10 hours of gameplay review

After 10 hours of playing I can safely say I have done "most" of the demo. I crafted the blazing sword, and the shield. I defeated the elder spirit. I activated the Ocean spirit's blessing. I made a sizeable house, and I think I've crafted almost everything that I could craft and test out. I'm only a few augments behind; using Prot III, Stamina II, and Rage I. And that is only really due to the demo being a bit restricted (intended of course).
I LOVE the art style. The subtle music in the background once in a while is great. The satisfaction of exploring, and finding little areas that are a labor of love. The day and night cycle didn't feel rushed, and the world building is great. There is really some kind of story to be told whether it's with the players, or inside the lore of the game itself.
The building menu is great. It makes sense, you fully get refunded your materials, you can move them all around, and the smart ai of having different building blocks connect and make rooms is top notch.
I could easily put another 5-10 hours in the demo just for fun.


10 hours of gameplay review in the demo suggestions.

Holding down E to gather resources for each node isn't ideal, maybe holding down E could navigate the other nodes around it to gather them?
-In the case of having to hold down E for items such as berries, mana shards, artifacts, ancient fragments etc, that is maybe more difficult to code because it would maybe have a priority issue with fast gathering and then holding down E to gather, but maybe it would work if you enabled all. *shrug*
- This is not a huge deal but it did seem to take up most of the time playing, I found myself wanting to stand near iron nodes and aoe gather them with the pick and get 3 at a time (maybe this is intended to allow people to min max their gathering, i did feel cool doing it lol)

Unstuck feature
-I am sure it's intended that you basically die and start at the spawn point for being unstuck, but being stuck in a crack of rocks and 'unstucking' to run back to your body to retrieve your inventory items (i know it's not your hot bar that you lose) can feel bad.

Bed Roll
Being able to sleep on bedroll at base to make it morning. If multiple people are on the server they all have to be asleep for this to happen.

User function adjust rates
Maybe host would be able to adjust rates, EXP %, harvesting, hunger, stamina drain, monster damage etc.

Stickier ground
I have no idea how you solve this, but what I mean by stickier ground is that angles feel very slippery. Attempting to hop around areas or "climb" them does not feel very good. I know that the idea of a game that wants to reward people for exploring doesn't intend on having slippery rocks and angles, and I know it's just a demo, but I just wanted to mention it in here in case no one had thought about it, or didn't find it to be an issue.

"Petting" animations for some of the spirits.
Maybe bowing to the ocean spirit, or hugging it would be cool. Patting the little awakened spirits on the heads?

Grappling hook or climbing feature
It would be nice to be able to climb. Stamina bar would enable a sense of accomplishment.
Or maybe just a grappling hook, or grappling crossbow/gun? Maybe wind spirits unlock recpies to be able to climb or something.

Usable furniture
-I'm sure this is an intended feature, so I am only putting this here not to just ask for it, but maybe to consider allowing slower Hunger while sitting on it to enable players to take a rest and step away for a little while, whilst not needing to log out in fear of pooping for too long and they come back dead.
(in other cases also the server host needing to stay away and not wanting everyone to have to log*this is a unique situation but still something i thought could very well happen***)

Food
Hunger feels a bit fast, but it's not terrible.
-I've thought about this one for a bit. I understand the need for food drain. It keeps you coming back to your base to go through the process of getting your food, and making sure you have enough for your trip.
I think if there were more ways to get food, or if the food gave more to Hunger. Or even to maybe make a jerky to smoke it and maybe it gives more Hunger back.

**Either that or another suggestion:
Removing Hunger entirely and making it so that certain foods add a buff?
Maybe a soft cap or minimum of food that can't be drained. Possibly in the base (near the Spirit Anchor boundaries)
Or No Hunger, and a different icon shows maybe a "ship wheel" or even just a "pie chart style) for buffs from certain foods, maybe adding stamina, damage % increase, weight capacity, running speed, the list could go on, fire damage% increase(from #BlazingSword)

The Ship
The "Shorewood Pontoon" issues I've had so far
The ship has driven away from the place I've parked it many times. I've learned to look under the boat in order to see the white lines and what direction they are moving. I think that is probably the cue for the player to notice which direction it is going. I think if there was an added UI element somewhere to show which direction the boat is going, maybe near the compass on top as to not take away too much from the immersion of the game?
Maybe an anchor recipe attachment?

The speed of the pontoon is great, and it being able to hold a decent amount of items is good for bringing things back and forth to your locations.

Suggestions would include: a way to enable more modifications on your boat (simple additions like repair station, workbench, *maybe even a forge, or kiln, on the better ships**

Ship ideas:
Spirit ship:
Has aformentioned qol features, but maybe also an Augment bench/and or mana extractor.
Could attach a spirt to it to make it go faster like the Ocean spirit's blessing.
Maybe also cooking stations?

Bugs:
The Basic Patchkits don't show they have been repaired unless if you drop it from your inventory and pick it back up.

Running into the water and "skiffing" at the same time makes you run in place for a bit on the water and then the animation kicks in and then it works.

Sometimes when the Crackling energy event happens and you go to the elementals, they don't load in correctly, and they are basically invisible, so you have to guess where they are cause they are actually there and attack you etc.
Maybe it's a texture issue? I've found sometimes the animations/textures wont load in with the other creatures as well and you have to guess when they attack due to the sound they make because the just stand there and you will get hit even though there isn't an animation for it.

The name of the game is hard to remember.
Suggestions:
- Nera