151 replies to this topic

[tabc3dd]

Once again, new version.

Graphical , performance , gameplay and storyline improvements.

I really need feedback here ^^.

[tabc3dd]

Bump, minor updates (notably enemy skirmish AI).

Updated the video in the main post (Quality is horrible though, at least it's up to date ...)

[Copernicus]

I've been playing this game and although you've optimized combat a lot, I still get lag sometimes when there are a lot of units present. I only have 2 gigs of processor and 500mb of ram on my Windows XP computer. The real problem though, is that sometimes when the game lags the ships will no longer follow my commands, and other times vehicles will turn the longest way possible to a target instead of the shortest way. Rarely when lagged out ships will move in the opposite direction they should be (move to 180 degrees from where I clicked).

Another bug I get is when trying to create a huge ship in the campaign ship screen. For example, I place a part on the front of my node 1 ship. The ship is so huge that the part is actually closer to node 2 than node 1. When I deploy the ship in battle, the part will not appear in the front of my node 1 ship, instead it appears on the back of my node 1 ship where the part would have been if it was connected to node 2.

The one part of your game that I don't think you've optimized well is the campaign ship screen. As more parts are on screen the garage keeps lagging more. It's gotten to the point where whenever I release the left mouse button the game freezes for 10 seconds.

There is one thing I would change in the user interface, which is eliminating the question box that appears when you exit a room. When I click exit in the achievements room I obviously wanted to exit so you don't need to open a window to ask me if I really wanted to leave or not.

I would also completely redesign the campaign ship room. I think it should be more like the editor ship room. What I mean by this is that there should only be one ship on screen at a time. I think one of the reasons the campaign ship room lags on me is because there is 5 ships, plus the store, plus the pile of parts on the bottom of the screen.

What I would do is create tabs on either the left or bottom of the screen to flip through the different ships. Only one ship will be in memory at a time. I would also alter the shop to be a bar along the bottom of the screen (like in editor mode), instead of parked in the middle of the screen. With only one ship on a screen you can have the node be in the middle of the screen, allowing room to build large ships of various shapes (instead of having to make it into a ball).

I would also merge the unequipped parts and shop together. How I would execute this is have only one part displayed in the shop menu, but a number written next to it showing how many you currently own that are unequipped. By left clicking on a part in the shop a menu would appear that would list Buy or Sell. In this manner having a lot of unequipped parts won't clutter up the screen (they aren't displayed, but only exist as a number next to the part in the shop). You could also implement a command to mass unequip parts, transferring them to the shop/warehouse. A player would still drag the part from the shop menu to equip it to the ship. An extra tray would have to be next to the shop for unequipped parts that can not be purchased, but it would still only display one part with the number in stock.

As for adding any new content to the game, I was wondering about custom drones. It would be a ship part, but work kind of like the assembly building. A player could build a drone in the campaign ship room using normal ship parts, but it would be limited in size. For instance a tier 1 custom drone could only have 1 part, tier 2 two parts, tier three 4 parts, and tier 8 four parts. That's in addition to the node, of course. In skirmish mode I use a node + blaster as a spam bot (it totally pawns skirmish). I would also like to use my blaster drones during missions, but in missions a player is limited to the amount of ships they can have, so I can't summon 20-30 of them as spam bots.

You really need to program the skirmish AI to build turrets as soon as possible to counter spam bots.

[tabc3dd]

<snip>

Wow, thanks for the great feedback !

