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Posted By
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Message
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1970
 
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Presentation is excellent. The direction indicator looks very scifi, like some kind of HUD, and the fuel gauge is nice too. Perhaps some kind of speed indicator would be useful to help you avoid fatal crashes (or a health indicator if the lander sustains damage gradually, though it didn't appear to). Also the minimap is very innaccurate, and can't really be used for navigation).
The control system is slightly unusual - normally in these games the left and right arrow keys produce horizontal thrust rather than altering the direction of the main thrusters. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but not being able to independently control horizontal and vertical thrust does make the lander less responsive, and as a result, this is harder than most lander games.
My biggest criticism is the collision response. Obviously the idea is to not collide with stuff, but if you do, the way in which the lander bounces does not seem at all realistic - it tends to get kind of stuck on obstacles quite a lot.
Anyway. It's looking good so far, so keep at it.
You can never have too many lander games imo. Here's mine: http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=6774 (if you want to try it, it's here: http://satansam.co.uk/ftp/DSD.zip )
n/a
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Djfuego
Registered
23/12/2002
Points
190
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Thanks for the Post Sketch I've taken your comments on board. I have made some changes to the map. It's now accurate and there is now a Hull status. I'll have a look at the speed thing and collision.
Kinds Regards
Ross
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1970
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I've given the new version a try, and here's what I think...
Minimap - a lot better than before, but it still looks to me like the blip appears a few
pixels to left of where it should (vertical position is correct). Where is the hotspot on the
lander sprite? If it's in the default top-left position that may explain it possibly, but I
don't know.
Damage System - I think being able to sustain damage is a good thing, but I think your current
system is too basic (obviously it didn't take you long though, as I only just commented on the
last version, so that's not surprising). I would personally have % damage, and make the amount
of damage proportional to the speed of the lander at impact - very minor bumps shouldn't do
any damage at all. For the damage indicator, you'd probably want to use a continuous range of
hues from green to red, rather than just four.
Following on from what I was saying, I think it should be possible to land without taking any
damage (the lander does have landing gear after all). The easy way to do this, is to allow a
higher vertical impact speed before taking damage than horizontal. The hard way, is to
simulate a realistic sprung landing gear. I wouldn't normally suggest bothering, but you
clearly know what you're doing, and presentation is obviously important to you, so I think
it would look really neat. I made a small and slightly buggy example of what I mean here:
http://cid-b1e7ee094271bbda.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Lander.mfa
I've seen some side-view car game engines modelling independent suspension, that are probably
helpful if you can track them down (on the old clickteam forums I believe).
You can also see if any of these engine sound effects are any good to you;
http://cid-b1e7ee094271bbda.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/SFX.zip
The high score submission screen still looks pretty poor, but no doubt you're aware of that and plan to fix it.
Anyway, it's still looking good 
n/a
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Djfuego
Registered
23/12/2002
Points
190
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I've got some more work to do then. I've cleared up the rocket booster animation. Doesn't seem to detroy when I tell it to so instead I've used alterable values. I'll look into the suspention landing gear and the map blip is very slightly out.
The Damage system could be more complex but this can be an improvement in lander 2. This lander game could be a platform for a multiplayer type lander race. 
Kinds Regards
Ross
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Djfuego