In 2008, I made Lumber Tycoon, and I think for lots of people it was one of their favorite classic games. Well, for a while now I’ve had lots of ideas on how to sequel it, and the incubator program this summer gave me the opportunity to make it happen.
It’s been in progress since the beginning of June, and in alpha since about the beginning or middle of July. During that whole time it was just an indiscriminate pink thumbnail and just called “test”. Last night I flipped the switch, gave it title, icon, and thumbs, and overnight it’s climbed its way back to the #1 spot, where it’s predecessor used to hang around all the time back in the day. Good to be back!
Here, I’d appreciate all the feedback. Bugs obviously, and one of my biggest other concerns is that the progress arch of the game overall may be too slow. And of course any other feedback. Thanks!
I’ve got to say it’s a quite interesting game, the user interaction isn’t as dull compared to many games on Roblox.
I do feel like it all progresses somewhat slowly, though. Is the idea that you do actually grind yourself up into the 4 available axes, [then] expand further?
I kinda quit after all trees nearby the shop were demolished, it is a pain to keep walking them towards the shop from 8526 km away until you can afford a vehicle whatsoever.
Shouldn’t fully rely on my word though, the majority of the Roblox audience doesn’t mind grinding as much as I do at all ;).
edit: After a while I finally figured there are cheap sawmills and vehicles boosting the game speed. I guess the pace is fine up until this point, at least. Dragging things around does get annoying, though :P.
I loved it! The GUIs are a bit ugly but their functionality is amazing!
Chopping trees is 10/10. I love chopping it down and dragging the whole thing into the sell area.
An interesting game so far. I got my first axe, ran out and found an attractive looking tree made of concrete. I start chopping… chopping, and chopping. Eventually it falls to my mighty axe, frightened and leafless. All that was left was to bring the tree back to the wood drop off for profit. This tree however was rather resistant to dragging, but I’m persistent. It was only a matter of time until I found it’s sweet spot which enabled me to lurch to tree forward in short bursts, a combination of precise telekinesis and good old fashioned pushing.
I had reached the wood drop off, but the tree didn’t exactly fit. I struggled with it, wiggled it, but I had no other choice than to start chopping branches. This actually went well, although it wasn’t quick . After dispensing some of the wood I had enough for a new axe to speed things up, continuing to sever sections and jamming them into the drop off until the entire tree was nothing more than money. In all this netted me 800 money, not bad for my first tree. c:
It would be nice if we could tie a chopped down tree to the back of our vehicles so we could drag it home
Vehicles are also extremely jittery/ spazzy
You’re also unable to drive when you get in the driver’s seat sometimes. I think you should set the velocity on things that get welded/ frozen to 0,0,0, along with rotvelocity
The vehicles are the most frustrating things I’ve ever driven. Flipping and dumping a load of volcano trees I spent ten minutes cutting and packing was the final straw.
EDIT: it would probably be more helpful if I said why it was frustrating to drive, so here it is:
[ul]
[li]The steering travel is too slow. It takes at least 5 seconds to go from center to lock, so when you hold down the button in preparation of driving forward, you don’t know if you will make a loose corner to start with or a really tight one. It also makes doing long, wide turns very difficult because the rate of turn is always changing. The wheels should be able to travel from center to max cut in less than 1 second.[/li]
[li]The wheel cut is too tight for high speed. The wheel cut (the angle the wheels are turned at) should be a function of speed: less wheel cut at higher speed. This is a simple mechanism that makes cars behave similar to their real-life counterparts. Darting around corners at high speed is not only unrealistic, but very difficult to do because the reaction time is so little.[/li]
[li]The goddamn camera. That stupid thing has been the default for several months and it is absolutely the worst. If you try to look at something off to the side of your truck or behind to back, the camera will move itself so you are no longer looking where you want to be. No game does this (or at least, as poorly as this one), and it ought to change back to how it used to be, which was simple and sensible. Do it.[/li]
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Overall, the reason the car handles strange is because the rate of rotation is not connected to how fast you are traveling, but instead is linked to how long you wait before turning, which is very frustrating and time-consuming.
