vtk testing notes / findings / suggestions etc

[vtk]

actually now i remember getting ‘Admiral’ rank so it looks like i got past ‘Captain’

getting superbombs is one thing i havn’t been doing until now, but i just checked out your notes here in the ‘beta test’ link which contains the spoilers etc, and can see now how to get superbombs now so perhaps i need to try to get some then

i think the warp failure screen is set really well on easy difficulty now, but could do with a little tweak on normal, whatever you think is best, eg. perhaps less bullets or one less enemy if u die

it just feels like it is slightly too difficult the way it is now when on normal mode

maybe as u typed above, this might be just fine:
– on easy – dead stay dead
– on normal – per death one enemy less
– other difficulties -> same as now

ps. nice job with when on normal mode making the warp failure enemies not be able to be killed too quickly if u have the laser (it would have taken away all of the challenge if the laser would have cut through them too quickly and easily) 🙂

[vtk]

i had a go of beta16 tonight, intro sequence in nice shape, no noise 🙂

played ok, got to level eighty something (easy difficulty)

could i put in a request; could you consider adding:

when the game is paused, could you put in a couple of new entries above where you have the line: “shots fired   0000”   (i say ‘above’ that line because these stats below would be more important/useful for the player)

these stats:

— diamonds  (obviously when the player gets to 100 diamonds just reset the counter again)

— superbombs

[Malban]

These entries are more or less only “needed” later in the game.
You can already show this information by doing the apropriate secret – than exactly these stats are also shown!

(BTW. In Warblade (the original) these stats were also hidden by a secret)

[vtk]

had a go of BETA 20 last night and another go today

has this one been reported or did u notice it yourself playing in the past;
on the mine storm stage i got right to the end of the level but died at the very last moment, however it let me through anyway so it meant i still completed the level and got the bonus etc (so it’s like, i arrived crashing and burning over the finish line) 🙂
i thought that was nice to be able to do that so if it is a bug perhaps u can leave it in?

i thought the flashing (when shot) effect of the first boss looks better now,  but can his overall brightness level be increased?  (if it doesnt cost anything…  cycles etc?)

and for the big passing fly-by ship of the intro animation, can his overall brightness be increased?  it used to be very bright, but now it looks like his brightness has been tamed down — but could he go up in brightness again (it doesnt have to be maximum, but just up so he looks more ‘closer’ to the brightness of the VECTORBLADE logo itself?)

 

[Malban]

Boss brightness – sure I can increase it – but you are aware, that than the flashing becomes less pronounced.

Are you sure you want it increased?

 

As for the intro ship… I will try.

Thing is the intro ship is generated by vecci – and I haven’t written down the specific settings with which I created it.

It is one of the vectorlists where the vectorlist inherently also has (different) intensity settings depending on the length of the vectors…

 

[hcmffm]

Boss brightness – sure I can increase it – but you are aware, that than the flashing becomes less pronounced.

Are you sure you want it increased?

Boss brightness is good on my Vectrex. Other opinions?

[vtk]

i got far tonight with the beta21 build

excellent fun 🙂 i got through all 100 EASY levels and then continued onwards to around thirty something of the NORMAL levels

final score: 570,000
final rank: ADMIRAL 2 BRONZE STARS

some random thoughts and questions in no particular order:

im wondering how the shield works, when you take a hit… – so, we know there are different ways you can take hits, it could be a single enemy bullet, or something like a spiky falling rock which could fall ‘through’ you. how does the ‘check’ work on the shield? :- after you take any kind of hit so the shield is gone, should your ship be invincible for one second so at least you can move out of the way of whatever hit, or is hitting you? (so, if a spiky rock hits you (falling through you), then you wont lose the shield and then a life all in an instant) .. hopefully i explained that ok. if not, what i am trying to say is, for the shield, if anything hits you, can it be set so that: you lose the shield but then are invincible for one second, so u can move away from something (eg. a spiky rock), which took away your shield and is still hitting you, (so, then you avoid losing the shield plus a life all at once in the blink of an eye…)

some thoughts about the final level 100 boss: i had autofire+laser combined, and he is way too easy. he can be killed way too quickly (in a couple of seconds. it’s no challenge so unfortunately it feels like an anti-climax). the 2nd and 3rd bosses take some time to kill even with the laser+autofire (several seconds) – in my opinion the final level 100 boss should also take some time and be more of a challenge if you have the powerful laser+autofire weapon

