Topic

Things that should be obvious

How much energy you are spending while afk. It should alert you.

Auction accessibity is an issue. Can't find it on the website except through the encyclopedia and the way you get to it in game is rather indirect as well.

Animals should have some sort of fullness rating.. Anything. I'd like to know how much I need to feed my pig before I make so many trips and spend too much energy in separate feedings to be worthwhile. Animal hunger is too vague.

While inventory food info is readily available, researching energy gains before acquiring a food is impossible!!! The encyclopedia should also reference the cost to produce the food.

While names help me determine what animal I just interacted with, it's not failproof. It would be nice if the animal were able to be tracked/highlighted.

Having the skill level needed to utilize an item prior to purchase should be readily apparent

Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • The last two have systems in place.  When you mouse over an animal, it will get a bubble over its head if there's a 'recommended' action for you to do (squeeze, massage, pet, milk, and nibble all get icons I know).  It used to happen more often and was thus a more visible way to see what you could still interact with, but people complained that it was visually unappealing and it was scaled back.

    There's an exclamation mark with a circle on items that you don't have the skill to use, and when you mouse over them, the tooltip will tell you the skill.  Ones you don't have are in red.

    Now, I'd love to see a color-blind mode so people who can't see the red things well have other options, but I probably need to make my own thread for that.
    Posted 18 months ago by Magic Monkey Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In order:
    AFK energy lose: How would you like this implemented?  An alert when? You lose energy just being in the world, AFK or not. (Just as in RL you lose energy while sleeping.)

    Auctions: There is a pretty big box to the right of the home screen that displays YOUR AUCTIONS is a link to all auctions. As to in game, I'm of two minds. There are many things in the menu under your name... but I also don't want it to right on main game screen as it is pretty backed with stuff. Also depends on how "important" Tiny Speck is trying to make auctions. (Still slightly unclear on this.)

    Not adverse to this as feeding/animal death seems pretty mysterious right now. Would be fine with a clear "speech" bubble that says "Oof! All full right now!" Actually, they might. I haven't experiment recently due to having a feeder and only hand feed for seeds.

    Never had this problem. As far as recipes, I am in favor of experimentation. It DOES tell you before you make something how much energy it costs. It would be hard to make clear how much "from scratch" it takes to make stuff since many recipes have many stages and it depends greatly on individual skill levels. (edited: On rereading, I see that you are referring to encyclopedia entries for some this. Descriptions might get more detailed when they have locked down the numbers more. They do change sometimes, test to test.

    (Magic answered the other two.)
    Posted 18 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, I was referring to non-inventory items for energy needs (encyclopedia) . Also how much energy you get from something before you get it. I can understand recipe trial and error, but there should be a way to see how much energy it would cost strictly by the final ingredients, not what it takes to make those ingredients as well. It could list energy per level or link back to your level and calculate it.

    Far as the feeding, I'd like to see a % full.

    Energy spent at rest, it could simply pop up with energy spent while afk when u return, or have some sort of floating numbers coming off your energy meter as it declines
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, the encyclo is pretty bare bones right now. I assume TS plans to expend it but doesn't spend too much time on it (more time on just getting the actual game together... again, I am just assuming). Until that time, the glitch wiki is an option. 

    It is possible, that TS WILL keep the encyclo bare bones. The advantage of this is that (1) that it limits game play "spoilers" on site and (2) actually creates an active community making things like the wiki... which greats a sense of "ownership." That is a valid philosophy for online game design.

    I'd be fine with a return from AFK alert. Doesn't add a whole lot than you'd get from just taking a glance at your energy before you leave and then when you return. (Then again, I log out if I'm gonna be away from the computer for longer than ten minutes as you don't gain anything from being "in world" while AFK.)
    Posted 18 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually, since energy is spent whether u r afk or being active, independent of specific action expenditures, I think there should be a way too see this happening. When you first start playing, you might not even notice it until you go . For me, I went afk and came back in the red and wondered wtf happened. Thru linger times Playing, I noticed a constant drain. Didn't know how much or what caused it. I'd like to have seen it in action
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The only problem is that to give a warning whenever it happens... since it always happens... means a constant pop up of " - 5 energy " (or whatever it is at your current level). Which would be pretty obnoxious.

    I guess I just assumed from the very start that you lost energy for doing nothing so it never occurred to me someone wouldn't know.
    Posted 18 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There is an energy and mood and xp meter at the top left of the game screen.  You can sit still and watch it drop.  You can do things and watch it rise. Since you now know that doing nothing in game drains you, just exit the world if you are going to be AFK for more than a few minutes.  I don't want any more alarms or messages cluttering up my screen - you ought to be paying attention to your status, and the first time you die will probably make you figure out that you need to pay attention to the meters.

    As for the energy cost/gain from things and the encyclopedia, I think that's part of sorting out how you want to play the game.  I'm fine with that info in a player wiki, not in the encyclopedia.  The official encyclopedia ought to be just enough to make you grok the concept of Egg Tree or Spice Mill or whatever, not be a manual for how to play.    Also, as you get more skills, energy requirements change. So, it would be very complicated to list for every single level what it costs to make, say sparkly powder, since with a high enough skill, you get more rocks per energy spent, more elements per energy spent, more compounds per energy spent, etc.  

    Again, part of the game is figuring out the story of your glitch.  Maybe you sort out that making earthshakers or bricks or awesome stews is your niche.  Maybe you garden.  Maybe you are a barnacle harvester.  But you should sort out for yourself what is efficient for you, not rely on some great manual to tell you the 'best' way to do x, y, z.

