So, with the increased gold values make it feasible to buy items now, though the game is still a major slog. The enemies have a clear strength progression, but the lack of any stat progression on the player's part means that fighting the more powerful monsters remains tedious the entire game. Adding a proper combat system would help, but it needs a progression system if you're going to include stronger enemies.
Is there any reason to not make healing at camp free? That would go a long way to improving the basic game loop.
Also, does the Searching progress bar serve any purpose? It looks like you're loading the combat, but I have trouble believing it would consistently take so long. Otherwise I have to assume it's a simple time tax, but the purpose of a time tax is to shape player behavior. Searching seems to be the player's primary verb, so why would you want to discourage it?
Bug report: If you don't give the flowers to a slime when talking to them, the game locks up.
We've had very mixed reports on how slow the game feels; some people hated the increased gold intake, feeling like it made the game too easy. You do gain an extra ability right now, and take into account the game is still in development! It doesn't have every feature we'd like (we've talked about our intentions to increase battle complexity before). I'm not sure if you saw, or if you're referring to other stats, but the player's stats do increase! Two of the monsters in the current game greatly increase the player's attack stat, which we included specifically to make stronger enemies feasible. That doesn't mean we don't want a difficulty increase; if we wanted everything to be handed to the player, we'd just release an art book!
The 'searching' progress bar was our decision over random battles. In many games like this, you either
a) walk through squares of a grid, and each one has a chance of spawning a monster or
b) (more commonly on indie-made games similar to ours) you slide your cursor over grass frantically until something spawns.
Since you don't move your character in traditional RPG style, the first option was out, and since the result is the same (a randomized pause between battles) this lessens the wear and tear on your wrist.
**Kiwi and Melon recommend stretching out your gaming wrist and hand daily-- keep healthy, everyone!**
Thanks for the bug report! Not one we've encountered yet, we'll try to have it patched soon or fixed for the next release.
Finally, for not making healing at the camp free; again, reviews are mixed on this. We've actually been asked to include
more grind-- before we even increase gold intake!! While obviously that's not something we're planning to do, we do need to take into account that not everyone minds or dislikes the slower game loop. If you haven't unlocked it yet, there is also another method for healing that will help decrease the amount of trips you're making to camp!
Thank you for your feedback (we do take it all into consideration before each release)
~Kiwi
