2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

**Huehnerschaender** · 25-04-2006, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by technomage

Sorry my mistake, I suggest that the machine gun on the tank does not harm other tanks, but can harm the machine gun posts and helicopters etc. the main reason for this is that most modern tanks are very well protected against machine gun fire. This is just a thought, and it would make for some interesting levels.... :

Ah ok, I understand...

The thing is, if I don't let the player cause damage to all enemys with the basic weapon, he can find himself defenseless in the level when running out of additional ammo.
So I decided to let the gun make damage to all enemys, but the damage varys on the kind of the enemy. Turrets get down quite fast with gun, tanks need much longer to shoot at. Fighting tank style bosses with only the gun is senseless though... :lol:
But you will need it fighting flying enemys, cause once they are in the air, the gun air mode is the only thing which can bring them back to ground.

Maybe I will do some intensive tests after the compo, how "fair" the game will be, making the gun unusable against tanks...

**Eric** · 26-04-2006, 07:33 AM

I think about a solution that pressing ESC (Pause game/Options screen) enables the windows mouse again

ESC and Pause keys could make a decent compromise.

**Huehnerschaender** · 26-04-2006, 07:57 AM

Originally Posted by Eric

ESC and Pause keys could make a decent compromise.

I already implemented it yesterday

**michalis** · 29-04-2006, 11:06 PM

Hi all. Some announcement, question and replies to judges notes for stage 5:

1. First of all, preview of my game is available on http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/castle.php. Everyone is welcome to test. This contains only 2 first levels, 2 more levels and new creatures will be added in final game (but they are not in finished state right now), and some opening intro and closing sequence will be added. Everything else will probably stay the way it is --- deadline is coming close.

2. Can I assume that the judges will download / install OpenAL on their own ? Instructions are here http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~mich...ection_install

Or should I e.g. include OpenAL installer for Windows in my game archive ?

3. Replies to judges comments for stage 5:

In the menu, you can select with the mouse, but you can't use the mouse to validate the question dialogs.

Simplest "OK" dialogs now can be dismissed by mouse click anywhere within the dialog box. "Yes"/"No" and other dialogs will have to be still answered by keys --- no time before the 7th May to close this issue correctly (by drawing real clickable buttons for dialogs).

In the keyboard configuration dialog, it would be preferable if the previous key assignment was just erased (after a yes/no) [...]

Good idea, done.

Mouse look would be a great help to climbing the stairs for those that aren't accustomed to keyboard-based upward/downward/look.

Mouse look was requested by both Eric and Dean and it was sort of planned... So it's done now. By default left/right keys are now assigned to strafe left/right (instead of turn left/right, as they used to), since assigning them to strafes is more useful if someone uses mouse look.

Also flying and swimming feels less awkward, as you fly upwards/downloads just by pressing forward/backward key while looking up/down. Which means that you only need to hold hands over forward/backward keys to fly in full 3D space.

Sometimes, the player camera "banks" (inclines on the side), apparently when walking on inclines (like near the pond on the outside), though not always.

Yes, this was a little effect (that should be activated only when you fall down from high / steep hill) that got a little "out of control"

Fixed now.

**Huehnerschaender** · 30-04-2006, 09:43 AM

Hi Michalis,

first, thank you very much to let us test your entry.

Unfortunately, I was not able to play it.

First my specs:

P4 3Ghz, 1GB Ram, ATI X800 Pro (256 MB Ram), Windows XP, latest ATI drivers.

Title screen came up. Menu works fine.
But then, I started the game. I waited 10 minutes (!) before I had to turn off the computer by hardware power switch (nothing else was possible, no task manager, nothing).

The after the reboot, I gave it a second try, because I activated shadows and you display a warning when doing this. So I started the game with disabled shadows.

The loading sequence took 5 minutes(!) loading creatures.

Then the game appeared. It was impossible to steer for me. I moved the mouse one millimeter, which was enough to look from sky onto the ground. Much too sensitive mouselook as it seems. After I died without seeing something

I pressed escape as mentioned on the screen. Screen turned black and computer rebooted!

Then I gave up.

Hope this helps in some way.

Greetings,
Dirk

**Traveler** · 30-04-2006, 10:10 AM

Funny how Hue and I allways seem to post roughly at the same time.

Anyway,.. I've tried you game as well and it ran fairly well on my system. I didn't experience any of loading problems. Mouse controls were very fast for me as well. But I was able to correct it with the mouse control options in the menu. Something odd there as every changable option is well above 1.0 at first, but as soon as you change it, it becomes a value between 0.1 and 1.0.

Other than that the game worked great. The boss takes a while to kill though. It appears as if nothing is happening when you hit it, but eventually it died anyway. A sound or some kind or a visible indication that you've hit it (bloodstains?) might help. Also after some time I noticed that its very easy to hit him without getting hit yourself. As soon as it attempts to hit you, simply walk a few steps back and he misses. Perhaps if you make his attack a bit faster, it'll become a bit more difficult.

Very nice work all in all though!

**Huehnerschaender** · 30-04-2006, 10:27 AM

Hehe Traveler... seems as if we are some kind of soulbound ^^

I am trying out the game on my laptop now. All I can say at the moment is, that again I am stuck on the loading screen for 5 minutes now. Still waiting and drinking coffee ^^

What are you doing while loading Michalis? What takes so long to laod?

btw. The laptop also has an ATI video card (Radeon 9000 mobility). Maybe there is a problem with ATI cards?

Traveler, how long took it on your machine to load the level? What kind of video card do you have?

I comment further when the level starts... 7 mins now...

**Huehnerschaender** · 30-04-2006, 10:31 AM

*ZZZZZzzzzz.......* :lol:

It's kinda patience game I guess :lol: :whistle:

Still loading....

**Huehnerschaender** · 30-04-2006, 10:36 AM

Meanwhile I post the specs of the laptop:

Centrino 1,7 Ghz, 512 MB Ram, ATI Radeon 9000 Mobility...

Still loading....

Don't want to spam here, but I am bored... just want to mention, that the progress bar just moved a step! So the game is still loading

14:43 now... so 21 minutes loading now!

**Traveler** · 30-04-2006, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by Huehnerschaender

Traveler, how long took it on your machine to load the level? What kind of video card do you have?

Machine specs are pretty much the same as yours, except I use a GeForce 6800 GT.
Loading time was like 10 seconds or something. Not anywhere near the seven minutes you're reporting in any case.

I'm going to try my laptop as well, it has a ATI x700 128mb card, and see how that works out.