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Emerald Woods

You have started a new life in the tranquil Emerald Woods, miles away from any sign of human civilization. · By Slashie, QuietGecko

Solid start! Some suggestions after playing a bit.

A topic by Lone Spelunker created Mar 09, 2020 Views: 447 Replies: 9
Viewing posts 1 to 8
(+1)

Enjoying the game.  Feels like it has a lot of room to grow and be fun.

I see you've already made several of the UI suggestions from earlier, like the shift-tabbing for inventory items.  I have some other suggestions to improve some of the pain points and/or make things cooler:

  • Maybe instead of moving with the arrow keys and shift-arrow to change facing, instead maybe make it so that the first arrow key hit in a given direction changes your facing in that direction, and you only move if you hit an arrow key and you're already facing that direction.  I find I spend a lot of time just fiddling with that, and I suspect this would be more intuitive and easier.
  • Make an explicit key for eating something ("E" maybe), rather than space bar. I find myself accidentally eating things all the time, which can kill you in the early game if you eat the wrong things.
  • A craftable "gate" item that you can walk through that animals can't would be a really solid quality-of-life improvement.  Or don't make animals move diagonally, so that you can safely enter a paddock.
  • The "memory" of the map that shows the last state you saw on map tiles that are out of view is a great addition, but maybe it shouldn't show animals. It's very confusing when you see two "p" tiles and go looking for two animals. (This is especially true at night where "memory" tiles are very difficult to distinguish from "nighttime visible" tiles.)
  • I feel like the "you're tired" versus "you need to sleep" thing is confusing and ambiguous.  Maybe it would be better to just unify those two mechanics - you get tired when you run out of stamina.  OR you can have a separate bar that shows how sleepy you are or something so you know when you should be thinking about going to go sleep. But right now, you can watch your stamina bar but it doesn't seem coupled with when you need to sleep.
  • I feel there should be a command that lets you rest without sleeping.  I.e., if you wake up and chop a lot of trees, so you're tired but it's only been an hour since you slept, you ought to be able to rest a bit and then resume chopping.
  • Related to the above, the character's circadian rhythm seems off.  I often find myself sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night. Maybe have something a little more tied to daytime / nighttime cycles so that you get tired at night, you wake up in the morning, etc.
  • Maybe show your credits somewhere?  If you have a lot of messages when you wake up, it zooms right over showing you your current credits.
  • Is there something I can actually spend the credits on?
  • What exactly can you put in the machine?  Only plants?  It appears to let you put animals in...?
  • I kept losing seeds, and I realized it's because you can accidentally plant two seeds in one plot.
  • It would be nice if I could "fix" a random tilled spot that I didn't mean to till, just so the land around my homestead looks nice.
  • Some decoration blocks would be nice.
  • I encountered some mushrooms growing in caves. That was neat, but it seemed like all I could do was destroy them? Seems like I ought to be able to harvest them. (More generally, being able to range around and find new things would be fun.)  A compass to get back to your homestead would help with that.
  • Also, I think I accidentally tried to use rocks on a mushroom, and the game froze.
  • The number of animals that showed up around my homestead suddenly seemed to jump at one point in the game, where there were dozens of animals roaming around. Might be a bug, or maybe it's intended behavior once I get a farm going?
  • I don't like control to pick things up.  It's in an awkward spot; it was better when it was comma.  Also, if there is nothing in front of you to pick up when you hit that command, maybe check the tile you're standing on.
  • It appears that monsters spawn on water tiles, making them trivial to catch because they cannot move; you just raft over to them and pick them up.

Anyway, it's a fun diversion already. I hope the above doesn't come off as ripping on the game; these are all just minor things that I think would improve it, but I wouldn't bother mentioning all the above if I didn't think there was a solid basis here that offered a lot. What's there is already quite engaging, and it would be nice to see this fleshed out into something larger!

(+1)

Thank you so much for all your feedback! I also see the potential for something bigger here, so maybe this is just the start. (But as you mentioned, it's already a solid entry, perhaps my best entry ever to the challenge).

Some of these things were fixed or addressed already during the Day 7 Final Rush (TM).

I'll edit this reply tomorrow addressing every point, too tired now :P

Thanks!

Oh - one other suggestion: being able to save the game.  (Or am I missing something that allows it?)

(1 edit)
Maybe instead of moving with the arrow keys and shift-arrow to change facing, instead maybe make it so that the first arrow key hit in a given direction changes your facing in that direction, and you only move if you hit an arrow key and you're already facing that direction.  I find I spend a lot of time just fiddling with that, and I suspect this would be more intuitive and easier.

I use mostly the numpad (and there's a bug with unicodetiles.js that prevents using Shift+Numpad grrr). I believe this is also a matter of preference that could be configured by the player.

I got you wrong, I think this is actually a good idea. Will experiment and see how it feels :)

I feel like the "you're tired" versus "you need to sleep" thing is confusing and ambiguous.  Maybe it would be better to just unify those two mechanics - you get tired when you run out of stamina.  OR you can have a separate bar that shows how sleepy you are or something so you know when you should be thinking about going to go sleep. But right now, you can watch your stamina bar but it doesn't seem coupled with when you need to sleep.

This requires some thought, it's hard to balance things so you get tired around the time you'd normally go to sleep. Adding another bar might be too much. Will think about this :)

I feel there should be a command that lets you rest without sleeping.  I.e., if you wake up and chop a lot of trees, so you're tired but it's only been an hour since you slept, you ought to be able to rest a bit and then resume chopping.

