[118] What's really killing gameplay?

What are the things you think are most adversely affecting gameplay? Try to list 1 to 3 items, like a post if you have the same issue.

To me, the biggest killer of the game for 118 is pathfinding. Villagers stand next to food with only a wall between them and cannot path around the wall. Footman spawn at the border and cannot path to your village, stand there, cry and die. Farmers wander so far they can’t path back to their farms and the food goes unharvested. Workers cant path to walls or building to build them even less than 100 yards scale distances.

I think it’s a bit early to talk about “killing gameplay” since most things you pointed out are tied to the very early alpha status of the game. Still, to name three: Settlers stopping to do anything at some point into the game, standing around till they starve. Pathfinding. I tried to build a wall to shield my farm from the goblins but the workers on the other side of the wall never found their way back to town. Combat. There should be at least a mechanic that causes all other characters to rally around a footman during CTA. Having one close settler engage an armed goblin with his bare first while the others watch is a sure way to get your city burned down.

I like the idea of a “rally” button. Someone else mentioned it earlier. But that would surely let you call people back who had gotten lost, call in new people who spawned so far away they can’t find your camp, and solve the starve to death problem, because you could rally near food.

Also the button could be on the same panel as the “call to arms” button.

In terms of gameplay, I believe Radiant has taken the approach of releasing each alpha as a “mini” game (at least, this alpha, 4, expresses that best). And by “mini”, I mean a small amount of gameplay but actually a game. They have tried to balance things for the release so there is something playable.

I think this is a wise choice. Instead of just adding tech to the game and releasing new versions with new (but unusable tech) they have made each release a “game” of sorts. As I said, I think from a game company and development shop choice this is wise, and will bear much fruit in the long run.

Stonehearth IS the first mod. So each time they increase the tech they have to rewrite the mod to use the new tech. Soon that total rewrite process should fade and the core game will be able to go from tech release to tech release. But the practice of rewriting the game/mod each time by the Radiant team is incredible, invaluable experience that should make a better game in the long run.

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