Man where have you been? Thank heavens I see someone finally agreeing that the game is not too dark all the time, And that the darkness is part of the challenge and the appeal.
For what I recall from my own experience, the game is at it's absolute most difficult in the first 10 hours of experience, that's about time you get a clue on how it actually works, then by 20th hour mark you finally feel confident.
As for item balancing, I believe that most tools require buffing, or players with enough experience will just grow out of even carrying them to begin with.
The great thing about the game is that it gives you all types of items from any source and makes it clear that it wants you to improvise and use everything the game has to offer. The real balancing should happen to how traps and hazards leave you saying "very little of that was actually my fault; if any at all."
Please stop with your infection propaganda, it doesn't need a buff whatsoever. The point of infection isn't in killing you, but keeping you in check. If you'd seen the same runs I have by now, painfully dying to infection, hunger, thirst, bleeding, brain damage, etc... you won't be asking for more trouble.
Although, I'd say that having to deal with different types of infection, poisoning, etc... can be quite fun, but I'd bite my tongue asking for more difficulty in that regard.
"I haven't really found a use for fluid drain"
Chest drain? My god, you're such a lucky one. Prey that you never will.
As for the enemies, yeah, more is always better, but that can be dropped as an after thought, As for weapons ... that actually needs to change the main gameplay loop, not sure if it's the best idea for this game. Also, is it just me or life support is pure trash? at some point it soothed my sanity to know I had that but now I can't seem to get a use out of it anymore.
Anyway, if I were to give criticism I'd say REMOVE THE FREAKING HAZARD STUN MECHANICS. COMPLETELY! like for real, oil drops on your head? well that's bad! cause now you drop into an endless chasm of death, then your half broken body conveniently ragdolls downwards and you casually land on a mine.
But isn't that rare? well, the better you get at dodging the traps, the more forced non-interactions like this appear in the game just to end your every run.
Ever been positioned between a cactus and a landmine inside a driedbush? Assuming you dig the driedbush first, where do you run to? The landmine! the cactus takes longer than ONE second to dig and if you even slightly touch it while in panic, you'll be stunned till you explode. it doesn't help also that driedbushes conveniently camouflage at least half of the landmines in the map.
Dynamite: actually ultimately needs buffing, not nerfing
Light: there's this SS++++ tier item in the game called Flashlight. that's it ... get one of those and you're forever good to go. Rose pedals are actually perfectly balanced with no exploits.
Crystals: These... I find the most balanced items in the whole game. In fact, the extreme weight is the only thing keeping them from being absolutely OP.
Terrain Scanner: frankly can't seem to find a right use for it, looks pretty inessential to me.
Apple Watch: That's the best boy in the whole game, right after flashlight and scaffolding pack of course.
Life support: You are correct, though I find the item pretty redundant to begin with. if its durability affected the outcome, I'd never carry any.
Bicycle helmet/Balaklava interaction: No comment :P
Jetpack: Oh that's the 3rd SS++++ tier item on my ranking list alright, but between you and me, I found it very intimidating at first. The thing is, people are not gonna learn how to use it if they find it even a bit more challenging. As is, it's an unreliable source of total domination in the game. the keyword being "unreliable", since I doubt you'll find another by the time it runs out of juice.
That was a heck of reading, glad to see people are passionate for projects filled with passion.
