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Entry 2020: Infiltrator


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1 hour ago, cmadruga said:

You made excellent progress, and thank you for sticking to it and playing again and again!

How did passing through that mine field go? Anything to report? 

 

"Weak sauce" just seems unfair given your progress.

I feel like I need to fine tune the rating system as part of the next update.

 

FYI, the math I have in place is this:

- each objective completed gives you a 25% rating boost

- each time you are spotted, and every point of damage you take removes 1% from the rating.

 

So your score was 25% - 25*1% - 29*1% = -29%. Since I'm not allowing ratings to be negative, it got capped at 0%.

"Weak sauce" is the label for when your rating falls within the 0-20% range.

 

So getting to 100% requires not only completing all objectives, but also being undetected throughout the game.

 

Maybe I should lessen the penalty from being spotted and getting injured.

 

If you have any suggestions, I'm open.

 

The mine field was really tricky, as I was expecting to go through a different route (don't want to give it away). It didn't take me too long to work it out though.  

It is very tough dealing with those cloaked soilders. I thought the glasses were going to help me, but it said it was not night time.

So far it's very enjoyable.  I think you set the bar really high so far!

I was able to keep returning to the medical kit, but I got too far away once I got past the minefield. I didn't want to go back through it again!?

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17 hours ago, cmadruga said:

You made excellent progress, and thank you for sticking to it and playing again and again!

How did passing through that mine field go? Anything to report? 

 

"Weak sauce" just seems unfair given your progress.

I feel like I need to fine tune the rating system as part of the next update.

 

FYI, the math I have in place is this:

- each objective completed gives you a 25% rating boost

- each time you are spotted, and every point of damage you take removes 1% from the rating.

 

So your score was 25% - 25*1% - 29*1% = -29%. Since I'm not allowing ratings to be negative, it got capped at 0%.

"Weak sauce" is the label for when your rating falls within the 0-20% range.

 

So getting to 100% requires not only completing all objectives, but also being undetected throughout the game.

 

Maybe I should lessen the penalty from being spotted and getting injured.

 

If you have any suggestions, I'm open.

 

Here is a couple of suggestions (just suggestions).  I haven't finished the game yet, but from time to time, you have some hints that show up on the screens (as balloons that pop up).  I think they are helpful when someone is new to the game, but I think it is disruptive during the game, if you've played it a bunch, and know what to expect.  I believe the beginning of the game should always display it as you have (as it describes what is needed to be done to win the game), but when you start the gameplay (like trying to dive into the water, rather than it stating the current is too strong, or later in the game that the soldiers have cloaking devices, to have a button on the keypad to display those hints if needed.  That way, it would not interfere with the gameplay if you are familiar with it.

 

Also, I'm thinking that if someone wants to play the harder level game, then when your guy approaches a door that he doesn't have the correct key card, you should have the doors flash red, with the old Intellivision buzz as an alarm, and trigger the guards to start chasing the player!

 

I will try to get my 2 Teenage sons to play it, and get a perspective from them.  They are not that big into the Intellivision, but if there are any bugs, I'm sure they would find them.  So far, I am enjoying the game.  It is very cool how many screens you have mapped out on it!

Edited by Old Timey Retro Gamer
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3 hours ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

Here is a couple of suggestions (just suggestions).  I haven't finished the game yet, but from time to time, you have some hints that show up on the screens (as balloons that pop up).  I think they are helpful when someone is new to the game, but I think it is disruptive during the game, if you've played it a bunch, and know what to expect.  I believe the beginning of the game should always display it as you have (as it describes what is needed to be done to win the game), but when you start the gameplay (like trying to dive into the water, rather than it stating the current is too strong, or later in the game that the soldiers have cloaking devices, to have a button on the keypad to display those hints if needed.  That way, it would not interfere with the gameplay if you are familiar with it.

 

I appreciate the suggestions!

 

I agree that hints can be disruptive and not very helpful once you have played more than once.

Maybe I could just assign a key to enable/disable non-essential dialog. And also disable it by default for hard and insane skill levels.

 

3 hours ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

Also, I'm thinking that if someone wants to play the harder level game, then when your guy approaches a door that he doesn't have the correct key card, you should have the doors flash red, with the old Intellivision buzz as an alarm, and trigger the guards to start chasing the player!

That would reward players with good memories!

I will keep the suggestion mind. Currently most of the feedback I'm getting is that the game is already on the difficult side... even on Normal.

 

3 hours ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

I will try to get my 2 Teenage sons to play it, and get a perspective from them.  They are not that big into the Intellivision, but if there are any bugs, I'm sure they would find them.  So far, I am enjoying the game.  It is very cool how many screens you have mapped out on it!

Awesome, thanks! Let me know what they find!

 

 

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51 minutes ago, Lauren Tyler said:

I expected this to be a port of the computer/NES game.  Instead it's a take on the Metal Gear series.  I like how you have to avoid combat altogether.

Thanks for the comment, and thanks for testing it!
Exactly, the idea is to avoid combat. Each screen is intended as a puzzle that you solve by remaining invisible.

