Some Things I'd Like To See

[Prepostersauce]

I have over 200 hours in this game and am still having a blast; the reason I am writing this is because of the reviews I've seen and wanting to see Dogubomb make a few compromises with their audience.

Don't get me wrong: I have the patience for all of the things I am about to list; I also understand, though, that others do not or can't make the same time commitments I've made with this game.

Here is my list of things that I think would bring this closer to the realm of roguelite while not taking away from the puzzles or intended atmosphere:

1 - Give us a hotkey to use the Master Key . To use this I have to select a menu, then the item, then wait for the animation. This item costs 80 gold in the Showroom, making it the most expensive "usable" item in the game, and despite that it is clunkier and more time-consuming to use than the lock picks . I think giving us a hotkey, say Q for PC players, so that we can use it as quickly as the one that lets us press E would make a huge difference in feel and time-consumption.

2 - Allow saving mid-run. This is something that some roguelites allow you to do (though not many) and should be implemented in a game where runs can take well over an hour depending on what you're working on (especially if there is a puzzle that requires you to basically wait for 40 minutes). This hasn't been an issue for me but is a big one for my friends with children. I think this one change will flip many reviews and nothing will be lost from the experience of the game.

3 - Numbers to interact with terminal options . If every menu (save for packet management ) had all it's options numbered and allowed us to use those numbers on a keyboard to navigate the menu: it would save time. I understand that there should be costs to using certain functionality aspects of the game but the clunkyness of menu navigation does nothing but frustrate. I think this change would be a big deal for the PC players (sorry console) and I would love to see it implemented.

4 - Post-46 shifts in animation locks. Some things like the secret garden wheels lock us into animations when we interact with them even though other, similar interactions do not (like pump room or boiler). I believe this animation lock works pre-46 to make sure your audience sees what is happening but post-46 it is just time-consuming and doesn't make much sense; if someone happens to discover this puzzle post-46 then they are already equipped with enough environmental awareness to piece together what is going on. I also feel like being able to hold right-click to skip many of the interaction cutscenes (opening antechamber doors, riding the boat, lighting blue-flame torches, etc.) post-46 would go a long way towards your audience feeling both rewarded for their success and respected for the investment they've made to get this far.

5 - A better ISP. I would LOVE to see an upgrade in the Gift Shop that allows me to upgrade the speed of connecting to other terminals remotely. I understand the current pace has an effect when speed-running and I wouldn't want to take away from the "is this time worth the gain?" decision-making involved in those interactions but post-46 I think this is not an issue. This would minimize a lot of frustration I've seen and give us yet another tangible reward for our patience and perseverance.

Other folks should feel free to chime in here but these are some things I believe would enhance the gameplay experience and make folks feel like their time is being respected.

Thank you for the amazing experience and I hope this game continues to grow, even if just a bit.

[Prepostersauce]

Forgot to add:

6 - Leave safes unlocked. The deposit boxes in the vault do not reset, the mechanical puzzles do not reset; it seems very odd for the safes to reset. I ask this directly to Dogubomb: do you think that entering a 4-digit combo for a puzzle you solved an extra 100 times after you solved it is fun? I don't mean this to be rude or condescending; I am just asking you to think about what you are asking of your audience and if it truly enhances the experience or bloats it.

[Prepostersauce]

7 - I think it would be fun and kind for the the jackhammer take less time to dig up the buried treasure than with a shovel (and have the jackhammer sound play instead of the shovel); it feels strange that this isn't already the case.

[dmeister]

All of these sound like good ideas (unless I missed something). Just touching briefly on some:

1 - On a tangent funnily enough I think the Compass might be an even better item than the Master Key for how I typically play despite it being under 2/3 the cost. Not that the Master Key is bad by any stretch, but I seem to find that later in the game I was having more trouble getting rooms oriented the way I wanted than getting blocked by locked doors.

2 - Amen on mid-run saves!

3 - I'm ambivalent about hotkeys since I play on controller. 🤷‍♂️ But yeah, I don't see a downside to the feature, it's not like it makes playing on controller worse.

4 - Speaking of unnecessary animations, once you've already picked up a given item once or twice it should just skip the pop-up and pause that shows you the description and just put it in your inventory. Yes, I'm picking up a shovel, I don't need the game to keep telling me every time I do that I can use a Shovel to dig for stuff. Just put the shovel in my inventory and if I want to manually look at it later for some reason it's easy to do from there.

And on a related note, a journal tab would be nice where you can view things you've already done like reread books or letters you've already read, see items or recipes you've already made, etc. (And yes, I know there's a book that has some of those features in the Library, I'm saying that should just be a tab you can access on demand versus something you specifically need to go to the Library to do.)

5 - Terminal speeds don't bother me much but if they got sped up I wouldn't mind either. 🤷‍♂️

6 - Amen to leaving combination safes staying unlocked. Which is actually how The Gallery already works, for instance. If The Gallery paintings can stay unlocked once you solve them there's no particular reason the other combination locks in the game can't all stay open too, assuming the combination doesn't change between runs for some reason (e.g. the Chess board puzzle having to be resolved every time is fine since the combination is never the same and depends on the layout.)

[red.hexapus]

Originally posted by Prepostersauce:

2 - Allow saving mid-run. This is something that some roguelites allow you to do (though not many) and should be implemented in a game where runs can take well over an hour depending on what you're working on (especially if there is a puzzle that requires you to basically wait for 40 minutes). This hasn't been an issue for me but is a big one for my friends with children. I think this one change will flip many reviews and nothing will be lost from the experience of the game.

This here is a deal-breaker for me, which caused me to refund the game even though I had enjoyed it. And the reason for me is exactly as for your friends.