Malban
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Single and double arrows
Currently, there are single and double arrows used as indicators for the list:
– Status info uses double arrows
– Achievement list uses single arrows
Both lists use paging for displaying the various items. In Status info the item at the very bottom is displayed again on the next page at the very top. This means that some items are displayed on two pages.My thought behind that was:
– the status info is a list of items, and one scroll “>>” jumps “several” items
– one achievement is “one item”, so one scroll “>” only scrolls one itemActually it doesn’t really matter to me – if you think they both should be the same I’ll change it (please again a small hint 🙂 ).
– When paging in status info the item at the very bottom should not displayed on the next page at the top, again.
Actually that also was on purpose – but if you think it is better to do “strict” scrolling I can change that easily.
As a “paranoid” user I feared, that I might scroll to far and miss a line when I scroll – so I made sure at least one line is the same, so I am assured I do not miss anything…Blaster: Achievement achieved but not displayed as achieved (Bug)
In this game I’ve achieved the blaster and could buy the quadro shot. When looking in the list of achievements, the “Blaster” achievement isn’t hooked and the trophee graphic isn’t displayed.Just a question.
Achievments for weapons are only awarded if you finish the level with the “new” weapon.
Did you finish the level with a blaster? Or did you die in between?
Now I see what you mean with inconsistencies.
The achievements were programmed much later than the shop.
The “allow to buy a quad shot” is awarded exactly at the moment, that you receive a blaster shot.
The achievement “blaster” is only awarded after a level.I will have to move the “allow to buy a quad shot” to the achievment awards – to “correct” that.
Thing is – I can not show achievements during the game – there is just not enough RAM to keep the onging game information while displaying the “achievement” ceremony 🙂
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I will do that…
Malban
I prefer to think of these things as “playfulness” and “diversity” instead of inconsistency or clutteredness.
Right now you testers see these different things very soon after another.
But the thought behind the wheel of fortune (besides not granting the laser every time) is – that it is fun and exciting to discover new things in a game even after playing many hours. I like that thought.
In order to play Vectorblade well there are mainly these things:
– concentration
– ability to react fast and catch or avoid “drops”
– knowledge of some levels (patterns, and enemy behaviour)
– knowledge of which bonus does what
– perhaps knowledge of what secret does whatThe bonus drop rate is a “fixed” game (level) constant. The percentage of probability for each bonus drop is also a fixed constant.
The levels, the ships and the patterns they enter the game in are “fixed”.
The number of shots in air, the number of concurrent attackers are fixed (per level). The timing parameters of the UFO is fixed.Random is: When they shoot and when they attack and with what pattern. Also random is when a “big enemey” appears.
IMHO there is not really soo much randomness in the game.
I doubt, that any (but one) secret can be found by pure luck. Certainly not the “EXTRA”.
So in my judgement there is not too much luck.The “random” EXTRA will not be a game changer.
a) if you do not play at a certain skill level – you will not achieve it
b) all things you can get, you can achieve otherwise – this is just a “shortcut”
c) it will not be THAT random – like a wheel of fortune, the plan is, that the player can press a button and the wheel
will stop – more or less predictable (well – not TOO predictable – I hope). So perhaps with a little bit of
practice you can “choose” the bonus you want the have.
But the goal would also be – if you have that much practive in spinning the wheel – than you probably
play the game very well anyways…Malban
PS
Game Over uses the same FONT as READY PLAYER ONE! 🙂
I have been “piTrexing” much lately and postponing Vectorblade.
I finished a personal stage at piTrex – and will probably start Vectorblading tomorrow or so.
So — finally there will be some updates.
Abou the EXTRA bonus – I think I will ad the “wheel of fortune” like I mentioned in my last “download” message.
So EXTRA will not give you always the laser – but rather “something very good”… :-).
Thank you for the corrections!
Might very well be “native” – ” non native” speaker thing.
