Who is going to take the first plunge on Soldner X?

soniq-man · Post by **soniq-man** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:47 pm

Thanks for the praise everyone.

@ Herr Schatten: There are currently no plans by the publisher to release a seperate OST CD. I doubt it ever will be released seperately.

@ Koda: I sent you a reply to your query by PM.

Best,

Rafael

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:52 pm

Saturday December 1st, 2007

Lyon, France

Dear Rafael,

Every time I see this I get the impression that you are leaving and never coming back:

soniq-man wrote:Best,

Rafael

And yet you always come back.

Is this by any chance your first online forum?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely,

--Alex Kierkegaard

soniq-man · Post by **soniq-man** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:24 pm

Dear Icy (I hope I can call you by that name?),

Indeed, my complimentary close is usually "best regards" or "with kind regards", a sign of my gratidtude towards fellow readers and posters and indeed a hint of the good manners that were conveyed to me during my teenage years back in ye old high school. I humbly apologize with all due respect to anyone that has come to believe that my whishes suggest that I am going for good.

CU L8R every-1

Rafael

P.S.

-Bridget- · Post by **-Bridget-** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:26 pm

dangit, Im gonna end up buying this, arent I, lol....

The gameplay movie looks alot better than what the screenshots were...

The big explosions still seem sorta.... too big, but it wouldnt be the first time I've seen explosions in a shmup be a bit overdone *cough* Garegga *cough!*.

But I notice I can still see all the actual "shots" and other stuff just fine anyway, so that part seems OK enough to me.

Aside from that, this looks like it might turn out allright after all.

Though, I DID find it funny that in the video, the player doing that seems to just SMACK right into everything, lol. Watching him hit asteroids with his face was amusing

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:34 pm

Saturday December 1st, 2007

Lyon, France

Dear Rafael,

soniq-man wrote:Dear Icy (I hope I can call you by that name?)

Only if I can call you "soniq"

soniq-man wrote:Indeed, my complimentary close is usually "best regards" or "with kind regards", a sign of my gratidtude towards fellow readers and posters and indeed a hint of the good manners that were conveyed to me during my teenage years back in ye old high school. I humbly apologize with all due respect to anyone that has come to believe that my whishes suggest that I am going for good.

No need to apologize for your good manners, indeed you should be congratulated for them, especially in this fast-paced age of the information superhighway, when people are too much in a hurry to even take a second to treat their fellow human beings with the least modicum of kindness and respect.

soniq-man wrote:CU L8R every-1

Ummmm... okay. Whatever you say.

Yours Sincerely,

--Alex Kierkegaard

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:45 pm

Dear Santa,

I've been good this year, and would like to have a pet gold fish, a big wooden barrel, and an official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.

Merry Christmas to you and your elves.

Signed,

The Coop

P.S. Those three gifts have nothing to do with each other. I promise.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:24 pm

an official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time

It'd be cool if it's bullets were as fuzzy as the ones in Soldner X. Then you could shoot people and they're like wtf dis yellow fog? and then they're inside it and it finally hits them but by that time you're around the corner laughing ALL the way to the bank.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:45 pm

icycalm wrote:Saturday December 1st, 2007

Lyon, France

Damn it, I am lost.
Stop sending out these mixed messages please.

Now, are you residing in Greece, Japan ot France?
And if you're residing in Lyon, then why is Hellas listed as your location, or Japan for that matter?

just curious...

koda · Post by **koda** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:17 am

Welp, I went ahead and preordered it. I want to support shmup development, and new studios can only improve-- right?

Besides, I gotta have that OST. =)

ryosnk · Post by **ryosnk** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:26 am

I'm in for one.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:28 am

Super Laydock wrote:
Damn it, I am lost.
Stop sending out these mixed messages please.

Now, are you residing in Greece, Japan ot France?
And if you're residing in Lyon, then why is Hellas listed as your location, or Japan for that matter?

just curious...

thats what he wants.. when you least suspect it, when its dark all around - all you see is a glimmer.. and then youre dead!

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:11 am

Preordered my copy!

And yeah, I am the stealth assassin. Currently staking out my next target: an annoying linguistics phd student who lives on a sub-tropical island.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:02 am

icycalm wrote: And yeah, I am the stealth assassin. Currently staking out my next target: an annoying linguistics phd student who lives on a sub-tropical island.

doesnt leave much for imagination..

ontopic: I still want the OST for a loose release..

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:13 am

And now the question is, who will receive it and leave comments first?

nlen83 · Post by **nlen83** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:37 am

My copy is on its way...got the email yesterday. Eager to see what its like.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:57 am

The Coop wrote:And now the question is, who will receive it and leave comments first?

Won´t be me as I took cheap ass airmail service...

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:44 pm

just tried it, and sadly, it runs way to slow everytime an enemy formation shows up, so its barely playable.

this happened to me with SnS3, but at least that one was playable enough, this one?... no. ithink im stickin to doujins.

Balzac · Post by **Balzac** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:38 pm

Gave it about an hour's go just now.

....I'm not sure what to think.

-It's definitely a euroshmup, complete with giant lifebar, ten million popcorn enemies that love to fly into you, and a ship with a 1:1 hitbox.

-But as far as euroshmups go, this is one of the better ones! You get three lives to a credit(extra ones are unlocked by cumulative score or playing time?) and dying yields a continue screen, so you can play this like an arcade game and aim for a 1CC.

-Not quite sure how the scoring system functions yet, but I know that leveling up weapons relies on the chain system. Basically, you accrue enough exp pionts by killing enemies to fill your chain gauge into the green area, then switch weapons when prompted. Every weapon level requires you to do this a set amount of times (lvl 1 = 1 chain gauge, level 8 = filling 8 chain gauges, etc). Take too long or go enough time without killing anything and the gauge will empty out.

