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I like the wheel of fortune. I know that you have feature freeze, but this led to another idea:
If you are mean, you could add a slot machine to the shop. Instead of buying some item, the player could also gamble. Select slot machine, bet a certain amound of money (or a fixed amount?), then run the slot machine, and either loose the money or win a certain item (depending on the amount of money bet?) or win additional money. Warning: like in real life, slots make addictive! If you are really mean, you could give the player the false impression that the slot is not totally random, but that the outcome could be influenced by pressing a stop button or something alike.
You know, just an idea that crossed my mind 😉
In terms of code this shouldn’t be too expensive (sharing of subroutines).
Cheers,
PeerSorry, I am typing this in a hurry (I am on vacation right now). If anything is unclear or sounds weird, please apologize and let me know 😉
@Peer: Good to read from you. And good to see that there are other voices and opinions than mine: I would rather go for less fortune in Vectorblade – you would go even for more fortune.
@Christopher: Looking at the long explanation above I have the feeling that the word “cluttered” caused some irritation. Vectorblade is a complex game but what is missing a bit is the reusage of things and consistence. This is just a very slight complaint. I still think that Vectorblade is very unique and another pearl for the Vectrex!
@Helmut: Yes, sorry for being a bit silent in the past weeks 🙂 The end of the semester was busy as hell, and then we already left for vacation (10 hours overnight drive to the Danish Border, “Nordfriesland”, my old hometown where I grew up).
I know what your point is, and, in essence, I agree with you. My point is slightly different. First of all, this is just an idea, not reall a suggestion for Vectorblade. But it was/is fun to think about. I always like playing with ideas 🙂
I do not like games in which the outcome or the player’s success strictly depends on random elements or on luck, in the sense that you cannot beat the game without relying on luck. With regard to VectorBlade, I think that this is definitely not the case. The game can be beat without e.g. obtaining the laser, also without discovering certain secrets etc. Agreed, those make life a lot easier, but technically they are not a prerequisite. In that sense, adding certain “fortunate” events or elements to the game for me is okay.
Now, in terms of the slot machine idea, this is rather gambling than pure randomness. The difference is that the player has the choice not to gamble at all! Also, if the slot is played, the player can end up in a state that is worse than before (money lost). The outcome of the slot certainly depends on fortune or luck or randomness. But that is a risk the player can freely decide to take or not to take.
But, as I said, that is just an idea I played with in my mind on one of our bicycle tours here. And sorry for hijacking this thread and writing all this here 😉
Many Cheers,
PeerVectorbladeWheel.bin – 12th August 2019
This is a compile especially for the “wheel of fortune” test.
It starts with “EXTR” given and only “A”s drop :-).I am not 100% content with the whole thing. “Beautifiers” are welcome. Only thing to keep in mind is that I have in that bank only 31 bytes left (I already squeezed a lot). I didn’t touch bank 0 yet, since I wanted to keep the MH option open.
It is as of now pretty “quiet” – and doesn’t really display which EXTRA does what. Should I leave that for the player to figure out?
This is the only “sequence” that I “stuffed” right in the game. RAM management doesn’t really allow much within the game, because all the game information is held in RAM and that makes it difficult.
For YOUR info:
LASER – as before gives you laser + autofire
MONEY – gives you 5000 credits
LIVES – gives you full lives (9)
POWER – gives you full power (6)
LOCK – gives you 15 locks
EQUIP – gives you full speed, full bullet speed, max bullets, armor, 10 bombs, and 1 minute + timer
IMMUNE – gives you immunity to single shot and double shot drops
SECRET – gives you the secret rewards: sccopy lock, money sucker and status enhancement
YES
All of them are pretty damn nice – I think the money 5000 is even the worst of the lot :-).
Thing is while getting one EXTRA is pretty easy, getting two or three of them is pretty hard… so that might even that out.Anyway… pls tell me your thoughts
Malban
Lots and I mean…LOTS of wonderful things happen now but I am (still) on holidays (damn!) I’ll be back in 3 days. My hands are itchy to test those on real thing!
Best regards to all of U!
