Idle OS defragger
Remember when you stayed hours in front of your computer while the disk was defragmenting? Now you can have your own tool in Idle OS defragger.
Upgrade your defragger so it optimize your disk faster or fix the bad clusters.
When your tool is maxed out you can Upgrade your OS to get better tools, graphics and more (full version coming soon to Steam)
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I understand that its an idle game, but a way to actively engage with the game is needed, especially for early game when things are slow.
And like the other comment states, some explanations for upgrades would help a lot for understanding how they contribute to defrag point increase.
The scrolling is broken in the upgrade-box, it's super slow to scroll in there.
You can also drag by clicking anywhere in the upgrade box, but yeah. annoying to scroll so slow
It would be cool if it was possible to upgrade the user interface, from basically DOS, to Windows 7.
Personally I'm a fan of the "Auslogics Disc defrag" design, from the Windows 98 & XP era :D
Also check out the "Ultimate Defrag 15" circular view :)
I would also want an upgrade that can move the "unmovable" sectors, instead of just reducing their existence, that's boring.
It can definitely defrags slower there, or preferably shows some kind of extra animation there.
Maybe the animation is something about how the program goes into the registers & re-binds "pointers" (address locations) to the new file location or whatever?
Maybe it doesn't "solve" those "unmovable" blocks directly when encountered during the normal scan, but probably does an "initial scan" and solves them to the beginning of the file system, OR solves them at the end of the defrag, but that must probably need a re-defrag again, so it seems very inefficient, compared to solving them first.
I would like a way to upgrade the Value of the "defrags" instead of having to increase the Speed as the way to increase the earned "points per time" aspect.
Because I like then it defrags slowly, so it's easy to see what it's doing, but I do not want to wait HOURS just to buy the next upgrade.
Didn't get it. Just a time waster ticker it seems. you only need read speed and batch upgrade, else seems like a waste of points.
I think you forgot to add "fun" to the "game".
I get that you don't recieve points for processing bad sectors and unmovable omes, but spending 1.2k to have 8% chance to add them instead of 2,5k to just double your speed.
Its weird, and most of all there doesn't seem to be a strategy to this, you just run this till you're bored.
Also din't get if you get points for readin or for writing.
Not fun. The screenshot is decieving. Game description says 30 monutes. But to get from 500k used, which will in its onw will take probably a day of play, back to 2.5m, will probably take another day of idling. I've spent two hours and am at 63k total.
I've completely beaten the demo, and I have some thoughts on the mechanics. I’m sharing this in the spirit of constructive criticism to help improve the new player experience, so please don't take it personally!
First, and most importantly, the game needs more explanations. Currently, there aren't tooltips or tutorials for the base mechanics, which makes it hard to know what to upgrade. I found myself asking: What are bad sectors? How/when are they fixed? Do they give bonus points? Do unmovable sectors have a penalty? Is there a benefit to finishing a round, finishing faster, or finishing more lines? This lack of clarity is the recurring theme of my feedback.
Here are my notes for each upgrade:
Read Head Speed: A flat 20% faster point gain speed. This is a solid, clear upgrade.
Write Buffer: I wasn't sure what this upgrade was doing. I put points into it but didn't see any changes in the gameplay. Even when my read speed was nearly 3x my write speed, the write speed didn't seem to lag behind; it was always perfectly matched. Because I couldn't see the bottleneck or improvement, I couldn't see the reason to upgrade this. It might need a UI element to show the player why they need it.
Bad Cluster Detection: I’m a bit confused on the math here. The upgrade says "Automatically detect and fix bad clusters," but I wasn't sure what 8% or 16% meant in this context. Does it reduce the total amount of bad clusters? If so, am I losing out on potential bonus points? Or does it mean there is a 16% chance to auto-fix them? If so, are bad clusters worth significantly more than normal clusters? Without knowing the value of a bad cluster, it’s hard to justify the cost of this upgrade. I think clarifying the math here would help a lot.