    In the Glitch Strategy and FAQ groups, players are coming up with spreadsheets that list energy spent and gained and profit/loss margins and the like.  This is great coming from the community.  But the beauty of the game, for me, is learning what works and what doesn't (for me) - this game is unique in that the journey is the game, not the goal (because there is no one single final goal).  If the game held my hand every step of the way, it would only be a button mashing game and would lose something special.
    Posted 18 months ago by zeeberk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • (because there is no one single final goal)

    Zee, you mean I wasn't about to win the game when I closed my browser??
    Posted 18 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I guess I will just stfu and keep my thoughts to myself. Obviously I'm a hand wanting to be held baby at best, and absolute retard at worst, according to current glitch culture
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • SourGrapes, please don't be like that. We are ALSO expressing our thoughts and opinions, not attacking you. Yes. We don't agree but that doesn't mean your opinions are invalid (and I don't thing ANYONE here as said that).

    We have explained how we see it and options that are there. But we aren't the Devs. Tiny Speck may very well agree that there needs to be more nudges for things that aren't clear. YOUR opinion matters to them and they NEED to see that view point.

    Just don't expect everyone to agree... especially those of us who've played for a long time. We've mostly forgotten what it is like to be a new player and we may be taking a lot for granted. We have also developed our opinions over many test. Some of us over a few resets. So new view points are GOOD.
    Posted 18 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • )

    I only get miffed when my ideas are connected with words I find insulting, like hand holding. I don't like my hand held throughout a game, but I don't want to have to make charts, diagrams, tables, graphs, and a personal encyclopedia in order to play it satisfactorily either :-p

    The wiki appears to be a big part of everything , I've never seen it. I will check it out though. Sometimes I do get annoyed by too much cross referencing, especially for things so simple as whether or not I should bother harvesting a tree, cooking a simple meal, or buying a dish. I like simpler things to be easy and obvious. I can also greatly appreciate mysteries. I like to figure things out on my own, just not while attempting with varying levels of success to just stay alive at the same time
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Er, you know that the energy gained is the cost of the food item right? I figured that out pretty quick by looking at the energy gain when I hovered over the eat menu items per item and then looking at the "info" for the item and seeing energy = cost/value of item.

    Also, energy expended to make an item will vary based on your skill level. When you are in the recipe for the item, it tells you how much energy is expended to make it - granted it doesn't roll up the cost of making all the various items - if that is important to you to track, then do it!! You can build a spreadsheet listing all your food items, and all the items required to make each item and then calculate the total energy expended to make each food item. I don't know what the percentage of change in reduced energy to make an item is per skill level, but I'm sure you could track that too. And then when you get it figured out, you can post it here for others to help them understand the workings behind the scenes of food processing/cooking/grilling, etc.

    I think they are purposefully vague in certain areas to leave some mystery for each of us to figure out...some are quite entertaining - for example, when someone commented in the forums that all the achievements are based on prime numbers...how geekily cool to observe that! So, cipher it out...and if you want to share, then share...I'm sure there are others that would love to know some of the 'secrets' of Glitch.
    Posted 18 months ago by ~Pink Flamingo~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I had assumed cost=gain, but wasn't entirely sure, as I've only experienced a limited number of items... Some of them gained by auctions. Money is a perpetual problem for me, so I try to gather my own food. Some enterprises are too costly for me to do, and I don't realize this until I'm in a bind, ie, losing energy by gathering food. I had an issue in that I studied animal kinship, and when low on energy I went looking for piggies, and found myself in an area with lots of unfed piggies. I turned to butterflies and started making cheese to eat, but had a hard time keeping track of which butterflies I had just massaged, and how many I had left. They're all flying like crazy and it was hard to check them all to find which one I had just massaged while getting a popup. I had tried to gather plants but got less energy back from eating than gathering. I was also low on morale, and didn't get much back. Had a hard time trying to find ways to get it up while nearly broke and in the red on energy
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • SG, looks like we cross posted, so sorry about the list comment after you said you didn't want to make lists. Looks like the groups from the other previous poster might be a good place to lurk to pick up knowledge.

    I know it's tough now at our levels to try to balance it all out, but my friends at the higher levels (20+) say to stick out and eventually it will get easier. One in particular rarely has any energy problems anymore and can always whip up something to eat or drink on a whim.

    A lot of it is trial and error and it is a learning process. The nice thing is that at reset all our work will get wiped away and we get to start fresh with the knowledge we're gaining now. By then, we should have good balanced game plans...
    Posted 18 months ago by ~Pink Flamingo~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have no doubts that I will know exactly what to do and how to do it at game open :-). I fully expect the problems I'm having now though, to translate into thousands of complainers at open, if left as is, which i don't think will be very fun. Tell the average gamer to research a wiki and start a spreadsheet just to get the basics down, sounds like a nuisance waiting to happen
    Posted 18 months ago by Purple Haze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @SG - I'm usually very anit-outside resources when it comes to games. I believe a good game is self-contained enough to be played without a user-based wiki or an extensive FAQ. I'm not saying Glitch is *there*, because it isn't... but it's a darned sight closer to it than when I originally started. The reason - player feedback about early stumbling blocks.

    You don't need a spreadsheet or a list or a whatever, unless you really want to work through the fine mechanics. There's no central calculator or function to tell you, if your LGT is X and your Gardening Y and your AK Z and your Sauce Q and your Grilling P then it will cost H to make a Simple BBQ. Glitch is a semi-complex world, and that is a whole lot of info to try and figure out for each of the 22 skills involved in the gathering/cooking processes.

    As for the official Encyclopedia being bare bones, I really hope they don't clutter it up with a whole lot of technical garbage and numbers. By not including the fine mechanics into the Encyclopedia, they also aren't saddled with the maintenance time to keep the text up to date. Figuring out energy cost/yield *is* a bit of fine mechanics.
    Posted 18 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink