Vilmonic

Vilmonic

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Miriak 2 Jul, 2017 @ 3:10pm
Playtesting and suggesting log
A log of thoughts on the game.
Last edited by Miriak; 19 Jul, 2017 @ 5:10pm
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Showing 1-15 of 69 comments
Miriak 2 Jul, 2017 @ 9:45pm 
I tend to make more topics then I should. I will use this thread instead. I said that I don't have enough time to put out all my findings, but I don't wanna loose a connection with the developer and leave him without such important feeadback for long. So I am gonna make my playtesting notes in daily series and put out just a few of them each time. It'll stay like that untill I run out of ideas. Then I'll turn it into weekly series or something since this game NEEDS to go forward, it's too good to stop or slow down! But one person is not enough for a great enough speed, that's why coworking exists.
Everybody can post his thoughts on the game there too. I'd love to test someones theories or think in their direction to develop it. Unless it's VERY hard to get, I'll see if only there is time for me to do it. I AM NOT the developer and I don't know how code and coding look like, so that's why I am doing a work of a playtester and judging as a game concepter.
By the way, I have seen some crazy people that try to squeeze out of some game all they can and test out little details, know everything about it and so on (I watch Bijuu Mike and he rips apart Hello Heighbor and Yandere Simulator, or Dangerously Funny did that to Stardew Valley), and they are doing a great job with that kind of testing. They show out the possibilities and their thought on what's going on. I don't have a software to make letsplays and that's harder to fastly describe something and then discuss it. It's harder also to watch letsplays if the player doesn't have any thoughts on the game's features, shows usual behaviour, doesn't do anything original or even behave theirself very dumb just because they don't open tabs or click another mouse button. I have seen even a stream that's just waiting game some hours long. It's still good to make letsplays and commentaries though. If you wanna do it - do it.

#1
1. Poals. It's possible to make a poal (http://poal.me/) and see what people think about some features and stuff. I suggested a lot of things, and some things are already being planned, and some are already in the game. It's very bias and can go against developer's wishes, but it can show some flows about the game's content that audience itself notices. I won't make a poal myself because I don't know what developer himself would prefer to ask people about.
2. Generations. I have not seen any information on that anywhere besides creatures themselves. It's good to have a line about what generation is the last and how many creatures were alive at all. This is pretty useless to have a real family tree of individuals since if they just reproduce one species it's getting boring and unnecessary.
3. A question. How does work an attraction of zombies by blocks? It's easy to see how they don't wanna go somewhere, but they go really fast to the rocky buildings like they do know where ones are. Or maybe they just tend to wander more if they are not their favorite blocks?
4. Deleting all the photos. Until separation of photos is implemented, there should be a button of deleting all the photos in notepad. It's easier like that to save the favorites on computer and delete the content from the tab.
5. Some jokes from letsplays.
"I have some dirt, so let's just make some dirty things"
"*pushes a barrel around* Let's cause some diversity. And we get Spiderman"
"With great size comes great responsibility. *names his save Spiderman World*"

My list just keeps growing. I playtested more so I wanna crown it with some logs.

#2
1. Names of everything. I found out that it's not very defined what to call what. Especially three main species. I gathered some names for them, so I'll cover em up.
1) animatroids, anims, creatures, critters, techno-bugs
2) zombotrons, zombietrons, zombies, zombs, zombitions (my mispronouncing?), zombitons, zombie-folks, enemies, bad guys
3) fungols, fungolites, fungolite species, fungus, fungo, fungi, mushrooms, shrooms
2. Lifeforms live from 1 to 5 minutes. For fungols that live fast there is no last stage, but for the others there is "middle life crisis" where they already have children and are not very productive in everything. And I guess just them produce fungol sound noise.
3. Corpses have about three different colours. Maybe it's related to the creature colour. Also... they don't affect fungols nutrition. I killed a bunch of anims over one tile and it’s nutrition got even worse. But anims sure do enjoy some corpses of their preys. For some reasons though corpses look like people.
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=962707490
4. What does “Vilmonic” mean? What is Vilmony?
5. There are two different binoculars – act ones and item ones. And a microscope. And this happened. Tools for days.
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=962764169
6. There is kind of a lag when you are up to 150 generations. It is gone when you reload the game I guess. I was afraid that I would loose my precious map with so much stuff in it, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the case.
7. There are two additional states for the main character besides normal, zombie and high.
1) Spores. Yellow sprite. Happens pretty rarely. Don’t sure about it. *cough cough*
2) Bites. Grey sprite. I do like this a lot. What it is lacking – a real health damage. And some nutrition for anims. Nom :)
Last edited by Miriak; 19 Jul, 2017 @ 5:09pm
Miriak 2 Jul, 2017 @ 11:15pm 
Too much ideas to hold in. I am not in much of a state to think a lot bout them. I will place some notes for the future and community. Since I am getting really deep I sometimes talk just obvious things or things that are maybe too ordinary to ask a game for. I am still brainstorming, so I don’t know priorities much.

#3
1. There should be a way to spawn dirt without rocks. And rocks without dirt. It is annoying to create just a mountain or to chop down a lot of rocks on your way.
2. There was a letsplayer that tried to use their anims as chain dogs to zombs. "Oh, you just want a mushroom," - they said. It's kind of sad and interesting. I tend to use my anims as a natural protection, but they don't use their aggresion as something... very calling. Maybe something like an aggro-whistle will be interesting. "Fetch!"
3. In a lot of games there is a lot that's hidden inside enemy's bodies... I don't know how wolves hold on money, but zombs totally can bring something in as they bring walls and floors that nobody asked for. It could've been found while picking up their corpse (totally want that! it's very twisted in a way... but we're eating meat, right?) or they can just drop it. Maybe even picking something up and then dropping it if they don't like it very much. What is mostly intriguing - they could've bring in unique items that you can't find anywhere else.
4. It doesn't seem like asexual reproduction is for insects or most animals. Nobody ever thought about it and even I was surprised when I have seen a line about sexual reproduction in dev's log. I thought that maybe bees are sometimes asexual, but no, it's incorrect. This type of reproducing can be acquited by anims' partially electronic nature. And, I don't see any real necessity for sexual diversity. It would've been interesting, also VERY complicated. There should be sexes, sexual differency for every stat-cheme, pregnancy, eggs or wombs, sexual behaviour, pregnancy behavior, and we don't want that so early.
5. "Tasks" in the Notepad should be called "Tutorial Tasks" even if it's bigger.
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=962845804
See? It doesn’t change anything drastically, yet it is more true and less confusing.
6. Little hammer in the case of a chair works like a wrench from some Minecraft modes. This is a really good opportunity to change a lot of things in minor ways, like cycle through walls sprites without crashing them. It can be a wrench’s feature, or maybe it can be a special thing for this hammer, and the next hammer has knockback but no damage and the after next one can kill and also destroy walls in one hit. But it’s strange to not damage a zombie with medium hammer. Dwarves will be so sad.
7. Wheelbarrow. Some gamedevteam said that they want to make moving 3D stuff an immersive experience and described that they want to implement a wheelbarrow to move stuff. I think it’s a great feature even for inventory-based games because of moving containers around fastly. I think this kind of stretcher should be designed to move boxes around that are already stuffed with stuff. Hop it on a wagon with wheels and push it around in a speed of pave roads. Hit it to realease.
8. Tutorial should be in tabs. People tend to scroll down and don’t read anything. List of tabs will save a bit of their attention.
9. Slide bars instead of numbers in settings. That’s not funny to manually write down some sizes.
10. I can pour Revolt on my anims, but it doesn’t seem to add Spiderman to them. What am I doing wrong?
I mean radiation of course.
11. For some reason axe act like a sword. Is it because of Shining?
12. If there would be a colour analyzation of mushrooms, their colour should be listed and coloured as a word.
13. If you kill a zombie, two new go in. This event has a cooldown of some sort.
14. Zombies are making a drinking noise while being in the water. I don’t have a clue what are they doing. Trying to drink all of the water so it doesn’t exist anymore? This doesn’t work like that.
15. Tutorial tasks are good in a way. I do enjoy this style. It’s bad that it creeped away some “evolution lovers” that didn’t expect crafting and building as a part of the process. And I am having trouble with people that speak nice to me. Tutorial did what it could and covered both of the versions – normal and lite ones. It showed how to work with mechanics of the windows and keys at least.
16. Settable keys.
17. Some person called genes as “body materials”. This person didn’t know what the abbreviations meant. It’s kinda interesting in a way not only know the genes but materials too. There is one huge problem – it will add a whole another pit of combinatory possibilities… For example, there are 8 genes for now. They count as 8!, that is 40320. I am scared, I don’t wanna talk anymore. JK.
18. I thought that it is weird for a barrel to be filled up forever. So I imagined that it should be emptied after some dragging. In that moment it would jump and shake off. For that moment we could have a spare barrel for some crazy crafting!
19. I am frustrated by the fungus on my floors. I know that it’s only natural for them to grow wherever they want, and they do not last so much, but it’s still kind of ugly. If to plan adding something to the tiles – that would just not look right! I guess the only solution is just wall up your space that you wanna keep clean. That’s why I am doing my yard (wanna call it garden, but fortunately it is not) separately of the zoo.
20. When you create a world, you have a settable number. That would be a neat little feature to see exactly what number of tiles are you dealing with, not just NxN.

