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estiroseThis came out yesterday-ish and I may have spent too many hours last night + a little at breaks playing it (and starting over once or twice). I bought it because Pathea authorized a crossover for the My Time At... series (My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock - Gust, Ginger, Nia, and Fang with X) and I am all for that. I don't know if they're in the game yet.
I feel that at early access it shouldn't cost 40 USD or equivalent. I paid about 25 USD, because of 30% launch discount + a bit extra because I owned at least one of/both My Time At games (I essentially got a loyalty discount because I owned multiple games from a different publisher....)
* Kickstarter backers didn't get their keys before the game went on sale. They did get the paid DLC for free, but that may not have been enough.
* Their EULA has some distinctly non-user friendly statements that seem to imply microtransactions. The devs have denied this.
* There is for some reason anti-cheat - thankfully not kernel-level, but still, anti-cheat - in a single-player game.
* The game got flooded with positive reviews on Steam that are being taken down as Steam finds them. The devs have stated that they did not do this; the player community is skeptical.
* There is some disagreement as to whether this is truly an indie studio or a larger studio pretending to be an indie.
Anyway, this is definitely a cozy game. It reminds me greatly of Portia/Sandrock, with a little bit of Fantasy Life in terms of the professions. It currently has no storyline other than really going up in profession levels, which I find I'm really appreciating. I also appreciate that other than the game's urging that I pick up the crafting profession, I'm pretty much allowed to be on my own.
There is romance in the game, which does nothing for me, but as they phase in the romance/marriage system the devs have stated that you can romance regardless of your gender, which I appreciate.
The five professions are crafting, exploring (combat), ranching, planting, and fishing. Crafting goes well with the other four professions, while exploring complements crafting, and ranching and planting complement each other (in particular, the first ranching animal - rabbits - can eat the weeds in your garden, saving you the trouble of hand weeding - I haven't poked around with this much though as I'm not fond of ranching in my farming games).
There are resources scattered around your cabin. The ones that are within the fence don't renew, but the ones outside seem to, which is good. You can in fact decorate your cabin, and in fact, you start your time there by making your own bed. (If you get unlucky with the resources and are desperate, the general store also sells them.)
I've barely poked at farming and ranching and not at fishing yet. I've mostly done crafting and exploring.
Each time you go up in rank (your first rank is apprentice, and then you go up to junior, and apparently there intermediate, senior, and expert levels), you first do a craft for the person in charge of that profession for your certification, and then you take on a task for a local resident (a challenge; you need to complete it before you can ask about the next level). This requires more and more materials and more and more running around.
The local "mines" are actually a mystical forest with ores in it. You can fast travel to any camp in this forest that you've unlocked - which means that you need to fix the fast-travel at every camp except the first. You can also sleep and make food at these camps should you need to. You'll need to do certain things to unlock the paths to these camps.
Things are pretty laid back, and if you're not farming, you don't have to really worry about the seasons. If there's one piece of advice I'd impart it would be to not hurry things. Just finish the apprentice crafter certification (and maybe the apprentice explorer certification) and you're good until you want to move on.
Oh, and if you need guidance - your profession quests are tracked by default and the game makes sure you don't get lost by giving you a glowing trail of stars towards where you need to go. You can turn this off, and in fact, you can turn off the directional marker. Which as someone who gets irritated by such things, I really appreciate. The glowing trail of stars sometimes hiccups, once leading me in a loop around somebody's house. But it can be really useful for finding NPCs you need to give stuff to, which is really handy for the crafting master who likes to hide in her basement.
ETA: I posted a guide to the starting quests on my Tumblr.
General machine speed: If you're coming from Portia or Sandrock you'll be pleased to know that machine processing times are pretty fast.
Charcoal: all early metal bars require this. It takes 1 softwood, 2 fiber, and yields 2 charcoal. Do not be me and get coal and charcoal mixed up!
Finding ores:
* Copper and stone are found outside the Moonlit Forest area, as well as within. Copper is a dull yellow-orange stone. You can find rocks and copper nodes along with random copper ore and stones outside the entrance to the Moonlight Forest.
* The first area of the Moonlit Forest (Evernight Forest and the Gate of Life) contain quartz, fluorite, copper, stone, and tin. you can also find dirt piles.
* The second area of the Moonlit Forest (Dreamfall Garden; haven't gotten past that) brings iron ore and coal. Coal is used in more advanced recipes for metal bars.
Establishing Moonlit Forest camps:
* All except the first camp - Evernight Forest - need you to repair the local crystal before you can use the fast-travel portal to/from the area.
* To reach the Gate of Life, you need to fix a bridge.
* To reach Dreamfall Garden, you need to find 3 gravecrystals and then use an upgraded pickaxe.
* To reach the next area (which I have not gotten to yet), it looks like you need to craft a butterfly net and catch 5 of a particular bug. I'm not fond of most bugcatching mechanics - Fae Farm was an exception - so I'm not looking forward to this.
Combat: During the crafter apprentice challenge, you get to build a slingshot. You'll have to fight a monster in the early part of the Moonlit Garden once, but outside of that there seems to be only a boss monster or two that you have to worry about (I've only encountered the one that spawns in to the area beyond the Dreamfall Garden campsite). You'll also get a bot that will attack the monsters with/for you. If you pick up the explorer profession, you'll learn to craft more combat-related stuff apparently.
