hm, i'll look into itmarus wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTaIct_7Y6g
I've run into this bug a few times before but this is the first time I've caught it on video. When playing as Mae with the Hyper Laser, sometimes in the first phase of the stage 2 boss your special weapon sprite will cover the enemy bullets. This only happens occasionally and I'm not sure how to reproduce it.
thanks for your input, but this is almost certainly not happening. we recently patched in two options for helping with reading the screen, and we're happy to listen to any more suggestions people might have on that front. while we thank everyone for their support of the game, simply put it's not financially viable to sink such a huge amount of time into doing something like that.-S.L- wrote: So this game MUST be released on Nesica with a retouch (visual and gameplay), because it has a huge potential.
yes, sadly. i don't think it kills the game but it does show it up at times. having a game with such a variable amount of damage the player can output puts more stress on the level design than a simpler system might have. one other thing that never really dawned on me until it was too late to change: every non-defense special weapon demands for you to be right below enemies to operate efficiently. this way i can put enemies left, right, left, right or whatever and keep the player constantly moving about while being under attack from other areas of the screen. the exception is the arc caster (the most popular s.weapon!), which allows for players to very safely and lazily clear the screen. this puts more stress on the level design. it's not a case of it being overpowered so much as it just being a very braindead to use weapon. so i'm trying to think about what to do.SuperSoaker360 wrote:So far my only qualm with the game is that there's a lot of dead-air once you start memoing.
if we return to STGs, the priority will be to get stage design absolutely dead on. i'm not making excuses, i'm just saying this project's nature put lots of stress on something that i never got 100% perfect.
responses in bold. it doesn't bug me when people type up lots of stuff like this at all.Winane wrote:-The delay switching to focused movement speed makes sense when the player is holding just the regular fire button, for the sake of anyone using a controller with not quite enough buttons for full-auto.
But why is there a delay to slowing down the ship when the player is already holding the Rapid-Fire button when pressing Fire? I'm used to using that as sort of a brake pedal in danmaku STGs, but here that don't work too good.
I mean, responsiveness and tight control are pretty important in this genre, aren't they? Kinda like why I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in disliking the momentum often found in arena shmups.
Though I suppose the slowdown delay does help a bit to prevent the game from feeling too much like same old, same old. And most of the game does seem to be reasonably balanced around the delay. Plus, I expect folks like Grooktook probably love the way it encourages macrododging over micrododging.
Anyway, IIRC that kind of delay is the main reason I hardly ever play Hitogata Happa (despite loving most other aspects of that game), and I was almost ready to set this game aside as well, before discovering that somehow or other maybe it's really not so bad after all in this one.
(And by the time I got around to typing this up, I'd sorta reached the point of hoping you don't take my implicit suggestion to change it. Which is fortunate, given that I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have, anyway, right?)
someone else brought this up too. it's probably a good idea, but i'm kind of loath to change it - who knows how many people don't have a problem with the current behaviour and suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them and start crashing into bullets all over the place. random changes to baseline movement post-release are something nobody wants in a STG!
-Would be good if the high score tables indicated which ship/shot/special types were used, and what stage reached.
this kind of stuff will be on the leaderboards when they happen, and the offline highscore table will also probably get this type of thing then too.
-Would be really nice if Missions mode kept track of the player's highest score for each completed mission (either separately for A+ and non-A+, or only for full A+ clears, or no distinction between the two, whichever way).
That would help provide more to aim for, even after earning the top grade.
i'm sort of a fan of how they work right now, honestly. however, i'm looking into adding experimental weapon, lightning round and invisible bullet as bonus modes you can play the full game in
-Might be nice to do the same for stage select mode, as well. Could probably help for comparing scoring paths & armament selection options.
the achievement patch (couple of days) will feature some light stat tracking, like individual PBs for each stage. i think this probably achieves the same thing
-Could you add some kind of audio cue when bosses/large enemies are about to die or reach a health bar divider, à la DonPachi or Touhou?
i don't really see a huge reason to? could maybe pitch shift the bullet impact sound like touhou, but it might be hard to hear over everything else...
