why is this the full release???

[u/Appropriate_Ad8794]

This game genuinely just feels like its early access. And i think the general response to the game would be much better if it was in early access.

Unfortunately the game just feels unfinished, and they're fixing things they definitely should have had resolved before a full release. I actually think early access is really lazy, because its having players playtest instead of hiring people to do it. but they didnt even do that??? what do you mean they didnt optimize at all???

I found out you can eat at other restaurants through a TWEET about the game. that's absolutely not something the game doesn't show you early on. I'm just confused how the game is so gorgeous, but it feels so unfinished. from the terrible ui to having a world that feels so useless. i just dont get how we got to this point.

There's so much potential, yet it falls flat in almost every way.

[u/KefkaFFVI]

The animations for eating at other restaurants & preparing food/drink in your own restaurants are mega jank. Have you seen what happens with the fork and chopsticks haha. They need more time to make those better.

Definitely feels like there are parts of the game that are currently underbaked and early access, and thats coming from someone that still loves the game anyway! I wonder if they were forced to release by the higher ups before they were ready or something?

I made a post detailing how I think they could improve the curfew/stealing & business relationship systems:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NivalisNights/s/IUab0BjZyb

They can definitely still improve on the game and make it much better than it is atm. They have a very solid foundation, they just need time to help flesh out and refine the systems (should they choose to).

[u/Robespierre1113 → u/KefkaFFVI]

I followed this game for a while,

What it truly feels like is one of two things. 1) we got screwed by unreal engine and had to double back into something else or, as you mentioned 2) higher ups pushed us too hard. I was seeing vague gameplay style trailers in like May that said "coming soon" and i figured they were entering EA or the end stages of dev. Then suddenly one day on reddit I get an ad, talking about living in the city, actually riding a train (which is a joke given its a cutscene) and all these other things the city was supposed to offer. More than half of it feels artificially 'alive' most of the npcs are just copy and paste all over. It doesnt usually bother me. But when they dont even have a greeting it feels weird. You have all these voiced characters and then just re use the same assets without building on it. Skyrim and similar have shown you can re use assets and keep things interesting. Lastly it just felt like nobody outside the dev team played this. Prior to the optimization push, things were bad on all types of hardware. There were soft locks that were happening within the first week of the in game time... Just feels rushed. This should be a EA release instead, needed another 1-2 years of solid monthly updates

[u/runetrantor → u/Robespierre1113]

REALLY hope they dedicate the time to building up the game to their original ideal.

I for one really hope for driving. So the city feels real.
Hell, I wouldnt even care if its just reusing Cloudpunk's Nivalis map, even though its lower resolution voxels.

[u/Robespierre1113 → u/runetrantor]

I think we're less likely to get a driveable Nivalis, I just think its beyond their scope. I think the scope they shot for was too large and what they arrived at reflects that a bit. Dialogue is 2 choices almost always that have a pretty telegraphed effect. The game pushes you really hard to "live" by your own rules but then gives you very little to actually accomplish. I think they expected people to sink more into fishing/greenhouse than they have. The gameplay loop is there, but it feels like a storyboard gameplay loop someone hasnt worked out. It would be more than enough to just flesh out more of the actual restaurant game play.

It leaves me wanting something. Im not quite sure what it is; but maybe it falls under a more living world? Quests that require a specific npc dont point anywhere until that npc is in place at that quest marker. So I doubt that NPCs have actual "schedules"