Oh, I realised I have a birthday today. Okay.
Last edited by Miriak; 2 Jul, 2017 @ 11:25pm
Bludgeonsoft  [developer] 3 Jul, 2017 @ 5:20pm 
I like the wrench idea, thinking of implementing that!
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:15am 
Some comments and suggestions (1 part of 2)
Hello developer! I was watching your game about a year and recently when I managed to get a full version I got brave enough to make feedback on games I like. I hope to help you.
I see that this game has a lot of "ancestors", like Niche (I suppose this is a relative and not an ancestor?), but this game gives me a unique feeling. It is unlike other evolution games, partially because it is fantasy, actually science fantasy, and that means it is not a biology encyclopedia, it is a selfsustained world. I love digging up (sometimes quite literally actually) the lore of the game, it's secrets and story.
I totally adore a feeling of being responsible for "last standing" species and imagining what zombitions really like. Last update with a feature of looking up information on every zombition made it even more outstanding. I became so curious about them: their mood changes so unpredictable, there are patterns in their corrupted names and descriptions, they have models and series (The Talos Principle made me so facinated of this stuff, humans have series as their families too, but they are not robots whatsoever)... I found one zombitie with a description that ends with lots of "sad" in it, got attached because of it (I was finding a zombie to have so it was according to a plan) and "captured" it in a fenced area, named Luna (it has L as the first letter of a "name"). It even decided a center of an area as a home, I was so flattered. ...Um, I just checked, and the description of my captured creature is not as I described. Weird. Either I am mistaken or there is some kind of a bug or feature that it changes.
I wasn't very engaged with all that "anims" thing and was farming fungus most of the time, because they can be replaced very easily and have industrial uses. I love those shrooms, they are undemanding (especially with "cheat" dirt) and it's cool to look around and watch for beautiful ones. Animatroids are very intriguing also, but it's very frusrating for me to "breed" them until I can have manipulating DNA options, mostly because of saving examples (totally waiting for syringe update!). I hate extinctions. I managed to have some regression once though (climbing up with mutations instead of climbing down), but it's still too hard to control.

I read everything I can find on forum so I could've say some unique things. I have two categories of suggestions: ones that I find pretty neseccary (because they are fixes) and ones that may be a waste of time (because they are dreams). Because there is so much text, I splited it into 2 parts.

Important suggestions.
1. Remove "efficiency" meter. This is very frustrating and unfair. It depends on amount of living species of creatures. But what if I want just one of them, the most likible for me? I find that efficient.
2. It's kind of hard to manage inventory. I love that you can keep a lot of windows, such as all nearby crates, but dragging can be very harsh if you have to move A LOT of stacks of 3-7 items. There is a lack of 1) click-sending stack to a crate/crafting/inventory (I don't know how it will work with multiple windows, but I guess tagging active window will work), 2) taking customisible number of items from the stack (one of mods for Stardew Valley did that and this is amasing), 3) sending all the leftover items from the crafting inventory to the main inventory.
3. I don't know when trashcan will be added, but I seem to successfully delete everything I don't need in the water. One thing is, I learned it the hard way. I don't remember a tip in tutorial (yep, there is none of that), and getriddingof dirt, the most reappearing item in the wallet, was the most tricky because it simply deletes water underneath it. Dirt is actually possible to get rid of in two ways: 1) turn it into walls and get rid of them, 2) put a pool on a dirt to add water on it, also pools are very easy to craft, because they are made of dirt (I am still distracted because planks are made of mushrooms and walls are made of dirt, even if it is mineryte. That means we have mushroom doors and fences or something. Which is kind of adorable, because it's homemade, you see them grow up as a unique exemplar, you proudly make them into doors). So, what I am trying to say. Way to bury things in order to get rid of them should stay. It's a bit cheaty as digging infinite dirt and mushrooms are, but it is a neat feature, it fits into the picture. Trashcan will be an easier way to do this (which is cheaty too because it will act as a bottomless pit), but it's good to have different ways, especially in a game about evolution. There should be tips on burying different things in tutorial. I like how dirt adds more dirt on the ground and I like to come up with an idea how to deal with it. Also there should be a tip about possibility to throw away suff in general.
4. Photos lack 1) names-commentaries (a simple string of description by the player), 2) different sizes (I want bigger pictures! I don't care that I can just print-screen, I want them! But small ones are cute too if you want to capture a small detail).
5. Auto-digging mode. I am not playing a clicker or tapper-space-button. I need those junks and fancy-shmancy tools, I want to dig and dig a lot. Also this would help to tap with a hand some rocks or something. Auto-roading would be neat too. Tested out those car roads and couldn't stop myself from riding it all over the map over and over (sound for this should be more relaxing).
6. It should wait I suppose. It is how annoying the sound of an animatroid being all bouncy it his crate at the start is. When you are trying to set up things. Or just farming mushrooms only. When a crate disappear from the screen, it stops bouncing, but going far from it is not always the case. When eggs will be added or something, there should be a soundless variant of a "seed of life" in the inventory. Also, this is strange how we start up alone with a myserious crate. I don't know yet what will be more fitting - handing an egg, a hint of already died species, or a crate that bounces and annoyes, but with a creature well and alive (heck knows for how long though).
7. About digging. Yeah, it's what children do, but I love a feeling of reality in the game. Every single peace of "junk" is a treasure truly, because it is a reminder of our homeland, of past of this world, it is a story alive. And when you do not have all those different colored mushrooms to make a camera for example (I love this tool so much but it requires a specific kind of mushroom, which is good, but getting it is far from the start, when you really want to take pictures the most, and you are trying to set up this before opening the crate, which is bouncing, ugh...), you are trying different ways, and different ways are good. There should be more ways to get rare dig-up items. I came up with two ideas. 1) Lucky shovel. There are 3 kinds of shovels and surprisingly enough I am using all of them because they do different things to the ground. Smallest one don't change too much soil and is really usefull for gardening, medium one is good for most of the time until you get the shmancy one which is too powerfull sometimes, but is perfect for removing tiles or adding water. There can be a use for lucky shovel which gets items faster. I saw some gifs on twitter, and there was a perfect speed for that kind of activity. There will always be a lot of junk in terms of rocks and bottles, so it is not too powerfull, also speed can be less than instant. 2) Spawn-portal. In Stardew Valley there is a thing named Statue of Fortune that gives a player a valueble kind of item each day. This statue costs a lot and don't repay itself in terms of money for a 50 years I guess. I suppose that junk-items works a lot like "worm-tiles" in Stardew, but worm-tiles are a bit more easy to dig up (they are not so common as digging up one place for hundred years, they are digging up rarely for hundred years) and give something of more unpredictable value than dirt. So, game lacks spawners. It can be even not high-tech ancestor-build teleporters-shmeleporters with corrupted data that you can rarely dig up, but just reappearing stuff in the ground. Also it adds to the atmosphere of postapocalypse.
8. There should be one more necessary option for binoculars. Looking at the ground and seeing how exactly moist it is. Why fungus are allowed to tell moisture and we are not?

