Great Game, Great Concept, Some Ideas for Improvement

I want to preface that I enjoyed my past 3 hours of gameplay
enormously and thank the developers for taking the time to create
this stable, replayable, clean and fun game.

Also there seems to be good developer communication and that’s
great and far too often rare.

Now the noticeables:

Nice Touches

When you’re a high rank in your job, confidence seems to grow when
you return from work.

“Friends of Friends” - good idea.

“Friends’ Interests” - helps me pick where I want them to go.

Promotions

Different qualities of personal exercise equipment, car, etc. I would like
to see some effect the better car might have on happiness or confidence
though. Demonstrable effect. If it’s in game, I didn’t notice.

Gameplay Issues/Realism

This is a game based on reality so logically it should flow from that.

I do not think it would be unreasonable to assume that someone can
go to work, have a quick read, and then play a game of poker before
going to bed. I think perhaps the option for 2 activities per work day
and 3 on a weekend would be a better adjustment. Or at least make it
a gameplay option. A choice at start-up.
“How long do you want your days?: Short Shift/Normal/Grinder” etc.

Going shopping in the MIDDLE of a weekend day uses up 1 free time slot.
Going shopping in the BEGINNING of a weekend day uses up 2 free time
slots. Is this working as intended?

Not enough “buyables” add to “problem solving” or “reasoning” aspects
of IQ. I could not raise either one beyond 60-70%

Muscle/Fitness reduce too quickly. In real life, I worked out a lot at 16,
and now in my mid 20’s, I remained relatively active but never worked
out again. I have the same slim muscle base I’ve always had. In the
game terms perhaps I’d be at 40% muscle. That’s a 10 year span in
real life, incidentally. Muscle should reduce at the same rate as IQ,
and Fitness should reduce twice as fast, with a modifier if the player is
not eating right.

No consistent builder for happiness. There is one jokebook in game. Once
you use it, it’s done.

No way to “grind” for a good social outing. Example: If I return from work
in a bad mood, and I want to get emotionally ready to hang out with
someone, I can’t quickly boost up happiness to do this, and then hang out.
You simply DON’T hang out if your mood is down. This goes back to the
3-activities-a-day suggestion.

What I’d Like to See:

*Promotion Titles.

Level 1 of Waiter would be “Bus Boy.” Level 2 would be Food Runner.
Level 3 would be Back Server, Level 4 would be Front Server. Level 5
would be Lead Server. Level 6 would be Assistant Manager. Or something.

I would be willing to write these if the devs want to get with me on this
matter.

*Promotion Bonuses for higher end jobs. “You have been promoted to
level 4, and been offered a $500.00 bonus!”

*Recruitment offers when you complete a diploma.

*Accurate finance/wages: Waiter’s wage of $100.00 a day, perhaps,
Surgeon’s Wage of $1000.00 per day, laptop costing $1,500… Luxury
car costing $50,000…(these are in dollars; I’m in the states. I could make
the necessary conversion for pounds)…Dog costing $500.00, Weight
set at $1200, etc.

*More Buyables: WAY more buyables. A few more car options, clothing
options, stereo equipment, furnishings–and for that matter,

*Real estate. I’m not saying turn it into the sims, but just make the
background of the interface turn into a better interior of a house, as the
player continues to upgrade his home. At start, it looks roughly like the
interior of a basic apartment, but down the road when you purchase an
average home, you get a reasonable living room background. Toward
the end when you buy a grand home, you see your character’s
background has sprawling pillars and antique furniture. Maybe a window
leading to the outside showing the car you currently own.

*More hirable employees - Upgrade cleaning service into maid. Upgrade
for a chef, and your happiness increases with better foods, have a
clickable “chauffer” option when you drive to work. Make a buyable car
a limo to accomplish this.

*Make a tree based on what skills you possess as to what field of science
you’ll actually be researching for. Make success based on mood+IQ+
Confidence, etc. Have a possibility for patented inventions that make
a lot of money.

Just to give a sense that what you do in the game matters. Your new
options will also have an effect on your mood.

Great feedback, thanks for this, and I’ll keep all of this is mind as I work on the next patch. Just added a new avatar to the internet updates BTW

I think this is a bad idea. I mean, smaller monetary values are easier to work with, and all you have to do is imagine comparable values. A lot of the stuff is priced accurately, although a low-end waiter might expect to make £20-30 a day instead of £7-12, it saves having loads of confusing 0’s later on :slight_smile:

In real life, if you come home from work in a bad mood, you go out to see your friends in order to cheer yourself up, you don’t cheer yourself up first and then go to see them?

In game what would the maid do (that’s better than just cleaners)? I’m thinking, perhaps, automatically stock up on pet food on weekends (or when it gets low if you have a laptop) but there needs to be more.

Building on your chef idea, I think a good idea would be to have your cooking skill determine what kinds of meals you can cook, and your wealth where you can shop for food (say, on the shopping section, you get a choice of SupaCheap SupaMarkets, Middleman & Co. and H. Posh-Smithe, which you just select, each having a weekly price. The more expensive the food, the healthier it is). At the start of the week, say on a Monday, you have to select your type of meals for the week (low skill - microwave burgers, chips, sandwhiches, you get the idea). This effects in turn your happiness, fitness and health slightly? Also, if you pay for a personal cook, he’s very highly skilled.

Why more car options? Although maybe - cheap car, reasonably priced car and then expensive car would be better. Also, there is a point you can’t pay for reasoning and problem solving (although I think Su Doku does problem solving) - for reasoning you have to make friends with people who improve the attribute.

Your real estate idea is good. :smiley: What do you mean by skills tree? Something similar to technology trees in Civ games?