Shoot First

[worstplayer]

Nethack+Robotron=



Addictive little game, try it.
http://teknopants.com/games/shootfirst/

[kengou]

Really great game. I'm finding it hard as all hell but I know Bridget (on here) has been getting up to stage 15 or something like that. I'm glad they added mouse aiming as an option in the latest release. The sticky aiming direction was sometimes a bit TOO sticky

[Ruldra]

Wow, this is great! Enjoying it a lot.

How many floors this game has?

[kengou]

Wow, this is great! Enjoying it a lot.

How many floors this game has?

I heard something like 50?

[Ruldra]

Played a couple of credits today and managed to reach floor 15 (score: 13,524)

This game is incredible. Hard as nails, lovely music and the random levels means the game is always fresh. Too bad few people play this.

Anyone met the hunter yet? When you enter a stage, a warning message appears saying there's one looking for you. You need to escape asap, if this guy gets close you're dead.

[Ed Oscuro]

I played this a few times. I thought this was maybe going to be a Star Wars thread spinoff...but no, instead, it's awesome.

Nowhere near Ruldra's score yet. On one play the game locked me in the first level - there was a path to the exit on the map, clearly blocked off by stone two units thick. I had the boots of boulder speed too

Not sure what my favorite gun is yet - Murderer or Room Raider. Favorite item description? Oh man, I don't wanna get started...plenty of great ones. Arthur's Boxers, the thong, etc. Lots of useless items though.

[Ruldra]

On one play the game locked me in the first level - there was a path to the exit on the map, clearly blocked off by stone two units thick.

Are you playing version 1.2.1? The previous version had a few bugs, that was one of them. Another bug was that monsters occasionaly got away from the trap rooms, meaning you couldn't stop the walls from crushing you. I had a very good run end this way

EDIT: Hunter message:

[Ed Oscuro]

I just got the game, and it's the current version. Still had it happen. I went and redownloaded it before checking my current directory and confirming it's 1.2.1.

Any bets on how legit that ED WUNGLER III score is?

[Ruldra]

Ugh, I was having my best run yet and a power failure resets my PC. Goddammit I had a real shot at cracking the all-time scoreboard...

The game automatically take snapshots so this is all I have from my run (had a way better score btw):



Also, one of the floors had an isolated room, with no way of getting there. This game still need a few fixes.

[Vexorg]

Is it just me, or doe the keyboard controls almost seem easier to deal with than the KB/mouse combo? Sure you can't aim in more than eight directions, but I find I do better that way.

[Ed Oscuro]

You can use the mouse? I ought to try that out...I've been doing everything with the keyboard.

Game is developmentally disabled, so of course it treats both shift keys as the same input. Right now, strafe lock and map button are the same key.

It definitely seems easier to me to mash a key to fire (say x) than a mouse button though.

And yes, I'm having trouble going back to this because every bug the readme says is fixed...isn't. I got caught by the "no enemies inside crushing wall" bug, as well as the other one I mentioned above. Hopefully they fix it soon, but that hacker score was still up there last I looked, too, so...

[ROBOTRON]

Hmmmmmm.......

[Ruldra]

I sent an e-mail to the developer reporting some bugs and asking a couple of questions:

This game is incredible and I'd really like to thank you for making it. Hard as nails, lovely music, random levels...it has everything I like in a game. it's just perfect.

Well, almost perfect. Some bugs I'd like to report:

- Sometimes I see jewels spawn on inacessible places, on the other side of the wall where it's all black;
- After picking up the map, I saw an isolated room far away from the rest of the level. If an exit spawned there it'd be game over;
- Top score at title screen is a nice feature but it doesn't work properly. After you close the game and start it again, the score shown there is incorrect;
- In one occasion, I got stuck in a trap room with the walls closing in. The exit was inside, and I entered it while the walls covered half of it. When I spawned on the next floor, I was at level 1, all my equipment was gone and I had the stock weapon. It was like starting the game again, but on a much deeper floor. Needless to say, I got killed real fast.

All those bugs are present in version 1.2.1.

By the way, I have a couple of questions:

- Can the hunter actually be killed?
- How many floors are there? Does the game goes on forever?

Again, thanks for making this awesome game. Please don't stop improving it.

His reply:

Thanks for the thanks!
While the game is technically "finished" it is known that many odd bugs inhabit it; bugs that I have been trying to track down since the game's conception. Unfortunately, when I started this game, my programming skill was not as refined as it is currently, and working with the game's skeleton is, quite frankly, a bizitch. While I'm not very inclined to keep working on this game, as I had to really push myself to get the thing out of the door, I will still be making games that I hope will excite the same audiences. (though much slower because I'm back in college)
-
To adress your concerns!

* The top score feature should be functioning unless you are playing the game inside a zip file... which I imagine you wouldn't be since the game requires outside files... I'll check it out.
* If you get killed while exiting the floor, the game reads it as though you are a new character on the next floor; while this does give the player an extra (although pitiful) extra chance at getting more points; It would be better if the game just let you slide past the whole "I died thing"
* Phantom jewels and isolated rooms is something that I just can't figure out for the life of me. It would almost work better if I just made a new engine in a seeeequeeel... Which, to be honest, won't happen until I get my studio started. Which, to be honest, is probably years away.