If you play it right, being cloaked actually does not matter most of the time ;-)

 

Let me know in case of any suggestions on how to improve it, or bug reports.

 

Edited by cmadruga
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I don't know if this was meant to be, but the room where the medical kit is found, does not let your character walk on the blue floor at the top. You have to have him walk against the wall.  And sometimes,  the guard at the bottom does not spot him (maybe I am too far away). I don't know if that is a bug was intentional. 

One other thing happened to me (only once), but while in the minefield (where the device is in corner) I stepped on a mine, and it put my guy on the next screen (in the forest). I tried moving again,  and it switched back to the minefield where I was, and played normal. Those were the only things that I found.

My son thought the game was very fun too.

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12 hours ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

I don't know if this was meant to be, but the room where the medical kit is found, does not let your character walk on the blue floor at the top. You have to have him walk against the wall.  And sometimes,  the guard at the bottom does not spot him (maybe I am too far away). I don't know if that is a bug was intentional. 

One other thing happened to me (only once), but while in the minefield (where the device is in corner) I stepped on a mine, and it put my guy on the next screen (in the forest). I tried moving again,  and it switched back to the minefield where I was, and played normal. Those were the only things that I found.

My son thought the game was very fun too.

Well yeah that med kit room needs work. It is too hard to move around in there, it’s not the first time I hear it. The issue is that the tips of the pillars may look small, but that’s an illusion. Those tips occupy an entire tile and will block your way as you try to walk over them. I need to redo those graphics.

 

Thanks for the other bug reports as well, I will look into those!

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, cmadruga said:

Well yeah that med kit room needs work. It is too hard to move around in there, it’s not the first time I hear it. The issue is that the tips of the pillars may look small, but that’s an illusion. Those tips occupy an entire tile and will block your way as you try to walk over them. I need to redo those graphics.

 

Thanks for the other bug reports as well, I will look into those!

 

 

 

 

I almost finished it too! I wasn't quite Batman though!??.

Thank you for your time and effort on this game.  I hope that you'll be able to continue further with it for the Intellivision community!

It feels like an authentic game, like it should have been released in 1982! It is fun.

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1 hour ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

I almost finished it too! I wasn't quite Batman though!??.

Thank you for your time and effort on this game.  I hope that you'll be able to continue further with it for the Intellivision community!

It feels like an authentic game, like it should have been released in 1982! It is fun.

Not quite Batman, heh?

I'm experimenting with scoring formulas, and may go with this one on the next update:

 

- each objective completed adds 25% to your rating

- times spotted and damage taken are added together, then divided by 3 to lessen the penalty: still counts as negative

- skill level bonus gets added to the score: normal=0%  hard=10%  insane=20%

- final score cannot be negative or above 100%

 

So with this formula, your son would have scored 62% which the game would label as "competent". I think that's more than fair given his progress.

Finishing the game (which he was very very close to achieving) would have taken him to 87%. He would have enjoyed seeing the label he would get at that level ;-)

 

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback, ideas and contribution.

 

Whatever the contest results are, the fact this modest work in progress game put a father and a son in front of an Intellivision was really all the reward I needed. 

Edited by cmadruga
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11 hours ago, cmadruga said:

Well yeah that med kit room needs work. It is too hard to move around in there, it’s not the first time I hear it. The issue is that the tips of the pillars may look small, but that’s an illusion. Those tips occupy an entire tile and will block your way as you try to walk over them. I need to redo those graphics.

 

Thanks for the other bug reports as well, I will look into those!

 

 

 

 

I almost finished it too! I wasn't quite Batman though!??.

Thank you for your time and effort on this game.  I hope that you'll be able to continue further with it for the Intellivision community!

It feels like an authentic game, like it should have been released in 1982! It is fun.

 

Finally finished it!!!! I'll have to try the hard level next!

20201107_154306.jpg

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3 hours ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

I almost finished it too! I wasn't quite Batman though!??.

Thank you for your time and effort on this game.  I hope that you'll be able to continue further with it for the Intellivision community!

It feels like an authentic game, like it should have been released in 1982! It is fun.

 

Finally finished it!!!! I'll have to try the hard level next!

20201107_154306.jpg

WHAT? You took just 9 points of damage the entire game? Congrats.

Under the upcoming new scoring system you would have achieved 91%.

 

In the meanwhile, I’m in the process of plugging some awesome music from Nyuundere.

 

Music and digitized sound effects (by Artrag) will both fully use ECS sound capabilities. Really exciting stuff.

Edited by cmadruga
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9 minutes ago, Old Timey Retro Gamer said:

Hey there,

 

  Does the game only work on the ECS emulator?  

I have an Ultimate Intellivision flashback that I played the original rom on, but this one doesn't load up on it. 

I tested it with ECS disabled and it worked fine. 

Do you get any messages?

 

The only thing that comes to mind is that I did change memory segment definitions since the last release.

 

Is your Jzintv the latest one?

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