itch.io

Hello again. I have tried a bit of 3.1, and have some more bugs to report. I am uncertain if I should mention bugs that are still present since my last post, so I will include them this time. Should you prefer I only report new bugs, let me know and I will do that in the future.

I am also not sure if I should start a new main comment each update I comment on or just comment in previous chains. Again, let me know if you have a preference.

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New Bugs:

• The "required" engine would not move upon attempting to place it.
• I tried relocating the "required" pieces after leaving the ship building mode the first time, and they would not move. After saving and loading, they moved.
• Flipping pieces no longer seems to work.
• The ceiling lamps, when placed on the ceiling, are placed inside of the ceiling block instead of beneath it. The ghost piece showing its location before placement had it in the right spot, but after being built it embedded itself in the ceiling.
  
  • In testing this I realized that the grid now works both from above and below, very nice!
• This bug was present before but I forgot to mention it. If you build your ship while docked, upon returning to the not-builder mode your ship will re-dock.
  • If your settler is close enough to the ship while on the island when you do this, they will fall into the cloudy abyss below.
    • They will respawn at the spawn point, but even so, poor fella. :(
• Saving does not maintain the island you were at. Saved at a mineral merchant and loaded to a tree island.

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Old Bugs (Still Present):

• Deleted ship pieces are still returning after saving, quitting, and loading, I have another save if you would like it.
  • On the bright side, I get to prototype some ship shapes, allowing for refining the plans.

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Suggestions: 

• Button for cursor glow in ship build mode.
  • Or better yet, have ship build mode always be day time.
    • Or make it an option in the menu.
    • Or make it toggleable in the ship build mode screen.
      

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Regarding the new game mode, I hope my comment didn't make you go through a lot of trouble just to sate my dreadnought fondness. With that said, it has allowed me to begin another large ship (although the "deleted pieces returning" bug does put a damper on my parade, I might see if I can delete them again and continue this build), which has made me happy - so I thank you.

Thank you for your kind words regarding my review. Because I am very fond of this project, I try to make my feedback as detailed as possible (although I admit my comments can get rather long). I'm glad to hear that some of the things I suggested are already being worked on and I appreciate that you took the time to read through my post and answer my questions.

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A few follow-up points:

Regarding some dialogue fights becoming real fights (especially the sniper one), that is wonderful news! I wasn't really expecting the wolves to become an actual fight but the thought entered my mind so I figured I'd ask.

I agree with your current position of having AP ammo being available regardless of class. Kind of like a fallback that any soldier can use in case more effective methods are unavailable or already expended.

A back-up form of combat seems like a whole lot of trouble for not a lot of benefit. Like the wolves, I wasn't really expecting it but was wondering so I asked. One possible way to help lessen the chance of players running out of ammo might be to guarantee a certain amount of ammunition at all traders, which would make sense seeing as how food/ammo almost act as currency anyway.

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I sincerely appreciate your team, your willingness to interact with fans, and your game. Keep up the excellent work!

I'm just going to post my notes in the comments as I usually do. Using reviews to post the detailed notes was an idea I wanted to try out but ultimately found unnecessary.

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Bugs:

• Messes can spawn on islands, including on the lake on water islands, being unreachable.
• Settlers will often refuse to harvest, regardless of job set.
• Sometimes the type of resource doesn't match the node (such as blue berries in the stone-looking mineral nodes).
• Flipping pieces no longer seems to work.
• Water nodes have an opaque box appear when ordered to be harvested, other resource nodes have no indication of being the target of a harvest order.

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Requests/Suggestions:

