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What do you think should I try to implement that further – or just “keep” still and get on with the last cleanups (instead of implementing new bugs)?Took me a short while to understand what you mean. I think you shouldn’t implement a TIME TRIAL and do last clean-ups instead. From reading other testers’ opinions Vectorblade is now balanced well. And it’s fun to play. The TIME TRIALs would open another full chapter and I can’t see any good reason for it. Already, Vector Blade has a really complex game play and offers a lot – both for beginners and for marathon players. Fine-tuning and minor gimmicks and changes like the money for the drunken playing is o.k. but I wouldn’t add more major stuff.
How many times have you seen the diamond storm?
Not sure how many hours of testing I’ve spent in the past but during all that time I experienced the diamond storm only once. It’s good to have something really special in the game. I’m not a hard core player but I wonder whether this is perhaps too special and too rare. I’d be nosey to read other people’s experience and opinion regarding the diamond storm.The joystick and the buttons face downwards, so you have to push upwards for firing, but joystick to the “now left”/”now right” results in “ship left”/”right” without any confusion. I wouldn’t mind if this strategy “pays” off
A late reply: My idea was to rotate the joystick 180 degrees but rotating isn’t that easy due to the cable and buttons would be on the left side, then. Flipping the controller is a cool idea – I’ll try this out occassionally. 300 bucks for flipping the controller might be a good deal. 😉
One more suggestion:
Game over: Slower Score calculation
At the end of the game the score is calculated. The speed of the calculation has been reduced, already, but it’s still very difficult to see what is calculated.
Suggestion: I think after half an hour of playing it’s o.k. to see one’s score calculated for some seconds. It’s like the farmer who brings in the harvest that he has sown in spring. Make score calculation even slower. Perhaps wait a short time inbetween various calculation factors (rate, secrets, …).Just come from playing the latest test version of Vectorblade. Shooting around with full shot rate and two scoopies is good fun and speeds up level clearing significantly. 🙂
done:
No full intro after calibration
-> this was a bug, it should show the title screen!Hmm, from what I can see this bug isn’t fixed, yet. After calibration the main menu is shown – the Vectorblade logo with the fighter is still missing. Could you please check, Chris?
done:
Boss announcements: Intensity
-> 3f instead of 5f (BOSS 4 stayed the same!)From my point of view this looks good – thank you! Spaceship and the animated “flame” of the spaceship could also vary in intensity, a bright “flame” might look cool. (We testers never run out of new ideas and requests… 😉 )
Thank you for your effort and the various changes and additions in the new RC2, Chris. Great that you took some of my suggestions into account. 🙂
Some more minor issue in v58:
No full intro after calibration
Currently, when starting Vectorblade for the very first time, the calibration is shown. After calibration, there is no Vectorblade intro (Vectorblade logo with spaceship).
Suggestion: Display Vector blade intro (Vectorblade logo with spaceship) after very first calibration.Scroll text: Spacing
Currently, the spacing of the scroll text is a bit inconsistent. In most cases, there is a title (e.g. GREETINGS TO), then an empty line followed by the names. After “SPECIAL THANKS..” there are two empty lines.
Suggestion: One empty line after “SPECIAL THANKS..”Scroll text: LESS BULLET
In the menu screen, all the bonus and malus are described. Currently, it says “LESS BULLET”. I wonder whether this is correct English.
Suggestion: Change “LESS BULLET” to “LESS BULLETS”.@Helmut:
I’ll look at the things you mentioned.Thank you, Chris. But only if you feel like it. Your most recent posts sound as if you want and need to get this thing out of the door, now.
Just played v58. Looks really nice and shiny. Thank you very much, Chris, for your mentioning other testers and me in the Special thanks / testing section!
Some minor issues that I experienced on a non-buzz Vectrex console:
Intro: Scrolling text with small dot
In the intro with the scrolling text, there is a small dot on the left side of the “screen” that goes up and down. Looks like a small bug.Minestorm: No merchant
Title of level 5 is “Merchant follows”. I played level 5 and caught a minestorm bonus. After the minestorm, there was no merchant. (Not sure whether this is a bug or a feature.)
Game over screen: Vertical alignment of numbers
In the game over screen, the vertical alignment of the number doesn’t look right to me. E.g. “Rank Multiplier: x 3” the 3 is a bit too much at the top. Perhaps it’s just the font that is used and thus normal.Merchant/Shop: Intensity
Intensity is the color of the Vectrex. Currently, within the shop it seems that intensity isn’t used at all.
Suggestion: Use varying itensity (e.g. selected item, merchant, …).100 copies of Vectorblade? That’s very scarce – especially after your most recent mouth-watering video. 😉
vtk, Jerome, Peer: Your suggestions for a comparatively fair assignment of the rare Vectorblade copies all sound good to me. An order period for a week (or even longer) announced on various platforms is the way to go. Method A, B, and C are all fine. After all it’s your/Chris’ decision. A lottery and a video showing it is also a good idea. Nicknames would be required for privacy reasons and drawing 100 people is quite some effort and a pretty long video.
Method “First come, first served.” is a real pain in the ass for many reasons.
Sometimes suggestions turn out to make things worse instead of better:
Malus symbols
My suggestion to change the “-S” and “-B” to “S-” and “B-” was no good. Now, it got more difficult to recognize the symbols. The old symbols were better.
But I have an alternative suggestion: All malus symbols are triangles and one can see by the shape that this is a malus. So I think there is no need to add a minus (‘-‘) at all. Simply “B” and “S” is sufficient. The Rate- doesn’t need the strike-though, either.Below are some suggestions. These are just some minor suggestions. Beta 56 of Vectorblade is very cool and shiny – no need at all to consider these suggestions.
Boss announcements: Intensity
The images announcing the bosses are really good. Currently, the player’s ship and the boss differ very little in intensity.
Suggestion: Use lower intensity for the bosses. This might increase the depth of the image.Boss anncouncements: Some stars?
Currently, the images announcing the bosses look a bit clean.
Suggestion: Some stars might be introduced.“EXTRA”: Remove letters
Currently, you collect the EXTRA letters. Collecting a specific letter for a second time has no effect.
Suggestion: Picking up a letter for a second time might remove it from the EXTRA collection.
Please note that I’m not sure whether this would be an improvement to the game or not. This will make collecting letters more difficult. And it might be enerving to loose letters over and over, again. But this might be an extra challenge which requires even more attention on the player side. Perhaps something for the higher difficulty levels?Thank you for the many changes and bug fixes in Beta 56, Chris. Especially thank you for considering my small suggestions. I’ve just downloaded the new version and will try it out later on.
Some feedback on the animations:
“Game over” sequence:
I like the explosion with lots of debris. Some larger particles or particles of different size might look cool. I agree with Jermoe: Currently, there is too much zooming in and zooming out in the “Game over” sequence. I think it would be sufficient to zoom in (make larger) the ship and then show the explosion. After that the “GAME OVER” might fade in in the middle of the screen.Beta tester ceremony
Sure enough the beta tester ceremony shows your appreciation of our work – which is much appreciated. But I think it’s a bit over the top. A section “Tester” with the names of all beta testers in the scrolling window would be sufficient, I think. Also, it would be unfair to VTK who did the excellent music. Or will he get a music magician ceremony? 😉Chris, again thank you for your excellent effort. Please enjoy your holidays at the Baltic sea. In this difficult Corona time it’s even more important to get a change. I wish you and your partner nice and relaxing holidays!
– “An alert” for the last ship.
It might be a good idea to display the number of remaining ships whenever the player looses a ship. (I know that button 3 opens the status screen which contains this info).
