Sweet game, just a really chill implementation of the genre.
As for feedback, I can't really make good use of the laser. The upgrades only buffing damage is impractical and doesn't help. Lower cooldown or multiple beams would definitely feel better. The stunlock needs to be much shorter or have some other offset so you don't get surrounded or worse, killed when using it.
Good job, looking forwards to see where this goes.
Good work! Here's some quick feedback from my first impression, but do note I didn't get to see nearly all there is:
Sweet little game.
I like this, enough to give it a numbers crunch:
I know doing the numbers balance can be a chore so I hope this helps.
On second glance, the memory leak just seems to be very situational garbage collection. The RAM usage goes up to about 1.5 GB over the course of a dungeon, but apparently gets cleared if RAM runs out. Plus it's definitely cleared at the end of the dungeon. So all good there.
For everything else, I'll try my best to give some productive playtest feedback:
Witch Doctor's mind control ability should definitely be limited in the amount of uses. Everything else feels fine about it. I've noticed that about 3 uses is the break point where you actually run out sometimes, but not all the time. However 4 uses makes it hard to run out and 1 use would make the ability worthless to upgrade. So my recommendation would be to keep 2 uses, and instead of increasing the amount of uses, that upgrade could increase the range (since range is not that strong if you only have 2 uses anyway).
The Priest's extra turn eliminates Recovery, that alone makes it an incredible support ability. You can even chain it on consecutive turns (if you skip your Priest's extra turn), basically eliminating its downsides. The rest of the Priest kit is very meh though. The lightning attack is by far the coolest attack if it hits, but sucks in practice since it's just too easy for the enemy to make it hit yourself.
Mercenary's secondary abilities are meh. The bomb is just a basic attack with limited uses and the net is an average CC option. But its main attack is the gold standard if you ask me. Would be cool to see other characters with a reliable primary.
Barbarian is probably the strongest character in the game. A limited use instant 2-damage attack is better than most primaries. It should probably be more limited in range & uses. The grapple is great, since you can move enemies 2 tiles in an unorthodox way, but not broken. The part that makes it really strong is eliminating recovery. Here's a suggestion for an alternative: whenever the Barbarian kills a unit, it heals 1hp.
As for the base attacks: maybe I'm simply too obsessed with them because I try to take as little damage as possible and they become a lot better if you accept that you'll take damage here and there. I definitely like the underlying tactical idea though and once there's only 2-3 enemies left, they're pretty enjoyable. More enemies means that there's always someone in range to thwart you, with multiple abilities that can mess you up in different ways. Especially the AOE attacks suffer since it's actually really easy for the enemy to make them hit yourself. On most characters it also generally feels like I'm just 1 upgrade down to make good use of them. Either the damage, or the movespeed, or the utility of the attack is lacking, and that's also while not having upgraded any of the secondary abilities.
I'll hopefully get to play the game a bit more some of these days, and maybe get to pay some attention to how strong each character's primary really is when making best use of it.
That's indeed a nifty place for the ultimate description, and I absolutely love how it updates damage. Some more things I've noticed while reading through there though:
And just as an inspiration, you could also track lifetime damage, healing, and ultimates fired, as well as lifetime CC inflicted. Don't overwork yourself though with all those awesome updates you keep coming.
This is a lovely game that managed to enthrall me for multiple hours. It's very fun to experiment with different character combos and upgrades and see what works best for each dungeon.
I've also apparently found some memory leak-ish behaviour, over the time of a dungeon the RAM usage drastically increases (Firefox on Linux). Only at the end of a dungeon it's cleared.
As far as gameplay is concerned, there's really only 2 issues:
1) Mind control is too strong. 3 Witch Doctors with +1 speed and mind control upgrades are basically invulnerable. Meanwhile the most damage I ever took in a turn was when a Mind Flayer mind controlled my Mercenary from a mile away with no counterplay.
2) Most main attacks are too weak. The delay hurts too bad until only 1 or 2 enemies are left. Even the "strongest" ones like an upgraded Wizard's or Priest's are actually just as likely to hurt your own units as the enemy due to all the control available. It's much more efficient to use other moves to make enemies hit one another or drop into traps. So most of them need a little more oomph or utility at a baseline or on an upgrade to grant more incentives to use them.
I like the difficulty scaling. It's fun to get more upgrades in a harder game (and honestly, I'd love to see even longer dungeons).
Some of my favourite characters were the Barbarian with its great crowd control, an attack without delay and the ability to skip Recovery; the Priest with the potentially massive lightning AOE and an amazing support ability; and the Mercenary with the only main attack that doesn't have a delay.
