Over the several great Alphas a lot of prayers must be given to developer for creating this outstanding horrifying atmosphere and the roles of the innocent bunny's and mischievous magician. Also your fast reaction to bugs or issues are phenomenal, whenever a bug was found only in a short time it got resolved. The map looks great and I´m curios about the procedural room generation. I could go into more detail what I loved in the alphas but there a couple of things than could be tweaked to make it more enjoyable for both sides.
(This is part 1 before the begin march alpha there will be a part 2 after it) 🙂
#After Thoughts Alphas
agile smelt
agile smelt
Let´s start with the bunny´s shall we, I played both sides even so I tried more to be the magician. For now the experience was great, to try to survive with your bunny companies a horrifying carnival. One thing that some already mentioned is whenever a magician throws you, a adrenal like boost activates so that he won´t be tunneld easy. I had only a few times when a magician threw me at the wall or a fellow bunny tries to save me with a fire-rocket, but when I fall I can´t get up. I see that a green icon appears, which progressively but no matter what I couldn´t get up. I mention this because i would know if i perhaps missed something, because with this issue a hunt turns in instance into a beat down for the bunny. It would richen the experience if you don´t get stuck so you can be torsted again until you die. (It´s resolved see part 2)
Than let´s talk about the monster in the carnival the magician, he has a great concept and it is well executed, but @frosty knoll did already mention a lot of the problems that plague him. While reading his great writing I wanted to sprinkle some ideas into the mix, so allowed me to throw my hat into the ring.
The monster should bring fear and terror to the bunny´s and playing as him you should feel powerful and merciless, but this idea collapse in the moment the bunny's are armed to the teeth with marbles and firework. I know the items are limited but there are so many of this items lying around for the bunny's so the important early game is a to great struggle for the monster. To resolve the issue traversal and passive/informational items should spawn with a greater procent than aggressive items. Like for instant a bunny´s chance to find a time is like 70% a can, 55% a canned bunny, 43% a oil, 29% a bike, 10% a fire-rocket. This numbers are suggestions but the way should look like this so that finding a rocket is special and more likely in a chest.
agile smelt
Another thing that could make the magician experience more terrifying for the bunny's and interesting for both sides are the imposter Bunny's. One of the two problems of them is that when you placed them strategically in the first floor but the bunny's already making progress to access to the third floor. In this scenarios it would cost to much time to get one back and if you don't get out of your way to collect them, then you basically only have 3 abilities instead of 4. @frosty knoll already has the idea that you should be able to grab them trough the walls. A second idea perhaps for a gear could be that whenever the magician doesn't have any imposter bunny's left than by pressing Q the latest placed one will appear next to the magician with a little curtain trick to intertain the puppet master.
agile smelt
(Apology that it took so long to continue) The second thing is the imposter bunny´s behavior. They should make the bunny´s question if this in front of them a dead bunny, a friend or a foe is and thanks to it creating a paranoia. But momentarily (Alpha February) they only lie down on the ground only attack in a small radius if you run, interact with something or him. Because of it many place them at important objectives or inside important hallways/passage ways. They are mostly placed on objectives which makes it to obvious. This turns them from interesting traps to annoying blocks for bunny's. There could be 3 ways to make them much more interesting. 1. With the help of a AI in the moment of placement they scan the surrounding to react to it. If there are dead bunny´s the imposter bunny would mimic the sounds and movment of a looting bunny. Whenever a real bunny is near (5 Meter radius?) the imposter bunny would make the well known sound of needing a recharge and position. He would repeat the sound and gesture until the bunny would recharge him. The imposter bunny makes sure that the nearest bunny can only see his back. The moment he gets close enough for to long or tries to recharge him than he attacks the bunny. If there are no dead bunnys around him (in a 3 Meter radius?) the imposter bunny would lie down and wait for a bunny to come near. But he will opperate on two radiuses, the first one is a direct attack like what we have already with a little bigger radius, the second one is much bigger when a bunny is in there for to long (80 second?) and doesn´t leave the area (for at least 15 second? or else the timer just pauses) the imposter bunny gets impacent. He would try to catch the bunny, skilled or lucky bunny´s might be able to dodge the attack. The magician would still get a small notification. If you place them near a objective he would mimic trying to activate it.
