Suggestions that would elevate the experience

[Booker T-Witt]

I've played this game since day one and always enjoyed it. I've also been very pleasantly surprised with the content drops and consistent enough fixes. It's getting to be that time where some different meat would be nice to add to this experience. Here are some things that would objectively make this a more fleshed out detective game, but will the devs see this? I have no clue.

1. Add the ability for perpetrators to dispose of their weapon within searchable containers or common sense locations. It could be a trash can just outside of an apartment, or maybe a drawer in the perps apt. As far as I know, the murder weapon is always on the murderers person, but maybe there's rare exceptions? I haven't seen em anywhere else

2. Add a motive to the case file, and have that motive be established through an item. It could be a crumpled note, it could be a printed vmail, it could be a stolen item. One thing that irks me about this game is how the tutorial scenario makes the vmail actually useful, which in no way represents the game itself. Sure you can find vague hints in the vmails, but they are absolutely pointless. This would solve that issue and add a little seasoning to a case.

3. Add murders that don't leave visible wounds. For example, maybe they get strangled. you search the body, dont find anything, go "hmmm." pull out your scanner, fingerprints on the neck, oh they've been strangled. Maybe they got pushed and fell on their head? Maybe they got pushed out of a window? Imo the fact you can so readily identify what happened kind of eliminates a ton of detective work, it could stand to be made more difficult sometimes.

4. This one might be in the works, but make ovens able to cook synthmeat and such. I'm assuming this is already planned, because synthmeat is otherwise useless, and why be able to turn on the oven if you cant use it?

5. User-curated cases. This feels like a no brainer. I believe there are a lot of people out there and here who have really good stories to tell. This is in my opinion the feature that would take this to another level and is somewhat necessary. Have maybe an event timeline where you can slot various things in at various times, command an npc to murder someone at a given time, disperse evidence as needed within the world. Being able to import custom missions into an already generated city would be amazing, but even playing custom scenarios would allow for hours of unique content.

6. if you pick up an item while your hands are empty, AUTOEQUIP THE ITEM. I JUST WANT TO GRAB MY STARCH KOLA, TAKE A SIP, AND PUT IT BACK DOWN. NO INVENTORY. PLEASE. GOD.

7. This one is a little silly, but I think it would be cool to be able to type out custom stuff on the cruncher, like a detective writing up a report. Clickity Clackity.

You might ask "well what about the performance and bugs and whatnot? shouldn't they fix that first?" And to that I say at a certain point, that's just the game. I think it's going to have performance issues and bugs for its entire lifetime due to the nature of it's gameplay, so I've accept that for what it is. But these suggestions are not only cool and fun, but easy to implement, complementary to mechanics that are already there.

[Helenichiwa]

I love the idea of the user-curated cases, it is an idea I haven't heard before and the possibilities sound endless.

[schwarzrotes]

Originally posted by Booker T-Witt:

I've played this game since day one and always enjoyed it. I've also been very pleasantly surprised with the content drops and consistent enough fixes. It's getting to be that time where some different meat would be nice to add to this experience. Here are some things that would objectively make this a more fleshed out detective game, but will the devs see this? I have no clue.

1. Add the ability for perpetrators to dispose of their weapon within searchable containers or common sense locations. It could be a trash can just outside of an apartment, or maybe a drawer in the perps apt. As far as I know, the murder weapon is always on the murderers person, but maybe there's rare exceptions? I haven't seen em anywhere else

2. Add a motive to the case file, and have that motive be established through an item. It could be a crumpled note, it could be a printed vmail, it could be a stolen item. One thing that irks me about this game is how the tutorial scenario makes the vmail actually useful, which in no way represents the game itself. Sure you can find vague hints in the vmails, but they are absolutely pointless. This would solve that issue and add a little seasoning to a case.

3. Add murders that don't leave visible wounds. For example, maybe they get strangled. you search the body, dont find anything, go "hmmm." pull out your scanner, fingerprints on the neck, oh they've been strangled. Maybe they got pushed and fell on their head? Maybe they got pushed out of a window? Imo the fact you can so readily identify what happened kind of eliminates a ton of detective work, it could stand to be made more difficult sometimes.

4. This one might be in the works, but make ovens able to cook synthmeat and such. I'm assuming this is already planned, because synthmeat is otherwise useless, and why be able to turn on the oven if you cant use it?

5. User-curated cases. This feels like a no brainer. I believe there are a lot of people out there and here who have really good stories to tell. This is in my opinion the feature that would take this to another level and is somewhat necessary. Have maybe an event timeline where you can slot various things in at various times, command an npc to murder someone at a given time, disperse evidence as needed within the world. Being able to import custom missions into an already generated city would be amazing, but even playing custom scenarios would allow for hours of unique content.

6. if you pick up an item while your hands are empty, AUTOEQUIP THE ITEM. I JUST WANT TO GRAB MY STARCH KOLA, TAKE A SIP, AND PUT IT BACK DOWN. NO INVENTORY. PLEASE. GOD.

7. This one is a little silly, but I think it would be cool to be able to type out custom stuff on the cruncher, like a detective writing up a report. Clickity Clackity.

You might ask "well what about the performance and bugs and whatnot? shouldn't they fix that first?" And to that I say at a certain point, that's just the game. I think it's going to have performance issues and bugs for its entire lifetime due to the nature of it's gameplay, so I've accept that for what it is. But these suggestions are not only cool and fun, but easy to implement, complementary to mechanics that are already there.

did you play the game longer then the tutorial case? maybe you should do

[LupisLight]

I second user curated cases, in fact I was a little surprised to find that it isn't already implemented - it seems like such an obvious feature to add. Procedural generation is fine and all, but being able to actually create stories like the tutorial case would be great. And imagine being able to not just curate individual cases, but string them together so the entire game up to retirement is one big story.