Art & Music get a 10/10
Also I think the lategame could become a lot more fun if it wasn't all about comparing item stats. Would be cool if one could pay to upgrade the shop to have a better chance at getting high rarity items, and also if higher rarity items were guaranteed to have a significantly better stat total.
This game has a lot of potential given it's already this good with this little content.
My biggest issue is that accidentally placing villagers in an empty spot opens the building menu, which completely disrupts the gameflow and is pretty much the main reason for loosing.
Edit: also there's a this annoying feature where target selection happens before attacking, so you gang up on 2 enemies with 8 archers and 5 of them don't attack.
I like this, it's very entertaining and combines multiple unique challenges.
I've noticed that you're missing a menu button and a pause shortcut, and a small upgrade for the UI to display and explain more information would be nice.
The gameplay loop is really solid though and really the only missing feature I can think about is setting a custom item priority for individual units (so your tanks won't drop their shields for coins).
I skipped over this gem far too long thinking it was just another inventory management game. But this game is amazing!
The one thing I'd like improved is negative connectivity. My most promising runs all ended because I disabled my carry item either directly or by breaking mana connectivity. Those were some real tilters.
Tihihi. You can try doing it in less than 29 attempts. You can see the comp here.
And, because I feel really motivated at the moment here's Balance Commentary part 3. Please excuse any negativity, since I'm mostly mentioning the weaker units. The game won't be any less awesome because of them. So I hope everyone gets to enjoy post 3, featuring:
Assassin - This unit is almost too good. It completely circumvents the frontline AND hits 2 units. The only downside is when it dies, and the enemy backline doesn't. And maybe its low base HP.
Verdict: one of the top units in the game. IF you want to nerf it, maybe give it the Knife Thrower's ability instead.
Poisoner - Another top unit in my opinion. It cleans up the backline squishies safely from the 2nd row. It also doesn't need attack buffs.
Verdict: another top unit. IF you want to nerf it, either reduce its range (that's less of a nerf than it sounds like, I play it in the 1st row a lot) or make it simply hit everyone for 2, without attacking normally.
Monster - Some people say that it's S-tier, I personally think that it's mostly fine. The attack is halved and the targets are random. Other units are somewhat more reliable.
Verdict: I think it's okay, but as a nerf reducing the amount of attacks to 4 is an easy option without a massive impact.
Shadow - An incredibly strong unit. Most of the time, it will oneshot the 3 units in the back. Makes for an amazing carry, more so because the Assassin is similarly amazing.
Verdict: nerfing this directly is really hard. A rework would be a better idea. I'd simply rework the Assassin to be weaker, leaving the Shadow nerfed as a result.
Knife Thrower - On paper, this unit isn't even that bad. You likely kill a Tier3 tank unit and the Knife Thrower needs no investments. In practice, the Assassin is just so much better. Why would you leave the Assassins unbuffed? Either you buff the Assassins and then downgrade them, or you're gathering terribly weak Tier2 units and die before you get the Knife Thrower.
Short Verdict: bad unit, needs rework
Long Verdict: one buff would be to remove the damage to itself, and reduce the bonus damage to say 50 or 100. I'd also swap it with the Monster, since the Monster is a unit that wants buff, just like the Assassin. Meanwhile the Knife Thrower is a unit that DOESN'T want buffs, just like the Poisoner.
There's also another option: this unit is meant to be a counter against strong frontliners. It's whack to gather a counter that's a Tier3 unit, and would have a better find in a Tier2 unit. So one option would be to switch it with the Assassin, or even give it its own unit branch. As a Tier1 unit, it might deal 10 damage to the target and itself. As a Tier2 unit, it might deal an additional 50 damage to the target and itself. Maybe there's a Tier2 variant that deals an extra 20 to the target, but not itself. There's a lot of things that can happen here.
Verdict: there's a niche for this, the buff value should probably be the same as the Armory's though.
Weapon Limbs - This unit doesn't suffer the drawbacks of Living Weapon, because it triggers when shopping. That means that you can reposition your units to specifically get the buff on the target you want.
Verdict: don't think this is like the Living Weapon. This one needs to gain less stats the the Furnace. I repeat: do not buff.
Berserker - You get +8 stats once. That should tell you how bad this unit is.
Verdict: must be buffed. For example, it could temporarily gain +8 attack each time it attacks. Or it could gain +3 attack each round.
Shield Knight - To be better than the Berserker, this unit must be hit 9 times. It's just as bad.
Verdict: must be buffed. For example, it could be immune during the first round of combat, or it could prevent attacks against the backline, taking the damage in their stead.
