it's acceptable, but running speed should be increased and can the goober not continue walking after i stop pressing the movement key?
also why do you HAVE to jump to eat fruits next to you? that makes it so unnecessarily frustrating
also make it so the eating button can eat fruits even behind you so no turning frustration either
i have several issues with the new format, i prefer the previous one, but i can see this one working too, most of my issues are about the execution and not the concept though
first, the balancing related parts, it feels way too fast in the first 5 ish eras, and like a slog at the last one
stage progression should be slower at every era til era 7, right now the start is too fast to take a moment to appreciate what you have done
ability to start at highest/second highest completed stage is not optional, it needs to be added, right now it's a slog to through 13 stages just to get sent to the upgrade screen instantly
needing to damage down buildings should be something that actually slows you down, instead of always having more than enough damage to destroy >90% of buildings in the path going full speed
also some upgrades like movement speed should take more gold to cap, so they remain relevant upgrades for longer
stamina also very quickly becomes way too abundant, the numbers on it were clearly not adjusted for the complete overhaul
second, the aesthetics
starting as a baby and growing to adult was fun, i don't like that it's been removed
having a giant boss that keeps up with you shoved constantly doesn't mesh well with the player character being a large and very destructive dragon, because it makes you feel small, like, what typa steroids is that Trex on??, the boss being a large and stationary building is a lot more realistic and doesn't make you feel small, my solution would be to make bosses not be unrealistically huge, and to put more emphasis on the other parts of stages, or make it more of a building
third, general design
stages should generally be slower and have more depth in player decision (seeing as it's less automated than before)
traps and powerups should scale with the stage rather than your stats, it would help make higher stats not be as invulnerable and lower stats to be more usable
also stats scale a little too much compared to the aesthetics in my opinion, though just making the earlier stages less impressive looking would solve this
skills should be more manual
movement with mouse should be toggleable in settings, if accidentally move your mouse when you wanna use keyboard
bosses should have a smaller emphasis, and regular enemies need to be more interesting to fight
skills should display base damage
side note: i have not yet beaten 8th era at time of writing, and don't yet know what's after it, currently slogging through the last stage having to repeat over a dozen stages that are pure time wasters every run
regular enemies need a HUGE buff, they should be at least as strong as the boss of the previous tier, rn they just get spawncamped essentially
also should make boss kill requirements lower but you manually send bosses
make one of the legacy upgrades start you with wisdom
and also would like to get a 4th training slot at some point
not much here and it isn't well done either
first, acceleration is too slow, top speed is decent, would recommend significantly increasing acceleration
second, make the spawn have pebbles around
third, make the fire hydrants not be an instant win, and add a stepping stone so you are actually fire hydrant size
fourth, generally needs more content
as a followup, i figured out how to freeze the timer with cheat engine, played through it with that (and broke some stuff later)
i would say it is 3 stars without the timer, closer to 4 than to 2 but i may be biased for this genre
i do have a few followup problems and suggestions besides what i stated earlier
problem 1: growth feels kinda flat, the earlier objects are the ones that provide the most growth/effort, yet remain too sufficient,
and speed doesn't scale with size, size also scales heavily with points
resulting in growth feeling more flat than exponential
problem 2: speed is too high early and too low late, animation also doesn't fit
suggestions:
1 make objects give points and growth proportionalish with their actual mass, and make growth costs also scale a lot more, so it feels like you are moving to bigger objects rather than just getting more options
2 reduce running speed (optional), and make speed increase with size (linear or square root either can work), also make the animation's speed more accurate with the movement speed relative to size
3 (minor) make the hedges around those houses either edible earlier, or easier to walk over (they are hella annoying in the middle and later parts)
needs better balancing (seems like even if maxed there isn't enough time)
also fix the infinite free money from repeatedly tapping the +50 gold in upgrades menu
and most importantly, needs to tell you your size at any given time
2 stars for now
EDIT: needs a hard reset function too, i wanna replay the pre upgrades part too after exploiting my way to max, i also think i ate everything but the bar isn't full, 3 stars now though, could be improved but better than before and seems like eating everything is very much doable now
i think some upgrades should be removed from level 4 content with the remaining ones being stronger
or just move some mineral and wood costs to mass cause that feels meaningless at this stage
could also just make ability slots more accessible so that abilities like enzyme surge feel more worth it earlier
yes
How do I join the v8 beta?
yes, i did max out the upgrade tree
and no, i did not even get close enough in the process for it to feel remotely winnable
you have to constantly kill the small enemies and collect the orbs or else you die in 10 secs and
you also have to avoid both the boss and the trail or else you get one shotted, even if the trail is already fading it still one shots,
and a hard to see one-shot combined with extreme fast pace and precision demanded makes the boss fight feel very unfair
