General Godus discussion

Welp, I haven't unlocked all the timeline stuff but all I can say is it's more of the same. I'll probably wait till Lockhead gets around to updating GodusInspector, because there's no way I'm going to sit through all the construction timers. I could use gems, sure, but it's so much easier to just use GodusInspector to speed things up.

No one can ever say I don't try to give the game a fair shake first. Heck, had I not used gems a moment ago, I'd have been waiting about half an hour or so for my abodes to produce belief so I could continue with anything. Oh, but voyages, right? We've covered that, they're just not interesting enough on their own to kill time between the other timers.

That's sad to hear Gmr but not unexpected. I'm wondering whether hubworld will be next or anither wayworld (homeworld reset). After all you don't want to make it take too long for mobile players to get to the multiplayer fun.

Based on some of the answers given by Peter in the Q&A video's aswell as answers given by George on the steam boards.
I'm getting the feeling that 'in-office' they are not aware of the fact that there is a cheating tool out there that is actively being used by a portion of the community.

Worries such as the game being too tedious and boring if all timers were gone (or really short) aswell as the claim that "sacrificing followers for gems" being a valid option.
Considering we're already seeing players who cheat their way around the whole gem and belief collection bit so they can focus on other things instead.
It seems to me that atleast for these players, they're not concerned with those worries at all.


The same goes with the long-standing request to open up some of the debug tools and other tools to the players. Q&A vid 1's ending sequence where you see the smooth terrain sculpting being a pretty obvious one here. These things are being kept out of the game for whatever reason - when its pretty clear that a portion of the community would consider them to be great improvements to the game.

The fact that they only now are considering some form of selection menu for sculpting powers also goes to show their line of thinking up till now.
They want everything to be as simple and without hassle as possible. No selections, no sub-menu's. What you see is what you get.
And this is SEVERELY limiting the depth and flexibility of the game.

Right now Peter is reconsidering how stickers are handled - acknowledging a problem we pointed out when stickers were first implemented.
That the scaling and growth would not make for entertaining gameplay.
This isn't the first time this happened. We've pointed out troublespots before - only to see them respond to the problem 3~6 months later.

Making me think it is ESSENTIAL that they take a step back and look at their game from an as unbiased viewpoint as possible. And reconsider the way the game is shaped. Let go of the assumption that iOS players are incompetent sheep (they aren't, even if they prefer a more simpler game than a core PC player may) and look at the constraints imposed on design.

Some of these constraints will need to be adjusted or even outright removed if they want the game to be able to scale up properly.
I'm thinking settlements, resources and resource collection, belief and belief collection, gems and/or other 'divine currencies' and perhaps most of all - the followers and their pathfinding.
Many of these are already posing problems, and it will only get worse.


Leading towards some followup questions for the livestream/Q&A:
- Considering you mention that removing timers and such would make the game tedious. Are you aware that people are already using a tool to cheat in belief and gems to circumvent those very timers. Because they feel it makes the game more enjoyable.
- With the sticker mechanic being put up for review, would it be an idea to look over some of the other mechanics aswell to see how well they would stand up to the upscaling of the game as we advance through the ages? (Thinking of settlements, resources, belief, gems and followers/pathfinding.)


I think its strange that these concerns aren't being considered visibly in the design of Godus.
It seems odd to me that the focus is very much "now", targeting singular problems and applying band-aids rather than trying to resolve the underlying issues and preparing for future expansion.

Its probably part of Peter's history and work ethics. He's used to working under a publisher working towards press releases end hyping up what the game will be like in 6~12 or more months.
He's not used to showing results "now". Which is showing.

You can't really lay out the pieces and they say "Look guys, its a car! See, there's the engine... And there are the tires... These are the doors and windows... I know we're still missing a few pieces (like the breaks and the steering wheel) but don't you worry, we're working on it!" in the situation where people are already test-driving your product.

I think that's what they were getting at Hardly. At least, that's how I understood it. More packed=more unhappy. May not have been listening closely enough though.

Peter talked about it being decided through tech, so you can unlock more people in a house that makes people unhappy or a more spacious house that makes them happier. I'm suggesting that it be decided more through actions/commandments. I think it would be more interesting to cram people into settlements than manage it through house type.

Rather than using a direct toggle godpower, it makes much more sense to have underlying mechanics deal with this.
It shouldn't be as simple as flipping a switch and having them make more babies.

We're not a switchboard operator are we?


Fertility is naturally tied to public events. If things go well, people make more babies. If things don't go well, people make less babies.
So if you crap everyone together in poor living conditions, they're not gonna be as happy and are less likely to make more babies.
On the other hand if people are living the good life, having plenty of food, space to live and so on - then they will be more likely to make babies faster.

A key element here is the "soft cap", there should be a point where population growth levels out either because of space restrictions, because of food restrictions or because simple age mechanics (X babies are born, X people die off due to age and other circumstances).
Happiness and health will tie into increasing that limit, as will food (and variety of food), living conditions (slums vs mansions) and the like.

The followers have desires and free will, they will act on that with or without our interference. And based on how their desires and wishes are met (or blocked...) they will respond by giving us more resources to work with (more followers, more belief, more etc) and ultimately more and better powers.


You need the small gears to run smoothly if you want the big gears to function at all. And without that solid foundation its all just a disjointed mess of random mechanics and elements.

Recent numbers show that the US actually has a lower birth rate when the economy is down the shitter.
Less money/more poverty = less babies being born.

Maybe some people end up screwing around when they're sitting at home with nothing else to do, but birthrates indicate that atleast in some parts of the world poverty isn't a good incentive to make babies.

Yeah people put off procreation decisions during a recession for sure but if you compare poor countries to developed countries I think you'll find poor countries have higher fertility. Also I'm going to go out on a limb and say without evidence that there is probably a correlation between poor neighbourhoods and higher fertility in developed countries. So I think it's safe to say that if you create a slum in GODUS with people packed cheek to jowl the little godusites will breed like rabbits. Of course Im talking about present day fertility, I suspect back in the day fertility was much higher across the board.