• I don't believe it is currently possible to cancel a harvest order, being able to would be nice.
• I would advise having at least one food and water container be required like the mineral and gold containers, considering ships now use minerals to build, forgetting something like that could be very annoying.
  • Previously the required gold and mineral containers vanished after being used up, which could result in unintentionally building too much, forgetting to build a resource storage and therefore not being able to store any resources, resulting in being stuck.
  • Now pieces of the ship can be deconstructed as a last resort but it still isn't preferable.
  • I would suggest allowing for a free construction of each of the container types upon leaving the ship build menu, better compartmentalizing the furnishing and the ship constructing processes.
• The current starting budget doesn't allow for much of a ship past a floating platform, maybe doubling or tripling the starting minerals to allow for a small, but decently nice ship hull and some basic, necessary furnishing.
• Instead of "[piece]" and "[piece] inverted" starboard and port would be clearer and free the word "inverted" for use with actual inverted pieces to help with smoothing the ship's shape.
• Ability to toggle engines if you want to conserve crystals and don't mind a reduced speed.
• The tutorials are nice, although a "hide tutorials" button for if you decide you get the gist of it would be good. Would be especially useful to allow for repeated viewing (in the event of a return after a break and not remembering the specifics) while also allowing easy opting out.
  • A ? button on the boxes to reshow that box's info would also be advisable and nice.
• Being able to move all furnishings would be a nice feature, although not a necessary one.
  
  • With that said, I do feel that containers should be moveable, due to the nature of needing to store minerals and getting stuck if you deconstruct all of the containers.
• Messes spawn pretty frequently right off the bat, making it a bit annoying considering you start with a single person who also needs to build, mine, farm, and everything else until you get more people.

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Comments/Feedback:

• The engines are a welcome addition for world building and ship function reasons.
• The clouds and improvements to the day/night lighting are very nice looking.
• The red "can't place here" zones for the length of the position of the dock points are very helpful.
• Ship pieces using minerals to build was a logical decision, although this makes my dreadnought dreams less immediately achievable (but that's okay. I should have to work for it).
  
  • I suspect that this is already planned, but different costs depending on the volume of the piece would make sense.
  • A blueprint system (similar to the one seen in Cosmoteer) for planning out changes ahead of time would helpful.
• Not fond of the return to the linearity of the island placements to be honest, makes it feel less like a world to explore and navigate around in and more like a path to travel.
  • Being unable to travel to previously-visited islands further makes it feel constrained. Like they are just places to use up instead of something significant to the world that you are a part of.
• Needless to say, I appreciate the new save system.

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Questions:

• Do the required gold and mineral containers still vanish after being used up?
• Are the engines automatically fed crystals?
  • If yes, then...
  • ...will they require settler labor later?
  • ...do they need to be placed directly beside a storage container?
• Does/Will the location of the engines on the ship matter?

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Another update, another step forward. Keep it up!

All right, now that I've played a good deal of 5.1 and have drafted my comment satisfactorily, I have returned to post my feedback. Overall, this has been a very nice update, the new weapons and the return of the skill (now class) menu are very nice and thoroughly enjoyed. The new game mode is fun as well, and makes replayability very easy. This is another doozy of a comment, so I would suggest getting comfortable before reading it.

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Bugs (ordered most severe to least severe):

• After closing the game and loading a save, no one would attack. Period. Distance and direct orders did nothing. I did neglect to attempt attacking the ground, however. After throwing my only grenade, the enemies all scattered but no combat followed.
• After closing the game and loading a save, I attempted to give my units new pieces of equipment, but the stats would no longer change to match the new equipment. Also occurred after using the "retry" option after losing a fight.
• I don't really want to mention this one because it's fun, but alas it is a bug. When attacking ground, you can aim past the maximum range. This can be done with any weapon, and their accuracy does not seem to go beneath their furthest accuracy. This results in being able to snipe with rifles past their intended range.
• The wooden wall segment/scaffolding that you can drive the tank through didn't break when I drove through it, I had moved the camera away when it happened the first time but upon trying again it continued being in place. The tank was able to pass, but no damage to the structure occurred. The infantry units were unable to go through.
• The "Blistered Foot" and "Cuts" wounds heal, but I have not seen "Broken Arm", "Bullet Wound", or "Incapacitated" drop below 100%.
• Upon reaching the final map, I was unable to actually do the final fight. I let the convoy arrive, and the enemies following me had pretty much caught up.
  
  • After quitting the game and loading my save, it said that I was not alone at the location and then sent me to the final map.
• The incapacitated status doesn't seem to prevent the unit from fighting, despite the description text.
• Firing at the ground with a helmet equipped can result in the unit hurting themselves.
  
