Gameplay Feedback & Suggestions

[hythrain | t.tv]

So before I get into this, I love this game. Of all the games I've played of the "three cycles to reach a quota" games, it's by far the most fun. It has such a large variety of things going on already, and it sounds like you two are planning a lot more.

With that said, I want to provide some detailed feedback and suggestions in the hopes of helping you out. I adore this game and I want to see it become even more amazing and fun, and I think some of these are things that should be considered for that reason. Real quick, I don't remember all of the monster names and will likely refer to any monsters in other ways.

First, monsters on the attack. There are a lot of monsters that can kill the player in one shot if you don't have additional equipment. Not even counting the giant monsters, the monsters who I've encountered that have killed me or a friend I was playing with in one hit are: Cluby, Concrete Man, Manhole Eater, Face Eaters, Stalkers, Tentacle Demon (not the Squid), The Pinky Brain, and that one inside monster with the strange jaw. Maybe some of these aren't intended to one-shot and it's just a bug, but this is what I saw. While some of these monsters are easy to deal with, others feel like you can't do anything but run away. It would be nice for more monsters to have ways to counter them. This brings me to the next thing I want to discuss.

Items and the ability to defend yourself. Right now, the only ways to defend yourself from monsters are as follows:

1. Place a trap to keep monsters away, but the trap can also backfire and you get caught in it instead.
2. Stand on the rooftops and vehicles to avoid certain monsters outside.
3. If it's a squid or ceiling trap, have someone else hit them.
4. Get a monster to cross a land mine.

If there's a monster in your path towards an exit or the helicopter, you're pretty much boned. While other games have this problem, I think The Headliners already has something built in that could be used to fix this: the ability to throw body parts and dead monsters. So if you were to add items inside buildings that can be used to throw at monsters to stun them briefly, this would create the means for players to get past monsters blocking their way but not give them so much control or even the ability to harm the monsters. This could then be used as a method for stopping some monsters who don't have other means of dealing with them. The only function this needs different from holding limbs and bodies is the ability to switch what item you're using. I'll note, this is intended only to stun the monster long enough to allow a player to get past it. To prevent players from trying to use it to get pictures, there could be a function where if you take a picture of a stunned monster it immediately attacks you.

This brings me to losing limbs. Right now, losing a limb is far too easy to happen. A lot of the monsters that won't kill you will likely take a limb off during the attack. I even had a round where a squid took a hand and a foot from me before it ever did 10 damage to me, which felt rather unfair. Besides reducing the chance of losing a limb (especially a leg, since right now you don't lose any functionality from losing a hand while you lose the ability to sprint if you lose a leg), this could be a place for items to help out: wristguards to protect your hands and strong boots to protect your legs, making it that you can't lose those limbs while the item is equipped. These could even improve your ability to take a hit. I know that the helmet and ranger boots give HP, but it makes more sense if they reduce the damage you take rather than increase your health.

Speaking of the helmet and boots, while I understand why they take up inventory slots I think it'd be better if they didn't. Things you equip to your body stay on your body and don't take slots. This would then make inventory space for things like the throwable items. The only time things should go into inventory is if you're picking up someone else's equipment and you can't equip it because you're wearing something in the slot.

I also want to bring up the helicopter and ladders, as I think these are important parts. First, I've found ladders to be really cruel to use. The design on how you go down them makes it easy for people to just fall off because you need to get on the ladder then explicitly hold down to go down regardless of which way you're facing. This is an area that could be improved, especially for the next thing: helicopters should NOT be on the road. It feels kind of janky when you can stand behind a helicopter as a giant monster kicks cars, lightposts and just about anything they CAN kick into it just for it to take the hits. Instead, I'd like to suggest that each map be designed with having the helicopter be in a safe place away from all monsters, probably somewhere up high where normal monsters can't get to at all and where the giants are just out of reach. The rooftop part of Little Plaza is a great spot for this. It could even be a thing where they're placed behind a large wall and the players navigate through a small opening that the monsters just aren't allowed through.

Another thing I'd like to suggest: change emotes to be a choice wheel and make it that numbers 1 through 7 work on inventory. I know I'm not the only one who keeps pressing 1-4 to change inventory items only to do an emote.

As for the final thing I'd like to suggest: make cameras lost in a previous run recoverable if you don't make the quota. So say everyone dies or only one person survives but they miss one camera and you don't get enough points to go to the next area. When you return to the previous area, you can find the camera where it was dropped if outside. If inside, it will appear through the same doors you went through before but in a random spot a certain distance from the entrance. With this, you can recover lost pictures but you can't take new ones with the recovered camera.

Oh, also: don't make the rat knock people down. It's dumb. D: Just make it bite their ankle and run off.