also on the subject of the final boss, i just wanted to say that it was certainly great to see some new gfx for the boss intro animation screen, but i felt that unlike the previous gfx from Jacek; with this final boss, on the real vectrex screen it seems that there are too many vectors crammed into a small space in some parts of the ship (i have circled problem areas in the picture below.. note: sorry i didnt take a photo of my vectrex screen – so you cant see the actual issue as i saw it). i can see from the picture below that those tight vectors look clearer if viewed in VIDE, or perhaps on a real vectrex with the brightness level turned down low, but here on my vectrex with the brightness knob set as standard (..set so that the white dot in the centre of the screen just disappears.. note: this is a very common and ‘standard’ brightness setting used by vectrex owners…), well… then particularly those circled areas in the picture below look like there are too many vectors packed into a small space, so unfortunately you can’t see any of the intended intricate detail at all 🙁 but instead, just an area of bright white and a messy appearance of ‘lots of vectors packed into a small area of the screen’, which is not consistent with the previous boss animation screens (which of course are excellent) 🙂

on a different note now:
i noticed after i finished playing and went into game settings, now i can see in settings it is set to difficulty NORMAL. however i noticed now i cant change it back to EASY if i wanted to play in EASY mode again? i reset the vectrex, and then went into settings, and it was showing EASY again. then i noticed i could change it to NORMAL if i wanted.. however now again, i cant change it back to EASY (i have to reset the vectrex to get it back to EASY again)

ps. also in the settings screen, i noticed for me, i cant get the entries: SECRETS and RESET to do anything (work in progress?)

[Malban]

im wondering how the shield works, when you take a hit…

You are confusing ARMOR and SHIELD.

A shield protects you from a everything! – For a certain period of time.

The armor protects you from one shot – once, but till it is triggered. The armor does not protect you from multiple shots and not from any form of collision with an enemy. It also does not trigger any invulnerability after it absorbs one shot…

 

some thoughts about the final level 100 boss: i had autofire+laser combined, and he is way too easy.

Any boss on EASY can be killed in a matter of seconds with laser and autofire. Do you suggest I make the bosses more difficult if you have a better weapon?

 

 

…with this final boss, on the real vectrex screen it seems that there are too many vectors crammed into a small space in some parts of the ship (i have circled problem areas in the picture below…

Check the next beta – I have uploaded a new bin in the “privateBeta” directory called “Boss4Intensity.bin”, check that out – better? (I reduced some intensity)

 

i noticed after i finished playing and went into game settings, now i can see in settings it is set to difficulty NORMAL. however i noticed now i cant change it back to EASY if i wanted to play in EASY mode again?

Thats a bug – I haveto correct it.

ps. also in the settings screen, i noticed for me, i cant get the entries: SECRETS and RESET to do anything (work in progress?)

Thats unfinished – doesn’t do anything yet…

 

[Peer]

I will also check out the Boss4Intensity (just can’t do it right now). I found that setting the right console brightness (poti on the back) is non-trivial and is different on all my consoles. The rule of thumb “turn it up until you see the dot in the middle of screen, then turn down again until that dot just vanishes” in general did not work very well (if a game uses various brightness levels, i.e. contrast). On my consoles, I ended up turning the poti much more down. Then I usually get a nice contrast between the different brightness levels (had to test this for Vec-Man). If it is turned too high, then the different brightnesses start looking very similar. Will there be some sort of brightness calibration screen or message in VectorBlade?

Edit: Yes, as Helmut said below, this refers to setting the poti on the back only, nothing program internal.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Peer.

[hcmffm]

Will there be some sort of brightness calibration screen or message in VectorBlade?

Correct brightness level is quite essential for the visual experience, I think. So adding a page for calibrating page “Brightness” is a good idea, Peer.

EDIT: Just to make sure: The calibration is just for helping the the user to calibrate the Vectrex using the potentiometer at the back.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by hcmffm.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by hcmffm.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by hcmffm.

