@Triplefox @icefox You think I should make sound and animation a priority? I was going to work on the combat first - maybe make it a bit more tactical, and less clickmashy. But then, I do like to play my roguelikes in ASCII, and Dwarf Fortress is one of my favorite games... XD

@Angle @Triplefox Eh, do it in whatever order you like. I just know that a few very basic sounds and animations can go a long way.

@Triplefox @icefox Hmm, gotcha. I almost always prefer complexity and actual content over stylistic flair like that, but I'll admit, I am in a minority there. :/

@Angle @Triplefox I prefer complexity and actual content too. But stylistic stuff matters too, and you asked "what feels lacking?" So.

Sounds like you know what you want to do, so go do that! :D

@Triplefox @icefox Well, the main thing I was asking about was changes to the combat. Should I have attacking slow you down while it happens, or slow down the attacks, or slow down the creatures in general, or have them have less fatigue, or have attacking have higher fatigue costs, or...? :/

@Angle @Triplefox I can't tell very well what's going on, so!

@Triplefox @icefox Ah, gotcha. Can you see the little blue circle for your attacks? :/

@Angle @Triplefox I managed to attack twice! I'm not sure how. Mashing left-click and doing click-and-hold-and-release don't seem to do it reliably.

Welcome to users. Sucks, doesn't it? :-D

I'm on Linux so I don't know if that changes how input is handled. From what I know of LWJGL it shouldn't, but, never used it myself.

@Triplefox @icefox No, I'm on Linux myself. I guess I forgot to mention that you need to pick up the items that spawn on the round under you, navigate to your inventory with I, equip the weapon by dragging it to your red equipment slot, press escape to return to the map, and then attack by clicking? XD

@Angle @Triplefox I figured out the pick-up, but not the equipping. Herp derp.

@Triplefox @icefox Haha yeah I'll need to add a tutorial too. XD

@Angle @icefox it runs now and here is my feedback:

* Maybe show the keybindings in the gameplay screen, where I use them, instead of a separate help screen?
* There is very little feedback on the left click interactions. It doesn't highlight all the stuff I can click on and it took me many tries to pick up a weapon successfully
* I was completely unable to pay attention to how the combat behaved because the prior issues were still in my thoughts

(cont)

@icefox @Angle

* When I killed an enemy there were still "damage bubbles" bouncing around forever? I don't know if that's what they actually are
* When I pressed C I saw an unlock progression tree, but it refers to stats that are not named elsewhere, making it feel unclear/unrelated to the combat gameplay
* It crashed after I unlocked a few things(sadly the console disappeared, so no logs)

@Angle @icefox

basically the game does not have pleasant interactions yet, and the high-level RPG mechanics aren't surfacing in a way that I can comment on. If I mash the button and win, as a player I'm not going to care how it happened or what stats were involved.

@icefox @Angle (the next step in this progression is: you make the mechanics matter, and then players complain "i don't know why i died it's so hard" and you have to go back and figure out how to clarify everything)

@icefox @Triplefox The left over bubbles are items you can pick up. As for the rest, I'll take it into account. I think I'm going to finish my current change. and then make the game more communicative - more graphics, sounds, maybe some animations, etc.

@Angle @icefox regarding how to do mechanics, the principle i rely on for adding depth now is that i have to give a way to anticipate something forthcoming and then provide a way to respond to it(e.g. aiming or dodging a slow moving projectile, restoring my HP before i die). there are many ways of doing that so choosing one appropriate for your game tends to come back to how to make it accessible, and any philosophical goal you have in mind for it