  • Encountered most commonly with Amal, especially common with shotguns.
• Manual target orders are sometimes followed briefly only for the soldier to change targets shortly after, sometimes to less-likely-to-hit and/or further away targets. Sometimes even targets out of range.
• The Nagant revolver currently reloads all rounds at once, instead of one-at-a-time.
• I decided to set up an ambush for an enemy when prompted, and proceeded to do so. We were attacked shortly before the actual targets arrived and were still dealing with them when the actual targets arrived. At this point, the objective appeared and said to "Eliminate all enemies (4/-1). Upon defeating them all (10/-1), we were not declared victorious.
• Right-clicking on items in units' inventories while in combat will sometimes still register a right-click command (move, attack) to the area behind the menu.
  
  • Similar issue with left-clicking on the side-menu items, including the pause/play/fast-forward buttons while camping.
• When engaging the enemies at the supply cache in the first area of the map, you will receive the loot before the mission and items again after the mission.
  • Presumably the cache contents and the standard combat spoils respectively, but it would still make more sense to have both be received upon winning the fight.
• The hotkeys for the units don't work when you're hovering your mouse over their portraits.
• On the squad screen, the "Skill" button turns into a "Class" button upon pressing it.
• The description for the Scout class says that their benefits are at the cost of an inventory slot, yet they gain one when selecting the class.
• The number of soldiers stated in the dialog prompts preceding combat sometimes does not correlate to the number of soldiers encountered. (For instance, it might say three soldiers, only to have two enemies present)
• Dug trenches don't seem to apply cover in consistent directions.
• The "Level Up" message on the end-of-combat screen does not always appear.
• If you save the mechanic's workshop, it will say that he repaired your vehicles even if you have no vehicles.
• If you save the mechanic's workshop, enter the squad menu, and then return to the map, the message about repairing your vehicles will reappear.

Not sure if the following three are bugs or not, so I am including them just in case.

• The "trader owes" value carries over between different traders.
  • Truth be told it's very useful since you can keep your inventory free of loot while also getting "credit" for it all.
• Trader and black market encounters can happen in towns where traders are already available.
• Characters can be level 0 when recruited.

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Art/Models:

The new pieces of character art are very nice, though I have noticed a few inconsistencies.

• Helena's in-combat model and chibi art both have breast pockets, while her character sheet art does not.
• Zuhra and Amal's character models and character sheet art are both very close in skin tone, while Amal's chibi art has a much darker skin tone than Zuhra's.
• Amal and Helena's chibi art seems to have thicker black lines and overall appear to be larger in size while also having smaller bodies when compared to the others.
  
  • It could just be that the lines seem larger because the chibis seem larger - although these are just observations made from the brief instances of seeing them and without having the others visible for side-by-side comparison.

It is worth noting that I very much enjoy all of the character art. Although I'm not fond of when feet (socks on or otherwise) are shown in their chibi forms, as the cylindrical shape of them kinda weirds me out.

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Suggestions:

• Weapon Info Panels
  
  • Change "Clip Size" to "Ammunition Capacity" in the weapon info panels to correctly encapsulate all firearms. It would also line up better with the two stats above it, for an aesthetic boost.
  • Add stats for weapon accuracy
  • Add a measurement unit for range
• Increasing the squad inventory size upon acquiring a vehicle would be wonderful, the amount depending on the particular vehicle.
• Increasing the rifle range by 10-20 units so they can more effectively outrange pistols, giving each weapon a more exclusive niche. Lessening the maximum-range accuracy so as to maintain the current accuracy slope would also be good.
• Indicators on the character portraits for their current statuses (hunger, tiredness, wounds) on the world map that share the severity color and hover-over details as the character sheet indicators. A "LVL" indicator would also be nice, to remind the player of unspent level ups.
• Traders refreshing their stock every few days, freeing up their inventory and changing some of their items for others (while still being the items that are found at traders in that area).
  • Maybe allow for "asking the trader to hold onto an item (or items)" (locking an item for you to return to purchase later). If the trader has rotated stock since then, maybe increase the price slightly for the "service fee."
• Being able to sell more items to traders would be nice. Not as important if they refresh their stock.
• Being able to specify an amount to split a stack by would also be nice.
• Food can be kind of hard to keep up sometimes (and other times it's incredibly easy). Food relying completely on RNG is a bit of a bother, maybe allow for alternative food acquisition methods. Below are two possibilities:
  
