vtk testing notes / findings / suggestions etc

[vtk]

you mean this?

http://vide.malban.de/vectorblade/diary-of-v-tiberius-rex

i did look at that earlier today but didn’t read all of it
(i should read all of it then?)

[Malban]

If you want to pass the vectorblade exams at the end of Beta-test :-)…

[vtk]

i just had a play and didnt get very far this time but did notice a bug going on in the first boss (level 25) screen (perhaps affects all boss screens),
if you keep pressing buttons like pause and fire after the boss is defeated, you get some sounds and misplaced gfx occurring

[vtk]

Is “easy” still to difficult?

hmm, now i’m thinking… “possibly…”

(i just seem to struggle getting those weapons up.. because in frantic moments of the game you can grab a single shot bonus icon by mistake and suddenly you lost all your power and are in big trouble if it is the later levels in the game)

i’ve still only ever got the LASER weapon once during all of my current playing

some suggestions which could help:

…increase the likelihood of a ‘double shot’ icon coming, in relation to the chances of a bonus icon being a ‘single shot’ or a ‘double shot’

or

…if you gain a weapon (via the E X T R A bonus), then that weapon is now unlocked in the shop for purchase during current game

(if you dont like the idea of doing any of these changes, maybe it could be done just for EASY mode..) 🙂

ps. it’s good there are more testers onboard as much more opinions on the difficulty level are needed…

[Malban]

Hm.
That is not really the kind of difficulty I want to address.
On non beta carts this might not be a real problem, since you do not usually reset your settings.

***SPOILER***

See – the whole “1 shot”-thing-collection “problem” vanishes – once you do the achievment “biggest loss”.
And that in combination with the EXTRA secret – you sort of completely disable one shots.

Since both of these are not REALLY complicated to get (and you only need to do that ONCE) – I’m hard pressed to additionally make that part easier…

[vtk]

eek, hopefully this wont be as much of a mystery as Peer’s ‘unique’ vextrex 😮

i had a crash tonight while playing, as in, the vectrex screen went bad (mostly black with some random display on the screen for a few seconds, then totally black), and a continuous tone was being played from the sound chip (a constant BEEP tone). i had to switch off the vectrex to clear the crash

it’s hard to tell u exactly what has happening when the crash occurred, but i will do as best as i can:

i had reached wave 3
SPEED max
RATE max
BULLET max
BLASTER weapon
unfortunately i don’t know which level it was
there was certainly a lot of fast enemies present on screen though
i collected the scoopy icon and then had just grabbed 2 ‘scooped’ enemies to join me at my sides, when..
… the large alien pictured below appeared coming in from the left hand side
.. very quickly after that alien appeared, the game crashed
(so perhaps we can speculate at this point that the game would not have crashed if that alien did not appear..? due to the crash occurring as soon as he showed up…)
additional: im not sure about this, but possibly the scoopy weapon was still active when the crash occurred, as in, some enemies were being ‘bounced away’ off of the active scoopy weapon (because i had the max. 2 enemies already at my side). i just want to repeat though, im not 100% sure about that last part…

[vtk]

back again, i went and played some more (don’t worry, no crash this time), finishing now at 2:30am 🙂

had a great session, did my best yet and managed to reach LEVEL 99 😮

really great job u did on those later levels, loads of fun and so fast and exciting

i’m doing much better on the minestorm level now, i would say out of 10 tries i will get through 7 of them so that’s good (a few days ago, out of 10 tries i would get through 3…)

i’m also doing better with getting the weapons up (and avoiding downgrading by mistake); i got the laser lots of times tonight so it was great to use that again

my skill level has certainly improved (…i hope it is not just temporary until tomorrow) heh heh

…

….. awesome game! 🙂

[Malban]

Regarding your crash.
Actually you are wrong – that one is worse!

Peers “bug” can be reproduced (on one vectrex) and is more or less located. We know now when it happens and where, we just don’t know why.

Your “bug” can be “anywhere” (above level 25).
It is so seldom that in 2 weeks playtime (20 hours of playtime?) we have seen it only once. I’d say there is only a very, very slim chance for me to reproduce and find it.

This is not your fault, mind you and I am not saying you shouldn’t report crashes – I’d just wish they would be more easy to locate :-).

There are two things we can do:

a) I can build a version where only scoopy bonus fall, that starts in a “higher level” (what region, Star Wars? Star Trek, Sinistar?), and where the big enemy occurs more regularly and where you have a blaster weapon, and than we play… and play …

b) when you play (and you have the equipment) FILM your gameplay. If nothing happens, fine free the space. IF something happens, we have “proof” on tape and can try to reconstruct via the film.

I probably won’t be able to test much until very much later tonight. Work in the garden, friends coming to visit…etc

… bla bla bla …
… bla bla bla …
… bla bla bla …

(some time later)

Anyway… FOUND it!
(At least I found one bug, that MUST cause a crash).

Will repair it possibly tonight.
As of now – when you have scoopies – do not let the scoopies be destroyed by the Big alien… that WILL crash the game!!!

… later…

[vtk]

nice, you might have fixed it? 🙂

i mentioned above it was wave 3 when the bug occurred, i think actually i can be more specific and tell you which level the bug would occur (as i remember the aliens and their attack pattern), but will need to play the game again and get to around that same level so i know where i was, then i can make a note of the level which requires the testing

then we can set up a beta build so i can recreate the bug, we would need:
SPEED max
RATE max
BULLET max
BLASTER weapon
scoopy turned on permanent (we dont want it to expire)
(then i grab 2 scoopies)
then, for the level i am testing, just send in that large alien pictured above, after 10 seconds of me being on that level

if u wanted to make the test build now just allow an option so i can chose the starting level
perhaps make my ship invincible also, to make the testing easier

anyway i will leave it to you then to decide if you want to persue that testing (perhaps you are confident you fixed the bug now anyway?)

[Malban]

Uploaded a “bigEnemyTest.bin” – that should have the bug fixed.

Starts on fifty. Big enemy appears from 51 on very often…

[vtk]

cool ok i will be testing that later today and this evening

[vtk]

with the BigEnemyTest bin i didnt get the crash again so hopefully that’s ok now then, i will move onto the latest beta now and just carry on playing as normal

[vtk]

i have managed to get through the 100 levels! 🙂

so that’s done on EASY,
i’m thinking just play as NORMAL next (or, let me know if there are certain specific things you would like tested?)

[Malban]

Gz!

I had much on my plate this weekend… didn’t do much Vectorblade.

And my actual “development” spirit is sinking while we don’t know what Peer weird Vectrex is about.

Normal findings would only be “difficulty” settings – otherwise there should be no other things than on easy.
Super impossible is slightly different again – but I am quite confident, that nobody will ever play that :-).

[Malban]

if you keep pressing buttons like pause and fire after the boss is defeated, you get some sounds and misplaced gfx occurring

Yesterday I looked at that, and could not reproduce that (beta 10).
Is it always the case – or only sometimes?

Did you per chance test some more of the achievments (if they come at the right place?)
Or Secrects? (to easy, to difficult, not much sense…)

Next step on my side is to finish all the highscore stuff, do the last missing sounds – and if I still have some memory left, I will try to get MH running…

[Author]

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