But I also don’t mind them to remain at least a little bit cryptic 🙂
Alternatives are welcome:
sm21String db “SECRET MESSAGE 2”,$80
sm22String db “COLLECTING ORDERED DROPS”,$80
sm23String db “CORRECTLY WILL GIVE YOU”,$80
sm24String db “GREAT BENEFITS!”,$80What I mean:
Collecting “drops” (e.g. letter from extras – or the rank markers) in the correct order
( E X T R A – or for the rank markers from left to right) – gives you a special reward!.
sm41String db “SECRET MESSAGE 4”,$80
sm42String db “THE MONEY SUCKER CA<span style=”color: #ff9900;”>N</span> DROP”,$80 ##
sm43String db “HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY WHEN “,$80
sm44String db “KILLED <span style=”color: #ff9900; text-decoration: line-through;”>- </span>PROVIDED YOU”,$80 ##
sm45String db “COLLECTED 150 CREDITS WITH”,$80
sm46String db “THREE CONSECUTIVE DROPS!”,$80If you collect $50 three times in a row – than killing a money sucker – will spawn (up to) 20 money bonus – and thus give you much more money than you lost…
sm61String db “SECRET MESSAGE 6”,$80
sm62String db “THREE TIMES SUCKER <span style=”color: #ff9900; text-decoration: line-through;”>-</span>”,$80 ##
sm63String db “MAKES THEM STAY AFTER”,$80
sm64String db “A WARP!”,$80Collecting three “scoops” in a row awards you a scoop lock.
If you have a scoop lock the scoopies will stay with you even after a warp – so idealy up to 25 levels till the next boss.I have to look into the blaster thing.
49 – yes it is a “quiet” level – that is rigth. It also is overall “slower”…
Messages:
sm11String db "SECRET MESSAGE 1",$80 sm12String db "FIVE UFO MUST PASS, THAN",$80 sm13String db "THE MOTHER APPEARS, WHICH",$80 sm14String db "DROPS THE BIG MONEY!",$80 sm21String db "SECRET MESSAGE 2",$80 sm22String db "COLLECTING ORDERED DROPS",$80 sm23String db "CORRECTLY WILL GIVE YOU",$80 sm24String db "GREAT BENEFITS!",$80 sm31String db "SECRET MESSAGE 3",$80 sm32String db "THREE TIMES IN A ROW OF",$80 sm33String db "SOMETHING BAD - GIVES YOU",$80 sm34String db "SOMETHING GOOD!",$80 sm41String db "SECRET MESSAGE 4",$80 sm42String db "THE MONEY SUCKER CAM DROP",$80 sm43String db "HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY WHEN ",$80 sm44String db "KILLED - PROVIDED YOU",$80 sm45String db "COLLECTED 150 CREDITS WITH",$80 sm46String db "THREE CONSECUTIVE DROPS!",$80 sm51String db "SECRET MESSAGE 5",$80 sm52String db "COLLECT 50 DIAMONDS TO",$80 sm53String db "ENTER THE",$80 sm54String db "SUPER DIAMOND LEVEL!",$80 sm61String db "SECRET MESSAGE 6",$80 sm62String db "THREE TIMES SUCKER -",$80 sm63String db "MAKES THEM STAY AFTER",$80 sm64String db "A WARP!",$80 sm71String db "SECRET MESSAGE 7",$80 sm72String db "FINISHING 100 LEVELS ON",$80 sm73String db "EASY - MAKES YOU",$80 sm74String db "IMMUNE TO 1 SHOTS!",$80 sm75String db "FINISHING 200 LEVELS ON",$80 sm76String db "NORMAL - MAKES YOU",$80 sm77String db "IMMUNE TO 2 SHOTS!",$80
First boss:
VTK mentioned that too. I thought it was fixed – this is defenitly a bug – will look at it again.
Shop symbol size:
I know what you mean – I wish I could “easily” make them bigger.
Actually they are displayed with the same function as they appear in game – and the defining vectorlist does not support scaling.
it would either be:
a) write a complete new display routine, which can scale these
b) do each vectorlist a second time – which is scalableI thought of it before and decided too keep it the “small” way.
When I have some time left (and possibly the ingame memory) I will look into it again – but I do not promise this.Malban
Na… you don’t lose everything.
Greatest Loss is:
- you have a laser – and THAN collect a 1 shot… than you “jump” from the best shot (laser) to the worst shot (single shot) – if you do that you get the achievement “Greatest loss” 🙂
If you “normally” die having a laser – your weapon is degraded by one – so you have the blaster again.
