Upgrades reach further than the map. You can easily reach the king before upgrading everything. May or may not be intended.
The Second Wind felt kind of useless. I didn't notice any kind of boost from it. Testing a little afterwards, it only had a small effect at low speed, and that's fully upgraded. For an upgrade, it seems like it's just a waste of coins.
Simple, but not bad. The only real problem I see is with the layout. You can't see all planet buttons unless you zoom out enough, and once you reach ten planets, you can never see all of them at once, despite there being empty space above and below. You should always be able to see all buttons as long as the screen can actually fit them.
Likewise, the multiplication and exponent numbers on top get too wide to be displayed.
It would also be nice if the multiple-buy options would buy as many as possible if you can't buy all of them at once. Having to click those to adjust for that all the time got annoying enough that I just use an auto-clicker for increasing Hz.
I think bulk selling gear would be a great improvement, or just a shortcut to sell with a single click. Sometimes you want to craft a lot of gear to get one with good stats, and that can take quite a few tries with the random stats. But that means you want to hold onto them enough to check the stats, rather than auto-sell them. To a lesser extent, gear you find in combat can be a little tedious to sell if you leave it idle for a while.
Game's still fun, though. It feels like you actually use more features, even if maybe the buffs you get from potions, food, and party members aren't particularly high.
I basically agree with this. Oil tank at lvl 2 is 90, which lasts exactly one night. After a few upgrades, primarily Guiding speed, it becomes trivial to guide all ships, except maybe if one spawns too late to guide. While this is cozy and all, I'd expect upgrades to have at least some more effect than making it slightly easier to guide all of them. Hitboxes are a bit wonky when passing the lighthouse close to the light source, which might matter marginally the first couple of nights.
It's not really a problem that needs solving if you don't mind it's there.
Auto-clickers really just solve either wrist health problems, or makes waiting times faster. I mean, we're not really talking about much more gameplay than waiting for numbers to go up. I don't usually use them unless I get bored or if I want see if it breaks the game.
The Left Mod card doesn't seem to work with Extra Agent Capacity. I couldn't get the number higher on the actual bet, even if the card value on the card increases. So I just did what the other guy also found out. Tick Rate + Left + Left. Though like with most clicker games, an auto-clicker trivialises this, even if that function is already built in with the 'W' key. It still works on the Flip button while it's auto-flipping. Even at the ridiculous speed you get with the above combo.
Played it through another time. Definitely smoother experience now.
The balance is off at the end. Most of the game it's fine, with a decent (though fast for the genre) progression. However, towards the end, once you start getting 100k-200k money for a run, it explodes, and very quickly you're sitting on millions and can buy a ton of upgrades at once.
Selling many at once is a little cumbersome. There's not too much you can do about looking through all of them to see which to sell, though the hover text works well (gender would be nice on it, though). Maybe a small area next to the Meadow could help with a sell-all button. Probably don't want a sell-all on the Meadow itself, since that stops it from being useful storage. Could also do a shift/ctrl click. Not sure what the best option is.
Kinda fun, so I have some suggestions.
You should be able to put newly tamed animals into the Meadow, and that should be the default. And be able to sell them on the Welcome Home screen, before you place them anywhere. With such limited room, there needs to be way to mitigate the micromanagement and unnecessary clicking.
Would be nice to be able to see what traits they have visually, so you don't have to click each one to check.
I'd like to add one point about the UI. Why isn't it possible to equip things from the character/equipment menu? That's where you have a good overview of what you actually have equipped. Going to the treasury, finding what you can equip, remembering what you already have equipped, and then equipping what you want is much more cumbersome than just doing it from the equipment menu. It might seem like a small thing, but it's the kind of thing that can make me stop playing a game and finding another game with better design.
Edit:
I also wonder why you even have to equip task-specific equipment for everything. It's just another several clicks every time you want to change what you're doing. It's not like you're going to change what you use. It's always going to be the best axe if you want to chop wood, so the act of changing equipment every single time is just busy work with no purpose.
I think him just selling stimulants (or tonic; either or) works fine. Something else could also work. I think it's more important that the reward for a resources like those rare coins is static. Unless there are ways, at least theoretically if impractically, to farm those.
Nope, not met the TP dealer. Or rather, I hadn't. Now I have, at the sign at the road through the forest. The descriptions are a bit odd with the %1 notations, which seems like a formatting issue since it just disappears once you buy the items and use them. First impression is that most are still rather weak, but there are some stand-outs. Charger gives little at the start of a battle, but if it goes on long enough you have more or less unlimited. Didn't see any that gives max TP at the start. I also didn't see anywhere where it says what natural TP regen is, since a few of them rely on that.