Thank you for this wonderful post! I really love getting in-depth feedback. There is a lot here, so I will try to address as many of your major ideas as I can. I am happy you enjoy figuring out about the history and lore and story of Vilmonic. There are a lot of secret and not so secret hints in the game, and some big ones that have yet to be revealed.

*** 1. Remove the "efficiency" meter
I'm glad to get some feedback about this! Yeah, I should probably do away with the notion of a score, it seems to just make people tense, and is pretty arbitrary. Maybe I'll just change this to display data: progenitors, living species, extinctions.

*** 2. It's kind of hard to manage inventory
I'm currently working on this. My plan is to allow ctrl/command clicking an item to send it to the top-most crate/craft window, or back to your inventory. I like your idea of a button to send everything in the craft window back to your inventory, I'll think more about this.

*** 3. Trashcan
Others have asked for this too. It's a good idea, and may come soon, but I'd rather find a way to make everything usable. One idea I have to to make some recipes require large stacks of things, like "999 fiberoyd boards"...

*** 4. Photo labels and different sizes
Different size photos are planned. Different cameras will take different types of photos. I like your idea of labeling photos, I will try to implement this. I also have a plan to auto-label photos with the species name of the creature centered in the pic.

*** 5. Auto-digging/road paving mode
This one will be a lot harder to implement, but I will think of ideas. I will also see about making the driving sound a bit more mellow.

*** 6. Bouncing animatroid carrier
Hmmm, I made it bounce as a way to nag you to open it. Maybe I'll make carriers bounce less over time, and become less annoying for those who want to prepare the world first.

*** 7. More ways to dig up rare items: Lucky shovel & teleporters/spawners
The "lucky shovel" is already in the game! It's the middle quality shovel. The next update will make this shovel more noticeably lucky. As far as spawners, I have an idea for this too...

*** 8. binoculars. Looking at the ground
I like this idea, and have thought about it too. Eventually you will be able to analyze everything with the binoculars.

- Markus

Also, for an example of new photos coming, look at the image in the latest news update:
Status: version 0.28 coming soon!
Last edited by Miriak; 16 Jul, 2017 @ 10:59pm
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:15am 
I am flattered! I put a lot of thought into these commentaries. Thanks for your responsibility and imagination. And yes, I still have some left. Actually, I continued my research about this game because it was very satisfying to think more about it. I am still in progress, so I will tell some things later. I am a walking concept-maker...

*** 1.
There is also a question about this list of stats. Why progenitors? Can't we have just one progenitor that is in the top of evolution? This is kind of confusing to not be able to get DNA of every "progenitor" possible in one game, though it seems to be in purpose. However, how many "progenitors" are in the game? Are they related? Is there an ultimate progenitor? What defines species to be a progenitor, why it produces more species from themself?

*** 2.
Buttons are good. Especially big red ones. They are so lovely and touching.

*** 3.
I am not suggesting about trashcans. I am suggesting to add some information to tutorial. Also, yeah, multiple items in crafting would be something new. But this is easier to see one item without any numbers by it and just mesh up these items and know every time how much you really need. BUT it is a possibility to add a receipt with EXACTLY 999 items in the stack in it. That will be fun, useful and really memorable. But it shouldn't be too hard to get, maybe enough hard. I suppose it better be dirt. Maybe to craft a super-bomb. Mushrooms are tricky to get, they always go in different stacks. I want a button "make all mushrooms into planks".

*** 4.
Wow, I didn't notice that this is a picture! There is noone to shot it though... Different cameras and auto-labeling seem legit. If a player wants, they can always relabel or delete a label.
About pictures... I would love to wait some time and say suggestions separately, but I found a topic-related bug that is very dissapointing. When I hit about 35 photos, saving them got really slow. I now have 39 and I am afraid to make more of them because it will save for a minute or two and I better use screenshots than wait for my computer to work. I thought about it additionally and came up with another solution. Photos can be objects. When you take a photo, it goes into inventory with a vague picture (not real one, also without colors), and while hovering it will pop up with a label (number and date also). These photos can be looked on with using them, or you can hang them on walls... There is an issue with 2D tiles... Oh, I know! It can be a frame on the ground. And you can "dig" them with hammer (like chairs). And add them to photoalbums in which every page is loaded up separately. And take away these pictures like they are still objects.

*** 5.
In case of roads, it's okay to not have such a mode. They require just to hold a key for some time. It's annoying though when you start pushing an anim and game priorites this action above paving and you go off the road. Digging is a lot more annoying. It's not very relaxing and I got really tired trying to tap my space button to dig up something in big quantities (like rocks or bottles) or rare items. Oh, actually, aren't some bottles made of glass? We can use that in crafting, right? I suppose if digging is too hard you can just craft whatever you want. Beside junk, I am just too curious for things that have no purpose in the game for now. Also 3 dirts can make a rock.

*** 6.
I find it hard for me to take responsibility of last living species. I get very frustrated while trying to save them from unavoidable soon death and even exctinction. I do not hate them, I do not blame them. I just want to be really prepared for them. Parents don't rush to have a baby and than get money and a home for them.

*** 7.
Oh, I didn't know this too! Thanks for your notice! It... it actually says "great for digging things up" in a tooltip... Maybe it should change a name to be noticable.

*** 8.
Wait, even walls? Why do we need to analyse them? Just to know their name? Oh, maybe that's it. Also a crafting receipt of an object will be good.

