Suddenly slow progression after area 5?

[Shyguymask]

Before ascending for the first time, I could make it to around stage 35 in area 5 and hardly make progress in area 6. After filling out the bestiary in earlier areas as well as stockpilling materials, I ascended and bought a lot of stuff. Then after grinding my levels back and then more, I could beat area 5 but I still ended up getting walled midway through area 6, with enemies taking a long time to kill. And now with the GIGANTIC Ghost Blade nerf (2x mana cost and like 1/3 damage compared to before), it's even more difficult to progress and it also takes longer to grind in area 5. I'm trying to push through expecting some BIG new unlock or feature through discoveries and such, but it's not really happening and I feel like not much is happening in the gameplay now. I was hooked at first, but the sudden steep slowdown in gameplay (despite trying to maximize my stats and equips and etc) is disappointing. Am I doing something wrong?

Before I get "It's an idle game duh" comments, there's a difference with slow but steady progress like in Cookie Clicker and Clicker Heroes, and then getting stuck with little progress & events happening like in my case.

[The Fox Knocks]

Originally posted by Infern:

I think some people just want the streamer version of the game. Where it accelerates thing. The thing that Wanderbot had. (Not as powerful but as an option speed boost.)

Fair, but I think this wouldn't be very satisfying. You'd beat the game in like 3 hours and that's it. I don't mind short idle games, but Nomad Idle is definitely not made with that sort of thing in mind.

[Palandus]

Well as you say nothing will change, so I've uninstalled it and moved on. Just not my cup of tea. If I had known this I wouldn't have bought it.

Have a good day, and good luck with developing.

[The Fox Knocks]

Originally posted by Δsh:

I think the big problem is you backloaded all the "idle" parts so the demo/first half of the game you breeze through then you immediately hit a brick wall with no indication of what to do next as people are saying above that they've just about maxed if not maxed all progression, items, abilities, etc.

I could see that, but a lot of games do this. They start off fast with you unlocking many things, then they slow down and you unlock things slower, and then it's over. Why is what I'm doing so different? I get mixed opinions because some people say Area 5 has you hit a huge wall, but then some people say no, it's Area 8. It sounds like a wall happens somewhere, but it's not clear where it happens and when it does, it doesn't seem to take people too long to get beyond it.

[Palandus]

Originally posted by The Fox Knocks:

Respectfully, Nomad Idle has been released for 2 days and people are already showing 46/46 achievements in my Discord. These people are likely outliers, but overall people are progressing way faster than I thought they would. I originally said the game would take 1-2 weeks to beat but it's actually much closer to a few days.

I have no idea why you're assuming this game will take weeks or months to beat. I am also open to criticism - again, this is all over my Discord, I even encourage negative criticism so I can get valuable feedback, but saying the game becomes a brutal grind because it takes like 6 hours to do something has me taken aback.

You describe it with such severity, like nothing is happening while you idle in the game for 100 hours or something, but you're hitting small walls and getting new Characters, new Summons, new Skills spread throughout, you clear this wall and you're in for more content, you clear the next wall and you're in for even more... but then I'm being told nothing happens and that you don't unlock anything and I can only ask if we're even talking about the same game.

If I didn't take criticism I'd have locked the thread and probably not responded to begin with.

These players that beat it in less time and have 46/46 achievements... have you bothered to ask them if they used Cheat Engine to progress faster?

Because if you locked health and mana to maximum values, you'd be invulnerable and never run into mana shortages. You'd blaze through the content at lightning speeds.

[Δsh]

Originally posted by The Fox Knocks:

Originally posted by Δsh:

I think the big problem is you backloaded all the "idle" parts so the demo/first half of the game you breeze through then you immediately hit a brick wall with no indication of what to do next as people are saying above that they've just about maxed if not maxed all progression, items, abilities, etc.