agile smelt
But would in reality sabatouge it. By the hammer game he would break the already made progress. By the gear doors he would take the gear of and in case he attacks a bunny he would try smashing his face with the gear. (maybe after the imposter bunny wins he and the gear will be where the magician stands?) By the ferris wheel he would block it and the bunny needs some seconds to repair it (perhaps with a dead bunny blocking the activation gears). Also canon should be blocked with something (also a dead bunny in the canon?).
- if the AI is not ready (or to many complications pop out) than when the magician presses Q he can chose one of the three already mentioned behavior.
- If both options don´t work than the concept for playing dead and the two circle would still shake things up, but I believe they can make option 1.
Another ability that his already mentioned a lot would be the hat. I know perhaps you are tiered of hearing that, it is to situational but maybe it could be a little bit more interesting. Like you guys said that with gears it could be like in the trailer and I support that suggestion. The default hat still have the delay perhaps even a little slower but the circle should be a little bigger (so that radius/ diameter be one and a half bunny´s standing next to each other) . With a gear the delay vanishes but reduces the scale of the circle (like in the trailer, maybe a little smaller even?)
The invesible became much more important thanks to the ability to teleport into a booth. But with power like this some may expected to be a ambush potential. But thanks perhaps with a gear it loses the ability to teleport into a booth but gives the magician a (55%?) great speed boost to ambush unknowing bunny´s.
agile smelt
The cards are very interesting but I got some issues with them. Momentary there are 4 Cards (I believe, correct me if I´m wrong) one leafs a trail, one about playing dead, one inventory block and one about other bunny´s dead or alive around. One issue for beginners is that they can´t fully understand the cards by just reading the description (maybe it is just me). It would be great to have in the sandbox a area where you can test the cards with active bunny´s (in the green room?).Every card has good utility but some could be improved. The path card in which the bunny leaves a trail of blood is good to search bunny´s, but the blood blends in with the environment, if there would be like a aura affect on the blood to highlight it. The inventory block card is also a good one but I got a question. Because if a bunny has this card two spaces where normally a key would be and the magician can shake of are blocked. Wouldn´t it make more sense for the magician that the other spaces are blocked so bunny´s would have less items (perhaps it can stay like this and with a passive gear this changes to the other). The playing dead bunny card (correct me if I´m wrong) makes that a bunny can´t play dead for 30 seconds, also if the bunny is playing dead he will be highlighted. To make it more interesting perhaps a gear makes that after 30 seconds the bunny falls dead (for 5 seconds) so the magician gains important information. And lastly but definitely not the least is the card that highlight´s the surrounding bunny´s next to the one with a this card This card is the most usefule of the four, even greater in the early game when bunny´s loot dead bunny´s. This card is good as it is and I hope the others will become as useful as this card.
A thing that was already mentioned is that bunny´s can escape to fast from the hands of the monster so that he can´t put them in cages or throw them. Maybe it is more fair-able if it takes about 20 seconds with great hits and around 30 seconds by good hits.
agile smelt
One thing that could be considered skill issue that the catch sometimes feels weird. For example a bunny wanted to escape by using the convener, I hold my cross line so that it would be were the bunny slide to. But as I tried to catch him the carny took a step forward and missed the bunny. This step forward helps in chases to get them but if you want to catch a bunny that is on the same height or a little lower than this step hinders mostly a catch. It would help mostly new players if the monster would do the step in a chase and if you stand still than not.
One last thing for the magician (that also could be called skill issue) are the notifications. Because information is a key element to win a game in here but they feel to short. Oftentimes you wander around not knowing where they are and then a bunny tries to activate the convener. You try to get their but if you don´t know the map good, you will try to see what the best way is but by then it is already gone. Because the maps will change they should be a little longer and the size depending distance changes.