Interesting way to look at the game. Here are my thoughts on those categories:
Survival: I'd give this a 4. And for the same reason... you don't really need to worry about survival. I just think it's lacking more in that, so a lower score.
RPG: I'd give this a 4 also. As RPG-lite, it could be 8-9, but as RPG, it lacks too much of what makes a great RPG. Now, part of that will be improved once the story is ready, considering the story is a major part of a good RPG. But other things also are only touched upon. People who don't want it to be an RPG often complain about it having RPG elements, but it really isn't much of an RPG.
Looter Shooter: I'd give this probably a 6. I don't necessarily need items that can only be looted to consider a game a looter shooter. There's nothing wrong with being able to craft or buy things in a looter shooter to fill in gaps where you aren't finding something. I just wouldn't rate it higher because you have a very limited amount of loot items (you can only loot so much before you're maxed on gear) and the shooter aspect is not on par with the good looter shooter games.
Tower Defense: I'd give this a 7, with the caveat that it's a single "tower" being defended instead of having multiple towers like you see in most tower defense games. If someone has a problem with that, then the score would be lower for them. I also agree that there aren't enough defenses (including traps) to choose from. Enemies aren't really a factor in my score. Most tower defense games don't have a ton of different enemy types. Also, we're getting more, so not as much of a problem.
Exploration: I can only give this a 3. Yes, the POIs are great. But I consider exploration to be exploring the entire map and not just a small section (towns or limited wilderness POI). There just isn't any reason to explore beyond towns. You might find some interesting terrain feature somewhere, but you might not, depending on the map. But you're not going to find anything special somewhere. You can get everything from a single town without ever leaving if you really want. There just isn't any reason to explore in this game beyond going to the POIs. Again, the POIs are great and other than getting more of them, I love them as they are. But that's not enough for a high exploration score for me.
Progression: This is a hard one. Since I don't like some of the progression choices they are making, I feel like there needs to be less progression just to get rid of those. On the other hand, I do think there should be progression, so I also think there should be more progression (only with better progression options). I think that both of these end up being negatives, so I'll put this at 3.
The funny thing about these scores is that even though they are mostly low or mediocre, I'd rate the game as a whole at 8. And it would be close to a 9. Maybe once it's finished, I'll give it a 9. We'll see. It's just that the combination of things works so well together that it's better than its individual parts. Of course, I could add other categories that would be higher scores. For example, base building I'd put at a 8-9. I'd love more blocks and definitely want more decorations and paints, but base building is great in this game.
I'm being very generous with mine and realistically I'm your score but some things like progression and Looter shooter we have different options on and that's OK.
My main argument about the looter shooter part is imo there should be something your looking for.
Say you have a tier 2 assault rifle your looking for. You can ether craft one or go loot one. But what if there was different types with looks and special abilities
Say you got the Tactical Assault rifle
Then you have like. The classic AK, SWAT ar, gurillia ar, Millitary assault rifle, battle rifle etc. All with little bonuses like gurillia or spec op gives stealth boost, I'll do a remaster of my post later.
Survival! 100% agree there needs to more but I would go as far as some games Like you need to keep your vitamins balanced via having a balanced diet. It would be cool but it would scare people off
But weather
Harsher punishments Like deep infection, Radation sickness, plauge, basic sickness for being attacked by zombies
In terms of progression I'm... very mixed
I don't miss learn by doing for some things. But it should be like little perks that you Don't need but are nice to have.. like increase stamina or block Damage
I liked learn by points but most people just put points in intellect. So that was a problem. But imo if you want to sacrifice a skill point into something you wanna make. That's your business.
Learn by reading is good cuz if gives you a reason too go out. However that's a problem. Cuz why leave the city then?
A hybrid of all 3 would be good.
You got skill points and perk points
And you got a progression skill that when feats are achieved you get nice QOL stuff
Skill points you get 2 per level and it's Like learn by leveling . You can ether invest it into
Magazines/crafting skills so you wanna learn to make tools better quality you put it into that
Or your learn by doing tree too get that increased to get minor perks
Then your perk point is the same as it is.
God I'm yapping too much lmao
In terms of pois. I don't really have a suggestion other then just a flat out buff too looting rual areas vs towns or make towns harder by having more enemies you wouldn't want to face early game like dogs, cops and Solders.
Increasing loot stage in small rual pois would be nice .
