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.