Clockwork Empire

[Cikomyr]

So I am watching the Lets Play Clockwork Empire by SplatterCats Gaming. And it looks.. fun.

...what is the people's opinion of it? Steam reviews are pretty bad, but it was only recently released.

[factotum]

I've been interested in this game for a while, didn't know it had been released--but, reading the Steam reviews, it sounds like it shouldn't have been. Lot of complaints on there that it still plays like an Early Access game, with lots of crashes and balance issues still unsorted. We'll have to see if the developers do a better job of post-release support than Gnomoria and Towns did!

[houlio]

I've been interested in this game for a while, didn't know it had been released--but, reading the Steam reviews, it sounds like it shouldn't have been. Lot of complaints on there that it still plays like an Early Access game, with lots of crashes and balance issues still unsorted. We'll have to see if the developers do a better job of post-release support than Gnomoria and Towns did!

I imagine they will. They have a rather proven track record with Dungeons of Dredmor already (which had many similar issues with its major releases).

I am not sure if I will enjoy Clockwork Empires more than Rimworld. I think Clockwork Empires has a much more robust economic management game than Rimworld does, but despite all the nice memories and traits Clockwork Empires colonists get, it may still not create as interesting of stories as Rimworld. I should play it again to find out.

[turbo164]

I bought the Early Access very early, and have followed their blog for years. The game could have benefited from some more time in Early Access to polish up before entering the world of Release reviews; but I have faith that the game will continue to improve. The devs have been very busy, new features and bugfixes come out every week.

If you think you might like it, definitely add it to your Wishlist, and check back soon :smallsmile:

[Destro_Yersul]

I followed the Dev blog for ages, bought it on release. While the vast majority of negative Steam reviews are made by whiny idiots, a few of them do have a point. There are bugs, there are crashes, it gets a bit laggy once you have a large number of colonists. To that I would add that the event system doesn't seem to have a huge number of events in it, and that for a game like Dorf Fortress, it seems to be fairly difficult to actually lose.

On the other hand, this is the Dredmor guys. They're very responsive to fan feedback and bug reports and stuff, and they fully intend to keep working on, adding to, and supporting this game for quite some time. I've got 24 hours in it since release, and for $30 that's not bad at all.

[houlio]

for a game like Dorf Fortress, it seems to be fairly difficult to actually lose.

Now I feel incompetent. The last few times I loaded it up, I ended up being swarmed by hordes of fishmen. Although this was before they introduced the foreign office, so imagine the balance must be quite different now.

[Cikomyr]

Apparently. Fish people aggressivity was reduced a lot in recent updates

[Vitruviansquid]

There is little I can say about Clockwork Empire that is technically unsatisfying. It has all the moving parts of a successful dwarf fortress clone - random events that spice things up, individual characters, endgame goals, a fun aesthetic, and so on. But it just doesn't feel fun at all when I'm playing. I build around a bit, getting from lower tech to higher tech, and then eventually I either get wiped out by bandits because my military was too small, or I just get tired of the game. Admittedly, I don't usually get to the parts of the game that are probably most compelling, when you can have a naturalist office up and a mine to produce weirdo materials, but when I think about that, I wonder what the point there is either. I'm sure if I played enough, I could articulate why this game does not seem fun at all, but I haven't and probably won't.

I had the same feeling with Dungeon of Dredmor, where the game should, by all appearances, have been a blast, but I just wasn't feeling it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it lacked that certain je ne sais quoi because it was missing a key mechanic in conventional roguelikes. Roguelikes drive the player to progress through with hunger mechanics but Dungeon of Dredmor has the opposite by having the player regenerate over time. This turned the entire game on its head, and the first time I beat it, I didn't feel any satisfaction at all.

[Durkoala]

I don't really play this game, but... is that typo in the thread title driving anyone else nuts?

Yep. I actually came over just to see if anybody had mentioned it yet.:smalltongue:

[turbo164]

Now I feel incompetent. The last few times I loaded it up, I ended up being swarmed by hordes of fishmen. Although this was before they introduced the foreign office, so imagine the balance must be quite different now.


Apparently. Fish people aggressivity was reduced a lot in recent updates

Yeah, early on Fishmen were the only actual enemy, so for testing military they had to attack fairly often.

Now that there are Deathworms, Bandits, Foreign Invasions, and [other Fun things] the Fishpeople can fill the role of "weird thing you *might* fight" rather than "the only thing you can use guns on" :smallwink:

(and depending on your policies, you might resolve Fishmen encounters nonviolently!)

[Destro_Yersul]

Though annoyingly, fishpeople seem to be hostile to traders, so if you want foreign traders to not flee in terror you have to kill the fishmen.

[houlio]

I just took a break from writing to play the game for about an hour. Here are some thoughts:

-The game's economy has a nice sim-city vibe. Build more houses to get more people to do the jobs you need, creating more jobs to feed/house/protect them.
-Resources get burned up pretty fast it seems like, especially ammo for hunting at the naturalist's office.
-The game is much smoother than I remember. I didn't experience any crashing or bugs while playing.
-The interface for assigning work crews to overseers is pretty smooth actually. Flavor win for the dehumanization of your working class.

-Assigning overseers to workshops is a tad bit confusing to follow at first, but it is functional. I would be happier if it was more than functional.
-While workshops have nice ways to automate, gathering raw resources (I'm looking at you timber) could use that too.
-The game really needs to give you more advice about how to tech up your workshops with better modules. I think it takes too much effort to figure out what you need to do to get glass panes going. Even if the tutorial had a bit about building a workbench in something other than the carpentry workshop, it would go along ways to giving the player guidance.
-I haven't seen anything too interesting yet with character interaction, but it might just be because I only played for an hour.
-My biggest complaint is that I can't queue up a work order for my workshop modules. I just want to set up how many cots and beds to make with only one visit through a menu.

All that said, I quite like it. It reminds of a cross between something like Factorio and Dwarf Fortress more than just a dwarf fortress clone. The economy in the game seems to be pretty well done, and it uses a lot of interlinking parts to keep it interesting. I'm not yet sure how the character interaction or the random events will hold up to something like Rimworld yet.

[Cikomyr]

What typo? No typo

[houlio]

Had best get an occult inspector to check in on these so-called "typo" rumors.