(Feedback) Design decisions I disagree with.

[SquarelyCircle]

I think you've made a fun game here. Especially the atmosphere is great! The art, the music, the sounds - it's all so solid. So, please don't take this feedback as a sign that I disliked the game. I simply wanted to provide feedback on my experience playing.

Of note, I've only ever played on hard mode (on my son's account).

1) The little temporary bonuses you get from those shriney things are ridiculously under-powered and short. One way to fix that would be to make them overpowered, but I would prefer another option. They should all last until you return to the sanctuary (by death or any other means). I usually only get one every few deaths, so a minor buff that may not even be usable really makes finding them more of an annoyance than exciting. It's like someone giving you a chewed piece of gum and then saying, "No need to thank me."

2) Perks should not be missable. I had an enemy die in an unreachable location, and a perk was sitting there, and there was no way I could get to it. They should slowly move toward you. The speed at which they accelerate should be fast enough that you definitely get them after a boss, before you teleport back to the sanctuary.

3) I am not a fan of the skill tree. It's a great idea overall, but minor buffs to health and damage and armor are just not exciting. They feel like filler that you're REQUIRED to unlock in order to handle the intensity of the game (an uninspiring numbers game), not exciting benefits that change how you can handle situations. It reminds me of Final Fantasy 8, where GFs sometimes had cool abilities, but many upgrades were things like increased HP, and other boring things that don't feel very exciting.

4) The loading screen hint "Luck is an underrated skill" is just plain wrong. Luck is a stupidly necessary skill that feels like a waste of upgrade points, but you HAVE to get it. Luck here is like "Magic Find" in Diablo. You have to get it to grind gear, or you're wasting time. I would much rather have luck be an attribute that naturally raises by a few percent per minute you stay alive while enemies are on the screen (or something), giving incentive to avoid dying, and making death more meaningful. Perhaps instead of setting it back to 0, death could divide it in half, making it so that you don't feel like your progress was entirely wasted. Anyhow, having luck as a stat is building boring into the skill tree.

5) Perhaps the suggestion I feel least strongly about, but it's still something I thought while playing: Health elixirs shouldn't drop at all before you've taken damage to health, and should follow a unique drop pattern. Elixirs should have (something like) a cumulative 0.0005% drop chance per second per % hp you are missing, which then resets when one finally drops. That way, the longer you survive, the more likely you are to find one (And, by not using elixirs, they have a higher chance of dropping, making a sort of risk-based decision to use one now, or save it to hope your low hp will increase the odds of getting another). As it stands, I rarely find elixirs when I need them, and I almost always get a few before I've even taken damage. It might seem like I'm asking for the game to be easier, but that's not the point. The point is the feeling of excitement to find things that you desperately need. As an example (I don't remember the game) there was a game where the developers made it so that there was a moderately high probability that a hit that was supposed to kill you would, instead, leave you barely alive. This made it so that players had a lot more close-call fights, which made it more exciting… of course the players were never told of this mechanic.

[Herr Sten]

I disagree with 1) and 3).

The buffs are enormously powerful. The armor one makes you so, so much tougher while the movement speed one increases damage output by making you attack faster. I killed a boss while having the luck buff (just made it with like 2 secs to spare lol) and he dropped basically double the loot. Then you have eldritch chain lightning, triple shot and infinite stamina. All of them are incredible. Their duration is a bit short, true. Still, I love it when i run by one.

I don't think the small nodes are supposed to be exciting. They are the path to the much more interesting minor and major nodes. You get a tiny bit stronger everytime you die, and then by the end of the game you are 5x (or something) powerful without ever making a noticable jump in power which i love(well, except the major boost nodes, but those are major nodes).

Rest of your points are good and reasonable.

[SquarelyCircle]

Perhaps you're right, and the power of the bonuses is quite immense. However, I've almost never had one that I could actually use during a battle. I got two of the power-ups that refill all your health and elixirs (I assume) when I still had full health and elixirs.

I suppose the slow, almost immeasurable growth to near invincibility is kind of cool, and I can appreciate that someone might particularly like looking back... something like the show "breaking bad," where he ever so slowly becomes completely corrupt. But, not for me. I prefer meaningful growth that I can really feel. I guess this may just be a personal preference.

Thanks for your thoughts, Herr Sten.

[Greatfox [RUS]]

Originally posted by SquarelyCircle:

Perhaps you're right, and the power of the bonuses is quite immense. However, I've almost never had one that I could actually use during a battle. I got two of the power-ups that refill all your health and elixirs (I assume) when I still had full health and elixirs.

I suppose the slow, almost immeasurable growth to near invincibility is kind of cool, and I can appreciate that someone might particularly like looking back... something like the show "breaking bad," where he ever so slowly becomes completely corrupt. But, not for me. I prefer meaningful growth that I can really feel. I guess this may just be a personal preference.

Thanks for your thoughts, Herr Sten.

Well, that's just bad luck or too little exploration. There are a few rooms spawning every refresh, and you're likely to stumble into them, especially at R2 because of it's corridor nature. They are also way too powerful to make them longer. It also shows which upgrade it is so you can come pick it back later to maximize the result (getting refilled for more running, extra speed to get the perk behind the endless horde area, extra firepower or luck to beat that mini or a boss).

For 2, just before you're teleported back to the shrine after beating the boss, the entire loot is collected automatically. No need to run around picking the stuff up

The skill tree, you surely have to farm it to do combat , but for progression, only a few major nodes are required, since you can run to R3 and unlock all the abilities with just minor investment and little combat. And after that grinding comes down to getting the Scavenger major node and sweeping the area for treasure chests, again, little combat required, unless you farm lith arenas for perks. I'd honestly like it to drop two to three perks at once if you have high luck, since farming perks is very tedious.

I agree with you that the health elixirs drop are very unstable. In practice, it makes the related perks have near-zero combat viability - you're better off with assuming you have a fixed amount of Health or Shield elixirs starting from the shrine, and only count on mini/lith arena spoils or ton-of-crates areas (only encountered at R1) as your refills.