Nodeborne
This game is in early alpha! Feedback welcome. Please see devlogs for more info. Thank you for playing my game!
Development log
- Nodeborne v0.2.0 Release!20 days ago
- Version 0.2.0 Progress34 days ago
- Version 0.1.2 Release!43 days ago
- Commands commands and more commands45 days ago
- Big Systems Day47 days ago
- Devlog: Actual Progression, Multi-Core Support, and Save Wipes (Sorry!)48 days ago
Comments
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Very interesting! I enjoyed the command line feature and the setup. Since this is an alpha, I will limit my review to issues I found that hurt the playability:
#1 You play a bit, get to 2 cores and have 2 active processes. Then save the game and reload, processes are stopped, but you cannot start them, the game says you dont have available cores.
# 2 After situation #1, doing a newgame and reloading the page, number of cores and cycles do not get reset. Still cannot start new processes, and processes are all stopped. Had to force some deep cache clean for things to trully restart.
# 3 the 'copy' command needs better explanation for the [args] (lot of players are not familiar with command line)
# 4 the 'copy' command gives an error when it tries the js command for navigator.clipboard.writeText. An error is shown in the screen the first time, and copying never actually works.
# 5 (not a bad thing, just a feedback in the experiene) getting to 10k cycles can take a lot of semi-idle time. Waiting for cycles to go up, upgrading process, repeat. It takes a couple minutes, and its a bit boring when you have already explored all nodes. Maybe its lacking content, or guideline to start pushing for 10k earlier while exploring, or it could be a goal that is too high. Or its working as intended and this is just an individual opinion.
Cant wait for more content!
Thank you so much for the feedback! This is huge and I really thank everyone who liked the game enough to comment! Im going to address each of your points in turn
1) This has not happened to any of my internal playtesters. Honestly im not sure how to adresss it. Are you able to recreate this behaviour or is it just simply bricked for you each time you get to this point?
2) I guess see above :)
3) This is great feedback! I have implemented a verbage change now, so it should be more clear.
4) Yeah... this has been an issue for some players and not others. What browser are you using and what version is that browser? Unity doesnt have a good way to write to clipboard innately, I had to write some javascript to do so and it seems its hanging for certain people. This is not an issue on the steam build I have running, but it is for the web version.
5) 10k is simply a placeholder! It just takes you to the end of the alpha. I had an internal playtester do it in an hour with *very* active playing and upgrading, but it isnt meant to be readily attainable. Based on my math its about a day if you upgrade nothing, which I was using to test offline gains!
Seriously thank you so much for playing, your feedback has gone in my dev-doc and ill be using it to make everything better. I hope you'll follow the project and try again in the future!
Just giving extra data on the issue: I'm playing in Google Chrome v142, on a Windows machine.
I guess the game has an autosave somewhere, because I just re-opened it and some of my stuff was still there, even though I did not use the 'savegame' cmd.
The game opened. Info on offline progress says some 42mil cycles. Still says I have 6 used cores out of 7 (6/7). cmd 'listprocesses' says 'no processes running' (there should be 6). I start at srv.1, which is stopped, and at level 1 (it was level 20 before). I'm able to start the cycles on srv.1 because still have that extra available core. All other srvs say stopped, and cannot be started because all cores already in use.
The game does have a hidden autosave, im making it more apparent next patch with a little message that the game has saved.
This is interesting, thanks for the information. Does the newgame command clear it up and allow you to start over at least? And if so, can you reproduce this issue?
EDIT: I also just learned that newgame doesnt quite work right on that build. I just fixed it on v0.2.0, oops. You may be stuck, sorry :/
The new game version will come with a save-wipe though, so youll start fresh
Promising!
I know using terminal can bring a hacking/retro/matrix vibe (or nostalagia? I am quite young so idk) but despite you get used to the commands as you play, I wonder if unlocking some buttons (or new commands? Like auto-setting best cycles process) to do some complex task (like changing node processing, currently you must connect, stop, connect, start) could add some QoL. That can fit with the story: I guess commands becomes natural for that AI as it's its life. Plus if you still see all the primary commands of the complex task being quickly executed in the terminal it may bring to the player a feeling of becoming a stronger AI, like you're doing bigger and harder computer things
I am eager to see more parts of the AI interacting with the world! :)
Thank you for playing!
I have no intention on adding buttons, but absolutely to some more complex commands. Maybe a force start that stops all other processes and starts the one you're on. Thats a great idea! Im really glad you enjoyed it, should be an update soon, but its so early that saves are going to be broken for a little while, and will need a reset. But the next area should be coming!
I love hacking themed games, but as IRL dev and ex unix admin I can be too critical to terminal QOL.
And sorry for my English...
Some feedback:
1) command like home to return back to own server must have.
2) you have limited commands make server names also autocomplete or use shortcuts also looks must have for me.
3) game feels too slow for current number of features.
4) If You added "IRL" camera to game. It's cool if its shows activity for currently mining server. (or its already implemented and I just missing?)
Try first steps in BitBurner if you don't.
Terminal good in first place for his scripting features and modern terminals also good for hotkeys and autocomplete. If You don't implement any of it buttons looks better.
Thank you so much for your long thought out reply. I am going to try to address each of your numbers in turn, but let me know if I miss one.
1) Already in the works! About 50% coded. I need to make sure it behaves well. The network will be vast and spiraling, so I think I want the ability for the player to change their "home"
2) Autocomplete is implemented, you just need to start the name of the server you want to go to. Almost everything should be auto-completeable!
3) Definitely, I am going to be adding some more currencies in the future but this is a good point for now! The game is tiny, only four nodes, so I could probably speed it up a bit. Eventually youll have to manage the AIs power in addition to the process cores.
4) The default camera is one of the cameras! Im not sure exactly what you mean, but there will be more IP cameras that youll be able to control and pan, with additional small commands to be able to interact with the world.
Again thank you so much for your time playing, you brought up a bunch of really valuable points that went right into my working issues doc. If you find anything else as I update, if you keep playing, I would love to hear about it
Glad to hear this. It's sounds like a lot of potential...
2) hmm, strange I missed this.
I will be happy to leave new feedback with next updates.
Please do something about text scaling for higher resolution screens in future updates. If the entire UI is a command line the text truly does need to be sized so that you can read it.
I haven't tested on anything other than my ultrawide and smaller. Are you on a 4k screen? Thanks for playing and also bringing this to my attention, its not something I even thought about.
I will say I enjoyed what you have going so far, all UI issues aside.
Wow that is TINY lol. Okay I'll look into scaling and see if I cant get that fixed ASAP. Im really glad you are enjoying it! I am adding more Story/Nodes hopefully within the week. I also want to add more cameras lookout out over different points of the world.