-The music is glorious.

-4 worlds with substages to each of them. Apidya style, I think. Unfortunately this means the backgrounds get really repetitive, but the first world's enemy formations/patterns seemed varied enough, so we'll see how it goes.

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:04 pm

It has terrible ship inertia and a health bar, which i personally hate. Otherwise its fairly good. Reminds me of Steel Saviour or Jets n Guns.

But that inertia needs looking at - your ship takes a fair while to stop after the dpad has been stopped.

bVork · Post by **bVork** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:15 pm

I give this game 0 out of any numerical system you would care to use. It does not run on my system.

It refuses to run at anything but 60hz. My monitor seems to refuse to do anything but 75hz, so I can't play it. I realize that refresh-based timing is the "right" way to do things, but some sort of alternative timing (or, gasp, support for multiple refresh rates) would have been useful.

There is no reason for a game in this day and age to simply not work. FAIL.

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:25 pm

A Patch can sort that out.
Lord knows it needs one, just to sort out that ship.

Necronom · Post by **Necronom** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:47 pm

I can confirm the Euroshmup feel but contrary to the hopelessly unbalanced Jets n Guns this one is actually really good. Steel Saviour players should definitely check it out.
Graphics (if you dig the style...) and music are very good too, lots of stuff to unlock and last but not least a chaining system that feels odd at the beginning but once you get into it gets really rewarding.
It's like changing gears in a car a little bit, resulting in unlocking a power up (which starts floating over the screen then) when completely succesful. Interesting concept, definitely a breath of fresh air.
Imo there's no problem at all with bullet visibility and it's pretty challenging at normal.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:54 pm

Necronom wrote:I can confirm the Euroshmup feel but contrary to the hopelessly unbalanced Jets n Guns this one is actually really good. Steel Saviour players should definitely check it out.
Graphics (if you dig the style...) and music are very good too, lots of stuff to unlock and last but not least a chaining system that feels odd at the beginning but once you get into it gets really rewarding.
It's like changing gears in a car a little bit, resulting in unlocking a power up (which starts floating over the screen then) when completely succesful. Interesting concept, definitely a breath of fresh air.
Imo there's no problem at all with bullet visibility and it's pretty challenging at normal.

Thnx for given me god hope on this again.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:54 pm

Necronom wrote:I can confirm the Euroshmup feel but contrary to the hopelessly unbalanced Jets n Guns this one is actually really good. Steel Saviour players should definitely check it out.
Graphics (if you dig the style...) and music are very good too, lots of stuff to unlock and last but not least a chaining system that feels odd at the beginning but once you get into it gets really rewarding.
It's like changing gears in a car a little bit, resulting in unlocking a power up (which starts floating over the screen then) when completely succesful. Interesting concept, definitely a breath of fresh air.
Imo there's no problem at all with bullet visibility and it's pretty challenging at normal.

Thnx for given me god hope on this again.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:57 pm

So the amazing story of what happens if people who don't understand shmups try to make one and don't use actual shoot 'em up players as play-testers is repeated once more.

Afterbirth wrote:A Patch can sort that out.
Lord knows it needs one, just to sort out that ship.

I wonder if that's like hoping for a patch to turn Internet Explorer into a good browser.

Super Laydock wrote: Thnx for given me god hope on this again.

You mean you have some last hope left?

Necronom · Post by **Necronom** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:12 pm

@Ceph
"You mean you have some last hope left?"

This is way better than Last Hope. And how do you know the play-testers weren't "actual" shmup players?! Jeez, some people here really love to bash new stuff blindly...

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:03 am

Necronom wrote: This is way better than Last Hope.

Not so sure...

Necronom wrote:some people here really love to bash new stuff blindly...

Not me.

Details:
-weapons are too weak
-very boring enemy designs
-very boring enemy formations
-energy bar
-too many particles
-too much stuff on screen
-weapons sometimes suddenly switch automatically when the game feels like it
-your whole ship is your hitzone
-somewhat generic bgm

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:09 am

Now that i've got used to weapon switching this is actually really bloody good - and that inertia thing....
Its the ship's animation, not extra lateral or very movement. My bad...

This feels a little like Borderdown and when you suss the combo thing and start powering up it becomes bloody good fun.

Sorry....but some of you (And me) have been very wrong about this game.

I totally conur with Necronom.
It really starts to play like an arcade game once you get into that weapons system.

Its still kinda weird - some items your chaining for appear anyway
- so when you get the release you get double the effect.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:22 am

Ceph wrote: -too much stuff on screen
-your whole ship is your hitzone

I find the first one rather funny, given how much love bullet hell and manic shmups get around these here parts

And really, I don't see an issue with having your whole ship be a hit zone. It makes sense to me, since I've always been surprised at how accepted shmups with literally three pixels-wide hit zones on your ship have become.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:30 am

Those were just my first, unfiltered impressions.

weapons sometimes suddenly switch automatically when the game feels like it

The weapons actually heat up while you fire and cool down when not in use; once your current weapon reaches 100%, it is auto-switched. Annoying during boss fights.

More impressions:
-ship too slow
-ship reacts too slowly

The Coop wrote:
Ceph wrote: -too much stuff on screen
-your whole ship is your hitzone
I find the first one rather funny, given how much love bullet hell and manic shmups get around these here parts

And really, I don't see an issue with having your whole ship be a hit zone. It makes sense to me, since I've always been surprised at how accepted shmups with literally three pixels-wide hit zones on your ship have become.

The two points combined are a problem in a game as overcrowded as this.