We've gotten a lot of feedback from the forums and from the game feedback form as well. In general people seem to like the game a lot and the game is perceived as "fun" by most of the people: The fun factor from 1-5 is around 4.5 on average! Thank you!
We're happy that people like the game, but as developers we're mostly interested about the problems players report. Here's a list of top issues reported by the players so far. These are grouped into larger themes so that we can observe the bigger picture.
Note that, we're also reacting to dozens of smaller items and individual issues. These themes are mentioned here because they have repeated the most in the feedback.
Walking Times and Run Button
A lot of players wanted a run button or shorter walk times. We worked on this issue around the design table and came up with a "necrohover"-system. The system will allow faster movement outside combat. Basically the necromancer starts levitating after traveling uninterrupted for some time. Doing other stuff than traveling or being attacked will interrupt the levitation. We're yet to test this, but on paper it looks promising.
Shop Selection Lacking
Some players found the shop items lacking or undesirable. The shop systems need some improvement. The current system is very simple and usually doesn't produce desirable items. We are working on improving the shops so that you can "bribe" the merchants to shuffle AND improve the item quality. We'll also increase base item quality. This allows players more control over the shop contents and more desirable items.
Inventory Too Small & No Stash in Crypt
Some players feel that inventory is too small. We'll be adding at least one row more of inventory which should help with the issue. Some players would want a stash of some kind. We're not certain about the stash details yet, but we're thinking about it.
Lack of Horde Control or Minions Stuck
This aspect garnered a bunch of comments. Some wanted to pinpoint targets for the horde or control them more individually. Others commented that minions get stuck in places.
We'll try to address the minions getting stuck issue as well as we can. There's still room for improvement on that front.
In general we want to keep the horde controls simple and straightforward so that the game doesn't become an RTS and stays playable on gamepads as well. This means we won't be doing massive changes on horde control as it would result in some very different game. That said, we'll keep working on the unit AI to make it as fun as possible. Please report to us any cases where the horde does something which frustrates you - we might be able to tweak it so that it doesn't do that.
Too Few Weapons or Spells
Some players felt there should be more weapons and spells. We'll be adding more spells and affixes as we go so this area will improve as we develop. We'll also improve the damage of slower weapons to differentiate them and tweak the affix systems so that players would get more interesting weapons.
Too Few Minions
Some players wanted more minions - a bigger army simply. We're doing our best, but to keep the game working on low-end or mid-tier setups, we have some limitations. We're probably unable to increase counts since low-end machines need to switch off details already. Vastly different counts lead to different games, so we need to have some kind of compromise.
Hero Visuals Customization
This would be awesome to have, but it's a massive feature needing a lot of art and programming. It would probably take most of our time for 1-2 months. We'll try to focus on things we can change the most instead.
Controls
There were some mentions of controls in general and some went to detail about the melee targeting. We found something to be improved in melee targeting at least.
The sector symbol in the game is a bit misleading, since you usually hit one target which is closest to the middle of the sector. We'll be removing the sector indicator and replacing it with some other directional indicator which is clearer. This also helps with the reported minor issue of somewhat unclear necromancer orientation.
Game Not Ready
Rest assured - we're working hard to make it ready :)
Thanks for reading this far! Here's a sneak peek into the change list of the next update which could be out tomorrow:
- Added tutorial for mines
- Added 4 more inventory slots
- Fixed command ring drawing bug with different unit slot size scalings
- Added quest level to worldmap active quest info
- Three new abilities: Despair, Bone Nova and Bone Star
- Added some under construction markers in Catacomb I
- Catacomb I crystal chest now more visible
- Ring of flames can appear in shops again
- Slight improvement in shop shuffling
- Pricier higher level flaming rings
- Fixed some useable indicator unset colours
- Nudged Commander down a little in Crypt, so info "i" doesn't go inside pillar
- Added missing floor tiles to Crypt
- Added missing floor tile to first catacomb level
- Fixed bug with Conquer Desert achievement
- Remaining secrets now shown on worldmap per tile