A Personal Wishlist

[Big Scary Myr Party]

I just want to start by saying I like this game. I have had a good few hours on it and enjoyed my purchase. I think a lot of the systems work (with some technical hiccups like bargaining and lockpicking bugging) and the overall experience is almost, but not quite, all there.

That said, I feel like the game is really struggling to get a core loop going. I am going to address ideas for the different areas of the game individually, but I wanted to get that out of the way first. I'm also going to be bringing up some other games here. I want to stress that I don't want this game to become a copy of those games, just point out there are other games with similar systems that can be examined for ways to improve this game.

The Office:
The office is good as a starting hub, it is interactive enough to feel like a part of the game world more than a mission select hub or a shop, which is a big plus in my opinion. Since a lot of interactions link to the office, I'll be listing quite a few ideas related to the overall game experience here.

• There should be a way to earn Rep directly. This could include accepting deals without bargaining, donations to special causes, pro-bono work, giving employees vacation, advertising campaigns, so on.
  
• I think reputation should be a currency, not a progress bar. Certain upgrades would make more sense to me as having a rep cost instead of being an unlockable money purchase. Most of the things involving employees and negotiations especially.
  
• Building off the last point, the reputation system would make more sense as a skill tree instead of a fixed progression. Different branches for map unlocks, employee slots, machine unlocks and upgrades. The skill tree could contain both cash and reputation unlocks, maybe even unlocks that require certain thresholds of material processing or a cost in processed materials. Variety is good!
  
• There needs to be a more concise way of viewing all available materials at all times. This could be as simple as a whiteboard in the office, or a tally on the computer. The problem is that even if you know what is in your warehouse, your individual machines including the sorting machine can have material in them that isn't inventoried. This could even be a part of the skill tree, with unlocks leading to more precise measurements of inflow and outflow, projections for projects, and such. More stuff for the secretary, or multiple secretaries, to do.
  
• The difference between contracts and selling on the market is pretty slim. Both boil down to "have X amount to make money" even if the market is more flexible. Contracts could be greatly expanded. I could see contracts as more long-term, maybe entering into a period of promising certain amounts of specific materials on an on-going basis, accepting large amounts of specific raw materials to be processed and returned, or being contracted to liquidate locations for a specific company.
  
• A calendar would be amazing! I would love predictions, with accuracy on the skill tree, allowing you to predict demand spikes (there could still be room for unexpected fluctuations in demand on top of this). This would also be important to tie in to a more robust contract system.
  
• Companies should have more personality. This could tie in to the previous points about earning rep and having more varied contracts. Some companies could be better for rep, some for profit, and some might be tied to unlocks in the skill tree. You could also have individual reputation with companies, perhaps a progress bar with them that builds in exchange for working with them, leading to better contracts and events.
  
• It would be nice to assign drivers to jobs directly from the computer, maybe a drop-down when you make the deal so the driver immediately heads out.
  
• More in-depth employee management. Promotions, job training and certifications, morale, moving people around the company, putting someone on a pip.
  
• More in-depth public outreach/advertising.

The Sorting Machine
My favorite thing about the sorting machine is how quickly you can hand it off to someone else. It's more enjoyable than the sorting system in Ship Graveyard Sim 2, but that is a low bar to beat. I don't really have a wishlist for this specific system, but I wish I understood the combo system better. I guess it's tied to speed? Maybe have upgrades for it that further automate the sorted material after processing (straight to specific machines or the warehouse), or allow multiple workers to sort the belt in a way that increases yield?

Collection
Collection is rather bare bones. You have two kinds of material and you have to get it all into the truck. The lockpick is required to get you into certain areas (and unlocks cash registers), and the crowbar is a way to make a free $200 once or twice on a map (the lockpick makes you more on a register BTW). Neither is very exciting, though the minigames are quick enough. I'm going to mention Barnfinders, which is probably the best trash-picking collector game I've played. Just more satisfying collection, imo.

• Instead of individually clicking every piddly item, I would love a way to sweep or vacuum up smaller items into the trash bag.
  
• Picking up multiple larger items at the same time would be great. Something like the palette system, or even upgrading to hold 2-3 items at once, with each additional item you are holding lowering your speed in a minor way. This would also be useful for moving small amounts of items around in the warehouse early game.
  
• I would love the maps to have more character. They are relatively visually distinct, with a few variations on themes, but they are relatively flat and open. Sometimes you'll get an item wedged into an odd crack but that is about as complex as they get. Keys and puzzles would be cool, even if they got repetitive over time.
  
• If you've cleared a particular map completely a certain number of times, it should be a free collection. Basically you select it as a job from the truck and you just appear back at the warehouse with the current junk in your truck. This would cut down on the maps being repetitive once you've cleared them.
  
• Greater item variety, in several ways. I would love multi-part items that need to be taken apart into their individual components. Imagine buying a junk car and ripping off the doors and tires and electronics yourself? These could be a different kind of job from the collection maps, or items you find on the collection map and bring back to the yard to finish. There could also be collectible items that are tied to unlocks or companies, things like business cards, branded merchandise, antiques. Items that need to be restored with raw materials, or are broken into parts that have to be found across multiple maps. You could even include cosmetic items like worker coveralls, secretary outfits, stickers for the truck, so on.
  
• Building on the last, special drop-off/event days (ie, Large Appliance dropoff on Fridays, furniture/mattress dropoff on Tuesday, school tours in the fall, inspections)
  
• Secret areas, ways to bypass lockpicks by crawling into a window or falling through a hole in the ceiling, tunnels to crawl through, parkour, puzzles that open up spaces as mentioned above.
  
