The most disappointing things

[Luna plays]

I love the idea of this game, but there is so much disappointing about the building. No porch possible, the windows can not be placed directly next to each others, no arch to connect an open kitchen to a living room, no half walls, no fences, but the worst is that there are no building spots at any beach at the seaside or elsewhere where anyone would love to live, close to a park, to any nice spot at all. Who wants to live next to a construction side where constantly a house gets destroyed?
I honestly did not expect that in a game about building and decorating houses that got a map on the seaside.

For me as a woman this is so deeply disappointing that you can't build a porch and garden, that there is not even a gardenshop to design the garden and that it is impossible to build a really nice house at a nice spot.

The size that you can use for the house from the land you are buying is a joke. I bought a plot, the smallest one, Who lives here got to be a freeking dwarf :D It is really sad that you can't use your own creativity more.
I am really sorry to tell you this, but it is my honest opinion and feeling about all of this. It is really super disappointing to me. So extremly far from anything I would expect from a building game. I just can't recommend this game to anyone.
I don't mean to be mean, but I think it is important for you to know about it.

[Monarch]

Originally posted by Luna plays:

I love the idea of this game, but there is so much disappointing about the building. No porch possible, the windows can not be placed directly next to each others, no arch to connect an open kitchen to a living room, no half walls, no fences, but the worst is that there are no building spots at any beach at the seaside or elsewhere where anyone would love to live, close to a park, to any nice spot at all. Who wants to live next to a construction side where constantly a house gets destroyed?
I honestly did not expect that in a game about building and decorating houses that got a map on the seaside.

For me as a woman this is so deeply disappointing that you can't build a porch and garden, that there is not even a gardenshop to design the garden and that it is impossible to build a really nice house at a nice spot.

The size that you can use for the house from the land you are buying is a joke. I bought a plot, the smallest one, Who lives here got to be a freeking dwarf :D It is really sad that you can't use your own creativity more.
I am really sorry to tell you this, but it is my honest opinion and feeling about all of this. It is really super disappointing to me. So extremly far from anything I would expect from a building game. I just can't recommend this game to anyone.
I don't mean to be mean, but I think it is important for you to know about it.

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your feedback regarding the building aspects of the game. We truly appreciate your detailed thoughts and understand your disappointment with some of the current limitations.

Please know that ContractVille is still in its Early Access phase, and we are actively working to expand and enhance the gameplay experience with each update. Features like garden design and additional building options, such as pools, and many more are part of our vision, as outlined in the Roadmap available on the FiftyEight Studios Official Website.[www.fiftyeightstudios.com]

We greatly appreciate your input, as it helps us improve the game experience for all players. Your feedback has been noted and shared with our development team for further review. If you have any additional feedback, please feel free to share them in the #suggestions channel on the ContractVille Official Discord Server[discord.com]or in the Official Suggestions & Wishlist Hub on Steam.

We’d also like to share that we are currently running a community event to determine the next major feature to be added after the game’s launch. You can participate in the poll via the #events channel on Discord, connect with other contractors, and share your ideas directly with our development team. Your feedback is invaluable in shaping the future of Creek Harbour.

Thank you for your patience, support, and valuable feedback as we continue to develop and improve ContractVille!

[forseti]

while I was reading the comment, I thought it was a woman who wrote it and then she also stated that she was a woman. I'm not saying this as a good or bad thing, it's just the way she looked at the play that made me think of this. i liked some of her criticisms.

[Luna plays]

Thank you, I just feel like that, because even in my survival games (look for example at ARK) we can build balconies, porches and other things that make a structure look unique, I am really missing that here and the houses around, that are just decoration, also got porches, pillars and small stairs up. I know that it is no biggy to allow balconies, open kitchens with half walls and porches and make a cellar limited to underneath the house, just look at House Flipper, why wouldn't you add something like that into a building game ;)
And yes I know it is a female perspective of beautifying things that I got here, but I have a male friend playing with me this game and he would really really want those things too.

[sjarambula]

I totally agree with your sentiments. As a woman who played hundreds of hours of House Flipper and House Flipper 2, this game severely lacks in the customization area. I am aware that it is in early access still, but I dont see them discussing if there will be actually changes to the customization or not, because they are more focused on adding new stuff instead of fixing what they already have. The November update made the game buggier than it originally was, and its to the point where I cant complete missions or builds because the houses are glitching.


