in my opinion. You just earn much less than you yourself do.

The employees can run the dining room while you cook, plant/harvest crops, mine, or visit shops, which is a huge savings in your time. Once you get up to ~6 tables and enough tavern occupancy to keep them filled, you'll need to be making about 6 kegs of beer and a few hundred dishes of food per day, and you don't have enough time to run the dining room as well. The 12 silver per hour they cost is trivial at that point compared to the lost income from closing the tavern while you catch up on tasks that need to be done.

[Luna plays]

I guess we got a different playing style, I don't mind if I don't earn money while I go mining or collecting stuff and I enjoy running the tavern and it is not a game that is about money earning (all the time) to me, I guess I mind other things more. Yes you need money to be able to buy some stuff, but not really this much. But I am watching if it is worth leaving my business to some employees and to me it wasn't because the money I needed I earned far faster myself and the rest of the time I don't care if the tavern is closed. I could easily afford to leave the tavern closed. That's all I can say. If it is for you a good thing be happy with it, I felt as I already described it ;)

[Ciaran Zagami]

I think the water issue could be fixed by adding an internal tap as an unlockable upgrade.

But yeah, grind is the name of the game dude.

[Pumpkin Spice Latte]

Ive been playing for a few years, and my favorite thing to do with employees right now is just hiring the busboy as I stay behind the bar. Makes it so you can just walk in the back every so often to check your cooking. I also take Sundays off to do BIG cooking and brewing and all that jazz. I also don't open right as I wake up, I tend to open at around 11-12 so I can go shop.

[Shovah]

Thanks for your feedback, some points will be fixed in the next update!

[Luna plays]

Wonderful :) Looking forwards to it. :)