A Shield? - This unit is hard to rate. It counters certain units in the game, but overall I don't think it's too good. One of the issues is that it's both a front and backline unit (you want it in the backline, to grant its buff as long as possible, but you probably buffed the Shield Knights with lots of HP). This would be a great unit if you know what you'll be fighting against, but so far I consider it bad.
Verdict: must be buffed. I like the "invulnerable during the 1st round" idea here as well. Maybe it could extend it to the entire army. Similar with the taking damage in their stead thing. I think the issue is that most backline targeting units (other than the Fire Mage) just oneshot their targets, and 5 less damage won't help.
Tower Knight - This is the HP equivalent to attacking 2 enemies. So technically speaking that would mean it follows more of a Tier2 curve. It is a fairly strong unit anyway, however I would never get it as its ancestor is just too bad. Offense still reigns supreme.
Verdict: what this unit needs is a buff to the Shield Knight. This also makes me think that maybe the Shield Knight could take half damage and the Tower Knight only 1/3rd? Or possibly both take half damage, but the Shield Knight only from the frontline.
Barbarian - This one is a really cool unit. It is the only unit in the game that deals double damage against the frontline (also a thing that the Berserker could get). It also gets extra attacks against backline attackers.
Verdict: cool unit and in a great place
Ogre - The strongest lategame unit in the game. It obliterates almost every teamcomp with a single attack if it's buffed sufficiently. The only way to win against an Ogre is to have a unit yourself that can solo the Ogre's army. Speaking thusly, it might actually make sense that the Berserker is this weak, simply to balance out the Ogre.
Verdict: this unit is very hard to balance. Honestly speaking, nerfing it will probably leave it weaker than the other multiattack units (unless you do something like reduce the damage to 40% of its attack). Maybe also give it a drawback like taking double damage. Alternatively, it could deal double damage and any excess damage carries over to the next unit.
Final option would be to nerf all multiattack units. In that case, maybe the Ogre would hit the first 3 units. A nerf isn't mandatory either; so far it still requires a lot of investment to get the Ogre rolling and at that point every other teamcomp I got also steamrolled almost everything. Might be best to just see how good it is in the future.
Balance Commentary Post 2 incoming. Please excuse any negativity, since I'm mostly mentioning the weaker units. The game won't be any less awesome because of them. So I hope everyone gets to enjoy post 2, featuring:
Bards - I like every single Bard unit, they all have a decent spot for themselves. I could see using each of them in some set of circumstances.
Verdict: fun & balanced
Super Cleric/Healer - I think they're generally weaker than the Scholar branch. Obviously the HP are better on the frontliner, but it is possible to focus the Scholar a bit more by leaving it in the barracks. I think the Healer's thing is more that you can leave it in the Army, where it won't be doing much because it lacks range.
Verdict: overall a good unit, would benefit from having 2 range like the Scholars.
Necromancer - I've said many times before, that buffs are better on the units that need them. The Necromancer doesn't need them. Worse yet, it grants itself a measly 5 HP per attack. Chances are it gets hit before even getting 30HP for itself. At that point, the Super Cleric would've done more. The range doesn't help much either, since the Healer never had any to begin with.
Verdict: this unit needs a rework, or a massive buff. @TheRealAskz proposed reviving units on 1 HP once, which I like. Or maybe increase the buff value to +10+10 (that's in line with the Tambourinist btw.).
Long Thrower - Another unit that suffers the 5-range issue. At the point where you get it, you're already overkilling the enemy frontline, and you're also opening up the 2-range slot in your army. The Sprinkler is just always the better option.
Verdict: it still provides an alternative niche, but it should probably get a damage boost or more reliable piercing effect. E.g. make it attack the 2nd unit if the 1st unit is already dead.
Spiked Shield - So instead of dealing its attack to the squishier and more dangerous 2nd and 3rd units, it deals up to 25 bonus damage to the front unit. That's just terrible. E.g. the Barbarian attacks the attacking unit back. The Spiked Shield is much, much worse than that. I guess its purpose is to melt the frontline, but it is terrible at it. Hitting the backline is just always better, unless it's a 1-unit team. But it's even worse against those.
Verdict: this requires heavy buffing. At the very least it should retaliate equal it its attack or half its HP. You could also increase the amount to 20. Or, if you want it to be really unique: return half the damage to the sender (shouldn't reduce the damage it takes though, otherwise it's just a better Tower Knight)
Fire Mage - This might be the first unit I mention because it is really good. It's just amazing at clearing out the squishy backline. With optimal targeting it can sometimes kill 3 units at the start of combat.
