I have enjoyed this game for quite a while. While I am saddened that it will not be developed to the fullest of full potential. I cannot fault the objective reality that is infinity. Dwarf Fortress, has the ability to almost never stop being developed. There are a billion things people can think of, and that is where this game suffers as well. We are all drawn to the innate creativity and challenges presented to us in this wonderful title. Every player is bound to have a unique idea on how to improve this game in one way or another.
But my main concern is the content provided to me by the price I paid years ago, and the promise of more. And to that end, I am willing to say, that I find Raidants contract fulfilled. The game that has crawled out of the muck of clay and stone, has become a jewel to me.
I purchased some 10-15 games this last steam summer sale, each carefully chosen to provide me with a new experience or something I’ve had my eye of for a while. Yet, I found myself drawn back to my hearthlings. Inspired to reach the pinnacle of crafting and town construction. These past few updates have been something to salivate over to be sure. But I have some nagging doubts I thought I might reach out to the powers that be.
The content provided has really blossomed into a gentle, fun game for me. Not so many features as to overwhelm(DF) yet, not so few as to bore. All in all, I cannot fault for Radiant for honing in on what is realistically achievable. I agreed with most of the cuts that were explained in the last post for unstable r870. Some fires should never be stoked. Flame elementals sounded like absolute terror I’m glad I never had to put out.
That said, I cannot excuse unimplemented features being flaunted to me every time I check my rooster.
Specifically, WHERE IN THE HEARTH am I to find justification for 10,000 hours not being implemented, STILL.
Content that was an idea, or a dream I can excuse as to not being created. But placeholders were made, levels were given. Yet no real value has been added or even expounded upon. As much as I love this game and I truly do. I am gobsmacked every time I let a crafter hit level six in a profession that is pointless to do so. Letting a herbalist level to six it not just wasting time for one level, it makes every single level as a cleric take that much longer. I should have something to at least make me think twice about that promotion. Not just regret that I didn’t promote them fast enough. Being a master should be a reward for not just the crafter in question, but should enrich the entire town as well. Real life masters dont just blindly stamp out works, they produce pieces of the soul that are sometimes more that the sum of the parts. Not just sunflower and foxlilly seed recipes.
And removing it now I feel, would only be detrimental to the overall core of this game. This feature is beyond just promised. This isn’t some silly decoration, or event that might be cool. This IS the heart of stonehearth. The crafters are vital to game mechanics and to satisfaction of gameplay. I enjoy the difficulty of not having this crafter vs that one in the races. I am not however enjoying being told I have invested 10,000 hours into a hearthling to come back empty handed. Sorry, you are a master of none and not even a jack of all trades yet, because every level from now on will be even longer still.
I dont know if it has just been hard to tune/balance or if it has just been relegated to some other corner of the desk for “to-do.” I laud the two races you have added to this game in such a short time. A tremendous push to be sure, but this game has never just been about the world at large. Jaw dropping as it may be, the real beauty is in each and every individual of your township. And I feel a disservice has been done by skipping what seems to me, a very small piece(comparatively to fully realized races and classes.)
I do not want to seem ungrateful. I am far from it in fact. I wouldn’t have spent time to blot out all my thoughts from the rest of the world to put this to words if I didn’t feel this game worth the effort to converse about.
I am overjoyed by the lushness of the current content being turned out. Each gameplay is more unique than the last for me. A game I have surely enjoyed my moneys worth from.
But I am pleading, on my knees for the ones without a voice. Don’t trample over the smallest of things in a tizzy to reach that hurdle. The tiny details are the least noticeable, but the most captivating. In the words of Tom Petty, don’t do me like that.
In closing, I have no potato for the long post. And my most sincerest apologizes to the Radiant team. I am in no way capable of creating any digital content, and have no solid ground upon which to stand and cast judgement of your limits or process. I mean to not step on toes, just to merely say, “Remember me, for I too am here.”
If such information has been covered, or is in current works I would be most contrite for being so brash.
I hope that the team will have the ability to produce something to which they will be proud of the final product.
I hope you can call Stonehearth a Masterwork, something truly worth ten thousand hours of practice.
-A tiny heart, wishing for the best. 