Demo Feedback

[TwinniePooh]

I'm loving the vibe of the game, the art is great, the design feels unique and fresh. That said, I have a few thoughts from my short time with the demo.

General Thoughts

Cultural Square
The text on the Cultural Square is confusing. "Components contributing to the Score". It's written in a way that implies this is a list of items that ARE affecting the score, but it appears to be a list of items that CAN affect the score.

This might only be a problem in the demo/tutorial, but having to place a Square without knowing it's radius is frustrating. Although I suspect in later levels when you start with Squares unlocked you place one of them first and build around it, so might not be a huge concern.

Controls
Some of what I'm about to talk about I know can be fixed with custom keybinds that aren't an option in the demo, but some of it I don't think can. Such as the building menu. Having to hit "F3" & "F4" to toggle menus is awful. Anyway we can get that working with the mouse wheel? Mouse wheel works with Cultural Square components list. That's the biggest one for me but in general most of the controls feel a little out of touch with what's standard these days in a lot of city building games, very little felt natural.

Example: A to reduce employees, but S to add? Why not A-, D+? Left, right? Why is it Left and Down? That's just silly. Also I can mouse left click to add a worker but right click doesn't remove one, I HAVE to use the button on the side or they keybind?? Also silly.

Field Lab
The plant analysis aspect of the game I like but man is the Field Lab tedious. They research things very quickly and then I have to select item by item 1 at a time what to research again. I would really love a way to automate this a bit.

On the same note, could we get some Plant/Research status when hovering over a plant? When choosing which plant to Analyze, a popup showing what is currently known about the plant, what information is missing, and if that specific plant meets one of the "extra" Needs analysis criteria would be amazing. Basically I just want the menu that appears when you click on a plant, but with a highlight around a met "need" so the player instantly knows if that plant will unlock new information. It's tedious to have to go around and click on every single plant 1 by 1 to learn information you could provide with a hover when it's relevant.

Alternatively, add an "Anyalze" button within that menu the same way there is "Withdraw" so if we find a plant we can just tell them to Analyze right then and there. Or better yet, do both.

Picker's Cabin
Very similar to the Field Lab. I understand, from a design perspective, why Pick & Prune are separate options. Designating which to do it is important and each action can affect different plants in different ways. That said, It is so unbelievably tedious and requires so much micro-management to tell them "Go pick these fruits." Then I have to watch and wait for them to be done, and then tell them "Go Prune those same plants". I would love to be able to automate that process once a plant has been analyzed.

Also that multiple pickers can't seem to use the same plant even if they're doing the same task? I'm not positive this is the case, but considering fruits marked for Picking fade out when selecting another building seems to indicate they are. I have 2 Hut's set to Pick fruit/veggies and everyone is starving to death because they are failing to do so from plants 10 feet away. The AI seems to be struggling a bit there.

Also also, it's called a "Picker's Cabin" but in the Research upgrades it's a "Gatherer's Hut"


Overall, I really like the vibe of the game. It has some great design ideas, generally presents information well, and seems like it will be a lot of fun. It also has some really strange choices when it comes to controls, quality of life elements and one or two key design aspects make things tedious and require a lot of micro-managing in game that otherwise doesn't seem to have a ton. I know a lot of these will improve over time, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else the game has to offer.