I could see that, but a lot of games do this. They start off fast with you unlocking many things, then they slow down and you unlock things slower, and then it's over. Why is what I'm doing so different? I get mixed opinions because some people say Area 5 has you hit a huge wall, but then some people say no, it's Area 8. It sounds like a wall happens somewhere, but it's not clear where it happens and when it does, it doesn't seem to take people too long to get beyond it.

Personally I hit my brick wall at area 7-8, I generally like to clear an area once for that 7x mulitplier because the material costs for equipment can get quite high, I also turn on bestiary lock for that second run.

I have all ascensions available to me except tier 4 and mobs practically insta-kill me when i get to a high enough stage even with only 100 mobs. It's basically a game of get enough defense to take 0 damage or don't progress. Want to play summoner but haven't unlocked it yet.

Now with this wall i'm forced to turn on bestiary lock from the beginning and slowly progress getting those juicy def + def mod bestiary rewards.

Just because other games get away with pushing players to get past the 2 hour window doesn't make it okay but again I think the issue is with how hard the wall is rather than the fact theres a wall at all. Progression should gradually slow down rather than feeling like it completely stops if that makes sense.

Also I think those that already have all achievements had demo progress carried over and likely were able to take advantage of those skills you nerfed, some may have cheated but i'd like to give the benefit of the doubt.

Still enjoying the game it servers its purpose as an idle game, I mostly got it to prevent my pc from going to sleep lol, just some insight on where frustration could be coming from.

[The Fox Knocks]

Originally posted by Palandus:

These players that beat it in less time and have 46/46 achievements... have you bothered to ask them if they used Cheat Engine to progress faster?

Because if you locked health and mana to maximum values, you'd be invulnerable and never run into mana shortages. You'd blaze through the content at lightning speeds.

Oh, I'm sure some people cheat, but the number of people pulling this off would make it pretty bizarre. There's a lot of people discussing strategies to overcome stuff like Area 8, 9, and 10 as well. Those are the most common, which is pretty close to beating the game, as well.

It's probably because they're sharing optimal strategies that they're progressing so quickly. Some people are faster, some people are slower, of course. As long as people are having fun, that's all that matters.

[Infern]

Originally posted by Palandus:

Originally posted by The Fox Knocks:

Respectfully, Nomad Idle has been released for 2 days and people are already showing 46/46 achievements in my Discord. These people are likely outliers, but overall people are progressing way faster than I thought they would. I originally said the game would take 1-2 weeks to beat but it's actually much closer to a few days.

I have no idea why you're assuming this game will take weeks or months to beat. I am also open to criticism - again, this is all over my Discord, I even encourage negative criticism so I can get valuable feedback, but saying the game becomes a brutal grind because it takes like 6 hours to do something has me taken aback.

You describe it with such severity, like nothing is happening while you idle in the game for 100 hours or something, but you're hitting small walls and getting new Characters, new Summons, new Skills spread throughout, you clear this wall and you're in for more content, you clear the next wall and you're in for even more... but then I'm being told nothing happens and that you don't unlock anything and I can only ask if we're even talking about the same game.

If I didn't take criticism I'd have locked the thread and probably not responded to begin with.

These players that beat it in less time and have 46/46 achievements... have you bothered to ask them if they used Cheat Engine to progress faster?

Because if you locked health and mana to maximum values, you'd be invulnerable and never run into mana shortages. You'd blaze through the content at lightning speeds.

I'm at Area 10, Stage 47 (Beastiary). In this version of the game I am currently 37 hours in. (Plus including the 44 hours I've invested into the playtest. So to beat the game will probably take around 90 hours.)

Certain builds in the game are faster at clearing the game.

[The Fox Knocks]

Originally posted by Δsh:

Just because other games get away with pushing players to get past the 2 hour window doesn't make it okay but again I think the issue is with how hard the wall is rather than the fact theres a wall at all. Progression should gradually slow down rather than feeling like it completely stops if that makes sense.

