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I just had an idea for how to reconcile the life tab as a defunct system with the desire to keep it lowkey as a reminder of a mortal life's gradual diminution as an area of focus for Protag. 

What if, when you come across your family's hut, you added a dialogue along the lines of "Everyone you loved has gone up the stairway [however the euphemism was in Act I]; there is nothing left for you holding you to a mortal Life". And then the tab vanishes.

To me, this solves the additional problem of making the moment more impactful for both audience and Protag as well as foreshadowing what the rest of Act III is going to be like (from what I can tell of it so far in the UR). 

Like many elegant solutions, it would also dissolve an obsolete system / mechanic. As you begin to wind up your lovely game, consider Antoine de Saint-Exupery: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

I'm excited to see what comes next and trade notes about Protag (forever after) and IF! Just got to the Immortal section (?)--if I have any additional thoughts, I'll be sure to let you know.

This seems like a really smart coda. I'm not that far into Act III yet, but I've been having the feeling that IF should *actually* be the protagonist, as their voice and character are perhaps even better developed than the protagonist's at this point in the story. I also find them more charming on a personal level. 

I would also like to submit a revision to my land rehabilitation questline ask earlier: if you can't do it for narrative reasons, perhaps having a protagonist / IF dialogue as they are leaving lamenting the damage to the land (or perhaps integrating it into the Avaran / Emperor distinction dialogue), might be a next best thing. It just feels to me so far removed from a character who has spent millennia absorbing insights from the wilderness to leave that kind of damage without so much as a comment.

Final note: I feel like your dialogue summaries, especially with IF and very especially with IF and the protagonist, are some of your best writing. Very clean summaries of complex inter-House dockets etc. with callbacks to Act I would be hard enough, but having them inflected with dry humor and feeling really put them a cut above the rest. Good work.

Bit of a nitpick, but in the section "Crownward · open witness request

Enter the Eyewitness Record" 

(copy and pasted)

"Why did you identify the Called?" would read better as "How" instead, to me.

Found a bug, I think: Hall of Measures let me view the finished compact without reading Works & Command vignettes and then (presumably) locked them. Keep up the good work!

Totally, it sounds like you have a strong vision, and that's a good thing. I think you've triangulated a good solution.

What's interesting is that generally, marble-cake federalism is associated with a strengthening central state, not a weakening one--but I suppose we don't have a meaningful analogue to a 40k year God-Emperor style dictatorship either, so it's easy to see how it could happen this way under those conditions (e,g. the layer-cake analogy would be a very heavy-handed top layer and a narrow bottom layer). 

Usually when a dictatorship ends, the various factions in the middle enter a dangerous power vacuum (more Lower Realm oriented?, but again, I can see the argument that 40k years of culturally mandated coexistence & cooperation might be hard to shake in less than a century. I suppose in that way, the Xianxia genre lends itself well to a typical millennia long Chinese history epic, so that works in your favor? Parts of Act III remind me a bit of parts of Heaven Official's Blessing and seeing the world through old / changed cultivator eyes. If you haven't seen it yet, you might enjoy it, or at least get something out of it.

Either way, I'm totally into it. Just barely cracking the inner city content--partner is here for the weekend and we're making our way through Maneater, so I may not have much more to add for a little bit. But keep up the good work!

I understand the subtext of Willowbrook as you put it here, but from the player's point of view, the story has given us no reason to care about the protagonist's family. The protagonist might care, but most readers need some involvement to understand and contextualize the loss for the characters. I think I'm more sensitive than most, and I was like 'oh, word?' rather than aggrieved. The farm being overgrown had the same force as losing family--to me that seems like a narrativity problem. But that's the last I'll say of it. 

Loving Act III so far! Got to the Outer Imperial City before bed and cleaned up that questline, seems like a good way of exploring the changing districts in a cohesive and coherent way. A stark contrast to how much of the Act I districts mostly functioned as villages within the city. Are you familiar with layer-cake vs. marble-cake federalism? Seems like that's what the Imperium is going through, in a sense, or something like it.

And pitch perfect for that town in particular. 

I have to tell you that revisiting Willowbrook gutted me. I wondered why we were reincarnating at 91. Although, the protagonist has never before been particularly invested in their family--if they were ever mentioned even? I suppose living and dying of natural causes is different than dying horribly to a Qi Beast but even so, that seemed a little out of left field for me. I wonder if you would consider adding something about the protagonist's family (poor but proud, something about a favored pot or item etc.) to very early Act I when you get a chance?

Let me say once again that the love that goes into every corner of this game is delightful. I'm working my way through the mono element towns rn just to see how everything's changed before pushing on Threshold, the inner road, etc. I'm not surprised exactly that you remembered the mono element towns, but so many developers would have or just gated them off rather than writing bespoke dialogue for each. It's clear you understand that attention is love. One hopes our protagonist does as well.

The beaconspire scene cracked me up! Was waiting for a quick "no" but didn't expect the protagonist to comment on it XD

I trust your judgment, thanks for your thoughtful response! I'm waiting for Act III with bated breath!

It would be a nice Easter egg if Shapeshifter permanently upped the Body somehow. Maybe an integration side-quest like I was proposing in my other recent comment?

I wonder if it might be possible to have a side-quest rehabilitating the Land after the end of Act II? It feels a bit off-kilter that the protagonist would punish Avaran for being the kind of person to do the things he did and not to try to make amends after further damaging it for our own ends. Especially with a major theme of the mortal realm wilderness being a respect for nature through the elements.

Relatedly, I wonder if one way to increase the loredrops with the Tyrants would be to have a mid- or post-Act II integration / rehabilitation sidequest to make them less...explicitly tyrannical? Or just less dangerous to their claimees? e.g. giving The Radiant a Grave Engine technique to reroute damage through the dead instead of through his subjects?

