My gripes with crystal hunt

[KV Productions]

Hey there! I just wanted to lay out my complaints / feedback with crystal hunt after playing it for a couple days. Pre-emptively wanting to say this game is amazing and I love it regardless, but I still want to give my thoughts. I apologise for the rambling, I massively thank any devs who read through all of it

>AI is braindead:
It's actually worse than skyrim. Now, I kind of get it, considering how vertical these maps get, but yeah, climb a ledge, and your average non-ranged AI will just get stuck there looking at you funny. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, but it's still really awkward and breaks immersion! Possible idea: Make the AI pick up nearby objects and throw them at the player?

>AI is braindead 2: Electric boogaloo
This might be me being spoiled by the mod ENHANCED DIFFICULTY, but I can barely get any enjoyment out of the way the AI fights. first, their guard (unless they got shields) is just sitting there wide open, no actual GUARDing part, second, and probably worse, they just *dont attack!* Like why do they just sit there waiting for me to do something??? Its not like they can exploit my attacks to hit me. This isn't even a matter of easy / difficult, because i still get hit, but its REALLY jarring that, even more skilled / faster hitting opponents just sit there for half a minute staring before throwing a LIGHTNING FAST strike, then rinse and repeat. I don't think they need to attack faster, just more often, and hopefully chaning some combos too! Please look at ENHANCED DIFFICULTY for inspiration.

Now im not advocating for the game to be more difficult, AI that attacks more often and chains combos could be accompanied by slower attacks, or just less enemies in total, but I'd much rather be fighting two enemies that force me to block and look for openings than five enemies that just sit there waiting for me to kill them, taking turns to hit me

I think the current AI encourages players to just run in wildly swinging rather than being cautious and blocking, with the only real danger being ranged opponents and getting swarmed. Players can get better results by bumrushing any enemy they see than by being cautious and allowing themselves to get surrounded. AI that protects itself and attacks more often would encourage a slightly more tactical way of playing, and would actually give the player a reason to use the cool physics system of the game as well as the magic and stealth. Right now whats the point in throwing a crate at your foe if you can just walk forward with your sword pointed at them and they will die 99% of the time? its also just plainly unimmersive, takes me out of the experience when my enemies act like scarecrows rather than fighters

>"Stolen" Items: WHY???
I thought the goal of this game was to have an "immersive and seamless experience"? Well, its not very immersive and seamless to have the bow and arrows i picked up forcefully taken away from me at the end of a dungeon! Is there even an option to turn this off? Its really annoying, and... i don't wanna say its lazy, but it feels like taking the easy way out? If it was made, as I suspect, as a balancing measure to push players towards the shop, the RIGHT way to do this would've been to add a lot more item variety and make some of them super rare so the player is more likely to find something in the shop that looks cool and they havent been able to find by just looting. Now, dont take this as me saying "make shop-exclusive items!" I mean add enough items (and make enough of them rare to find as loot) where the player is unlikely to quickly find the majority of them during their adventures! And speaking of the "looting" aspect of this game...

>Cool loot made boring
I really appreciate the cool lore put into each piece of loot, I really do! But, for an "immersive and seamless experience" its not very immersive and seamless to just throw 99.9% of the loot into very obvious loot chests in very obvious loot rooms! When I started playing, I was trying to explore every nook and cranny, breaking open crates, looking through every shelf, trying to open cupboards and drawers, looking in shipwrecks, thinking the loot would be scattered all about to be found naturally and immersively! I was wrong! There is loot to be found out and about and im glad, but its sooooo few and its placed so not-out-of-the-way its not even worth it to explore to find it! Im not saying remove the chests, but take some of the loot that appears in chests and integrate it immersively into the world!

>I AINT READIN ALLAT
Okay, out of all my feedback this one is the one where i'll gladly overlook it since, well, this is an indie game, and voice acting and cutscenes are not cheap, buttt... It's still worth mentioning

Yall have crafted a sick universe, and you're doing it a great disservice by making all the lore and factions be defined merely by notes laying about. Im never going to start caring about the dalgarian ruins, the archaeologists, the crown and the tribes from the north if rather than seeing that cool history i just get told it in a note. Some ideas of how this could be implemented better (though, again, probably beyond this project's scope) would be to have the enemies do activities other than patrol in their dungeons. Instead of the note about practicing magic, let the player stumble upon a "lightning casting for beginners" class, where the events transcribed on the note take place. Instead of the notes arguing about having had to leave their homeland, have a room where the not!viking tribespeople are having a little meeting, and arguing amongst themselves! Let interested players stop and watch and breathe some real life into your world!

