Questions about Gameplay

[HOGuru]

Hi! I played the game on stream tonight, and found it interesting, but baffling. The game doesn't do a great job of explaining what the player is supposed to do or how. It's clear that paying into the generators creates power than can be fed into the power station, but it's not clear what those power settings do when energy is fed to them. Yes, lights are turning on, but where, and for how long?

Each time I start the game I go through the generator sequence and get my gun - maybe allow people to skip this after they've done it once? No reason to force them to do that training bit over and over again. After getting the gun, I head to floor fifteen and reconnect the power, then a huge wave of zombies turns up in the lower levels and kills me each time. It's not clear how to avoid this - maybe I'm going to floor 15 too early? I don't know what else there is to do first, so I'm at a loss.

Any guidance you can give (or perhaps slip into the game)?

[CaveDave]

Hello HOGuru,

at first, Thank you for playing my game!

If you did not check it yet, go to ingame options and open Game Help, maybe it helps a little more to understand the power topic.

You are definetly right about a skipping option for the "intro". I will patch this today/tomorrow.

Also I will provide tipps and some guidance as soon as I can here on the "Guides" tab.

You got those 3 main power channel:

Light: Increase characters chance of noticing items or things to interact with. If you don't have enough light to see things, there will pop up a small "?".
It also increase the shooting accuracy (headshot chance). Also notice that the closer your character is to an enemy, the greater its headshot chance becomes!

Security: Is needed to open doors. It also provides a better defence against zombies coming through the security corridor on floor 16 on the left side. The more Security you have the less zombies will come through. Notice that they will never be stopped completely regardless of your security energy! It will also feed security barricades with energy in the late game on its own. (The more security you have, the more energy the barricades have)

Elevator: Is needed to use the elevator. Elevator doors included.

Zombies in lower levels always appears when the night begins! If you are not sure if the night has already arrived, check your wrist watch for time. Zombies will always go the direct route to your character.

You ALWAYS have to make sure the alarm is off! There will spawn endless zombies until the alarm is turned off.

I will provide more information or a gameplay if wanted to show one way of playing the first couple of waves.

Thank you for your feedback!

[CaveDave]

Ok I added a SKIP INTRO option when you start a new game

[HOGuru]

And it works great!

I have another couple of notes as well as some requests!

Bugs to report:
1 - Occasionally I'll use the power distributor and the buttons will stop working - I won't be able to change them, or even stop interacting with the console. If I quit to title and reload it fixes this, generally.
2 - I set off the alarm by running out of security points, but when I went to the lever and reset it, I wasn't able to interact with the power console, which caught me in the loop of the alarm starting over and over again with no way to stop it. I was forced to quit and restart the game.
3 - I went to the observation area and started exploring, but when I went into a room with a giant man walking around my character was stuck in the middle of the room, unable to move. I could face left and right, and shoot, but couldn't move - I was forced to quit to title and continue playing - I've double-checked, and it happened both times.
4- I left my barricades on one of the upper levels and now can't go back there - are they gone forever, or is there a way to get them back?

I have videos of these glitches if you'd like to see them in action.

Now, a couple of requests-

1 - I think I know how to make the workings of the power system immediately clear to the player - could you put a little note after each power meter telling the player what the change in the next hour is going to be? That way, when they see that lights start at -5 or whatever, and they put in 10 points of power and see it go up to +5, they'll immediately understand how the system operates.

2 - The guns' ammo counter is so small that it's almost impossible to read - and since it's tied to the gun itself, so it waves around the screen all the time. Maybe consider moving it to the big blank space at the top-right of the screen?

3 - This is the most controversial statement, so I saved it for last - maybe you could make it so players don't lose progress when playing on Easy? Like, when they die, instead of resetting everything, let them keep the unlocks and upgrades they've already made. They'd still have to start the game and get the green keycard, but once they do that, they'd have access to the previously unlocked and upgraded guns, turrets and barricades. I know this would make the game a lot easier, but since easy mode is mostly there to teach people how to play the game and prepare them for the ranked mode, I feel like it would help people get into the game!

Thanks for your time!

[HOGuru]

Oh, one more thing I neglected to mention - I made a mistake and filled up the coin slot on the locker that has the STG44 plans inside it, but didn't open the locker. Then I had to quit the game (because I was trapped in the observation room with the tall man) and when I went back, the locker cannot be opened even though the coins are full, forever locking away my ability to upgrade the STG44.