  • Hunting - uses ammunition, risks injury (if it is an aggressive animal or due to friendly fire), potentially draws unwanted attention to the squad (risking enemies showing up to see what the gunfire's about). Might result in a lot of food, opening trade opportunities while also serving as a means of getting food if you need it.
  • Foraging - searching the area for fruits, berries, and other edibles. Unlikely to yield much (depending on location and skill) and potentially time-consuming, but doesn't draw unwanted attention.
  • The food acquired through these methods could be perishable, limiting their usefulness to a few days (depending on the type of food) given the unrefrigerated circumstances the group is carrying them. This would allow MREs to still be desirable.
• Making the health display of the left-hand portraits circular, as they are on the over-head indicators. This would allow for better clarity at a glance, since the background filling up can be obstructed by headgear (especially helmets), making it harder to notice units' health dropping.
• A button and/or hotkey specifically to have the selected unit back up, mostly meant for vehicles but might have other uses - especially if crewed weapons are added.
• Weapon proficiencies - as a unit uses a certain type of weapon, their ability with that type increases, resulting in them performing better with that weapon type.
  
  • This would allow for units' favorite weapons to also be their best weapons while also not keeping them from being just as good with any other weapon as any other soldier.
  • Only the "human" stats would be affected: accuracy, reload speed, aiming speed, and cycle speed (in the case of manually-cycled weapons).
  • The stats of the gun would remain the same - such as cyclic rate, ammunition capacity, and damage (and for shotguns, average grouping size and pellet count).
• A character sheet for vehicle(s), so you can check their damage levels, weapon stats, etc.
• The sniper encounter is dreadfully demoralizing. Hadn't gotten a tank despite visiting most sectors once when I had it happen. Opted to use 40 ammo and risk three members, ended up losing two members (savior and sniping victim) purely due to RNG. I would prefer if this were an actual encounter, starting with one unit down (in the recoverable state), escape possible through the edges of the map, and the enemy sniper visible and engageable (though outranging the player's non-snipers. Maybe 2x-4x normal rifle ranges).
• An explanation of where the armor piercing rounds can be used in their description. Presumably only rifle-caliber and larger, but confirmation and explanation in the info box would be nice.

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Questions:

• Will the shady guy that you can steal from eventually be a combat encounter, or will it always be a dialog fight?
  • Same question but for the wolf encounter.
• Can the infantry armor and helmet be penetrated by a rifle (or larger) round?
  
  • What about by armor piercing ammunition?
• Does the enemy ever carry armor piercing ammunition for use against the player?
  
  • If not, then will they ever?
• Is the armor piercing ammunition for all classes or is it categorized as an "anti-tank weapon," limiting its use to the Support class?
• Does the location of the hit determine the damage? Or does each unit have a single hitbox?
• Are there any plans for back-up combat methods in the event the player runs out of ammunition?
• Does a unit's sight stat affect their accuracy?
• What is the timeframe of weapon and vehicle technology that will be present in the game? All of the weapons thus far have been WWI and earlier (barring the Fiat L5/30) - do you have a particular year in mind as to the "cut-off"?

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A short story:

The first time I reached the last map in 5.0, I had forgotten my armor piercing ammunition and had not located a tank on the journey. Despite this I didn't worry, as it was surely just a light tank like the Fiat L5/30 we can get. Once it rounded the corner, however, I realized just how grave a mistake I had made. I had two grenades, and neither were direct hits. Needless to say, I lost, but the threat was not what I was expecting and the surprise was wonderful.

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Conclusion:

As said in my previous post, I have thoroughly enjoyed your game thus far and eagerly look forward to its future. I hope my feedback is helpful.

Keep up the good work, as always!

You've already made a new, multi-slot save system? You continue to impress. I have edited my rating review to have a link to my save file if it can be of any assistance.

I first tried this game when it was v0.1.3. I was considering posting a comment then that could be summarized as "Interesting idea, but the crashes keep me from exploring it further."