Cycle is one of those games where the things that aren't stated are as important as the things that are. Body is another mechanic like that--roughly after beating the Beast Wave, it stops being a meaningful part of strength. That is because the focus of the game shifts to Qi and cultivation. It's a silent delineation between the mortal years of toil and the cultivation years, and it marks a shift in how others perceive the protagonist. 

I think something similar is happening with the life tab on a more grand level--that the protagonist is now living such long lives in exploration that there isn't really a focus on "life" anymore in a conventional sense. Rather, the character's objectives now take many, many lifetimes of focus and cultivation rather than nakedly rising through the ranks of, like, a farm or hunting lodge etc. 

I do agree about the life tab's abandonment generally though. I think a good middle ground would be folding it into the Returning Cave at a certain point and the tab disappearing. From a narrative standpoint, restarting in the RC has a certain charm as well--perhaps around the time you complete the RC additions the first time.

As for your other suggestions, I broadly agree, most especially with the X years before death business. Perhaps simply marking the city vignettes etc as already witnessed as they pop up (like that one horrible one that pops up in the Imperial City every time) would also be welcome.

Happy to be in a position to do it, and thank you for the typical grace with which you receive feedback. I've been watching your responses with people since just about 1.0.3 (maybe?) and the donation is as much for your spirit as for my enjoyment. 

I spent a decade as an editor and tutor, so criticism is sort of my love language. I can tell a great deal of thought has gone into each bit of lore and each system (or should I say rebuild? ;) ) so I think we are probably kindred spirits there. 

One thing: if you check my reddit username (same as here), you will see that I am sort of an idle games superfan--I've played almost every major title until the last year or so (due to steam nodelikes and my career picking up). I am also a bit of a tough customer. So at the risk of sounding full of myself, please take the remark seriously. For my money (hah), Cycle is the best thing to happen to this genre in years. (I would be happy to post a review on r/incremental_games upon full release.) You have created a real gem.

If you are ever interested in further feedback, please don't be a stranger (again, reddit, discord, etc.). I will try to be more forward in the future as well!

Also just donated (felt a little bad about lopsided crit maybe? Comes from a place of love.). Thank you--this is almost certainly my favorite idle game in years. :)

Very impressed with the moral complexity / character development of Avaran vs Emperor in final dialogue with IF. It feels like a good way of signposting without saying outright that the protagonist has, in fact, learned an important lesson from the Lower Realm--not just about hierarchy and tyranny, but about reciprocal obligation (patronage) and discerning between wise and foolish second chances. Perhaps a stripping away of elements reveals the more naked exchange in the Empire behind cultivation? Or harkens back to the beginning of Act I with the slave villages? The ambiguity of it all works well for me.

If I had a complaint, it would be that IF in particular, and the Tyrants in general, feel a bit disconnected from their respective domains relative to the Emperor (consider: "The Emperor protects" as both propaganda statement and literal protection). This feels sharpest with IF in that unlike in the Common Ground, none of Stonewake's residents appear to know or reference IF, the Manyfold Hollow, etc. even though theoretically at least they are within its claim. Or is there an implication perhaps that the IF "faces" are actually people who gave themselves to the hivemind? Thus the dialogue at the end of Act II? Either way, IF seems plot relevant enough to flesh out earlier and moreso generally from my point of view. 

Finally, I loved Common Ground but expected more changes with the "revisits" as the alarm increased. I did love the flavor text changing and found that a nice and humane touch about refugees and conscription etc. 

Very excited for Act III! (I hope you see this, pal! Good work!)

Happy (belated) birthday! I also love a Black Forest Gateau. Please take some you time soon--we'll be fine!

"I have a general rule when developing that if I have to patch or hotfix the same system more than a few times, I stop adding patches and go back through the underlying system instead."

This seems really wise and somehow consonant with the themes of Cycle. Thanks for sharing about your process!

Ok love the thought that went into this clarification--really enjoying the game so far, I must say. Thanks for being so diligent with these updates and responses. <3

I think clarifying that diminishing chance / not supposed to get them all with some slightly less vague text would be helpful. It's less that the game presents them in a way that makes them feel like you're supposed to complete it and more that all the other systems in the game up to that point do work on a completionist model (put simply), so why should this one be any different?

I'm not getting any additional wilderness passives since getting the 4th consolidation (got 5 before), is this intentional or a bug? kinda bummed about it tbh

Feels a little fishy that the dev hasn't responded to this or others saying the same in the bug report thread. Probably nothing, but it's a bad look.

Came here to ask a version of this--I just downloaded the itch app so it automatically updates (to resolve OP's problem), but have played for a couple days now. I was wondering if there's a simple way to port my save file from the straight up computer game program to the version in the itch app? 

Still probably my favorite incremental. Wishing you well and looking forward to whatever work you produce in the future~! <3

Hi there! This link seems broken unfortunately. :( could you share a new one with us?

My favorite incremental of all time, substantially beating out A Dark Room after something like 7 years undefeated. This from someone who has played virtually every major incremental title since 2015. 

Literally everything about this game is great, from the graphics to the music to the writing to the mechanics--it's like a love letter to incremental gaming, disguised as a dire warning about the pitfalls of capitalism. Or vice versa. And better yet, all the component parts work together to form a Trash Gestalt--somehow funny and clever and wise and poignant and sad. 

Although the ending is an eensy bit of a copout, and Act 4 could have been a little shorter, I choose to believe that Karl Marx would be proud of this homage debris. My only regret is that there isn't an Act 6 (complete with a Comrade Racoon ecosocialist utopia). But at any rate--bravo.