Thanks for the clarifications. I plan to add the ability to receive more anims if yours all die, and those anims would be unrelated species which would be listed as new progenitors. The photo save thing is interesting, I'll have to look into that! And I love the 3 dirts=rock recipe idea.

OBJECTION!
New progenitors is a cool feature, but it contradicts your testim-... plot. If exctinction of animatroids is so easy to overcome, then why we are so worried about them being our last hope? There is no way we can receive another seed of life. If they die - they die. It is not the end of a game, we still have fungus and zombitions, right? Well, it is sad in a way, but it is a goal. To not make all your main creatures extinct.

Ha! Good point.

Animatrons are a big part of the game though. Losing them all could force people to start a new map. Maybe something optional to get new animatrons would be ok?

Hmmm... It should be hard to get but not impossible then. It still should be not easy - or it loses the point. Something like digging up a new egg comes in mind - but it feels cheap.
I think "the real" method will be a bit later in the development. For now everything easier can be okay.

Also a good point, and kind of what my current plan is. This may be fleshed out more in the next few updates.
Last edited by Miriak; 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:22am
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:21am 
Some comments and suggestions (2 part of 2)
It’s me again, sorry that I splited it up! I am not sure about things listed below. They a lot represent my opinion and likes, so I’m quite shy to be wrong and annoying. It’s easier to list what annoyes me than what I desire, not because dark feelings are brighter biologically, but because there are already a lot of good plans for game features and I am very excited to see them and very patient to wait for them. I do wanna take a part in creating this masterpiece though. It doesn’t matter for me which feature or fix suggested by me will made it in the game, I will happy to see any positive changes that I cause.

“Not so important” suggestions.
1. I was so excited to know about zombitions more so I tried to know more about myself. My character shakes their had. Yeah, I understand, it's hard to look at yourself through binoculars. But this openes up a very interesting perspective. We are not like other species of our kind, we are very sentient, energetic, productive. First I thought, we are a zombition too, why we can't have a similar description? Now I understand how I was wrong. Our data is not corrupted. Our stats are not defined. It still is a possibility though. Player can enter a name for a character and a description, model and series could be generated. The most tricky one is stats. I don't see no way of defining correctly any mood or aggresion. Sensor and home can be a thing, since sensor is very wide (because we are sentient! we see far away!) and a home-tile can be set up (so it can be non-existing). I didn't see any threads on zomb-genes although, they are a new thing. But I like to know that we are a part of huge evolution system too. We could've have some random settings at the start of a game: regenerating health at different speed, walking at a different speed, digging at a different speed, strenght and so on. This can even be a customisable chart, like in those PRGS, when you have limited amount of points. Maybe you could've even earn more points for another time through playing. Leveling up maybe? Humans can overcome their genes at some point.
2. I really love bookshelves in games, so I found myself wanting at least one in my house. Actually most likely I would've turned all my map into a library. Firstly it has a decorating feature, like chairs do. But I came up with an idea how to use those blocks. We can really use some books and notes. I adore this kind of feature in Minecraft. It should be designed as a maximum 10 separate redacted pages book with an option to add to a page a photo (or data of creature / species). It has two purposes, both of them are valid. First, easier scientific information gathering. Those notes can work as research and add a lot to a feeling of being a biologist. Second, story / memory / fun making. These would work as visual novels or specific photoalbums, which is in the same style of digging up a camera for a hundred years for basic feature to take screenshots, and then building up a bookshelf with a book to sort those pictures. I really do like this style. Also cameras and books.
3. Building is important. I am a fan of some building games, like Minecraft, Banished, Sims. They allow you to create actual art, develop some creativeness, add to a story and just please eyes. I like that there is already some variety for building blocks, even dirt itself can be in different states. I don’t like too much variety because I end up not using it all (I already dislike red bricks unfortunately, they mix really bad with another blocks and this is a very bad sign actually, mixing blocks is important). What is common in building games is difficulty of it. Minecraft is a great example. You spend a whole life to build a simple house, almost like you really build a house. There are some mods to speed up the process, but I did not find such mods that simplify it enough, there are always some hard tedious spots. Sims is another example – it’s sometimes called an architectural game, and every game in the series make it a bit easier. Sims 4 is especially easy for moving rooms and walls. I like a touch of realism in building walls and floors manually, but it would be awesome to have in-game way to speed up the process. I am not talking about “make it for you”, for example a help of cured zombitiones, I am talking about “do that instant”. It will benefit the game since a lot of it is building and destroying walls in selection purposes. Well, it could be a lot of it if there would be an easier way to do it. Every tools is priceless (except first hammer and first axe, they are junk right after you find better ones) and hard to find (I don’t even know why first hammer exists if the second one is easy to craft). I like to hang around with a ton of tools, it adds to realism again. Maybe useless hammer can be smashing a one block wide while a better one – 3 wide. The best hammer could’ve set a pattern to destroy in. Building pattern should be a default feature I guess, because there is no tools for that procedure (be responsible where you build in!). Beside building and demolishing there also should be easier terraforming tools, but there were already been a suggestion about adding a middle between bombs and manually digging, also removing fungus (nice one!).
4. Animantrons seem to be kind of useless in industrial terms, so I came up with an idea to gather up some kind of resources from them. First, if DNA goes to eggs, then eggs could be a crafting material. For example, receipt can require amphibian egg ar agressive egg. That’s for potions, I suppose. Or, milk. Or fur. Or scales. All syntetic, but very usefull. There is no way that animatrons are just for breeding, they should have an impact not only on zombitions, fungus and our poor mechanical brains, they should be of some use.
5. There go some crazy ones, because they are very complex. I was staring at some dandellions at my yards and dreaming how I could plant more decorations while I was remembering some potion making games from my experience. I adore alchemy. I adore farming right colored fungus for some junk I wanna build. It is frustrating sometimes, but it worth it. And I am excited of an idea to add trees for that empty fungus-only world. There is a game named Alchemy Garden and it includes mixing seeds with magic elements and with each other. Also there is a game named Fantastical Flora which is about selecting right environment for plants to grow. I tried to imagine how will flower evolution system work and got very excited. Flowers are pretty as heck, they lack nutrients, but can be very good as crafting materials. Also, they can be not just flowers but plants in general. Flowers are more beautiful though. Maybe there should be both. Plants for crafting and flowers for amusement. This include a whole lot of work, so I am selfconcious about that. It will be weird though to add flowers as decorations without letting them to evolve naturally.
6. The last one I have, and it’s inspired from Minecraft and Factorio. I was amused by automation and somewhat electricity networks (redstone) and was always wondering is there a possibility to add such a feature (redstone especially) to a pixelised game like Vilmonic (I was trying to make my own concept, Laboratopia, but I didn’t get it to use). Well, there is a way to do that, but it destined to be simplified due to central theme of the game. I imagined pixel-cybernetics to be a puzzle of some cores (chips) connecting with each other in an additional window. Now, when I think about it, it is very similar to DNA because of “traits” that can be changed. It can be applied to every automation in the world: animatrons, zombitions and, finally, the real machines that do not have reflexes and act like washermachines, I don’t know. It can be a structure of a robot or dron that gathers fungus, places it into crates, and the other one is collecting it and crafting something. Also Laboratopia included a lot of notes and books, but I already suggested that. There could be a very neat feature to have more machines (cauldrons, mixers, you name it), and I alwayes imagined them for Vilmonic because of mysterious futuristic lore. That could do a thing, because crafting system can be carry over to those machines. This is a very hard task to do entertaining, that’s the problem. Complex crafting machines are seem to be a bix pain to remember where what should go, unless there is a very intuitive crafting system with different themes of refining. For now, every structure should be very simple and not interfere with crafting. They pretty much are now, there are just some walls, floors and crates.

