[Suggestions/SPOLIERS] Unable to finish game, kinda not happy with it.

[The Monolith]

So attempted to finish the game, spent about 15 hours playing the game and working through all the mechanics however at the end of 15 hours of play and doing the best that i can and hoping there would be an alternate path at the end of chapter 3I get the infamous "YOU FAILED PLAY AGAIN" screen.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/952963547511889669/890C8498044119A0A1795A164C176535D4EF9463/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/952963547511854364/14D67D889B2FC0F304DF58428EDE1E1DCA4B5C31/



As a message to the developers the game was pretty fun, it got complicated really fast and there was alot of things to learn, however I feel that a "DEATH" mechanic due to calendar without informing the player mid way that they will fail the game can be a bit sad. I will most likely get a few "shoulda got gud" messages but this isnt a suggestion for me or to benefit my gameplay but to benefit those who wish to play the game simply for the story. As of now I proabbly wont play the game again through just to win the last hours of the game but watch someone who will learn from my mistakes on youtube so i can finish the game through spectating another player.

As for in regards to the story I kinda am unsympathetic to the people in the story as basically your just watching people get deported from one country to "100 miles away" yes your witnessing the begining of a Facist goverment begin but everyone is making it seem like "OMG WERE BEING TAKEN TO CONCENTRATION CAMPS" Maybe increase the reality of death for Euros or otherwise its just a poor me watching poor people get moved across the channel game.

Suggestions to make the game better for quality of life reasons:

- Remove the 15-30 seconds of lull time when a mission starts, more often then not I waste 15-30 seconds waiting for people to "Walk up" to the door. Maybe add a random 1-2 people at start already in line to coutner this issue as sometimes you would wait these seconds, then have to ban 3-4 people right after to actually start your shift which is now 1/2 way done cause of the randomness and the pre-eaten seconds.

- Enable players to pickup "Quest head Bouncer" items AFTER the mission where they become head bouncer. this is simply moving the checking flag from the flat screen to the end of the mission screen. otherwise its VERY difficult to map out a winning playthrough without having to play the whole game again. My personal experience was I was able to secure the Rat Poison and the Sugar Drug but i didnt have an extra day of getting them together at the Chemistry station cause the mission is replaced with DAVES HOEDOWN rather than a "last chance to build" mission at the meat pack. at least make it an alternative for SUnday-Monday otherwise players will waste 3 hours of gameplay performing the rest of the month and to no avil lose the game.

- If the player cant "get a quest item" that is essential to the end of the game or to prevent the screen of death enable it to be purchased under the special tab for a VERY LARGE SUM. at the end of chapter 3 I had $4500 and nothing to do with it but accept that I failed due to some random generator sometimes.

- Make the Scan and Ban at level 2-4 a Spacebar function, it gets very hard to try and click the tiny button while trying to speed through customers when its the size of a small grape and their tossing you 1-4 documents at a time you ahve to move and use AND scan at once.

- Make an alternate path for the end of chapter 3 just in case the player cannot finish the chapter 3 tasks with a VERY HARD mission that can have 0 mistakes in order to continue. I would rather do that then play through the whole game again to be honest.

- There is no real reason to NOT use the Jebb gear (security suit) as it saves you the argument and precious seconds from arguing with 2-3 people in a row over a fake id. Possibly a balance might be in order to promote other game styles.

Note to players that are approaching the end of chapter 3:

If you have not finished the "Poison" by the end of the third week, just quit you cannot beat the game otherwise or start over. there is no alternate path, no savior lifeline quest, you will just waste 3 hours of your time attempting to finish the month with a game over screen and having to play the whole game again.

[hoboagogo]

Thanks for the feedback Monolith. Some really useful stuff there. Some notes:

SPOILERS for chapter 3 follow...

• The start of the level is to give people time to get ready, process the rules, look through the flyer etc. All levels are completable within the time frame including the start.
  
• Regarding picking up items. Dave's job never replaces The Gammon. There are five jobs each at Gammon, Church and House party to get the poison items.
  
• Good idea.
  
