I feel like the devs don't really get why vampire survivors is fun.

[adobe.]

Vampire Survivors is so free and open for experimentation, becoming a ball of death wasn't some stride you hit because you got the right upgrades at the right time it was the default and the game knew it and added even harder enemies and wild scenarios to try to ruin your runs. it's what made you keep coming back for more again and again.

DRGS feels like a running away simulator desperately trying get enough exp just to level for a 5% increase to *whatever-who-cares* stat all to tell me and I have 30 seconds to leave or I insta-die... why does this game hate fun so much?

the basic type of enemy should be getting one shot from the start and the game should compensate for that late/end game by replacing them with bosses as the default.

guns that only shoot while facing enemies is an issue brought on by the lack of firepower since you're always running away from bugs you are very rarely running into the crowd like you would in VS, I don't believe the game needs manual aim but only forward firing while using WASD keys is super limiting and makes no sense for the genre.

4 weapons feel limiting, again when comparing to Vampire Survivors that lets you have a minimum of six offensive weapons and six passives the replayability feels almost endless with the sheer amount of options. I still need to unlock all the weapons so maybe this changes but it already feels like an issue to me.

Upgrade screen. this is very strange I found myself looking at the pre-game upgrade screen locked in a state of indecision do I choose between 2% faster mining speed or 4% pick-up range, I was so spoiled for choice I didn't even bother... maybe the rates could be bumped up?

I can see this game is going to be great one day if given the right amount of love and attention. but it's not feeling great at the moment.

[Sajiro]

reset you vampire survivor save and come back to tell us how the first runs are free please

[Kristian]

The added mechanics muddled the formula of the VS gameplay. Lava pools, terrain, mining, supply drops etc. Lots of them makes you stand still or slow you down, and with enemies constantly spawning everywhere it clashes against each other because you get swarmed if you're not several steps head.
It definitely needs some changes and balancing

[adobe.]

Originally posted by Sajiro:

reset you vampire survivor save and come back to tell us how the first runs are free please

You dont actually need to do this you can play the adventure mode with characters and it's basically the same as playing a fresh save. you can also turn off upgrades when ever you like and yes it plays better than DRGS right now, hope that helps :)

[Metro]

Originally posted by adobe.:

Upgrade screen. this is very strange I found myself looking at the pre-game upgrade screen locked in a state of indecision do I choose between 2% faster mining speed or 4% pick-up range, I was so spoiled for choice I didn't even bother... maybe the rates could be bumped up?

There are rarer upgrades with larger bonuses, it's why increasing Luck is a factor. I'm not sure what's strange or confusing about the upgrades to you.

[Banzai]

One of the main things I noticed when comparing is that in VS I was unlocking new levels, classes, weapons etc right from the start. It almost felt like *too much* stuff was unlocking. Compare to this game and i've only unlocked 2 more classes and one level after a few hours.

The "git gud" argument doesn't hold much water when I can progress so quickly in the other games, but it's sloooooow going in this one. It's not like my skill level suddenly changes when I play this.

[Kristian]

Originally posted by Metro:

I'm not sure what's strange or confusing about the upgrades to you.

Compared to other games in the genre, they're weak and insignificant. Very pricey for minimal increases. When you're played a bit, luck and overclocks definitely stands out as where the missing power is that you're looking for in the passive upgrade menu

[Cogsworth]

I think this game is unfairly compared to VS. The goal here isn't to become an unstoppable death ball that can just afk for 10 minutes, the goal is to survive and fulfil the objectives. You have to think tactically to do that, with how you move, tunnel, mine, fight, and what upgrades you choose. You need to think about where the aliens are and where they are moving. You have to get the most out of each stage so you can survive the next.

VS is basically a slot machine (hell the dev even worked on slot machines before VS) where you can turn off your brain and get some dopamine pumped in. But this is a strategic game, asking you to learn and master it. If that isn't for you that is fine but that doesn't make it bad.

[Metro]

Originally posted by Kristian:

Originally posted by Metro:

I'm not sure what's strange or confusing about the upgrades to you.

Compared to other games in the genre, they're weak and insignificant. Very pricey for minimal increases. When you're played a bit, luck and overclocks definitely stands out as where the missing power is that you're looking for in the passive upgrade menu

Then how am I able to beat Haz 2 in five hours of game play if they are weak and insignificant? I assure it's not that I'm a l33t gamer.

[Banzai]

Originally posted by Cogsworth:

I think this game is unfairly compared to VS.

This is at the heart of the current issue. There seems to be a bit of a disconnect, on the one hand people saying "this is like VS, it's supposed to be grindy!" and then other folks like you expecting this to be more like DRG itself. The game can't succeed at being both, I think it needs to pick a lane.

Are we supposed to wade into the mobs with high dps and crazy upgrades like VS, or constantly digging and running away from mobs while using tactics and strategy to avoid being killed like in DRG?

[ThePaulineIndex]

Originally posted by Kristian:

The added mechanics muddled the formula of the VS gameplay. Lava pools, terrain, mining, supply drops etc. Lots of them makes you stand still or slow you down, and with enemies constantly spawning everywhere it clashes against each other because you get swarmed if you're not several steps head.
It definitely needs some changes and balancing

The added mechanics are what I appreciate most about the game. They innovate on the formula in a good way and make you balance time between killing the horde to keep it manageable and mining (just like in DRG) to do well, you can both(!) just not at the same time (unless you are engineer which can kinda do both at the same time XD).

[almo2001]

This is a better game than Vampire Survivors, because (so far for me) it's not just a free for all that plays itself when you're tooled up. There's more to think about. VS is a nice enough game. But I stopped playing after a while, as there's just not enough to think about while playing.

[Trip]

That's pretty accurate actually. In VS after just a few minutes you basically can AFK, unless you purposely gimp your character for "reasons"

[Banzai]

I've often heard survivor games described as bullet heaven games (versus bullet hell games). It's like this game is trying to be both bullet hell and bullet heaven and not quite succeeding at either of them because they're pulling in two different directions.

[Lone Wolf]

Originally posted by Banzai:

Originally posted by Cogsworth:

I think this game is unfairly compared to VS.

This is at the heart of the current issue. There seems to be a bit of a disconnect, on the one hand people saying "this is like VS, it's supposed to be grindy!" and then other folks like you expecting this to be more like DRG itself. The game can't succeed at being both, I think it needs to pick a lane.

Are we supposed to wade into the mobs with high dps and crazy upgrades like VS, or constantly digging and running away from mobs while using tactics and strategy to avoid being killed like in DRG?

And I think they failed at both. This game is neither like DRG nor Vampire Survivors. They tried to do both but failed at both. They have to decide if they want to make it more like DRG (more time between waves to mine and explore) or like VS (constant waves, standing afk death machine).

[nbk_redspy]

This is a wall of text 14 posts deep, so I doubt the developers will ever see it.

Getting up to hazard 3 and 4 it gets pretty hard. You can't really clean up a mob because it will send in the new mob quickly and from the current escape path.

I agree that the terrain such as lava and mining makes the directional weapons much less useful. Sometimes you can face the enemies when mining a single block, but then that just snowballs to a quicker death.

Once the player gets behind, it just gets away from a possible win rather quickly.

At higher levels, the player can't use the drop pod trick to destroy an area of enemies or the boss because of the overwhelming amount of enemies.