Hey. Been a while since I saw an update, and lately was wondering what you were working on. Nice to see you've got something new.
Starting out I chose the options in order, gaining enough attack power to cross the river. The option for food said "The group explores the area", but the previous story made it sound like you alone were washed down the river. I'm assuming this is generic text used throughout, including after you gain companions. It then said that "The group" had made it across and "confused your pursuers". This feels even more odd , as nothing up to this point mentioned any pursuers. Again, I'm assuming some general text that is reused and soon there will be pursuers, but at the start it feels off to not have any mention of pursuers and then evade them. The next options included playing, which again talked about multiple dinos. I'm assuming that as I gain more they will show along the lefty edge by the one I currently have, ans am fairly certain I only have 1 right now. If developing this game further. I would consider adding some alternate text based on the situation, such as size of group, and if being pursued.
I chose to go to a plateau. It mentioned a friendly looking dino, but none of the options let me interact with it. I suppose may the play option mentioned above was our "group" playing with the other dino? I get the impression we are going to be recruiting others to join us, so I was expecting some thing offering me the chance for that. It was listed as an "Unknown Event", so I'm guessing that it was a random chance what happens, and I could have gained them, depending on RNG.
So far, in each area, I've been doing the rest and food options, followed by the event. I'm not seeing a reason to do them in a different order. Maybe it affects the outcome of the event? Since the event requires "Attack" energy, it makes sense to build up more before doing it, and sometimes is needed to even do the event.
We are at a lake looking for food and water. Is it a fresh water lake? We should have plenty of water. A nod to the area you are in would be nice.
Crossing the Deepstone Lake, it again mentions pursuers. It really isn;t clear who or what is pursuing us.
I've reached the first location where there is an Unknown Event on 2 of the options. The Play & Relax that had an Unknown Event looks to have given me the same "Tumble Around" message I've seen before. The river crossing this time did result in being attacked, and "Ralph" losing 3 of their 5 HP. I think this is the first I am seeing their name. Having been attacked, the comments about pursuers better fit.
At this point I'm wondering why your energy is listed as Attack. There has only been one fight so far, and it seems like we tried to run away, rather than fight.
I entered the Darkmouth Cave. I like the change in music. It gives a nice sense of things are different here. Do you risk going deeper or flee while you can? As I was typing this the music cut out, and it took long enough to loop that I thought it wasn't going to. Not super long, but enough that I noticed. It may be the fact that I had paused to write comments that made it stand out more. A bit less delay would be nice.
I've reached the Rock Bridge. I'm at 95% Attack, though I'm not sure if that matters or is just energy to do things. It looks like RNG has favored me. I made it through, though I just noticed that my Attack has dropped to 0%. Maybe the high value helped get through? I also seem to be at full health again. I wasn't really monitoring that, so maybe it recovered during rest. With full screen there is a fair amount of space between the focal point of what is happening at the bottom center of the screen, and the top corners with stats. I glance at the Attack more often as it matters for doing things, but the HP means less for my general decision making.
I will acknowledge that at this point I have not tried leaving an area without doing all the options. I may need to try again and experiment, but this run is going well, so I don't want to mess around at the moment.
And now I am back at a Darkmouth Cave... I'm only at 25% Attack as I enter it. Depending on what happens inside, will I make it this time?
A Cave Crab attacked. Now there is the question. I can't rest, and if I go deeper, then decide to return, will I be hit again? I can't rest here, so if the Attack % matters, I'm not likely to make it through the cave. I'm going to play it safe and leave.
At the other area I paid attention to the dino at the top left when I chose to rest and saw the quick popup of -1 food +1 HP.
And upon exploring the area, what should I find... another Darkmouth Cave. Let's hope this one doesn't have any attackers inside. It does. Another crab. I'm at 60% this time, and only 2/5 HP. I'm going ahead. This was also the second location, and I'm not sure what my options will be going back. Next room allowed rest, putting me up to 75%. I made it through, though again am down to 0% Attack.
