Albert Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I guess I'd be more of a help if I'd already be done coding. Useless me is spending days on replicating Clone Wars SFX instead of providing some manual text... Seeing as I need to get the manuals printed in advance, if you can take some time from the binary to write up some manual text that would be a Very Good Thing. You still have time to perfect the binary. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Happened again. This time, the last thing on screen was an Advisor. When I shot it, the wave just stayed on, with guns a-blazin'. I think I was on Squad 9 at the time. colony7_1204.bin.st1.zip (Saved to slot 1) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 Sounds good. If you could make the sound trail off for a second or so, I think that would enhance it. Hm... my current driver for SFX can't do that yet. I'm not sure if it is economic to enhance it now, but I will put it on the ToDo list I have another suggestion for increasing the challenge (if not the actual difficulty). If you have one gun remaining, could you have the Scouts intentionally hang out in the opposite corner of the screen (upper left or upper right)? You pretty much have to shoot them, or they make the wave interminable. If they hang out up there, you'd have to move the cursor away from the corner you're protecting to get them. Sounds good! I will also try to add another behaviour rule for the advisor next, so I can probably fit that in as well Found a bug. I took a save state in Stella, but I don't know if it will help. colony7_1204.bin.st0.zipWhat happened, was I was at the very end of a level, and shot the last guy (forgot which guy - sorry), and the wave never ended. Thanks for reporting! I think I know what happened here. I have an explosion counter that will allow the end of a wave only after all explosion animations are over. What happens here is that at the fast firing rates in the higher waves the fighters may hit the second frame of the explosion animation, which I will mistakenly register it as another explosion. I haven't worked out the optimum fix yet, as the logic is getting pretty tricky in this area. I'm actually hoping to find a way to live without the explosion counter, so I can claim the variable back as free RAM. Seeing as I need to get the manuals printed in advance, if you can take some time from the binary to write up some manual text that would be a Very Good Thing. You still have time to perfect the binary. Yes, Dave already told me. I will shift priorities to deliver the text within the next two days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Yes, Dave already told me. I will shift priorities to deliver the text within the next two days Great, thanks! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liveinabin Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I have the backgrounds set in Illustrator ready to start throwing text and screenshots in. Still gotta do a back cover illustration. Got some ideas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Neuman Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 This game is awesome. I've been playing it on my new Krokodile Cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 Yay! So it works on real hardware? Good to know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Yay! So it works on real hardware? Good to know! Yes, that's all I've been playing it on. I can't even imagine trying to play with a keyboard (although I could use a Stelladaptor..) ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I've been using a keyboard. Weird how you can get used to that sort of thing. I've been testing it periodically on real hardware though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Neuman Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 (edited) Yay! So it works on real hardware? Good to know! Yep, I haven't noticed any glitches or bugs yet. I'm getting better too I cranked up the original version on my mame cocktail for the first time tonight ... I like your version better. The difficulty increase as you progress through the levels seems just about perfect to me. I like that the scout calls for more fighters just like the original, but sometimes it takes me a few seconds to realize it's there and has called up half a dozen more fighters til I can shoot him. You probably already talked about and decided against a visual or auditory cue to warn the player? Edited December 6, 2007 by Dave Neuman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 6, 2007 Author Share Posted December 6, 2007 Thanks for all the feedback regarding real hardware. It's been a while since I finished all display kernels and the title screen, so I didn't spend much time testing it on the real thing since. Last time probably was when I was still experimenting with the 2-Button code I like that the scout calls for more fighters just like the original, but sometimes it takes me a few seconds to realize it's there and has called up half a dozen more fighters til I can shoot him. You probably already talked about and decided against a visual or auditory cue to warn the player? Good catch, I will see if I can still fit another SFX here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 6, 2007 Author Share Posted December 6, 2007 The final new feature release: - As long as the advisor is on the screen, enemies will gather at the bottom wrecking your Colony. - To support this effect, will the advisor no longer disappear. Time is running away fast as hell, as is ROM space. I have to apologize for all the good ideas that went unused. There is about 30-40 bytes left in each bank now and I still have a couple of bugs to fix. I may manage to add another SFX or something with similar small effect, but other than that do I declare a total feature stop now. I decided to rather have a stable and tested version than introducing any last minute features now, so tomorrow will be reserved for fixing the known bugs and over the weekend will I playtest it to death on real hardware. I'm also running out of steam a bit and my wife already has that "look" again, so it must be done this weekend one way or another And - Real artists ship! advisorcolony.