My Feedback

[PlagueMonk]

I first saw the demo played on YouTube and it intrigued me so I tried it for myself.

I played the full 6 days, ended at lvl 21 and really enjoyed myself but did find some things I wanted to comment on to help make the release even better.

1 - Time and sleep.

In all my playtime I never once 'needed' to sleep. This was in part due to being required to spend the entire night (and normal sleep cycle) defending against the undead hordes. People need to sleep and you have us build a bed but it really serves no function since you don't need to sleep OR save for that matter (you can simply save from the menu). I also felt VERY rushed to rebuild my defenses, collect materials, explore, etc and still return in time to battle the hordes.

I would recommend the following:
- Extend the amount of game time in a day to roughly double what it is now. This will give you more actual time to accomplish things.
- Have the zombie hordes appear for 3-4 hours in a night. Starting at say 3am and going to 6-7am (you will want them to still evaporate with the dawn). This would coincide with the devil's or witching hour if you want a good reason for that time period.
- REQUIRE sleep. Anything under say 7 hours will incur a cumulative penalty(s) of some sort the less sleep you get. Maybe include items that help you deal with less sleep? You could choose to then sleep either before or after the attack (or both) and maybe some will elect to keep an ongoing penalty for extra game time.

Would also make using those stones to keep the hordes at bay for the night more rewarding.

2 - Skill points and EXP.

As I said, I managed to get to lvl 21, mostly due to the zombie attacks. I don't know what the determined upper limit is but I felt fairly powerful for not doing hardly any real crafting.

I would recommend:
- Slowing down the exp gain. Giving people more time during the day but keeping them on roughly the same desired power milestones means awarding somewhat less exp.
- I would definitely do this for the night attacks as well. I gained I believe 3 levels a night which was insane for 5 mins of work. I would probably cut that to 1.5 lvls but have them drop some more interesting items so it still feels rewarding.
- By lvl 21 I had already mastered the basic skill trees so I would probably award a skill point every other level (or maybe have skill progression slow down the higher you go OR add more skill steps)

3 - Environmental Regrowth

After a couple days I noticed things regenerating, EVERYTHING, including barrels I previously destroyed, barrel contents and even notes reappeared.

I would recommend:
- Once you take the contents from a barrel/crate, etc it will be empty forever after. This would go for any other items that shouldn't repopulate with time, they need to be unique. If you destroy a crate it should never return.
- Only mobs, animals and plants should regrow over time and possibly random piles of natural things (but not in the same spots)

4 - Saves meaning something.

You should not be allowed to save from the menu and resume play. This rewards save scumming and other easy, infinite repeats of say tough boss battles. Make saving difficult, so when you go out for the day, anything that occurs will count. You could carry a bed roll around but that could be perilous out in the wild with no safety. Make any sleep require 1 hour of time to allow for the possibility of being attacked and killed while you rest.

5 - Breaking down items

I found that once I had something, say a piece of clothing, finding it in the wild made it worthless. Allow all crafted or found items to be broken down into basic elements that could be used elsewhere. You could even break down powerful items if you want to craft some other type of powerful item you would rather have.

6 - Tutorial

Have the tutorial be intuitive. If I already crafted a mallet or a workbench before the tutorial asked to do it, have the game recognize I did it already and complete that step.

7 - Intuitive gameplay

I don't play a lot of survival games so I can only assume building an item to access the build menu is common but I had to watch someone on YouTube play to know what to do. There is nothing in game to teach me that building a mallet (and then right clicking) opens the build menu. Same goes for traps.

After getting to know the way things were laid out, I was able to deduce how to upgrade my workbench but I found the way to access some things to be clunky and counter-intuitive. You did some things through the inventory while others, through the workbench.

This can also be said about allocating attribute points, accessing skills, growing your Fairy's abilities, and more to be an issue. The tutorial really needs to show you these things to the first timer.

There were a few things I still didn't get like what pollution was (this was something the Fairy did). This and some other things should really be explained better.

8 - Bugs

I found only 2 real bugs. When I saved the game on day 5 and returned the following day (actual real life days) I found the game had changed my interactable key from "E" to "F". No matter what I tried I could not change the hotkey back to "E". Even when the settings showed it was "E", in game it still showed "F" which caused me to not be able to interact with anything. Please make sure changing keys works ;)

Would also recommend adding a "save" button on each setting page

The 2nd bug was spelling. The stones a spelled with a "K" in some places and a "C" in others. This lead me to believe they were different types of stones. This was a problem when solving the puzzle in BrownBeard's Cave. I did make the leap in logic after thinking about it for a bit however.

Cancel was spelled "Cancle" in one of the craft windows

Beyond that I found one of the NPCs at the Defense Fort offered a quest but it was still in Korean. I would assume this will be fixed as it's still a work in progress.

Would also be nice if you had item comparison so when you scroll over a new item it will give you a corresponding display of what you have on currently so you can compare them.



Don't let all this criticism discourage you though. I did complete all days and wanted more! (plus I'm leaving feedback which I seldom do). I loved climbing, exploring, finding hidden places, learning how to overcome obstacles, and more worth my time. I even went back to old saves and try to see how far I could go so I explored a lot of areas well beyond my level. I even made it to BrownBeard and encountered a land shark at the Viking boat. Both killed me in seconds so there are still lots of challenges to overcome.