@Olli (mainly):
You know I like the laser as it is.
I think you “main” problem is, that if you know how, it is very easy to get the laser – and too soon.What about this:
Laser in the shop becomes more expensive (and as it is now, lasers can only be bought after finishing 100 levels once – did anyone except Olli every do that?).
a)
The EXTRA in the right order does not award the laser anymore – but something else, which I have to think about (any suggestions?)If we do that, than the only way to obtain a laser is to go thru ALL collecting stages.
I->II -> III -> IV -> Blaster -> Laser
(more or less without dying) – that means you have at least to collect the EXTRA 4 times. Which – without dying is quiet a lot
harder.b)
Right now the collecting EXTRA in order is not influenced by collecting other bonus items.
I could easily change that, that you must collect EXTRA in order to EXACTLY in order (like: not allowed to collect anything else) – that would make the Laser reward through EXTRA collecting tremendously more difficult.…
Hehe.
Sorry this “must” also stay as it is. I guess I’ll build a new trend than – 4 entries.
A bit of a history… Originally I wanted your suggested five entries.
I did not have enought time to display them in 50Hz (my display routines were to slow). Also I did have some RAM shortage at that time. So I implemented 4 High Scores.
Than … probably months later – I implemented better routines – and the speed problems were gone, I think also the RAM was organized more efficiently.
But I didn’t change the high scores, because something … hm … else.
Later in testing Ollie found the high score too “boring”… So I implemented the
- music
- background stars
- and the flying ships around the scores
All of which I like pretty much. But I kept adding stuff, till I hit the 50Hz barrier (again).
So… even if I wanted to – I couldn’t add an additional fifth high score entry, because the display as it is would not allow it.
Sooo you see – I am totall innocent – my hands are tied…
Snper rewards.
Yes I was thinking yout those too. I might change them.
Reward is only given if you fire at least 1000 shots – so I thought it was some sort of difficutlty involved.
But I guess the difficulty in gettering Snpier 1. Level and e.g. Money 1 Level is much different.
I guess I should raise the bar.Achievements are always given, when due – if I change that here it would be inconsistent with other rewards. And personally I think – if I get 90% I should be rewarded for 90% not for 80% (even if its the first time).
I can’t remember right now – does the BOSS display Level 25 too? – It shouldn’t…
Thing is – if I use your (or Ollies) suggested counting – I have 3 levels to many – and I don’t want to throw them away.
And I would like to stay at level count 100…. I can’t have it all …Vectorblade_Beta28.bin – 10th July 2019
No changes – just the “cheat mode” disabled. If you want to earn you way thru the game!
🙂
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and another few lines
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I have written down all current stuff (as said before) and it will be addressed.
Right now I am still in a Vectorblade “pause”, and I expect it will be perhaps even some weeks before I actively return.
On the whole timeframe this is of no concern, since the printer didn’t even look at the overlay images yet – nor have I received any box artwork design yet.
Once I start implementing the fixes/features I will post here in the forum. I expect all of you to “follow” the threads – so you will be notified when we continue. The beta testers who have as yet not registered on the forum – well … how do I put the gently? – Ah well – than not gently – do not need to register anymore. Actually I turned of registering – so there will be no more accounts.
In the meantime you are more than welcome to keep playing and posting large or small concerns about the game. I will read and list them all, be assured of that.
I will however remove the public “Vectorblade – Beta Test” page from the menu and you will thus not any longer be able to access the forum via the VIDE blog pages.
Please keep a link to the forum – as it will still be active, but you will not be able to simply navigate to it.
Also all hints/secrets will than be gone. If you haven’t discovered/tested them by now – well than it probably is not too important anyhow. The general public seems also not to be too interested – as there are no comments whatsoever :-).
This may sound gloomy – but it is actually not. I am not mad or anything… but in the sense that sooner or later Vectorblade will be “public” the secrets should be exactly that… secret! And a first step is to be less “open”.
Malban
I have to look into the “Bullet” bar.
Looks like it is negative – yet it can’t be…
Why do people “hate” the laser… I desperately want to keep it the way it is 🙂 lol!
