Underport progression nitpick

[Aludofan12]

This may become obvious as the "where do I go after power station" posts continue to trickle in, but I also was at a loss as to where to go - I knew from marketing that I'd have to turn some power off, but I didn't really have any clues as to what exactly was expected.

I think what's supposed to happen is something like:
>Player hears the "I want to get into the double doors!" guard conversation shortly after entering the van der meer warehouse.
>Player finds the double doors and reads the note on the door
>The note hints that the door is kept shut via electricity
>Player goes to power station and turns off warehouse power as expected, returns to door
>Note inside manager's office indicates the way forward (I think. Not sure if the panic room where the demo ends will be the way forward in the future).

I ran into a few issues with this sequence of events, which I'll outline here:

-The manager's office/double doors are in a "weird" place, at least to me. Sequestered in a back hallway that would be really high-traffic (it's how you'd have to go from 1F to 2F if you worked there). Usually you think of the foreman's office overlooking the work area, but I think the idea here is "pompous paranoid boss hides away in luxury." The hall is well-lit and guarded by a camera so I admit that should have clued me into its importance, but there's a "power" sign right next to the door, so for all I know this is a generator room. There's even another unimportant room in this same hallway, so I didn't really think about this room being progress-critical.

-I totally avoided the note because it was right in the way of the security camera. Maybe overly cautious of me, but most of the guards in the area were still alive, and I didn't feel like risking my neck just to read a note that could be lore.

-A note in the power station itself explains the importance of toggling the power in one section of the district (which I believe we can't reach yet), but there's nothing to clue me in to the warehouse door thing. I'm kinda surprised there's no "Mr. Van Der Meer pays a lot for us to keep his security systems going! blah blah don't turn this off or the door opens" but maybe that's too hand-holdy?

-If the way forward really is in the panic room, it's odd to put the note indicating that in the office. If the player found it in e.g. the warehouse safe room it would act like a trailhead to get them wondering how they can investigate the manager etc. In the current game, I don't find out that I want to be in the manager's office until I've already accomplished it.

Anyway, I loved this update and was happy for 95% of the level. Like I said, this is just a nitpick that I'm sure would be smoothed out anyway, keep doing great work and I eagerly await the crowman nest!!

[500_pts]

Originally posted by Aludofan12:

This may become obvious as the "where do I go after power station" posts continue to trickle in, but I also was at a loss as to where to go - I knew from marketing that I'd have to turn some power off, but I didn't really have any clues as to what exactly was expected.

I think what's supposed to happen is something like:
>Player hears the "I want to get into the double doors!" guard conversation shortly after entering the van der meer warehouse.
>Player finds the double doors and reads the note on the door
>The note hints that the door is kept shut via electricity
>Player goes to power station and turns off warehouse power as expected, returns to door
>Note inside manager's office indicates the way forward (I think. Not sure if the panic room where the demo ends will be the way forward in the future).

I ran into a few issues with this sequence of events, which I'll outline here:

-The manager's office/double doors are in a "weird" place, at least to me. Sequestered in a back hallway that would be really high-traffic (it's how you'd have to go from 1F to 2F if you worked there). Usually you think of the foreman's office overlooking the work area, but I think the idea here is "pompous paranoid boss hides away in luxury." The hall is well-lit and guarded by a camera so I admit that should have clued me into its importance, but there's a "power" sign right next to the door, so for all I know this is a generator room. There's even another unimportant room in this same hallway, so I didn't really think about this room being progress-critical.

-I totally avoided the note because it was right in the way of the security camera. Maybe overly cautious of me, but most of the guards in the area were still alive, and I didn't feel like risking my neck just to read a note that could be lore.

-A note in the power station itself explains the importance of toggling the power in one section of the district (which I believe we can't reach yet), but there's nothing to clue me in to the warehouse door thing. I'm kinda surprised there's no "Mr. Van Der Meer pays a lot for us to keep his security systems going! blah blah don't turn this off or the door opens" but maybe that's too hand-holdy?

-If the way forward really is in the panic room, it's odd to put the note indicating that in the office. If the player found it in e.g. the warehouse safe room it would act like a trailhead to get them wondering how they can investigate the manager etc. In the current game, I don't find out that I want to be in the manager's office until I've already accomplished it.

Anyway, I loved this update and was happy for 95% of the level. Like I said, this is just a nitpick that I'm sure would be smoothed out anyway, keep doing great work and I eagerly await the crowman nest!!

Totally valid concerns for the current state of the game, but its also important to remember that this area is not actually progression, but rather a bonus for players who explore in the final intended layout of the game. The actual progression will be The Hive, it is just simply unavailable to players at the moment, so the only logical "end" we have is this area. The flow of this will certainly be changing when the hive is available, with feedback taken into account.

[Waltnut]

Originally posted by 500_pts:

Totally valid concerns for the current state of the game, but its also important to remember that this area is not actually progression, but rather a bonus for players who explore in the final intended layout of the game. The actual progression will be The Hive, it is just simply unavailable to players at the moment, so the only logical "end" we have is this area. The flow of this will certainly be changing when the hive is available, with feedback taken into account.

That makes perfect sense! The Power Station really did feel like the power grid from the Market, only bigger and better.

[Aludofan12]

Originally posted by 500_pts:

Totally valid concerns for the current state of the game, but its also important to remember that this area is not actually progression, but rather a bonus for players who explore in the final intended layout of the game. The actual progression will be The Hive, it is just simply unavailable to players at the moment, so the only logical "end" we have is this area. The flow of this will certainly be changing when the hive is available, with feedback taken into account.

Cool and good to know! Thank you for the reply, I'm really looking forward to the nest and collecting our first crest!