Rebooteroids - Public Testing Phase (And user created level submission)

[rayik]

It's not just camping. You do have to move. Some levels have patterns where multiple rocks head to the middle of the screen. Small controlled movements. Not moving just to zoom around the screen.

Want to make the player move more. Make the countdown timer count down faster. Force the player to zoom around the screen actively seeking out rocks. If you do that, do "difficulty levels" of varying time. Easy level countdown timer moves slow. Harder levels time moves faster. Award more points for every action at harder levels.

I like the play balance as is.

@omf - are you getting free ships awarded with a real cart with 20160411-2009.ROM?

[Goochman]

I agree with rayik - I havent scored high, but the small movement strategy seems to work.

 

I figured the game wasnt fully done - the saucers dont seem very smart and like Asteroids I would imagine in the final build the saucers will take care of any "center squatters"

 

Also - Id like to build a level but the designer seems to require creating your own ROM? IF there are some simple instructions on getting started let me know.

[omf]

@omf - are you getting free ships awarded with a real cart with 20160411-2009.ROM?

 

i haven't noticed to be honest, although this may be due to my play style I adopted, i think the new ships are awarded after i am dying due to my un camping nature

i think my best is about 48k~ at the moment

if you need to get to 75k before life's start being dished out then no i have not seen this either way

[rayik]

i haven't noticed to be honest, although this may be due to my play style I adopted, i think the new ships are awarded after i am dying due to my un camping nature

i think my best is about 48k~ at the moment

if you need to get to 75k before life's start being dished out then no i have not seen this either way

Thanks. I'm not getting any free ships awarded at 75k, 125k or 175k. Even when less than maximum left. Since the high scores are being saved I'm thinking it's a bug rather than eeprom problem. I did post eeprom dumps on the last page (post #138).

[Zerosquare]

CJ won't admit it yet, but it's actually a feature. You only get a limited amount of free ships. If you want more, you'll have to buy the $9.99 "Extra ships" DLC that will be released soon.

[masematte]

Gameplay is fine

If i play arcade i must used throttle and my best is around 250.000, at the beginning, i play it like asteroids and i didnt get a good score.

 

But in the skirmish mode, i only use the jump button, and play it like asteroids

[sh3-rg]

Some levels have patterns where multiple rocks head to the middle of the screen

I know, I probably designed them

[rayik]

Some time go I made a rotary controller using 2600 paddle and jag controller. Tried it today. Observations:

 

1) With default rotate rate and trim it was only usable in menu screen. Navigating in menu screen works fine. Nice and responsive. However in game the ship is uncontrollable. One rotation of spinner does 1/16 rotation of ship.

 

2) Set rotate rate and trim all the way to right - ship is now controllable. One rotation of spinner does 5/8 rotation of ship. Playable but nowhere near responsiveness of joystick.

 

3) Rotary rate and trim settings not saved. Power cycle jag and back to default settings.

[rayik]

Two additional observations:

 

4) Power on with rotary control plugged in. With power still on, unplug rotary control and plug in normal controller. Control is messed up with pad. You will get left - right movement sometimes, but not always in the direction pressed.

 

5) Power on with normal controller plugged in. With power still on, unplug normal controller and plug in rotary controller. Rotary controller works OK. With power still on, unplug rotary and plug normal controller - (4) above occurs.

[+CyranoJ]

Thanks!

I know about the rotary settings not saving correctly and hope to fix in the next build.

The trim and rotate settings need a look at as they are not hooked up properly yet.

You can toggle rotary and dpad on the menu by pressing hash on the controller concerned.

I've had a few other things that needed my attention this week which I hope can be revealed shortly so not had much time to work on this.

Edited April 15, 2016 by CyranoJ

[rayik]

I'd still be playing if CJ hadn't turned off free ships.

[+Saturn]

I hacked in my own free ships Played through all 90 levels twice and had to stop bc my eyes were bugging out

 

[+CyranoJ]

Testing a new build at the moment, once we play it a bit it'll either get thrown away or added to the public testing:

 

The clock in this mode is used differently:

 

• Start with full time
• If speed is below a threshold then the timer drops - FAST!
• once the threshold is reached, the timer is reset to maximum, and there is a 1 second delay before the anti-camping kicks back in again

This really *really* alters the dynamic of this game. Will let you guys know the outcome soon!

[rayik]

Not asking for infinite lives cheat.

 

Shumps where you can get free men the better you do can be very enjoyable. Get in a groove and you can just keep playing.

 

Instead of punishing the camper, how about rewarding the moving player. Make the countdown timer move faster. Give a "time" bonus at the end of the level. If the player finishes it faster by moving around, then he is rewarded with larger bonus.

 

Also, make the UFO more deadly. Bullets at a faster rate and straight at your ship. If you ship is still for 2 seconds, death.

 

Another way to prevent camping is change how a rock breaks up. When a larger rock brakes into smaller pieces, have the pieces move in very different directions from each other and the original rock. When rocks are moving around in different directions, the game becomes very difficult.

