Issue with progression.

[A Nasty Creature]

There being no such thing as a tech tree and essentially just going for larger cities with very little stopping you and the combat being sort of AFK ishly designed, there's very little for me to do in this game after getting past 5000 population. I could just go for 10k but realistically, its just more of the same. There's very little to this game.

[Muppetpuppet]

There is a techtree of sorts, go to the map and then in the top left click soultree

There you will see the soultree for each faction, the progression is expressed in commanders and captain, people basically. That you unlock to be used for new buildings , ships, buffs, units and such.

To unlock these just grow your population in the appropriate faction.
There are 4 trees, one for each faction, they are unlocked via trade, inviting refugees etc etc.

not all factions are compatible so you might need to manage the alignment of your settlement, this is the midgame-endgame content, rather than conquest.

It seems people aren't finding this screen and the unlock mechanisms, working hard to improve this in the next patch.

[Muppetpuppet]

there are 43 commanders and with them ships, units and buildings to unlock in total.

[A Nasty Creature]

Originally posted by Muppetpuppet:

there are 43 commanders and with them ships, units and buildings to unlock in total.

I understand that and I find the progression itself sort of obvious in its design. However, what I'm saying, since there isn't much more complexity beyond just the three resources, it quickly just becomes a task to build enough to exhaust resources so you can go and colonize another area for its resources.

[Muppetpuppet]

yeh it's a chill builder, with some light combat thrown in. it just looks epic, but it's not attempting to be a millenia or whatnot.

That said I am listening and working on a roadmap that will add more depth , stuff to epxlore and unlock, and some more challenge overall.

[Muppetpuppet]

if you try the beta patch on game properties/betas and select the beta patch, that already solves some issues and gears up the combat difficulty significantly.

be interesting to hear your experiences if you're willing to test drive it

[Tyrax]

I tend to agree - while I love the game style and gameplay, after 6 hours I completed everything I could - conquered the other factions, built multiple outposts, maxed the soultree etc. and there was nothing else left...

I think the game needs more exploration and exploration events. The world feels quite empty and there's not much reason to explore other than to trigger events for commanders and buildings.

[Muppetpuppet]

yeh that is a pretty big speedrun, again I'm re balancing a bit,, cuz fair point.


that said if the building in itself doesn't grab you , which is the main act here, then yeh I can see that's something I'll need to adress.

A roadmap with a preview of the content that's coming will be up soon, been listening to what folks are saying and its based strongely on that.

[Tyrax]

Originally posted by Muppetpuppet:

that said if the building in itself doesn't grab you , which is the main act here, then yeh I can see that's something I'll need to adress.

The building part is fine, although it feels like the island areas are too small. Maybe it's because I have experience from many other city builders, but I literally maxed out the entire first island and there was no other direction I could build on (within an aesthetically pleasing frame). So I went and did other outposts :D

My third outpost was in the Maw and I literally chained 3 outposts together into a big metropolis because the build area is so large (assuming it's not a bug that I could build inside the maw) - that was pretty fun! To circumvent the fact that I had 20+ tower hops from one end to another, I also did a harbour connection between the far 'districts'.

[Muppetpuppet]

no the maw is ment to be build in.. it's a lot of fun.. it adds a bit of challenge to building..

[leathers14]

@Muppetpuppet The tutorial needs to be longer. You need the tutorial guy to point out all the things that you are making videos for. Telling people to reference a video to understand the mechanics is asking too much for some. There are those that don't want to have to research the game in order to play it. I am not one of those people. Frankly, some semblance of a campaign might be what helps flesh this game out.

[Muppetpuppet]

yeh the problem with tutorials is, they take so much money and time, there's like 6 months in this tutorial alone, it's not an area I can compete.

That said extending it in some way is needed I see that..

But there is a medium here, I agree I've no pushed up against it and its under-served, but there is no way on this earth you can get all the way up to paradox levels of tutorialization in a solodev experimental game. If folks want a friction-less experience, then don't buy solodev indiegames at a quarter or less of the price. And by en large people don't, it's a modest success in comparison, a very good indie success, but nothing compared to the big players in this genre. That is in itself fine.

That said, the game is doing pretty well, its got a very positive rating and reception, the feedback here an there is on controls or being confused,but honestly the vast majority of criticism isn't folks being confused. And its selling as it should..

And what I see and read the most from people who bought the game is, "we want more content, more things to do, more challenge, more time in the game"

And that is the content people are asking for and I want to make happily, like diplomacy or fleet control or more combat types etc etc.

this I can do, cuz it's enjoyable to make.

[Muppetpuppet]

I do agree more narrative threads, like a story driven campaign would be great. And that could contain some help pointing out the various advanced mechanics. So yeh I agree in principle that it would be a great addition..

[leathers14]

It is unfortunate that it would take so much more to extend the tutorial. I definitely encountered the same problem that others did. I got three hours into the game and I started to lose focus on what my goal was. I understand that the creative aspect of the game is the main feature but an over-arching goal would be beneficial. Perhaps, having the player pick a goal when starting a map might be a reasonable balance. You could also add a campaign that evolves using text based story elements, like receiving letters from some mentor might be easier/cheaper to implement. I was impressed how much voice acting there was for such a small studio. The quality was quite good.

[Muppetpuppet]

I have added 3 simple goals to the end of the tutorial in the next patch/.

1. Grow to unlock content
2. Trade for resources
3.Conquer to gain resource extractors
4. Expand the soultree to unlock Wonders

just some simple goals to remember.. It's a stopgap, but goals do work .

I also like the "pick a goal" that would be a nice storytelling mechanic
very Risk :) but it does work. will digest


The studio is non existent, it's a solodev game. I have a publisher for localisation, marketing and a freelancer friend who does the console porting and benedict nichols for music.. And external voice director for all the voices (via the publisher)

but all the animation, art, coding, writing, design modelling all of that is just me sitting by myself making it (in a shed in the garden, a nice one tho)

So if I seem to sometime make strange decisisions, it's cuz I am limited in what I can do, it allows me to innovate hella fast tho, but it does limit me in stuff like tutorials..

[Tyrax]

For what it's worth, I thought the tutorial was fine, it's not really a complex game. I agree that the focus should be on content right now:

- Story
- More events/exploration
- Maybe new buildings types
- Diplomacy and trade
- Better combat and turrets/defences we can actually place instead of their current random nature.