-About lag, i really can't do much about it. The AI and parts have been optimized to strict minimum (The parts are just alarms that jump to the correct position XD). Sorry.
-About ships turning the longer way or aiming in the wrong direction : I only have one rotation code, and it calculates the shortest way. Maybe your computer bugs up its' calculations when it lags ? I can't fix this either.
-About parts appearing in the wrong place: You know the circle when you drag parts ? Well thats the maximum part placement radius, and was used to avoid that problem (both circles dont intersect). How you managed to bypass that maximum radius, i don't know, but i will fix it. Thanks !
-About hangar lag. Well, trust me, it is optimised. The problem is that it is running n^2 calculations, each part calculates each other parts. If you want, spend less money buying parts and more upgrading them, so you have less in total. I will try to review my code though.
-About confirming to exit : Ye, at first i implemented this to avoid errors, as returning to the main menu would erase your ship. Now that there is a continue button, errors aren't as annoying. Will remove, except from main menu. Thanks !
- About redesigning the Hangar : That will never happen. The cores and shop parts don't affect lag, it comes from bought parts calculating each other parts. And i like to be able to design multiple ships and compare them all on one screen. Thanks for the input though.
- About having small ships : Thats the aim, so you can't build uber ships of doom. I will slightly increase build radius though, see what it gives.
- About merging unequipped parts : will see what i can do, but i can't promise much ...
-About custom drones. Will try, but i can smell the abuses from here (uber Shield Drone ! Stealthed beamer drone !)
- About AI building turret early. I tried, but then it cripples the AI's economy ( a Turret is more costly then two collectors). And if i make it build only if you have a ship, it is built too late. How about i make the HQ capable of shooting ? But then, i could easily make a ship with a blaster and 3 Scans, and then shoot from my side of the map ... Maybe give the HQ Interceptor-like systems ?


Thanks again for the feedback, you can't imagine how helpful it is !

[tabc3dd]

I've been playing this game and although you've optimized combat a lot, I still get lag sometimes when there are a lot of units present. I only have 2 gigs of processor and 500mb of ram on my Windows XP computer. The real problem though, is that sometimes when the game lags the ships will no longer follow my commands, and other times vehicles will turn the longest way possible to a target instead of the shortest way. Rarely when lagged out ships will move in the opposite direction they should be (move to 180 degrees from where I clicked).
Cant find the problem from my computer, and in the code ...


Another bug I get is when trying to create a huge ship in the campaign ship screen. For example, I place a part on the front of my node 1 ship. The ship is so huge that the part is actually closer to node 2 than node 1. When I deploy the ship in battle, the part will not appear in the front of my node 1 ship, instead it appears on the back of my node 1 ship where the part would have been if it was connected to node 2.
You where never supposed to build out of the radius. Slightly increased building radius.

The one part of your game that I don't think you've optimized well is the campaign ship screen. As more parts are on screen the garage keeps lagging more. It's gotten to the point where whenever I release the left mouse button the game freezes for 10 seconds.
Partly fixed. Should lag alot less, but it will still lag with many parts.

There is one thing I would change in the user interface, which is eliminating the question box that appears when you exit a room. When I click exit in the achievements room I obviously wanted to exit so you don't need to open a window to ask me if I really wanted to leave or not.
No more message box when leaving most screens.

I would also completely redesign the campaign ship room. I think it should be more like the editor ship room. What I mean by this is that there should only be one ship on screen at a time. I think one of the reasons the campaign ship room lags on me is because there is 5 ships, plus the store, plus the pile of parts on the bottom of the screen.
I know the cause of lag, and it isn't the store or the five ships. Having all ships on screen is a part of the hangar i plan on keeping..

What I would do is create tabs on either the left or bottom of the screen to flip through the different ships. Only one ship will be in memory at a time. I would also alter the shop to be a bar along the bottom of the screen (like in editor mode), instead of parked in the middle of the screen. With only one ship on a screen you can have the node be in the middle of the screen, allowing room to build large ships of various shapes (instead of having to make it into a ball).

I would also merge the unequipped parts and shop together. How I would execute this is have only one part displayed in the shop menu, but a number written next to it showing how many you currently own that are unequipped. By left clicking on a part in the shop a menu would appear that would list Buy or Sell. In this manner having a lot of unequipped parts won't clutter up the screen (they aren't displayed, but only exist as a number next to the part in the shop). You could also implement a command to mass unequip parts, transferring them to the shop/warehouse. A player would still drag the part from the shop menu to equip it to the ship. An extra tray would have to be next to the shop for unequipped parts that can not be purchased, but it would still only display one part with the number in stock.
Might work on it if i'm bored.

