To summarize the following post, (TL;DR)
The playtest is doing much better than I originally could have expected!
The games combat and mechanics are currently rather confusing, I apologize deeply for this and take it very seriously.
I intend to work on the Journal System that I originally planned on, I intend for this to help players understand the finer details of combat, crafting, while also enhancing player convenience, In game UI, and story through the investigators eyes.
I Intend to add features such as more identifiable Icons, Damage numbers being displayed across the top of the screen, and better status condition positioning while in combat.
Thank you to all of the current and future Prophet's venturing into The Abyss, Your support and engagement means the world to me.
For those that want more details,
The current playtest is going pretty well all considered! 9 players have launched the game with 144 requested participants and as of now a median playtime of 45 minutes!
I have gotten a lot of good feedback and I am currently working on adding multiple journals for player agency and learning in game.
This will hopefully help everyone with the games naturally difficult disposition, especially early on. The game is a learning process and requires deep knowledge of it's combat to succeed. Something I feel I haven't provided well enough in this playtest.
I apologize for not providing these clarities and I take this kind of failure on my part very seriously.
Going forward I intend to be more consistent with providing information regarding enemies, combat, crafting, scavenging, prophet's, and be more adamant about the necessity of preparation to provide a more complete experience for the player.
To do this I will be focusing on the Investigator's Journal system. The Journal System didn't make much of an appearance for this playtest, but has been planned since the inception of the game as a whole. I originally intended for the journals to be a detailed and thought out way for the player to read into the story.
However, I believe that I can use this system as a way to provide gameplay clarity as well as story clarity.
I am holistically against nerfing enemies and creating an easier game by way of forced easier interactions. I instead will use the journal system to bring the community and players that support this game to an elevated state of understanding, allowing the Prophet's to face the Horrors of The Abyss with a renewed sense of confidence.
Currently, I have created detailed pages of all (current) crafting in the game, showing not only stats craft able items will provide, but also the components required to craft them, as a section of the Journal that you can check from anywhere in your inventory.
I also made a lot of Custom icons for status effects and will be creating a journal page detailing them within the investigators journal as well.
In the future I will be creating a basic combat guide, (given by Calera) that will detail what each stat a character can have encompasses. Calera's tips and tricks for managing limb based combat efficiently, and will also be where the earlier mentioned status effects page is. I intend to make a bestiary within the journal that will show the investigators notes after facing an enemy type. Breaking down their limbs, bodies and variants, as well as giving some insight to the creatures for lore lovers. There are other pages I intend to add as well that currently slip my mind. But will be very apparent in the next playtest.
Finally, (sorry for the long post) I intend to add in combat clarity to damage numbers and status condition positions to help combat feel more intuitive.
Thanks to everyone who has played or plans to play in the future, Good luck in The Abyss, Prophets.