To answer your questions!

* Hunters can be killed; they have tons of health, but can be squashed by boulders for a quicker kill.
* The game does indeed go on forever. Though I figure eventually the enemies level up so dearly that at some point the player will just not have a chance at fighting and will have to chase exits instead.

I hope I have answered your questions in a sufficient manner! Thanks for playing, I always appreciate fan mail!
Sincerely,
-
Beau Blyth

The man replied 2 hours after I sent the email. Feel free to ask him other questions if you wish, his email is teknopants@gmail.com. Someone should tell him about the fake score, I completely forgot to mention it.

Game is developmentally disabled, so of course it treats both shift keys as the same input. Right now, strafe lock and map button are the same key.

Huh? Just re-configure the buttons.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I am totally bumping this because, well, the game's awesome. No major bugs or issues yet thankfully.

* The boots that let you outrun boulders are awesome. You move faster in general, and in any game where you can dodge attacks, that's pretty awesome. They're great for traps in general.

* The Assassin is super strong, but I can't see the point of it outside 2P coop. Its range is so horrible that you can't safely deal with enemies. The Sidewinder's my fave of the weapons I've seen, it's pretty solid all around, though you need it at level 4 for it to shoot at a good rate.

Is armor generally better than the +HP items? I figure if health potions/damsel rescues recover a fixed HP value, then armor with damage reduction's probably better than the + maxhp items are.

Screw the lava levels, they're filled with so many annoying fire traps.

Never mind, got badly destroyed when I entered a blue-type map that had friggin eyeballs in the walls that you couldn't destroy and constantly shot bullets (that go through walls) at you.

Found my first Room Raider! I was super excited since I'd seen most or all the weapons 'cept this one. Too bad it sucks. The spread is unreliably random and each shot is quite weak. It's nearly useless for corridor fights, and there's a lot of corridors in the game to shoot from, plus its damage is weak compared to tighter weapons. The default gun is simple, but a Vulcan Vixen is damn fine when upgraded. Mighty Murderer's an interesting alternative, but I think each shot's a tad weaker. The slight spread is handing if you're shooting into a room while hiding in a corridor though.

If you donate, you get a link to an Extra version that has ice-themed levels and couple new weapons like a flamethrower (Burn Baron, upgrades are +distance, better than The Assassin in my opinion). Haven't seen the second new weapon yet, though.

[Ruldra]

There are definitely some changes since the last time I played, even though the version number is the same. I spotted a couple of new items (lockpicks, safety cap) and came across a pair of hunters in the same level.

You now can't drop any item you want to pick another. I wanted to drop a ring to pick up something else, but I could only drop my HP+3 item. I don't think you can carry 3 armor items anymore. In that case, the best items you can have are armor+3, HP+3 and Boots. And yes, armor is preferable than HP.

Best weapon IMO is the Mighty Murderer (aka orange machinegun), the burst fire makes it easier on your finger and you can just keep firing a constant stream of bullets. Room Raider (aka blue shotgun) is good too, cleans rooms pretty nicely and it's deadly at close range. I stick with whatever I find first.

By the way, if you come across a Hunter and you don't have Boots, make it to the exit right away. He's faster than you and will just ram you to death.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Actually if you encounter an item and your 3 item slots are full, just keep picking up items. The box that's highlighted red is what gets replaced next, so if you keep picking up objects you'll eventually get the 3 you wanted (just not in the order you want them, but that doesn't matter). You can't wear multiple sets of gear that take up the same space on your body though; if you pick up a helmet and you already have a helmet, that helmet gets replaced.

Hunters are actually pretty easy to deal with in my experience, at least on levels with visible traps. Traps are always instant death for enemies, so just run from them until a boulder pops out if you have to, or in levels with fire traps, lure them to one and activate it. I don't think spike traps hurt them though.

[Ruldra]

Actually if you encounter an item and your 3 item slots are full, just keep picking up items.

Yeah you're right, for some reason it didn't work in my previous run, but it worked fine now.

Anyway, I was having the run of my life, got into a trapped room and the monsters slipped past the wall, meaning I got stuck and had no way of getting out. Had to suicide to register my score



I'm gonna say that Room Raider is the best weapon in the game. Rooms packed with enemies are by far the most dangerous parts to deal with and that weapon is sooo effective in these areas.

Keep those armor items too, with 6 points of armor I could take a beating and barely lose health.

[RegalSin]

Well, this is nice, this is real nice. In the world of game design for regular people, this guy is doing what I would like to do, but he made that realization.

I saw his website, it is something I should have been doing from day one. I mean it is auwsome, and I love the fact that somebody is trying to be creative someway, and program games.

The art in my opinion is quesitonable, because it looks like it relies on computer art, while having that finger paint appearance that "Adventure Time" annoys me at first.

