BETA 54 BETA 54: YES, INSPECTOR

Of course a full release is coming! But as per the Development Progress page posted yesterday (https://clockworkempires.com/development.html), the date is simply listed as Upcoming.

Myself personally, I really don't understand why anyone has much of a problem with the upkeep system. As Nicholas stated, it's kind of always been around, it just happened differently. Before, the module would just flat out break (leaving a pile of rubble to be cleaned up) and be repaired by someone bringing an item over (exactly like they do with the repair trunks) and repairing them. Only now, -I- get to say what the repair trunks are being made out of, whereas before it would be, say, linen for a cot, stone for a stone oven etc. Well what if I'm in a location that's poor on stone or I've gotten sidetracked and run out? With the old system, I'm just kinda SOL at this point. NOW, though, I have options. I have more control and say-so on what is going on.

In fairness, I should say that I've never got a HUGE colony going like some of you guys I've seen talking about, so maybe the whole thing gets far more difficult to keep up with or something after a certain point. But for me personally, it feels the the same as the old way save for the facts that I have more of an idea of when it's going to happen and I have an actual say in which of my commodities are being used for the repairs.

 

@Nicholas I think I miscommunicated....as in I do understand that it was a building management game...with the Lovecratian Mayo...never asked for more mayo, but the game doesn't feel balanced right now. Although every now and then adding some mustard in would just throw us all off.

What I was saying and is that Upkeep the way it is doesn't fit...and no I'm not a game designer or developer...I also know that game design is not easy...I like the way it was before as @PartTimeVillain said...I know things broke...it just seems like you so much other things to do to in the colony...especially now adding the buildings = population, which I thought was genius...since before more than half my colonists were sleeping on the floor of their shops. Sometimes I'd be nice and add a cot in there...to be nice. The special emphasis on upkeep just seems to take away from what you call the Mayo...They don't balance into a cohesive sandwich...it's not quite PB&J with Mayo but it just doesn't fit...I just think it's not a balanced sandwich...I wanted to give my honest opinion and how I'm feeling about it...It feels like the Upkeep system is the PB on the sandwich...of lovely meats and cheeses with a great mayo base. Not a lot of PB but enough to where it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

I do want to thank you for responding, though. That helped. It made me feel like I was being heard as a player. There are a lot of Threads on this forum (I don't know if I got that lingo right) on this subject...and I really hate being the annoying broken record...but I also am really not enjoying what was my favourite game in my game library (and it's pretty extensive) go to collecting dust. As I said, I'll try and give it a go again, and try and really give it a shot, despite my grievances. Like I said, I don't want to give up...and I've said that many times...on many threads...I don't want to give up on the game...I really don't. I just would like to see something that fits better and makes it fun again...instead of that constant worry of how many chests you have...always keeping an eye on that...which takes away from so much more the game offers. Again, I thank you again for responding...I do appreciate that. I do really hope it does get more attention, albeit, I do know there's a lot to the game that takes that higher priority. Maybe I'll try and give it another shot and develop some Stockholm Syndrome (<---meant as a JOKE) and learn to love it.

 

I share alot of the same feelings as the "anti-upkeep" people, I haven't played since it was implemented.I realize that it was buggy as hell at the time and now is the first time you have a stable system to give it an honest trial. I agree with Manamoo that I felt it was taking away from the rest of the game. I realize that some form of upkeep is necessary, but it shouldn't be a continual drain on your peons, resources and time like it was. It felt like an upkeep game with some occasional building that had random bandit attacks to try to set your progress back. I did love the game. I will try it with the new system now that it can have a fair trial, but I will still stand firm on my distaste for it.

I sell appliances and electronics for a living. Warranties are part of the necessary evil of what I do. If I had to tell everyone who bought a stove, they needed to buy a second appliance just to keep the first one running I would be out of business, sure occasional maintenance, with a chance of breaking, but upkeep? no. if anything, upkeep should be optional to prevent random breakages, or minor defects that affect how the workbench is being used. (add extra time, poor workmanship, totally wrong outcome of product,prevent a bench from being haunted, or possessed or even user injury) not something that provides "charges" that make a workbench a per use item. having dedicated workers for repairs/service would also be a nice touch. My point is, if im going to be punished, use the whips and chains that excite me, not the rod that discourages me.

just my 2 cents

 

Two crashes this morning playing.
Not sure what's happening.

 

Yup, mac version very crashy here too. No obvious causes.