More enviromental storytelling would be another great way to expand the lore without hitting players over the head with 300 notes.

I will say this, I think people will get MORE invested in UNTOLD lore that can be glimpsed through in gameplay, than in TOLD lore that is just notes. Think about all the sweet speculation as everyone tries to piece together the history of this universe only the clues they find themselves, rather than everyone in this universe writing their thoughts in paper for no reason!

[Vrede]

Well written. I concur on all points. Especially about exploring and finding loot. I love exploring every nook and cranny, but more so when I'm getting rewarded for it, so I'm kinda loosing interest in doing that in this game, since you mostly don't get anything out of it. And it feels wrong in just rushing forward to complete the level, it's not just my playstyle.

[Angry Rope]

I concur on the loot aspect, for sure. I like to root around in boxes and jars to see if there are any shinies in there.

[Hot Ross Buns]

I'm thankful to be not the only user noticing the notable downgrade in A.I.

Looking forward to weeks of much needed patches, maybe months of work!

The stolen item as well. Silly the coast guard confiscates your weapons you spent time gathering.

Why punish the player for playing the way they want in a single-player game?

[KV Productions]

It was confirmed it was for shop balance, but even being unable to sell them would be better than what we have now! And that'd already feel like being cheated...

[kibbnnuyy]

same braincell. take my points op.

[Illusia]

The AI is suppose to throw rocks, but it takes them a long time of you being out of reach for them to pick one up and throw it at you. Tightening the timer might be necessary but I frankly think it might be more because how often the player might just be repositioning that causes it to be inconsistent? I dunno.
I'd be worried about the AI getting more complicated attacks 'unless' they get more telegraphed, as I can't ever block and sometimes its highly inconsistent if it even works.

Everything else is more or less spot on, although personally I have no issue with the loot being the way it is. If you want loot to be in boxes, 'Extra loot' is a mod that makes it so that breaking items can give you loot on occasion, if thats more your jam.

[Booker T-Witt]

I agree. I made a post recently about how when you're in a fight with anyone, the majority of time, you are waiting for the AI to do anything. Also, yeah, the loot should be plopped basically anywhere. Put them in containers? When you break a vase, spawn a few coins or something. It's also really disappointing to see a cabinet door that's slightly ajar, but OPE, can't open it. It's just aesthetic. Hope this can be solved.

[gmod_bro]

good post

[KV Productions]

Originally posted by Illusia:

The AI is suppose to throw rocks, but it takes them a long time of you being out of reach for them to pick one up and throw it at you. Tightening the timer might be necessary but I frankly think it might be more because how often the player might just be repositioning that causes it to be inconsistent? I dunno.
I'd be worried about the AI getting more complicated attacks 'unless' they get more telegraphed, as I can't ever block and sometimes its highly inconsistent if it even works.

Everything else is more or less spot on, although personally I have no issue with the loot being the way it is. If you want loot to be in boxes, 'Extra loot' is a mod that makes it so that breaking items can give you loot on occasion, if thats more your jam.

Well I have not much issue blocking them, but I can see why you would, the issue is that the way the game makes "higher tier" ai better is making them attack faster, which makes them unnaturally difficult to block, but it doesnt actually make them attack MORE, they still just sit there for a solid minute before throwing one swing then back to waiting. I think they should attack more, and chain attacks, but at a more manageable speed

Also the stones its not like im a parkour player. Often the AI sees me when im in a part of the room thats higher or lower, i get combat music and such, but no enemies, then I realize they're just staring at me menacingly from another level. I think the picking up stones or objects thing shouldnd really matter in real battles where you're level with them, just when they cant pathfind to you, so it shouldnt make fights themselves harder, its more of a "making the game less janky/awkward/exploitable" change