Hi Cliffski,
Enjoying the game, purchased originally in March '17, had a few plays and back again now that there’s more content. No stability issues with the unstable build on steam. My 2 cents:
1 - Initially i tried to keep up with the AI and focus on researching new features so i didn’t get left behind, as figured that was the best strategy considering the imapct on feature value once others have them, but this strat kept failing. Then i switched to researching production slots, kept costs down and fewer new features - this has gone much better. The tutorial gave me the impression you would go for a few new features first then gradually improve production mechanisms - perhaps emphasise the new slots aspect more, as they appeared to be more mid game features to me rather than something to crack straight onto?
2 - Research is the the single aspect i think needs the most improvement. The info is there, but its not clear at a glance what creates a new slot, whats passive, and what is an upgrade. Perhaps give new slots a heavy border, upgrades a dotted border and passive a normal border? Also, a lot of research trees in games let you click on one feature and it will auto-add all the pre-requisites to the queue, that would be good to replicate as finding the right feature can be frustrating.
3 - A way to see/apply all possible upgrades in the factory would be good, without having to click on each slot. So just a separate window/list.
The ‘buy all’ action is useful, but could it be separated out into 3 tiers, as i don’t always want to buy robots for the entire factory? Buy for that slot, buy for all of that type of slot, and buy for all slots of all types?
4 - Settings prices. Constantly keeping them at the ‘correct’ level is fiddly. Could you have a tick box allowing you to either/both ‘set % profit margin as X%’ or ‘set profit value as $1,000’ etc, so as the resource prices and your factory costs fluctuate the profit stays relatively stable?
5 - Prices again. Can you mark on the sliding scale where the boundaries are between the levels, so quicker to drag to your intended level.
6 - Variable resource importers. To add a bit more strategy to what goes where, could the importers be of different types. So some do raw materials only, some finished products, some both etc. Would make it harder and less linear, not that I’ve mastered it yet.
7 - Resource stockpiles. I didn’t get that ‘copy stockpile’ meant copy the settings of a type of slot. (Maybe i missed it in the tutorial). I set up a stockpile to supply various slots, then tried to copy that stockpiles settings, and then understood what it did, and it makes sense, but could we have a setting to copy our own stockpile settings?
8 - Templates - any plans to let us lay out and save some templates, to transfer between games. I’d imagine could be useful for repeated play once you’re more advanced.
9 - you asked about the wall art. Think you could have some fun with this, play on motivational posters and slogans. Your factory needs you to work more efficiently!, Keep calm and work faster. ‘Minutes since last defect’ instead of days without an accident. Also, been reading the blog, you do love your advertising, how about adverts for your games in there, or less intrusively have the workers chatting about them in speech bubbles. Would give a reason to zoom in and see what they are babbling about.
10 - Finance. How about a burn rate / anticipated insolvency date, plus a version if you remove research and car design (semi EBIT). might help players avoid the need for loans. Or instead of being offered a loan should you first be forced to sell off offices.
And now my factory beckons, later
Angus