Hello everyone,
We’ve decided to take a slightly different approach to our dev diaries going forward. Whereas previously we always talked about finished features, we now want to make the posts a bit more open and also provide insights into our current thoughts, goals and features that are still in development.
One issue that has been on our minds since the Hospital Update is game balance. We’re currently seeing a problem, particularly among new players, where the game often feels too punishing. In our view, this is less down to individual mechanics being too difficult, and more to do with the fact that there are now hidden tricks and tactics that aren’t clearly communicated, yet are quite essential to gameplay.
At the same time, the RNG can sometimes very quickly put you in a situation where you’re just reacting to crisis after crisis. Once you find yourself in a ‘death spiral’, the game feels more like constantly putting out fires than making strategic decisions.
Nevertheless, we don’t simply want to reduce the game’s difficulty. Challenging situations and limited resources are an essential part of the experience and are what give moral choices their significance in the first place. Our aim, therefore, is not to make the game easier, but to make it more balanced and accessible.
Accordingly, in addition to new game content, we will also focus on balancing, revising certain mechanics and improving in-game communication in the coming months.
One major intended change is the introduction of a turn count for projects. Until now, projects had to be completed within a single turn. In future, there are to be some projects that will be available for several turns.
This is primarily intended to provide greater flexibility in delicate situations: if there are too few fit-for-duty soldiers available, the men are completely exhausted, or more pressing issues – such as rats or an overcrowded hospital – require attention, certain projects can sometimes be postponed.
We’re currently ironing out a few edge cases, such as what happens when you change levels or when you ask the Leutnant for a break. That said, this change has felt surprisingly good in our tests so far. Not only does it reduce unnecessary pressure, but it also adds another layer of strategy: which problems should you tackle straight away and which can wait? Will I even have the capacity later on to complete the postponed projects?
Another change that is likely to catch your eye straight away in the screenshot concerns project feedback. We have started to show not only the potential outcomes if a project is completed, but also the consequences if a project is not completed.
However, we soon came across another issue: many projects have hidden mechanisms or subsequent events that are currently barely communicated. We are therefore taking this opportunity to adjust the entire feedback system once again. The main challenge here lies with projects where values are influenced behind the scenes or have a wide variety of outcomes that cannot easily be made visible.
We are still trying to strike the right balance here and have also identified a few projects that we would like to revisit at a later date.
We’re curious to hear your thoughts on these changes. For anyone who missed the last announcement: over the coming months, we’ll be adopting a shorter update cycle, which means the next update shouldn’t be too far off.