vtk testing notes / findings / suggestions etc

[vtk]

ahahah 🙂

i did have the laser for about 15-20 levels, i got through those 15-20 levels very quickly it was very easy (too easy) 😀

then i lost the laser being careless picking up a lesser weapon bonus drop icon

[Malban]

On easy – it can be easy :-).

The laser behaves differently on higher difficulties.
But yes – for some time I also thought the laser would be to easy.

But I played SO much – and I never could play endlessly.
There might be some game phases where it “looks” easy – and perhaps is.

But the second you get careless…

And even if you move quickly through those easy levels – that just means you get to the harder levels more quickly too.

For now I intend to keep it that way… lets see what the others think…

(new beta coming tonight … adds some sounds, repairs the sound glitch with the buttons, and adds your Failure suggestions…)

[vtk]

(new beta coming tonight … adds some sounds, repairs the sound glitch with the buttons, and adds your Failure suggestions…)

great! i’m quite addicted at the moment as you probably guessed 🙂

[vtk]

reporting in 😀

USING BETA 6

i experienced a bug tonight when playing, so will explain below…
first a few other little notes:

tonight i played a few times and got to around level 55-60 each time
scoring around 230,000 points

nice to see the new ‘game over’ sequence taking shape

sound stuttering fixed in the main ‘battlestar’ menu

saw the nice progress on the high score entry page

i have learned, whenever i reach the dreaded LEVEL 44 i dont shoot on that level but sit still in the center of the screen and let the enemies pass 🙂

LEVEL 49: i have noticed that this level feels different from the others because it is very slow and calm/easy, like if it was one of the first 10 levels in the game. it seems too easy/slow for a high numbered level?

BUG:
here is the setup of my ship when i experienced the bug:
RATE = MAX
SPEED = MAX
i had 3 shot or it might have been 4 shot (perhaps bug is present on either anyway)
i think i had AUTOFIRE (not sure)
LEVEL: it was level 32, 33, or 34 (well, maybe the bug is present if on any of these levels) .. it is a level where if shooting the enemy, they turn into spiky rocks
i had two SCOOPIES

so the bug: i was firing repeatedly and so there was a lot of vectors on the screen .. it’s a little hard to describe the bug but hopefully you can recreate it yourself anyway. basically, the gfx mess up. it’s like, some objects on the screen disappear and jump to a different place and are displayed elsewhere instead. im not sure what objects moved, i think it was either enemies, or dead enemies (the spiky rocks). well anyway try it for yourself and see if it happens for you (you will see some gfx on screen ‘move’ (shift abruptly) to a different position on the screen). maybe it was something to do with having scoopies (plus a lot of firepower?). until now, that is the only time i played those levels with scoopies.

[Malban]

Never happened to me. I have to investigate. Did you kill the enmies as they entered, or while they were already on their Waiting positions?

Was the “scoop” (the bonus) still active?

[vtk]

i had a lot of firepower so was firing rapidly, so was killing enemies quickly (but also being cautious about the spiky rocks), so possibly some of the enemies got to their waiting positions (im not sure)

i had 2 scoopies at my side but dont know if the bonus was still active (i was looking more up from my ship at the enemies and rocks and the firing etc)

if you cannot recreate, if you like you could make me a test beta so i can try to recreate it; i would need to start on level 32, rate max, speed max, 4 shot, autofire, and 2 scoopie aliens from level 32 (or start level 32 with scoopie bonus.. i think i grabbed the scoopies from falling rocks as mentioned in your text/playing tips elsewhere)

[Malban]

I can build you such a beta – no problem.
Thing is even with this beta I can not reproduce this.

I will send you one when I am at home.

The question whether the “scoopy” was still active (the bonus) – is because if it was active,
all enemies (and debris) gets REPELLED by the scoop ray. Than thy fly rotating wildly all over the screen.

Might it also have been that?

