The monsters are tougher than you.
You need to kill many to progress, but they hit hard, and your weapons aren't great.
This gives the game a grindy feel, but it's got nice details: the textures, the 1/4-block stairs, the unbreakable-by-default world, the un-minecraftian mobs, the periodic hints all give the game a very original feel, and would be nice to see in other games too.
If you're looking for someting different, you'll get that.
I won't object to your remark about the game being grindy, because it is fair since it is a deliberate choice on my part. But I try to make it fun. Not everyone will like every activity, though, and some don't have alternatives.
I am a bit suprised by your remarks about mobs hitting hard and weapons, but it is true that adjust the game difficult to myself mainly; I try to hold back a bit for other players. However, the intend is not to let players one-shot mobs with any weapon.
I think it is mentionned in the starting tips: you have to pick your fights - especially at the beginning when you can't spam wand shots. By the way, it is unclear to me if you are talking about the "tutorial tips" (once every 2 minutes, lasts about 40 minutes), or the daily tips (once every in-game day, 1 hours realtime). Were the tutorial tips helpful? Too slow, too fast, too wordy?
I'm glad you mentionned the 1/4 stairs (or 1/2 slabs), which is the sole division of block (except for wool which allows slabs as well). This is a limitation not everyone likes, but it's on purpose: be creative and do what you can with that and a "screwdriver".
Also a clarification: it is not the whole worlds which unbreakable, only the ruins that are generated all over the map (and some dungeons as well) cannot be dug. You can however go for lava (-100m) to get "silk touch" obsidian shards in order to repair the ruins, pierce walls to put windows etc.
Oh, and trees have this protection which is mainly relevant for servers: you have to cut them down from the top block (this deters tasteless playesr who take a couple of blocks from a trunk instead of taking down the whole tree). Next release will have an option to disable that because it serves no purpose in solo play - other than introducing a mini-challenge that I personally don't dislike, but YMMV.
I didn't notice that there were two types of hints. They were paced OK, with plenty of time to read & consider each one.
Occasionally they felt a bit spoiler-y (e.g. they told me exactly what to do with the purple taint).
The only mobs I managed to defeat were scorpions, mini-wasps, and mini-spiders.
The rest I eventually ran away from, even when I had a yellow wand. Nor did I notice many weaknesses: they all saw me coming, shot through my 1/2-block arrowslits, avoided my pitfall traps, and failed to be surprised when going round corners. So battles felt long & gladiatorial, rather than roguelike.
Indeed, I did go for tougher mobs rather than swarms of weak mobs (in general) because mob "AI" can be processing-heavy. For the same reason, I worked on making them a bit more clever, as you noticed, while staying fair: mobs do not sense you through walls, like I've seen in other games.
Also, the Mese wand is not a "better" weapon, as it deals only 2 damage (vs. 4 for bronze sword), especially in earlly game; it is just safer and useful in specific cases, but it does get better as your mana pool and regen increases.
Anyway, I kind of agree with your remark and I'm currently testing a HP nerf on the 2 most common mobs (beetles and scorpions).
The monsters are tougher than you. You need to kill many to progress, but they hit hard, and your weapons aren't great.
This gives the game a grindy feel, but it's got nice details: the textures, the 1/4-block stairs, the unbreakable-by-default world, the un-minecraftian mobs, the periodic hints all give the game a very original feel, and would be nice to see in other games too.
If you're looking for someting different, you'll get that.
Thanks for your review.
I won't object to your remark about the game being grindy, because it is fair since it is a deliberate choice on my part. But I try to make it fun. Not everyone will like every activity, though, and some don't have alternatives.
I am a bit suprised by your remarks about mobs hitting hard and weapons, but it is true that adjust the game difficult to myself mainly; I try to hold back a bit for other players. However, the intend is not to let players one-shot mobs with any weapon. I think it is mentionned in the starting tips: you have to pick your fights - especially at the beginning when you can't spam wand shots. By the way, it is unclear to me if you are talking about the "tutorial tips" (once every 2 minutes, lasts about 40 minutes), or the daily tips (once every in-game day, 1 hours realtime). Were the tutorial tips helpful? Too slow, too fast, too wordy?
I'm glad you mentionned the 1/4 stairs (or 1/2 slabs), which is the sole division of block (except for wool which allows slabs as well). This is a limitation not everyone likes, but it's on purpose: be creative and do what you can with that and a "screwdriver".
Also a clarification: it is not the whole worlds which unbreakable, only the ruins that are generated all over the map (and some dungeons as well) cannot be dug. You can however go for lava (-100m) to get "silk touch" obsidian shards in order to repair the ruins, pierce walls to put windows etc. Oh, and trees have this protection which is mainly relevant for servers: you have to cut them down from the top block (this deters tasteless playesr who take a couple of blocks from a trunk instead of taking down the whole tree). Next release will have an option to disable that because it serves no purpose in solo play - other than introducing a mini-challenge that I personally don't dislike, but YMMV.
I didn't notice that there were two types of hints. They were paced OK, with plenty of time to read & consider each one. Occasionally they felt a bit spoiler-y (e.g. they told me exactly what to do with the purple taint).
The only mobs I managed to defeat were scorpions, mini-wasps, and mini-spiders. The rest I eventually ran away from, even when I had a yellow wand. Nor did I notice many weaknesses: they all saw me coming, shot through my 1/2-block arrowslits, avoided my pitfall traps, and failed to be surprised when going round corners. So battles felt long & gladiatorial, rather than roguelike.
Indeed, I did go for tougher mobs rather than swarms of weak mobs (in general) because mob "AI" can be processing-heavy. For the same reason, I worked on making them a bit more clever, as you noticed, while staying fair: mobs do not sense you through walls, like I've seen in other games.
Also, the Mese wand is not a "better" weapon, as it deals only 2 damage (vs. 4 for bronze sword), especially in earlly game; it is just safer and useful in specific cases, but it does get better as your mana pool and regen increases.
Anyway, I kind of agree with your remark and I'm currently testing a HP nerf on the 2 most common mobs (beetles and scorpions).