Game Mechanics Journey Mode Quality of Life Improvements (W/ Proof of Concept/Mock-Ups)

[Amotiger]

Been playing a lot of Journey mode, and thought up several quality of life improvements for the mode. The attached image goes into great detail for each point, but I'll summarize each in text.

Percentage Bar:
Tracks the percentage of the total amount of researched items within the duplication menu, great for completionists.

Quick Duplicate:
A way to quickly fill a stack in the inventory to full if already researched, great for builders.

Research+Duplicate:
The ability to instantly duplicate an item immediately upon research, great for large crafting trees, or when you find a new weapon/accessory.

Auto-Research:
Have there be a toggle to automatically research items as they enter or inventory, or a "quick research" button (not unlike quick stack) that auto-researches everything in the inventory, great for when researching items on-masse.

Partial Research Progress:
A way to views items you have partially (but not fully) researched.

Research Hints:
A hint menu that gives hints for researchable items, based on bestiary status, game progress, currently researched items, etc.

Team Sync:
A method for pairing the research progress between players on a team in multiplayer.

Love this game, and hope that at least a few of these can make it in, would make Journey mode so much better.

 

[Big Sammich]

Percentage Bar:
Tracks the percentage of the total amount of researched items within the duplication menu, great for completionists.

I like this idea. There have also been suggestions in the past for a way to (sort of) see which items you don't have, such as greyed-out icons on the grid, but this is a good way to do it too.

Quick Duplicate:
A way to quickly fill a stack in the inventory to full if already researched, great for builders.

Not a bad idea, but you could also just open the duplication menu and grab another stack. There might not be a ton of room for another cursor state, either, but I don't actually know.

Research+Duplicate:
The ability to instantly duplicate an item immediately upon research, great for large crafting trees, or when you find a new weapon/accessory.

I don't know if this is really necessary. It's a time save of at most a couple seconds. Sure, perhaps it adds up over the course of a long playthrough, but does it really add up that significantly? I'm open to being convinced.

Auto-Research:
Have there be a toggle to automatically research items as they enter or inventory, or a "quick research" button (not unlike quick stack) that auto-researches everything in the inventory, great for when researching items on-masse.

Hmm... a quick-research option could be good, but auto-research would definitely be more trouble than it's worth. You'd lose a lot of items that way.

Partial Research Progress:
A way to views items you have partially (but not fully) researched.

This already exists, sort of. Items you haven't fully researched will tell you how many more you need to research when they're in your inventory. It doesn't help you with items you don't currently own, of course, but I don't see a situation in which you'll need to know how many more of an item you'll need to get before you get at least one.

Research Hints:
A hint menu that gives hints for researchable items, based on bestiary status, game progress, currently researched items, etc.

I was initially skeptical of this, but the way you've shown it in your mock-up is pretty good. I think this could be a good addition.

Team Sync:
A method for pairing the research progress between players on a team in multiplayer.

This is fine, as long as it's strictly opt-in on both sides. People who don't want to be given free research progress should be allowed to choose not to have it. I think the method you've dreamed up is a bit overly complicated. How about just one furniture item that can be interacted with by two players at once, and if two players who are on the same team interact with it at the same time, it will combine their research progress. To avoid it only being useful in Journey Mode, maybe it could also combine the players' maps? That's a feature that's been requested a few times.

 

[Amotiger]

Seeing your mention of being open to convincing, I'll give my thought process on the ones you're skeptical of.

Not a bad idea, but you could also just open the duplication menu and grab another stack. There might not be a ton of room for another cursor state, either, but I don't actually know.

When it comes to crafting or building, it would save a lot of time to have a button or cursor state to fill a stack to full, otherwise you gotta open the Journey menu, then the dupe menu, select the tab the item is in, and either scroll or type until you find it. Then multiply that time taken by however many amount based on how many crafting materials there are, or the range of the block palette for the build you're making.

I don't know if this is really necessary. It's a time save of at most a couple seconds. Sure, perhaps it adds up over the course of a long playthrough, but does it really add up that significantly? I'm open to being convinced.

Large crafting trees are a big reason for this... One example being the Ankh Shield, you get an accessory drop, research, find it in the duplication menu, shimmer, research, dupe both items, craft at Tinkerer's Workshop, research, dupe... 9 steps for just one craft... Then rinse and repeat for the rest of the pieces of the Ankh Shield. Same could also apply to Shell Phone, Zenith, etc.

Hmm... a quick-research option could be good, but auto-research would definitely be more trouble than it's worth. You'd lose a lot of items that way.