As I said, I feel ashame of trying to interfere in plans of development with such ambitious tasks. I don’t know lots about programming though I enjoy studiyng game development. If something catches the eye, but there are problems, I could’ve try to come up with a solution. There are a lot of ways to do things with as less complexity and maximum efficiency as possible even in concept stage.

These ideas are great!

*** 1. Analyze player as well as zombs
Yes! I have thought of this too, but haven't figured out how I want to handle it yet.

*** 2. Books and bookshelves
Books are planned, and bookshelves. They are kind of half finished, but I put them on hold while I tackle other issues. Your ideal of adding photos to them and making photo albums is GREAT! And that would be a good way to manage having too many pics in the notepad.

*** 3. An in-game way to speed building
I will give this some thought. I also like the idea (that you were less into) of getting the zombs to build for you. As far as that little hammer, it has a purpose. Actually, everything you can craft has a unique purpose or effect. The little hammer is the only tool that will knock back the zombs without harming them. The Sledgehammer (and upcoming Fancy Hammer) will kill zombs if you hit them too many times.

*** 4. Anims have no industrial uses
This was by design. I want to goal of Vilmonic to be taking care of the anims for its own sake. But I will still think of ways of making them useful. One example, that is already in the game, is that their carcasses add fertilizer to the soil, so fungs that need more nutrients will be able to grow better where anims or zombs have recently died. I plan to make carcasses able to be picked up too.

*** 5. Flowers
I like the idea of flowers. I will have to think more about this.

*** 6. Electric circuits
I have been thinking of this and have started designing a craftable item: Coppertyne Water Pipes. But implementing it may be a bit tricky. We'll see!

Thanks so much for your feedback! And feel free to continue, I find it very helpful.

- Markus
Last edited by Miriak; 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:22am
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:23am 
Back to business.

*** 1.
Actually... What are we excaclty? I suppose this is a somewhat secret. It's revealed that we are as robotic as zombitions and animatroids are, also smart and not broken. It is a nice explanation for not knowing about yourself because you can't look at yourself from the side. And it can stay a mistery. For now there is no obligation to explain this detail in-game, but it will be appropriate when you can look literally at everything but yourself.

*** 2.
I am excited how we think in one direction! I should say some part of my research about in-game books (I planned library simulator once and tried to analyze the topic). Games take a different approach to that feature. Books create a lot of different models and they are forced to stay in order while hanging out on the bookshelf. Sims 2 and 3 use different stages of fulfillness of bookshelves. Sims 4 has just 1 stage. Minecraft forces you to place books in crates instead of bookshelves (they are 1) decorative, 2) for better enchanting), unless you have a mod called Bibliocraft that includes new type of bookshelves with separate slots in them, but every slot has an own model so one book can have a lot of looks depending on its placement (also this is inventory-related, number of slot in the inventory of bookshelf affects a number in the model and visa versa). The most realistic book-management is in The Elder Scrolls series, despite lack of order in 3D physics. In terms of look of bookshelf it better be Sims 4 variant with decorative fullfillness but a real inventory option. It saves up nerves both for programming and creating a library. Also, I suppose bookshelves should be crates with a different model. People sometimes put different stuff on them and not just books, and it is not important that bookshelf shows books instead of dirt in it's inventory.
Next one, books themselves. I suggested 10 pages for a reason. Most book simulations make just a little effort for a content of books because of limitations both of hardware and imagination. I like customising books with no real depth in it's content, like, Sims 2 offered you not just a genre but also a plot scheme. Minecraft books have a limit of 50 pages 13 strings each (it's mechanism is annoying though, you are not able to redact any place in your page because coursor stays at a last symbol, you should rewrite everything then). It's cool to have a big book on some genetical researches though. Maybe 50 pages are a real deal. But 10 pages 1) make it simplier and less cheatier to store photos, 2) it's good to have a lot of books anyway. It makes you fell smart.
About photo storaging and albums. I guess this should be influenced by size of photos. If it's small it can fit 4 places in the page, if medium - 2, if big - all the page (and a tip by hovering!). Text block is secondary and depends on photo size. Also there can be modes for one and two pages at a time. I think it's computer perfomancy related, it's a graphic option for faster loading.
Formatting shoul be basic. One font, one size, bold, italic, underlined, and that's it. People don't use all of other functions, and when they do, it gets kind of ugly or out of style.
(wait, did my atomic bomb just changed it's position on the floor? I reloaded the game and maybe this caused it)

*** 3.
Faster building is not such an issue. For now with all the lack of different blocks it's not so hard to build everything you want in a modest amount of time. Bigger ideas take more time, it is always like that. It's hard actually to build everything very beautifully because you lack of space when try to not to harm your ecosystem. It will be easier if you can temporarilly get rid of your anims completely and then turn them back on. I don't think people really would complain about how building is hard, maybe it's just me. There is an option though. Beside wonderful-but-complicated path-building there is an already existing feature in gaming. RimWorld showed how building can be planned. This can be for zombitions and not for player, because games usually don't play themselves (Zero Player Games are interesting but are not the case). It looks like a colony management some sort of. I don't know if it is truly fitting in the game direction. Up to this point all friendly multiple creatures were evolving and dying and reproducing. When you would be able to make undying pets... Well, actually, this changes a lot in the game. It fits, and it fits good, so that means zombitions can be our undying friends too. Well... I have an issue with how fast everything changes, it makes me feel like I am some sort of slowly-perceptive statue that lives thousands of years and watches everything fastly perish, and this is odd to stop a circle of life for some ugly/beautifully/both-looking creature, name him Bob and deal with it. Maybe name tag is a some kind of curcuit that stops programm of aging in the creature. There is no way that this creature can't be killed by zombitions or needs, it is alive after all. Maybe this name tag (and some other thing for depriving needs) is a thing that exists for zombitions and us too - that's why we are so lasting. So, that would be not so strange to have zombs as friends even nobody reproduce and age and evolve. The last thing is a type of colony management. People usually don't rule everybody else and they prefer to ask and not to order. Maybe zombitions when they are cured want to read books about Bob? Or stare at their wall all day again? I am not so sure about that stage of game. I am still thinking about managing them as they are now.
NPCs are mostly for doing stuff for you in games, so I guess automation is a predictable thing in that matter.
I get a feeling of purpouseness of every craftable tool even if something lacks. I really love that feeling, it is a very well done design. This is actually an existing problem in game design - to balance tools, armor and so on in getting a better one. Usually it is throwing off old gear. MMOs suffer from that the most, when games create more and more powerful weapons and the old ones become just useless, weak and offensive. I don't like a feeling when I suddenly don't love my tool anymore and want to throw it off because of some "better tool" (it's called conservatism, but it's common). I mean, it will be okay in real life when you have a billion of tools and you should pick the best one. But in a game such a choice looks like a waste of programming, drawing and even thinking. It is calculating tool's stats, not solving a situation with it's unique possibilities. I appreciate that you feel that way too.
I totally remember a knockback. There is no intuitive way for me to notice if I harm zombies or not until I check it out on purpose by binoculars. It should be in the name and description too because I love to keep them zombs alive and move them around.
How the medium and the best hammer will differ?

