Dreadlord Ascension survey results

Before getting into the questions, I want to say thank you to all of those who took time to fill it out! Also, some of the early surveys had a mistake in the grading order so we had to send out a second version. The answers from those surveys will not be reflected in the graphics below, but their results were taken into account in our answers and analysis!

Question 1: What do you think about the overall game?

A most basic question, but very important nonetheless. Thank you so much for that many positive notes!

Question 2: What do you think about the story?

I think this question could have been a little more specific to Dregan's story as the main story has barely started, but we're still averaging some good notes here. Speaking of which, we should have another chapter of the main story before the end of the year but we won't start really getting into until next year I think.

Question 3: What do you think about the new story format(Shorter worlds with Hero Challenges)?

Well, that's something I'm really happy about! It took us some time to find out marks with the new story format, and while I think we could still improve, we've made some notable improvements with Dregan. As for the next world, the structure will change, but that's mostly because the story demands it. (There will still be hero challenges, but they won't exactly happen in the same order as story -> stage -> summon)

Question 4: What do you think about the gameplay? (1 being bad, 5 being good)

From the other answers we've gotten, this one here is on the weaker side. We're averaging the four more than other questions. I'm not too surprised with how the niche srpg games are. However, with our next major update (which will include Lenga), we're going to do some massive changes to the combat side of the game. It will still play fairly the same, but visually, it will be quite different, and we might also add another small depth to how combats are approached.

Question 5: Which new mechanics do you like?

I see the training room has been greatly appreciated and that's a good thing, because it will be handy in the next world!

Question 6: What do you think about the game's difficulty?

By the looks of the answers, it seems we're hitting the right difficulty for most players. While our goal is to keep the main stories accessible, hero challenges may vary greatly. If you're having trouble with a particular stage, remember you can skip them using the consumable item from the arena!

Question 7: How would you rate the grind required to progress?

Looking at this, the answers are satisfying. It's hard to keep the grind balanced while the game is in development, but I will try to adjust it as much as possible based on feedback. While most answers average 3, we also have a lot of 4. As such, it might be good to cut down some of the grind. (new rooms will also alleviate that issue)

Question 8: How would you rate the enemy AI?

Quite surprised to see so many rate a 3 in this! While the AI may not be perfect and will need improvements later on. It's nice to see it does the job well in its current state!

Question 9: What type of content would you like to see more of?

More sprite animations huh? Why am I not surprised? xD

In all seriousness though, I do want to make more sprite animations, and it most likely will be more of a focus on I free up more time after Palestra is over. I would at least aim to make 1 new sprite animation per month for a character voted by patrons. (depending on what needs to be done for an update or the scale of the animation, more could be possible)

More characters is also an answer I was expecting but, well, there are many, many more of them coming (they do take time to make though!)

Question 10: What do you think about the game's stability? (1 being bad, 5 being good)

This question was more to see how the game was holding in its current development state, and it seems we've done a decent job of keeping it together! We can also thank everyone submitting bugs on Discord or through comments for helping us keep the game as stable as possible!

Question 11: Which minigame do you like?

Not exactly surprised here that the milking minigame is the ultimate winner. I managed to make something pretty interesting yet simple. I'm not sure I'll do something like that again in the game, but it's not impossible. (we do need to consider how much time it takes to adapt the minigame to every character though)

Question 12: Which units do you like to control in battle? 

Unsurprisingly, Cervius is the king here haha! However, I'm surprised to see how high Zel ranks. (I believe this is because of his innate adaptive counter which makes him easy to pick up and play)

Question 13: Which heroes need to be buffed or nerfed, and why?

Thank you for your opinions on this! I do think some characters are asked for buffs because they are harder to play, however, we did see Alastor mentioned a lot. We do agree that Alastor isn't too interesting as a unit and we're aware of it. It's still a little down our priority list at the moment, but we do want to fully rework him at some point to make him more interesting.

Question 14: Which hero challenges do you like?

It seems Seilon's stage was the least appreciated and we can understand that as it we tried something unique. We think some of the frustration with that stage came from the confusion on how it worked and we'll try to do better to convey what to do in a stage. (like highlighting the quest window when the objective changes or something similar.

Question 15: How much do you change the heroes' skills and/or weapons?

Not too surprised here, we haven't done much to push players to change the skills and I even believe most players don't quite know which skills to put on and how.

This is a place we think the game could be greatly improved and we will touch this system at some point, but we still need to gather our ideas on how to best go about it.

Question 16: Which defeat scene do you like?

Seems Leif/Shade are still in the lead here (and I'm not surprised, it's one of my favorite too! xD)

Question 17: Which new events do you like?

This one here I find quite surprising. I did not expect the Kevlan event to rate to high, but happy to see players enjoyed it! Also, it seems the multi-part events are some of the favorites too (sorry, we forgot to include the Seilon x Ayers one in the survey ><). Still, the answers are fairly close to one another and that's good!

Question 20: Which heroes do need more sprite animations?

This I quite agree with. While I need to focus on upcoming character sprite animations. I will add more animations to the Dregan characters as soon as time allows. (Why is Zel still so high though, he has the most animations, you guys don't want to leave him and his big dragon alone! xD)

Question 21: What kinks would you like to see more of?

Well, milking sure is a well-liked kink (and who can I blame? xD) Corruption is still pretty high. We do have corruption stuff planned, it will be added to the game in due time!

Extra answers:

Here I will answer some of the comments we have received from the survey (without putting the comments directly)

1-      Difficult mode:

While we do not plan to have a more difficult option, we do plan to have a more... complex mode. This will be fully optional and will require months of work to make so don't expect to see it soon. However, for those looking for it, it will add a nice challenge.

2-      Skip Button:

While a skip button like in Fire Emblem would be nice, it's not something we're able to make. To alleviate the grind though, we would like to make a button you can press to let the game control your units. (this would be handy when farming low level missions without having to manually complete the stage)

3-      Alastor's story:

We haven't forgotten about the slime hero! However, Alastor's personal story will happen much later down the way as he will play a vital role into securing a Dreadlord's support for Cervius (as it currently is planned)

4-      QoL suggestions:

Thank you for suggesting those! We've already started implementing some of them where possible (like opening the map with "M")

5-      Feeble clothing

I do agree that the feeble clothing animation needs to be more visible in combat (especially at higher speeds). Haven't found a way yet for that, but we'll try to think of something!

6-      Ergonomy and menus

We understand that menus still need a lot of work. We still shift stuff around a lot so it's best we don't make a final version of some menus until we know what we want out of them. I can guarantee that those pesky down menus (like the crafting and gallery) will be improved at some point!

That's it for now! Good job if you read through all this! It was nice seeing all of your feedback and reassuring to know we're heading in the right direction. Here's to more Dreadlord Ascension in the future!!