The losing items part is easily solved by the next point (partial research progress), but it's also a reason why I suggest a toggle, similar to the biome torch or ruler toggle, with three separate states of: Untoggled, auto-research no matter what, and auto-research only upon the amount needed to fully research.

This already exists, sort of. Items you haven't fully researched will tell you how many more you need to research when they're in your inventory. It doesn't help you with items you don't currently own, of course, but I don't see a situation in which you'll need to know how many more of an item you'll need to get before you get at least one.

Food items... Or to elaborate further, those rare unique consumable drops from most monsters that give the well-fed buff, each requiring 5 to research, on top of a really rare drop rate. With how many there are, you'd have no idea which you have partially researched without holding the actual item.

This is fine, as long as it's strictly opt-in on both sides. People who don't want to be given free research progress should be allowed to choose not to have it. I think the method you've dreamed up is a bit overly complicated. How about just one furniture item that can be interacted with by two players at once, and if two players who are on the same team interact with it at the same time, it will combine their research progress. To avoid it only being useful in Journey Mode, maybe it could also combine the players' maps? That's a feature that's been requested a few times.

I didn't explain the idea too well in my mock-up and it's admittedly confusing. Though you might be right on it just being one furniture item, have it change colour based on the team, and keeping the "lock" feature to protect from griefing of the furniture item from other teams. Map idea is good, which is why I mentioned that in the image. Regardless, any way at all to track progress between team players (with a way to opt-in) would be a blessing.

 

[Big Sammich]

When it comes to crafting or building, it would save a lot of time to have a button or cursor state to fill a stack to full, otherwise you gotta open the Journey menu, then the dupe menu, select the tab the item is in, and either scroll or type until you find it. Then multiply that time taken by however many amount based on how many crafting materials there are, or the range of the block palette for the build you're making.

I suppose that's true. Even while writing my original comment, I really wasn't against that idea. It could save a good amount of time. My only remaining concern is whether or not a new cursor state can be added, but that's a question I genuinely cannot answer.

Large crafting trees are a big reason for this... One example being the Ankh Shield, you get an accessory drop, research, find it in the duplication menu, shimmer, research, dupe both items, craft at Tinkerer's Workshop, research, dupe... 9 steps for just one craft... Then rinse and repeat for the rest of the pieces of the Ankh Shield. Same could also apply to Shell Phone, Zenith, etc.

I think part of me is just automatically rejecting the idea that this is a process that needs to be sped up further, given how it's already hundreds of times faster than doing it in regular gameplay. But that doesn't mean I'm right to think this way. This idea doesn't really have a downside. I'm not against it, although I still don't think it's really all that necessary.

The losing items part is easily solved by the next point (partial research progress), but it's also a reason why I suggest a toggle, similar to the biome torch or ruler toggle, with three separate states of: Untoggled, auto-research no matter what, and auto-research only upon the amount needed to fully research.

Partial research progress actually wouldn't solve the problem at all. If you had auto-research on, you would effectively have 0 wood until you had enough wood to duplicate wood. Obviously nobody's ever going to have any trouble duplicating wood, but for some materials it could be pretty obnoxious. Of course, having it be toggle-able completely removes this concern.

Food items... Or to elaborate further, those rare unique consumable drops from most monsters that give the well-fed buff, each requiring 5 to research, on top of a really rare drop rate. With how many there are, you'd have no idea which you have partially researched without holding the actual item.

This may just be me being stubborn, but... you'll never need to know how many you have researched already without also needing to get the item. If you have enough to duplicate it, you're done, and if you still need to research a few more, once you get the first one you'll see how many more you need. No matter what, you need to get at least one, so all this suggestion would achieve is you being able to see how many more after that one a little bit earlier. In my view, this would be a redundant feature, and not worth coding in.

I didn't explain the idea too well in my mock-up and it's admittedly confusing. Though you might be right on it just being one furniture item, have it change colour based on the team, and keeping the "lock" feature to protect from griefing of the furniture item from other teams. Map idea is good, which is why I mentioned that in the image. Regardless, any way at all to track progress between team players (with a way to opt-in) would be a blessing.

I don't disagree with the feature at all. I was just saying that the default should be unpaired. As for there being a new furniture piece for each team color, I just don't think that's necessary at all. The two players who want to pair will have to be on the same team anyway, so "calibrating" the object to a specific team color just doesn't seem like it'll actually accomplish anything. It might look cool, which would be a good enough reason to have team colors for it, but it's not really a functional feature of the object.