 

Do you need to change the entire dynamic of game play just to prevent perceived camping? I do not have a capture device. If I did, you would see the scores I achieve are not by just sitting. There is a lot of moving around the screen. Also, if you change the dynamics of the timer, you might ruin the way some of the pattern screens play.

 

Just my thoughts.

[+CyranoJ]

Not asking for infinite lives cheat.

 

Shumps where you can get free men the better you do can be very enjoyable. Get in a groove and you can just keep playing.

 

Instead of punishing the camper, how about rewarding the moving player. Make the countdown timer move faster. Give a "time" bonus at the end of the level. If the player finishes it faster by moving around, then he is rewarded with larger bonus.

 

Also, make the UFO more deadly. Bullets at a faster rate and straight at your ship. If you ship is still for 2 seconds, death.

 

Another way to prevent camping is change how a rock breaks up. When a larger rock brakes into smaller pieces, have the pieces move in very different directions from each other and the original rock. When rocks are moving around in different directions, the game becomes very difficult.

 

Do you need to change the entire dynamic of game play just to prevent perceived camping? I do not have a capture device. If I did, you would see the scores It achieve are not by just sitting. There is a lot of moving around the screen. Also, if you change the dynamics of the timer, you might ruin the way some of the pattern screens play.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Anti-camping is on a toggle, so it's fully optional

 

The UFOs and their bullets are not going to be changed at this point, sorry.

The rocks always break up at 45 or 90 degrees from the source rock.

[rayik]

Anti-camping is on a toggle, so it's fully optional

 

I'm busted. Thank you.

 

 

 

The UFOs and their bullets are not going to be changed at this point, sorry.

The rocks always break up at 45 or 90 degrees from the source rock.

Just suggestions. I think overall play is good as is. Only tweak I'd suggest is making the UFO bullets faster and more deadly. As it is, they are just another rock moving around the screen and no big deal. Make them more deadly and the player will want to clear the wave quicker to avoid having to confront them.

[+CyranoJ]

Just suggestions. I think overall play is good as is. Only tweak I'd suggest is making the UFO bullets faster and more deadly. As it is, they are just another rock moving around the screen and no big deal. Make them more deadly and the player will want to clear the wave quicker to avoid having to confront them.

 

That's a minor tweak - the patterns and firing isn't - so I might give that a whirl... thinking of adding easy/normal/hard options anyway

[+CyranoJ]

 

• Fixed the free lives (Yay!)
• New option under 'OPTIONS' - 'Anti-Camping' or 'Time Enabled' toggle
• High Scores only save if in 'Anti-camping' mode
• EEPROM data can now be reset by holding A+0 when booting (I will also add this to the menu at some point under Utilities)
• Rotary rate/trim for both players should now save
• ROM in the first post.

Enjoy!

[masematte]

Wow with anti- camping , the Game is hard , very hard .

For me the "Time" is to Short , so in higher Level there is sonetimes no Space for use the thrust.

 

But now the Game is Rock'n'Roll

[+CyranoJ]

Wow with anti- camping , the Game is hard , very hard .

For me the "Time" is to Short , so in higher Level there is sonetimes no Space for use the thrust.

 

But now the Game is Rock'n'Roll

 

Yeah, I'm not decided on the timer speed at the moment, I think it needs a longer pause before starting to countdown again.

[+CyranoJ]

Just posting a new ROM to the first post, it'll be there in a few minutes.

 

• UFO bullet speed doubled
• Anti-Camping now has a 5 second delay after being reset before counting down again

[rayik]

Why the need for anti-camping option?

 

Why the need to disable high score for "campers?"

 

Why the attempt to force one method of play on the players?

 

The game design presents multiple ways of playing levels. That is good. Why not let each player play the game however they want within one framework of rules?

 

If the goal is to prevent camping, why not just make the UFO more deadly. Faster bullets and the camper moves and destroys the UFO or dies. One consistent set of rules.

[+LS650]

Haven't had the chance to try anti-camping yet (out of town travelling) but I'm a strong believer in the saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

 

I didn't think Rebooteroids was broken the way it was.

[racerx]

Yeah, the "anti-camping" is no bueno. I know it's optional, but it's required for high score submission and honestly breaks the game. The intent is good, but it just forces you into stupid mistakes by staying in motion and trying to keep one eye on the time meter.

[doctorclu]

I think the better opinion is to make it where both camping and non-camping are options. However, make it where you somehow achieve a higher score by movements. More of a risk formula. You have some nut that likes applying the thrust, they get a small point boot with each thrust. Greater points if the thurst button is held for any length of time. If you held thrust down for a second your ship would be moving at ridiculous speeds and would be nearly uncontrollable after two seconds. But there is the risk to added point ratio for that.

 

Also a risk for using Hyperspace. But in these cases (thrust or hyperspace) there would be a point modifier to give incentive for not staying in one place.

 

That said, I think there also should be a "stand your ground" modifier, but I think that should require no movement at all for the whole round. This modifier would continue to build with each round you don't move and more importantly, don't die. Once you hit thrust or die, the modifier would reset.