Verdict: I would still leave it as is though, since it's a great enabler of low-buff teams.
Entropy Mage - In general terms, this unit is weaker than the Fire Mage, but I think it has a wonderful niche for itself in which it excels. The unfortunate part is that it looses its damage as it gets hit, so it can be unreliable at times.
Verdict: it's in a decent spot. It doesn't need buffs if AOE units overall get nerfed. Otherwise, there's 2 options: either before combat its attack becomes half its HP, or the weaker buff would be that it uses its attack once its HP are too low.
Chaos - I think this is a great unit. Amazing for a team without damage buffs. It deals an average of 50 damage per round, usually targeting better enemies than the frontline. The big part is that because of the nature of its predecessor, it likely has a lot of HP.
Verdict: balanced
Entropy Wizard - This unit suffers from similar issues as the Entropy Mage. It needs a lot of HP to be better than Chaos.
Verdict: should probably not loose damage when it gets hit.
One Man Army - the maximum amount of buffage this guy gets is +8 stats if every other slot is empty. That's pretty weak, especially since it's more likely +6 as other slots are occupied by the units you're gathering to upgrade it. On the other hand, it's extremely cost-effective, and allows you to concentrate fully on upgrading it.
Verdict: I guess it can't be made too strong. Though it could do with a buff like "randomly +1+0 or +0+2"
Round Warrior - What prevents me from simply putting a Healer into my first army slot instead? That's the same amount of HP per turn. Also this unit itself is a bad recipient for its own buff. Units like the Hoplite or Assassin just make twice as much out of it.
Verdict: the amount of stats this gets is really underwhelming. Should be minimum +0+6.
Three Swords Style - This suffers all the same downsides as the One Man Army. The max stats i grants are +24. The one thing keeping it afloat are the One Man Army's stats. I guess at least you can just slam items onto it like crazy?
Six Armed Demon - The amount of buffs is dissatisfying. Just like the Three Swords Style, it mostly gets carried by its Tier2 unit. It then makes for a decent frontline unit while you start collecting a backline.
Double Verdict: these 2 units are mostly being hampered by the concept. They can't be too strong, otherwise you'd have a braindead strategy. I think it's fun to have a meme strat or two though, so they're fine as they come. Alternatively, one of them could diverge from the theme and gain a completely different ability, that gives it a power multiplier - like double attack or damage reduction.
Beetle Guard - you upgrade a unit that gets the same HP as the Healer grants, but only on itself to a unit that gets LESS HP than the Super Healer grants, but only on itself.
Verdict: both Beetle Guard and Round Warrior need to gain WAY more stats. I'd give this one at least double of what it receives at the moment.
Mush Knight - This is the sole reason I'd build round warriors for. If you're lucky, you can end up with a bunch of 1-attack enemies. Unfortunately it gets slaughtered by high attack units.
Verdict: The attack reduction needs to be a % value rather than a flat value. The greatest danger to this unit are high attack units after all. Alternatively, it could be reworked to reduce the enemy maximum damage. E.g. after their first attack, the enemy's attack is reduced to 50 if it is higher. Then to 45, then to 40, etc.
Overprepped logic also applies to Big Backpack. (both just half as strong as their counterpart).
Akimbo is still B-tier, it effectively gets the HP of the units in front of it. Works great together with Mages and a pure tank frontline.
Piercer is probably A-tier. It and the Hoplite are a lot more reliable than the Sprinkler and Javeliner, so I've had a better time making them my carry. Plus triple attack usually only needs 2 attacks to win anyway, after the first of which all dangers would be dead. (Or if they're still alive, you'd be worse off with the Sprinkler)
Knife Thrower is only 9 Rogues and costs 27 Gold (like any other Tier3). It's still the worst unit in the game. It would be a decent unit if it didn't die instantly. If you're worried about it being overpowered, make the bonus damage 100.
Living Weapon/Weapon Limbs are both weaker than their respective counterpart. Maybe B-tier, with some niche options. Attack buffs have diminishing returns: at that point in the game you probably want to spread them more evenly, rather than hyperbuffing the one frontliner that can already oneshot most things.
A lot of these units are ranked pretty nicely though.
I've posted on Tier-2 unit balance before, and wanted to expand this to all units that I feel need some change after I have completed the unitpedia (again). Please excuse any negativity, since I'm mostly mentioning the weaker units (some stronger ones might come later). The game won't be any less awesome because of them. So I hope everyone gets to enjoy post 1, featuring:
The Hiker - I've considered this unit weak before, but ever since changed my opinion. It only gets +4 permanent stats per round, but the temporary +2+2 item and the great scaling of its Tier1 ancestor make this a great early game unit that doesn't require any buffing.
