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[Starver]

The (daily) tasks are very varied, I notice. As well as "X missions of <objective type>" and "Y missions on <map type>" I've been asked to spend/earn given amounts of of currency, buy/sell numbers of items, make a specified number of upgrades to mission/vendor stalls, and possibly some other sub-aims. The weekly task has (so far?) been an actual defined mission, but you have a basic freedom of the daily task to choose the manner of completion (or not to!) yet encourage ypu to perhaps do things that you haven't yet done.

(At the very least, if you're needing to spend 15,000+ money units on upgrading your much-upgraded crafting table another time, and don't have that, you could instead go for upgrading one of the mission-givers tbat you hadn't bothered much with until now, with somewhere around X,000 cost. It's not onerous, but it does make you consider getting out of any rut you're in. YMMV.)

[TTHSK]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm just going to bump this.  I let it slide a little* but kept with updates as suggested by the Store and over the last week or so I've actually been dipping back in during a free moment or three.

Daily and weekly tasks - took to them nicely, the daily ones.  Good to get me going for terrains/mission-types I might have otherwise passed over. If I could match "desert (2 missions)" with the two divferent mission types also being asked it made things feel nice. Today was a request for a Mystery, but because of the specified 3xMountain (see footnote!) I took a Dungeon or Ruin version (whichever it was) that was the first up for offer on the list.
It was then that I discovered I would not have to wait for the Weekly mission. It being in with the plot-mission giver (that I'd been avoiding 'til then, again as per footnote).

Skill points and 'buffs' - Good idea. I started with a whole bunch of them, so I spread them liberally around the available progressions. I think this is part of the reason I'm getting back from missions with respource items and equipment of levels in the 50s, 60s and even a couple of ones at 70. I like to 'farm' the levels, as you know. Plus (for some missions) there's the option to continue a map post win-condition, which has been let me stop worrying about putting off doing thongs, for fear of closing things too early! 

Craft requirements - Well, it was my loophole that I told you I found. Once I worked out why I wasn't getting my bought-materials onto the crafting table, took a bit of 'evening up' by adventuring for more goodies to sell before I could raise the crafting capability to use the things I'd bought. Obviously a new player (or one who hadn't dived headlong into the loophole!) is going to not be so disadvantaged as they play more evenly from the start.

All the extra mission-maps! - Well the Plateau had me confused for a brief moment, but it has something to it. Still to check I've tried out every locale and every mission-type (being mostly guided by the randomised Daily suggestions, yet to blitz a mission-vendor or go see if the "choose your own spec" guy is still down at his end-of-strand point), but quite a lot of development.

Real-time mode. - Not tried yet! Still sort of happy with ths sort-of-semi-turn-based play, TBH. Ironically, as 'turning' does not advancing NPC-time (or reloading, as it shouldn't), unlike moving. Also I suspect I might get lag if forcing that mode, so best left to people with snazzier tablets, eh?

I see you revamped the uses/durability system. Also I've yet to update all my equipment, but I think I'm getting more per-item use out of the ones I came this far through the updates with, already. I assume that's how you want it.

(Secondary to that, I got into an interesting situation where a sledgehammer I used (in a Dungeon-based Disruption mission, where item-containers were checkerboarded within alternating pillars, I'm sure you'll know the template layout) eventually got to "-20/5 durability", as in I used it 25 times to knock out the 25 pillars. I might PM you to tell you how I did it. Almost certainly not what you intended. )

(Tertiary to that, on my last try of a Mountain mission (for Ore Mining, if it matters) it pestered me about not having a Quench item in my equipment. I did have a bucket, though, there in my 'active inventory bar'. I'd used it in a prior Volcano mission. Went ahead with it anyway, after backing out first to check I'd not sold it or something, knowing that my high-spec Drake Leather boots were probably a good safeguard too! Unfortunately, being on a Mountain*, it plonked out as I was still adjusting my sight-level to glance upwards a little at the closest red dot noted from the initial check of the game-map. Still, the 'bucket check' may need checking, unless (because that was the only 'advisory') it wasn't a bucket that it needed, but something else I'd missed being added!)


So, yeah. Bump. Loads of new features, so readers of this new and old now know, even if they've not had the Play Store/whatever telling them about it.



* My elderly tablet running quite nicely apparently, as discussed, but crashing out at times. Not exclusively, but overwhelmingly at random early points on a Mountain map. I've herded cats merchants across forest and field and desert maps (wide area), I've pestered the bears-and-bees simultaneously you-know-where (for sheer opponent-count) and I've admired the new Plateau location (a much more limited area, but has some topological similarities) with virtually no crash-out, but the Mountain seems to be doing something. I've also refrained from trying to find the giant (in the plot-progression), as that's when it started misbehaving on me. Though you'll be relieved to hear that the recent "black bar" problem is totally gone!