It might be an idea if classes that rely on TP have some passive skill to increase TP regen, or some other means of getting more. I've not looked through all classes, though, so I don't know if that exists.
Also just noticed that the buff from Heart Palpitations is just 10%, which is barely worth using a turn for, let alone 40 TP. It's better to just attack. I think it lasts four turns, so you get 40% more damage and defence for the cost of 100% damage and 40 TP. For that cost, I'd expect an extra 150%-200% damage over those four turns, so a 35%-50% buff. That said, I think magic for Unkindled is very strong as it is, so the buff isn't needed for that reason as well. But 10% is what I generally classify as "not a number" unless it's permanent.
To make spells more varied, you can add things like partially ignoring magic defence, elemental resistance, or reflection; tweak hit rates (strong that often misses, or weaker that always hits); have semi-multi attacks in various ways, like the main target takes full damage and other enemies take partial damage, a few hits on random enemies, or first hit on target and one or two on random secondary targets; or add chances of causing various afflictions.
The thing about random elements is that as long as you can save and load, you can savescum. Even if it's inconvenient, like having to travel from the nearest save point, it's something players will do, even if it's not fun, just to get that extra stat point out of it.
And a general opinion, while I've not used that many classes that focus on TP abilities, I feel like you get too few points to use. It feels closer to charging an ultimate or limit break with how slowly you get the points, but the abilities that use TP are often not strong enough for how rarely they can be used.
A lot of the spells feel samey as well. There are many single target spells that differ only slightly on damage and mana cost. If there are other differences, it's hard to tell. Granted, two of the characters in my party are Unkindled (Pyro and Astra), who focus on that, but each of those have six spells in three paths that are basically the same. And other than element, there's little difference between them as well. The stated differences like damage, crit, counter, evasion, etc. don't come into play much. I don't think this is super important, since they're still overall fun to play (otherwise I'd pick other classes), but it's something to think about.
Back again after a while. Found some bugs. Game's still fun, though.
Going out the door from the ruined building in Nexus Forest North makes the screen not scroll. Going into the magic door gives an error "Failed to load data/Map119.json". That file doesn't exist in my folders. Windows version.
Exiting the dungeon with locked gates (NE of castle, from the cliffs at the beach) leaves me stranded in the ocean.
I kind of want to use the feature to turn off followers on the map, but they keep reappearing after various events.
I'm not sure why you can buy both tonics and stimulants for those rare coins. One is just better value than the other, and for a limited resource that feels kind of bad.
Pretty much improved Minesweeper. Would be nice if clicking on a flagged square didn't immediately trigger it, as missclicks happen, and you've already guessed that's a mine, so you wouldn't want to click it without unflagging it. Except for farming turtles.
Dragging (both board and upgrade screen) seems a little sensitive, although not much, and it's not much of a problem. It just feels a little fluttery.
Agreeing with other comments about zoom of upgrade screen and mine contrast (would be nice to add some red to detonated/broken mines to make them more similar to flags, which makes it easier to count them together).
Well, overall the main problem with the game as it is right now is that there's not much to it. It's cute and all, but there's little that makes it stick out as a game I want to play. Basic farming with basic mechanics and some helpers you can hire. There's also little that points in which direction it's going to take once fully developed, so it's hard to see what to look forward to.
I know you've got a more recent demo on Steam, but that one didn't include the custom character option, so I played this version instead. So if you still read here, and all this isn't horribly outdated, here are some comments and suggestions.
I've been enjoying this game, so I'll write what's wrong with it. Well, and some thoughts. Best for last. Most of my impression is positive, otherwise I wouldn't bother writing about it.
Controls don't feel too smooth. Both swimming and fishing are very twitchy, with fast, sudden movements even if you barely touch the keys. On ground it's still noticeable but not as much. Overall, it makes the controls feel detached from the environment.
I do like the fishing, though, since it's more active than the usual "keep marker on fish" mechanic. The added reeling you can do when on the fish makes it feel like you're not just waiting for a timer to tick up. This also makes the twitchy controls work better, but I think they can still be tuned a little better.
On the other hand, the quick movements work well if you do small movements frequently, like when you're doing a lot of farming work. Do an action, move to the next spot, and do it again.
Likewise, outside farming, it sometimes gets a bit annoying that the character always turn along with the mouse movements, but sometimes it makes things easier. Would be nice to have a free-cam option (camera movement doesn't turn the character), or even a photo mode where you detach the camera from the character.
