Post by no, not that one in Auto Necrochess comments

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no, not that one188 days ago (3 edits) (+3)

First of all:
This game is already great and one of the best (of the smaller ones) I stumbled upon in recent years.
(And this account was just created to make the following comments. So this seems to be important to me.)

The art is ~~really~~ super cute while not being too distracting. Great work!

Request for two QoL features:

Full-screen mode in browser version. Please!

Tampering with zoom and scrolling is a a real hassle …
(At least I assume this would be easier than an build for all the OS that aren't Windows …)

Better Spy usability

When fine tuning the units' placement after spying on a large enemy army I have to go back and forth between the two screens a lot since my brain's memory can't handle frequently overwritten values very well. And those "values" (enemy units) change every round …
So instead of seeing only the enemy units on the spy screen it would help me tremendously being able to see the battlefield in its entirety while still being able to move units around (and going back to the shop).
~~I suppose seeing both shop and the entire battlefield at the same time would need to much horizontal space. But since the shop contains much less "values" that would be much less of a problem.~~
- EDIT: Never mind this presumed restriction!
- According to the full-screen image in this comment by Stopsignal the full-screen version has ample horizontal space. It should suffice for both the shop and the complete battlefield.
- This small visual comparison shows there should be enough space for at least the spy results being visible in the preparation screen – in case the (preferred) version shop + complete battlefield would be too much work.
Before using the spy option this still modifiable battlefield view could simply hide the right 5 columns behind fog of war (or smoke or darkness – or disgusting light).
Furthermore the king's stats are shown briefly every round regardless of spying, so you could simply add them to this new battlefield view.

Related balance issue:
Spying is really powerful in long runs which tend to involve a better income via (multiple) Mausoleum lvl 2+, so 2 coins every round might be a bit cheap. Maybe increase the cost every few ~~rounds~~ uses?

no, not that one188 days ago (3 edits)

The basic gameplay is explained well enough for someone with prior auto battler experience. (I can't really comment on the point of view of an absolut beginner.)

However, there are also some issues (not really bugs).

A lot of the initial difficulty of the game seems to be caused by important information being hidden or given in a somewhat misleading/inconsistent way.

Regarding the hidden part of the problem:

IMO most important for planning ahead would be the various lvl 2 or lvl 3 unit descriptions. It takes quite a few (or maybe a lot) runs to get every unit to lvl 3 at least once.
I assume the "Choose Deck" menu (Coming Soon) is going to solve this is in a more suitable way.

EDIT: Actually, there is a list of most unit/book descriptions on one of the past pages of comments, but it seems to be partially out-of-date.

Regarding the misleading/inconsistent part of the problem, i.e. mostly description issues:

The fast forward button has the tool tip "Move units to last space, ignore special effects".
I would assume this includes movement-based effects like Bat Curse and ranged attacks. But they are not ignored.
Is the description simply out-of-date?
If not, what special effects are ignored?

It seems Blacksmith + Farmer can not buff the same ally at the same time. :-( So "give ally directly behind" might make it clearer.

A few unit/book descriptions differ between preparation phase and battle phase.
Examples:

Blessing book lvl 3 in preparation screen is missing the "Double Damage!" part … which is kind of important.
Bone book lvl 3 in battle sreen is missing the "ironic" … which isn't nearly as important. ;-)

Shield claims to "Reduce 2 damage.", but it neglects to mention that minimal damage is still 1.

Ratfolk claims to summon Ratling(1)(1), but it is Ratling (1)(Red Skull – dies on hit), so buffing summon health is pointless here. Also " " is missing.

The target area of unit's abilities should be consistently stated like "first", "on lane", "random", "any", "directly in front", "directly behind".
E.g. Kobold targets weakest enemy on lane while Rocker targets any summoned ally. Both are missing these important details.
Related: It is unclear what "weakest" means. Lowest enemy tier? Or most damaged?

When several units buff the same unit (e.g. 2 bards on a summon or Nurse(s) + self-buffing unit) the animations are a bit misleading. If I am not mistaken the accumulated buffs are applied at once, but the visuals do not match. This can lead to the (hopefully wrong) conclusion that at least one buffer failed to do its work.

And then there are a few undocumented and somewhat surprising game mechanics.

Summon overflow:
Units that summon more than one unit on death might not summon all of them if there is not enough space directly behind them or at the end of their line where they could push their allies to – IIRC they never push towards the enemy.
This seems to be more of a feature you have to plan for than a bug (you can summon a Skeleton (1)(2) directly in front of a Snitch to take it and the sole Idiot out — or it could in turn cripple your summoner strategy) – so this mechanic should be explained somewhere. "On Death – Summon up to X Things if there is space" in the description might help make this clearer. And/or an additional page of the "?" regarding summons.

Succubus' issue with the royals:
Prince and King are immune to the direct charm (succubus lvl 1–3).
But the bounced charm (only lvl 3) seems to deal 99 damage to the unlucky 2nd enemy (any type). This kills the enemy before replacing it with a converted copy – except for the royals … they just die. (As pointed out by Isaac 576.)
This makes some kind of sense, but is a bit surprising.

Related:
The enemies max health during battle seems to be hard-coded to 99 even if the king has already grown to 100+ health outside of battle. (See future comment below.)
EDIT: A few of the older screen shots on previous pages already cover this. And apparently all stats are capped at 99.

no, not that one188 days ago (3 edits)

Now for a "fun" experiment.

It took me some time to figure out that the (non-boss) enemy difficulty grows with number of rounds and damage dealt to castle. But if you can avoid dealing too much damage to the castle, a lot is possible. Like having to sell lvl 3 Things to make space. Or stacking several rows of coins each round.
To reduce dependence on luck you basically have to spy every round (3 x free, then 2 coins per round) for quite some time.
2 lvl 3 Bat Curse books can take out 6 units which is really helpful. But then there are rounds with 7 (or 8?) archers, so a third book was nice to have. Even if they don't die right away, replacing their bows is great for planning.
Also keeping different books inactive behind the front line can be beneficial for adapting to current enemies every round.
It feels a bit weird to rearrange the units every time to maximize your own casualties – e.g. supporter in front, but it can be done … even if it costs some of your own health during the first few rounds.
Using multiplying summons makes the planning rather difficult – as do random ranged attacks –, so most of them loose their use soon.
For this delaying strategy it is very useful that lvl 3 units only deal the same 2 damage to the castle as lvl 2 units, so you don't have to delay the upgrade too much.

I could have probably squeezed out a few more rounds if I had sold the succubi … but they are simply too cute <3.
EDIT: … And a whole lot more when focusing on only 3 units … as several older comments on previous pages point out. Why didn't I check there before? Now I feel a bit dumb. But this was still quite fun for a first try of a delay approach.

itch.io

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