10 Hours In, Some Concepts.
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 7:14 am
So. Bought it because it looked like simple fun, a nice change of pace from everything else I've been playing. Turns out I like it. Good job so far. Iron out the bugs and you have yourself a finished game already. :) I'd be more than happy with the game just as it is, not that I have been everywhere and seen everything; Bought all ranch upgrades, only now have access to SCIENCE! and I've only managed to unlock 2 doors. As far as slimes go, I've found pink, phosphor, Tabby, Puddle, Rock, Boom, Rad Slimes as well as encountered Tar, Gordo, Feral, Gold and Lucky Slimes, met and made some Largo Slimes too.
As long as all the zones are done up as the rest of what I've seen, yeah it's good.
Naturally I have a few ideas myself which may enrich some areas. This has been more or less copy/pasted from steam forum with large edits and a few additions.
There's some spaces that could do with something in them. Never fun having to go through an area and there is literally nothing there. If it's a main path that is used often, this is even worse. It is bland. The blank spaces aren't adding value to the game, and one rule of thumb in game creation is, if it's not adding fun, don't bother having it.
More interactivity for the slimes. Let them interact with more things in the environment. Even with the player. Get creative!
> use the player as a spring board.
> runs away from a player when the player looks directly at them
> creeps up to player to push them
> pulls silly faces when a player sees them but is not looking at them directly.
> comes within a few feet of the player and just stares at them for a bit.
> communicate/emote to one another
> dance with one another
> sing
> throw/spit/juggle items
> smelling flowers/fruit/vegetables
> bring items to the player or just wanting to be in the players view all the time.
(just imaging being hounded by slimes all delivering items I don't want to vac and just getting in the way XD).
I have read letters of others, but aside from an introduction they are never heard from again (besides the request board). Ever played or seen Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (Gamecube, 2003) or any of the .hack// games on the PS2? You can respond to letters (albeit with minimal choice) and keep up a form of correspondence with them. Would add a bit of life and give reason to go home. Quite frankly there is little reason to ever sleep in the game.
The ability to raise slime. rather than go out and hunt for slimes every time a request asks for slimes, you can grow your own perhaps with a special food researched and manufactured.
This last one is more of a minor complaint along with a suggestion.
Management games are all about efficiency and the overall design of how the ranch is expanded is not good. There is only one place you can sell plorts, which is far from the only one place you need plorts to build gadgets. Neither of those two locations have the 6 plots required for pens (to have 4 corrals for largos,1 corral for a pure and one pond) and the roughly 3-4 required plots for farms to supply those corrals.
One way one to improve this is to have a dispensing place for every zone that instantly transports food to the correct corrals, plorts to the market and plorts to the research place. The food placement would be governed by the food dispenser at the corral. Or the storage plots which should house each different crop, have a shared inventory accessible anywhere where a storage plot is built. Easier solutions than reworking the map. Running such far distances to get between plots is not fun. Right now I've only made of the main area and the one with all the chickens (which I've place 3 coops and one corral for boom/rad largo slimes. Too much running required!
The other method would be to make entire new zones away from the first with ever increasing number of plots as well as all the facilities for research and the place for the market. Or have a large enough empty ranch with limited plots and upgrade by having more plots appear and the research facility too. Neither of these probably are that fun for you as that would require a bit of reworking the world.
The Ranch 'upgrades' feel more like tedious running additions than practical use.
I am not looking forward to finding more slimes I need to make use of the research base. More long distance running from one point to another that gets old fast.
EDIT: Ok so there's warp tech which allows to build exactly what I am after. The downside is getting the resources which I have no idea where some of them are found. My wild guess, extractors.
Not sure the direction you are headed with this, but 10hrs plugged into this game already so it's definitely something I am enjoying at the moment.
As long as all the zones are done up as the rest of what I've seen, yeah it's good.
Naturally I have a few ideas myself which may enrich some areas. This has been more or less copy/pasted from steam forum with large edits and a few additions.
There's some spaces that could do with something in them. Never fun having to go through an area and there is literally nothing there. If it's a main path that is used often, this is even worse. It is bland. The blank spaces aren't adding value to the game, and one rule of thumb in game creation is, if it's not adding fun, don't bother having it.
More interactivity for the slimes. Let them interact with more things in the environment. Even with the player. Get creative!
> use the player as a spring board.
> runs away from a player when the player looks directly at them
> creeps up to player to push them
> pulls silly faces when a player sees them but is not looking at them directly.
> comes within a few feet of the player and just stares at them for a bit.
> communicate/emote to one another
> dance with one another
> sing
> throw/spit/juggle items
> smelling flowers/fruit/vegetables
> bring items to the player or just wanting to be in the players view all the time.
(just imaging being hounded by slimes all delivering items I don't want to vac and just getting in the way XD).
I have read letters of others, but aside from an introduction they are never heard from again (besides the request board). Ever played or seen Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (Gamecube, 2003) or any of the .hack// games on the PS2? You can respond to letters (albeit with minimal choice) and keep up a form of correspondence with them. Would add a bit of life and give reason to go home. Quite frankly there is little reason to ever sleep in the game.
The ability to raise slime. rather than go out and hunt for slimes every time a request asks for slimes, you can grow your own perhaps with a special food researched and manufactured.
This last one is more of a minor complaint along with a suggestion.
Management games are all about efficiency and the overall design of how the ranch is expanded is not good. There is only one place you can sell plorts, which is far from the only one place you need plorts to build gadgets. Neither of those two locations have the 6 plots required for pens (to have 4 corrals for largos,1 corral for a pure and one pond) and the roughly 3-4 required plots for farms to supply those corrals.
One way one to improve this is to have a dispensing place for every zone that instantly transports food to the correct corrals, plorts to the market and plorts to the research place. The food placement would be governed by the food dispenser at the corral. Or the storage plots which should house each different crop, have a shared inventory accessible anywhere where a storage plot is built. Easier solutions than reworking the map. Running such far distances to get between plots is not fun. Right now I've only made of the main area and the one with all the chickens (which I've place 3 coops and one corral for boom/rad largo slimes. Too much running required!
The other method would be to make entire new zones away from the first with ever increasing number of plots as well as all the facilities for research and the place for the market. Or have a large enough empty ranch with limited plots and upgrade by having more plots appear and the research facility too. Neither of these probably are that fun for you as that would require a bit of reworking the world.
The Ranch 'upgrades' feel more like tedious running additions than practical use.
I am not looking forward to finding more slimes I need to make use of the research base. More long distance running from one point to another that gets old fast.
EDIT: Ok so there's warp tech which allows to build exactly what I am after. The downside is getting the resources which I have no idea where some of them are found. My wild guess, extractors.
Not sure the direction you are headed with this, but 10hrs plugged into this game already so it's definitely something I am enjoying at the moment.