*** 4.
I like the idea of "it's own sake", but also it is hard for me to love something because it exists. I mostly love something that serves a lot of purpouses, including beauty, hilarity, researchfullness and so on. Humanity does love them helpers too, such as dogs, cows, sheep. I honestly think that anims are not the only species we are trying to save. Fungus and zombitions are last standing too, I think of them in the same way as I think of animatroids. I do get a feeling that animatroids are our main goal above the others, but it's not fair to just raise a useless popularity of techo-insects. They are a part of ecosystem, they should serve a purpose. A great purpose even, if they are so important for a main character.
I didn't read an article about corpses when I wrote my post. I got excited when I did. That mechanic reminds me of something, I can't catch what. Maybe Sims again, there were a lot of opportunities to fertilise ground. I am interested about carcasses because they are already a feature even not very noticable (especially because not very noticable?). I can think of legs, antennas and eyes too, but it's creepy... Carcasses are creepy too, when I think about it. There should be a way to put anims in use without them dying.

*** 6.
These pipes are for what? Aren't we able to add water to the ground magically?

So many good points! As far as pipes, they are something I'm toying with that could be used to run certain fixtures... Maaaaaybe. And the large hammer hasn't been added yet because I have not figured out a use for it other than knocking down walls with one hit.
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:25am 
Some more suggestions
Don't know if it helps yet and if my flow of ideas is overflowing. I managed to find out some new things I didn't know while I wrote previous two topics and came up with more suggestions. I know that this works as brainstorm, I am not trying to achieve everything make into the game, I am just improvising a lot. I also come up with more questions, somewhat bugs and stories, but I will tell ‘em next time since suggestions take much space. I will hold on to the numerical style because it's easier to discuss.
It's actually impressive how simple for the first look games have so much details and layers in them when you start to patiently dig up (it's a pun now). Of course a part with genetics is not simple even for the first look, I am talking about the other parts.
I am afraid that my suggestions can be even more overwhelming than your current plans are. I want to know what can be a reality and what can not, so I would think in that direction too.
By the way, I can draw. Not pixel art, but some silhouettes and colours definitely. I read a note about what an aim is for your art-style so I can keep that in mind. Tell me if you need a bit of some crappy concept artwork by a random creative person. I also found out your contacts if forum is not very fitting for this kind of coworking.

1. Stacking items. I noticed that some of items can be stacked and some not. That's a common thing in games so firstly I didn't really thought about it. I was more concerned when I found out that I can not stack crates. And then I got disappointed when I could not stack fungiburgers. So that's my thoughts about it. It seems only natural to have one tool of it's kind only for all the time, so you don't need to stack them and to craft tons of them. But other items can be multiplied. All of them. Including burgers and crates. This is weird to make them "hard" items to deal with. I am guessing this is influenced by Minecraft where every container is some sort of magical non-stacking monument of inventory power. I don't remember excatly if it is like that in Minecraft, but I remember this weirdness of non-stacking chests. I have a trouble with sometimes crafting a lot of things that I don't want, but still it is just my inaccuracy, I don't need safe belts or another challenge to carry 999 dirts in one slot and just one box in the other because to unease my moving boxes around or something.

2. Another somewhat easy suggestion. It is a pain to guess what colour are mushrooms in the wild. I can only see they outlook color, description box colour and a string "has industrial uses". It is very easy to mess up orange and yellow fungus, yellow and green. All three have industrial uses so this string does not help much. If binoculars can let you tell if shrooms are usefull or not then it means they can let you tell what type of colour they are first.

3. I don't know how avatar maker works, but this how it changes colour of eyes however it wants is annoying. This should've been manual from the start.

4. Again about avatar. I think to change it is as cheaty as early game development feels (Yandere Simulator does it by allowing players to open debug menu). In Stardew Valley look can be changed through completing the witch quest and getting to the shrine of changing-my-look-ness or by mod of mirror / hot key menu, also there is a way to change non-genetical look in a mirror in Sims games, so I thought first maybe a mirror will fit, but I don't think so now. Look makes a big deal with anims and fungus, so why can't it make a big deal with us too? It can be related to our genes/stats. It won't work on a single living individual instead of mutations through progeny. But we can install our software to another body! Seems to fit very well. The other thing is that it means to breed zombitions... Even if they don't age and starve... Oh, that's a tricky and lore-related one.

5. Still about the main character. I noticed that we are very silent while zombs are kinda noisy and sigh in a deep voice a lot. But we are the same species! Yes, even if they are corrupted. Zombitions make that noise when they don't like something and shake their heads. Main player also shakes their head when they can't do something. We can turn into a zomb too, as we can shake our head all day all night. Why can't we sigh? It also makes a possibility to add customisible "normal" voice. I don't know if this feature is annoying or not. It is kind of a different signal for zombies and the character to shake head. Zombies don't like, character can't (than would be sort of cool to shake our head when we don't like something too, but it's too much and very unneseccary, also this can be achieved by looking at ourselves - which is kind of handy for that purpose). It's tricky to make a settable voice that is not very annoying but if Sims can do that, it is possible. (sorry for so many references, it's good to learn on examples)

6. Notepad, population. You know what is it lacking? Fungus history. It is trickier to track down because they can go to inventory and from that to crafting. It is also very connected to statistics of gameplay - how much shrooms you picked up, how much were spread, how much were red, blue and so on. But I would love to see their evolution too.

7. I put some thought into your upcoming plans, especially "map" thing. I came up with a brilliant idea that can maybe work. The most fitting genre for the map should be zoomed out but not redrawn, it saves up a lot of work for its legend (what is what). Since it is a map, it could've been zoomed in back again and dragged to the sides. It's a lot like scrolling through species in the notepad works, also this tab should be related to a possibility to look all over the world. But what can take those kind of realistic images from far away? Satellites. And what we have in our poor dug up garden? A satellite. Since it is on the earth it can't do its stuff, but there should be some way to send it back to space and let it take google pictures. Also a station that connects with a satellite to see those pictures - maybe a handheld device would be most appropriate and usable. It's a lot of things to be done from the start though and may be even a part of prepares. We are intellegent and something else enough to craft cameras, so it would be totally fine for us to craft a handheld device. Sending a satellite back to it's planet is more difficult but still solvable. What is also important is a map's purpose. Notepad's scrolling through world is usefull in it's own way so it can even not conflict with a map's purpouse, but there is a map's rival - roads. If you cover a map with them, it takes seconds to run through all of your stuff in medium map definitely. I even got 15 species (one of them was 42 individuals strong) instead of 5 on that map, so it does not interrupt animatroids. It is a neat feature to have a map, but it is too pale for itself. That's why I am pointing at scientific data as a related thing.

8. Stockroom catalog. That's a name of a book-like object in Bibliocraft mod. It saves information about chests. It's not very needed but can be helpful. I imagine that as scrolling through chests like species in notepad do and with grayed out objects in them that you can't take or reposition. Also, names and different colours for crates. They are already named though... How were these numbers picked by game?

9. I am guessing fungus in inventory lacks names. They are sorted by colour even if they are the same species, but it doesn't stop curiosity.