Glad to see you're still enjoying it - I'll look into the bugs and crashes in mountain areas (and the douse weirdness).

The weekly task has (so far?) been an actual defined mission

It's more of a weekly dungeon mission rather than a weekly task - should end up with the same seed on all phones (I hope - unsure if the rng will be the same, depends on Unity).



I should mention: I've finished making additions for now apart from bug fixes/easy refinements. I think the game needs a bit of an overhaul to engage players more, so if I return to it most likely it will be with a half sequel (mostly featuring a different approach to the 'meta' surrounding missions - the rough idea is some kind of island map with different areas you explore through, working your way towards a few important areas to do/collect things, then a boss area, then repeat in a somewhat roguelike fashion (probably with either carry over bonuses or map type/etc. unlocks)).

[Parsely]

After trying the game again I agree. My main problem is that I shoot, and then all I can do is choose which direction to shuffle in while I wait for my attack to cool down so I can shoot again. There's not much more to the combat, there's not much in the way of story, probably the most interesting part of the game is experimenting with crafting different stuff.

I think this is a great skeleton for a linear RPG, this game reminds me of Doom RPG WADs or old first person console RPGs and has that same charm:
- You could add a little meat to the combat by giving us more choices for movement and things to manage other than our attack cooldown, ways to control the crowd, distract enemies, more and different kinds of attack. Standing still and turning around and around to assess everything when I'm surrounded is actually a really cool feeling, now imagine if I had more options for how to pick apart an encounter, then it would give YOU more choices for constructing challenging ones!
- You could give us a linear story to go through! It seemed like you had a lot of fun making those riddles and taking great care with placing the NPCs and choosing their dialogue, I would love to interact with the NPCs in a more concrete way so I can keep visiting them and seeing how they change, and affecting the world. Classic RPG stuff.
- When it comes to the crafting and the inventory stuff, I did say it was the most interesting part but at the same time it's the least unique thing about your game and I would be totally ambivalent if it was gone. I don't know if there's a way to make this better other than to replace it with something different, but it does fit a lot with the gameplay loop you set up for Expeditionaries.

TL;DR: Not gonna play Expeditionaries anymore but I'm ready to play the next game you make

[TTHSK]

After trying the game again I agree. My main problem is that I shoot, and then all I can do is choose which direction to shuffle in while I wait for my attack to cool down so I can shoot again. There's not much more to the combat, there's not much in the way of story, probably the most interesting part of the game is experimenting with crafting different stuff.

I think this is a great skeleton for a linear RPG, this game reminds me of Doom RPG WADs or old first person console RPGs and has that same charm:
- You could add a little meat to the combat by giving us more choices for movement and things to manage other than our attack cooldown, ways to control the crowd, distract enemies, more and different kinds of attack. Standing still and turning around and around to assess everything when I'm surrounded is actually a really cool feeling, now imagine if I had more options for how to pick apart an encounter, then it would give YOU more choices for constructing challenging ones!
- You could give us a linear story to go through! It seemed like you had a lot of fun making those riddles and taking great care with placing the NPCs and choosing their dialogue, I would love to interact with the NPCs in a more concrete way so I can keep visiting them and seeing how they change, and affecting the world. Classic RPG stuff.
- When it comes to the crafting and the inventory stuff, I did say it was the most interesting part but at the same time it's the least unique thing about your game and I would be totally ambivalent if it was gone. I don't know if there's a way to make this better other than to replace it with something different, but it does fit a lot with the gameplay loop you set up for Expeditionaries.

TL;DR: Not gonna play Expeditionaries anymore but I'm ready to play the next game you make

For combat - additions like that is something I've considered. As well as more weapon types, I've thought about adding a couple of additional action buttons you can fire off, things like some kind of lunge (which would be useful for crossing hazards), a knockback attack, lobbing a grenade, etc. Which actions you have would probably be controlled by one or two 'support' equipment slots. If I make a half-sequel, I'll have to include something like this.

Did you play through the main plot missions? (ends with the fire giant) Admittedly the plot is pretty thin, heh. I'd actually probably have less plot in any half-sequel, although on the other hand what you're doing would be more guided ('find the things, enter temple, fight boss' instead of 'do whatever' haha)

I'll probably leave the crafting mostly as-is (with some refinement on displaying what-does-what to make it more readable) - seems to do its job well, even if it's not a unique system

[Parsely]

Admittedly I didn't really get to much of the plot yeah... Either way it sounds like it'd be cool.

Combos that depend on enemy placement would be cool, that's a fun way to reward good positioning. Piercing attacks that go through groups, a lunge attack like you say that maybe lets you execute it multiple times as long as enemies are in range and you don't interrupt it by doing something else, AOEs, etc. That sounds awesome.