The only thing I reject is this. I didn't sit here and make the game with a stopwatch, testing to see where the 2 hour time limit comes in. I've been accused of this a few times and it's like... damn, do you really think I'm some kind of evil genius mastermind out to rob you of your money or something? Not you specifically, but the general "you" in this context.

The game has a refund rate of a little over 5%, which from previous projects is about average, so it definitely means some people played less than 2 hours, didn't like it, and quit, which is fine. A game for everyone is a game for noone afterall.

As for the walls and their severity. Well, I did my best. This is my first foray into idle games, it had a lot of testing done through Patreon up until its release and I didn't have any of these issues, but it's a real possibility that early testers are a bit more hardcore so they wouldn't really complain.

I appreciate your insight on the matter.

And yes, people with 46/46 currently did have the demo, so that's fair. Probably 3 days if they didn't.

[Palandus]

That just means that people who play the "correct build" will enjoy the game. Everyone else will be having a terrible time. Great balance and design.

I played for 52.5 hours. I've had enough. I won't be completing it in the current state and will warn everyone to avoid it too. Its just not fun.

[The Fox Knocks]

Originally posted by Palandus:

That just means that people who play the "correct build" will enjoy the game. Everyone else will be having a terrible time. Great balance and design.

I played for 52.5 hours. I've had enough. I won't be completing it in the current state and will warn everyone to avoid it too. Its just not fun.

Am I supposed to somehow create a game where you can create builds and there's no way to run a build that's really good and a build that's really bad? There's a reason why resetting your stats and changing up your skills is so easy in Nomad Idle. I encourage experimenting.

[Palandus]

There is an obvious disparity here.

I'm region 8, 52 hours in, with almost entire ascension tree filled out. I have 1-6 regions bestiary filled out, and up to wave 26 of region 7. I have all tier 1/2 at +29. I have all pets at level 30. My skills are at 65 (passive mastery is at 31). I have 75 maximum for all stats. All other equipment is at +9.

I can't beat Region 8. I've tried adventurer, cultist, paladin, ratling archer and divine. None of them come close to sufficient DPS.

They are using a build that lets them completely outpace me; region 10 with only 33 hours. That tells me their build is operating at like 2000% of any of my builds.

[Palandus]

I have all the available tier 1, to tier 3 slots filled in ascension tree (except for the west/left section as its locked). I have most of tier 4 as well. I don't have any real other progression to get left, other than grinding out Region 7 and Region 8 bestiary.

This is why I'm so irritated. There is clearly builds that can do the content without the extreme grind I've done. But I'm never going to find them, so I'm stuck where I am.

[OLt. Otto Carius]

I just bought the game and have to say i enjoy it much.
I played some idle games before like NGU, Cookie, ClickRaid, and LeafBlowerRevolution. And all this games take time to progress. So if a wall will come, i try out some varities of the character and also push my stats for more passive stats to make progres again. Nothing wrong with this, even it takes time. A demotivation would only appear if i dont see any progress at all.
So far the game is really enjoyable for me. Just missing somehow a new save slot for making a second character and even a hardcore mode :) But maybe this game is made for dying sometimes. :D
And maybe a spot without fights, so i have the chance to change and read the messages without slowly dying in the background while my char is still active fighting.

[Palandus]

"A demotivation would only appear if i dont see any progress at all." That is my experience for the past 12 hours. Hence my rage quit.

Like seriously... I've tried several different combinations of pets and heroes. I've tried several different combinations of skills and trinkets on the pets. There is like over a thousand builds... and I've tried several hundred but can't find a build to progress anywhere close to what others seem to be doing.

[Δsh]

Originally posted by Palandus:

"A demotivation would only appear if i dont see any progress at all." That is my experience for the past 12 hours. Hence my rage quit.

you're basically where I am/was at and all I can say is slime+toxplosive does like 20b poison damage or something and every else can only hit up to like half a mil