Oh, what the heck. Been lurking these boards more frequently anyway, may as well own it.
First, the bad news: I enjoyed 0.1 a lot more.
I called it quits with 0.2 after an hour or so, and made heavy use of the LoveOS cheats in the process. I remember putting at least a few hours into 0.1, and while a lot of that was the grindy process of leveling up the PC and acquiring materials, I felt like I was having more fun then. I'm still trying to figure out why, so maybe typing this will help me sort my thoughts out, too.
So... yeah, didn't have as much fun with this version, and that seems entirely due to the lack of visual variety in the monsters. Probably the easiest thing to fix, if you're soliciting your Discord for content (make sure you curate those heavily though, people are fucking weird).
Once again, I hope you find at least some of this feedback useful, and I'll look forward to v0.3+ with anticipation. Overall, I think in spite of my negative points, you guys are doing a great job - keep it up!
Game's progressed a fair bit since the last time I tried it, and as you seemed to appreciate my feedback last round, thought I would leave some thoughts for 0.2iThanks for the feedback! It's always a pleasure to read a very well though-out review like this.
/.../
Really appreciate the feedback for this!! I love the neko SFX too, when the game is developed further we'll add more monster SFXs for better immersion
First, the bad news: I enjoyed 0.1 a lot more.
I called it quits with 0.2 after an hour or so, and made heavy use of the LoveOS cheats in the process. I remember putting at least a few hours into 0.1, and while a lot of that was the grindy process of leveling up the PC and acquiring materials, I felt like I was having more fun then. I'm still trying to figure out why, so maybe typing this will help me sort my thoughts out, too.
- Character creator! Still a bit bare-bones, and I think the most glaring issue was the text-based dropdown for hair, fur pattern, etc. (I assume an icon/grid setup is in the works, dropdown is straight-up painful to use). Some graphical issues copying hair color to fur (tried copying hex code from hair to fur and fur color didn't take it well. Different shader parameters maybe?). Nevertheless, my favorite feature, being able to customize a monster to appear in the wild. Please accept my apologies for 'borrowing' the code off the generous souls 'round these parts - I genuinely like this project, but patreon is off the table for me at present.
- Capturing... felt better. I still don't like the 'throw
pokeballcollar at target' method, but nobody sailed into the aether, it was more reliable, and the "+9 EXP" addition and graphical cues let me know immediately if it was a success or fail. My primary dislike of this system I think is the RNG aspect - if I see a target I want, give me the tools to ensure a capture, and if I fail, it should be my fault, not random chance. Unfortunately, that brings me to... - Variety: Or rather, the complete and total lack of it. I know the focus has been elsewhere, but seeing the exact same monsters cloned over and over again with (almost) zero variation was a genuine let-down, and I think the main reason I dropped it so quickly this time. The only 'interesting' monsters I saw were the neko variants I made myself, and it was sincerely disappointing to realize I wasn't going to find any other colors or appearances unless I added them in myself. From a technical standpoint, I know that Traits matter, but unless our breeder MC gets a perk down the line that lets them view monster stats before capture ('Analyze' skill?), it's all guesswork anyway. Colors are an easy visual - "Ooh, I like the look of that one!" I had fun in the prior version hunting monsters that looked appealing.
- Rarity: I have yet to capture a rare monster in either version, but I haven't even seen a Rare this time around, and that was after cycling the load areas dozens of times, including some after-dark hunting in the vain hope that maybe nighttime was more amenable to rare spawns. In fairness: I was still looking for green-named monsters, or some other visual cue that they were a cut above average. If that was changed at some point, well... my fault for not memorizing the changelog, perhaps, but consider it a petition to adjust spawn rates (and if necessary, reinstate the visual cues for a Rare).
- Performance: In a word, oof. Per the prior comment about cycling spawn areas, I couldn't help but become painfully aware of how the game choked with each spawn area transition, as it tried to dump a cluster of new monster types into the region. I'll admit my machine isn't exactly top of the line anymore, but it shouldn't struggle nearly so hard just to pop in a few characters. Whatever process or code you're using to generate a new batch of monsters for each spawn zone, you really ought to review it, because this one just hurts. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest a timed spawn generator that phases them in gradually within a specific radius near the player - not too close or too far, because on several occasions I saw fresh spawns wink back out of existence from wandering just a couple steps in the wrong direction and being immediately de-spawned after generating. Not sure what the cause was - maybe this contributed to my "zero observed Rares" issue.
- Breeding: improved across the board. Another 'position' is nice, green stat-up numbers pleased me greatly, and I like that both the breeder and certain monsters could go more than once. [Tired] still bugs me, but it was less aggravating this time around, and seems like something I can live with in future versions - particularly if there's a method for boosting a monster's stamina. I'd like to see more interactivity in the future, at least as an option - breeding a lot of monsters would be inconvenient if they all came with minigames, but something to 'participate' in (good performance boosting fertility chances, f'ex) would be welcome, so it doesn't wind up a dull animation viewer.
- Clothes! I had the most embarrassing grin on my face when I realized we could play dress-up with our monsters. I didn't play long enough to discover if you could increase their available [Slots], but I do hope so. Even knowing the system is there makes me hopeful for the direction this game is taking.
- Stealth is bothersome. With the game being in an early stage, I won't rag on the graphics too much, but at least for the next version and going forward, please cut the dark vignette intensity in half (or further) if you're standing in a bush. I don't need my vision suddenly tunneling because I ran through a shrub, when I'm clearly not attempting to sneak. A visual indicator is good, but it should also make the distinction between a stealthed/non-stealthed player.
- The Town is looking a lot better. Shame so much of it is still placeholder content, but seeing it built up gives me hope that in future versions, we'll have a reason to explore the place. The 2D billboard NPCs kinda freak me out - I wish there was a different solution to their 'placeholder' appearance. (It's just creepy navigating a fully 3D environment, and having flat 2D humans rotate to face you).
- I don't mind the change to gathering materials, but the wealth of Sandbox Survival Builder games has conditioned me to expect that "pick up rocks/branches/grass" requires aligning a crosshair with the desired object, and left me frustrated that I couldn't tilt the camera down far enough to 'select' the materials - forcing myself to walk up and stand on it was mentally uncomfortable. I don't remember that being a problem in the last game, where tools and harvesting were required, so I think a lot of that is just contextual - ie, brain says there shouldn't be a difference between crouching a foot away from a rock (within arms' reach) and standing over it at "just reach down" distance. Something to refine in the future; if you're going to emulate Survival Builder mechanics, best to make sure they're comfortable to use.
- The nekos are still so damn cute, I love it.
So... yeah, didn't have as much fun with this version, and that seems entirely due to the lack of visual variety in the monsters. Probably the easiest thing to fix, if you're soliciting your Discord for content (make sure you curate those heavily though, people are fucking weird).
Once again, I hope you find at least some of this feedback useful, and I'll look forward to v0.3+ with anticipation. Overall, I think in spite of my negative points, you guys are doing a great job - keep it up!