I would like to see customizations of the baseboards instead of that ONE ugly brown color. Like you stated, archways to transition rooms. We need a concrete mixer and generator upgrade. It takes half an hour to make concrete for a large build ALONE. Id also like to suggest making bigger concrete ceiling block packages like the sand, cement, reinforcement, etc. 60 boxes for a three story build is ridiculous. We need porches, CUSTOMIZABLE, and we also need gardening. Building the home and it being completely bare outside is annoying. The biggest thing that gets me is when we build, these houses look nothing like the surrounding houses, and they stick out like a sore thumb. Roofs! WE NEED CUSTOMIZABLE ROOFS! Id also love to be able to make the floors different sizes from each other, like for tri and bi level homes.

[Luna plays]

Exactly, as I wrote also in my review about the game it needs so many features and all I saw was a post that the players can choose from a whole list of features one for the next update and in this list are not even balconies, gardens or porches I believe. One feature, really? I am not this patient, I'm a woman, sorry.
They should really urgently add a lot more than this.

It is a building game, it needs more building abilities! We are not in minecraft, like one box/cube at a time... those houses we can build look like boxes, in my opinion very ugly.
Well I gave them a review to read about it and for potential buyers at christmas to let them know about the down sides. That's all I can do.

[G Willikers]

I'm really still waiting for controller support. The roadmap said it was supposed to be out in november and instead we got "cement mixer 2" which is just confusing. Ideally I'd like wheel support but at least let us drive with analogue acceleration and steering.

[Duckobread]

Originally posted by G Willikers:

I'm really still waiting for controller support. The roadmap said it was supposed to be out in november and instead we got "cement mixer 2" which is just confusing. Ideally I'd like wheel support but at least let us drive with analogue acceleration and steering.

Hi @G Willikers,
We are currently working on the Garden Update and we will bring it to you soon.
Controller Support will be coming very soon. Thank you for your patience while we work on an completely seamless experience.
We have added “What's New?”, “In Progress” and “Planned” tabs to the main menu in the game.

[ryannorgreeves]

Originally posted by Luna plays:

Exactly, as I wrote also in my review about the game it needs so many features and all I saw was a post that the players can choose from a whole list of features one for the next update and in this list are not even balconies, gardens or porches I believe. One feature, really? I am not this patient, I'm a woman, sorry.
They should really urgently add a lot more than this.

It is a building game, it needs more building abilities! We are not in minecraft, like one box/cube at a time... those houses we can build look like boxes, in my opinion very ugly.
Well I gave them a review to read about it and for potential buyers at christmas to let them know about the down sides. That's all I can do.

Regarding the arches and half walls I think this could be achieved 2 ways.
1. Leave the wall out completely like an open floor plan and then sell pieces that can be inserted into the spaces (likely from hardware store). - upside more customization options for half walls to be rails or other decorative choices than simply a half wall of drywall- downside may be how to get those pieces to look nicely in the case of an arch.
2. Create a designation in the builder which requires it to be installed in the construction phase of the building before floors and painting. This may help with ability to scale an arch if they're designated sizes like the stairs are. The current setup I believe is to help people from fundamental building mistakes. (Though its still possible to screw up depending on steps.)

About the "one feature" and needing to add things more quickly - size of studio is a huge factor here and I don't think they're planning on one feature, but what players want to see added next. They're using community feedback to help shape the game's final version. I'm not familiar with this team, but Sunkenland's company says 7 devs that are a blend of rookies and vets. GTA 5 had around 1000 people working on it. The Forest was in EA for around 4.5 years before release, but many players enjoyed the journey as it got better and better. (I took that one as play a while, let sit a few months and then play again more as it was fun to see what came out with it.) This crew seems much more engaging with the community than a lot of others, so I"m very hopeful with it.

As a building game, they're also taking a bit more risk here by adding in other things that can be built on. There's delivery driver, cargo driver (different), taxi, demo, build, decorate, buying properties to develop, and enhancing your own base. There is great potential if they pull it off, but for any players who are looking for a new House Flipper or Hotel Renovator game, there will be some of those aspects that suffer. If they stay the course though, there may be a game where you can shoot baskets in your basketball court, customize your car, customize the office space at your "home base" and lease those out to other businesses, hire helpers and delegate work.

Apologies for the long post. I want to also say I completely agree with your statement about that you can only relay to potential customers what you're seeing and any strengths and weaknesses you find in the game. I've not read any, but I do hope reviewers are reminding that this is Early Access and may not be a full game for release for a while.