Fast forward a few months and I checked on a few projects I'm keeping tabs on, including this one. I saw that there had been several updates, so I gave the then-latest version 1.8 a try. It was a drastic improvement, and no crashes had been experienced from then on. I had a comment drafted that I intended to post.

Fast forward another month or so and we are now in the present, where I finally decide to get off my rear and post a comment. The amount of change that this game has seen since I started watching it has sincerely amazed me, especially considering the new ship building system which seemed to crop up out of nowhere (though it didn't - it was made through your dedicated efforts).

This game is one that has impressed me every update and I look forward to seeing the future of this game and any future projects from you.

Keep up the excellent work!

I have included some bugs and suggestions in my rating review.

I am happy to hear about the reboot and, more than that, I am glad to hear that you are in a better place currently. I do understand that code cleanliness can be a hassle, so your decision to start from the beginning again is understandable. I eagerly anticipate further news on the reboot and I wish you the best in your endeavors.

I don't log in often unless I have several games that I have played that I want to write reviews for, but when I saw her comment I was so dumbstruck and disgusted that I had to respond to it.

On a brighter note, I am glad to hear your status update and I look forward to the future projects that you will make with the tools you are working on presently.

I have spent a decent amount of time playing this game despite there only being three modes and two maps. I would love to see this expanded upon with more parts, more maps, and more game modes. At the top of my wish list is a classic, wooden rifle stock for me to base my weapons around. X, Y, and Z drag arrows being an option for moving pieces when creating guns would be an appreciated luxury. Better enemy spawning would also be nice, as them just dropping from the sky (and sometimes right behind you) can be a bit frustrating. Finally, manual orientation of the weapon relative the player camera would be an appreciated feature. A very fun game that I hope to see updated.

Edit: No idea what's going on with the post formatting.

Very impressive game considering the 72-hour time limit. Even without considering the time limit, it's a pretty fun game. I will admit, the title had me excited for World War I and II weapons but the game is fun enough for me to shelve that disappointment. Would love to see it expanded with unrestricted placement of defenses and more weapons.

Thank you for the kind words regarding my comment. I will certainly be trying future demos and following your progress. Also, I sincerely appreciate the invitation to your Discord channel but I never use Discord. Should that change, however, I'll be sure to stop by and say hi.

Sarainia, you only know your own life, not the lives of others. There are innumerable reasons for people to give up on a project, and while it is sad when it happens, as long as they didn't charge people for it, they do not owe it to anyone to complete it.

Furthermore

• Game development may not be as high a priority for others as it is for you.
• Not all games are about "beating" them. This game, for instance, is clearly intended to be a relaxing sandbox town builder. It is done when the player is done with it, not at some point decided by the developer.
• Some games allow for experiencing all of what they have to offer quickly, but that doesn't lessen their value. Games don't need to be long to be good. Similarly, games are not necessarily made better by extending their length.
• Had you bothered to look in the comments that preceded your original comment, you would see that, when asked if there were plans to extend this game, they stated their plans to create a similar game with more content. Extending this game was already something they explained would not be happening. https://itch.io/post/357861

Frostwalk Studio, completely disregard Sarainia's post. You have created a fine, enjoyable little game and I look forward to seeing its sequel (or any other future project) should you create one.

Edit: Since Sarainia took the liberty of editing her comment to hide her shame, I have taken the liberty of posting her comment as it originally appeared.

Thank you for your answers, and more than that thank you for the apology, which is accepted. And I apologize if I returned any attitude. It is a pleasant surprise when there is kindness on the internet, so I sincerely appreciate it. I'll give the scatter turrets another go with a greater focus on numbers. Regarding the water containers I get the idea but it's unclear to me if it helps since I can't tell if the things that are attached to it have priority over the tank itself filling up.

I will address your criticisms on my post.

