I’m also going to share my experience with the game so far. I will be talking about the dev version released on February 2nd, as I’m yet to download today’s version.
First things first - I love the new features, I think they are absolutely amazing. But there are a few things I’d like to mention and I’d also like to talk about high-priority things (in my opinion). Some of the things might be obvious and/or highly discussed. So here we go, my feeling about the current features and also some features, that in my opinion should make it into the game as soon as possible.
Now let’s take it step by step:
Starting prokaryotic
Starting as a prokaryotic organism is great. I love the fact that you have to buy the nucleus now. I think, however, that getting the nucleus should be a bit more of an achievement. As of now, all it takes is just one reproduction, I think, however, that the player should feel like making a great deal of a progress when getting the nucleus. But right now it feels just like an extra step, not something you have to earn.
The other thing that concerns me about this feature as of now is the fact that you are the only one starting as a prokaryotic organism, while everyone around you is much more developed. I think I’ve read somewhere that you’ll be the first organism and I think that should be the case. The prokaryotic stage should also serve as a tutorial. Otherwise, I love it!
Iron
I don’t have much to say here, it’s just great. What’s still missing is, as far as I know, the iron ion clouds being tied to the iron particles as of yet, but otherwise it’s pretty much done (except the organelle texture/model).
But what I’d love to see is the ability to engulf the smaller iron particles and process them inside of you and the second thing I’d love to see is adding another debris the size of the big iron particle just to make your surroundings more interesting. They would be useless, however, would provide much more diverse aesthetics.
It's time for the new GUI
Despite really liking the current aesthetics of the game, I was absolutely mesmerized by @narotiza’s (and @That_Dude’s, if I am not mistaken) concept for the new GUI that showed up here: The UI. It looks highly professional, which will surely come in handy during the outreach, plus it is much more understandable and communicative. It provides player with more clearly displayed information, mostly in the editor, which is somewhat lacking in the GUI as of now.
Another kind of miscellaneous thing I’d like to mention here is perhaps a solution to the toxin’s missing texture. The toxin vacuole should perhaps have the same texture as the normal vacuole, just with different color (maybe the color of the current toxin model). “Oh yeah but what about the projectile?” I hear you ask. Well let me finish, would you be so kind? From what I understood, the reason of still not having the real deal with the toxin texture was the division of opinions whether to have it being a cloud for the sake of realism or have it a particle for the sake of gameplay. Now hear me out, are you ready? Imagine a particle with the texture of a cloud similar to spells you can find in a lot of RPGs and so on. Here’s something at least a bit looking like what I mean (https://goo.gl/images/ZuxsND). This particle, if not having hit anything, would then dissolve into a toxic cloud in the same manner as it’s intended for the small iron particles. However, it shouldn’t cover a large area.
Balancing
Perhaps the most important thing on this list. However, I have no idea on how to make it work. Sorry, this one’s gonna be short. Still, one of the most important things on this list.
The lack of diversity in the later game
At the very beginning of the game, there was a plenty of different species, each looking pretty unique and interesting, but as the species were dying out, auto-evo couldn’t keep up with it and at the very end of my playthroughs there were always only about 6 species left, usually around 3 species of bacteria and 3 species of cells. In my opinion, the diversity of organisms should increase, rather than decrease. This is connected to the very start of the game, where you should be the only organism and all the other life-forms should evolve out of you with new species emerging every now and then to the point, where you wouldn’t be even able to memorize all of the species. This would give the later game the feel of a diverse and vibrant world.
Bugs and other stuff
One of the nastiest bugs I came across prevented me from using toxins whatsoever. I guess it might be connected to the ability to place the nucleus now, but whenever I tried to shoot them, they would appear inside of me, thus slowing me down and just leaving the projectile on the place where I was, rather that propelling it forwards.
Also, once I show up in the infamous banana biome, I always spawn there from that point, even after dying. The only way I can get rid of it is starting a completely new game. However, I have not experienced a single crash, good work!
Alright, this is probably all from me. Thank you, dev team, for making such a great project possible. I highly appreciate all the effort put into it, which is also why I decided to try to donate to @Untrustedlife’s Patreon monthly, if I’ll be financially able to do so. I’ve seen a lot of effort being put into the game as of now, with a new indev version daily/weekly and we as a community cannot thank you all enough. Keep it up, we are proud of y’all!
(If I realize I’ve forgotten to mention something, I will post-edit it down below)