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Discussions Rules and Guidelines
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But yeah, from a story perspective it sucks knowing that I really didn't improve the planet at all, and all my Loddle friends will be recontaminated eventually.
This was definitely the weakest part of the game for me. Loved it overall, but once you unlock the microplastic vacuum, travel becomes extremely tedious as all the biomes are far away, and you have to make the long trek back and forth very frequently. The game could have definitely benefited from a seamoth-like vehicle, or at least better boost upgrades.
Or just... don't require those resources in crafts. I mean, why not just use the bits? It's not like the toys are even that essential. I'm not really sure what this adds to the game, it just gives some justification for the biomes getting dirty again but if you could just use the refined bits for toys, there wouldn't be any negatives for removing the biome recontamination at all.
I guess it is meant to be a short and sweet game, like you clean, you leave but the map does almost hint it could get bigger so an infinite boost and bigger storage I would ask for if the game ever does get expanded.
The goop regeneration rate actually does decrease with each biome you clean, but it's not a very noticeable difference in the current build, so we'll be adjusting that a bit!
We'll also be implementing a "biome protection period" that will start whenever a biome has been 100% cleaned. During this period, no litter or goop will respawn in that biome. We're hoping this will give players more time to explore other biomes without worrying about older locations becoming quickly re-contaminated. This period will reactivate each time a biome is brought to 100% clean.
Our main intent behind the re-contamination was to avoid trivializing the concept of cleaning our own oceans, as we didn't want to portray such an big environmental task as a "one and done" thing. We also wanted to encourage people to revisit biomes, sort of like how you need to clean up a fish tank every once and a while. Lastly, we added litter respawning because otherwise there'd be a chance for someone to accidentally use all of their resources on bombs or loddle toys, effectively locking them out of crucial upgrades required to progress through the game.
That was our intent, but we totally understand how the current balance of things can be frustrating and/or unsatisfying! In addition to the biome protection period, we'll also be making the following changes:
• Litter and goop will have their respawn rates reduced across the board.
• Litter and goop will no longer respawn in the areas outside of biomes.
• Loddles with the cleaning ability will be able to clear the goop off of goopy loddles that are nearby. The same goes for Purifying Bombs and the Water Purifier structure.
Anyway, that was an overly long explanation of the whole re-contamination system, but we see and understand all the comments about its current place in the game, so I just wanted to be fully transparent about our thought process!
Again, thank you all for giving us such thoughtful feedback. We really do value criticism like this, as this is our first game and we know we won't get everything 100% right. Seeing this sort of discussion gives us hope that there's enough in this game to make it all worth caring about, and that with just a few tweaks it'd be that much more enjoyable to many more people! And of course, we're always appreciative of the fact that you've all chosen to play Loddlenaut <3
Regarding inventory, we're looking closely at this and seeing what we can do to reduce the amount of early-game litter that appears in late-game areas, so hopefully your inventory won't get clogged up so fast with tiny things like soda cans and glass bottles. Beyond that, we'll be looking at inventory expansions (either as an upgrade or just a baseline increase).
I think if that's your intent, you should change the ending text to hint that periodic patrols will check in on the planet to clean up what remains of the debris until the planet is free of pollution. That would make more sense and leave us with less of a hollow feeling like we're abandoning the world.
There actually is a system already in place that turns off all ambient goop recontamination in the world once you clean the final biome, meaning that by the time you leave GUP-14, it's somewhat accurate when the ending says "The planet can now heal on its own," especially with the idea that the loddles (and their evolved abilities) will effectively replace the role that the player had on GUP-14.
The ambient recontamination will turn back on if you play the game for long enough in the "endgame" phase. This is for people who just want to keep the core gameplay loop going, post-credits!
With the way that everything is respawning a bit too frequently in the current build, I think it's difficult to tell that global recontamination has been disabled after you clean that final biome, so we hope the changes in the next patch will make that a bit clearer.
Litter respawning is not turned off at the end, but that will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
if recontamination is disabled upon cleaning all biomes, it might not be for very long. im eleven hours into a save, many hours after given the option to leave gup-14 and i dont remember it ever being disabled. but it seems to only be litter and goop; microplastics and the scrub brush mess i havent seen recontaminated. wouldnt mind an occasional reason to use the other two of the three tools
I get that sometimes, indies want their games to not misrepresent real-world issues (and sometimes huge corporations also claim this but, unlike studios like Mojang, I assume small indie devs are actually being sincere about this) but the problem you're gonna run into pretty often is that making a game too realistic will clash with making it feel enjoyable or satisfying. I also don't really think it's as necessary to have that element of realism in a game with fantasy plants and a stylized aesthetic. If it were designed as an immersive sim using real-world plants and locations that featured actual contamination, I'd understand the dedication.
I don't think you should opt to make a chore out of playing a video game just to avoid accidentally misrepresenting a real-world issue when it does not represent the real world in any other way. You also cannot just go up to wild animals and pet them either (this is actually an incredibly bad idea) but your game makes that a mechanic.
Thank you for your thoughts. Ultimately, the choices we made for this game are a reflection of our own personal preferences as creators.
We definitely think there are some improvements that can (and will) be implemented to bring the overall experience even more in line with our general intent, but in terms of the message we're leaving with most people and the narrative design choices we've made, we're happy for this game to serve as a reflection of us as designers at this moment in our lives.
As much as Loddlenaut is a game that's being sold on Steam, it's still a personal creation of ours, not just an entertainment product. That means that it won't always connect with everyone, and that's okay! What some may consider to be a "chore," others may find rewarding. Words like "enjoyable" and "satisfying" can often be very subjective, and it's completely alright if we disagree on what fulfills those qualities. So far, it seems like Loddlenaut has resonated with a decent amount of people on one level or another, and for that we are incredibly grateful.
I'd also wager most of the positive coverage is by people who didn't play long enough to realize the game eats your progress overtime, while the people in this thread who take issue with it are the ones who wanted to play for longer. Most people play a game to completion and then put it down, so they would probably not even realize this is a problem if they're beelining it.
Which makes the complaint mostly about a lack of endgame QoL. IME most people just don't play games to completion.
Edit" Also, I think there should probably be some benefit to you if a particular biome is over 90% clean, since that clean amount decays, because that would create a proper sense of reward without taking away the decay. Probably something like, food grows faster, or the biome at 90% also slows the decay of adjacent biomes, capped at say, 50%.
Edit2: To clarify: I mean the rate of decay could be slowed at a cap of 50% (as an example) depending on how clean (above the 90% threshold) the biomes directly adjacent to that biome are. (Excluding the transitional biome areas, which will no longer have decay in the update.) I'm not talking about the decay itself capping. I wasn't sure if my initial edit was too ambiguous.
Also, maybe for biomes along the edge, the "out of bounds" areas could just be considered, internally, to always be at a flat 95% clean so the math evens out across all biomes for the decay slowdown?