My feedback, suggestions and bugs.

Feedback and general discussion of Slime Rancher

My feedback, suggestions and bugs.

Postby Hexlash » Sat Dec 19, 2015 8:41 pm

Feedback
Pros:
    - Graphics are beautiful and the style is iconic. (Beautiful shot from atop the second slime gate.)
      - The lighting is very realistic and the textures and models are perfect.
      - Animations are nice and lively.
    - Idea for the game is original, and provides refreshing gameplay.
    - The idea of using adorable facial expressions and motion to convey the feelings of slimes actually does a great job of making the player sympathize with them.
    - Pleasantly simple gameplay.
    - Music is wonderful and fitting, and the sound effects are spot on!
      Musical transitions are very smooth.
Cons:
    - As mentioned elsewhere, there is very little instruction, but in some ways, people may enjoy the exploration. However, the UI can definitely be more intuitive, leaving less to the player's assumption.
    - I completely understand that it's temporary/placeholder, but the prices of items could be tweaked slightly, to give a better sense of the value of things. (As mentioned elsewhere as well, the jetpack.)
      - Highlighting the item slot you are on, rather than just enlarging the icon.
      - Creating a graphic (like in Spiral Knights) for whatever the player is looking at
    - Gameplay, although entertaining gets repetitive quickly, variety is needed.
    - Already said in another post, but the story is lacking, and what plot can be gleaned by the mail (whose icon indicating new mail is hardly noticeable) is disjointed.
    - The house is nearly useless. I rarely go to it, sometimes just to glance at the new mail that I don't read in depth and to fast forward to morning if I want more light.

Suggestions
    - Make the house into a command central? Maybe able to monitor and manage everything on the ranch, as well as displaying statistics and other info.
    - The GUI is nice, but adding a bit more articulation would help to convey the information better. (I understand that this isn't your priority, however)
      - For example, you could add a flashing red overlay to tell you your health is low (isn't that in Spiral Knights?) and the item slots if your items are full.
    -
    Hexlash wrote:The first time I did manually water them, the second time, I had sprinklers and manually watered it.

    At any rate, there should be indication for the growth. Perhaps toggling the upgrade menu to display growth percentage, or maybe even add upgrades that allow you to track the growth. (Needs more water, crops destroyed, etc.)
    Which I would also apply to all the buildings (water in pond).
    - As with slimes, build a connection with the player's clients, maybe completing their offers a lot makes them appreciate the player more.


Bugs
    - The Rock+Tabby Largo Glitch
      I encountered this glitch when trying to feed my Largo when they were very hungry, and I had an auto-feeder installed. It seems that the largos had attached themselves to the hen! When I tried to separate them by vacuuming them up,I managed to break them apart by removing the hen. However, trying to feed them again made them each attach individually to the hen.
      Then when I tried to grab one of them, this happened. And that's when I had already begun falling back down!
      Even after removing the hens completely, the two largos seemed to both be broken. They both kept their same facial expression, and seemed to bounce hover on the ground, but never touched it, and were ridged and stiff.
      I did manage to get them to eat, but they literally rocketed into the sky, breaking through my skynet when I did so, while still being ridged.
    Hexlash wrote:I was bugged by how difficult wielding non-vacuumable objects is. When I'm trying to pick up plorts, my largos always get in the way, and them being rocks isn't all that healthy. Same goes for boxes. It's almost as if they magnetically stick to the vacuum's end.

    I actually noticed that boxes and largos move towards the player when sucking, even if they are not in the same direction, let alone in the stream. I've tried this by placing the largo or box at the edge of my screen and sucking, which results in them sliding straight toward me from the side, and then 'snapping' on in front of me.
    May not be a bug, but is certainly annoying.
    - Starmail seems to disappear upon exit of the game and comes back renewed when their original condition is met.
    - Stony hens don't breed more Stony hens, but Hen Hens, which makes it difficult to get Stony hens.
    - On rare occasions, I can suspend a largo (or Tarr) with the vacuum, and they won't come near me but just remain stuck in the air.
    - Gardens don't grow properly. When I first planted cuberries, there were tiny berries that very quickly grew into cuberries. This happened twice, but the second time, I there were no precursor berries. After that, I got nothing, and the tree vanished overnight. I tried to plant mint mangos, but the tree did not have tiny green fruits and still has no fruit. They were all equipped with sprinklers.
Last edited by Hexlash on Sat Dec 19, 2015 11:10 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Hexlash
Rancher
 
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:49 pm

Re: My feedback, suggestions and bugs.

Postby Voxel » Sat Dec 19, 2015 9:55 pm

- The Rock+Tabby Largo Glitch

Have you tried waiting? Sometimes, Tabby slimes and Tabby Largo will sometimes hold the item they are going to eat for a while before eating them. I feel perhaps you may have rushed them, therefor why it seems they weren't eating it. It may be a bug, but from my perspective it felt intended during my play-through.
Voxel
Chickadoo
 
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 3:33 pm

@Voxel

Postby Hexlash » Sat Dec 19, 2015 10:50 pm

Yes, they sometime do, and I've noticed that, but unfortunately in this case, they are very obviously broken. I was even able to replicate the glitch that causes me to shoot into the sky. It seems to be some feedback collision loop between me colliding with the chicken stuck to the largo.

I will try and create a screen capture gif... and here it is (it's quite a large gif, so you might need to give it some time to load the first way through to see it smoothly)!
Geez, it went VERY HIGH.

Further investigation reveals that they can apparently only be properly fed when airborne...
Hexlash
Rancher
 
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:49 pm

Re: My feedback, suggestions and bugs.

Postby Dogrock » Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:19 am

Voxel wrote:
- The Rock+Tabby Largo Glitch

Have you tried waiting? Sometimes, Tabby slimes and Tabby Largo will sometimes hold the item they are going to eat for a while before eating them. I feel perhaps you may have rushed them, therefor why it seems they weren't eating it. It may be a bug, but from my perspective it felt intended during my play-through.


Pretty sure this intended. In the Slimepedia "Tabby slimes love to steal things they don't eat". They are like their namesake, they play with things, get bored and move on.
User avatar
Dogrock
Chickadoo
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:36 am

Re: My feedback, suggestions and bugs.

Postby Nick » Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:42 pm

Thanks so much for the excellent feedback! This is really helpful.

The tabby behavior is working as intended. Any tabby slime species will steal things it doesn't otherwise eat and move them to different locations. While this seems somewhat innocuous, a lot of the areas in the game (or your ranch) have resources intentionally separated to keep tarr from breaking out constantly. Tabbies really mess with that.
User avatar
Nick
Developer
 
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:14 am

@Dogrock

Postby Hexlash » Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:48 pm

It is intentional. I've seen Tabbies grab ahold of food and their faces and body motions clearly indicate them playing with it.

However, in my case, the Tabbies don't have the food touching their model as they do when they're holding something. The food is instead rigidly stuck on, but not touching the Tabby, and it seems the food is a part of them.

I will see if I can create a comparison gif that shows it even more clearly than the gif I have already posted.
Hexlash
Rancher
 
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:49 pm

Re: My feedback, suggestions and bugs.

Postby Nick » Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:54 pm

I see. Yes a gif or screen would be helpful. Also bug reporting when you see it might produce an error in the logs we could use.

Thanks.
User avatar
Nick
Developer
 
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:14 am


Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 35 guests

cron