-I'd like an option to remember the previously used name when registering high scores (i.e., hit z once to confirm, or x to backspace to change it), rather than having to reinput the name every dang time.
i find it satisfying to slam down my initials if i did good, personally. and the gameplay option menu is getting crowded, heh. but i'll try.
-In the gallery, if you select the first picture, hit left to go to the last picture, then hit x to go back to the thumbnail gallery, the thumbnails don't appear and you're left with nothing but the background image.
(Or is that intentional, to let the user get an unobstructed view of the wallpaper?)
oh cool! i could never replicate this bug and i figured it wasn't a huge issue. this can get fixed now, cheers
-With debug info on, what is the fraction that's displayed under the rank level?
i never actually intended to ship the game with the debug info option visible... a bit silly. anyway the fraction is the raw rank number and the threshold required to go up to the next rank level.
-Yeah, I agree that the selection highlighting on the main select screen is a bit visually confusing.
noted
-When using Val's cluster missiles, I often find myself reflexively trying to dodge my own shots from their explosions, since they look a bit too much like enemy bullets at a glance. Was that an intentional downside to using that weapon?
haven't really heard this from many other people. wasn't intended either way
-Have you already considered enabling Hyper Laser battles during "Press" (à la DDP or Dariusburst)? (I'm not necessarily suggesting it should work that way, but I half expected it to when I first got there with laser equipped.)
it'd be a funny easter egg
-Is the slowdown during some of the regular last boss's attacks intentional, or is that just my computer not being up to the task?
no slowdown is intentional. "revolver" tends to stress a few machines. i've never been too sure why, it's never felt like a huge step up from spam patterns. though it was the only pattern where i went in with the express intent of making something a bit dramatic and pretty.
-Is there any way to fight the TLB in stage practice mode? Would be nice if that's somehow unlockable.
as soon as you encounter the TLB, you can practice it. but you do have to set mode to parallel for it to be visible.
-Isn't the player's hitbox a bit asymmetrical (1 pixel to the right of center, but 2 to the left, relative to the ships' sprites)?
no, this is a quirk in the way the game shows hitboxes. it's 2x2, centered in the middle of the sprite.
-How about adding a "random select" option for each item in the soundtrack selection menu, to randomly choose between the unlocked BGMs for each section each time the game is played?
-Also, maybe randomized wallpaper?
-Would be kinda nice if controls could be modified just one button at a time. Slight nuisance to have to type in every single input just to change the pause button from 'esc' to 'space'.
one thing they never tell you in school is how much sublime agony there is in coding an input mapping menu. currently it works, it works better than tons of games (bindable keyboard!), and i'd rather save the headaches for things like replays.
-Upon completing a run in stage select mode, would probably make more sense to return to the stage select screen, rather than to the title screen.
noted
-Why no dialogue with some of the bosses when playing as Val?
er, i'd have thought this would be a bit obvious
-Trivial, but in the tutorial: "machinegun" -> either "machine gun" or "machine-gun"
noted
Spoiler
-Shouldn't it be "I'm calling in sick today"? (Also, seems like rather a brief ending for Val. :/ )
-"Well, what do you want from me!" <- missing a question mark.
-Doesn't the "Oof!" come in a little bit late, relative to the timing of the picture changes? Well, I guess it's okay, though.
-"from the bottom of our hearts" -> should be "bottoms", I think.
-(I was going to suggest in-house penetration testing as an alternate premise for playable Val, but I guess that wouldn't really work with her TLB.)
all noted. val ended up as a playable character on a bit of a whim. i think that explains a few things.
-What determines whether the player's ship gets blown up after beating the last boss?
the TLB? it always gets blown up. the player character's device has been pushed to its breaking point, hence why it exudes junk data more and more throughout the fight-Big thanks for Missions mode. I especially love the Experimental Weapon one, feels a bit reminiscent of playing Shoot the Bullet.Spoiler
-Rum = boy & Ale = girl, right?
i believe so!
-Is Mae the type of character to say "イシシシ!"?
...i can't answer this! ask woof!
-I think I want to marry Nayuki Yuzu's voice. <3
it's very nice.
-Just in case it doesn't go without saying:
I wouldn't have bothered typing all this up if I didn't think this was a great game. =)