As for adding any new content to the game, I was wondering about custom drones. It would be a ship part, but work kind of like the assembly building. A player could build a drone in the campaign ship room using normal ship parts, but it would be limited in size. For instance a tier 1 custom drone could only have 1 part, tier 2 two parts, tier three 4 parts, and tier 8 four parts. That's in addition to the node, of course. In skirmish mode I use a node + blaster as a spam bot (it totally pawns skirmish). I would also like to use my blaster drones during missions, but in missions a player is limited to the amount of ships they can have, so I can't summon 20-30 of them as spam bots.
After testing, it was too prone to abuses (ex : All shields - 1 Regenerator)

You really need to program the skirmish AI to build turrets as soon as possible to counter spam bots.
I attempted to entirely recode and rebalance the skirmish AI, it should be much better now. In addition, HQ now come with huge forcefields to prevent rushes.

Ok, a new version is out, here is the color code :

green = Fixed
red = Will not be fixed
blue = In project, might be done


In addition, there have been other improvements.

[Copernicus]

I've been playing the new version and skirmish is much better. Also the campaign ship room only freezes for about 2 seconds on me, which is manageable. The only problem I've encountered is mission 11, "Frontline." I have not been able to beat it in this version. The buildings have their shields restored to full every second, and their hull is restored to full the next second. The only way I can manage to destroy a building is to destroy it in one hit by having all my ships fire on it simultaneously, otherwise it is healed to full before my ships can fire a second time. The enemy can construct buildings faster than I can destroy them, so I never win. Plus I haven't been able to destroy the turrets, which prevents me from amassing enough ships to destroy the stronger buildings in a single hit.

Another thing I was thinking about were the upgrade points. Currently the only way you can find out if you have any upgrade points is by trying to upgrade something. I was wondering if maybe you could display on the campaign ship room the amount of upgrade points the player has left. Maybe above Level or below Credits.

[tabc3dd]

I've been playing the new version and skirmish is much better. Also the campaign ship room only freezes for about 2 seconds on me, which is manageable. The only problem I've encountered is mission 11, "Frontline." I have not been able to beat it in this version. The buildings have their shields restored to full every second, and their hull is restored to full the next second. The only way I can manage to destroy a building is to destroy it in one hit by having all my ships fire on it simultaneously, otherwise it is healed to full before my ships can fire a second time. The enemy can construct buildings faster than I can destroy them, so I never win. Plus I haven't been able to destroy the turrets, which prevents me from amassing enough ships to destroy the stronger buildings in a single hit.

Another thing I was thinking about were the upgrade points. Currently the only way you can find out if you have any upgrade points is by trying to upgrade something. I was wondering if maybe you could display on the campaign ship room the amount of upgrade points the player has left. Maybe above Level or below Credits.

Ok, uploaded a new version with fixes.

- Shield and Hull restoration : Thats the base's high power nanobot system XD! Basically, an excuse for side objectives. For each Energy the enemy has that is still connected to a relay, every building has increased regeneration. The strategy is therefore to destroy the relays or the Energy to reduce restoration of buildings. I have however reduced it.
- About enemies constructing buildings : That has something to do with my new skirmish building AI, they aren't supposed to build in this mission. Fixed.
- Strategies to win the mission : Get yourself a ship on which you put a few Radars and Leeches . Drain the enemies base's Energy from out of the Turrets range. Profit ^^! Anyway, it should now be beatable without such an ackward strategy in the new version.

In related news, i have centered the base ( it was slightly off).

- About upgrade points : It has been a few version since upgrade points have been removed. Now, upgrading costs 400 credits, no points.

Anyways, you aren't missing much if you can't pass mission 7. The farther you go, the less complete missions are. Only mission 1-4 are really complete, the rest are kind of short ( like defeat a group of enemies for exemple). That will eventually be improved.

Good luck

[Copernicus]

There are no upgrade points? When I try to upgrade something it works the first couple of times, but eventually I get the, "complete more of the campaign to unlock new tiers." After I get that message once, I can no longer upgrade any part until I reach the next tier in the campaign. Is there a limit on the number of upgraded parts a player can have? I currently have a Ruin++ and two Cannon+ and it won't allow me to upgrade anything else (this is without beating mission 11).

