So during the 5 days I played I put in 35 hours and to my surprise I did not really get board until the very end even though was in really early development. Most of the time enemy variety was decent enough but have 2-4 more mobs in rotation per map I think would be great. I saw somewhere that someone said enemy movement was too generic and I kinda get what they meant. I know adding enemies that dash side to side to avoid your bullets might not feel to great to play against but some flying birds that swoop in and out like Minecraft phantoms would make it so every non projectile enemy is not just running up to you and hitting you. Having some enemies that try to reposition give makes it so you have to make choices about what enemy to prioritize so you don't get overwhelmed. In the current game state this does not really matter as everything dies so quickly most of the time, which leads me into my next point.
I was quite quick to call out difficulty levels being needed. As far as I know most roguelikes don't have difficulty settings. Dead cells has boss stem cells that for each successful run completed on a higher difficulty unlocks the next but this often leads to being stuck on a single difficulty for a long time and might not be optimal. If any difficulty is to be added I think looking at hades Hades heat system for inspiration might be a good option. Having 10+ different difficulty multipliers to choose from with most of them having different levels like 20/40/80% more enemy health and then combo that with Bosses have 1/2 additional phases or abilities could make so that every run is not a guaranteed win because if you don't die within 50+ runs or at the very least if you are not very close to dying the game looses interest if you are not self imposing challenges.
#🔐 General thoughts on difficulty, pacing, builds, enemy variety and some QoL
vivid mango
Builds and pacing currently were fine. The slow start is fine but during the last 5 hours I played it did feel like just waiting for 10 minutes until you took the first damage and had to start focusing. Pebble spawns gave something to do but it still felt very slow. I think that is another thing that makes needing difficulties for player staying over the games lifespan. The #1229457370242093197 as a challenge made something interesting to grind for in the community and in a game like this I think having people compete and getting meet each other was very fun. And so far during my time going for better times and higher damage under 30min I found myself using every grenade and weapon which shows that they all had their own identity making the choice actually have some impact. Will be interesting to see how the future weapons keep their own identity.
Some small QoL that will probably be fixed anyway but I gonna put it here. The timer not showing that it counts Curio selection does not feel too good. Im unsure if pausing it during curio selection or not is better but as long as it shows that it either counts it or not it should be good. Obviously more bosses are going to get added but Big Mac always having a slowing aura makes it so defeating him is always the same way. Giving bosses different effects like boss champions in Isaac would make each run feel more unique cause maybe you get a Mac that summons and heals enemies in a green area instead of slowing with the purple. Maybe there is a blue version that is super fast and does an AoE cleave that is harder to dodge.
I think its important to note that I've seen so many different ideas that all were good. And the fact that its the first revealed game by mad mushroom most likely puts a lot of pressure on the game. Everything does not have to be perfect and every idea does not have to be there at launch. Not saying to keep the game unreleased for more an extra 6 months just because you want to add everything people want. As long as the game releases in a state it was indented to release in. There will be plenty of extra time after release to add things that could help keep player retention and by then there will be more people agreeing on what specifically they want to see not just a single persons opinion.
If anyone else has things they've thought about during their time playing feel free to discuss here cause maybe we can see what things most people agree on
old python
I can just say that if it comes to difficulty it could be just increasing overtime just like mobs spawned with like checkpoints pinned in map quest just under this "kill X/XXX" you could have at start and every like 8min mission like "From now on enemies will be empowered with: [effect here]" and give like rng effect list with x-x% stats so even if you get the same effect like "faster towards the player" you can meet 15% or 30% enemy buff, and after you survive it you get like 35% of that buff power till the end of the map as a reward and to aid you in fighting enemies with the next buff or even add that reward as an additional quest like "untill the next enemy buff dont get lower than 70%HP" so you have to work a little in the map not only run 'n gun. Thats just one idea of mine.
brisk plinth
I think the monsters need to be a little harder and, like Postal was saying about Mac, I think monster spawning should be more randomized so that it isn’t the same exact run each time. The playtest was super fun on its own, and adding some variation like this would make it even more engaging and easier to get completely lost in. I also think there should be a bunch more types of monsters, although I’m sure that is already the plan, along with maps.
old python
Beggining of the map is ok for me, is the same as in RoR2, start with scattle into wasps etc. But ye the spawning that is locked onto player is to easy to get the pattern after few games. Like 5 games after you can easly play first 10mins knowing in some degree where next enemy will spawn at least in my case it was like that. A cool tweak for that would be enemies just spawn in a much wider area according to the player(s), get into "seek" mode and whenever they see the player they just rush to him. To counter smtn like killing them before they even come close you can give early game damage falloff indicated on the UI for like first 3mins of the run. The current spawn rules work the way they work bcs of this ease of early kill, so to prevent that enemies spawn like 5m around player so there is more action early. I like more the way RoR2 does it with slow peace and chill early before mayhem on like your 15-25min in.