I started playing with Furbuddy. Having the dog companion is nice, though not being able to eat meat is a big drawback. My previous play I used meat and steaks a lot. We will see how things balance out as I go. The loss of 3 hearts when using your companion in combat adds a good balance so you don't have too much advantage in being able to just rely on spamming that attack. With the tutorial I had to avoid the train wreck fight, but this time, with the dog and a sharp stick, I was able to deal with the threat. I don't recall exactly what was there last time, but I think the zombies were less powerful, and fewer, than previous plays, so that helped as well.
When starting the fight there is a quick message popping up about "Furbuddy spares X items". It took me a bit, but I think that is saying that there are that many items you can't use because of the Furbuddy trait, such as meat and bones. This message could probably use some work. It is fast. The first time I was not prepared and was not sure what it said. Then when I did read it, I didn't know what it meant. I'm not really sure the best wording. Maybe a more direct "prevents use of", instead of "spares". It would also help if the text was not positioned over the cards, and maybe let it stick around for another second.
With this being the first time beating them, it is also the first I see that even if you do so, you can't get past the wreck, or even search everything nearby. That changes the calculation, and in the future I would probably avoid the fight. I figured that after fighting them you'd be able to search and climb past the wreckage, or squeeze around the left side, gaining a short cut, and extra loot. Having the train car spot off to the right, away from the path was probably part of it, as you would already be going off the road to get there, so you should be able to get past the train by going to the left and around it. Though I did not seem to be able to reach it. I think it would be nice if you made the road under the train tracks look damaged/not connected in some way to signify the path can't be taken. Possibly shift the train a bit to the left, and/or make it longer, so it feels like it is more blocking the path. I did not do the tutorial this time, and what I recall of it was to avoid this route due to the zombies being too powerful, not because you could not go through, but maybe there was something more about it in there.
The description of Furbuddy said that cutting animals would hurt you. I was concerned about this, as the main way I fed the dog in my previous playthrough was with the meat and bones from cutting rats after the dog Chomped them. I just ran into my first rats, and cutting them did not seem to do any harm to me. It would be nice if the description clarified if cutting the dead rats after you defeat them is OK. Unless this is a bug and you should be getting harmed. If you should be harmed for cutting the rat, then it would be nice if there was an option for the dog to just eat the rat without any cutting. I made a fishing rod and tried fishing. I know some people don't consider fish to be meat, so wanted to see what I got from fishing. The results look to be the same as from rats, though cutting the fish did cost me 10 HP. Later I cut bees, and also lost HP, and gained meat. Gaining the same meat resource from bees as rats feels a bit off due to size difference.
I made it to Lakeside. This is the first time I am getting any stone or stumps in this play through. I don't have any straw to build a fire yet, but I can finally make equipable weapons. I am also really feeling the lack of being able to eat meat as my food is low. This was really the turning point in my playthrough. The lack of food meant I had to do things in a less optimal way, and I never recovered.
I made it back to the other side of the train wreck, though was in bad shape by then. I had too little food to be able to rest enough, or do many other things. I had to skip an area with 1 zombie left because I couldn't fight it and it was too strong for the dog to Chomp. I spent a lot of time going back and forth to rest spots as I'd get enough to rest a bit, then use that energy to search/gather the next thing. It seems like the far right train car cannot be reached from either side. It said it was too far when on the bottom side, but did not show up when at the top side. Maybe I just missed a spot that it is reachable from. With everything having a cost I did not experiment as much as I otherwise might. In the future I plan to just avoid the train wreck fight anyway.
I know that a lot of the game is based on luck. I had pretty bad luck this run. Having taken Furbuddy and not being able to eat meat I needed to rely on other foods, and I did not get enough of them. I also never had the resources to build a fire to boost them. I got 1 stone at Lakeside, and finally got some straw just north of the train wreck, after I had used the stone for an ax.
I only did one game with Furbuddy, and acknowledge that my luck was bad this run, so take that into consideration. Having said that, I think it might be good to adjust Furbuddy to not be meat in general, but the meat of furry animals. Maybe permit fishing to be an acceptable source of food. I don't know how common it is later, but it does seem rare at the moment. With your plan for expanding to travel by ship, it will likely be a more common location. Having a dependable source of food is important for survival, and with how little the fruits and more common non-meat items provide, it does feel like no meat is a pretty big negative for Furbuddy. Being able to grow food on this ship could help to offset this. Next time I will try one of the other classes.
You've made some nice improvements since I last played. I like the new infinity symbol for crafting items that won't be consumed. That's really helpful in deciding what to craft. The filters work well, and are easy to use. The UI improvements in general all look good. Splitting the keys also feels like a good change.
I like your idea for expanding the game. I may not have reached the end of the current part, but continuing on the boat fits the game well. The concept looks good. I like how you were able to incorporate it into the existing systems.