When I rested this time there were 3 icons. They go a bit too fast and I was slightly distracted, so did not catch them all.
A little ways further, and I found another cave. I'm only at 3/5 HP, and 50% Attack, so I'm going to leave. I'm also almost home.
I'm now watching the icons by the dino and Searching for food and resting don't seem to always go well. I'm now down to 2/5 HP, with a river to cross. If attacked, I'm dead... backing away again.
So close to home and things are going poorly. I'm losing HP as I rest and find food. I'm now down to 1/5! I should have tried the cave.
I made it home! Though my group is still just 1. As I played I learned the name of the dino is Ralph. It would be nice if there was a hover tooltip that showed the dino's name, and any other stats, over clicking on them brought up more details. Same for any other area with interesting info. After my note below about getting a fossil, those showing what you've collected would be nice.
I'm acknowledging that I read on the game page about dragging dinos in combat and fossils. I saw that there were fossils at some places, but never collected them. I restarted and this time started to mouse over and click on the images. It was not clear the first time through that you could do so. I had doen some mousing over and clicking before, but it was more on the icons and bigger things, and missed that I could click on the small rocks. I'm assuming that this is how I'd also get another dino to join the group.
I found a location with a dino and clicking on them gave me an option for them to join. Now it seems like you may have to choose what to do at a location, if there are multiple options. Do you have the dino join, or do you go for the fossil? Now that I know to look for them, I'm mousing over every rock to find them. Sometimes they blend in well. It is a nice little extra for those who know to look. There could be a bit more guidance as to the images being interactable in the game itself. I read the hints on the game page, but once I was in the game the images did not really stand out as more than a set piece, especially when nothing I initially clicked on did anything. Maybe make the first one have something large and more clear to teach players to click on things, so they will then look closer in the future.
Now that I'm watching stats more I'm reevaluating if I should always rest for the Attack boost, but lose food.
I reached a scene with both a fossil and a dino. I started with clicking on the dino, then went back up to see if I could also get the fossil. I moused over a rock where the dino had been and the cursor changed, so I clicked, and it popped up letting the dino join again, except the button did nothing. For a while I thought I was soft locked. Then I found the fossil and clicked on it. That allowed me to do the fossil interaction and move on.
I have encountered my first combat event. I was wondering on my first run through about the comments on dragging dinos around. I'm at 100% Attack, so I could flee, but I want to see how combat works. The Allosaurus has 33 HP, and at max we can do 17 damage, so 2 turns to beat it, with the second turn allowing 1 to move to defense... but I'm going to lose a dino. Darn. I did not pay attention and moved some to safety, but missed the updated calculations and now I'm worse off. I ended up fleeing, as I was going to lose even more. I took a lot of damage there and now I have everyone alive, but at 1 HP. A bit better paying attention and I might have been able to win without losing anyone, but pulling back to defense and missing how that altered damage was a mistake I made that hurt the outcome.
I rested, and now have a cave... I hope no surprise attacks inside. Everyone is at 2 HP. And I lost Brandon to a Crab. I had 70% so pushed through and made it with the rest of the group now at 3 HP.
The caves seem fairly common. That may just be due to how I pick locations. I've had bad luck getting attacked or slipping when crossing water, so favor other locations. I'm acknowledging that the crossings are probably similar to the caves and give a boost to getting home, and considering the crabs, are probably equal risk/reward.
I was attacked again, but had enough HP to not lose anyone. I was at 60% and made it through.
I went to a river next, but was too low on Attack to cross it. I ended up back at a cave. Was not attacked, and had 50% Attack. I made it through and that brought me home again. I found 5/7 Fossils, though for a portion of this run I was distracted by other things and forgot to check for them.
Overall a neat little game. I do want to replay the combat at some point and try to win to see how that goes. I still ended up losing a dino, so should have gone with the original way I saw to win, with losing 1, but everyone else staying at higher HP.