[tabc3dd]

There are no upgrade points? When I try to upgrade something it works the first couple of times, but eventually I get the, "complete more of the campaign to unlock new tiers." After I get that message once, I can no longer upgrade any part until I reach the next tier in the campaign. Is there a limit on the number of upgraded parts a player can have? I currently have a Ruin++ and two Cannon+ and it won't allow me to upgrade anything else (this is without beating mission 11).

Basically, you have missions tiers.

You can have as many upgraded parts of that tier and under.

You can only have two parts of that tier + 1

You can't have any better parts.


For exemple, you are at tier 2 of missions ( missions 5-8), you can have as many T1 and T2 parts as you wish, but only 2 T3 parts and 0 T4 parts.

The reason ? You could get T4 stealth or beamer at the third mission and literally breeze through missions 3-11.

[Copernicus]

The description for mission 3 still mentions that upgrade points are gained through skirmish.
Also, I can't make as many upgraded parts of that tier or under. Once I get two parts of that tier +1 I can't upgrade anything. When I click the upgrade button for any part it tells me, "Core can not handle any more over-upgraded parts." I'm assuming that isn't supposed to happen for parts that have never been upgraded.

[tabc3dd]

The description for mission 3 still mentions that upgrade points are gained through skirmish.
Also, I can't make as many upgraded parts of that tier or under. Once I get two parts of that tier +1 I can't upgrade anything. When I click the upgrade button for any part it tells me, "Core can not handle any more over-upgraded parts." I'm assuming that isn't supposed to happen for parts that have never been upgraded.

Yep, description for mission 3 was patched 10 minutes before reading your post XD.

Checking for your problem, it will be fixed for next version. Currently, i upgrade with the "U" button ( a personal shortcut to speed up testing) . Maybe theres a difference between both codes ? Anyhow, i'm sure U works, so you might as well go with that for now.



EDIT : Damn, i fail, U doesnt work either. Fixed for next version, you'll have to stay at 1 overupgraded part to avoid any problems for now. Sorry.


GL.

Edited by tabc3dd, 15 November 2010 - 07:38 PM.

[tabc3dd]

Ok, new version, i believe all bugs have been fixed. In addition, mission 1-9 are now in their final state, balanced and polished.

[tabc3dd]

The game has now reached a state where i could define it as finished. The story mode is completed, polished and coherent, i might just make the last few missions longer. All major bugs have been ironed out, only a few rare ones persist (like deleting a hacked ship).

Feedback is appreciated ^^.

[tabc3dd]

Bump.

I've lost interest in this project, and will not bring out any new versions. However, should any suggestion come up, such as improving a certain mission or adding a new building, i'd gladly attempt to implement it.

[tabc3dd]

Bump.

Merged both links to the game into a single one and placed it in the complete version.

[Questionare]

GREAT GAME, except when I almost finally won, the music started over and the game stopped responding...

Really excellent, one of my favorite strategy games I've played yet.

[batoonike]

Just wanted to say that this is SOOOO much clearer from the first version I played back then. I can now actually see whats going on

[tabc3dd]

GREAT GAME, except when I almost finally won, the music started over and the game stopped responding...

Really excellent, one of my favorite strategy games I've played yet.

Thanks alot . Did that problem happen only once, or were you able to recreate it ? And is there anything you could suggest, as in improvements or changes ?

Just wanted to say that this is SOOOO much clearer from the first version I played back then. I can now actually see whats going on

Thanks . I remember the first few versions, they were truly a mess, blurred graphics, stacking ships XD.


Uploaded a new version with glitch fixes, a few bugs cleaned, and a change : You can no longer fly into enemies to attempt to hit them from behind.


Constructive criticism appreciated as always ^^.

[tabc3dd]

Stopping this project due to lack of interest and near completion ...

Edited by tabc3dd, 12 January 2011 - 04:08 PM.

[tabc3dd]

Reuploaded a new version because someone gave me a good BGM. Only downside is the filesize passed from 4.5 MB to 10.5 MB ...