User:Zobo

To DerelictHelmsman on the new changes to BotN:

Positives:

First, the surprise sex change is good.

Excitement is a decent mechanic, nothing bad to say about that.

Stats having ranks is.. mixed. The ranking is pretty ubiquitous in anime-related matters, JRPGs and such. Feels derivative, but is ultimately just fine.

Now for the critique:

World level is tedious

This design of the game uses so-called Skinner box mechanics, which are common : familiar and addictive. The user gets progress indicators and works to unlock stuff. There is a sense of accomplishment, so it is natural for people to find the game interesting - at first. However what they are doing is work that is not actually fulfilling and thus with enough repetition will cause a loss of interest.

I thought money mechanics were something you wanted to get rid of? Granted world level points are not called money, but they essentially are a very focused form of it.

The system calls to capture and release a number of nephs of each barn, and this work will only increase with future new neph types and every save reset will cause another hit. Several people skip the gate progression with cheats but many actually enjoy playing the game with them again - that will not happen with world level. There is no skill involved, just repetitive capturing and releasing. 13 different levels to raise, with a buttload of nephs for each.

Also, once you level up your world you may lose access to some neph presets, and if you do not have access to creator mode you can not get that access back. It is also not clear when or why this happens. There will be frustration.

Loss of breeding focus

The introduction of trait levels could be handled better. Your fertile 1 is approaching obsolescence once fertile 2 nephs start to show up, which in turn will be made next to useless by the final tier of fertile 3.

This is even worse because these higher trait levels are not created, they are discovered. Remember your opinion used to be to make nephs in the wild have less traits because this is supposed to be a breeding game? Finding nephs with many traits and high level ones reduces that.

The nephs at higher world levels spawn with loads of traits, this makes traits less unique, interesting and quite frankly a bit messy. Once you have over 7 traits it becomes "a bunch of traits" to many people.

You wanted end game content? The higher trait levels would have worked wonders if you created them in the breeding yard, using two previous level nephs and some extra formula (alchemy or similar) based on further quests given by the blessed nephs (continuing our fertile example, you already have a nice blessed bovaeur who could give you the quest for creating fertile-2. (would necessitate nephs could carry traits they do not show, like females with hung)

I have followed the chatter and already "too easy" is said by several people. The system as created does not satisfy "end game content" goal.

Bad scaling

The stats go up wildly. Numbers in the thousands are there, and if they are not overpowered that means the low numbers in the early game are pretty much useless.

A way to have scaling that is meaningful in low and higher numbers exists in the logarithmic function space, but simple linear ones just can not work with early and late game both. In those cases handing the design over to someone who understands probabilities and mathematical functions is required.

The extra xp traits make levelling too fast once stacked which in turn means levels are pretty much not achievements anymore. More numbers is not inherently better.

Meaningful numbers are always preferable. Going from 1325 to 1456 is not as inherently significant as going from 13 to 14, regardless of the fact they have the same ratio - mathematically speaking. The numbers are too large to be intuitive.

Following the rules makes for a worse sex game.

Fertility was nerfed hard because the scaling was cut back. Then a new mechanic of repeated breedings was introduced so you could get offspring at somewhat tolerable rates. That requires UI work which you love, and.... Ask 20 people this: which one is hotter? Having 2 nephs have at it 6 times, or have a single female bred by 6 different nephs in turn, or have a male (or futa) go on 6 different females? I would wager your answers would NOT include the first choice once.

What about using the same sex position again and again? Same thing. You spawn your nephs with desired sex, species, sex position (failing to have a preferred time of day) which in fact can mean to many people if you choose your partners just how you want, use a sex position you like (or just vary it up from one breeding to another) you are actually penalized.

A bonus in one thing is also a penalty for all others, because the game is balanced thinking that one thing will be chosen most of the time. While many of the preferences can be changed, the fact remains every neph has all of them from birth, and the sex part of this game is guided to have a best route for each neph. To quote a user: "so many nephs... this wasnt how i played before at all.."

Presently nephs can really want something they would never have seen or experienced. You don't have the barn or the access to them. How does a cave-dwelling goblin really fancy a seraphim who are still isolated in the sky island?

A mechanic of favourites might be decent, if you gained those upon experiencing them. Breed your foxen with dragons and have a chance the foxen will really like dragons from that point forward, or she finds out just thinking about lifted position makes her wet. Having such prejudices from the start really doesn't make the neph unique, since they all have them.

Gaining these should be occasional at best - so having them has meaning, and balance is calculated without them so they are things that are a straight benefit from the mass, which make the neph have more personality.

Conclusion:

The new system makes the game less fun, less hot and more tedious. It reduces replayability, makes the nephs less interesting. People want more content so you will gain much praise at first - familiar mechanics seem at first fine, and large numbers may seem exciting. It's only with a bit of time you will start seeing people lose interest. I expect they will just quietly leave, as the game just doesn't feel fun anymore.