some thoughts

[kestrel]

after rewatching the livestream a couple times i've collated my thoughts into what is a (hopefully) coherent diatribe
for reference: i have about 2k hours on DRG and i've been playing since 2019. i love the game, and rogue core overall looks pretty impressive so far, but there are some things which concern me that i wanted to voice my opinions on

THE GOOD

art direction

i love that RC is going for a darker and more mysterious tone than DRG, i love the grungy abandoned mining facilities and the idea of getting to play as an elite combat unit, like dwarven black ops or something, is stellar. DRG has been lacking in a darker tone for a while now, and i'm glad to at least see it return in RC

character building

the decentralized approach to classes seems novel. i'm not really a fan of purer roguelikes such as risk of rain or TBOI* and i was leery about randomized upgrades, but i think it could be a fun concept pushed through the filter of DRG

it's interesting that class building seems almost the opposite to what it is in DRG
in DRG each class has a set of equipment that corresponds to their combat role, with deep customization in how the weapons operate due to mods and overclocks, but there's nothing differentiating the classes themselves besides their support tools
in RC the classes themselves have multiple distinctions and a defining ability such as the energy blade or the electric drone, but their equipment is randomized and the actual weapon building is shallow

i'm hoping this design is explored further in RC with more class bases to pick from and more replayability as a result

*the only reason i have so much time on TBOI rebirth is because my girlfriend used to play it on my account a lot when she came over to my place. it was useful for keeping her pacified

new enemies

the corespawn have definitely grown on me since their introduction, especially getting to see new members of the family. i love the edgestalker in particular, it looks so alien and freaky. the new rafkan enemies are cool too, the way they circle overhead and swoop down to attack you reminds me of the phantoms from minecraft, except here i can actually shoot at them so they won't be so annoying to deal with

some aspects of their designs bother me, i don't like how the crawler and clamorhead have discernible faces with eyes and mouths. i think that takes away from their mystique, it makes them feel too familiar and recognizable. but overall i do think these guys are a worthy successor to the glyphids, and that's not an easy act to follow

the ramrod

i actually really like the idea of being on a spaceship rather than an orbiting space station. the ramrod looks cramped and claustrophobic which ties into RC's darker presentation. stuff like the gym equipment makes it clear that the reclaimers are a lot different than the miners from space rig 17. i'm hoping that manifests in their actual designs when we get to see them for real too, without using placeholder assets

even something as basic as adding toilets to the ramrod - it seems silly but it does genuinely help a lot to give it a believable atmosphere. it makes me wonder how they're going to introduce the recreational aspects of the space rig. a bar would be nice but i'd be open to having something different
seeing how the ramrod is a spaceship and much smaller than a dedicated rig, i imagine it would get fewer supply drops so having a dedicated bar would be harder to do when resources are so scarce

THE BAD

upgrading

my biggest concern right now is the current upgrading system seems almost designed to fail. forcing people to take turns sharing weapons and upgrades isn't going to work in any sense, especially if RC is still going to have public matchmaking like DRG does. this seems like an overly-forced way to get players to work together and create synergizing arsenals, which is unnecessary at best and, at worst, causes players to turn on each other over upgrade priorities

the bottom line is this; people are selfish bastards who only look out for themselves, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. you can't design an upgrade system that's based on courtesy and sharing because pubs do not ever act in others' interests. that's not just the case for DRG or RC but every multiplayer game ever, even coop games

DRG gets around this problem by having as few friction points as possible. the way to succeed is beneficial to all players and working together is naturally rewarding. character upgrades are entirely within your control and don't have much impact on your teammates. inter-class synergy is nice to have, but it's not essential to beat any difficulty and most weapons don't require it unless they're specifically designed around it and their effects broadly applicable to a variety of weapon types and enemies (like the cryo cannon)

this is something that GSG generally understands, as DRG doesn't have support tool overclocks in order to maintain consistency between players as support tools have a much greater impact on teammates. having overclocks that radically alter their function makes them inconsistent and unreliable. but it's like they just forgot this design philosophy with rogue core's design

i don't know why the weapons and upgrades have to be limited to one per person. what would be so wrong with just letting anyone pick whatever they want to use? i can understand letting us see the other players' upgrade picks, that promotes synergy between teammates, but i can guarantee you nobody is going to avoid taking an upgrade they want for themselves just because someone else put a heart icon on it

if you want people to upgrade their characters in a way that creates synergies between teammates you need to give them a much better reason than just "it's nice to share". if people don't get the upgrades they want, they're just going to leave the game and the lobby will quickly fall apart. at the very least, give a team more options to pick from because just having 5 isn't enough

if anything, this could serve as the divider between easy and hard difficulties. make communicating between teammates and inter-class synergies required to have the damage output necessary to beat H5 (or whatever RC's equivalent would be)

reusing old weapons

i can understand some guns coming back from DRG as a fun callback, or maybe giving them new unique upgrades that let them do things they can't do in DRG, but it concerns me just how many new guns are returning and that all the new ones just seem to be several varieties of handguns
i know designing all-new guns is a lot of work but it's stuff like this that has people asking why RC is a separate game and not a DLC. i'm not one of those people, i know that the move to a separate game also involves getting a fresh start with a new codebase, but the majority of people don't care about that
besides if they can give us an all-new enemy roster i feel like it's fair to expect more new guns as well, especially since they won't have dedicated mod trees/overclock pools/skins so there's less required to make them compared to new guns in DRG

the reclaimers' voices

they really need a different voice actor. if they're meant to be different in personality, appearance and lifestyle than the combat miners then they should have different voices too, even if that means doing the same thing DRG does by using one voice actor and pitch-shifting all the lines for the different classes
(though if RC is going to have significantly more classes than DRG does, multiple voice actors would be nice)

this matters because it's clear a lot of effort is being put into making sure the reclaimers are different from the dwarves. and so far that's been successful, all except for the voice acting
nothing against javier, he's a fine pick for the miners in DRG but the corny one-liners do not suit RC's darker tone. i'm not saying you have to make the reclaimers talk like the SAS on a field op, but giving them gruffer voices and making it clear they take their work seriously would be much better.

ammo economy

finally, this is less of a complaint and more of a question: how is ammo going to be managed in rogue core? will the game just re-use the resupply pod and nitra mechanics or will we get something else?
is ammo even going to be a concern at all? there's not really any mention of it during the livestream. i'd be pretty disappointed if you just had infinite ammo during rogue core, ammo and resource management is one of the things that makes DRG so interesting. it'd be a shame to see it get scrapped entirely for RC just so it can have greater combat focus

[Revalopod]

The FAQ answers your last question:

Originally posted by FAQ:

Q: Will ammo be more limited in Rogue Core? How will resupplying work?
A: Right now it’s more limited, compared to base DRG. We don’t have Nitra in this game – instead, you’ll be able to find ammo crates throughout the run. But we’re also playing with other ways to top up, like skipping an upgrade in favor of an ammo refill, or getting an ammo crate consumable as equipment. We’re looking at a similar approach to healing, although there will still be Red Sugar.

[kestrel]

Originally posted by Revalopod:

The FAQ answers your last question:

Originally posted by FAQ:

Q: Will ammo be more limited in Rogue Core? How will resupplying work?
A: Right now it’s more limited, compared to base DRG. We don’t have Nitra in this game – instead, you’ll be able to find ammo crates throughout the run. But we’re also playing with other ways to top up, like skipping an upgrade in favor of an ammo refill, or getting an ammo crate consumable as equipment. We’re looking at a similar approach to healing, although there will still be Red Sugar.

my bad, must've missed that one