After 50+ hours in your beautiful game. Tips/Suggestions

[MountainMan]

First off, I just wanted to say, i’ve had an amazing time playing and streaming your game this entire week. After 50+ its been a real pleasure, and wanted to share some of my experiences, and some things that should be brought to attention.

Firstly, the artwork is amazing. Even down to the “small things” some wouldn’t notice, like the transitions between seasons, and the snow/ice melting based on altitude.

One thing i did notice, was while planting trees, with the arborist building near an inalnd “swamp” or low altitude next to water, fertility showed a full 85-90%. After planting. It seems the ground was pushed down to an infertile level 20-30%. Not sure if this was a glitch, or was just an effect of little terraforming for planting.

I feel like the trading post workers, don’t really do much during the “off seasons” being able to manage max item numbers in general storage and all the excess in the post would be a little more desireable than “keeping in stock” a certain amount in the trade post. ( I havn’t messed with this mechanic yet, so if i’m off base, feel free flame me.)

A search bar to find specific characters in the game would be awesome! I name a lot of my villagers after people in my stream, so being able to search, and find them on the map quickly would be great.

Also, remembering people that you’ve already named, and adding them randomly to your new maps is a great touch! props to whoever thought of adding that!

Money from trading post does not equal gold ingots? not sure if this is a bug, or planned just thought i’d mention it.

Thoughts on the smoker granting a small bonus to desirability, rather than a nerf. I dunno about you guys, but the smell of smoked bacon is one of the reasons i get out of bed in the morning. It would also help with market transportation as well, keeping products on the outskirts of town, and not in "industrial areas.

A little extra desirability reach on buildings with upgraded roads would go a long way. With no way to upgrade school/bakery/pub, feels like spamming down more isn’t always the greatest use of resources/labor.

Farms. Farms are awesome! i love that the herd can graze fields, and fertilize your crops, such a great mechanic. It does seem though, that the farmers are very bad at managing their food for winter store. often dropping their deliveries because of a storm or not gathering their needs before the windmill/brewery swipes it all. (gathering sooner/or being able to reserve grain for the job, would be great)

With some unusable ground, due to building around mountains, it would be cool to be able to build a root cellar into ground or side of a hill.

Work camps. I rarely use them, mainly because i always have to manage their work. Being able to increase area size of their work space would be great, as well as an alert for when they are idle. Seems, they can clear most trees in an their work space pretty quickly, and are often left forgotten, until i run out of wood. ( i usually just keep extra laborers and clear a Forrest when i’m low.)

This brings us to raiders. Such a great mechanic to have in an RTS. Having that feel of threat, pushing us to better prepare, and defend our precious resources.

I would LOVE to see raiders a little more dynamic. Having a certain goal they are trying to achieve. (like traders have certain stock, and needs.) One group may need food, one may need iron, one, just wants to create chaos! It would be awesome to see.

I know people have probably mentioned raiders dropping resources or loot. but aside from dropping armor or weapons (kinda boring tbh) Perhaps higher tier raiders, or bandit leaders could drop “satchels” or bags, which would be like upgraded baskets. that hunters or foragers could wear to add a little carrying capacity.

I’m not sure what you have in store for traders in the future. But it could be fun to have a little more relationship with them. building an upgrade road to your city from their entry point on a map (for faster travel) or buying at less than stellar prices, to butter them up, for future sales. or requests for the next year.

I’m sure i’ve mentioned things already posted about. I have yet to look around the forum.

I just wanted to share some ideas, and say how much i’ve enjoyed your game. Keep up the great work! Much Love, Cheers!

[OlPioneer]

A lot of points there, good ones. The levels of the game (pioneer, etc.) allow for flexibility, for us to play at the level we feel most comfortable with. I also have been enjoying the game overall, but there are some adjustments I’d like to see made.

1. Initial resources can be way out of balance. I had one game in which I had no gold at all until I expanded way, way out from the town center with the exploration flags. I also ran out of stone, and found NONE until I had explored a LOT. This delayed the construction of some essential buildings, and in fact, a goodly chunk of my colonists expired because I couldn’t build these crucial works.

2. I’ve already commented on another post in which another user commented on the lack of balance in food consumption leading to an inordinate amount of food spoilage.

3. On the Pioneer level, I encountered a raid before I was able to build a barracks and an armory, a raid that was so violent that it nearly wiped my town off the map. This was the same game in which I lacked some essential resources, making it impossible to rebuild the buildings that were destroyed. I lost another goodly chunk of my colonists with that raid. One suggestion would be to allow the user to set the level of raiders, from none or very low, to moderate, or even high, as the individual user feels comfortable with. Or make it a little easier to build the barracks and armory. The lack of a gold resource in that particular game made it nearly impossible for me to recruit soldiers.

4. I agree with MountainMan that being able to upgrade school, bakery, and pub would be a help!

5. Why do colonists drop resources rather than get them to the storehouse or directly to a building site? (When there is not a raid making them run, so they drop stuff to run faster.) That is sometimes most inconvenient. One suggestion is to provide a colonist or two who will be directed by the game or by the user to go pick up the stuff that’s been dropped or left at the work site (one time, I had bundles of gathered logs all over the place!) Such a job would make cleaning up after a raid easier.

6. Y’all are really doing a terrific job of reaching to bring us a highly playable game. I much appreciate the opportunity to give y’all feedback, with a hope to improving the game even more. This one, if you can increase the playability (mainly by doing better on the balance), this could be a strong Game of the Year candidate. Thank you!

[MountainMan]

I don’t think finding gold is a huge deal, until you can actually smelt it when you hit T3. Sure you can sell the ore for a decent profit, but usually, its not worth the labor required to fully man the mines until 150+ pop. Huge early game money in hide coats/shoes and soap/candles with hunting.

The stone gathering is huge when you hit T3. I often run out, unless im in a mountain map. Often buying it from traders when its available for cheap. Pretty sure the devs are working on a better way to farm stone. (could be really nice to get as a byproduct from all mines.)

For early raids, you want to make sure and use your garrison button in your town center. It will call a few of your villagers to defend with ranged attacks. I’ll maybe put 1 guard tower up. But i try to center my storage/trade center with my town center, so i can defend with garrison. You can easily defend up to 20 or so raiders from there.