1. I am fine with a hard game. I never said I wasn't. Please explain where you reached that conclusion.
2. All right, how do I use the turrets "correctly" to ensure they have ample time to shoot at air units before they pass overhead?
3. I understand it being difficult to make, but the sheer amount of cultivators for a single press is immense. How many cultivators is it, even, to achieve the press' maximum output rate? It's just a hassle getting them all set up especially when you have to keep adding another additional cultivator after another to try to reach its maximum output rate.
4. I don't think I understand what you mean here. What I interpret is that you suggest taking the harvested "lower tier" materials to an easy level to convert them into "higher tier"? Like shipping off to a lower-level with Titanium to make Plastanium on an easy level? If we go through the trouble to grind resources in previous maps, why shouldn't we be able to utilize them in future maps until beating Wave 40 on it? At the very least those resources that cannot be acquired on the map in question until late in the tech tree would be nice to be able to bring along from the get-go.
5. The sass here is uncalled for. How many scatters do you need to get a good AA defense? When I tried them out I had several which did next to nothing, rarely hitting and doing little damage when they did. When the big bad boss showed up on the final level they didn't so much as dent him. What ammo do you use? How do you set them up "correctly?" Oh and yes I do know about the Ripple and Hail. I know they're ground turrets. I know they're separate for a reason. And I know that there's a reason that they're long range. That has no relevance to my post and served only as a personal attack.
6. Once again I do not understand what you mean and would like to request clarification. Force me out of which zone? My complaint is that instead of repairing a wall as it's damaged it's easier (and often cheaper due to less valuable resources being used) to just tear it down and rebuild it or wait until it blows up and rebuild it then. 3.5's repair turrets were far more useful than the mend projector unless you constantly feed it phase fabric, and even then it's such a power hog that the infrequency of its repair makes keeping it on more trouble than it's worth.

And you conclude with another unnecessary personal attack. I do actually play the game and I do think strategically about it. I never complained about being bad at it and I do put effort in. In your post you expressed no desire to "share [your] findings" as much as a desire to act superior. Maybe you are better than me, that's fine. But explain how I am wrong and how I go about improving instead of disparaging me.

Finally, I do have a few questions since they are things I've been fuzzy on and would like clarified. I truly am interested in what you can teach.

The main topic involves the best ways to make force projectors resistant to shutting down. Specifically

• when the power drops and jumps back up immediately is that cause for concern in that it could lead to power failure despite having adequate power and backup attached to it?
• when cooling them, is it better to slap a fluid tank flush on one (or more) side(s) or is it better to have conduits leading from the tank?
• when cooling them, how many conduit inputs should I attempt to hook up?
• does overlapping force projectors' areas affect their strength?
• as well as any other advice regarding the topic at hand.

Tangentially related are the following two questions

• are fluid tanks beneficial or do they just increase the maximum capacity of the connected system resulting in less water/cryofluid for the things that actually utilize it?
• what is the rate of transfer for the conduits?

In regard to the most recent beta versions, I will start by saying thank you for returning grass as well as water animations. Also the efficiency text for the thermal generators and certain other buildings are sweet, they should be implemented for all drills and all pumps as well.

Now for my issues:

