For a game like this, a short tutorial might help it a lot. Some parts took my some time and experimenting to figure out. Others are still not very clear. I did see someone suggest that the trade value be presented in numeric form instead of using colors, which I agree would be much easier to understand. (For my first game, I was *selling* red from inventory, and buying green from towns... Until I realized hat the inventory side was inverted, and you should always go for the green items on both buy and sell.) Also, how do towns change regarding inventory and prices? Is it done every time you interact with one, or over time whether or not you interact?
Viewing post in Townseek (Jam Version) comments
We're thinking of adding a few pointers to the tutorial screen (or when you open a town for the first time) in the next version to help explain the trading a little better! We've already got the clearer colours and tags underway, so we hope it helps making it a bit more clear! 😊
Inventory and prices change based on several factors. Each town has pre-set price fluctuations for different types of items. These prices are scrambled whenever you get some considerable distance away from the town (since we want to motivate players to trade with different towns). Inventory restocking is based on time and per item, and towns will progressively add stock back over time, up to their original quantity. Hope that provides some insight! 👌
We've been thinking about some mechanics like that, yes! For example, we've been playing with the idea of towns having "on-demand items" over time-intervals that would increase the value of an item sold by a lot. 🤔
Items in the game right now do have internal categories, and towns will fluctuate their prices differently depending on those items' categories. Though with so many items, I guess it's not really easy to make the guess or notice the change. We will have to look into ways to make it more obvious!
Thank you so much for the suggestion though, and we do hope you keep up with future news we might have for the game! Cheers! 🐳
How about a simple indicator for items more valued? A '+' sign in front of items the town values more. Eventually you could even extend that more... '-' would indicate items they do not want. Even maybe eventually go with '+++', '++', '+' (or '-') to indicate how much the town values that item. (I.E., a first time player can most likely guess the meaning of '+' and '-'.)