Post by Puzzler888 in Coup Ahoo comments

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Puzzler888269 days ago

Great game.

What I enjoyed

Varied events.

Varied companions.

Some lore but not critical to the gameplay.

Good use of puzzles.

Generally balanced gameplay unless unlucky with some encounters.

Good music.

Great and simple art style.

Critical feedback

I feel like it doesn't explain enough to the player.

What do the demon and angel want and why can't I exit their battles mid fight. The navigation seems too vague. What do these special symbols do? The game explains spice and plated cargo and that's about it.

You have to read the description of the game to even understand the plot.

Explain why my turn was skipped and unlucky 13 procced.

Please add difficulties.

Please make the starting roll to be 7+ minimum.

Please add more player agency. I lose too often to bad luck instead of poor planning. Rig the dice ever so slightly to roll better instead of worse. People take success fleetingly but loss hits harder.

I have had to read the comments to understand many of the confusing mechanics.

There are a few too many useless or negative events.

Conclusion

I look forward to seeing how this game changes with the upcoming updates and hope to make the game easier to understand and add some more player agency and QoL features

Neustig269 days ago(+3)(-1)

I hate to say this, but you may have found an unfixable bug called "skill issue"

Puzzler888269 days ago(+1)

Why do I bother writing honest feedback when I get this as a reply. *sigh*

anttihaavikko269 days ago(+1)

Adding more player agency, yes, big time! This has been one of my main priorities every patch. Making it less completely random and have some choices to be made. Of course it still needs more of it.

I don't really like the idea of difficulty selection. I'd much rather balance the only option to be better. Don't really like the idea of rigging the dice too much either. Sure, getting bad rolls can sometimes feel unfair but rigging the RNG when it's literally about rolling D6s would be noticeable in the long run and it'd just make realistically calculating the odds more difficult.

For the angel/demon battle, figuring out the goal is part of the puzzle of the fight. Explaining it thoroughly would lessen the experience in my opinion really. But I guess marking the correct dices for the combination or something like that could maybe hint a bit more on the solution without giving it away. And why do you feel like you should be able to opt out of the fight once you've challenged it? That's not a very common mechanic in any game really.

Puzzler888269 days ago

I understand the idea of perfecting the difficulty you already have. That makes sense.

When I design games, I try to optimise for fun over realistic and pure logistics. When I played the game I found the angel/devil fight super annoying because I lost a really good run. If the solution to the fight is what I think it is, then it is just too unlikely to win to be worth sacrificing that much cargo unless I'm in endless mode.

Being able to opt out of fights is rare, I agree but it doesn't help that I have no clue what I need to do to win. I like the skeleton fight because it gives you the option to fight, and you can see what you're up against. I mention a potential solution below.

When I talk about rigging the dice, I also see why you wouldn't like this idea. I mainly want the first dice roll and maybe the first battle to be rigged. I restarted too many games because I didn't roll higher than a 7 or encountered a *6* as my first enemy.

If you want to keep the mystery of the game, perhaps add a log book which could double as a statistics page. This would be where some information about certain events would be kept after you encounter them multiple times. Or you could do a *secret notes* type thing similar to stardew valley and finding notes that tell you certain loved gifts. Adding a log book allows some information to be retained over different playthroughs and acts as a trophy collection or a secondary objective for players.

I really enjoy discussing game design, if you want to go more in depth.

anttihaavikko269 days ago

Ohh I like the logbook idea. I'm actually planning for the next patch to have bit of a more "saving progress" and unlocking things to be maybe used at the start of a new run. I'm thinking of allowing you to go inside your ship and tweak some stuff there for the start of the run from the stuff you've unlocked. The logbook could be there too I guess and it'd offer some hints/explanations you've encountered in a more lore way.

And for the initial cargo roll rigging, I'd more like a system that would incentivise you to keep trying even on a bad roll like the brilliant whale mechanic in Slay the Spire (gives you an additional item on start of a run if you reached the first boss on your previous one).

The angel/devil fights are supposed to be quite often too dangerous. That's why you get to choose whether to do it or not and shouldn't be just snap-challenged. It can take a lot of your cargo to succeed (or everything even and still fail) but on the flip-side the reward is also pretty much better than anything else in the game right now.

Puzzler888269 days ago (1 edit)

I just received the legacy trinket and thought of that slay the spire mechanic too. It would really help this game yeah.

Please remove the reef event. It is just so annoying. If you don't want to remove it, maybe make it so you are guaranteed another event straight after to compensate slightly.

I have spent over 40 pieces of cargo and still can't get the angel on my side. Is this unlucky or is the chance just too low?

itch.io

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