- This topic has 100 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
ok i will test that again (using beta 10) regarding the large bosses to see if i get the problem when i pause/fire after defeating the boss
i have ended up taking a break for a few days from playing but want to get playing some more again now (and will try to make some useable sound effects this week hopefully)
i don’t suppose all of the secrets and achievements are documented so i can read about them all and then check them all out? (as currently i wont pretend to understand all of that stuff yet)
… of all the secrets and achievements, which are saved in flash memory when vectrex is powered off?
Sorry, I certainly didn’t want to put pressure on you. You’ve done a hell of a job testing!
Take all the time you need!
All is documented on the “beta page”. Yes all are saved to flash…
Thank you!
Thank U VTK!
Well, still not special cartridge here but I would also like to thank you for your extensive log, that I studied throughout. I frankly believe that your detailed notes, will be in a great assistance to me when my beta test is about to begin.thanks Malban, i think what i will do next is read all the documentation available
Hope you enjoy the testing GeoAnas 🙂
if i had one piece of advice for anyone playing, it’s .. when u reach LEVEL 44, dont fire! instead just stay still in the middle of the screen and let all of the enemies pass you until the level ends
actually some more advice (but perhaps others will each have their own preference on upgrading their ship), … but personally i try to get the bonus items: RATE, BULLET, and SPEED up as quickly as possible (so you can move your ship around much faster so that you can collect more of the falling bonus icons, and the fast/numerous bullets allow you to clear enemies much quicker)
hey Malban, i think after playing through the 100 levels on EASY i would now say that i think the difficulty level for EASY is ok as it is (i had a couple of bad days where i thought the game might be too difficult but then i got back into playing better again and all was ok, and i finished the 100 levels on EASY after just 1-2 weeks of playing, which seems perfectly acceptable)
perhaps opinions from the other testers will vary wildly about the difficulty level of the game, i think the important thing for everyone to do is to be honest about what they think, rather than just be polite and say “everything is fine” heheh 🙂
i just been playing beta13
overall i certainly like how the title screen has changed
ok so to go through the details:
calibration “straighten this text”
worked really well for me, the addition of the straight vector line to use as a ‘ruler’ was very helpful and i was able to get the “straighten this text” text perfectly in line with the ruler quickly and easily without hassle or problemsthe new title screen based on DRAFT 2 looked really good to me
i noticed the font change (bigger) in the settings screen which looked really good and was stable, no display problems or anything to mention there
hiscore screen: i thought that looked really good, again all stable and no problems to mention. i’m tempted to wonder if there could be (if feasible) 8 ships moving around the screen border instead of 4? 🙂
…
something i am wondering..
it is about the intro screen with the vectorblade logo and the ship flies by..
do you think maybe that music should go, and perhaps instead, do you remember i did that short ‘galaga theme’ music in the past, here it is as a .WAV audio file to listen to:
https://drive.google.com/uc?authuser=0&id=1lFqN6t7seGQ79NJLt3cn_yD2PyFozDN-&export=downloadperhaps u could try this:
the intro screen loads and is totally blank (black screen) .. see pic 1 below
the short galaga theme music begins playing
the vectorblade logo fades in and moves up the screen increasing in brightness (see pics 2,3,4,5)
the vectorblade logo reaches the top normal display position at its full brightness as the galaga music finishes (see pic 6)
now there is silence and the vectorblade ship flies past (see pic 7) .. (or we could add a ship engine/’SWOOSH’ sound rather than silence if u would like to try that out…)
then the intro is finished.. nice and short, no ‘button press’ exit needed, and now the title page with battlestar music automatically begins
(note: just before the transition to the title page, fading out the vectorblade logo would perhaps be nicer than a straight ‘cut’ to the title screen .. just experiment with a fast or slow fade of the vectorblade logo to see which looks/feels best)well that’s an idea then — don’t worry if u dont want to try this at all, but i just wanted to throw this idea your way.
(note: if you do like the idea but dont want to use that galaga theme music, i could do a different short music piece instead of course)PIC 1:
PIC 2:
PIC 3:
PIC 4:
PIC 5:
PIC 6:
PIC 7:
ps. can you imagine if it ends up with 8 testers here all typing things all day and night like i typed above.. lol
imagine the time it would take to read through everything .. there would be none left for coding 😀(if you thought the ‘warp failure’ screen was tough when it is full of enemies, that will seem like a holiday compared to this forum … heheh)
hiscore screen: i thought that looked really good, again all stable and no problems to mention. i’m tempted to wonder if there could be (if feasible) 8 ships moving around the screen border instead of 4?
Shouldn’t be any problem – but wouldn’t that look a bit “crowded”?