• The research tree is still poorly ordered. Things that immediately come to mind are:
  • Requiring something that has more advanced materials as an unlock requirement to unlock later branches that do not need as advanced materials makes zero sense. (Looking at you, mech tree).
  • Placing the launch pad so far back in the tech tree really bites. I had minimal desire to play the recent builds until I unlocked the launch pad in the Beta 64 build. The launch pad removed the limitation on how many resources you could collect, lessened the impact of losing (at least you got something out of it), and allowed for researching upgrades with newly acquired materials without needing to relaunch. Without it I would have given up long ago.
  • Thorium is required for a lot of the late-game things. Only one map has Thorium (the final map) which makes its usefulness (and all research related to it) incredibly useless. But the best part is that in order to unlock the final map you need to research the Airblast Drill, which you need Thorium to research. So the only way you can get to the last map to get Thorium is to repeatedly launch on the penultimate map, deconstruct the vault on that level, and use the Thorium you get from that to research the drill. (Unless this was a bug because it carried over my save from the last version - which I REALLY hope it is.)
  • You can't repair structures reliably for way too long. The mend projector takes long enough to research, then you need to be able to build it and power it for a laughable repair area that repairs very little over a very long time. The mend projector is useless but all you have until you can get enough (I think it was Plastanium?) to unlock the Delta Mech which THEN lets you unlock the Tau mech to repair things yourself OR you can get drones to repair things all over the map when they need to be repaired instead of setting up a Mend Projector temporarily and tearing it down because it costs too much power, covers too little an area, and is too infrequently needed to be set up permanently.
  • On the topic of Plastanium, it's obnoxious to make because of how many cultivators you need to get anywhere near enough oil to make production more than a trickle. Once you finally get the oil extractor it's pretty bearable, though. But the cultivators and presses are also pretty much useless.
• Scatter turrets are useless. Can't do damage to anything, let alone the bombers that tear everything apart.
• Needing to spend resources to uncover a new map in addition to the resources you need to spend to unlock the prerequisite research is incredibly stupid and a major waste of resources. As  I said in my last comment, it's just grinding to waste time.
• Customizing loadouts is great and should not require you get to Wave 40 on each map in order to be able to do utilize that feature.
• You cannot remove a resource type from a customized loadout.
• You cannot increment custom loadouts more than 100 at a time.
• You always deploy as default mech.
• No energy-based weapons target air units anymore. Which is especially bad because the Arcs were the only turrets that actually engaged air units immediately after they entered their radius.
• Air units almost always end up flying over the turrets before the turrets actually rotate to face them, making turret usefulness against air units universally pathetic. This is exacerbated by turrets not immediately reacting to an enemy entering their radius as well as them not returning to a more convenient position to engage incoming threats after defeating the current wave.
• Tech tree now hides everything beyond what you can currently unlock, makes aiming for distant goals difficult because you don't know what they are.
• A third tier of regular conveyor and conduit would be nice.
• Details on conduit throughput are needed.
• Being able to specify the input and output direction on the conveyor tunnels would be nice so we could use them like tunnels back in 3.5.
• Inventory merging with containers was swell and I hope to see that return.
• Default shots are hard to see against snow backgrounds.
• Still no details on how each ammo affects the stats of the turrets.

So far I have played two versions (I don't remember the first one I played but it was a few months back). This game seems like it could become something really cool, but it currently isn't there yet. Keep at it and you'll have something great. Hope you like lists, because I sure do.

Some positive aspects worth mentioning:

• The weapons' 3D models are very nice and detailed, as is the tank's.
• The gameplay itself is fun.
• Getting to change units' equipment is nice, allows for more personalization.
• Getting to camp is interesting, though the towns are close enough that there is never really much need to do so.
• Interesting maps for the story missions.
• Cute supporting characters.

Some negative aspects worth mentioning:

• Currently only two guns: "bolt-action rifle"s and "pistol"s. MG08s are available for manning in some missions but you can't relocate them nor can you take one or acquire your own.
• Enemies tend to throw their grenade even if they get downed while throwing it (I think at least, though I might be mixing that up with the older version I played).
• No trading system - if you want a piece of equipment you have to get lucky and find it.
• Rations are consumed automatically while traveling, making it difficult to keep any on you especially since you only have what you start with (which isn't much) and what you find.
• Can only dig trenches while camping, cannot rotate trenches (to my knowledge).
• Cover system is finicky. At times it is unclear what you can and can't shoot over. Characters don't seem to like poking out from around the corner to shoot.
• Camera controls are lacking, can't freely angle it up/down more. Zoom doesn't actually zoom, but rather brings the camera closer to the ground.
• Character models could use some improving IMO.

A few quibbles that I would like to list:

• I'll get this one out of the way. The use of "clip" in weapon descriptions - while the rifle and pistol could use clips to reload, the rounds are still held in a magazine. For the most all-encompassing word I would suggest "capacity."
• This might just be a design decision but the main character seems excessively massive compared to the supporting characters.
• The weapons' icons, portrait display, and in-game display not matching.
  • Rifle
    • When Katya has a rifle her portrait seems to show her with a Garand, which is not a bolt-action rifle and holds eight rounds, not five.
    • In-combat the model is a bolt-action rifle. Maybe a Mosin-Nagant.
  • Pistol
    • The icons and portraits seem to all show what looks like an M1911, Browning Hi-Power, or similar.
    • In-combat the model is very clearly a Mauser C96.
    • Worth mentioning is that M1911s, Browning Hi-Powers, and Mauser C96s all have different ammunition capacities.
• Character sheets do not have a comprehensive stat list, which would be a pleasant convenience.
• Unclear range and accuracy values on weapons when viewed in the menus.
• Pistols and rifles do the same amount of damage (IIRC, at least).

