Hi tsilver33, thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback. Broadly speaking, we agree with you. The pace of combat can indeed be improved, and a sped-up mode for fights will likely get there in the future, but first, we want to improve the "normal" combat flow as much as possible.
We're super interested in what you said about player agency and would like to make sure we fully understand your point of view. As far as I understand, there are two different areas that you feel are lacking agency (correct me if I'm wrong) 1) the direction of the team build, 2) the combat itself.
For 1), the current "loot table" of upgrades is completely random, and together with the fact that there aren't many upgrades that combine (or, better, combo?) with each other across different characters it might give off the feeling that you aren't really building into a particular direction.
2) The combat can feel on autopilot in some fights, given that between cooldowns and the available skills and perks the move is obvious.
We'll actively push to fix both issues, the next 2-3 weeks we'll be busy setting up a Steam page, after that, I'll have more bandwidth to look into this.
Would love to pick your brain some more, so here are a couple of questions:
Between points 1) and 2), which one do you feel is the worst?
As of now, I think the combat is a bit closer to Darkest Dungeon rather than StS, would you agree? Have you played DD? Is that combat more fun, and if so, what makes it more fun?
Sorry for the wall long of text :), and thanks again for playing!