Ah… I can try it out… and you tell me :-)?
Do I have that WAV as an Arkos Tracker file? Otherwise it would be damn hard to insert into a trial run…
Best thing is always to just try things. The changes you guys suggest (if feasable at all) are usually only a few minute programming – and perhaps not even take as long as you need to draw the images. So – again I will just try – give me the music, or tell me which one exactly you mean you set me… and we can have a look at the real thing.
Cheers
Malban
for the hiscore screen, yes do try with the 8 ships instead please 🙂 as it felt to me like there is quite a lot of space in-between each ship so maybe 8 ships would make it all look just right
ok i will send the arkos tracker ‘galaga theme’ to you by email today
(i havn’t sent it to you in the past in the arkos format)ps. can you imagine if it ends up with 8 testers here all typing things all day and night like i typed above.. lol
imagine the time it would take to read through everything .. there would be none left for coding 😀This is what is supposed to happen: Testers will find bugs and make suggestions. At some stage Christopher will make a cut and define that the game is finished graphics and functionality wise. From then on, only bugs will be fixed and if no more bugs are found the game will release.
(if you thought the ‘warp failure’ screen was tough when it is full of enemies, that will seem like a holiday compared to this forum … heheh)
Right, dealing with all the output of testers can be quite challenging. But I think everyone here is aware that it’s always Christopher’s decision what will be changed and fixed and what not.
i remember reading in a kristof tuts interview he said that with his games, the main thing what takes so much time when writing a game is at the end, the tweaking of things during the final stage of the project
(that seems to be the tricky thing with the vectrex, their output can vary so much that making something look the same on every vectrex is not easy).. thank god we can calibrate 🙂
had a play tonight and did very well,
i went through all 100 difficulty easy levels and then it starts over on difficulty normal, where i managed to get through about 60 or so levels there
final score was 571000
my final rank if i remember correctly was ‘captain’
(Chris where in your writings is a list of all the ranks in order?)i died on warp failure stage – it kind of seems like on difficulty normal, would it be better if, if you die on warp failure round, then on your next life there is one less enemy there? so at least u might have a chance to survive now that your weapon rank/strength is down, rather than just slowly realise each time you die that it’s just getting harder and harder and you are doomed to lose all of your lives.. (because there are so many of the enemies, their bullets are so fast, and there are so many of their bullets)
there’s certainly a bug going on in the shop buying system. i noticed when playing (i was on the normal levels), i had blaster weapon but in the shop i went to try to buy the laser, and there was no sound played when i clicked on the laser to buy it, but it took off 1000 from my money. i tried again a few times, and each time it took off another 1000, but there was never a sound played when clicking on the button to buy. then when i excited the shop it didnt give me the laser anyway so i still only had the blaster weapon in use
Ranks
I think as of yet I have not written it down anywhere in public:
ENSIGN
LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER
CAPTAIN
ADMIRAL
ADMIRAL 1 BRONZE STAR
ADMIRAL 2 BRONZE STARS
ADMIRAL 3 BRONZE STARS
ADMIRAL 1 SILVER STAR
ADMIRAL 2 SILVER STARS
ADMIRAL 3 SILVER STARS
ADMIRAL 1 GOLD STAR
ADMIRAL 2 GOLD STARS
ADMIRAL 3 GOLD STARS
GREAT DEFENDER (secret)Warp Failures.
Should I just reduce the overall enemies?
– I think at the moment the enemy count is Level# / 8
or – as you said – it might make sense the following:
– on easy – dead stay dead
– on normal – per death one enemy less
– other difficulties -> same as now.Shop
– have to look at it
Overall tip
– from difficulty “normal” – and if you have money to spare – you can buy a “lock” in the shop.
The lock prevents downgrades when dying! (1 lock – one downgrade prevention, buyable multiple times)– can’t you use a superbomb with the failure thingies? *BAM* -> level done
(with the right secret OR an achievement – you can buy bombs in the shop. But you can also collect them in game – which is also a secret – and fairly easy)Actually….
The more I think about … the warp failure part with above said about the superbomb – might even be a “tactical” component.
- you either do them the hard way
- or collect bombs to do it the easy way
That combined with on easy – the dead stay dead – it should be doable. You sometimes have to think ahead whether you need a spare superbomb.
That said – I will implement (for a testrun) the following:
- on easy level: the dead stay dead still holds
- furthermore: on easy difficulty the maximum enemy bullets in the air at one time will be restricted to “5”
- furthermore: on normal difficulty the maximum enemy bullets in the air at one time will be restricted to “7”
- all other difficulties stay the same.
Thoughts?
- The forum ‘Vectorblade beta test’ is closed to new topics and replies.