Buildings and other concepts

First off, I’ll say that I’m happy with the current progress and the pace at which the studio is working. Very admirable.

I’d like a little more disclosure on the specifics of some game mechanics. Mostly because a lot of features have not been implemented and it’d be great to let the public know so as to avoid misunderstanding.

Is the building concept still in the early stage?

Based off of ‘screenshots’ I’ve seen during the kickstarter phase, some buildings have taller walls than others. (See barracks). I suppose that there will be an option to change wall height in the future?

So as of now, second story building is implemented through using ladders and climbing on top of roofs to build the second story. That won’t be the only way to build a second story in the final version right? As of now, I am expecting there to be stairs and such when constructing a second floor.

Also, in the future when constructing castles, although there are no interiors shown, it is common for there to be a huge open interior and such construction is likely to be expected from players.

Class mechanics, combat and other tangents
(A lot of what I say here will be personalized but I’m sure I’m not the only one who would hold such opinions)

As it is now, class implementation is still very early. Leveling has just started and not all classes are complete. But I still have some quibble because that is just who I am.

First, I have some concerns about the military classes. The wooden sword for the footman class. Okay. Personally, I would have liked it better if the carpenter class created a placeable training dummy to which you can assign a single character. Even after class change, the character can continue using the training dummy for experience.

Let’s face it, the only way for military to gain experience (as of now), is through real combat. But since real combat is dangerous, it’d be great if there was another viable option for combat experience, even if it is not as effective.

The other quibble I have with the current military is the automatic weapon assignment: sword. I hope that in the future, a military would require an existing armory in order to equip soldiers. As troublesome as it may seem, I feel that it would allow for more “personalization” when it comes to equipment and such. On a subjective commentary, I’ll say that I get tired of seeing swords all the time. Polearms were not only the more common weaponry used in medieval times (where a lot of fantasy lore is based from), they are cheaper and more efficient in combat. Swords were mostly symbols of status after the Roman Empire fell.

When monsters attack, I’d like to leave to have more options in terms of whether or not to flee or fight. To be more specific, I don’t want my craftsmen to fight if they don’t have to. I’d rather have them safe in some hidey hole rather than facing off Cthulu. However, if I lack in military power, I would have them fight as well. Summarized, I’d like there to be one option for an all out attack and another option for only military units to respond and the rest go to their homes or whatever. This isn’t all that I wish for but as of now, the commands available is very lacking. I’ll mention about patrolling and watch when the development gets to the stage where effective patrolling and watch are imperative.

Combat itself is still in the early stages. I fully understand. As a reminder, I’d like to let the developers know that right now, people are just slapping each other to death. In addition to the beach slapping that’s going on, there are some weird moves for which I just want to say, “Please, just remove the animation for that. It’s horrid and I want to tear my eyeballs out”. That flip attack? No. Leave it as an alpha thing and let it stay as an alpha thing. I’m not joking here. It’s terrible.

To the actual combat, to avoid pathetic beach slapping, characters who are hit should be stunned and unable to attack and when an opponent is stunned, the opposing character should be able to pull off a series of combos to which the length and effectiveness is based off chance (where higher levels would increase the chance and effectiveness). When a character misses, rather than showing a block, it’d be more interesting to show the opposing character evade. When a character blocks an attack, rather than taking it as a body blow, show a parry animation.

Apart from the suggested stun and chain combos, the ideas here is fundamentally the same and is easy to achieve. But in all honesty, its not very interesting and even if it visually dazzling, the lack of depth won’t make it eye candy for very long.

Another subjective comment coming up. So my beginner footman is pulling off acrobatic moves such as flipping and spinning. Forreal? Flipping, as I’ve mentioned before, is atrocious and an abomination and it looks like an abomination as well. The spinning…well, beginners and novice warriors don’t really spin attack in the middle of a life-death situation. And it doesn’t really give a ‘novice’ feel to it.

Last topic: storage

So there is the hauling zone. I mean, its great in this stage, considering that it gets the job done. But in the future, it’d be more aesthetically pleasing to have furniture that does storage as well. Nobody has to claim the furniture. It can be as simple as a weapon rack or something more complex like a granary.

Bug:
Wooden picket fence is not working. Animation is not present. Also, I have a feeling that it is directional. I placed one and the characters were just stuck in front of it (I fenced off my hauling zone). Then I switched it and they began to walk over the fence gate but there was no animation.
I don’t know what’s going on here.

This topic is long and winded but I felt I had to address what was on my heart after finally getting to download the alpha and try it out.

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Just going to respond to a few points, but here we go:

VERY early stage ATM :slight_smile: . Most of your questions here should eventually be seen to in the future. ATM though… yeah, alpha & all that.

Hopefully we’ll see something like this, yes :slight_smile: .

There’s been a lot of talk elsewhere here about other possible weapons, so have a look :slight_smile: .

By default your regular hearthlings flee from invaders, unless you specifically call them out to fight.

I expect that’s the plan :slight_smile: .

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I agree with the flip animation, keep it for more experienced troop.

I was under the impression that they were all placeholder?