I've played to around day 18, this post contains spoilers for content up to that point.
I've started playing the game a week ago or so. v0.8.2 is the only version I've played. I made it to day 18, trying to only use information found in the game, but needing to use the wiki a few times. Overall I feel there are some parts of the game that could be hand-held a bit more to help smooth the beginning of the game, and some things that are simply too difficult for the player to understand on a first playthrough. I ended up dying in a frustrating way, and tried to figure out what happened via the wiki. I'm making this post to hopefully show how easy it is for a player to misunderstand the systems as they are presented.
My first mistake was not understanding I needed to calibrate. I get an email saying that's something I need to do, but I'm never told when/why. when I initially read the email, I assumed it would work like fixing the servers, or there would be *some* communication that a given server needed to be calibrated. I got to like day 9? just trying to get upgrades to meet the daily tasks.
I personally would like to see the `tips and hints -> slow signal downloading` be communicated via email if you fail to get enough signals.
I had a similar experience not knowing that you need to periodically visit the transformers before they ran out. This could be handled by giving an email early on saying "the last guy always forgot to reset transformer 2, you might want to go reset it soon to avoid a power outage :)".
these could also be handled by notes similar to the cooking/crafting, but I didn't find those nearly as easy to understand, and weren't as obviously important like emails.
Around this point I saw the `guides -> tips and tricks` on the wiki, which gave the idea of selling trash. I personally think it feels extremely cheesy to be filling trash bags and selling literal garbage to make money, but it also feels necessary. (granted I was playing catch up from not understanding the stuff I mentioned so far.) A lot of the trash/clutter is legitimately annoying to ignore, and it's a pretty big investment to start getting rid of it. It was/is very satisfying to tidy up the base, so I'm not upset that it's part of the game. But I would again, make it clear to the player that they should be selling trash via item boxes. (and don't hide the trash-bags imo.)
I think those are the main elements that I think would have been nice to have more explicit direction for.
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on to "events". I think my first death was maybe day 5, (killed by an Insomniac, during "Meta Paranoia"). I was unable to sleep, which had happened a few times before, I hadn't ever seen any sort of cause/effect to these. I would usually just try to sleep again after ~30 seconds and it would work, or I would walk around the base a bit (never finding anything) and then go back to sleep.. This time, I was already low stamina, I try to sleep & get kicked out as usual. I can't sleep and eventually it kills me. Reloading the game and I just am able to sleep fine.
At this point, I'm pretty confused. (my current understanding is I just got very unlucky, but the game presented it as basically a scripted event.)
I would recommend something like a journal or note from the previous scientist saying "sometimes I get this weird feeling and can't sleep. I've found doing `X` helps". I still don't know what I'm supposed to do during those events, and what I've found on the wiki makes me think a lot of the events are just going to be missed. which feels like a big problem for the later stuff.
specifically, how I died today, (killed by a Slapper at the campsite). After my first death, I had found a few of the events related to arials; (ship signal, "Cringe Comp" signal, email spam, mannequins moving). Nothing tells me the arials and mannequins are related, I have no idea how the player is supposed to figure that out.
Anyways the events are:
- anti-grav event, which kills the mannequins
- I find the bullets in the garage, that were previously extremely well hidden
- I find the old gun in one of the satellites
- I find the camp being built, touch the locked chest or steal a lamp?
- I hear the invisible slapper chasing me, and notice it.
- I shoot the gun at it, which explodes, slapper chases me down until I die. (I don't know why it kept hitting me, probably because I shot it?)
From my perspective:
- a major event happens
- I am given a gun and ammo
- I have a first encounter with something new
- It kills me.
Looking up what killed me, I genuinely have no idea how a player could figure out these things naturally. You don't see them move the mannequins, food decays so why would shrimp disappearing be related?, they're so hard to spot and you already fall over from sleep/hunger stuff.
I'm frustrated as a player because discovering things in game is really fun, and the wiki spoils that; but very major aspects of the game seem impossible to figure out without the wiki. I don't have a good suggestion for how to better guide the player on what is going on with the arials, or what specific things they are doing; but it really took me out of it.
I don't think anyone is doing a bad job, I'm trying to offer the perspective of someone who is new to the game. I know it's hard to know what a new player experience might be if you're the one making the game.
Also, if anyone has advice on how I should proceed, I'm pretty stuck on if I want to try to play more without looking everything up.