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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2013 17:12:18 GMT 10
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Uzguz
Charlie Rank
Posts: 29
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Post by Uzguz on Apr 18, 2013 18:46:45 GMT 10
Just gave it a whirl.
First impression: YES.
Switching to full-screen mode for the first time was awesome. It feels like such a smoother gaming experience without the browser's clutter all around.
I like the undocking animation. I had a bit of a WTF moment when I found myself at the hub in the middle of nowhere, but the marker pointed the way. I was tempted to go shooting off into space in a random direction to see if the starting area had any Easter eggs, but figured I might as well just play the game normally for my first experience of it.
Nice starting ship, by the way. And that first wormhole guardian is clever - it looks formidable, but has only one weapon. Great introductory material.
I was a bit surprised to discover that wormholes are one-way. I haven't progressed beyond the alpha sector yet - I've found one wormhole, but I want to clear the place out first - so I don't know whether it's one-way just for that first one or for all of them. I can imagine wanting to keep the save file size down by not remembering 50 different sectors, but not being able to return to earlier sources of equipment might make players anxious about progressing.
Docking at stations is neat, but a bit fiddly. If the docking port spawns in a corner it can be awkward to reach. I haven't tried yet, but do shields trigger the dock event too, or will they need to be turned off?
Speaking of docking, the new autosave has worked for me so far, though I've been conservative with it and only chanced closing the tab after undocking from a station, figuring that's one of the save triggers. What exactly triggers a save? And can ships still be lost by disconnecting in the middle of nowhere?
It'll be interesting to see how the stricter roguelike experience plays out. Do you at least keep your station unlocks and nav data, or do you lose the lot?
The new voices are amusing, but completely garbled a lot of the time. I guess that's just a symptom of recycling sound samples that weren't meant for the new system. Also, that beep is too loud.
The new nav works well. I think the display is a bit off-centre, though.
I like the way ship colours are displayed now. I keep wondering if parts are damaged when they aren't, but that's just old habits. I'll get used to the new system soon enough, and it does look a lot better.
Overall: Very impressive. I'm keen to continue exploring as soon as I can, and I'll report anything unusual I find along the way. Thank you very much for releasing this!
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2013 19:17:22 GMT 10
Cheers!
Some quick replies:
The intro needs a lot of work, so that first time players don't get lost or confused. One of the great advantages of the wormholes is that I can bottle the player in with just one thing to play with, so they can learn where to go and what to do. I might split the game into a collect-gear-and-build-your-ship sector and a fight-your-first-guardians level. That way I could branch the game right at the start.
Wormholes are all one-way. Hopefully the effects I add later will communicate that. I toyed with the idea of letting you flit back and forth, but it would degrade pretty quickly into megaships roaming the low level sectors, which isn't actually much fun. I'd rather people explore while being challenged, rather than defeat all the challenge then explore.
You probably don't need to worry about unlocking an entire sector before progressing. You'll see the same alpha sector again next time you play. And the time after that. And the time after that. An interesting challenge will be figuring out what to randomise between game sessions and what to keep constant. I'm thinking I should randomise the enemy ship spawns. Probably the warehouse contents. Not sure about factories or mineral deposits.
Shields trigger the dock.
Autosave works anywhere. If you're floating in space and close the tab, you'll return to floating in space. Various sets of data are saved at different times (to keep the save function efficient), but generally I save whenever the player does something or has something happen to them that they shouldn't be able to undo. I also just save ship location, oxy values etc every couple of seconds.
On death you lose your station unlocks and your nav data. I'm wondering if nav data should be kept though. Not sure. Either way, you can export your entire map and keep it offline / share with others etc.
Yeah, the new onboard nav needs to be cleaned up a bit.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm curious to hear how you go with the rest of the game.
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Uzguz
Charlie Rank
Posts: 29
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Post by Uzguz on Apr 19, 2013 2:57:44 GMT 10
I ended up clearing out most of Sig(m)a. I found the wormhole to Pheta Cashleba hiding out of nav range. There was another station somewhere to the left, apparently, but there was a solid wall of asteroids between it and myself, and it was even further out of nav range by the look of it, so I wasn't game to go spelunking for it. Maybe next time. Pheta Cashleba's "fun facts" were simply "manyships". I didn't get a chance to appreciate that at first because the wormhole dumped me inside a ring of asteroids, with the nearest station outside of it. I panicked a bit on the way there, wondering if I'd get lost in the fog, but luckily it was pretty thin. It was when I freed that station and read its nav reading that I came to appreciate the "manyships" attribute in all its glory. Many ships? No shit! The place is crawling with them. I was really glad to have brought a Bravo Repair Tool from Sigma because there was some MacGyvering to be had. (I'm not sure if I've found a Bravo repair station yet...) Also, sweet Jesus the Earth Mission guardian packs a lot of snipeys! And a few well-placed Blursties too, so I came to appreciate the crapulous Alpha Ramming Spikes I'd brought along. (I intend to have a couple of spikes up front for most of the game, because I know how effective they are starting from tier 2 onwards... can opener anyone?) Another thing I've really appreciated is the fact that shields trigger docking. There are a couple of... creatively-placed docking ports that need some pretty avant garde ship design to reach:   Hopefully the docking port placement will be consistently more sensible in future... Anyway, I've been having a blast so far (if you can't tell). I'm starting to really like the way you spend a lot more time at each level now - you actually have a reason to build up at a particular level before moving on to the next, unlike previous builds where you'd usually have a patchwork vessel of four level at a time. Here's my ship so far:  I see more Jameson in my near future. Great stuff! |
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Post by jayce on Apr 19, 2013 8:24:15 GMT 10
Only had a super quick chance to play. Fullscreen..... is..... amazing!