Unmovable File Handler: I had a hard time finding the value in this one. It costs a lot of points to remove unmovable files, but since the "Read Head" seems to skip over them anyway, they didn't feel like a problem. Unless they are actively penalizing the score, replacing them with normal 1-point sectors doesn't feel like it justifies the upgrade cost. Is this purely cosmetic, or is there a mechanic here I’m missing?
Batch Optimizer: A nice multiplier to Read Head Speed. Another good, clear upgrade.
Cluster Expander: I was puzzled by this one. It adds 5 more rows, which makes the round take longer to complete. In an idle game, I usually want rounds to be faster. Is there a bonus for finishing more rows in a round? If this increased the base point reward of each sector, that would be a great benefit. But right now, without a clear reward for the longer round, it feels like a penalty rather than an upgrade.
Bad Sector Prioritizer: This concept has potential, but it feels risky to buy right now because the base mechanics aren't explained. It acts as a "crit chance" for bad sectors, but I don't know the base value of a bad sector. For example, at level 3, I have a 24% chance to get bonus points. But if the bonus is just one extra point, it doesn't feel worth the cost. Also, does this trigger every time I hit a bad sector, or only when I "fix" one using the previous Bad Cluster Detection upgrade? I feel like this would be much more satisfying if it was a flat crit chance for all sectors.
Sector Recovery Protocol: A crit multiplier to go with the upgrade above. This would be great, provided the logic on the Prioritizer upgrade is clarified.
Bad Sector Bypass: The description says this "Reduces bad sector processing slot cost." I got very lost here because I don't know what a "processing slot" is, or what they cost. Is there a hidden resource I'm spending? Since the only visible resource is defrag points, I wasn't sure if this was saving me money or time. Defining "Processing Slot" in the UI would fix this confusion immediately.
Now, here's how I would improve things. Keep in mind, I didn't have enough explanation for some of the mechanics to fully understand their purpose, so take this with a grain of salt:
1) Get rid of Write Buffer, and combine it with read speed. Alternatively, you could split the read and write speeds, and make the bottleneck clear to the player. This risks seeming like a lazy way to get the player to spend more upgrade points, though, so it would have to be handled carefully.
2) Make bad clusters worth 100x the base value of a normal file, IF you can fix them. Make it super clear if you fix them that you're getting bonus points and why, and leave them as “B” in red on the screen if you fail to fix them. Bad Cluster Detection will improve your chances of fixing them.
3) Add a speed bonus for completing a defrag, multiplied by the percentage fragmented at the end. Unmovable Files and unfixed Bad Sectors would count against this total, lowering your bonus. That would encourage the player to buy speed upgrades, while making the Unmovable File Handler upgrade basically a flat increase to your end of round bonus.
4) The Cluster Expander upgrade should increase the base value of each file. They're worth more, but now there are more lines which lower your completion speed, lowering your end of round bonus. This forces the player to invest in more speed again.
5) Bad Sector Prioritizer should just be a flat crit chance for every single sector, instead of just bad sectors. Possibly with a lower percentage each time (2% or 4%). This would make Sector Recovery Protocol more valuable, as well.
6) And completely get rid of that Bad Sector Bypass upgrade. Maybe put it in some later version of the game with multiple operating systems, that have additional resources you have to manage. But not here.
Hey thanks a lot for the detailed feedback, to be honest, one of the best pieces of advice I got in a long time.
After work will review each point and think a way to try to fix/improve
Again, thanks!
I assume write efficiency gives you more points for each write, unmovable handler make that your future runs have less of them on the field. So all of it comes to optimising the downtime between runs.
Not saying it contribules in any way to an engaging gameplay, but in an essence, its a solid small optimization incremental game where you optimize for the downtime between runs.
No idea how bad sector bypass works though. Seems that it processes the same speed.
Just a weird curiosity of a game.
Probably an issue when trimming the audio, will check it tomorrow. Thanks!