Your Top 3 Requests for GODUS on PC

[Matt Allen]

Hi everyone! This thread is meant to be a somewhat informal and casual exercise to see what page we're all on as not just a community but as players. Given that many in the community feel that there's still progress to be made on the game from the perspective of it being a desktop title, what do you feel needs to happen in order to make GODUS into a game that stands up as a PC game? For us to have a discussion about this, I'd love for as many people as possible to contribute to this thread and list, in order of preference, the top 3 things things you want to see happen to make GODUS truly feel like a PC game.

Just for simplicity's sake, I do recommend that you make your top 3 list somewhat concise (a bullet list would work) with any other details and elaborations that you want to include written out beneath your list. That way your actual top 3 items are a bit more digestible and readable, where as lengthy and descriptive paragraphs can sometimes be more difficult to cull useful information from.

Looking forward to seeing what you all have to say on the matter, as I've no doubt that there's no shortage of opinions. Thanks everyone!



A Quick Note:
I imagine that one of the more consistent items mentioned will be the game's timers for belief, build times, and so forth. This is still very much in the experimental stages right now and continuously tweaking and balancing these timers is something the team already has firmly planted in their agendas. So in order for us to cast a wider net of feedback I wouldn't really worry with including timers as one of your top 3 items, as it's something the team's already keenly aware of and experimenting with.

[Arantor]

1. An opponent.
2. Strategy.
3. Gameplay.

Did I miss anything? :P I realise I'm being very cheeky at this point but honestly I feel that so many fundamentals are missing, that minor changes like tweaking timers and so on would be a band-aid over problems.

[nerdyvonnerdling]

Just three? Man.

1. Get rid of stickers, or at the very least, implement them in a real, resource-generating fashion. Not ridiculous magical chests that replenish in the rain.
2. Give meaningful consequences/choices/actions. Right now, literally all your followers do is build a house/field within a defined radius of influence. Essentially, they do nothing, and interact in no meaningful way.
3. Automate belief collection. FFS.

I guess those would be my top three, and the second one in particular we could elaborate on for hours, but that would defeat the purpose of this thread and I feel that we've done that elsewhere.

[Obliged]

add research tree get rid of chests and stickers ( gamers dont like them peter does )

use actual resources and have your followes do work like building woodcutters metalworks (era dependant)

[Danjal]

• 1 - Resource overhaul

  See my existing suggestion.
  
  Overhaul the existing system to something more logical, functional and respectable.
  
  • Split off earthly resources (stickers or otherwise) to be produced and collected by followers.
    Followers can dig up chests just as easily as a god could.
    Followers can also produce their own resources.
    
    These earthly resources should be used for earthly acts. Such as building settlements or other structures. But also upgrading their structures as time goes on and new 'tech' becomes available. Storms damage structures? Well thats a good time to upgrade!
    
  • Timeline progression should get its own unique resource. One also based on followers. The followers invent these advancements - they are not given to them by the god.
    
    See my inspiration suggestion.
    
  • Belief should be a divine resources reserved for divine acts and shows of power.
    Boosting production, buffing followers, or smiting them if you so desire.
    Be it benevolance or malevolence - you're the god, you decide.

• 2 - Relevant choice and diversity.

  As a god you should be able to have choices to make. Not just fill in a timeline and choose what to take first. But have some mutually excusive options and options that will set you apart from other players.
  
  One of the key promises was that once gods were to meet eachother. Each one would potentially be different. Have that promise return to the game.
  Be it through cosmetic changes (different looks on your houses), functional changes (commandments, resource emphasis consuming/sustaining or otherwise) or divine changes (different powers).
  

• 3 - Adversity

  Don't let the world be an empty sandbox.
  
  Offer us direct adversity in the form of wildlife, nature and other AI opponents (be they local tribes or minor deities).
  And give us relevant "rewards" for dealing with these adversities.
  It would both give the player something to do and would make the game more interesting.

A runner up would be procedural generation. I'd love to see players get their own maps generated and deal with the terrain as it comes up, rather than looking at identical copies between each player.

But I would not prioritize this over my top 3.

[Olaf Siegbrecht]

1. Remove stickers, chests and manual belief collection (completely)
2. Do not have a single timer that lasts longer then 5 minutes
3. Strategic elements like Ressources, opponents and a way to win or lose this game. *

* I don't think that you can make a strategic game with meaningful choices without winning and losing conditions.

