Game to easy, ideas to keep it entertaining

[Kiesel]

Love the game so far, but even on hard it's a total cake walk.

Survival games like this have it always hard to keep a challenge up after the initial basic needs are covered. Subnautica is a lovely exception, but in general it seems difficult for developers to keep a sort of target and challenge for players up.

So here's my take on how to improve these pitfalls:

I'd love to see in Raft a Survival mode with a progression or time based system that introduces new challenges over the course of a game and a goal.

We all know it. We get some food and water production running, and it's all done. Sure, we can improve, but for what target and why? Having no clear goal to work towards takes some drive out of us. It's just human nature.

I'd love to see a clear target. Being rescued would be the logical choice. Or, getting to a point in which we are able to survive a huge storm coming towards us. Or a combination of factors. Guess that depends on the story. But give us a goal, even if just an optional one.

Then to the progression system. Beginnings are usually hard in survival games and it gets more easy the more we go on. Let's change that. Beginnings are tricky for many reasons. We need to take care about a multitude of things and don't know what first. We need better shelter, more food, more to drink, better protection and and and....

It would be nice to make the game harder and more interesting after the initial wave of problems have been solved. The garbage that floats on the ocean for example is very plentiful. Why not - influenced trough some randomness - make the garbage become less the more the game goes on. Thus giving the player the need to be a bit more self reliant than in the beginning.

Garbage patches could also be more selective. Sometimes containing more plastic and almost no wood, other times just leaves. That way we will have to calculate better with the ressources at hand.

Then, add new dangers with random chances to trigger, with an algo that takes current tech procession and time into consideration. So the longer the game goes on, and the more the players advance, the higher the chance for some or multiple scenarios to happen. A few that come to mind:

> Shark group attack. Not just one shark, but 5 and more agressive, giving the player the need to either kill them or distract them until they are dead or move off. Or he suffers a setback based on quite a destroyed raft.

> Storms. Not just a rainy storm with high waves that don't do anything, but a storm that makes movement on the raft difficult, with lightning strikes that might cause damage, even breaking parts off the raft if nobody reacts in time, and waves that threaten to flush players overboard. Gives a reason to build shelter on the raft.

> The Kraken. Yes, I said it. It's on the ocean, we all want that. Heck, we need that. The game will become cult if you put the Kraken in, hell yeah.

> Algae carpets. Constrict movement of the Raft and forces players to jump in the water to cut them loose, with a shark circling them. Tricky tricky.

> Oil slick and toxic waste carpets. Not a good time to make fires, go swimming or stay low to the water. Better go a bit higher until cleared.

And so on...

Also great are more problems to solutions for old problems. Great example of this are the plant boxes. Those solve a problem with food, but they create a new problem with the birds. Altough also give a new food source. This is great! More like this please.

Having a smelter on the raft probably should give a fire risk in the vicinity for example.

Nothing better than having a crew that is running left and right and see about a dozen points that need improvement at the same time. That's what you want. Nothing worse than being a little bored cause nothing is happening.

It's very early, and the basics are there and they are sooooooo fantastic. I hope some of those ideas or similar ones will find it into the game and keep the game interesting and challenging to play.