Post by MichaelMakesGames in Reflector: Laser Defense comments

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Wow, thanks for the kind words and detailed feedback! It's really motivational to hear from someone who "clicked" with the game!

I just added a roadmap to the game description, where you can read about my plans for the next 2 major releases, Alpha 4 and Beta 5. Here's some notes addressing things not mentioned in the roadmap:

Splitters. I agree that they're too obvious of a choice once you've learned the game. I'll look into ways to balance them for the next release. I'm considering several, but trickiest part will be communicating this to the player.
- Each splitter costs more power/turn than the previous one. For example, first one is 2 power, second is 4 power, third is 8 power. This might also help make advanced splitters a bit better, since you get a little more bang for your buck.
- Using splitters overheats the laser faster (see the roadmap for more about overheating your laser)
- Splitters themselves can overheat if used too often
- Hard maximum on the number of splitters. Beta 5 could include technologies to increase the maximum

Map RNG. Things can get weird when water or mountains spawn right in the middle of the map. For now, I'll change logic a bit so you player and colonists should never be separated at the start. Also, if you're up for a challenge, the "badlands" and "marsh" maps are quite a bit harder than the standard map.
Burrowers. It was interesting to hear your generally positive take on them. I'm personally not quite satisfied with how they turned out. They do serve an important role in undermining some otherwise too good strategies, but I want to figure out how to make them more manageable. As is, some burrower attacks are unavoidable. The laser overheating mechanic will help with that, since you can choose to fire multiple turns in a row if needed. Anyway, this is something that I'm thinking about, but no specific plans yet. I also don't currently have any plans for more enemies, but I wouldn't be surprised if some new ones find there way into Beta 5.
Optimal strategy / build order. A couple things to note here.
- Beta 5 with the reactive ecosystem and random technologies should really mix things up. There will no longer be one optimal strategy, and you will need to adapt to your specific situation, available technologies, and corporate demands.
- Alpha 4 will add difficulty levels, and default difficulty will be easier than the current game. In my experience, many players are like your brother and spend quite a bit of time wandering and experimenting before the game clicks for them, and then get slaughtered on night 2 and lose motivation. I'd like the default difficulty to be less punishing to those players.

You said you got linked to the game? Out of curiosity, where/how did you find it?

Thanks again for detailed feedback! With your permission, I'd love to add you to the playtester section of the credits. Let me know if that's alright, and what name/username you want to be credited as.

Patashu2 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Cool! Looks like you're already thinking about everything I was. All of this looks sensible (or at least plausible, and playtesting will sus out the best version of the idea).

One of my friends (named Voksa) linked it to me. They found it because it was listed on http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php/Main_Page . (And they were probably looking on roguebasin because they're in the process of prototyping a roguelike themself, about saving colonists from a reality-corrupted station.)

My name is Patashu, and permission granted. Thanks!

EDIT: I did get an idea, which is that if the game is in a 'Relaxed' difficulty setting by default, then it could detect when you're playing well enough to handle a higher difficulty and ask once if you'd like to increase it mid-game. That way the first game can account for people who get it quickly AND people who don't.

MichaelMakesGames2 years ago

Thanks! I update the game's info in RogueBasin whenever I release. I'm glad to hear that's finding it's way to new players! (Also, that sounds like a neat premise for a game)

I think some sort of dynamic difficulty is a good idea, but I don't think I'm going to invest in it now, since the release with the reactive ecosystem will change things so much that all that work would be lost. The reactive ecosystem by it's very nature will dynamically adjust the difficulty. For example, an efficient, rapidly expanding player will probably cause more disturbance to the ecosystem.

Under the hood, there is a bit of dynamic difficulty now. The number of enemies you get each night is partially based on your population. So if you have a few bad nights and lose some colonists, the next night will be easier than it would have been otherwise. I might expand that a bit to take other things into account. Perhaps total "value" of buildings. I think that might be a good metric for how effectively a someone is playing.

True I was already thinking about these things, but hearing other people's ideas and talking through my own helps to clarify, so thanks for sharing!

Patashu2 years ago

Reactive ecosystem, sounds similar to the systems in Factorio or Riftbreaker. Good luck with the rest of the game!

itch.io

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