Enemy spawn

TheSpaniard

Green Slime
I am digging the game a lot but I'm finding the respawn in some of the areas a bit off putting. Slime and rabbys poping up right in front of me , or around me, and I was wondering if that was planning on changing?

It's not a matter of challenge, as I haven't had problems with the respawn rate, even in the pumpkin forest, but I find it jarring.

It takes me out of the game and feels very cheap, I was level 7 before fighting the two guys on the bridge. Anyway, besides that I am having a blast, but I would like to know if respawning monsters can be made to appear on the edge of screen, or off screen? Or, at the very least, have an option so that monsters don't just appear right in your face when there wasn't anything there a mere second ago.

Another alternative, would be to add some kind of animation that explains the sudden appearance . . . A bunny burrowing out of a hole, a slime falling from the sky, I dunno.

I'm at the flying fortress right now and i beat Phaseman or whatever, and I'm really digging the feeling of the dungeon, partially because I am not constantly having to fight things appearing from thin air.
 
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TheSpaniard

Green Slime
Frankly, I think it's a wasted opportunity to provide nuanced difficulty . I just started playing this game, though I have yet to die and I'm already at the flying fortress, and I really dig it. It's great and I feel that the developers are clever, clever enough to maintain the difficulty but figure away around the jarring nature of enemies spawning right in front of you. One aspect I liked while playing the Flying Fortress level, I've beaten the first boss already, onto the second one, is the fact that there aren't monsters just appearing in my face. It gives me the opportunity to soak in the ambiance, and awesome background, setting art/themes that Pixel Ferrets' artist has created.

In my thread, I mentioned an alternative of showing some kind animation that at least explains why the 4 rabbits that just appeared in front of my face (such as some kind of burrowing animation, though I realize animations are expensive). Another possibility is that monsters could spawn off screen, and enter from the edges of the screen. This way they're just not appearing. Don't get me wrong, the difficulty if anything should be increased, and I enjoy the fighting but I don't think it's too much to ask for there to be something to not break my suspension of disbelief.
 

Vilya

Developer
Staff member
I agree that the respawn looks a bit crazy, and it's definitely something I want to fix in the future! I too feel like it's a bit off-putting when x enemies spawn at the same time right next to you.. :D

Can't say for sure when we'll look into this though, as it's more of a polish-thing and we want to focus on adding new content until we've finished the main storyline! But rest assured, it's definitely on our to-do list :)

PS. I merged your other thread with this one!
 

TheSpaniard

Green Slime
I agree that the respawn looks a bit crazy, and it's definitely something I want to fix in the future! I too feel like it's a bit off-putting when x enemies spawn at the same time right next to you.. :D

Can't say for sure when we'll look into this though, as it's more of a polish-thing and we want to focus on adding new content until we've finished the main storyline! But rest assured, it's definitely on our to-do list :)

Wahoo, thank you! I love the art of this game , and the theme is great . . . really, really good! Thank you! :)
 

Own

Moderator
I agree that the respawn looks a bit crazy, and it's definitely something I want to fix in the future! I too feel like it's a bit off-putting when x enemies spawn at the same time right next to you.. :D

I really hope it isn't something you fix, at least not in the way of "Respawns happen off-screen". :p If someone isn't enjoying the respawn rate, they should probably stop killing things in the area and progress forward. It's a bit like someone going to a club and saying "I'm tired of alcohol" while ordering another round of shots.

If I'm grinding the last thing I want to do is for it to take longer because someone who doesn't want to grind is grinding nevertheless and not happy about it. ;) The last thing I want to be when card hunting is bored, of forced to walk off screen for mobs to respawn. And I especially love it when a lot of enemies respawn at once, since that's the only actual challenge you'll get when grinding. Otherwise it's a repetitive loop of "Kill enemy, respawn, kill enemy, respawn" (which sounds extremely boring) instead of "Kill enemy, respawn, enemy swarm -> brawl or run away".