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Uzguz
Charlie Rank
Posts: 29
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Post by Uzguz on Apr 19, 2013 13:55:18 GMT 10
Whoa! Major interface issue alert.
In previous versions, if I had to open the menu while holding a ship part, I would simply keep the mouse button held down while the menu was open so that it'd keep holding that part when I closed it. Out in the field, that still works fine. When undocking from a station, however, it goes horribly wrong.
The game does not remember what the mouse was doing before the menu was opened, so when it closes, it figures that out again based on the current state. When undocking from a station, your view is zoomed right in, so your mouse cursor might be over a part of your ship that it wasn't before. Then, as the view zooms out, it will probably be a long way away from that part. It interprets these state changes in the usual way.
In hindsight, I probably should have expected it. Instead, I swore loudly as the whole front section of my ship went flying off.
Luckily, I was in a safe area, so I wasn't in danger of actually losing anything. I wouldn't want to get sprung like that with enemies around, though!
Making the currently held item pointer persist across menu uses would solve the issue.
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Uzguz
Charlie Rank
Posts: 29
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Post by Uzguz on Apr 19, 2013 18:28:31 GMT 10
I found a warehouse that doesn't work.    Sector: Sigma -> Pheta Cashleba -> Pis Coords: (+001, +013) I could take that Sprint Booster out, but I can't put anything back in - it can't see anything that I place in the loading bay. Hopefully they aren't all like that... |
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Post by Darkond2100 on Apr 20, 2013 9:18:09 GMT 10
I think I'll never get out of the habit of docking before quitting the game. Haven't found any worlholes yet, though I'm only at Echo.
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Post by Farbs on Apr 20, 2013 11:41:20 GMT 10
I found a warehouse that doesn't work. Sector: Sigma -> Pheta Cashleba -> Pis Coords: (+001, +013) I could take that Sprint Booster out, but I can't put anything back in - it can't see anything that I place in the loading bay. Hopefully they aren't all like that... Cheers. Yeah, this is a bug that showed up after I moved the hangar bit, to ensure you could always dock. I suspect it is hardcoded to expect a particular hangar orientation, since you can add items to the loading area sometimes by putting them to the side of it rather than in the marked area. This is the sort of thing I'll try to get fixed for major releases, but won't necessarily fix for prerelease builds. Thanks for the reminder tho! |
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Post by Farbs on Apr 20, 2013 11:45:42 GMT 10
I think I'll never get out of the habit of docking before quitting the game. Haven't found any worlholes yet, though I'm only at Echo. Whoops. It sounds like you aren't playing the new build then! It should be impossible to get to Echo without finding wormholes. Heck you should find one in the first few seconds. The new build, since it is a pre-release and not intended for first-time players, is linked at the bottom of the release page. |
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Post by jayce on Apr 21, 2013 20:54:02 GMT 10
 This chap was hanging around somewhere north of the RASAAA section in Siga, is he just a guardian attached to a station I haven't triggered yet? Edit, I'm only very slightly ashamed to say I killed him in cold blood, and all the pieces became attachable! =D Further Edit: He was just near "Carson's Hole"....Giggity. |
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Uzguz
Charlie Rank
Posts: 29
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Post by Uzguz on Apr 22, 2013 1:28:40 GMT 10
That's a derelict. They were added in 0.5.1, and yes, they're lootable.
I don't remember the layout of Siga very well, but I do remember there was an asteroid cluster that I strongly suspected of holding a derelict. I didn't get around to looking in there, though. Is that where you found it? I'll be sure to pick it up on my next run.
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Post by jayce on Apr 22, 2013 2:25:16 GMT 10
Derp, so it is ^_^
It was in a cluster NE of the starting position, I'm in some Foxtrot filled sector now so I can't be more specific, sorry!
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Post by Darkond2100 on Apr 22, 2013 8:39:00 GMT 10
The proper term is not derelict, it's flotsam.