I feel that at early access it shouldn't cost 40 USD or equivalent. I paid about 25 USD, because of 30% launch discount + a bit extra because I owned at least one of/both My Time At games (I essentially got a loyalty discount because I owned multiple games from a different publisher....)
* Kickstarter backers didn't get their keys before the game went on sale. They did get the paid DLC for free, but that may not have been enough.
* Their EULA has some distinctly non-user friendly statements that seem to imply microtransactions. The devs have denied this.
* There is for some reason anti-cheat - thankfully not kernel-level, but still, anti-cheat - in a single-player game.
* The game got flooded with positive reviews on Steam that are being taken down as Steam finds them. The devs have stated that they did not do this; the player community is skeptical.
* There is some disagreement as to whether this is truly an indie studio or a larger studio pretending to be an indie.
Anyway, this is definitely a cozy game. It reminds me greatly of Portia/Sandrock, with a little bit of Fantasy Life in terms of the professions. It currently has no storyline other than really going up in profession levels, which I find I'm really appreciating. I also appreciate that other than the game's urging that I pick up the crafting profession, I'm pretty much allowed to be on my own.
There is romance in the game, which does nothing for me, but as they phase in the romance/marriage system the devs have stated that you can romance regardless of your gender, which I appreciate.
The five professions are crafting, exploring (combat), ranching, planting, and fishing. Crafting goes well with the other four professions, while exploring complements crafting, and ranching and planting complement each other (in particular, the first ranching animal - rabbits - can eat the weeds in your garden, saving you the trouble of hand weeding - I haven't poked around with this much though as I'm not fond of ranching in my farming games).
There are resources scattered around your cabin. The ones that are within the fence don't renew, but the ones outside seem to, which is good. You can in fact decorate your cabin, and in fact, you start your time there by making your own bed. (If you get unlucky with the resources and are desperate, the general store also sells them.)
I've barely poked at farming and ranching and not at fishing yet. I've mostly done crafting and exploring.
Each time you go up in rank (your first rank is apprentice, and then you go up to junior, and apparently there intermediate, senior, and expert levels), you first do a craft for the person in charge of that profession for your certification, and then you take on a task for a local resident (a challenge; you need to complete it before you can ask about the next level). This requires more and more materials and more and more running around.
The local "mines" are actually a mystical forest with ores in it. You can fast travel to any camp in this forest that you've unlocked - which means that you need to fix the fast-travel at every camp except the first. You can also sleep and make food at these camps should you need to. You'll need to do certain things to unlock the paths to these camps.
Things are pretty laid back, and if you're not farming, you don't have to really worry about the seasons. If there's one piece of advice I'd impart it would be to not hurry things. Just finish the apprentice crafter certification (and maybe the apprentice explorer certification) and you're good until you want to move on.
Oh, and if you need guidance - your profession quests are tracked by default and the game makes sure you don't get lost by giving you a glowing trail of stars towards where you need to go. You can turn this off, and in fact, you can turn off the directional marker. Which as someone who gets irritated by such things, I really appreciate. The glowing trail of stars sometimes hiccups, once leading me in a loop around somebody's house. But it can be really useful for finding NPCs you need to give stuff to, which is really handy for the crafting master who likes to hide in her basement.
ETA: I posted a guide to the starting quests on my Tumblr.
General machine speed: If you're coming from Portia or Sandrock you'll be pleased to know that machine processing times are pretty fast.
Charcoal: all early metal bars require this. It takes 1 softwood, 2 fiber, and yields 2 charcoal. Do not be me and get coal and charcoal mixed up!
Finding ores:
* Copper and stone are found outside the Moonlit Forest area, as well as within. Copper is a dull yellow-orange stone. You can find rocks and copper nodes along with random copper ore and stones outside the entrance to the Moonlight Forest.
* The first area of the Moonlit Forest (Evernight Forest and the Gate of Life) contain quartz, fluorite, copper, stone, and tin. you can also find dirt piles.
* The second area of the Moonlit Forest (Dreamfall Garden; haven't gotten past that) brings iron ore and coal. Coal is used in more advanced recipes for metal bars.
Establishing Moonlit Forest camps:
* All except the first camp - Evernight Forest - need you to repair the local crystal before you can use the fast-travel portal to/from the area.
* To reach the Gate of Life, you need to fix a bridge.
* To reach Dreamfall Garden, you need to find 3 gravecrystals and then use an upgraded pickaxe.
* To reach the next area (which I have not gotten to yet), it looks like you need to craft a butterfly net and catch 5 of a particular bug. I'm not fond of most bugcatching mechanics - Fae Farm was an exception - so I'm not looking forward to this.
Combat: During the crafter apprentice challenge, you get to build a slingshot. You'll have to fight a monster in the early part of the Moonlit Garden once, but outside of that there seems to be only a boss monster or two that you have to worry about (I've only encountered the one that spawns in to the area beyond the Dreamfall Garden campsite). You'll also get a bot that will attack the monsters with/for you. If you pick up the explorer profession, you'll learn to craft more combat-related stuff apparently.