 

Crash for me also.

 

@Nicholas - how about for the next week you ask your folks to focus on making the Mac version less crash?
It seems to be getting worse rather than improving.

The features are nice however as a Mac player I'm unable to enjoy them. On the most recent versions I've been unable to grow my colonies much before they crash out.

Thanks for any consideration.

 

SO, i'm here to report about my 400 hours game played on steam

I loved this game thinking it would be a colony simulator like no other, where you would collect a lot of material with a huge variety, would control the emotions of a happy colony, and modules inside the building? amazing !!, traders, another nations, science, farming, gattering, army, food, drink, all that stuff its all i ever want in the game! I LOVE YOU ALL TO MAKE IT HAPPENS

But it seems that the project is going to a different path, where you are more concerned with such thinks like upkeep, and events .. which in my opinion are ruining the game ..and every time my game is ruined by cultists, because you do not have control, no matter what you do your colonist called the obelisk and die in a terrible transformation, even When he drinks Langdun to heal himself, and bring panic, death , script error and crash to my game ... Also When u have a large population its worse, more people dying, and always my high skilled overseers .. lol
finally the 54 version I managed to get far in the game but yet it still remains..

In conclusion, I believe that if the project focus was to make a game that users can do all this in a perfect harmony, bringing more and more resources to increase the potential of the colony, more jobs, like fishing and everything u can put on it ... and let the events for later!

making the purpose of the game to create a big colony and after deal with events .. u know what i mean? before you reach the end game, u have lots of thing to do ...
take my savegame for exemple .. theres nothing else to do .. Unless deal with repeated events .. waiting for Eldritch instructions..

ps: sorry about my english , I'm from Brazil

 

Personally I love having the events, even early on, because otherwise things would get pretty dry for me. I get where you're coming from though, especially about how unclear the game makes avoiding total disaster with the major cult events (hint: ALWAYS perform frontier justice on the cult leader). I think the devs don't want an easy binary solution for dealing with this stuff (so killing cult leaders might not always work in future builds), otherwise we'd always choose that option. But yeah, right now it's a little TOO opaque.

 

I love the events too .. but not the cultist one lol .. but what i mean was finish the game balance first to do the events later.. like they make the laboratory upgradable only in this last patch .. it should be done a long time ago .. like all other building shoud be upgradable and its not yet .. the food system for exemple .. its seens not balanced. what is the requirement for a good nutrition on happiness indicator ?.. for upper class colonist for exemple they starving in my colony because some laborer eat the caviar instead him, .. like farmer stew made with one raw
vegetables have the same value when made with 2 different types...need more variety for cooked foods too.. i said finish the game first .. release the game and keep making event patchs...

 

Upkeep is just weird in terms of the rate of capital depreciation it implies. For heavily used items not so much, but for nearly unused things, well...

It's funny, sometimes I wonder if people are conditioned to associate cult => fun.

Like the posts about cults when the upkeep was first added.

 

Would it be possible to make upkeep for a module triggered by the number of times it has been used rather than an arbitrary amount of time? Would be more logical and mitigate a lot of the negativity about the upkeep system, I think.

 

That's what the old system was, the module needed repair after 30 uses.

 

A few minutes in to a new game, and tried to build a barracks - but I got the invisible foundations bug. Quit to main menu, tried a new embark, and the game crashed. Have attached the save file and crash dump.

 

Balance issue: It's possible to get stuck and be forced to restart. It takes stone to create a mine, and also stone to create a trade depot. You are guaranteed to have a certain amount of stone nearby in the start of the game, but if you happen to burn it building houses and workshops without thinking. you can end up stuck and have to restart the game.

That should probably be looked at. Almost happened to me. No stone on the whole swampy map. Luckily I built a trading office so I could trade for some, but if I had just wasted it on lower-class houses or whatever I would have had to reload or even restart.

Also, the way that middle class houses are gated is really annoying in the start. You have to start with a farm, kitchen and carpentry workshop, then add in a mine and a ceramics to get a solid stream of bricks. That's 5 overseers out of 7 right off the bat. It really railroads the beginning game. It's find after that though, so maybe it's okay to leave it like that, I just find it awkward.

 

I also noticed that they get angry about beds MUCH faster now with the new mood system...

 

They also get really angry about safety. Even when you have soldiers they can feel threatened, but that's usually because the fences aren't working right and colonists run and fight the fishpeople whenever they are around so they constantly get freaked out.