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 The final new feature release: - As long as the advisor is on the screen, enemies will gather at the bottom wrecking your Colony. - To support this effect, will the advisor no longer disappear. Which enemy is the advisor? Just played one round and was able to get to Squad9. The difficulty seems to ramp up nice. I know you are done adding features, but one thing that would be nice is if you could double the speed of the crosshairs (that is, moving horizontally and vertically) using one of the difficulty switches. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liveinabin Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Plays beautifully. The level of challenge/reward is just right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 6, 2007 Author Share Posted December 6, 2007 Which enemy is the advisor? The Spades. I know you are done adding features, but one thing that would be nice is if you could double the speed of the crosshairs (that is, moving horizontally and vertically) using one of the difficulty switches. As attached? switchcolony.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Which enemy is the advisor? The Spades. Thanks. : ) I know you are done adding features, but one thing that would be nice is if you could double the speed of the crosshairs (that is, moving horizontally and vertically) using one of the difficulty switches. As attached? Hmmm, I was able to get to wave 18 on my first try with this new version. The faster crosshairs let you get around the screen much faster to reach enemies before they get to the bottom of the screen or near your cannons, although I still usually lost one cannon quickly (I seem to prefer the right cannon). However, it is a fair bit harder to precisely aim, so that is a bit of a tradeoff. Nonetheless, it did make the game easier for me, and since many people may have this difficulty switch in the "fast" position by default (as I did), I'm not sure it should be included. Also, I encountered the same bug that Nathan described earlier where the wave never ends after destroying the last enemy. As I type this, my poor cannon is shooting at nothing, on wave 18. So I could potentially have gone even further had I not encountered this. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 6, 2007 Author Share Posted December 6, 2007 Ok, I removed it again. It's probably also safer, since it adds another scanline to the overscan calculations, which are already close to the edge in some worst case runs. I'll address the bug tomorrow, giving my subconsciousness another night to work on the fix. Hope it succeeds, else I'll have to do it the hard way all by myself The manual text is also on the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 How about making it similar to Star Fire and adapt scoring to the difficulty settings. So with faster crosshair you score less points. This would add some additional strategy to the game, because the player has to decide ingame when to maximize points or improve survival chances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 6, 2007 Author Share Posted December 6, 2007 How about making it similar to Star Fire and adapt scoring to the difficulty settings. It's already gone and the manual is sent Nah, it'll just cause tons of last minute problems, requiring extra tables, ROM juggling and last not least I'm displaying the score values on the title screen. Too late for any feature that uses more than 10 bytes or 20 minutes to add BTW: Attached is a package with PAL50 version and the txt manual. mancolony.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Nice! Those fighters will chew you up and spit you out! They kept destroying my smart bombs before I could use 'em. (Little jerks!! ) They definitely feel "smarter" now, as if their attacks were intentional and coordinated. It no longer feels "easy", and every thing is well-balanced. Most importantly - it's a blast to play. Nicely done. Got up to Squad 12. Pretty much with just what you see here for the last three levels. Two suggestions: - In the manual, you mention the number of lives you have left are color-coded, but you don't say what the colors are. - Any chance of adding another extra life? Maybe at 100,000 or 150,000? Not to make it easier - but just because I'd like to keep playing it longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Hi Manuel - I got a chance to download this and play a few games... great job! I hadn't played it in over a year and it certainly has come a long way... Good luck finishing it up and I'll continue to do some 'testing' ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 I got a chance to download this and play a few games... great job! I hadn't played it in over a year and it certainly has come a long way... This is indeed a long journey coming to an end. I started this over two years ago Good luck finishing it up and I'll continue to do some 'testing' ... Good to see you still being around. I'm waiting for you returning into action! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 And here comes the first release candidate! Changes: - Fixed the Advisor movement scheme, which I broke yesterday - Fixed the reported expcounter bug, saving the variable! - Used the gained variable for a second level counter. It will track levels for the display up to 99. (For obvious reasons, from level 10 onwards it will read "SQUA" instead of "SQUAD"...) - Press Fire gets now only displayed when it already works - Added a second extra life for 100.000 points - Added a unique SFX when the Scout is spawned. - Updated the manual as suggested by Nathan Attached is a complete package again. releasecolony.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 - Used the gained variable for a second level counter. It will track levels for the display up to 99. (For obvious reasons, from level 10 onwards it will read "SQUA" instead of "SQUAD"...) Glad to see this, so I don't have to count in my head now. Maybe it could say "SQD 10" instead of SQUA10" ? Will test this out later. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Maybe it could say "SQD 10" instead of SQUA10" ? Are you using the letters for anything else? Why not "SQUAD" using 5+1-pixel letters (in four sprites)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.