10. Until I read tutorial very closely I didn't know about some mechanics like running (I though it was random) or double-tapping to split stack in two (I used shift) or using ctrl to pick just one item or a globe's options. Also I was forgetting to press shift for fast "hand" tool and never used right shift because I tend to use only a left side of keyboard and set keys of every game for that side AND if I have an access to a keyboard then I would use WASD instead of right shifting for tapping left click. But either way, whatever these possibilities are, I didn't know about them. Narrative part of tutorial is hard to put in order, it is almost alive, it is evolving by itself, it is a story, it is a mystery, it is a promise. But keys part is in a mess. I think, for every possibility there should be a separate marked paragraph. It is phychologically easy to notice. I mean, they are already marked, but also highlighted and it's what hard to read and notice and remember. More markers.

more good stuff, taking notes...!

I thought I dried out, but I managed to watch letsplays (because I love watching those) and got a whole bunch of new ideas, room for thinking and testing. I have currantly about 5 A4 pages of notes taken, for previous articles I had 2 maximum. For now I am stuck with my exams issiues so I won't update my findings for a while.
Stay trusting in me, I feel very serious about your game x)
I do believe in your game. I wouldn't be saying so much if I didn't like it. Also I know how hard is the process of game development, especially middle part, when you already "did the game" but is far from finishing it. I like that you still is close to your child, you are trying to add things even if people don't see it. I never tried to make feedback before and I am slowly learning what I want to do in it. Now I know - I want to be very specific in my "suggestions". It saves a lot of time in implementing. I need to make more concept art, I need to know everything I can about the game now, I need to explore fanbase. That's my gift to you. I am trying to learn how to do these kind of jobs, and your game is precious to me, it inspired me to make concepts on some 2D simulations which made me learn basics on how to do concepts in the first place.
Also I am very greedy and don't like to spend money on games and like to watch 'em more then playing them, but these 2-3 hundreds of money I spent on your game because of how much heart I put in it was of the most proudful money I spent in my life. I can even pay you some more money even if I am who working on my ideas. That means very much to me.
And some information. I am russian and I have a time gap with you about 10 hours forward so I get your answers at about 1-3 am. It's very usefull for me to write articles in english so I get some practice. And I am sorry for my mistakes in speaking if I have some and for lack of words vocabulary.
Cheers!
Last edited by Miriak; 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:25am
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 9:27am 
Some more commentary
I have still a lot to say! Now it uncludes more of my experience than my wishes.

1. A question. How nutrition of fungus is determined? It is possible to change moisture of soil, but it is not possible to change nutrients unless you are planning to kill someone or create a cemetery of those who passed away naturally. I suppose that your plan of "picking up carcasses" is somewhat a solution. But there is no way to lessen nutrition besides fungus themselves. How is a default number of soil nutrition defined?
2. A question. I scrolled through population of techno-bugs and noticed that there are two descriptions about the state under “can be aggressive”. These are “generally passive” and “rarely aggressive”. But I didn’t find a pattern about them. So are there two lines for one state?
3. A question. Why tab changes a colour of window borderline?

4. A joke. So there are passive anims and aggressive anims. What about passive aggressive ones? (Middle ones don’t very fit to that, well, maybe a bit)

5. A somewhat bug. There is no second “death”, but health still can go down (if you tap a zombie and it taps you back). It was a cool experience to feel yourself as truly undead with no health whatsoever, but it looks like a thing that wasn’t supposed to be. Maybe a gray broken heart will fit better.
6. A somewhat bug. I was interested what will happen if I try to get rid of my entrusted lifeforms. So I came to a lot of juicy bugs about that. First one. You told that you planned to give player a new progenitor if they came to a big extinction. I know now what happens currently at the game. So I found out that the last anim is basically a phoenix. It ages up to an end and… Just starts over. I couldn’t kill it, even though his kids die pretty easily (I sound like a horrible person but it’s an unavoidable sacrifice if you want to test things). So I closed it up in walls and continued my apocalypse.
7. A somewhat bug. I tried to get rid of fungus. I played split game and forced mushrooms to all be non existed. But they didn’t want to. Every now and then one spore was spawning on the map, in one spot, furthermore it was the last type of mushroom I picked up or was spread recently, something like that. I tried to get rid of that spot – it found another one and tried to spawn itself in that spot a lot again. So I tried to get rid of all the earth. Anim was released and not thirsty anymore though it still missed mushrooms that I tried to get rid of. And then I clearly realised that game does this last-fungus-spawning thing “conciously” because it started to freeze about every 30 seconds. Not the game itself, but the proccess of things going on in simulation. I was able to play further if I paused and unpaused the game. So it tries to find a spot where it can spawn a mushroom and it doesn’t like to not find one. Also I tried to get rid of all my possibilities to have earth whatsoever, since the deepest tile of water doesn’t have any, but there are zombies that have some tiles with them and place it every now and then, so earth is not get-riddable-of. I even took a picture of me in the process.

http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=959804045

8. A somewhat bug. There was a moment when I couldn’t split stack by two. That was after I split it by control, placed in crafting window and tried to split big stack to a small one. When I placed big stack in my inventory again it splited for good.

9. A notice. I looked at zombitions’ genes again. There are: wiggo (hair), heddo (head), boddo (body), panto (pants), senso (sensor) and noodo (?). Firstly I thought that this is kind of cheap, but remembered that this rule also applies to animatroids and fungus, so it can serve real purpose and even apply to us too.

10. An experience. I love zombitions. Firstly I was afraid of them, but then I started to look at them more closely. It’s cute that they try to build cities and sad that they are our species. I tried to close them up in rooms, so they won’t interrupt my roaming around and won’t respawn like hydra’s heads when I kill ‘em. I tried to close up some of them in one big room, but it seems like if they kill each other they still respawn and I have new clients that need spare rooms in my inn. Firstly I built really crappy ones, with different types of blocks (dungeon, mineralyte, rocks), no normal flooring and shape – I just tried to enclose intruders at all costs. Of course I tried to rebuild that montrosity of architechture. That was really hard to do just like that, they move in their cages uncotrollably, attract to you sometimes and sometimes not, don’t want to go in puddles or roads... I was sad that you can’t push them like you do with anims. I tried later to move them with little hammer, but they won’t be knockbacked if there is animatroid behind it and still move wherever they want. I felt like I need a leash for them too. But then I tried Revolt soda and dancing around zombs got a lot easier. Firstly, it’s easier to move around in their chambers since you don’t need to run away every now and then. Secondly, they run away from you instead. I suppose it’s easier to move them around like that, but I didn’t get a chance to test it out because at that point I already did almost all of the work.
I still wonder what else you can do with these creatures. It would be cool to have some hunger games among them, like, to see who will survive a lot of routes and is arena champion… That’s some twisted artificial selection, but it fits because they have no morals. When you can get a chance to fix them, that would be a lot harder psychologically to let them destroy each other just because now they don’t understand what they are doing. A second idea – labyrinths. It fits a lot more to creatures that can pathfind far, and zombitions are not the case. It would be not fun to force allies to pathfind, I mean when zombitions are fixed and have an eyesight like we do. Pixel-voxel-shmoxel games are great for labyrinths, but especially when ones can do their work.
11. An experience. I almost built a brickhouse when I saw my first fast creature. It’s only natural but it was hard for me to get used to. They move around almost as fast as bugs do. A while ago, I started to wait for even more leggish creatures and it’s fun like they are so tall almost or just like we are. Moreover, we are fast too, especially when we run all over the roads – we just don’t see ourselves from the side. Imagine a pesron that tries to breed such big and fast creatures. Poor that person.