• Buying junk lots for picking, things like storage sales, horder houses, or businesses that have gone under. Maybe have these as special events that can get you a lot of scrap but mean you are out of the yard the whole day.

The Yard
This is mostly about interactions between the machines and the warehouse. Both are perfectly functional, and I already saw that conveyor belts are on the horizon, but I want to make some mentions of specific functions for belts anyway.

• There should be a way for machines to dump directly onto palettes.
  
• There should be a way for machines to pull directly from palettes.
  
• There should be a way to designate spaces for robots to bring palettes near machines from the warehouse.
  
• There should be a way to pull material back out of a machine that doesn't disrupt the machine (though the machine should be turned off, safety first).
  
• Machines with a single output need a way to be set to continuously run.
  
• Machines contents and processes should be visible in some way besides the screen on the side. This could include number of jobs done, amount left to process in the machine, yield based on input, and thru-put metrics. The last one is very important if you're going to be running multiple machines that process different materials at different speeds, see something like Satisfactory.
  
• Conveyors need to be able to merge and split, with splitting having specific options like filters and specific distributions (two left,one right/metal down the middle/round robin, so on)
  
• Storage machines beyond palettes. Palettes can remain the free option, but perhaps holding machines for interacting with conveyors and machines.
  
• A way to combine bins of raw sorted materials, especially early game.

I know this is a huge list, and this isn't a huge game. As I said above, this is a wish-list, and a collection of things I thought about over my 13 hours of play. I'm going to keep going for a while longer, but at the current state I don't see this being one of my multi-hundred hour job-simmy game obsessions. I feel like this game has good bones, but it needs to really work on it's depth.

I would still love to hear everyone's thoughts on feasibility and opinions on what I have laid out here.

[info]

wooow, thank you for sparing time and giving you feedback/wishs, it is really valuable.

We will review them, and see how we can implement some of to our game...

[michael-jessica_mueller]

I think that's good suggestions, but I would say that there is still a wear system from the machines that they also break that you have to fix them and you have to increase the difficulty significantly that you don't have the game through so quickly.

Ich finde das sind gute Vorschläge, aber ich würde sagen, dass es immer noch ein Verschleißsystem von den Maschinen gibt, das sie auch kaputt machen, dass man sie reparieren muss und man den Schwierigkeitsgrad deutlich erhöhen muss, damit man das Spiel nicht so schnell durchkommt.

[Big Scary Myr Party]

Originally posted by info:

wooow, thank you for sparing time and giving you feedback/wishs, it is really valuable.

We will review them, and see how we can implement some of to our game...

Thank you for the reply! It's really heartening to see your quick response. I know some of this may be infeasible or outside the scope of the project, but I am very happy to be part of the conversation.

Three of the smaller ideas would be big improvements, imo:
-A way to predict upcoming demand spikes
-Sending out drivers from the computer
-A sweeper/vacuum upgrade for collection

I only have so much experience with game programming myself, but these are smaller changes, unlike some of my other wishes which I can tell would require a lot of effort and restructuring of existing systems.

[Big Scary Myr Party]

Originally posted by michael-jessica_mueller:

I think that's good suggestions, but I would say that there is still a wear system from the machines that they also break that you have to fix them and you have to increase the difficulty significantly that you don't have the game through so quickly.

Ich finde das sind gute Vorschläge, aber ich würde sagen, dass es immer noch ein Verschleißsystem von den Maschinen gibt, das sie auch kaputt machen, dass man sie reparieren muss und man den Schwierigkeitsgrad deutlich erhöhen muss, damit man das Spiel nicht so schnell durchkommt.

Oh that is a fun idea. I could see job repairs starting as something you have to either hire someone to fix (slow, expensive), something you do yourself (minigame leading to the machine working, but only for a short time, just enough to keep chugging along), or eventually unlocking/hiring an on-site repairman (fastest, but an on-going cost).

If the machines are going to have durability, there is a lot of other things you could tie into that. Upgrading the machines, having speed controls that trade thru-put for increased durability loss, or late-game machines that can process more production "steps" directly (A glass machine that can go straight from collected scrap to bottles, stuff like that.)

[Daz]

Liking all of the suggestions on this one - just adding my thoughts.

New jobs

- Yardhand he/she will load the output from the sorter and recycling collector into the machines, maybe even split the input evenly if you have more than one of any of them. Will stack pallets if they are near the machines outputs. You still have to move them, or mark them for movement, yourself.

- Driver's Mate - a second, lower-paid collector who goes out with another driver, two people on the job, twice as much collection. This only works if there are bigger jobs, or the ability to send them on more than one each day.

- Litter Picker; people who go out into the local area to clean the streets, bringing back low amounts of junk. This could be a relatively high-cost way of getting small amounts of materials, but improves your Rep with the local people.

- Mechanic - Already mentioned above, but services the machines, keeps them running and maybe requires you to supply (purchase and store?) spare parts.

Another area that could be put is a breakroom/rest area in the yard, where the staff go if they don't have any task to do - like the drivers, when they've got back and unloaded their vans.

The more people who are in the yard, moving around, doing things, the more 'alive' the game will feel. Adding some long-term interest - you can just stand on the stairs by the office and watch your industry work.

Lastly - can we upgrade/customise the office and 'living area' above it? It seems odd that this (soon to be) millionaire lives in a container above an office...

(Hmm... That ended up longer than expected.)

[Big Scary Myr Party]

Fun ideas. Definitely want more employees and more ability to see them moving around.

[Cliffy]

I would like to see biological waste from gardening including new contracts to collect this waste from gardens or parks. As production line it coult be transform to a kind of biological fertilizer and potting soil. Stuff like that.