[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]

for the help text i am neutral opinion

and for the major havoc part:

i think i am neutral here also, it will be nice if it is in but i dont think it would cause a big problem if it is not in
(the important thing is that it is fun and feels like it belongs, rather than just put in for the sake of it to fill space)

[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 🙂

[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?)

[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?)

 

[vtk]

I’d also say that it’s a bit hard to see that the boss is hit. A more obvious blinking would be good.

i notice that also on the first boss, when you hit him he doesnt flash much to show the hit,
Chris maybe when the boss is hit, if you make him black (disappear) just for a very quick moment, that will help to create a very noticeable flash effect

[vtk]

nico said: I hate the warp failure when there are multiple enemies

try to get the bonus upgrades: bullets, rate, and speed up as quick as you can and then it all becomes much easier

also try to get good at the minestorm round and always visit it when you have the chance, because every time you finish that stage you get $1000 bonus, so then in the shop you can buy lots of bullets, rate and speed upgrades

ps. having a fast ship speed is particularly important because it means you can move around the screen really quickly, allowing you to grab a lot more falling bonus icons

[vtk]

greets nic 🙂

[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

[vtk]

Chris that is ace news i thought there was something wrong with my vectrex lol

looking forward to playing the new beta tonight!  🙂

 

[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]

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

[vtk]

hey, question for all the testers:

for any of you, does your vectrex make quite a lot of louder than normal ‘noise/buzz’ when the large ship flies past during the intro animation?

Chris:  i imagine you agree that the logo is moving a little too slow up the screen now..
if you start the galaga music when the screen is black, let it play for 2-3 seconds before fading in the vectorblade logo, it means u can make the logo move up the screen faster but still keeping time with the ship only flying past when the music stops

ps. i dont know if it is worth trying, but do u think, that loud buzz/noise i get when the large ship flies by might very well be much reduced if the brightness of the ship is reduced?  on my vectrex the ship is extremely bright and from what i can see, it doesnt look like reducing the brightness will spoil anything, and might just tame that loud buzzing…

HERE IS A VIDEO I MADE SHOWING THE ISSUE:
https://drive.google.com/uc?authuser=0&id=1o_DGfiruIqGVMYSU9e5VMEJT2Roir0tq&export=download

[vtk]

thanks very much im going to try this new beta right now then will report back

ps. there is a bit of a delay with the galaga music as i had to check the volumes, but i should have that sorted out later tonight

[vtk]

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 🙂

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