And finally, a few things I would personally like to see:

• More weapons.
• More equipment.
• More character interaction and development.
• Crew-served weapon deployment capabilities (such as bringing our own MG08). Similarly, being able to use the tank in random battles after getting it (I mean we have it with us at that point, seems kind of silly to not utilize it when we're attacked).
• More units under my command at once.
• Sandbags, barbed wire, and other player-placeable defenses.

Keep working on the game. Whether my thoughts mean anything to you is irrelevant to the fact that you have a great foundation for a great game. Keep at it, and don't give up. I look forward to this game's future.

This was a wonderful demo that brought me back to my childhood. When I was young I played a lot of Harvest Moon (especially 64), so my mind naturally jumped to that (even if it isn't the most applicable comparison). After playing some of Littlewood's demo I then thought of Dark Cloud, another game from my childhood that I love. I was very happy when I looked at the Influences list and saw Dark Cloud mentioned.

Littlewood's premise is unique (I can't think of any other games that take place after the big bad is defeated with a focus on rebuilding, at least) and the characters are (so far) cool and seem to have a good amount of personality to them. I hope that the final version will provide each character with a lot of dialogue, being able to converse with them all more times per day, and have their dialogue not be tied to the day (aside from special event-specific conversations, of course). I also hope we will be able to visit areas outside of our town. Some wilderness areas would be nice.

I have played through the demo three times so as to play with the town editing. I am eagerly awaiting the game's release. You've gotten my hopes up, please don't let me down.

I enjoyed playing the browser version of 3.5, so I downloaded it. I then played a decent amount of it and eventually tried out version 4 build 63. Overall I enjoyed it more than 3.5. Although being able to force a conveyor line to be uninterrupted by using tunnels is something that I sorely miss. I eventually checked to see that version 4 build 64 had come out, so I downloaded that to give it a look.

Build 64 really felt like a downgrade. Sectors was not perfect but it was way better than the new "zones" system and tech tree. The tech tree is just added grinding for resources to arbitrarily unlock "permission" to build things that already had progression in them by their very nature  through needing to build up the infrastructure to support more advanced materials and greater energy. After getting the arbitrary permission to build the things, you still need to develop the infrastructure in each match to support them. This is not fun, nor does it add anything to the experience aside from the amount of time you have to dump in to get access to everything. Unlocks and tech trees could be interesting but not when it is implemented just to facilitate more grinding.

I then went to the map editor to adjust my custom map to work on this new version, only to see that all grass textures had been removed. Why? What's wrong with wanting a pleasant environment? Build 63 had a lot of variety in scenery and biomes that Build 64 is just lacking.

Finally, while I am not against the new art style (primarily because the turrets always looked like a jagged mess when rotating to face an enemy), some of the visual improvements from Build 63 seem to have been dropped. The water in 63 was quite nice to look at and the waves were enjoyable. It effectively hid the tile-based nature of the maps. In 64, the water looks awful and repeats far too often to convey anything other than a tileset.

I do not understand the reason for the drastic change between Build 63 and Build 64. Especially in the areas that were changed. What was "fixed" was, most often, not an issue. Aside from elevation, which could have been nice but didn't add much and was visually displeasing. The return of terrain walls is a welcome one. More variety of turrets and explanation on how the ammunitions alter performance would also be nice.

One more thing. I would like to suggest something similar to the "Overdrive Projector" in that they alter nearby structures. They differ in that I suggest they be 1x1 in size and only affect the building(s) that they are immediately adjacent to. Probably requires power to function, and each of them has a limited amount of altering ability that, if touching multiple buildings, it would be equally distributed among them. If only touching one, that building would receive its full alteration amount, of course. The ways they alter the buildings' performance could vary: I would personally like turret-related modifications such as rate of fire, maximum range, aiming speed, accuracy, and the like. Damage, projectile velocity, and extra effects such as Area of Effect and Incendiary would be left to ammunition used.