Post by crabtastic in Black Garden (Alpha 0.1.9b) comments

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Hey, wanted to say that I'm really enjoying the game. I'm finding the progression very rewarding. If I can suggest a couple of quality of life options to consider (apologies in advance, I didn't dig though the comments to see if already answered):

Being able to push aside or phase through NPCs to avoid getting stuck in some situations.

A colorblind solution for the crafting progress bar. I have such a hard time telling the difference between the starting color (yellow?) and green. The first few times I cooked I sat there staring as the bar ticked full, not realizing it had already changed lol. Increasing the contrast between the colors would solve it, although I understand if that is a design choice to force you to pay close attention.

FeyRing4 years ago

Hi, glad you're enjoying the game!

I don't think it will be possible to push the NPCs aside or phase through them, at least I don't know of any way to do it in RPG Maker so it would only happen to them and not walls/furniture, I'll look around but I doubt it's doable.

I think it should be possible to make the bars have a higher contrast, I didn't even realise it was an issue. Some people reported that they sat there waiting for the whole bar to fill up but it didn't click with me why that could be the case until now. I was just using the default colour setting. Are there any colours in particular that would be better? Or the actual contrast is more significant?

crabtastic4 years ago(+1)

It didn't even click for me that this was RPG Maker...cheers to the art and visuals!

Using a deeper, more washed out red or slightly darker green would call attention to the change regardless of whether I can see the color. I just have to rely on some other type of contextual feedback.

Thanks for the response. Definitely looking forward to following this game!

Thedu4 years ago

If no one has replied to this, with the exception of those rare few that have no cones at all, most of us are caused by a vast majority of one type. Your best choices are avoiding colors with similar intensities in addition to color types, maybe light blue and dark red or ideally allow an option in the hotkey set up to flag type of colorblindness. Red-green gets blue and yellow bars, blue-yellow gets red and green and total gets really dark and really light grey-scale. I actually made it to lvl 2 smithing before I realized the failures weren't level based. The bigger issue I have is the difficulty acquiring some ingredients. In general, never make basic crafting tools and the most common secondary ingredients require rare drops/merchant spawns 2nd tier recipes or worse a chain of multiple tier 2 recipes. Specifically where's the sugar, to make ethanol, to make both dyes and varnish. I have only gotten 3 varnish and 1 ethanol, so the only source of wax for recipes I have atm is the merchant. Also either slow down or completely ditch the dance dance revolution mechanic in spellcasting. There are a few spots things can get trapped. There are a few spots along river banks and outside caves you can't stop onto to pick items up and they just stay there. Also, as pretty as it looks, the area around the rock by your house can trap you till your garden finishes growing. A path behind it, like the one at the opposite corner could fix it. Last bug I noticed, and I don't remember which skill, but one of the VP/WP skills scales like a standard 5lvlspec instead of the 25/50lvl one. This is intended to be constructive. I will post any other bugs and suggestions I find. The game has my interest, as it reminds me of legend of mana (I think) from 20ish years ago.

FeyRing4 years ago

Hi Thedu!

What version of the game are you running? I tried addressing the colours of the craft bars in the current <Winter> 0.1.4 release, so just wondering if you might be playing an older version of the game. If not, then I may need to take another look at the colours again.

In regard to sugar, I'm going to try to add it as a growable plant in the next release.

As of the <Winter> 0.1.4 release, Wax can be acquired from harvesting the Beehives in the forest.

In regard to the attack chain mechanic, most of the attacks only require the arrow key inputs and the same attack always uses the same combination in the same order every time, the speed is also significantly slower than most other games that use this mechanic. If I slowed it down any more the whole mechanic would become pointless.

In regard to items getting stuck on cliffs, and river banks, can you post a screenshot so I can see the exact locations that this happens on. Some of the cliffs can actually be climbed up to using the vines.

In regard to getting trapped by your own plants, I was assuming people wouldn't do that. I have been contemplating to set the first stage of growing plants to have pass-ability, so I may just add this in the next release too, so people would be able to walk through them.

In regard to skill scaling bug. I didn't quite get what you mean in your explanation. Do you mean when you use the skill or when you level it up, or?

Looking forward to your reply, and any future bugs and suggestions!

Thedu4 years ago

I am running the one from mid summer. I can't get to the hive without certain materials to build the bridge. And cool, I look forward to growing sugar. Have you decided on cane or beets yet?

FeyRing4 years ago

Does it rain in your version or does it snow instead? If it rains then it's an older version, if it snows instead then it is the latest version where I tried addressing the colour bars in the crafting menu.

As for sugar, I might have both cane and beet eventually but for now it will likely be beets!

Thedu4 years ago(+1)

I updated thanks, the real problem at the moment, is rng. I have only had the merchant get varnish once, and I was starting out and could only buy 3. So I've been doing a crafting route while I wait. BTW, kudos on the colorblind friendly bar, I can make out everything including the critical success.

FeyRing4 years ago

That's great to hear, glad the new crafting bar works for you!

I am actually planning to introduce an Alchemy Hut with an Alchemist Heroine within the next few updates. She will sell some of the Alchemy products and reagents, such as Varnish, Glue, etc all the time so it will make it easier to obtain such ingredients.

itch.io

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