Showing Gameplay Mechanics
One of the pices of feedback I recived the most of is that the game looks to similar to Factorio and dosent do a good job showcasing its unique mechanics.
The mechanic
The core mechanic of the game that is supposed to make it stand out is the power networks. Most building can be connected via adjacency and each network has a wave type, wave frequency, production, consumption, and machine efficiency. Most building require certain waves types and frequencies in order to operate. Additionaly, certain buildings can negativly or positivly affect the state of its connected networks wich you as the player need to fix and handle.
Potental Fixes
We have several things we have been brainstorming to fix these problems here is a list of a few contenders (some or all of these may be implmented)
Network Monitor : a building each network can have that is effectivly just a display for the networks stats
Pros: It would allow the player to quickly see the state of the network without haveing to click into a building
Cons: multiple would be needed to have the state of the network visible on large networks
Overlay Mode : a mode that allows you to see colored boxes above all of the power network buildings with an outline to seperate the networks. The colors in the box would change based on the wave type and the saturation based on frequency.
Pros: quick universal way to monitor networks
Cons: clutters the screen a lot. Can become unclear what the wave type is as the game expands
Glowing wires : the wires under the buildings that show connectivity will glow diffrent colors based on the network and wave data
Pros: similar to the overlay its quick and easy to tell whats what.
Cos: again similar to the overlay it could be vauge or hard to tell what wave is in each network
Changes to Tile and Resources
Tiles
After posting the page and asking for feedback on various reddit post many people were telling us the tile shown in the trailer blended in with the play to a detremental point. I had already seen this as a problem when working on the game with the resources blending into the rock tiles.
Old
New
To adress this problem I have darkened the colors of the rock and cliff tiles to make both the player and resources stand out a bit more. These changes I think help quite a bit with the overall visuals of the game. I may darken the tile colors more in the future since the current change is somewhat subtle, but im going to wait on some more feedback before doing that.
Resources
Similarly to the tiles the resources are going to get some small tweaks as well to make them fit a bit more visually. In there current state the two resources (moss and scrap) tend to blend into ground or have very obvious seams where the diffrent cells meet.
Current State
Additonal Info
More Improvments
This is a list of some extra changes that we will be working on to improve the game that didnt really fit into the above points.
Custom Font : to replace the default unity font
Custom cursor : to replace the default os cursor
Finishing QOL ui : there are ui elements that are very basic or not made for quality of life feature we will be working to complete.
Playtesting
We are planing to release a demo for Regenisis with next fest, and need your help making sure the game is in its best state for next fest. After some of the changes mentioned above are completed we will be hosting a public playtest on our discord. We would love to see more feedback durring this period. A build for the game will most likely be avalible either on the 31st or the 1st depending on how long the changes above take.