12. A reference. This animatroids breeding reminds me of some experiments showed on youtube channel. I was very impressed about that programm even if it basically hit its ceiling of opportunities. Channel’s name is carykh and the programm is called Evolution Simulator. It generates some number of “creatures” that present schemes with nodes and “muscles” in it, then simulation checks how great they do their work (how fast can they run and how high can they jump), select best ones, delete worst ones and then mutates best ones and repeats itself. Animatroids’ evolution a lot reminds me of that because it simulates almost exact same conditions and goals, but does it more complex (of a definition of “creature”) and gamier. By the way, the best runners and jumpers are pyramides.
Miriak 4 Jul, 2017 @ 11:09am 
I was in a very trippy condition last time. I am rushing to put out all my accumulated notes and ain't developing my thoughts too much. Moreover, I can't know too clear what exactly is bad and what is promisingly. Some time later I'll compose a somewhat priority list, so I could've reask something.

By the way, I mind to make a forum tutorial with some advices for players.

I added all my other log topics and answers to them there, so they do not take much space on forum topics list. Dev, can you delete those that I have taken away? It would be also easier for me to find my own nagging and rethink it.
I moved all topics that are started with "some".

Back to describin'.

#4.
1. Auto-pathing of building. A person requested about click'n'drag system. Dev said to implement this is tricky.
2. There are different colours of the boxes: yellow, blue and red. I thought that yellow and blue are for terrestrial and amphibious, but then I saw red. Also you can analyze a creature in the box before opening it.
3. Bigger size of map = bigger challange? I didn't think that this is accurate. Bigger size is easier. You can have more room for buildings and creatures, you can more easily run from zombitrons. I heard somewhere that medium size is the best. Large feels too large too.
Little map is 100-500, medium map is 600-3.000, large map is 4.000-9.000, too big zone is 10.000-900.000, impossible zone is 1.000.000 and bigger.
Miriak 5 Jul, 2017 @ 12:05pm 
#5.
1. Tabs in crafting. Like, building, tools, etc. When there is so many stuff, it’s more okay to tap a tab either than scrolling down. Not too much tabs though that it forces you to scroll horizontally.
2. Vilmonic is a lot like waiting game. It’s because it’s a simultaion and lacks goals.
3. I have seen a letsplay where musrooms were layouted in a looong line. It was done to see a difference in normal mutating and radiance mutating.
4. Is there a different stuff spawning rate when you dig at water and at land?
5. I suppose zombs can not see you if you just stand all day. They react at moving a lot more.
6. Anims don’t eat shrooms from the floor. Shame. That’s a painful process to get rid of some stacks. I prefer to just drop them.
7. Anims transfer spores apparently?
8. There is a lack of double doors/gates. When you place them next to each other, they collapse.
9. Rocks themselves can be “improved” (tapped the second time), but it doesn’t change them.
10. My eyecolour changed a couple of times while I was not touching dollhouse. I guess because of sprite changing states like zombitioning and drinks.
Bludgeonsoft  [developer] 5 Jul, 2017 @ 5:10pm 
Tabs will probably come to the craft window eventually. You'll find a lot more stuff digging in dirt than water. Zombs don't see you if you stand still, and double doors is a good idea.
Bludgeonsoft  [developer] 5 Jul, 2017 @ 5:14pm 
Also Miriak, thanks for all the helpful and kind words. I have a whole "Miriak" section of my dev notes now! - Markus
Last edited by Bludgeonsoft; 5 Jul, 2017 @ 5:14pm
Miriak 5 Jul, 2017 @ 10:41pm 
You're very welcome, bud! :D I got so confident so I started to work more seriously on my own project (it's called Firnia and so far there is no english content on this, because it's still too raw to advertise anyway). I can show you a picture about it though. (I drew it myself!)
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6356e0_c95efd861c864a6996eb6c8e001a8151~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_630,h_465,al_c,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/6356e0_c95efd861c864a6996eb6c8e001a8151~mv2.png
(that's my game on the right greets a program called RenPy)
Obviously, I'll do another log today. I still have 3 sheets of notes and there would be plenty of going back after that. And playtests for new updates! That's what I'm going to do without a doubt.
I wish for my words to be more kind and productive.
I also really want to draw some concepts for you, not just babble. I don't wanna concept something raw and something that already have a picture. And I am not pretty good at drawing items. But we'll see.
Last edited by Miriak; 5 Jul, 2017 @ 10:44pm
Miriak 6 Jul, 2017 @ 9:09am 
I am suffreing through sleep deprivation but I must do this.

#6.
1. There was suggested an idea to do a shift-click sending an item to main inventory.
2. There was suggested not to move crates so easily. I realised that it can be done by not moving them by running, only by pushing. Such a thing also should be applied to tables since they are crates as well.
3. I remember using crates as doors while I was not able to use ones. I guess this is for lite version.
4. It is possible to have a gate above the water. There is no reason of having a river on your path though. That’s still anavoidable since you can dig under your gate to redo flooring.
5. There is a horrbile lack of side-knockback. I guess. Since moving zombs with hammers isn’t very easily because they don’t wanna go around the corner.
6. There is a lot of free floors and earth because of intentional and unintentional walls and floors. I don’t know if this should be nerfed. Maybe not, because how then are we supposed to get dirt? Maybe by some digging and placing dirt back and not having outside magical wall-jesuses?.. I feel like I am digging too deep in the core gameplay and just saying possibilities even if nobody wants really them or it’s a binary decision. At least I’m gonna save these possibilities to further thinking.
7. Those shiny blue crystal-eyeball-diamond-thingies… When you place them on floor, they downgrade to one piece from a heckton and that’s sad.
8. There is a way to deactivate fast mode on roads when you are pathfinding. It’s both a good and a bad thing. Bad – it isn’t fast by any means. Good – it can be used without pathfind. Sometimes you are not wanting to pave.
9. I noticed that if anims are non-arrgessive they tend to become middle-aggressive and back. I had aggro-ones pretty easily because I just waited. I guess it’s a natural mutation cycle that is not by any means a rule, just a tend.
10. If you can’t go anywhere, you can still eat dust from your own footsteps.
11. There was a suggestion to add to a tutorial more gene related quests. Don’t know how, don’t have energy to imagine.
12. So, I was noticing a line about “developing brains”. Some person suggested “developing variations of activities”. I am just guessing how it should look like. Maybe… Something related to the player? If “pet items” will be added, that will be cool to teach your anim to do stuff like jump. Maybe even jump above walls. If they do have not too much mass. Because we can’t jump above walls. And we shouldn’t.
13. A choice of new species like mammals etc… That would be nice in a big community with a lot of manpower, but now we stick to a little cozy homebrew zombie fungie animdeveloping indie-game. And it rules. Who needs mammals when you have those antennas.
14. Random animatroinds in the wild. Of course, this is too cheap. I imagined a random DNA data in an egg, but it can be actually okay if it’s pretty rare. And, maybe, with some radar or something.
15. Metal detector?
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