Verdict: balanced
The Hoarder - In theory this can grant a ton of stats, in practice you can't afford that many items. It scales better in the lategame with upgraded shopkeepers, but is trash up until you've almost won anyway. On top of that, having 2 doesn't scale any better than having only 1.
Verdict: easily fixable by duplicating any item you place on any unit on itself. That way having 2 of them is better than having 1, and you can target the items on the units that need them.
Big Backpack - By my calculations, this one should get +8 permanent stats per round on itself. Horrible compared to other Tier3 buff units that grant up to +18 stats on better targets, and also weaker than his brother.
Verdict: needs a rework, always just a strictly better or worse alternative than the TImetraveller
Overprepped - This unit is actually a downgrade of the Hiker. The duplicate item is better on other units, that use the stats better through multi-attack or similar scalings.
Verdict: should receive the item 4 times
Shop Keep - This unit is bad. You'd have to buy 3 items every single round, to justify not having any other buffing unit instead. Again, having two of these doesn't scale either.
Verdict: needs buff, maybe reduce the price of the first two items bought by 2. That way you'd have more of an incentive to buy items, and with two of these you'd either get 4 items off, or the 2 items are free.
Bargain Seeker - This unit has its priorities completely backwards. First a discount on items (when you need units) and later a discount on units (when you want items). Plus you need to buy 3 units every round to beat the Banker, a Tier2 unit.
Verdict: at the very least, this should discount BOTH shops. Or grant a bigger discount for the first few units bought. Potentially grant you a number of free rerolls every round.
Dragon - Gains +1 stats per gold spent. That's 10 stats per round. On itself, the worst possible target. This shares the spot for the worst Tier3 buffing unit in the game with the Big Backpack & the Overgeared.
Verdict: make it more unique. This could hoard (save) gold between turns. Gain massive attack buffs from unspent gold. Give it 5 range (makes sense for a mighty Dragon, no?) Or simply just increase the buff to 2x or 3x per gold spent. Go all-out, this can have 3x the stats of a Shadow or Piercer without being (more) broken.
Longbowman - Generally range is amazing, but 5 range just isn't better than 3 range. In the first place, before getting a 5 range unit I'd get a 2 and 3 range unit. At that point, you're already pretty saturated with damage and the Longbowman is likely just overkilling the enemy frontline. It also isn't safer than a 3 range unit, because of Assassins and some of its range is taken away by the downside.
Verdict: at least remove the downside. It still wouldn't be my preferred choice, but it could be useful if its upgrades are good. Alternatively give it some bonus damage so it doesn't require buffing to do anything.1
Long Crossbowman - This one suffers from the same range issue as the longbowman. Usually Akimbo just beats it. Also after upgrading it, the 3-range slot is now open, giving the range almost not benefit at all.
Verdict: it's still a decent niche option, but it might be better to rework. Maybe make it a piercing attack that hits the first 3 units for 10 damage or something similar.
Longer Bowman - Still the range issue. It's a decent niche upgrade though, since it hits the backline - something not many units do. The double damage is a nice extra, but not particularly good. At the point where you get this, you should have some massive damage buffs already (or you're overextending items by buffing multiple units that all need attack)
Verdict: usually a waste of gold, but maybe it could find a place in some teams that don't utilize buffing units. Potentially change the double damage to a flat damage bonus.
Sniper - Again, the range issue. This unit's niche however is definitely no-buff comps. In general that seems to be where the Longbowmen are heading. Unfortunately, I do not think that it is that viable compared to Poisoners or Volcano Mages, simply due to the base unit having almost no attack.
Verdict: Longbowmen need a flat attack bonus to make this viable.
Any units from the Adventurer, Money Bags & Archer lines that I haven't mentioned are likely in a good place (at least based on my thoughts), or will be if their predecessors get a buff.
Mind talking some about the balance? I also completed the unitpedia and I agree on some of them, and wanna get more opinions on the other ones.
I found that the Adventurer/Hiker as well as Warrior would mostly make a good early unit, because they scaled fast, but wouldn't be any good once you got all the Tier2 units necessary for your comp, in fact they'd just seem to slow me down at that point. I would imagine them to be a lot better if you reroll a lot to Tier3 them maybe?
I typically don't need to reroll too much for Tier3 and like to use Lancer/Assassin for the frontline, to get the double attack going with a Smith/Cleric/Bard for defense.
That way the Blacksmith is actually pretty decent, tho I prefer to use the Weapon Smith over it to concentrate its buffs into only 3 scaling units.
