Some more warning when the bank is about to foreclose please?

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

Twice now I've been rolling along in normal mode, maybe over-extended a bit, taken out a couple of loans to get through the difficult period, and then suddenly found myself in a game-over condition when I thought I had plenty of time to pay back the loans and pay my taxes.

I'm honestly not quite sure what happened. Presumably I hit some limit on either size of the loans or days without making a payment, but in both cases it came as a surprise. Given that it's a game-ending condition, perhaps we could get a warning message saying "Bank will foreclose in X days unless you pay back $Y", that sort of thing?

Thanks for your consideration.

PS: decorative objects are looking really good! I just spend too much money on them, that's all. :)

[cwaadd]

Happened to me too.
The loan mechanic is not clear at all to me.
For example i borrow 7500$ and i only have 750$ on my account.
I think that we have to reimburse x$ every day and if we do not have it, game over.

Could at least pause the game and let us sell stuff before game over. Plus i think the amount of the loan is usually insufficient.
I had 3 impeding contracts of 100k$ and only 9500$ loans which gave only 1k...

[Jimi]

Thank you Jasper,

Great suggestion. The finances button will now highlight when the conditions are getting closer for a bit clearer warning.

To clarify on the loans, when a payment is missed. The loan progress bar will fill back up in the other direction. When the bar gets to max is when the game over is issued. The max amount is 2x the original amount. Each payment missed adds the interest amount to the remaining balance. An additional tooltip in game was added as well.

Hope that helps :)

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

Thanks, that sounds like a great solution.

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

Hey, maybe I'm just bad at paying attention, but in the interests of feedback I thought I'd mention that I had managed to do exactly the same thing once again.

The improved warning in the latest version definitely helps, and it's probably my own fault for playing on high speed most of the time, but I wonder whether there's anything further that can be done to tell the player they're about to lose the game. It's just such an unsatisfying way to go out, too, when the game suddenly ends because you had miscalculated how much financial trouble you were in.

Would it be possible to actually interrupt the gameplay with a warning dialog box saying something like "Danger of the bank foreclosing on you, you need to raise $X within Y days!"

So you would then have time to sell off some underused land or something to raise the cash.

I wonder whether loans are also hitting a little too hard. If you lowered the interest rate a little, or gave longer to repay, would that add to player enjoyment?

I feel as though people would always be happier going out because they failed to fulfill a contract, because that's the central part of the game, as opposed to failing to pay back a loan.

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

Just to add: is this the kind of gameplay/balancing/QoL feedback you're after, or are you more looking for bug reports, feature suggestions, etc?

I don't want to be bothering you with feedback that's not useful to you.

[Jimi]

Hey Jasper, More great ideas. Yes, Have been thinking of ways to add some clearer warnings. I do like the popup when it becomes dire. Have been working on a weekly overview as well, that can be accessed at the end of the week.

The feedback is great, not a bother. I do have a plan I'm working from but I think the back and forth is what makes great games.

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

Thanks, that's good to hear! I just read the latest announcement for Update 19 -- it definitely sounds like you have a long-term plan for the game and I'm here for it. Good luck with all the work involved!

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

Thanks, Jimi -- the latest experimental versions seem to be doing a lot better on giving the player plenty of warning before they get into trouble. The increasing loan sizes are very handy, too.

[Jimi]

Great! Brilliant recommendation. Is the development branch running smooth for you?

Testing should wrap up this weekend with a public launch Monday/Tuesday.

[Jasper T. Reynoldois]

I think one version previously, it was running totally fine! I didn't yet have a very big farm, but it felt smooth and wasn't making my machine break a sweat. It felt good.

For some reason this latest version was not so great: a laggy feeling with the inputs and an old problem re-occurring where the cursor would feel sticky but also jump to random other places two or three grid squares away. Not sure what was happening there. Do you recognize that issue at all?

This was with a farm of only about five or six hundred acres. :(

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!