Zearin
Larva
I kept thinking feedback in my head each time I played, and it finally “collected” enough for me to feel the need to post it.
suggestions
feedback
questions
suggestions
new blog post types ✍
While you are rebuilding your game engine, I kept thinking it would be really cool if you were able to post some more “behind the scenes” stuff.
- Post about your design process
I thoroughly enjoyed your post about the upgrades to the ants’ pathfinding algorithm! I would love more posts about your design process (graphically, gameplay-wise, and software architecture-wise).
- Post about music
- (First, I have to say: This game’s music is fantastic! Each tier’s music is better than the last. The layering of instruments is beautiful. The way it parallel’s the game’s day/night cycles is great. And most importantly, the game’s soundtrack does not burn itself out—which is no easy task when composing music that is designed to loop endlessly.)
- Way back when Diablo II (yup…“2”) came out, the game’s composer Matt Uelmann (sp?) would periodically release an MP3 of a particular song on the game’s website, along with a short article (usually a couple of paragraphs) about it. He would describe motifs, instrument choices, ways the music was shaped to fit a particular section of the game, and so on. He even posted some unreleased tracks that didn’t make the game, and explained why he decided to cut them.
If your composer is up to it, I can’t get enough of this stuff!
- Also: Who IS your composer??? Your team always lists 3 developers, but I have not been able to locate the person who has created your awesome music. This person deserves to be credited as one of the team!
- (First, I have to say: This game’s music is fantastic! Each tier’s music is better than the last. The layering of instruments is beautiful. The way it parallel’s the game’s day/night cycles is great. And most importantly, the game’s soundtrack does not burn itself out—which is no easy task when composing music that is designed to loop endlessly.)
game features
- Ingame “backstory” (a la Age of Empires/Mythology)
One of my favorite features from the Age of Empires Series & Age of Mythology games was the ability to select any unit, and right-click its portrait to open up some historical info about it. These blurbs would mostly be a historical summary, but would sometimes describe how a the game unit might (for example) deviate from history, or cite sources that “inspired” the unit’s design. I would love this about the ants, the other critters in the undergrowth, and perhaps even some plants (insofar as their interactions with critters or ecological role).
feedback
game UI
- ui: readability of numbers
When my scores (food, leaves, population, etc.) are on top of bright backgrounds (especially brood tiles, most of all fungus-filled leafcutter brood tiles), they are unreadable. Please fix this! Just add a little stroke or text shadow to the numbers. It would make such a huge difference.
- picture mode controls
I play EOTU on a laptop with a trackpad (yes, really!). This makes it impossible for me to move the camera around after entering picture mode. (Nope, no numpad—not even with modifier keys.)
But trackpads are so versatile, I am always wanting to be able to move the camera using trackpad gestures…but the game won’t let me! Why not allow use of the trackpad, or even a mouse (let’s just say “pointer”) to control the camera? Using a mouse with modifier keys (shift, control, etc.) to toggle things like zoom, pitch, pan, etc. would be way easier
artwork
- artwork: the leafcutter’s cut leaves
The leafcutter update has been spectacular in many ways, especially the artwork. The only nitpick I have is the look of the cut leaves! The leaves (on the plants) after being cut look like they were chewed by catterpillars or grasshoppers or something, but not leafcutter ants. One thing I love about watching real leafcutters cut leaves is the arcs they leave behind after removing a chunk. My favorite reference footage is this time-lapse of leafcutters doing their eponymous work. Compare the missing chunks on the plants’ leaves with the more “haphazard” looking, catterpillar-esque chewed look in the game.
gameplay
- gameplay: difficulty medium vs. hard
I’ve seen some forum posts by others discussing the maximum level of difficulty. I love love love this game! But I’m nowhere near that good. So, please allow me to share an intermediate-level player’s viewpoint on the difficulty levels.
I usually find medium difficulty to be a good fit…at first. Since the game is in pre-release, I end up re-playing the campaign levels a lot. (I like the freeplay okay, but I love the campaign!) In short order, I usually end up finding that medium is too easy for me.
But when I switch over to hard, I am usually crushed. I can beat perhaps the first two tier 1 levels on Hard. MAYBE the tier 2 levels if I give it enough tries. By tier 3 and leafcutters, I struggle to even make it halfway.
The jump in difficulty from medium ▶︎ hard feels a little too much. I know there are lots of players who are looking to increase the maximum difficulty, and that’s totally fine. Just don’t forget to offer us upper-mid-level players a good difficulty option, too.
(QQ: Apart from stronger enemies, and more underground critters, does difficulty affect anything else?)
- gameplay: adult leaf-mimic mantis
And here’s the rub! The adult leaf-mimic mantis is awesome. It looks gorgeous. It moves beautifully. Its minimap invisibility is sinister (and appropriate!). But as someone who has been playing the leafcutter levels on medium difficulty over and over again, I can say this with certainty:
You must control the spawn rates for leaf-mimic mantids more carefully than other critters!
In some games, I don’t even see an adult mantis. In other games, I can be dominating the army ants, when suddenly a HANDFUL of these tough assassins take down half my army before I even know they’re there.
I get the stealth part. I think a camouflaged creature being invisible on the minimap is brilliant. But the spawn rates need to be controlled somehow. This is the only caveat to my statement above, about medium feeling just a bit-too-easy—when four (FOUR!) adult mantids pop out and eat my army while simultaneously blocking all access to more leaves, it feels anything but “medium”.
This is my only serious issue with the spawn rates. I think it has to do with the stealth, fast ant-killing rate, and self-healing abilities of the adult mantis. It should be formidable. It just shouldn’t be spawning 4 at a time (on medium, anyway).
(Either that, or…perhaps increase the cool-down of its eat-to-heal ability? )
- gameplay: more than HP
I was so excited to see your post about ants crawling up and onto their opponents! Anything that makes combat more interesting than critters standing face-to-face, biting each other’s HP down to zero is a plus.
I have one feature request to take this further: Could you develop a mechanic where, when sufficient ants are facing a large opponent, some ants could “pin” legs or appendages of the enemy?
Apart from crawling onto opponents, ants’ cooperation really shines when they team up to immobilize huge creatures (relative to ants) by anchoring down its limbs, allowing other ants easier access for attack. I’ve seen it in so many documentaries that I shouldn’t be amazed any more…but I still am, always. It never gets old watching ants fearlessly take on things a hundred times their size!
questions
- AI: When moving ants between pheromone groups, how do you determine when an ant “switches” to the new group?
- AI: When I move a pheromone marker to a new location, how do you determine when an ant “switches” to the new location?
(The speed of the ants switching over has incredible variability. I have no issues with that—I’m just curious as to why!)
- AI: Every so often, an ant will hang out around the entrance of the nest, and sort of pace about for a little while. What’s it doing?
- Stats: Are the queen’s initial workers identical to level 1 workers? (If not, how are they different?)