Nice, except the physics glitch to no end. Lost all of my axes twice because I got flung out of the map and over the edge.
Also, do you have a custom chat system that acts like the regular one? This happened…
[ (2020) Removed by TheNexusAvenger after somebody found this ]
Overall a lot smoother than most physically reliant games I’ve played. I’ve only found weird little bugs that pop up from time to time, nothing persistent. Sometimes parts essentially fall asleep and I have to nudge them to get them moving again. Vehicles usually won’t move after entering the seat if my ping is too high (over 1,000 ms). Sometimes the smaller pieces of wood disappear when dragging them.
One problem is that sometimes when you pick up pieces of wood (most likely long thin ones) they fly up into the air and are never seen again. One time said piece of wood hit my car, which I was standing on which flung my car half way across the map and me into my death (and I lost my super axe ;__
otherwise it’s very satisfying to play and chop woods!
So… when are logs that have been cut released into the wild for anyone to steal? I was working on breaking down a large load of lava logs/volcano trees when this guy named titasbob started stealing them. He moved the log and that was enough for them to now be “his” logs and I was unable to move them, and when he put them in the collectors, he got the money for them.
Also, trailers and whitelist don’t work. If the owner of a trailer tries to connect it to a whitelisted person’s trailer or truck, the trailer breaks. If a whitelisted person tries to connect a trailer to the owner’s truck, the trailer breaks. If a whitelisted person tries to connect a trailer to their truck, the trailer breaks. When the trailer breaks, it will not connect to anything.
[quote] The vehicles are the most frustrating things I’ve ever driven. Flipping and dumping a load of volcano trees I spent ten minutes cutting and packing was the final straw.
EDIT: it would probably be more helpful if I said why it was frustrating to drive, so here it is:
[ul]
[li]The steering travel is too slow. It takes at least 5 seconds to go from center to lock, so when you hold down the button in preparation of driving forward, you don’t know if you will make a loose corner to start with or a really tight one. It also makes doing long, wide turns very difficult because the rate of turn is always changing. The wheels should be able to travel from center to max cut in less than 1 second.[/li]
[li]The wheel cut is too tight for high speed. The wheel cut (the angle the wheels are turned at) should be a function of speed: less wheel cut at higher speed. This is a simple mechanism that makes cars behave similar to their real-life counterparts. Darting around corners at high speed is not only unrealistic, but very difficult to do because the reaction time is so little.[/li]
[li]The goddamn camera. That stupid thing has been the default for several months and it is absolutely the worst. If you try to look at something off to the side of your truck or behind to back, the camera will move itself so you are no longer looking where you want to be. No game does this (or at least, as poorly as this one), and it ought to change back to how it used to be, which was simple and sensible. Do it.[/li]
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Overall, the reason the car handles strange is because the rate of rotation is not connected to how fast you are traveling, but instead is linked to how long you wait before turning, which is very frustrating and time-consuming. [/quote]
I feel like the steering is fine as is; yes it’s kinda annoying, but it requires attention, and contributes to the whole feel of trying to make the game work to your own advantage (Such is the nature of a physics based tycoon)
I think it should stay simply because it offers a tiny bit of challenge which is a constant reminder to the game’s theming to some degree. It makes me feel more accomplished when I pull it off smoothly. If it were too straightforward, driving would probably make me lose my interest frequently.
Game would be 10/10 if it becomes God Mode compatible
Also, loading and saving should be a bit more accessible for the user. I joined the game again and thought I lost everything because I forgot about your load/save system. Be careful not to freak people out.
I also don’t like having to click for every chop. A gamepass to just hold the mouse down is something I would buy.
Biggest issue I’ve seen in this thread and everywhere has been physics.
It might be controversial, but my abuse of physics in this game was actually pretty intentional. I knew I was trying too much, and everything would not work. But I really love physics things, and the only way you can make something better is by learning about how it breaks. This one’s for the engineers.
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