[vtk]

oops yes that’s right i meant armor not shield
if you like the armor how it is currently then that’s cool, i think we just differ in opinion there then, as for me i would have the armor set so that if you lose it, you are invincible for a second so you can move away to safety
(otherwise, for example if you have the armor and a falling spiky rock hits you, the armor is totally useless as you will die anyway just like if you didnt have the armor in the first place).

regarding the laser in general (especially combined with autofire), i think i do have to say overall i am finding it makes playing too easy. in the game i had last night, i got the E X T R A letters in the correct order early during the game, so i ended up with the laser+autofire around level 10-15 on EASY, and then i kept it right through without losing a life to around level 30 or so of NORMAL (so i had it for over 100 levels…) it made playing too easy, some levels you can get through in literally a couple of seconds. maybe consider reducing the amount of laser you can unleash? so for example, you cant just hold down the button (with autofire), or rapid fire, where the laser is permanently on screen as a solid line? instead you could set it so, even with autofire on, the laser works differently in that, rather than being able to keep it on screen continuously as a solid line, instead the laser can be fired for eg. 0.5 seconds.. but then it auto switches off for eg. 0.5 seconds, and then you can fire again (and if you have autofire, the rule still applies) .. so basically the laser can be used in ‘bursts’, not as a ‘continuous solid line’. note: this method would certainly make the final big boss (and other bosses etc) more of a challenge again

nice work with the boss4intensity.bin, i just tried it, that’s much better yes, i can see the detail now and it looks much better 🙂

[Malban]

Laser:

Ok.

I am open to suggestions – but for now I leave it as it is, in the hopes that other testers aquire it too and can build an opinion and also give some input on this.

Did anyone else than VTK got a laser yet?

[Malban]

While on the matter of being to easy…

If you come to it…

Is the “P” bonus too powerfull? Should I remove it as a bonus DROP and just sell it in the shop for a lot more of money?

(like 10000 credits or so)?

[vtk]

cool yes it will be interesting to hear other opinions about the laser

regarding the ‘P’ icon, i dont think i have got that yet. there are lots of things in the shop i have not purchased, as for me they tend to be locked out during play; when i play the game i always play to avoid collecting any bad (triangle) icons, so unfortunately this means i do miss a lot of the secrets.. perhaps this will change in the future when i play more, but for now because the laser+autofire is very effective, all i tend to do is aim for getting that laser and then just keep that (and if i lose it, i just focus on obtaining that weapon again)

i noticed recently when playing that multiple ‘locks’ can be bought — i really like the bullet, rate, and speed level indicators in the shop which you added; perhaps for other things in the shop (lives, locks, superbombs, etc): when you are in the shop highlighted over each entry in the list of shop items, there can be displayed on screen how many of each item you currently have? – that would be useful for eg. lives as before buying extra lives i can see right there how many i currently have before deciding if i need to purchase some more

[vtk]

hey just been having a go tonight of the latest beta 26
i play with a different strategy now;
what i used to do is, just concentrate on getting RATE, BULLET and SPEED up to max …
now though, what i do is from the beginning of the game just try to get E,X,T,R,A in the correct order so i jump to the LASER weapon,
ok so using that strategy i just got the laser weapon and i have been using it, and just wanted to say i think it is much better now that it works in the ‘burst’ mode instead, so it means that the levels are still challenging and it’s less likely that all aliens can be destroyed as soon as they enter the screen (which felt to me ‘too cheap’)
so thanks for changing the laser performance..
actually i think there was a bit of a bug with it though:
when i got E,X,T,R,A in the correct order and got awarded the LASER, then the burst mode was not functional, and instead i could just hold down the fire button for the old style continuous laser ‘line’ on the screen.
however, a few levels later i lost the laser (i lost a life) and then had the blaster. but i got E,X,T,R,A again and so upgraded to the laser again, but then this time, the burst mode was functional. so it seems a bug is happening there?

thanks for changing the armor feature; i got hit by a spiky falling rock and it was really good that i then had a second or two to move to safety and the armor flashed to say it was now being removed. nice! 🙂

ok and for now, one more thing:
note: please try this before deciding on the answer… 🙂
ok so, it is when a high score is entered.. and you can move the joystick left and right to spin the letters around..
well, ever since the beginning, this has always felt ‘strange’ to me (i don’t know why…)
so tonight, i was entering a high score, spinning the letters and as usual it felt strange..
i then turned my joystick upside down (so left becomes right, and right becomes left) and then, now it feels normal and natural. could you try that and let me know what you think! (if any of the other testers are reading this, please also try it!)

[Author]

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