settlement builder GUI fatigue and other possible improvement suggestions

[Darth_Vaepor]

Decent game so far, there was an old flash game that I miss playing (RIP flash) and this game has similar core mechanics. There are a lot of rough around the edges parts though, some more glaring than others, so I'd like to note them here so hopefully the dev takes notice.

1) Workers hired in your own town must go to your truck before they can be assigned. This is honestly my biggest gripe. Every time I hire someone new for my settlement I have to move someone out of my truck into a job they can do, hire the new person, and switch them out. It also means recruiting outside of your settlement becomes very disruptive. Id be nice if you could just send them to your town directly.

2) Trading values are vague. I didn't realize that selling in bulk was deleting my profits until I sat down with a calculator. The game looks like its telling you your selling for a bit less as you sell more in one go, but doesn't tell you the price change is for all of it, not just each threshold.

3)random instant death encounters, repeatedly. The poi encounters and random encounters seem wildly unbalanced. in one file I headed down to Cevitiz with almost 2k in fuel. had to run away from the same convoy a dozen times, burned all my fuel and the 13th time they killed me. This happened maybe 5 minutes into the save file. Same thing happens with infected counts. The only difficulty indicator I've seen is "deadly" on 1 mission. No other indications exist to let you know how dangerous an area or encounter is. In a game with no redo that really stinks.

4)encounter % lies! I have yet to see my encounter chance go above 20%. Because without fail I will be attacked at 20% or higher. It feels the same with accuracy. I shouldn't regularly see 3/4 "miss" with 90% accuracy. Something is super canted in your change calculaor, and makes assessing options completely futile.

That being said, I really like the game so far and keep up the awesome work. The only other thing Id suggest is change the combat system, but I know thats a huge ask. It's kind of lopsided toward luck and pure stat strength over any amount of strategy or skill.

I'm still really enjoying that game and will keep playing and see what is to come!

[Izzy]

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

2) Trading values are vague. I didn't realize that selling in bulk was deleting my profits until I sat down with a calculator. The game looks like its telling you your selling for a bit less as you sell more in one go, but doesn't tell you the price change is for all of it, not just each threshold.

The game literally tells you how much you profit, thats what the green number is for. Calculator bit made me laugh ngl. The game tells you the price change for each unit and total, so I don't see the problem.

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

random instant death encounters, repeatedly. The poi encounters and random encounters seem wildly unbalanced.

It's a game with quick save/load. Its not a permadeath kinda game, so you just learn on your own mistakes, no? After playing through both maps, I haven't seen anything unbalanced to the extremes.

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

encounter % lies! Something is super canted in your change calculaor, and makes assessing options completely futile.

Sounds like its your first game with something that has a random % chance. That's why it's a chance, its absolutely unpredictable, just your luck and nothing else. I've seen the "95% chance to hit = still missed" in many games countless amount of times.

[Tamazin]

1) You can temporary leave your truckers at the bar, so leave all except one, get people from bar, employ the people you just got and then get back the people you left at the bar.

4) i've gotten to like 80%+ encounter rate without getting an encounter. RNG gonna RNG.

[Ellen]

Thank you for your suggestions. We appreciate your input and will consider these ideas to improve the game.

[druzilsupreme]

I must be missing something obvious but in terms of settlement building; how do I add materials to the town?

[Izzy]

Originally posted by druzilsupreme:

I must be missing something obvious but in terms of settlement building; how do I add materials to the town?

You just find & bring Building Materials to the town, then use them to upgrade buildings

[druzilsupreme]

Yeah worked it out. Thanks tho!

[Darth_Vaepor]

Originally posted by Izzy:

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

2) Trading values are vague. I didn't realize that selling in bulk was deleting my profits until I sat down with a calculator. The game looks like its telling you your selling for a bit less as you sell more in one go, but doesn't tell you the price change is for all of it, not just each threshold.

The game literally tells you how much you profit, thats what the green number is for. Calculator bit made me laugh ngl. The game tells you the price change for each unit and total, so I don't see the problem.