Thank you for the “Wheel of fortune” version of Vectorblade, Christopher. I’ll try it out in the next 2-3 days. Best regards, Helmut
hey Malban just tried it i think it’s a nice idea and a nice addition to the game
comments about it are, i found that the font was quite dark, it would be nicer if the bonus items words were brighter
another idea would be (if you want to change it that is), the wheel could be much smaller, you could have the MH man who you see at the title menu and when you press the fire button on the controller to stop the wheel, the MH man does that thing where he reaches over to the computer and presses a button (you could just start the sequence with the wheel already spinning, no need for the player to start the wheel themselves)
ps. that said maybe u dont have any memory left to make some changes anyway 🙂
Vectorblade_Beta31.bin – 13th August 2019
Just a compile with the latest changes.
I did a “little” test game just now…
I played
100 levels easy
100 normal
100 hard
100 impossible
54 super impossible
in “one game”. I got all secrets all ranks and about 12 million points (though VB rolls over at 9999999 to 9000000).That took quite some time… I guess about 3 hours :-).
Not fixed discovered bugs during play:
- level intro sometimes missing
- Money rank 1 achievemnt not given
- blade ranks 4,3,2 not given!
Everything else was fine :-).
Following changes/considered/done since last version:
Jacek:
new boss animations
done: boss 1
done: boss 2
done: boss 3 (stays the same)
done: boss 4!!! not done: Helmut / VTK
First boss: Shot gets stuck (very minor issue)
Currently, when destroying the boss one of the shots remains in the air. It looks as if this shot is frozen.
If you keep on shooting you can do so but not in normal frequency.
Suggestion: Shots should dissappear and not freeze in the air.-> I was not able to reproduce this.
I explicitly remove all player shots upon death of the boss. And also there is no
code that even calls “shotDisplay”.
Please if you encounter this again hit “1” (the key) to save the game.
Better yet – PAUSE the game – open Dissi, enable debug mode and
on vecxi press the disk symbol with SHIFT pressed.
This will take a few seconds – but it will save the game with all history.
Please send me the saved game files (in directory “serialize” the newest StateSave file)!!!George
In shop “bullet” counter (bar) can go negative
-> Can not reproduce! (see above debugging)done – Helmut
Shop sound <> shot sound
Currently, in the shop when selecting a different item, a short sound is played. The sound ressembles
very much the sound when you shot (shop sound = shot sound).
Suggestion: During the game you hear the shot sound very often.
It would be good if in the shop one heard a different sound.done – Boss levels are not displayed as Level + number anymore
Helmut
Level 25 twice?!
Currently, there are two level 25: There is level 25 Boss allowed by level 25 normal. This is a bit confusing.
Suggestion: From my point of viewer boss levels should mark the end of a larger unit.
The first unit is levels 1-24 and level 25 should be the boss level.
After that the levels 26 with new enemies should follow.
In beta 28 it says: “LEVEL 25 BOSS”. Changing this to just “BOSS” or “BOSS LEVEL” would be a simple and effective solution.done: messages spellings wrong
done: to Test
Helmut:
Blaster: Achievement achieved but not displayed as achieved (Bug)
In this game I’ve achieved the blaster and could buy the quadro shot. When looking in the list of achievements,
the “Blaster” achievement isn’t hooked and the trophee graphic isn’t displayed.done:
Helmut
Year of copyright
Currently, when starting Vectorblade it says (c) 2018.
Suggestion: (c) 2019not done: (no space left)
Helmut
Inner animation when attacking
Currently, enemies have some inner animation when displayed at the top. When flying and attacking, the enemies have no inner animation.
Suggestion: Add a minor inner animation to attacking enemies. This will make enemies and game look even more lifely.not changed – no time (in game time)!
Helmut
Number of highscores
Currently, four highscores are displayed, only.
Suggestion: Display five or even 10 highscores.
Notes:
– 1, 3, 5, or 10 highscore entries feel ‘natural’ to me. Four entries is somehow odd.
– Displaying ten highscores would make the screen look too cramped and would require a complete redesign.
So five highscores would be best, I think.half changed: awards are only given when shotcount >1000
Helmut
No Sniper > 100%
Currently, with double or triple shots you can get a hit rate > 100%.
My impression is that once you die and you have a hit rate > 100 % you don’t get any sniper rewards.
Sugestions: Sniper rewards should be rewarded even with a percentage higher than 100%.
Rank 3 – 90%
Rank 2 – 100%
Rank 1 – 120%not changed: Helmut
Shop: Size of symbols
In the shop, in the top left the symbol of the selected power-up is displayed.