[threeheaded monkey]

1. a plausible resource mechanism that is related to the action of the Player (choices<=>consequences)

2. a lively environment full of secrets and puzzles (LIVE at all)

3. a story (excitement)

[Nefcairon]

First, considering the history where you often asked for something like that and NEVER delivered, asking for that, Matthew, is rather making fun of us. I personally added you much credibility for doing the Twitch stream, but this.... cannot find words.

Basically Godus lacks all about "GOOD GOD GAME":

1. GOD: This genre is not about micro-management. Being a GOD means that the followers do things at their own, just under the influence of their god (or not). Danjal posted in his 1) what that all means.
2. GAME: Is has to be a game, not a (nice to watch) movie, not a wave of (nice) sound. It's about goals, strategy, choices - and fun. That is what Danjals 2), 3) and 4) point is all about.
3. GOOD: Do not limit yourself to the three most desired points, that alone wouldn't make Godus a good game.

This tech demo needs almost every aspect that will be mentioned in this thread, I sadly have to suppose.

[AndiZ275]

1. A working economy system (people chopping woods and getting stones as material for houses, people looking for food, people studying in schools for researches, etc.).

2. A Goal (what am I doing here and why?)

3. A Challenge: Without risk of loosing there's no game...

[MuirDragonne]

• The ability to separate my people into at least two groups in such a way that each group of followers make their own commandments/ideas of what I want from them.
  
• Abodes which are built multi-layered. Basically, buildings that use the steps mechanic of the world to its advantage so they can be built on two or even three tiers.
  
• Godless AI people in the homeworld who can be converted either by myself (by doing miracles near them) or by my followers. When the Godless people are converted, we should get a reward of some kind in the form of stickers or even god power cards.

[Artur_G]

Oh what the hell I'll throw you a bone yet again:
- No offline progression
- Resources
- Automatic belief collection

[Aron_dc]

1. Remove any mechanic that belongs to the f2p genre + remove manual belief collection
(Easy to test: "If its in Dungeon keeper mobile and/or Candy Crush, get rid of it")

2. Remove the chest/sticker mechanic and replace it with something meaningful.
Maybe divide the techtree in a godly (god powers, wonders, shrines, scultping) and a worldy part (villages, abodes, social things of the little people).

For the godly tech tree would have to perform some tasks to gain more and more power (fetch a lightning during a storm to get a lightning power; chop a burning tree to get fire wonder; etc.)

For the worldly part you would have to invest Ressources that your followers collect/chop/mine/forge to unlock new abodes/ships/whateverThereWillCome.

Also make these techtrees nonlinear (exept for parts where it is logical to have dependencies (e.g. i cant hop from stoneage abodes to skyscrapers without unlocking the abodes between) and dont let the costs of technologies rise exponential.

3. (would go together with 2 because we would need ressources and things to interact with, but I didn't want to make my 2nd point any bigger)
Add more life to the world (birds, horses, fishes, diverse plants, lianes, farns, mushrooms, bushes, berries, bears, snakes, goats, sheep, apes, crabs) that your followers and the god can interact with.

I'd also like to see a different approach to farming (dont use plots to build a field, use the free space around the farming village and/or the buildings where farmers live) and mining (don't use plots but use the side of mountains where mining tunnels could be dug into (just as a model, not represented as tunnels in the game world))

[Gazz]

• Less painful sculpting !
  
  Hold the mouse to raise / lower terrain to the layer you are currently holding.
  The computer does all the repetitive micro-movements, operating one layer after another until the altitude under the mouse pointer is at the level you are "holding".
  You are only moving the mouse around.
  
  
  • Add one layer at the current position:
    Click LMB, don't move the mouse.
    
    
  • Dig down one layer:
    Click RMB, don't move the mouse.
    
    
  • Sculpt current layer:
    Hold LMB, move mouse around for as long and far as you like. Terrain will fill / disappear layer by layer as per your currently researched sculpting ability and speed.
    
    There is no "line that snaps". Sculpting is continuous. If you move the pointer too far too fast, all that happens is that the previous area is not quite done, yet. So you move the pointer back until all the spots are filled to your liking.
    
    
  • Sculpt current layer:
    Click RMB to start. Click RMB again to stop. Otherwise same as above.
    
    
  • Adjust tool:
    Hold LMB + RMB. A bright circle is drawn around the pointer.
    A triangle is drawn inside the circle to show how steep the created cliffs / hills will be.
    
    Moving the mouse forward / back grows or shrinks the circle.
    This will be the size of the sculpted area until you change it again.
    
    Moving the mouse left / right adjusts the steepness of the created terrain.
    This is done in maybe 3 steps.
  
