First of all, welcome on board ! Always nice to see new people join in =)
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The suggestion is interesting in the sense that, so far, there is no "forward" product listing in the game. There is a "backwards" listing, in the help section, where if you have a given product, you can go back and trace which ingredients its making required. But if you have a given start product, you can't search anywhere if there are further transformations available from there, let alone, get their complete list. Your only option is to go yourself through the whole product list, and one after the other, check if they require your product as an ingredient.
That doesn't mean forward listing is entirely inexistent in the Kapilands community. GoldenEye, for example, translated a very neat
flowchart that can be used for this purpose.
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There is a lot to learn in the game when you start. I'm afraid that dumping even more info onto starters and making it popup out of everywhere they lay the mouse, might be more overwhelming than helpful. I mean, it would be helpful to have a place to find that info
when you are looking for it, yes. But invasive help might do more harm than good, and just confuse starters even more.
So even if a "forward listing" of the product chain is to be introduced somewhere in the game, I'm not convinced that the warehouse is the best place for it (
eventhough I totally understand the original idea of showing only "relevant" product chains, since they'd be based only on products you already own. In the newbie situation of "ok, I've got this apple sitting here, now what ?", a mouseover popup would be immediate help. In any other situation though, it would be immediate headaches, and likely terribly annoying after the 6th month).
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Also, I'd like to point out that a few key products are involved in way too many chains to be listed "on the same level" as others. Power, water, corn and seeds come to mind immediately, in that category. I mean, they could be listed, the info would be accurate. But it would be irrelevant and would not contribute to grasping a forward listing and the product chains of the game. On the contrary, they split into so many chains, that the list would be confusing and counter-productive.
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While I still don't know by heart which quantities are to be used, I have a fairly good idea now of which products requires which sub-products. I can also say, without checking the help, which products (or at least, family of products) you can make out of a given sub-product, and I have a good understanding of the different product chains. This understanding and knowledge is, in my opinion, a really nice milestone of Kapilands gaming experience.
No matter how hard you try to learn each individual product's recipe by heart, it won't come to you that way. The ability to mentally link them and envision the different product chains of the game is something that truely goes further than that. It only comes with time, and experience with the game. It doesn't make a good player out of you, but neither does it require you to be a talented super-player, or a god. Everyone eventually manages and reaches that landmark. And I'm sure many get a lot of pride from reaching it; probably moreso if it took them longer.
Can it be made easier to reach that milestone ? Yes, of course.
Would making it easier to reach, also belittle the pleasure and pride of that achievement ? Yes, of course.
Is it desirable to make it easier ? Maybe, but not neccesarly so.
As a newer player (3 weeks), I must say I really like this game concept... so cool to see more business themed games, as opposed to another war/fighting game.
Glad you agree...