- This topic has 522 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
so what i would do is, go to the facebook page and announce that vectorblade is now available for pre-ordering
pre-ordering phase:
note: state that “there are limited copies so unfortunately there is no guarantee that everyone will be successful”
set any terms like eg. strictly one cart per person, and state that anyone interested must send you a message which contains their real name, facebook name (optional), email address, and country. you could request their posting address also at this stage if you wish, or instead if you prefer, ask for their posting address in the ordering phase below. mention in this pre-ordering phase which payment options you accept, such as ‘paypal only’. also state how much the game is going to cost, and if there is a shipping cost to add on (perhaps the shipping cost various depending on which country they are in).
this pre-ordering phase could last for example, one week, or however long you wish to set. state how long it is going to last so everyone knows.
after the pre-ordering phase, if you find yourself with more than 100 people who have contacted you wanting the game, then you could either:
A: go through the names manually, and pick 100 people yourself (such as friends, long term vectrex sceners, etc), and then contact them individually (by email) to let them know it is time to pay…
B: just take ALL the names, regardless of how many there are after the week of pre-ordering (eg. there could be 300 interested people), and then just put them all in a random draw, and whichever random 100 people are chosen, contact them individually (by email) and tell them it is time to pay…
C: a mix of A and B (eg. 50 carts for people you know like friends etc, and then everyone else goes in a random draw for the remaining 50 carts). then contact everyone individually (by email) to let them know it is time to pay …
the ordering phase now:
contact (via email) each of the 100 fortunate people who are now reserved a cart, and state that if they take longer than say, 1 week to pay (or if there is no reponse to your email at all from them), then their reserved cart will be withdrawn and will be offered to someone else. get additional details from them now if u need anything more, such as their posting address
so doing it all that way means, u can post all 100 in one batch, when all of the payments are in.
no need for multiple trips to the post office. and then, that’s that, it’s done 🙂
ps. of course 100 orders is a lot to manage at once so have something like an excel spreadsheet with all their information in, containing all the important info for each person, like: PAID: Yes/No … their email address, posting address, name, etc etc
Everything vtk wrote sounds great and very professional. Just keep in mind that there are some oldtimers (like me, for example) who are not on facebook.
@VTK: Good ideas!. Just a nuance: I would announce that Vectorblade is available by mixing information on different sites at the same time, and not only on Facebook. Not everyone has Facebook and some can follow the development of Vectorblade directly on Chris’ site. It would be unfortunate if they lost a chance this way.
cool yep .. by the way to mention; personally if i was malban the first thing i would do is make a list of close friends and contacts who you think are going to want a cart
after that process, whatever is left can go onto facebook … assuming any are left at all 🙂
and as Jerome has just said as i was typing the previous reply, no need to limit to just facebook, you can also put the same announcement post on atariage, vector forums, and anywhere else u like. everyone will need to contact you the same way, which is by direct email. you can mention in the announcement post that just replying to an announcement post via the forum it is posted on will not count for anything and will unfortunately be ignored (due to the confusion which would ensue from that)
100 copies of Vectorblade? That’s very scarce – especially after your most recent mouth-watering video. 😉
vtk, Jerome, Peer: Your suggestions for a comparatively fair assignment of the rare Vectorblade copies all sound good to me. An order period for a week (or even longer) announced on various platforms is the way to go. Method A, B, and C are all fine. After all it’s your/Chris’ decision. A lottery and a video showing it is also a good idea. Nicknames would be required for privacy reasons and drawing 100 people is quite some effort and a pretty long video.
Method “First come, first served.” is a real pain in the ass for many reasons.
@Helmut:
I’ll look at the things you mentioned.Thank you, Chris. But only if you feel like it. Your most recent posts sound as if you want and need to get this thing out of the door, now.
Curious: I tried, but I haven’t been able to figure this out so far, due to lack of enough playing time. Is there an achievement/reward/secret for catching x drunken bonuses (boni) in a row? Like some super-intoxication-bonus for FUI (flying/fighting under the influence)? 🙂
I was merely being curious. I did not want to raise any new feature discussions.
But since you asked (and because it is fun to think about it), the consequences of “drinking too much” could be (in no particular order)
– immunity to booze for the rest of the current life
– immunity to booze for the rest of the current game
– immunity to booze for the rest of all eternity
– the title of “drunken master”or on the bad side
– shaky hands (ship jittering all the time)
– reduced reflexes (ship getting really slow, or reacting really slow)
– blurred vision (flickering enemies)
– impaired motion control (analog left-right control instead of digital)
– total loss of motion control
– reduction in rank due to improper conduct
– instant death
– cartridge reset to factory settings😉
One question/afterthought, as I couldn’t get this out of my mind:
How many points/coins (if any) are scored when collecting the bottle? I have to admit I never really paid attention to this, and right now I cannot check. A fun thing could be if collecting the booze would be rewarded with a rather large amount of money. Yeah, not setting a good ethical example in real life, but in the game, for the player the bottle bonus then would be some kind of nice gamble: risk reversed control in order to quickly get a huge sum of money…
Btw. do you others also deal with the drunken bonus by flipping your controller upside down (rotating 180 degrees clockwise)?
The joystick and the buttons face downwards, so you have to push upwards for firing, but joystick to the “now left”/”now right” results in “ship left”/”right” without any confusion. I wouldn’t mind if this strategy “pays” off 🙂
Vectorblade_RC2.bin – 14th July 2020
and VecFever version:
Vectorblade_RC2.V4E – 14th July 2020Latest changes.
This version is a “TEST” version – you start powered up, and can select any level directly.
(This also means 25 = boss, 26 = level 25, 51 = boss 2, 52 = 50 etc)Following things I considdered :-):
done:
How many points / coins (if any) are scored when collecting the bottle?
-> NOW: 300 money (hidden, you get no notification!)done:
3 times collect WHISKY
-> DRUNKARD booz immunity for the current game (does not count as secret, not many people will FIND that 🙂 )done:
No full intro after calibration
-> this was a bug, it should show the title screen!done:
Scroll text: Spacingdone:
Scroll text: LESS BULLET
-> I only have that money letters I can display per line, changed to “MINUS BULLET”done:
Boss announcements: Intensity
-> 3f instead of 5f (BOSS 4 stayed the same!)not done:
Boss anncouncements: Some stars? Currently, the images announcing the bosses look a bit clean.
-> (no time left – big images!)not done:
“EXTRA”: Remove letters
Currently, you collect the EXTRA letters. Collecting a specific letter for a second time has no effect.
Suggestion: Picking up a letter for a second time might remove it from the EXTRA collection.
Please note that I’m not sure whether this would be an improvement to the game or not.
-> nice idea – but in later stages bonuses get more rare, so the effect would cancel itself out with thatdone: hardcore, removed: “merchenat is coming”
done: hardcode, removed: money as wheel reward
done: hardcore, cash as achievement
Thats all for now
Chris
- The forum ‘Vectorblade beta test’ is closed to new topics and replies.