Collecting spirit energy

[Eagleshadow]

I love many things about this game, and while there are a couple of nuisances as well, by far my biggest problem with its design, is mechanism for collecting spirit energy. Collecting spirit energy is the sole winning condition, and player is scored based on speed among other things. So it follows that collecting it is one of the most important things, if not THE most important thing for player to do, and to do well.

When I was at first really bad at the game, I realised it's becasue spirit energy looked like part of the worlds visuals, just another decoration. I'd rarely remember I'm supposed to actually pick it up myself, so it took me literally forever to finish the tutorial level. The next level I played, I got a lot better becasue I realised its importance, and so I focused my attention on never failing to pick up any spirit energy. But there's lot of it coming out often in very small amounts... player really has to spend quite some time time sucking it in, and also keep an eye out for it at all times. Which I noticed throws me out of the actual game I'm trying to play and enjoy. Like immersed and trying to figure out how best manage these 5 things at once... but then there's spirit energy to pick up and I better stop enjoying myself, fix my gaze on a tiny dot for 5-6 seconds and just stare while i press right on the touchpad.

Basically, while collecting it might not always take priority over everything, and you could argue choice of when to prioritize it is an essential gameplay element, fact remains that this mechanic involves constantly pulling yourself out of the actual gameplay to check if there are any tiny dots around, and if there are, stop playing and engange in staring the dot down for a while while furiously pressing touchpad-right on left controller while fast forwarding time with right controller in order to make the process less painfully boring.

I argue that the gameplay benefit of prioritizing when to pick or not to pick up spirit energy and gameplay benefit of the "fun of noticing it" (if there is such a thing), is greatly outweighted by the boredom of executing the mechanic. By far more sensible solution would be for spirit energy to automatically collects itself without player needing to do anything about it. That way player can actually play the game instead of pausing the game hundreds of times per match in order to have a staring contest with a dot.

And you know what's even worse? The most efficient way to tackle this. No matter how attentive you are your're always going to miss some spirit energy here and there, if you think you don't ever miss any, note that you inherently wouldn't. So what is the most efficient approach to not only collect spirit energy but also notice it before it goes away? Keeping the touchpad-right pressed all game long of course. This is what I went and did for my third game, and my scores skyrocketed... so yeah. Keeping a button pressed the entire game is not gameplay. Collecting spirit energy should be removed as a mechanic unless you find a way to redesign it in way that avoids all these flaws.

You shouldn't make this change my sake, you should do it becasue it actually is a very quick way to make your game considerably better with very little effort.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[Cego em Tiroteio]

You mentioned a staring contest with the dot for 5-6 seconds. Not sure if you are aware, but you can collect them instantly by reaching them on their position instead of pointing at their direction and wait for them to come.

Anyway, I do get part of your point. I too took ages to finish the tutorial, and I guess I just finished because I read somewhere there was no saving point (later I learned it was a thing of the past). But now that I learned to identify it as more than eyecandy (and the sounds), I enjoy it a lot. It helps keep me on my toes and the game feels kinda balanced to my taste (not sure if I learned to enjoy it as is).

But I still can't tell what are the conditions for them to appear (aside from crystals and monsters) so I grew compulsive of sweeping my arm around every minute. Is that a regular interval, random, x resource collection?

I'll add one point that I never use martyr and holy upgrades for the temple as they are very unclear of their trade-off. Often I get most of the spirit energy from the wild with only one lightning in a temple upgrade before the game ends. But even if I'm currently #1 in the general rank, I feel there's much more to improve the time.

So... I don't know. I get your point, but I'm having fun trying to discover how the game was intended to be played. I feel I cheese too much with 1 farm, 1 townhall, 1 temple and the rest I build basic workshops.

[phil4]

I agree with the original poster, to me, with all the things going on, scrolling around trying to catch the odd, subtle, blue blob is one heck of a distraction.

[Durbin]

I agree 100% with everything the OP wrote. I would love a mode where one could play without worrying about the spirit energy. Or even better, a building that automatically collects it for you. Maybe it attracts all nearby spirit energy and crystalizes it into a collectible form for the prospector.

But most of all, I cannot play the game with sound on because of the collection. That loud suction sound while holding down the button causes distraction and headache. I would LOVE for the option to turn off that noise alone. As you stated, you have to hold the button down for the entire game, so its a ceaseless assualt on the ears.

[LetterAfterZ]

+1 to this. Just spent ages in the tutorial not realising this was even a thing, and found it really tedious to watch for it and zoom over to try and sweep it up.