  Simple and painless.
  And yes, I realise that this probably won't work on a touchpad.
  I do not care. You love the PC? Prove it.
  (has it's own thread, too)
  
  
• Decisions.
  Right now there are none to make in the game so there is no strategy and no gameplay.
  There needs to be some resistance to your doing in any shape or form. That can be an AI opponent, roving monsters... anything.
  Could also involve god powers or technologies where there is more than a single useful choice.
  
  
  
• A PC / mouse usable UI.
  Tooltips that are not message windows with a close box.
  Hotkeys that work.
  Maybe even the use of qualifier keys for more mouse functions.
  A way to smoothly (and quickly!) scroll the entire tech well... bar without this stop&go moving it bit by bit. Use of PgUp / PgDn to quickly advance the bar by pages.

#3 would have been the timers but I'll take your word for them "being worked on". =P

[bytestream]

• A real resource system

  • Remove stickers and chest
    
  • Add spots where our followers can construct buildings that generate resources automatically
    
  • Belief should be a streaming resource (like in TA, SupCom, PA) that is collected automatically

• Add meaningful choices

  • Non-linear tech tree
    
  • Exclusive techs that force you to decide between multiple ways to get through each age
    
  • Good vs Evil
    
  • Terrain should have positive and negative effects

• A real PC UI

  • Utilize the keyboard, add shortcuts for god powers
    
  • Utilize the scrolling wheel e.g. to change the size of the sculpting tool or to allocate followers in a settlement
    
  • Tooltips that don't require me to click stuff to get important information

[dragonstryk72]

Originally posted by nerdyvonnerdling:

Just three? Man.

1. Get rid of stickers, or at the very least, implement them in a real, resource-generating fashion. Not ridiculous magical chests that replenish in the rain.
2. Give meaningful consequences/choices/actions. Right now, literally all your followers do is build a house/field within a defined radius of influence. Essentially, they do nothing, and interact in no meaningful way.
3. Automate belief collection. FFS.

I guess those would be my top three, and the second one in particular we could elaborate on for hours, but that would defeat the purpose of this thread and I feel that we've done that elsewhere.

1. I directly agree here. Current sticker-gathering is just so counter-intuitive to the game, and completely inorganic, and it doesn't have to be. I mean, even if we just have our people scavenge until we unlock settlements, which produce resources, that would be so much better than the current system, and at least make some sort of sense. No more having to worry over the chest, because they'd be gone, AND we would actually need our people for something.

2. Adversity- I'm not even really talking about a direct antagonist, but some sort of adversity. The whole "No-Lose" scenario is, in itself, a loss. Nothing I do really matters, because there are no stakes. I mean seriously, I have a higher degree of stakes in model train building or Chutes & Ladders than I do in Godus. I mean, droughts, religious schisms, floods, zealotry, give us *something*. We have no reason, NONE AT ALL, to view our people as anything more than numbers for a bar.

3. Organic Exploration- The Beacons are just SO mechanical. I mean, really, why do we need to use beacons to advance? It's their only purpose, and it's, again, so very inorganic to the game. It'd be more fun, and more engaging with our people if they had to actually go explore, and we only start to get some Area of Influence as they find a place to set up a building of some sort in the new area.

[|MPOP| jusTsLeepy]

Can I just quote Danjal? No? okay then:

o) Ressource system (passively)

-) My followers should collect those (mining, cutting trees)
-) Decide for themselves what to do with it.
-) No stickers or cards.
-) Automatic belief collection.
-) No secondary ressource (gems).

o) Variety and Gameplay:

-) As Muir said, let me seperate followers into different groups,
let them envy the group which has my attention, maybe they'll fight each other, maybe
they forge alliances.
-) A living world with animals, followers who go about their daily live, without the need to
be guided everywhere.
-) Alter the land themselves to some extent.
-) AI tribes to trade/fight with.
-) No minigames. If I want to play a game inside a game I'll play Wario Ware. My world
should be where the action is at and shouldn't just act like a pretty "select game type"
menu.
-) My followers want to discover the sea? Let them build a harbour and set sail for the
procedually generated world.

o) Decisions:
-) No commands written in stone, but dynamically changing "guidelines"
-) Maybe determined by sliders (good <-> evil, patient <-> little child,
worshipped <-> feared,...) which influence the behaviour of my little people.
-) Meaningful strategy, there has to be a way to lose! Why should I bother if nothing I could
do has everlasting negative effects.


Honestly it's hard to restrict myself to three bullet points, I could go on and on (about sculpting (not only pyramid forms, but caves, overhangs, bridges, tunnels), etc.)
Maybe if my weekend plans allow for it, I'll look through my suggestion and feedback notes and compile it into one long text, but that's it for now.