• Good idea.
  
• Signposting Chapter 3 having to get the items is a tough one. Thought about that a lot. We came to the conclusion that by Chapter 3 hopefully people are understanding the head bouncer mechanic and the text messaging from Galahad gives you enough info to plan. You can alwalys restart at the end of week 1 or 2 and try to get the poison. BUT - I agree perhaps the failure should be instant. So you don't waste time. Will look to change.
  
• There may be a reason not to.

Thanks again!

[The Monolith]

Your welcome for the feedback: I have outlined the calendar for the chapter 3 month below and how it plays out. I cant remember how the last 3 days are but these are how it was planned to my memory and days may not be accurate.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/952963547517705355/0DF8497D6A9230E2824F4C1EDDD474A04EDE0DC3/

My Reccomendation on how the days should be fixed to balance the third chapter:

- Final Days to acquire items should be the 18th for Angels, 20th for Ferris, 22nd for Gammon. my reasononing behind this is that on the 18th you recieve a message from gallihad saying that "You should have acquired the poison by now". On the 20th you recieve a message from galihad stating "You chould have acquired the chemical by now" and on the 21st you recieve the message "If you havent made the poison by now get to it". Problem is that on the 21st/22nd you dont get another Gam Mission to complete the poison before daves final farwell week my reccomendation is that on the 22nd to allow a split for Gammon / Daves as a last chance failsafe.

- Players are also pressured to finish the RessistR missionsf and have to sometimes borderline pass missions and also to take days off in order to rest. I was impressed with the mechanic but the other issue is that on this month most days are restricted to 4 Miss / 5 Fail and when then nightclubs majority request 10-15 it gets VERY DIFFICULT cause you have to pick and choose your battles for 3 weeks and to be honest I failed one Angels and Ferris on the first week learning their different requirements AND trying to complete RessistR. I finished gammon good enough but I was unable to finish the poison because I acquired the Poison + Checmical on the last week (18th/20th) but I was hoping that I would be able to get at least 1 day to finish the poison but it was replaced all with Daves.

- Daves missions are in my opinion to (should) be the hardest missions avaliable as Dave is heavily regulated by the BA goverment. They should have increasing levels of difficulty by increasing number of minimum guests and as you have to use all 4 elements of the game (General, Guestlist, VIP, Contraband) with very little to no room for failure (1 Warn, 2 Fine, 3 Shutdown). This would be a good mechanic to implment to reduce a players social score to dangerous levels (if you fail 6-7 you lose 60-70 Points!) and no way that Jupp will allow you to work the ball with 30> Social score.

[hoboagogo]

All useful stuff. Dave's levels were intended to be the toughest in the game.

[Uncertain]

I spontaneously died from overworking on the 16th of the 3rd month and thought I'd accidentally found a special bad ending. The phone did not give any medical alerts or exclamation marks that would indicate my sudden skeletalisation, though it had done previously.

I eventually figured out I'd looked at enough ID cards to die, reloaded a save to try to skip work and discovered that I couldn't skip the 15th, presumably because it was the first day of the rock concert and death itself would not dissuade me; nor the 14th because it was a Jupp job; nor the entire previous week because as far as I, the player character or his calendar knew, that whole week was needed to get the poison equipment.

I almost gave up the game entirely, having no desire to replay over a week of missions, one of which (the 13th) I'd restarted three times to make sure I got the poison kit and all the resistance demands out of the way, which left no margin for mistakes.

If I hadn't been annoyed enough to come here looking for trouble, find & read this thread, reload into the 15th to check the updated calendar revealed on that day, carefully look through every day to find an optional 5th Ferriss mission right at the end of the week, then use my magical foreknowledge to reload into the 13th and sleep bitterly through the job I'd spent ages getting just right, I'd've given up right before the game's climax.

Extra medical bills would've been fine, and would've acted as a more visible warning for an upcoming failure state - I'd bought everything and had thousands to spare. Forgetting to check one number buried in the UI for an hour does not seem like an offence that warrants the developers turning the game off until I win a boss battle with the save files.