Speaking of the camera and swimming, if you zoom to third person, it seems like the character is too low on the screen, so pointing straight forward feels off. Pointing in the right vertical direction with the mouse is a little too tricky.
I encountered a bug with the fishing window not always showing while trying to reel in the fish, even if the mechanics technically work. When I first started I also had a problem with getting out of the character customisation screen because no dialogue appeared when I clicked finished.
The loud noise while in the cooking menu is annoying. When you clikc "Hide recipes without ingredients", clicking "Return" while on a manual recipe choosing ingredients, and a few other spots.
The character customisation is great for what can be expected of this budget, but can always be improved. I always prefer playing a custom character over a pre-defined one, and I do like that the main character appears as an NPC if you choose not to play as him.
It might be out of your scope, but a lot of players like playing a female character with male romanceable NPCs. Not a personal issue (I usually, but not always, play with a female character and ignore romance), just something to consider.
Colours of clothes should be standardised. As it is, white and black clothes are hard to get the colours you want. I'd include eyes and brows there, maybe skin, with fully customisable colours, rather than a bunch of fixed choices.
Since dresses take two slots, torso and legs, it might work better to separate them into top and bottom, though I'm not sure how that works for the modelling.
The other person who commented many months ago mentioned that underwear is hard to do, which is a point. There's pretty much only "none", the fairy dress skirted leotard, or some variety of shorts. The "none" option is really just white underwear, which might be better named "default" (and add a colour option). It's also visible under the fairy leotard, which isn't pretty.
Changing hip size causes some clipping with some combinations, and the larger breast sizes just look weird since they mostly change outwards.
Overall, the customisation works well, though. It's possible to create
Fairy companion is cute.
The tool usage feels good. Especially the scythe. Especially especially the special charge swing. And it makes harvesting so much less tedious. I do wish the scythe would actually harvest some stuff. Feels weird that everything just gets destroyed, even stuff like bamboo.
Minor detail I like is that the sprinklers go between tiles, rather than occupy the middle. Makes for much better farm plot layouts.
The cooking system is great. There's so much you can do with it, like just drying some stuff to make them work as spices.
My favourite is probably the skill system. Not necessarily the benefits, since I have no idea what you actually get better at, but the idea of improving a specific skill also improving the more general skill at a lesser degree. It's something I was going to include in a game I developed before abandoning it. Incidentally, also included farming, but more general survival and other professions.
So that's about what I can think of. I'm considering to buy the Steam version, but we'll see.
Yeah, the head priest was still there. And it was still the line about investigating the cult, I think.
Dark areas I just find annoying. Sure, it makes it more difficult to navigate, but it also makes it a lot more annoying to find details. I find that the case for almost all games with darkness mechanics. And often you're given a crappy flashlight that less bright than a single candle, but only in a small cone forward. While that's not the case here, the view is still rather small. It can work if you want a specific challenge, but for dark areas in general it's just a pain.
Speaking of art, though, I decrypted the MC images for sprites and face so I could change hair and eye colour to match what I wanted. Having an option for customisation like that is nice, but if you can get around it like I did, it's not that important.
I don't think the Pushy Protestant quest ever marked the first objective for me. Could turn it in just fine, which marked the second objective and completed it (which also counted for the three quests for the Guild Ring).
After beating the cult, the head priest said the same line as before, and no one else could be talked to. Not sure if that's intended or not.
Anyway, I had fun with the content that's there. Probably not going to play more until there's more content, though. I like the action point based combat system. Not too fond of the dark areas, and some of the portrait art sticks out with a different style (though I assume that's temporary).
Good luck with the game!
I cleared the requirements (killing the enemies) for the Forest Cleanup quest before picking it up from the quest board, and turned it in. Then I could still pick it up from the quest board, which leaves it in the available quests window, but naturally it's impossible to clear it (again).
The Pushy Protestants quest doesn't clear the first objective in the log, but you can still report it in the guild and complete it.
Also found some other bugs, but I think they've been reported. (Brainless Ring, various collision bugs)
+ Cute. The characters, art, and story all fit together.
+ Chill music. Also fits with the rest, but deserves extra mention.
+ Good puzzles. Nothing to complain here. The challenge is good unless you've done a ton of these puzzles.
- UI could use some work. Marking squares sometimes doesn't register if you click or drag a line too fast. If you try to load a save while on a board it registers a click on the confirm window. Clicking a square you've marked with a cross creates a mistake, which means one purpose of marking with crosses, guarding against misclicks, doesn't work.
- I prefer getting rid of mistakes and instead allow erasing and not telling you if you've marked a wrong square and not auto-marking a complete line/row.