Yes but the game is rather unclear especially in larger volumes how much profit loss your actually experiencing by selling it all at once. Allow me to elaborate: 2000 units available. If you buy 600 you'll pay 99% of the 'market value. So 249 instead of 250 each. If you buy 200 at a time one after the other, the first 200 charges you 30% market value. the next 200 its 60% market value. The last 200 is 99% market value. This makes no freaking sense. Both as a gameplay aspect and as a economy system. The same thing happens when you sell. If you sell all 600 units you get 101% market value. 251 each. But if you sell 200, then 200, then 200, you get 300% market value, then 200% then 101%. So your not only punished for buying in bulk, the OPPOSITE of how bulk purchasing should work, but you get punished EVEN MORE for selling it in bulk. The fact that you can piecemeal it without leaving the menu and get 1000% more profit is what I'm pointing out. And the calculator was to make sure my math was correct, and that by selling it all at once, it gives you the lowest price possible for EVERY unit sold, instead of the incremental falls in profit from selling it 3 times. The system should relay that information or change the way it calculates values. Again, this is all without leaving the menu and no changes in the available quantities besides what your trading.

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

random instant death encounters, repeatedly. The poi encounters and random encounters seem wildly unbalanced.

It's a game with quick save/load. Its not a permadeath kinda game, so you just learn on your own mistakes, no? After playing through both maps, I haven't seen anything unbalanced to the extremes.

Thats great for you, but maybe you just got lucky seeds. Either way I'm pointing out that it might be a good idea to time lock repeated encounters and level lock specific ones. No reason I should have been forced to flee 6 times from the hostile caravan encounter until I ran out of fuel, couldn't run, and died in the first volley against a combat value of 250 to my 12. And quick save/load is great but it doesnt reset random encounter ticks. You'll still get the same encounters at the same time after you reload.

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

encounter % lies! Something is super canted in your change calculaor, and makes assessing options completely futile.

Sounds like its your first game with something that has a random % chance. That's why it's a chance, its absolutely unpredictable, just your luck and nothing else. I've seen the "95% chance to hit = still missed" in many games countless amount of times.

Thats not in any way an intelligent response. Your arguing that mathematical variance simply doesn't adhere to its own rules. If I roll a d20 theres a 5% chance of rolling a 20. If I roll a 20 repeatedly, thats not chance that a weighted die. The fact you say you've seen a 5% chance countless times aligns more with my point than your own. I've played numerous chance based games. I also know its extremely difficult to balance a chance engine in videogame design. But if people like you say nothing, they'll never look at fixing what is obviously a skewed chance table. I have a character with 60% chance to barter better prices. He fails 70% of the time. Thats not 'luck' thats a bug.

[Izzy]

Originally posted by Darth_Vaepor:

I have a character with 60% chance to barter better prices. He fails 70% of the time. Thats not 'luck' thats a bug.

Bro expects to ALWAYS win his % chances. You know you can still fail like 10 times in a row with a 99% chance of success, right? Even though the probability of that is really low, it IS there. Even if it's like 0.0005% or whatever. I don't know what's so hard to comprehend.

That's not a "bug", that's r a n d o m. People spontaneously win at lotteries IRL with the most abysmal chances ever, that's a bug in your book too, then?

[Darth_Vaepor]

For all those people who say I don't understand probability, I ask how many of you are coders? software engineers? developers? Probably none. There is no machine currently in existence that can generate true random probability. It's all simulated. Often using algorithms based in sig numbers such as a Seed, or your computers clock. So they can, and often are, skewed to some degree. It takes people like myself running a few hundred checks a few hundred times and making a polite comment suggesting it, for it to get looked at. So unless you can show me the exact method this dev uses to produce variable chance, show me the test code you ran to check it, and its results... maybe don't make pointless comments.

[Mentat76]

I'm with @Darth_Vaepor on this one. Probability is probability. 95% is a hit 95 times out of 100 times.

[JimmyD]

Originally posted by Mentat76:

I'm with @Darth_Vaepor on this one. Probability is probability. 95% is a hit 95 times out of 100 times.

Agreed. There is something wrong with the way probability is calculated in this game.

Originally posted by Izzy:

Even if it's like 0.0005% or whatever. I don't know what's so hard to comprehend.

I've been playing for a dozen hours or so and I've already experienced once in a lifetime amounts of bad luck multiple times. What you aren't comprehending is that I shouldn't be shooting blanks every single battle with 90%+ accuracy. There are three of us complaining that the hit rate is bugged; how are we all getting that 0.0005% multiple times a session?