2006 PGD Annual: Stage 3 Feedback

[Eric]

Completed scores entry for all teams who had a Stage 3 submission, if I missed something, here is your chance to make your voice heard!

Two teams got zero points:
- artifex : file provided/downloadable was of zero length
- animozita : there were 3 EXEs for 3 game projects (?) but none matched stage 3 goals.

Also for "Binary Dream" team, I didn't find an exit, but in-game text was quite garbled (looked like a wrong offset into a font texture), so it might have been explained but unreadable...

[jdarling]

The code for the cave was a bit difficult (and is fixed in the version on my HD, must have uploaded the wrong one), guess that the good news is that you found it by reading the scripts .

Killing all of the enemies won't trigger any exist as the exit is always available (just north of where you show up). This does need some more explination in game though.

Is Dean still working on his scores or did he have to drop as a judge? I only ask as I only see his points on the first 5 entries in Stage 3.

Anyways, thanks greatly for the feedback. Didn't realize that I forgot to put change code in one place for the Config application. Next stage all will load and save properly, and I hope to have the Key editors in place to make things a bit easier then just typing in the full key name.

[Traveler]

Thanks for your comments Eric.

If you click "too fast" to position a tower, the click is ignored, you have to leave the button down for a relatively long time.

This comment troubles me. I have tested it on three pc's so far and it worked like it should. In other words I have been unable to duplicate this problem. I therefor assume it will also be the case in stage 4 as well. Did you have any problems with other buttons as well? Like for example when you select the tower from the panel or the buttons in the menu?

Are you using a special mouse or an unusual mouse configuration?

In any case I hope you'll be able to comment on the stage 4 entries before we have to submit the 5th entry.

Thanks

[Eric]

This comment troubles me. I have tested it on three pc's so far and it worked like it should.

Just tested, didn't happen on the AthlonXP, only happened on the Athlon X-2. On the AXP, the towers actually appears at the mouse down, before the button has to go up... going to try again on the X-2.

Like for example when you select the tower from the panel or the buttons in the menu?

Didn't notice anything in the menu/tower, will investigate more.

Are you using a special mouse or an unusual mouse configuration?

It's a Microsoft Explorer mouse.

[Eric]

Ok, after further testing I was wrong, it wasn't a click length issue, sorry if you wasted time searching in that direction ops:

However, I found the real bug I had confused with a click issue :twisted:
Apparently the map isn't fully cleared up between games, making some squares unavailable for placing a tower. I can reproduce it here by starting a game, placing 3 towers in the 3 adjacent squares above the road



then hit "ESC", start another game and start placing the same three towers



and you won't be able to place the last tower.

At first, I hadn't noticed the color of the square changed (a bit dark and too much based on red-green for my eyes - yeah, I'm in the 10% of the population that is somewhat color blind )

[Traveler]

Thanks Eric, for clearing up the mouse issues! It's good to know there aren't any problems with mouse clicks. I am aware of problems when restarting the level without restarting the game itself (I made in fact comments about it in the manual). The fact that I need to reinitialize the map as well, wasn't yet on my list (although very obvious). Thanks for that

In a future release I'll also change the building locater to a more distinctive icon.

[Huehnerschaender]

Judge Comments:
Worked well, played well. I couldn't make it to the exit I kept dieing, so I'll have to take your work for it.

Muhaha... too hard? I really screwed down the difficulty for you judges so that you are able to reach the exit without problems :lol:

Judge Comments:
Quite high level of difficulty if you don't keep your eyes on the radar and/or don't already know where the enemies are/will be, also destroyed enemies respawn when you get out of the ammo camp.

A little excuse:
Since I wanted to show everything I had for stage 3 I designed the level the way you can see everything AND have the action which is my intention of the game. In further versions you will start on low difficulty levels and the game gets harder and harder each level. But for stage 3 I only had ONE level. There is less space for a learning curve within one small level. Hope the difficulty gets raised linear when I have more levels. For stage 4 you already have 2 levels. One to get common with the controls and one with some more action.

About the "respawning" enemys:
This is not possible I guess. I never ever let enemys respawn when a level started, nor let I increase them their health or something. When they die they stay dead.
BUT, take a good look at my enemys, as they are driving around to get you and if you get out of their reach, they drive back to their start position. I guess there were enemys hunting you, taking a path out of your sight and when you got out of the camp they drove back into it and stayed there until you reached the camp again.

60Hz refresh rate (painful).

I raised maximum refresh rate to 150. Hope that helps.

Greetings and thanks for the comments! I will work on my difficulty level, promised

Dirk

[Eric]

Muhaha... too hard? I really screwed down the difficulty for you judges so that you are able to reach the exit without problems Laughing

Well you have to zoom-out fully and go left at the start if you want a chance to reach the ammo camp, and later, you have to learn to fire rockets preemptively before the enemies become visible, otherwise you're toast
(static cannons are the ones doing most damage IME, and unlike with enemy tanks, I couldn't find any way to avoid their shots, so you've got to kill them fast).

[Huehnerschaender]

Well you have to zoom-out fully and go left at the start if you want a chance to reach the ammo camp, and later, you have to learn to fire rockets preemptively before the enemies become visible, otherwise you're toast
(static cannons are the ones doing most damage IME, and unlike with enemy tanks, I couldn't find any way to avoid their shots, so you've got to kill them fast).

Oh well, with a little bit of practice you also can avoid the static cannons. They are quite fast at changing their direction, but are slow on changing their firing range. So try to drive towards and away from them and they won't hurt you that much. I will make them easier in the beginning and their aiming becoming better in higher levels if I find the time. It's just one or two variables to adjust from level to level.
It's always a good idea not to stand on a place when fighting. Drive around like a mad cat and you have best chances to avoid enemy fire

[aidave]

If you "play game", then die, then "play game" again, the controls(?) don't seem to respond as they should, when playing just after starting the executable, no problem.

Hi Eric, was this after you customized controls, or was there another issue?