|
Posted By
|
Message
|
s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
|
Thanks for the front page mention, TDC! 
I'm feeling very positive about this project; it has a lot of potential.
n/a
|
Bad Panda
Registered
28/07/2008
Points
95
|
good idea - but the gameplay could do with a little tightening up. (there's no way to kill the bugs once they overlap the convoy) maybe a flamethrower or something. I like the background graphics and the idea tho.
Boredom and a chainsaw and a bag full of you
|
s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
|
Yeah, I'm dealing with that thusly: you can stun the overlapping insects with the gas in the next build, which frees the convoy and stops the damage from occurring.
Thanks for the reminder. 
Any ideas for other environments?
n/a
|
Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1970
 
|
I don't often comment on projects, but I really like your concept, and I think the demo shows great potential. Obviously this is all my personal opinion, so when I say "you should..." it really means "I personally would...", and feel free to say I'm talking BS.
The tank movement is nice; it feels how you imagine a hovertank would, and much better than just regular 8-direction movement. The various objects (convoy, tank, bugs etc) shouldn't be able to overlap though. The convoy should detect if your tank is in it's path, and stop; and be able to run-over bugs (sustaining some damage of course). Also, different terrain should affect movement - have patches of mud or dense vegetation which slow the tank down, or ice where the tank takes longer to stop moving when you release the arrow keys. Certainly there should be obstacles that you can't shoot through.
As you already mentioned, the shooting needs some work. At the moment the bullets don't even travel in a straight line (moving the hovertank seems to move the bullets already in flight as well!). Also, I suspect some objects (possibly bullets) aren't being destroyed when they should be, as the maximum object count appears to reached after prolonged play, meaning no more shots can be fired even when the gun is fully charged. I love the tank's reloading animation by the way - little details like that go a long way. I really think you should go with 360 degree shooting (which will also fix the first bug). On the off-chance that it might help, I made a little example for you to look at here:
http://cid-b1e7ee094271bbda.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Example.zip
You may do better to reduce the resolution a little, as this would make the scrolling faster (admittedly my pc is old and slow). Also, it would probably look better - it's a lot easier to make good small graphics than large ones. At the moment the level seems very sparse. Also, the dust from the convoy isn't always in the right place - it should be quite easy to fix just by moving the hotspots.
The spray weapon is a nice idea but doesn't really work. You have to kill bugs to be able to use it, but then it's actually LESS effective than the regular gun (it has a much shorter range, and is only temporary). The only time you might conceivably use it is while your main gun was reloading, making it essentially defensive. It would be more useful then if it were a large cloud surrounding the hover tank - this way it could be used to disable bugs attacking from behind, if the tank is surrounded or can't turn to face the attackers quickly enough for example.
Which brings me to my next point - none of the bugs ever attack the player's hovertank. I appreciate that the whole point of the game is to protect the convoy, but still...
I think more enemy types, more weapons (eg. weapons that permanently block bug-holes), and more vehicles to escort (including types with special weapons/abilities; it's not a convoy if there's only one vehicle) are needed. Enemies should take more than one hit to kill, and should be far more numerous - it never really feels like you're being overrun by a swarm of bugs. There should be more of a strategic element - for example your tank may have a limited fuel supply, forcing you to choose when to abandon the convoy to refuel.
Have you ever played "Armor Alley"? If not, I'd strongly recommend you to try it (you can get it at home of the underdogs). The aim is to get a special van unit across the level in one piece. To do so, you build a convoy of different units (tanks, , infantry, missile launchers etc) and escort it using a player controlled helicopter gunship. It's actually very entertaining.
It's not exactly the same as what you're doing, but I can visualize this becoming a kind of top-down rather than side-on version of it. Infact, if you don't make a game like that I might do it myself
As far as environments go, you can probably just do the regular cliches - desert, ice, lava, jungle, hi-tech, and night worlds etc.
Anyways, good luck, and keep up the good work.
EDIT: Just realised I was playing the version 2 demo, and not the latest one. Pleased to see you had already fixed some of the problems before I got there.
n/a
|
s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
|
Excellent comments, Sketchy! I really appreciate it. Here's my (late) reply.
You've left me with plenty that necessitates a response, and offered up many suggestions. I'll see what I can do with them in the coming weeks. I do plan on having time to tackle this later today, so version four should address some of those issues.
I've also attempted to limit the maximum object count, which occurred consistently during prolonged testing; I'd added in a number of visual effects that ramped the total objects up quickly. Hopefully the safeguards I implemented in version 3 have sorted that out. To me, this was a major show-stopper; I can deal with crappy gameplay and horrible graphics--both to some extent--but when it comes to actual game performance being negatively impacted and just downright laggy, it needs to be fixed right away. One of my first game projects was affected by this in a major way, and I don't want to see that happen again.
I like your idea of "plugging up" the burrow holes; of course, this leads me to believe that I'll also need to come up with a way for bugs to be able to create more burrows...And the necessity of bugs needed more hits-to-kill is also in the plans.
Originally, I'd had an idea to allow the player to build automated turrets as a form of protection for the convoy. I definitely want to pursue this, even though the concept has been abandoned for the moment, as it was in my original vision for the game. Perhaps several smaller outposts might be worth considering...I'm not so sure. The basics need to be sorted out first, then I can build upon that idea.
The gas weapon does need to be tweaked; I agree with you. I'll deal with that for the next version, hopefully.
Again, thanks for the comments! I'll do my best to make this an engaging, entertaining game.
n/a
|
s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
|
And Sketchy, your example 360 degree shooting engine is INDISPENSABLE. Thank you!!!
n/a
|
s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
|
...Once again, Convoy Turret finds its way to the Front Page as a featured download. Thanks for the encouragement, TDC!
n/a
|
| |
|
Advertisement
s-m-r