Couple of questions and observations

[Tsugumi Henduluin]

Gegroet allen!

I have only played for a little bit so far, but you guys have quite the neat little gameplay loop going here. Really well done.
Couple of things I've noticed though:

1 - Doors don't seem to remember their locked status across sessions. Every time I boot up the game, I have to re-lock my doors. Not a big deal, but worth pointing out I think.
Similarly, I'm pretty sure the game also doesn't always remember the item-sorting settings, even if I set them in the options menu.

2 - I can't quite figure out what the little round grey icon means that affects prices, like the +27% in this screenshot

The seasonal and economy modifiers are obvious enough, but this icon? Can't figure it out at all.


3 - Likewise, what exactly is the stylized icon in the bottom left of crafting windows supposed to mean? In this case, the apple. The right icon means your proficiency/skill with that particular recipe if I'm not mistaken, but the other one? Is that the general level of proficiency with that crafting type, like gardening in my example?

A tooltip would be nice, maybe also have it explain the effects of proficiency. (It increases the chance for creating higher tier items, correct?)

4 - Is there a way to move the entrance to your shop? I would kinda like to move it back a few tiles so I can build a garden/path around it, but that doesn't seem to be possible, unless I missed something.

5 - What exactly affects employee starting wages? I've seen employees that require a higher wage, despite having both lower carrying capacity, as well as being slower, even within the same tier.
Speaking of, what does the *tier* of employee affect exactly? Just higher stats overall?

6 - Garden plots don't seem to be balanced right. Large plots are four times the price, but only give twice the planting spaces. This means it's objectively better to just place multiple smaller plots.
This stands out because overall, your game is great at offering side-grades rather than upgrades - like with walls and furniture having the same stats - so you're free to pick whatever works best for you aesthetically without having to worry about efficiency. It's one of my favorite parts of the game :)

7 - It can at times be very hard to properly (re)place walls in build mode, due to the camera angle. Especially if the wall you're trying to modify has items or furniture mounted to it.
A little more freedom in the camera angle would probably do wonders.

8 - Finally a fairly inconsequential nit-pick: the shoulders for the character models seem to be a little too high up, unless padded shoulders are in vogue in this world? :p


So, yeah. Most, if all, of these points don't particularly impact the game in any meaningful negative way, but I do think the game could be made that little more polished if you were to take another look at these points.

Thanks again for the lovely game, and thanks for taking the time to read this babbling :)

[galadon3]

Trying to answer the question-part as well as I can, with 3 I am fairly certain the others are more educated guesses / limited oberservation

2. I am just guessing but that maybe the extra-fee you pay for ordering from the counter instead of buying from a visiting trader.

3. the left one is the general skill-proficiency like cooking, tailoring, gardening, the right one the proficiency with that particular item.
The item one is usually way more important but the general one gets applied to all items from that craft, so if you are for example a master-smith your first tries on a new item will be at least somewhat better then those of a total novice.

5. From what little experience I have the tier seems to affect the range in wich their starting skills and wage can be, in general its seems they are RNG so a lower tier who rolled well might be better then a higher one that didn't, but I guess with more then two or three tiers available it shows better.
Wage seems to be RNG also, not really affect by their starting skills. Like you might find a really good employee who underestimates their own skills and sells themselves short in wage-negotiation.

7. I guess you know that already and mean MORE freedom to change the camera, but just in case: you can rotate the camera by mouse while holding the right button and the camera zooms in and slightly shifts the angle by using the mouse wheel.

[zolo]

I've only been playing for a very short time too and whilst enjoyable, not understanding what some of the information displayed actually means is somewhat frustrating. This includes the icons highlighted by the OP but also things like the decorations where there are various icons with arrows against what looks like it may mean floors or the shop against some like the floor lights. It means it feels like trial and error and the tutorial really seemed to only cover move your character, build some tables and open the shop.

I shouldn't have to go find a youtube video to work this out - some simple tooltips or even a just a help page would make it a far more enjoyable experience for me.

[Tsugumi Henduluin]

Originally posted by galadon3:

2. I am just guessing but that maybe the extra-fee you pay for ordering from the counter instead of buying from a visiting trader.

That would make sense. It *does* only show up at the counter.

Originally posted by galadon3:

3. the left one is the general skill-proficiency like cooking, tailoring, gardening, the right one the proficiency with that particular item.

Pretty much what I expected then. Was that ever explained, or did I just miss it?