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Post by jayce on Apr 22, 2013 9:17:19 GMT 10
Love it, I just reached the final sector. Next up, I'll think of something constructive to say =D
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Post by nemoricus on Apr 23, 2013 23:46:54 GMT 10
I'm having fun with the new build, but I find that the voice synthesizer is really getting on my nerves and I would like a way to mute it.
Also, I find that I rather miss telnet. It's awkward and annoying to have to dock with Scrapyards to sell everything, and it's especially annoying if you want to check the list of parts in the yard before selling.
But I'm still very happy to have a new build to play with! It's good to have you back, Captain Farbs.
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Post by squidbush on Apr 24, 2013 10:11:37 GMT 10
I'm greatly enjoying the new build, though the docking can be a little fiddly with some of the stations. I've only actually had one serious problem with that so far...  I ended up having to build a sort of 'poker' out of girders to dock. |
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reks
Alpha Rank
Posts: 2
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Post by reks on Apr 25, 2013 12:30:30 GMT 10
Just finished my first playthrough (of many I'm sure) Is the game supposed to freak out and freeze when I shoot the info buoy in the Omega sector? If so, that tickles me. ;D Anywho, It has been said already but the beep and voice are a bit too harsh and loud for my poor ears, so I think volume control and/or mute options would be valuable additions. I like that the sectors contain just a small level range of ships. That, combined with the decent size of individual sectors, made it possible to build a big ol' alpha/bravo ship in the course of regular gameplay, which is new and exciting. I spent way more time than I would have expected in the first few sectors and it was a lot of fun. Concerning the final sector: Perhaps a boss rush/ final stand type of battle? Waves of kilo (or higher  ) level guardians, including some sort of ramming Blix-esque ships to break down blurst-heavy player ships. Who needs a reward when you're dead? ;D That being said, I think that the idea of infinitely increasing power levels (even with some kind of diminishing gains) combined with procedurally generated sectors to keep the game going forever would be very much in the Captain Forever spirit! |
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Post by bigjohnpalmer on Apr 25, 2013 14:11:41 GMT 10
OMG the noises that the ships make are so damn loud, and unnecessarily long. I can barely have my volume up when playing.
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Post by jayce on Apr 25, 2013 19:42:03 GMT 10
Some late feedback. Navigation is a big improvement, although I was fond of the telnet method, this seems a little more intuitive (I would expect my spaceship to be able to retain nav info). The map opening animation is also delightful. I find some of the synth effects on the guardians a little jarring, which occasionally breaks the immersion which is one of the things I love about the CF series (especially with full screen, I find it calming flying around/building/etc.). That said, there it does definitely let you know that a guardian is meant to be serious business and you should pay attention. I experience some of the louder/harsher sounds frequently enough for them to lose their impact; perhaps they could be assigned to particularly dangerous events (I'm not sure how you'd demarcate such events)? That would give a definite oh sh*t! moment. Love the saving and permadeath, it feels much closer to the spirit of the series (at least for me), and takes some grunt work out; I didn't really mind docking/warehousing, but I haven't missed it once in this version, which is a good sign. I realise there'll be more content, so this may be irrelevant, but I find the odd sector where I'm just going through the motions of flying from station to station until I find a wormhole - there aren't many/any ships to kill (indicated by description). Like I say, probably not hugely relevant at this point. For the final section
Loved the buoy + freeze, made me laugh....and feel guilty for shooting it.
I quite liked the idea of the ships that used to spawn towards the end of CF - although that does leave you open for the old laser pointing inwards game.
I'm not sure how/if it would work, but potentially a hulking/huge guardian that you actually fly into, sort of like R-Type / Ecco the Dolphin (Tubes of Medusa level). If you made massive unbreakable girders, you could line the insides with lasers/missiles/etc. A sort of boss maze, with the central ship in a final boss room, connected to the entire structure - potentially make the player escape from the structure once the central ship had been destroyed. I have no idea if that's feasible.
Also (not sure if feasible), when a player completes the game/final sector, their ship could be added to a community pool of completed ships, which then reside in the final sector (with the player name, sort of like a leaderboard with no leader). Each player that completed the final sector adds another ship (you might have to set a maximum).
As a slight aside, the next time through the game (if you had an "end like you do currently), the sectors you had previously visited could contain a copy of your ship from the previous playthrough (at the stage it was when you left the sector). Not sure there's much merit to it, just a thought!
In summary, awesome work! End text wall =D |
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) level guardians, including some sort of ramming Blix-esque ships to break down blurst-heavy player ships. Who needs a reward when you're dead? ;D That being said, I think that the idea of infinitely increasing power levels (even with some kind of diminishing gains) combined with procedurally generated sectors to keep the game going forever would be very much in the Captain Forever spirit!
