Hello hythrain, I wanted to check out your Twitch stream, but can only find recordings being around 6 months old. Any hint where I can see you playing the game? https://www.twitch.tv/hythrain
It would be much easier for me to see how you actually play. The points you mention from my perspective I adressed already, so having an inside look at your gameplay would be preferrable.
Some questions upfront:
- The game presentation shocked you? Why? What are you referring to - is it plain shocking ugly, or shockingly good or what?
- You felt like nothing was told at all? What you mean by that? Have you missed some information to make the start easier (tutorial teaches you how to move, what to do first, what to take care of, when to craft, how to fight, what the symbols mean...)?
- Finding items is not completely random, but to a large scale, yes. Over the first 2 days everything balances out - there are so many items to be found, sooner or later you will get everything you need - in more than plentiful numbers, once you get a hang of it.
- The covering card issue should be fixed, as you can see in one of my devlogs https://humane-tiger.itch.io/9-dayz/devlog/585215/feedback-quest-5-spreading-car...
It's not a game you can rush into or through (I added an intro mentioning that, as I am aware that many Jammers feel forced to play a lot of games as quick as possbile in a short time). 9 Dazy doesn't serve that need - and will never do. It feels painful - that's okay tbh. It is designed to feel harsh and unforgiving, again, the intro is mentioning that - and so it mentions the good and bad luck. You will need time to get the hang of it - quite a lot of time, maybe 5 attempts at least - depends. If your time is short, there is no chance to come even close to success. At the end of the world, there is no surviving for rushers ;-)
I see 9 Dayz in one line with harsh and brutal games like The Long Dark, DayZ, Project Zomboid and others. In these games new players die like flies - dozens of times, before they start mastering to survive at least some little time. That's my inspiration - I will polish the pain, I will give players a choice of what items they want to start with, but I won't change it to "quick and easy". Made it easier already - thinking about making it harder again :-D