I'm excited to see how this game is upon release.

[IfSunSets [Official]]

Ahoy there, pirate!
We are so happy that you enjoyed playing the demo and we are really thankful for your detailed feedback. We will go through the different points you raised and will try to integrate as much as possible in future updates. Some points you raised, we are actually already working on =)
IfSunSets is still in development and we wanted to show you all a slice of the game with our Demo.
Please understand that balancing etc. is not final yet and might be changed in the future.
This type of feedback really helps us to improve the game further.
Thank you very much and see you later. ARR!

[DrEvilHomer]

Tutorial 04 says to press [tap] simple typo that should be fixed. Also maybe add a "give feedback" option in game. So far the demo is pretty cool and I am liking the game.

[DrEvilHomer]

Tutorial 05

https://imgur.com/3UzI27F

This shows up literally after making the hatchet. Not chopped anything.

[DrEvilHomer]

Tutorial 06 again with the [tap] text.

[DrEvilHomer]

Tutorial 07 again with the [Tap] text. While exploring for the fiber needed for this tutorial I ran into the first Alter... don't understand why it is spelled [Alt] er but maybe that is something I find out later? Also the popup for the Chuthga Stones is blank. See image.

https://imgur.com/D92gFwq

[DrEvilHomer]

Just leveled up. Pop-up I am guessing for leveling up is also blank.

[DrEvilHomer]

pop-up for oil, also blank

[DrEvilHomer]

Martial Arts is misspelled.

[DrEvilHomer]

To add my feedback. Almost everything they said above is spot on. Although save scumming is a personal choice and I don't think it should be removed. People act like it is a bad thing. If you don't like it, don't use it.

1. Time and sleep are spot on. I felt like I couldn't explore because of how quickly the day goes by. I forgot sleeping was an option since it doesn't do anything.

2. Skills are in development and that makes sense. I would suggest dedicating some time and energy to making this 10x or even 100x larger. A lot of players LOVE min/maxing, player building, build tweaks, etc that come with larger skill trees. Depending on your teams focus, that might not be say PoE size skill tree but it wouldn't hurt to be larger and more interesting.

3. I didn't see any issues, but 7 Days to Die had environment regrowth and it basically ruined building for years until they fixed regrowth destroying player buildings. Maybe keep that in mind along with how often things should repopulate. I suggest adding a world tweak menu allowing players to adjust day time length, regrowth of environment length, etc. You guys make your default for how you think the game should be played and allow players to adjust things.

4. Already addressed this one. Save scumming isn't bad and shouldn't be removed as people don't have to use the save feature.

5. Breaking down items is a great idea, even if it is only partial items. I LOVE that you can break down buildings for full items. Punishing a player for a building mistake is the worst feature of any survival craft game. I would to this, allow moving of items, let me move my workbench please. Or make it more obvious if is an option as I couldn't find it.

6. The tutorial needs works as I have posted as I went along.

7. I found it pretty intuitive but I love the genre so it might have felt more normal to me. I would say items need a major overhaul. build mallet and trap mallet have the same description. Why? They don't do the exact same thing. Also common, rare, epic, mythic.... like why? Seemed to make no real difference honestly.

8. The only bug I ran into is exploring the ships and swimming. The movement is really bad in water around objects. Almost got stuck multiple times and had to work myself free. Not exactly a bug, but it needs work for sure.

Overall I am adding this to my wishlist and will be excited to watch it develop.

[POLYMORPH:IFSUNSETS]

Hello
Thank you so much for playing the game.
Thank you so much for your tremendous and constructive feedback.
That's also why we're updating the demo.
I'm not going to be able to satisfy everything, but I'm going to take a closer look at your feedback
I'll do my best to get the game in a good direction.

1. We are developing a setting that allows users to decide the time of day and night on their own.

2. This is exactly what we're modifying. We're going to break down the skills
It is undergoing reorganization so that it can have a more definite direction.
(ex= defensive, offensive, auxiliary, trap, life)

3.This part is also for multi-play. When it's multi-play
I think things in the environment should be regenerated.
However, as you said, we will also add a world setting so that users can create their own environment and play it.
(The memo is regenerated... a clear error. I'll fix it right away.)

4. In this part, we're thinking about the best way to not stress our users. Let's study a better way.

5. Most of our items are disassembled.
And it can destroy buildings. (Materials are reacquired)
And you can move/rotate all your worktops and things.
I'll improve it so that I can convey this part more clearly.

6.The issue in the tutorial was a top fix for the development team.
Most of the issues have been resolved and will be reflected in the next update.
(We have added a feature to check for quests that you have already completed.
You don't have to repeat the same thing anymore!)

7.Overall, we're going to make it easier and more intuitive for users
I think I should be able to deliver it. I'll think about it and find the best way
All.

8.I'll take a closer look and smooth out all the elements that interfere with the game's immersion.

Thank you for your close analysis and help to make the game better.
We're a small development team that won't fix everything tomorrow, but we'll never let it go even if we know the problem.
I will definitely revise it and release the game.

Thank you, and please continue to watch the game develop!