My 2 cents $10 on Isomer:
Lets just say my first impressions of Isomer were not that positive and my opinion of the game would heavily depend on the direction the devs plan taking this.
As it stands, they advertise it as mix of Xcom and Dwarf Fortress style gameplay, which is sort of true and a cool selling point, but also their biggest problem I see atm. The game basically requires you to walk around with your dudes and explore the world. There isnt too much to explore yet other than some minerals to gather and enemy fortresses to plunder but thats easily explained with the Alpha state, which is fine. Thats just content updates that trickle in eventually. Anyway, the big problem here, is that you always control your dudes Xcom style by giving them individual orders. Not only is rather slow, but it also currently doesnt allow for any sort of tactics as there are no orders or different attacks/movements you can give to your minions. However, that is something that could technically be alleviated via a big combat update too, so I dont want to be too harsh on that either even though that will take a lot of work to get implemented, so not sure how good they can pull that off.
However, and here is the big, big minus in the equation, you currently control your units Xcom style ALL the time, even when... mining and building stuff, which means for every block you want to be built, you either stick to a single dude (which takes much longer and leaves your other dudes standing around mindlessly) or you pause, issue orders to multiple units individually, which all build a single block, and then all need new orders for the next block as you cannot chain any commands. Think Minecraft, just with 10 units instead of 1 that you all control yourself. For comparison, in Dwarf Fortress, you simply give an order and a Dwarf who can do it, will. This is 1000x less cumbersome as it doesnt require you to go through all units to check who does what to see who might be able to place the next block.
Whats clearly missing from this game is some form of AI and build chains. Or even simple self-programmable AI like waypoints that would at least not leave your units stand around mindlessly while you order around a single dude manually. There is some clear potential here, but I dont think the current version of the game shows that the devs have an idea how to overcome the limitation of the genre mix they tried to achieve here. I do realize though, that most of these features (especially Unit AI and the Combat features) are quite work intensive, but if they dont plan on including them in some form or the other, I dont see how I could recommend this game just based on its potential to anyone.
I know its an alpha, but some issues are rather work intensive as they require the implementation of completely new features. Currently, the game is definitely not worth its money ($10), and as long as I dont know whether they actually plan on addressing these issues (even if its 1-2 years down the road), I unfortunately don't have faith in this game becoming worth its pricetag at any point in the future. In any case, this game needs years of work before its worth playing so no hurry.
Lets just say my first impressions of Isomer were not that positive and my opinion of the game would heavily depend on the direction the devs plan taking this.
As it stands, they advertise it as mix of Xcom and Dwarf Fortress style gameplay, which is sort of true and a cool selling point, but also their biggest problem I see atm. The game basically requires you to walk around with your dudes and explore the world. There isnt too much to explore yet other than some minerals to gather and enemy fortresses to plunder but thats easily explained with the Alpha state, which is fine. Thats just content updates that trickle in eventually. Anyway, the big problem here, is that you always control your dudes Xcom style by giving them individual orders. Not only is rather slow, but it also currently doesnt allow for any sort of tactics as there are no orders or different attacks/movements you can give to your minions. However, that is something that could technically be alleviated via a big combat update too, so I dont want to be too harsh on that either even though that will take a lot of work to get implemented, so not sure how good they can pull that off.
However, and here is the big, big minus in the equation, you currently control your units Xcom style ALL the time, even when... mining and building stuff, which means for every block you want to be built, you either stick to a single dude (which takes much longer and leaves your other dudes standing around mindlessly) or you pause, issue orders to multiple units individually, which all build a single block, and then all need new orders for the next block as you cannot chain any commands. Think Minecraft, just with 10 units instead of 1 that you all control yourself. For comparison, in Dwarf Fortress, you simply give an order and a Dwarf who can do it, will. This is 1000x less cumbersome as it doesnt require you to go through all units to check who does what to see who might be able to place the next block.
Whats clearly missing from this game is some form of AI and build chains. Or even simple self-programmable AI like waypoints that would at least not leave your units stand around mindlessly while you order around a single dude manually. There is some clear potential here, but I dont think the current version of the game shows that the devs have an idea how to overcome the limitation of the genre mix they tried to achieve here. I do realize though, that most of these features (especially Unit AI and the Combat features) are quite work intensive, but if they dont plan on including them in some form or the other, I dont see how I could recommend this game just based on its potential to anyone.
I know its an alpha, but some issues are rather work intensive as they require the implementation of completely new features. Currently, the game is definitely not worth its money ($10), and as long as I dont know whether they actually plan on addressing these issues (even if its 1-2 years down the road), I unfortunately don't have faith in this game becoming worth its pricetag at any point in the future. In any case, this game needs years of work before its worth playing so no hurry.
! Thanks for the updates on progress, glad I could help! Looking forward to being able to fly without worry again.