[vtk]

im not sure if the scoopy was still active so unsure if enemies/debris were being repelled, but there was some kind of display error going on (it’s hard to explain but to try to describe it:- some objects on screen would disappear and reappear in a different position. i noticed this effect occurring in the lower third of the screen. i think it might have been spiky rocks which were experiencing this issue, but im not sure, i would need to recreate the bug again to be sure/look more closely)

[Malban]

Yes, recreating bugs is a hassle. Especially bugs that need special features to discover…
If you discover something similar – hit button 3 (for pause) and perhaps try to take a picture/video of the things happending.

Not that I don’t believe you – but it might give me some more clues.

Right now I try to implement a “demo mode” – and I discovered a bug that could crash the game – but it was pure luck!

— :
The player must have a 4 shot AND scoopies.

And the “main shot” (the middle one) must be “zero” (all shots used, so that only scoopies are left).

And the right scoopy must still have all four shots.

And it must be the FIRST shot on screen (the lowest shot).

THAN 3 registeres were not initialized correctly and a crash could occur…

— :

It is a wonder I found it – and could actually recreate it!

(There even might be a very slim chance this was your bug, being scoopy and four shot, the game would depending on the content of the Y register jump to another bank… and that could very well cause not only a crash but also strange effects).

Tonight I will build another beta…

[vtk]

ok i will certainly pay attention to see if i can see the bug again and detail it better next time

if you did want to prepare some kind of special beta so i can test around the levels 32-34 then i will use that, otherwise i will just pay attention whenever i get to those levels (mind you i dont know if i will have the scoopies there again very often, so i think i will need a special beta build in order to investigate this more quickly)

[Malban]

Special betas:

http://vectrex.malban.de/privatBeta

[vtk]

thanks im certainly curious to see if it happens again,
i was out all day today and then work this evening but going to have a play tonight for an hour or two, will try the special beta’s first
.. and then have a regular game with the latest beta 7 ..
will report back soon

[vtk]

ok i tried the special beta’s and got the bug a few times again,
however i dont know how to recreate it reliably,
i simply just tried some goes (im not sure, maybe 15 times)
and saw the bug on 3-4 of the goes

note: i tested using the first special beta build, not the second one where you have the permanent scoop weapon enabled

ok since i dont know how to recreate the bug, i will have to try to film the vextrex screen tomorrow so u can see for yourself. i dont have a very good camera though, so we will have to hope for the best that the quality is ok.

ok that’s that for now then, and now i will just play some regular beta 7 and check out some of the new stuff u put in 🙂

[vtk]

back again, played the regular beta 7 and managed to do my best yet, reaching level 75 but lost all my lives on that boss, i need to do better at the timing of moving in-between the explosions from his laser

my score was 330,000

i got lucky and ended up with around $4000 in cash so bought loads of extra lives in the shop (i must have got the cash x 2 falling icon a few times)

title menu: the icons added to the terminal screen with descriptions are a really welcome addition, it really helps to have them there to memorise what all the bonus icons mean

i reached a ‘warp failure’ screen later on with so, so many enemies packed in there lol ; it was good fun clearing them, it’s lucky the dead ones didnt respawn when i lost some lives, otherwise i would have had no chance (i had average weapon)

i still think all of the smaller regular level ‘bosses’ are too easy (twice as hard as they are now for easy mode would be about right) 😀

nice demonstration mode by the way, i waited for it and watched it (man that will blow some minds at demo parties etc heheh)

ok that’s it for now, will make a video (well, try my best) tomorrow regarding that mysterious bug…. in the meantime though if you see the bug yourself then let me know so i wont need to make the video
(load the special beta, then let the enemies enter the screen, dont kill them all too quick, let some of them get across the screen so they are spread out, and so the spiky rocks end up spread out. try level 33, and also 34 if u dont see it on 33 and still have both your scooped enemies by your side. try 15 times and maybe you will see the bug once or twice. just look really carefully at the spiky rocks on the screen and u might see some of them disappear and re=appear someone else on the screen).

[Malban]

Damn!
I also tried several times – saw nothing.
I am curious how it looks like – the level is not special in any way, neither are the “debris” things.

‘hope you can capture it.

Thx!

[Author]

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