Though I guess it wouldn't be horrible if enemies had some sort of marker as to where they were respawning a split second before they actually appeared. Maybe had a feather appear on the ground, like enemies being revived from it.

Also, 'suspension of disbelief' isn't quite something I'd use to describe SoG... considering I'm walking around with a chicken on my head, a carrot sword in my hand, a fairy spouting jokes at me and a pudgy snowman beating up yetis for me. :p

I still think 'Monster Frenzy' should be explained somewhere, maybe having it pop up as a Bag tooltip the first time it happens to explain that you either want to continue on, leave and return or prepare to take on waves of enemies.
 

TheSpaniard

Green Slime
I really hope it isn't something you fix, at least not in the way of "Respawns happen off-screen". :p If someone isn't enjoying the respawn rate, they should probably stop killing things in the area and progress forward. It's a bit like someone going to a club and saying "I'm tired of alcohol" while ordering another round of shots.

If I'm grinding the last thing I want to do is for it to take longer because someone who doesn't want to grind is grinding nevertheless and not happy about it. ;) The last thing I want to be when card hunting is bored, of forced to walk off screen for mobs to respawn. And I especially love it when a lot of enemies respawn at once, since that's the only actual challenge you'll get when grinding. Otherwise it's a repetitive loop of "Kill enemy, respawn, kill enemy, respawn" (which sounds extremely boring) instead of "Kill enemy, respawn, enemy swarm -> brawl or run away".

Though I guess it wouldn't be horrible if enemies had some sort of marker as to where they were respawning a split second before they actually appeared. Maybe had a feather appear on the ground, like enemies being revived from it.

Also, 'suspension of disbelief' isn't quite something I'd use to describe SoG... considering I'm walking around with a chicken on my head, a carrot sword in my hand, a fairy spouting jokes at me and a pudgy snowman beating up yetis for me. :p

I still think 'Monster Frenzy' should be explained somewhere, maybe having it pop up as a Bag tooltip the first time it happens to explain that you either want to continue on, leave and return or prepare to take on waves of enemies.

None of the alternatives suggest that you have to run around if you want to grind. For instance, enemies spawn at the edge of screen , without you having to move. This does not require to around, simply put, theyd appear somewhere believable instead of from thin air. This would help better maintain a suspension of disbelief. Your pont about SoG not needing a suspension of disbelief is flat out not true. You need it in fantasy or sci fi settings. That's what it's for, there is no suspension of disbelief for non fiction. . . .

Also, while i understand grinding is an important part of the game the devs themselves have stated that the game can be approached any number of ways.

That being said, it's irrelevant, because nothing suggests that changing the current mechanic will remove or deter grinding at the slightest.
 
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IHeartPie

Halloweed
So I think what you want is something along the lines of what happens in the Toy Factory with the boxes coming out of conveyor belts? I think it's a fair criticism and it does add immersion to the game that thing's arn't coming out of thin air. I did really like the spawning in the toy factory, the cracking ceiling drop-in by that one Pecko, and the hop off the ledge brawler bot after the laser trap a lot.

That said, I think all of this should well be in the polish category. If PixelFerrets can add it in once in a while as a part of their environmental design, great! If not, then waiting until much later on would be fine too. I'd much rather Fred work on more weapons/enemy/boss animations than to make older enemies feel more immersive for now.
 

KoBeWi

Jumpkin
Enemies could just spawn out of your way. Player could have small "safe" circle where enemies won't spawn or a cone facing same direction as player, so enemies also don't spawn in front of you while walking.
 

Vilya

Developer
Staff member
We'll do our best not to have this impact easy farming, that's pretty much all I can say at this point, as we haven't discussed which route to go yet! :)

All I know is that I honestly think it looks bad when multiple enemies spawn at the exact same time, more or less instantly, right next to you. At the very least I feel like the fade-in time should be increased a bit and that enemies shouldn't spawn at the exact same time - a slight offset would be nice to make it feel less mechanic. But either case, we'll probably save these edits for later, when more of the main story is out of the way :)
 
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