Current version has you "Nap" for a couple hours if it's daytime and you try to sleep. I plan to polish that a bit to reduce prompts there, and also balance stamina recovery and sickness chances

Related to the above, the character's circadian rhythm seems off.  I often find myself sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night. Maybe have something a little more tied to daytime / nighttime cycles so that you get tired at night, you wake up in the morning, etc.

I think this was an issue in the version you tested, but should no longer be the case, except if you faint before going to bed,  maybe.

Maybe show your credits somewhere?  If you have a lot of messages when you wake up, it zooms right over showing you your current credits.

You can check them in the PEX machine in the latest version.

Is there something I can actually spend the credits on?

Not for now. Maybe it shows the futility of money, or maybe I didn't manage to implement it :)

What exactly can you put in the machine?  Only plants?  It appears to let you put animals in...?

Produce in general, plants, animal produce, and animals too. Because in theory you might want to breed and sell animals

It would be nice if I could "fix" a random tilled spot that I didn't mean to till, just so the land around my homestead looks nice.

Using the hoe maybe?

Some decoration blocks would be nice.

I'm planning to add "paint" so you can change the color of blocks, and also craft statues and maybe furniture. Any ideas are welcome.

Being able to range around and find new things would be fun. 

Of course :) I'm always coming up with new ideas to add interesting stuff.

A compass to get back to your homestead would help with that.

I wonder how that would work, hmm, you mean like a "waypoint" indicator?

I don't like control to pick things up.  It's in an awkward spot; it was better when it was comma.  Also, if there is nothing in front of you to pick up when you hit that command, maybe check the tile you're standing on.

As always, it's a matter of preference. In general it has been received positively. But I can always add a keybindings option.

Added to list of improvements

  • A craftable "gate" item that you can walk through that animals can't would be a really solid quality-of-life improvement.  Or don't make animals move diagonally, so that you can safely enter a paddock.
  • The "memory" of the map that shows the last state you saw on map tiles that are out of view is a great addition, but maybe it shouldn't show animals. It's very confusing when you see two "p" tiles and go looking for two animals. (This is especially true at night where "memory" tiles are very difficult to distinguish from "nighttime visible" tiles.)

Fixed already in the final 7DRL version

  • Make an explicit key for eating something ("E" maybe), rather than space bar. I find myself accidentally eating things all the time, which can kill you in the early game if you eat the wrong things.
  • I kept losing seeds, and I realized it's because you can accidentally plant two seeds in one plot
  • Also, I think I accidentally tried to use rocks on a mushroom, and the game froze.
  • The number of animals that showed up around my homestead suddenly seemed to jump at one point in the game, where there were dozens of animals roaming around. Might be a bug, or maybe it's intended behavior once I get a farm going?
  • It appears that monsters spawn on water tiles, making them trivial to catch because they cannot move; you just raft over to them and pick them up.
  • I encountered some mushrooms growing in caves. That was neat, but it seemed like all I could do was destroy them? Seems like I ought to be able to harvest them. 

Yeah, this is definitely a promising game. For the stamina issue, perhaps there is a way to add features that make doing things cost less stamina over time? For example, the ability to upgrade the ax or having a fitness or strength stat that the player can develop.

Will think about it!

Added to the tracker:

94 okoyos Upgrade tools to use less stamina.
95 okoyos Add a strength stat that the player can develop to consume less stamina.

I definitely agree with the idea of the first arrow key changing direction and then advance.

  1. @ took a 2½-hour nap and only recovered two Fatigue #s. Something is very wrong here, lol. That long of a nap should be at least 5 #s, especially if @'s hunger is low.
  2. When you hit the end of the procedurally generated world, it should say upon examination, "You see: A steep cliff with no bottom."
  3. Eating "Coffee" should reduce your fatigue! Actually, shouldn't a lot of non-sickening food cause you to feel more refreshed? Especially the berries, I would think...
  4. The game is unable to resume focus when I change tabs and then try to go back to it. I had to close the tab and lost a lot of progress from this.
  5. What is the point of credits? The game doesn't say anything about what you get from them...
  6. I don't understand why I can't move diagonally yet animals can. I thought, because I couldn't move diagonally, nothing else could, so I built a crop fence with no corners, and then an animal went in through a corner and ate all of my Sauges lol. For quite a while I thought my game was wrecked because I lost all of my starting seeds. Is there any way to generate more seeds from your garden without finding them in the world?
@ took a 2½-hour nap and only recovered two Fatigue #s. Something is very wrong here, lol. That long of a nap should be at least 5 #s, especially if @'s hunger is low.

Added to the list #108

When you hit the end of the procedurally generated world, it should say upon examination, "You see: A steep cliff with no bottom."

I'm going to add unbreakable mountains or cliffs there. #59

Eating "Coffee" should reduce your fatigue! Actually, shouldn't a lot of non-sickening food cause you to feel more refreshed? Especially the berries, I would think...

Added to the list since that was planned but somehow missing on the list.

The game is unable to resume focus when I change tabs and then try to go back to it. I had to close the tab and lost a lot of progress from this.

Interesting, are you playing the itch.io version, or the standalone at slashie.net?

What is the point of credits? The game doesn't say anything about what you get from them...

There's still nothing to do with them, besides growing the number. We are planning for you to be able to exchange them for batteries and other supplies.  #8

I don't understand why I can't move diagonally yet animals can. I thought, because I couldn't move diagonally, nothing else could

You can move diagonally using the numpad. Still figuring out a solution for non-numpad keyboards. Maybe using the WASD side, and removing all conflicting commands

Is there any way to generate more seeds from your garden without finding them in the world

Yes, you can extract them from fruits using "T"

Oh, I didn't understand T! That's good. I played off of the itch.io page here.

moved this topic to Ideas for Improvement