Originally posted by galadon3:

Wage seems to be RNG also, not really affect by their starting skills. Like you might find a really good employee who underestimates their own skills and sells themselves short in wage-negotiation.

Haha, when you put it that way, it suddenly seems a lot less silly :)
But yeah, employees seem really RNG-heavy. Doesn't help that you can only compare new potential employees with your current employees' level, rather than their base. Makes it hard to judge it's worth swapping them out.

Originally posted by galadon3:

7. I guess you know that already and mean MORE freedom to change the camera, but just in case: you can rotate the camera by mouse while holding the right button and the camera zooms in and slightly shifts the angle by using the mouse wheel.

Ah, perhaps I wasn't entirely clear. I was specifically referring to the camera in 'Build' mode. The camera does indeed do exactly what you said in regular play and when placing down furniture, and it's great. Placing *walls* on the other hand, is a bit more finicky.

Originally posted by zolo:

This includes the icons highlighted by the OP but also things like the decorations where there are various icons with arrows against what looks like it may mean floors or the shop against some like the floor lights.

It's a bit hidden away, but these are actually explained in the 'Unlock' menu. The icons with green arrows indicate whether the furniture/decoration can be placed inside, outside, or both - as well as tell you how much that affects the furniture's appeal. Some pieces are more effective outdoors than indoors, and vice-versa.

[galadon3]

Originally posted by Tsugumi Henduluin:

Originally posted by galadon3:

3. the left one is the general skill-proficiency like cooking, tailoring, gardening, the right one the proficiency with that particular item.

Pretty much what I expected then. Was that ever explained, or did I just miss it?

Think it wasnt explained ingame, or I missed it, just have it from observation, that the left skill goes up every time I do something at that station and that new items get a slightly better chance when the general skill is leveled up somewhat.
I guess the general one and the item-skill are just added together, at least when I last looked at it in more detail (some patches ago) something like
general skill: 5, item skill: 0
had about the same chances as
general skill: 0, item skill: 5

Originally posted by galadon3:

Wage seems to be RNG also, not really affect by their starting skills. Like you might find a really good employee who underestimates their own skills and sells themselves short in wage-negotiation.

Haha, when you put it that way, it suddenly seems a lot less silly :)
But yeah, employees seem really RNG-heavy. Doesn't help that you can only compare new potential employees with your current employees' level, rather than their base. Makes it hard to judge it's worth swapping them out.
[/quote]
Yea some kind of base stat comparison would be helpfull, I am also kinda curious how the leveling up works. Like:
-do all employess get the same increase with level up?
-is the increase a percentage, so would bigger base stat also mean bigger increase?
-does the tier affect the increase per level?
Guess I have to invest some time looking at that, unless a dev could shed some light on that.

Originally posted by galadon3:

7. I guess you know that already and mean MORE freedom to change the camera, but just in case: you can rotate the camera by mouse while holding the right button and the camera zooms in and slightly shifts the angle by using the mouse wheel.

Ah, perhaps I wasn't entirely clear. I was specifically referring to the camera in 'Build' mode. The camera does indeed do exactly what you said in regular play and when placing down furniture, and it's great. Placing *walls* on the other hand, is a bit more finicky.
[/quote]
Oh yea, sorry, building mode has a fixed angle, but I have to say since its straight from up down, I actually didn't have problems placing walls, would rather say its about the ideal angle for that kind of placement. So since I am curious what are the issues you have there?

[Tsugumi Henduluin]

Originally posted by galadon3:

Oh yea, sorry, building mode has a fixed angle, but I have to say since its straight from up down, I actually didn't have problems placing walls, would rather say its about the ideal angle for that kind of placement. So since I am curious what are the issues you have there?

It's not so much placing walls, as it it *re*placing them. Mostly the front wall of your store, as well as any walls that have shelves and the like hanging from them. In my experience, those objects seem to take priority over the actual wall, making it very finicky to click on it.

With enough wiggling of the mouse you'll eventually get it, but being able to angle the camera a bit so you have more surface area to click on would probably be quicker.
Or just remove hitboxes for anything other than walls in build mode, I guess. Probably even easier a fix.

[galadon3]

Hu, weird, when I do that it never even tries to select decorations. Mean the game does color them red to indicate that they get auto-sold when you remove that wall.
Sometimes it is a bit strange in that regard like deleting something on the ground next to the wall when you remove the wall (so the item should actually have more space), but usually that can be avoided by moving the item away, deleting the wall and then moving it back.