Currently, the symbol is displayed in normal size, i.e. the size that is used within the game.
The top left area looks pretty empty.
Suggestion: The symbol could be displayed a bit larger. This way, one can recognize the symbol more
easily and the empty area is filled.
-> no game time left. I could do this – but have to remove something elsedone: Helmut (single arrow)
Single and double arrows
Currently, there are single and double arrows used as indicators for the list:
– Status info uses double arrows
– Achievement list uses single arrows
Both lists use paging for displaying the various items. In Status info the item at the very bottom is displayed again
on the next page at the very top. This means that some items are displayed on two pages.Suggestions:
– Use single arrows for both lists (the double arrow is not helpful for the user I think).
– When paging in status info the item at the very bottom should not displayed on the next page at the top, again.Note:
The list in the shop scrolls item by item and doesn’t display items pagewise.
So the list in the shop is different to the list of achievements and the status info.done: Helmut (Laser costs 5000)
Some thoughts on the laser:
With laser the game is really much simpler. But, if I understood right,
once you die you loose everything (=greatest loss). And I do die during playing the first 50 levels -even with laser. A new laser could be bought for just 1000 bucks which is not much compared to the other stuff. So you can gather money (using the known technique) and when buying things in the store you always keep a bit of money for powering up the player ship and even buy a laser, again. This worked out for me several times.
Suggestion:
The laser could be more expensive (e.g. 2500 bucks or even 5000 bucks).
This way its hard to get a laser and the laser remains something special from the bonus side and from the money side.done: VTK
Scroll text not always centereddone:
– money – no speech (gets on ones nerves)Helmut (still relevant?)
Currently, there is line-wise vertical scrolling in the shop and paging (Achievements screen, Status screen) use joystick up/down.
Suggestion: For paging use joystick left/right instead of up/down. Appropriate arrows indicate this.
This will help the user to understand the concept of scrolling and paging better and usage gets more intuitive.Malban
Thank you, Christopher, for this new beta version of Vectorblade.
I just played one game with beta31. Has beta31 some special settings that make playing easier? This single game took almost an hour and score was 1,9 Million – I never had such a high score before. For some reason I don’t know I had a Diamond storm and a Superdiamond storm (?). – Diamond storms never happened to me before. The boss in level 95(?) gave me a hard time and I was set back to previous levels over and over again. Would be good if you were set back even more to a level with a shop to invest your money into equipment and refurbish the player ship. I’m still a bit numb due to the long playing and the late time.
What I noticed:
After level 75 game difficulty still ramps up a bit but levels >75 were comparatively easy unless you die several times and have a single shot, only.Vectorblade_Beta32.bin – 15th August 2019
Level 95 Boss? – I will have to look at it…
Things done with this update:
done: Helmut Page contents starts beyond up/down arrows
done: When a bonus letter is “moving” and a minestorm is entered – the
letter is remembered as collected, but not displayed in the “EXTRA” display!done: Helmut
– except the “Shots fired” and the “Shots hit”. On the second page it says just “hit” (Shots is missing).done: score rollover should award max score
done: waiting in “game over” screen repeatedly (after 5 minutes or so) awards bonus points
done: Helmut achievement sortings
done: to test
level intro sometimes missingdone: to test
blade ranks 4,3,2 not given!done: to test
Money rank 1 achievemnt not givendone: Helmut / VTK
First boss: Shot gets stuck (very minor issue)
Currently, when destroying the boss one of the shots remains in the air. It looks as if this shot is frozen.
If you keep on shooting you can do so but not in normal frequency.
Suggestion: Shots should dissappear and not freeze in the air.-> Could happen in any boss fight without autofire!
2 bugs I found…
a) the divider in the achievement is placed wrong
b) I think the game over screen hangs in an endless loop
… will be fixed soon…
a) the divider in the achievement is placed wrong
Right, see http://vide.malban.de/forums/topic/sugg-order-of-achievements/page/2/#post-4241
b) I think the game over screen hangs in an endless loop
Yes, confirmed.
Beta 32: Some extra info for other testers regarding the “Game Over” bug: After “Game over” you have to reset the Vectrex. Achievements aren’t saved so you start from scratch each time.
Vectorblade_Beta33.bin – 17th August 2019
Same as 32 without the two mentioned bugs…
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