Iteration 12
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Iteration 12 was just released! You can read about it here: http://www.spellofplay.com/node/348 The major things are some new graphics and effects and also some major balancing of weapons (you now start with two guns, and you never loose a gun). The missile ability also got some tweaks (it issues missiles exponentially now, so at the bottom end it is very weak). I'm actually quite glad that you guys convinced me that loosing a weapon was a bad idea... It feels a lot better now imho enjoy /hObbE |
Submitted by hObbE
Fri, 05/02/2008 - 15:26
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A good thing is that if you die you often get the chance to upgrade the weapon once more on the same level, making you more powerful.
Iteration 12
yO!
I'm at my dads atm trying to play, but I can't since todays update... Crappy laptop doesn't have support for SM 2.0..
Looking forward to try it once I get back from my slaving... (Manual labour) I'm excited to see the new boss ability and ship design.
Iteration 12
I've tried the new iteration now, and I was made painfully aware that I haven't played for over two weeks
I like the new stuff though, definitely like the ability selection keys. That feature was long overdue! The new ship looks nice too 
Sub-space rifts were a nice touch, though the "event horizon" (black part in the middle) could use some work. Doesn't look very smooth in my opinion.
Iteration 12
Best update yet!
Game is MUCH more fun now. I still didn't beat level 4 but I only tried once and I wasn't paying attention when the level started
I still think it too easily gets crowded with enemy shots leaving you nowhere to go which ain't fun at all.
The third boss is kind of a random thing now since you don't know how it ends up and you don't get that half a second to get rid of the part thats gonna land where you're standing. I suggest making it appear more slowly or making it slightly smaller and making it shoot a little bit slower. Awesome that you get to try again without weaponloss from the boss battle though.
I agree on the event horizon. Also shouldn't the rift disappear immediately when the boss has finished entering the scene?
EDIT: Also thanks for the hotkeys
New ship looks awesome. Especially with all the gun flashes and engine effects.
Some other feedback: Warning sign is shown for slightly too long. Especially since it takes like 5 seconds before it appears at all
It should also come with some cool scary sound of course. But please, no annoying alarm sounds for once in these kind of games 
Btw, I'm impressed with some of the effects. How do you make those missiles and the shimmering of the rift?
Iteration 12
Haha, first and second time I played lvl4 I didn't realize I had the missiles (I got the keys mixed up)
Still beat it the second time though. Next time I played, when I used the missiles, it was easy as pie (what does that mean anyway? It's not like it's that easy making pie).
I had no problem with the third boss, not sure what you mean, Solid
Iteration 12
Guess I just suck then
I'll give it another go later.
Iteration 12
Thanx for the comments guys!
I actually agree that the third boss is a bit too big now.
Regarding the effects the missiles are simple "beam billboard" that is billboards that are aligned along the current and previous position of the missile. Then having quite a long lifetime on the particles makes them look like long curving lines.
The rift is quite a "complex" shader effect, works kind of like the old school demo tunnels if you remember them... I really like how you with shaders can get back the per pixel control you had in the past. the .fx file is in the data/effects dir... it's free to use in any way...
Also this brings me back to the question about the event horizon of the rift. Could you elaborate on what you think needs to be improved? Is it too big? Should it be completely round?
I'm thinking of adding some particles that stream into the rift also, to heighten the effect some more...
My general idea is that the boss guards the rift, as it is a passage from the sub space into our space. Since the players ship is modified to use the energy of the aliens, I'm thinking that flying near the rift will slowly load your energy bar, alternatively that energy pellets are spawned from the rift.
freelancer... that score will not be easy to beat...
/hObbe
Iteration 12
Oh, now I remember. Yeah, that third boss used to bug me a lot. Now I have a strategy that never fails; Just before they've completely "arrived", use time warp. Then take out one of them in the lower left corner. That leaves a window for you to fly in.
Btw, I noticed it's still more beneficial to die before the levels repeat themselves. Level 4 is fracking impossible the second time around! When I got 2.57 million in score I had only one life left after the forth level. When I got 2.5 million I had all five lives. And I had to work really hard for those 2.5 million
Oh, and the missiles look really cool
About the event horizon; it's kinda hard to explain. It's too sharp... Like someone took a picture of a beautiful nebula, loaded it into Paint, and painted some black in the middle
A particle stream would probably help.
Spawning energy pellets from the rift might look a bit weird, but I like the idea of having the energy bar fill up when you fly near it. Keep in mind though that both the first and third boss can be killed instantly with the missiles when you have full energy
Iteration 12
ah yeah I thought you did something like that. just wondered if you did it in some way I hadn't thought of because they look really smooth.
[quote="hObbE"]I'm thinking of adding some particles that stream into the rift also, to heighten the effect some more...
My general idea is that the boss guards the rift, as it is a passage from the sub space into our space. Since the players ship is modified to use the energy of the aliens, I'm thinking that flying near the rift will slowly load your energy bar, alternatively that energy pellets are spawned from the rift.
/hObbe[/quote]
I thought the same as freelancer. Its like a piece is missing in the middle. a nice particlestream should smooth out the edges and do the trick yeah.
oh cool. I like the idea of being able to throw all you got and then recharge of his power when possible to unleash your power again. I had a similar idea when I played that some of the bigger/more important parts of the boss could drop energy.
Iteration 12
Cool now I know how to improve the event horizon.
And one thing about the missiles, I did the most easy implementation of beam particles, just one quad, no extras for the edges that you see in game programming gems 3. I actually tried this but it did not look as good in my case (particle overlaps too much and creates "banding" effects).
/hObbE
Iteration 12
ah cool. I don't own "the gems". if they overlap enough it probably isn't needed. I can see how there can appear gaps otherwise. especially in tight turns if the quads are far apart.
Iteration 12
Damn it, suddenly I find myself on place 9 on the higscores, and the top position is +3 000 000!! :shock:
We're getting p0wn3d by freelancer guys!
/hObbE
Iteration 12
Am I good or what?
Anyway, maybe you should update the in-game text to include the keyboard controls. Speaking of which, why did you choose xcvb and not zxcv? The latter seems like a more logical choice to me.
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