Posted March 12, 2016
I haven't played Sandbox mode (yet), but i finished all Tutorials and most of the challenges, so i think i have a pretty good grasp on how the game works.
First of all i want to say i really like this game. It looks simple on the outside, especially thanks to it minimal art-style, but the resource-system gives it a major depth.
Still several things can still be improved. First lets talk about some UI stuff - some things might be obvious and already on the agenda but i list them anyway:
1. The fading in of the main menu is kinda nice the first few times, but later becomes just annoying. The time it takes until i can see the menu and click is too long. Either shorten it or give me an option to shorten it.
2. Saving a game in a slot where a savegame already exists, needs a security question.
3. Speaking of save-games, i'm missing a load-option in the main-menu. Currently i have to start a game, to load a savegame.
4. When hovering over a block in the inventory i can see it's input and output resources but not the production rate. Which makes it kinda difficult to compare them to other blocks to estimate the ratio i need.
5. The maximum height of my neighborhood should be visible somewhere. I was surprised when i reached the maximum height on the first advanced challenge (where you have to build 40 living quarters on a 3x3 map)
6. For these kind of challenges (build x blocks of type y) it might be nice to see the current block-count somewhere (so i don't have to go through my whole tower/neighbourhood and counting by hand)
Gameplay/Balancing:
1. Currently it is not possible to delete a block if there is a block sitting on top of it. First of all this is not communicated to the user at all - when this happened to me at first, i thought my game had bugged out and i restarted the challenge. So either tell the user if he tries to delete a block which he can't, or better, let us delete blocks even with other blocks sitting on top of it.
Especially in cases where horizontal space is rare vertical building happens quickly. And after a while i might want to replace some blocks on lower levels with more advanced blocks (since now i have the resources), which is difficult if i have to delete 5 other blocks first.
2. There needs to be more ways to deal with organic waste or create inorganic waste. On the last challenge (40 living quarters on a 3x3 map) i had wast amounts of organic waste but the only real efficient way to get rid of it was the recycling center - which requires an equal amount of inorganic waste as input - which i didn't have as i didn't opted to build oil wells.
3. Tying in with this in above, recycling is the only way to get raw materials for the factory - if i didn't miss anything. I think there should be an easier way to get raw materials (with consequences of course), like a mine which requires labor, water, power and money and produces raw materials, greywater, inorganic waste and sickness. This is especially true as the inorganic waste -> raw materials -> inorganic waste cycle through recycling and factory is a closed one. The amount of inorganic waste used to produce raw materials, is the exact amount the factories will produce, that uses these raw materials. So recycling is only good to get rid of organic waste or you have to let raw materials pile up.
Bugs:
1. Challenges that requires a certain amount of blocks actually requires the specified amount + 1. Vegas says you need 20 shops, but you need 21 to finish it. Likewise the 40 living quarters challenge, completed once i built the 41th apartment. (Seems like there is a '=' missing in a check ;))
2. Several challenges have blocks unlocked, which you can't use as you lack the blocks to produce the required resources. (For example the Cafe (requires bread), without the Bakery)
3. When i completed the beer-challenge and opted to go directly to the next challenge (without going to the main menu), some blocks were already present once the new challenge started. At first i thought this was intentional but there were several issues with connectivity and resources.
I later started this challenge fresh from the main menu and was greeted with a blank state - so it seems when switching from one challenge to the other, some existing blocks didn't get deleted properly.
4. Some achievements don't tell you what you have to do to earn them - which is nice. But they still show all '?' once you actualyl unlocked them (Electric sheep for example). I think once you earned them, you should be able to see what was required.
First of all i want to say i really like this game. It looks simple on the outside, especially thanks to it minimal art-style, but the resource-system gives it a major depth.
Still several things can still be improved. First lets talk about some UI stuff - some things might be obvious and already on the agenda but i list them anyway:
1. The fading in of the main menu is kinda nice the first few times, but later becomes just annoying. The time it takes until i can see the menu and click is too long. Either shorten it or give me an option to shorten it.
2. Saving a game in a slot where a savegame already exists, needs a security question.
3. Speaking of save-games, i'm missing a load-option in the main-menu. Currently i have to start a game, to load a savegame.
4. When hovering over a block in the inventory i can see it's input and output resources but not the production rate. Which makes it kinda difficult to compare them to other blocks to estimate the ratio i need.
5. The maximum height of my neighborhood should be visible somewhere. I was surprised when i reached the maximum height on the first advanced challenge (where you have to build 40 living quarters on a 3x3 map)
6. For these kind of challenges (build x blocks of type y) it might be nice to see the current block-count somewhere (so i don't have to go through my whole tower/neighbourhood and counting by hand)
Gameplay/Balancing:
1. Currently it is not possible to delete a block if there is a block sitting on top of it. First of all this is not communicated to the user at all - when this happened to me at first, i thought my game had bugged out and i restarted the challenge. So either tell the user if he tries to delete a block which he can't, or better, let us delete blocks even with other blocks sitting on top of it.
Especially in cases where horizontal space is rare vertical building happens quickly. And after a while i might want to replace some blocks on lower levels with more advanced blocks (since now i have the resources), which is difficult if i have to delete 5 other blocks first.
2. There needs to be more ways to deal with organic waste or create inorganic waste. On the last challenge (40 living quarters on a 3x3 map) i had wast amounts of organic waste but the only real efficient way to get rid of it was the recycling center - which requires an equal amount of inorganic waste as input - which i didn't have as i didn't opted to build oil wells.
3. Tying in with this in above, recycling is the only way to get raw materials for the factory - if i didn't miss anything. I think there should be an easier way to get raw materials (with consequences of course), like a mine which requires labor, water, power and money and produces raw materials, greywater, inorganic waste and sickness. This is especially true as the inorganic waste -> raw materials -> inorganic waste cycle through recycling and factory is a closed one. The amount of inorganic waste used to produce raw materials, is the exact amount the factories will produce, that uses these raw materials. So recycling is only good to get rid of organic waste or you have to let raw materials pile up.
Bugs:
1. Challenges that requires a certain amount of blocks actually requires the specified amount + 1. Vegas says you need 20 shops, but you need 21 to finish it. Likewise the 40 living quarters challenge, completed once i built the 41th apartment. (Seems like there is a '=' missing in a check ;))
2. Several challenges have blocks unlocked, which you can't use as you lack the blocks to produce the required resources. (For example the Cafe (requires bread), without the Bakery)
3. When i completed the beer-challenge and opted to go directly to the next challenge (without going to the main menu), some blocks were already present once the new challenge started. At first i thought this was intentional but there were several issues with connectivity and resources.
I later started this challenge fresh from the main menu and was greeted with a blank state - so it seems when switching from one challenge to the other, some existing blocks didn't get deleted properly.
4. Some achievements don't tell you what you have to do to earn them - which is nice. But they still show all '?' once you actualyl unlocked them (Electric sheep for example). I think once you earned them, you should be able to see what was required.