[HOGuru]

Whoops - one last thing - I spent the coins to knock over the drink machine on level 24, but after quitting and loading it was standing up again. It still works as a barrier - the zombies get stuck behind it - but it looks like it's standing up again.

[CaveDave]

Thank you for your feedback HOGuru, I will try to work on the bugs first. I will let you know about it asap. EDIT: Yes a video would be helpful as well... You can post a link and set it to private or something.

[HOGuru]

Gotcha! I'll cut together the various issues and post it here for you (unlisted, of course).

Unrelated question - can you kill the talking jumping zombie, or do you just have to keep driving him off?

[CaveDave]

If you dont mind you can come on my discord server, for better communication, then here
https://discord.gg/JsE8xe

[CaveDave]

Ok I have fixed the
- Alarm lever / Power Distributor
- That you can't move is on purpose and is something like a "cut scene" you have to watch it
(I might change that in the future) As soon as the dialog ends from the ugly dude, you can go on.
- the Snack automat should be fixed, im not quit sure what the problem was cause it worked for me right in the beginning. But i found something I hope that was the problem.
- You can now PAY but still dont take locker stuff like the stg44 plan,save,load and then take it

You have to defend against him. Yet you cannot finaly kill him.

The barricades are gone for ever for the moment, I will fix this tomorrow or later on.

Now I will read and think over your other requests.

Consider joinin the discord, for faster response for both sides :)

You can now download the patch.

Cheers

As soon as there are new bugs, contact me as soon as you can :)

[Ardillon92]

Hi how do we know how many coins we have picked up?

[CaveDave]

Originally posted by Ardillon92:

Hi how do we know how many coins we have picked up?

Hey Ardillon,
You don't know the exact amount of coins you have. You only can look at the stack of coins you have while pressing the "build menu" button (xbox pad = RB / or left mouse) This was an intended game design decission. Do you feel like you have to know the exact amount?

[RS_Chan]

Is it possible to go back to a floor you connected power to? Asking because I encountered a locker on Floor 13 if I remember but I didn't have enough coins so I went back down to get some more. Afterwards, I tried going back to the same floor but it won't let me to get that locker. Is it possible maybe in a future update to only go back to floors that you forgot to get items on while the others are locked to prevent this from happening?

[HOGuru]

Originally posted by CaveDave:

Originally posted by Ardillon92:

Hi how do we know how many coins we have picked up?

Hey Ardillon,
You don't know the exact amount of coins you have. You only can look at the stack of coins you have while pressing the "build menu" button (xbox pad = RB / or left mouse) This was an intended game design decission. Do you feel like you have to know the exact amount?

One vote here for 'keep the stack of coins rather than exact number' design. I think it's a nice look, and you quickly learn to eyeball the amount.

[Ardillon92]

Originally posted by CaveDave:

Originally posted by Ardillon92:

Hi how do we know how many coins we have picked up?

Hey Ardillon,
You don't know the exact amount of coins you have. You only can look at the stack of coins you have while pressing the "build menu" button (xbox pad = RB / or left mouse) This was an intended game design decission. Do you feel like you have to know the exact amount?

Yes that seems essential to me to develop good tactics.

[CaveDave]

Originally posted by michael123qw:

Is it possible to go back to a floor you connected power to? Asking because I encountered a locker on Floor 13 if I remember but I didn't have enough coins so I went back down to get some more. Afterwards, I tried going back to the same floor but it won't let me to get that locker. Is it possible maybe in a future update to only go back to floors that you forgot to get items on while the others are locked to prevent this from happening?

Yet, you can not go back to a floor you have already enabled.
It should be the case that you gain enough coins on the floor to be able to afford the locker.
If not, then just don't connect the power curcuit before beeing sure you got everything done on that floor, just go back and come again later :)
I might think about that and put it on my list for future updates.

Originally posted by Ardillon92:

Yes that seems essential to me to develop good tactics.

If you keep playing you will notice that it does not make a difference that much. Its more about what you will invest in next in general based on what you think are your needs instead of the amount of coins you have. If more people will bring this up and share the opinion they need the exact amount I will patch it in.