I saw the interview at GDC 2013. The reporter, pounced on him, making him give a statement, on the glorification, of the term retro, and why everything that is not latest and greatest, is to be dumbed down, so new consumers can accept them. The reporter is also laughing threw the interview, while Beau Blyth is giving him more time to waste.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Anyway, I was having the run of my life, got into a trapped room and the monsters slipped past the wall

That sucks - if you play coop you can sort of avoid that - one person hides outside whenever you enter a potential trap room (if one person dies and the other makes it to the next floor, you respawn!). Online coop would be awesome.

Honestly I think the Room Raider is too weak at mid-long range. Close range is nasty in this game since health is precious, but then I tend to wear two sets of +3 armor and speed boots, I guess if I had 3 sets of +3 gear I'd be better protected for close combat. I also tend to be more conservative about taking potshots before entering rooms. Maybe later levels will get denser or something (I've made it to floor 10 or so I think) and make close combat focusing more handy. I haven't found the second new weapon in the extra version yet, but I'll probably still prefer the Siderwinder's balance of damage + spread.

Aaaand, got it. It's called "The Zorb", it's a charged shot weapon that fires damaging balls of goodness. It's basically a sniping weapon in a game where sniping doesn't work so well. The rapid shot works fine as a substitute for a Vulcan Vixen though, so it's basically an upgrade of that. edit: nope, scratch that, it's about half as strong when firing uncharged shots as a Vulcan Vixen is.





Ran into a new item: Boots of Blatant Daggers. Allows you to damage enemies when you run into them. Probably not great because you don't want to go meleeing enemies and trading hits, but it's probably handy for those enemies that rush you and attack by ramming you. First time I've seen a weapon and item chest on top of one another, too. And... the boots suck. No protection from melee damage, and I tried to kill something with 'em, not dead after three hits, not worth it. Oh well.

Those enemies with the tongues in the brown levels do ridiculous damage by the way. Get stuck in a corridor when one stretches its tongue out and you can easily get hit multiple times for half a lifebar (I had a full armor set too).

OOOO~



Ice levels! The main gimmick is lots of igloo-like rooms at the end of passages, and ice traps that work kinda like fire traps 'cept you slow down if you're hit by one, and the shots can bounce off walls. There's also a lot of shootable icecubes blocking passages... you don't want an enemy to break one, cause with any shootable barriers, getting hit by the barrier chunks rips off a huge amount of health.

Ran into a weird room bug where a passage was made with no entry. Thankfully, didn't block the stairs or anything.



Current run is going really nicely, full set of +3 armor equipment, but I'm having to choose between maybe swapping one for a ring of exp or trying out those melee boots. Or using speed boots if I find 'em. Boulder traps keep whittling my health down... Decisions, decisions!

Died on Floor 13. Foolishly tried out the flamethrower, big mistake. The Burn Baron does horrible damage - there's a fire animation when you hit enemies, but they don't take any damage from it as far as I can tell (which is a shame, would make it much better), so you have to hit with the direct flame. It knocks back enemies pretty well at close range, but it doesn't do much damage for what a close range weapon ought to. The Assassin and Room Raider are much better for close damage! I had a weird bug on a floor with a helper dude - I accidentally dropped my lvl 7 Sidewinder, he grabbed it, and I got a level 7 Vulcan Vixen in return. I got him to drop the Sidewinder later by finding a Burn Baron, and it had reverted to level 1. Mah Sidewinder, nuuu.

[null1024]

Seems neat, I was having a good bit of fun [was running like hell from a hunter], and then BAM -- game crashed out. Sadness.

There's nothing worse than a game crash that leaves your screen res at 320x240.
nothing fits on screen, so getting the res back up to something workable is a minor challenge [it'd be more major pre-Vista actually, since the damn resolution adjust dialog didn't fit on screen and didn't scroll]

I'll try mouse control tomorrow, it's the middle of the night, I'm in my bed, and trying to use a trackpad for such is the worst.

[Damocles]

Sooo...guess the name you enter for the score isn't just local. Whoops. Goddamnit indeed. Enemies aren't much of a problem but those fireball and boulder traps are just crappy.

Anyone know what the damsel bracelet actually does? I wore it while delivering a damsel to the exit, but I didn't notice anything different?

[Ruldra]

Anyone know what the damsel bracelet actually does? I wore it while delivering a damsel to the exit, but I didn't notice anything different?

It's a "damsel locator". It shows a heart on the map showing where the damsel is in the floor (if there's one).

[Damocles]

Well that seems damn useless. There's no hunger meter in this game so you should be exploring everywhere anyway. Makes sense, however, as I saw a heart at the edge of the screen as I was going back to pick her up.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Well that seems damn useless. There's no hunger meter in this game so you should be exploring everywhere anyway. Makes sense, however, as I saw a heart at the edge of the screen as I was going back to pick her up.

The only reason not to explore everywhere is if you're speedrunning, or if you're at such a high level that enemies will basically kill you in one or two hits (apparently this is the case, enemies scale faster than you do so if you get really, really deep, according to the dev it might be better just to run). The damsel's pretty handy for that health refill, but she dies easily, so you do have to clear a path... Boulders also tend to take off health if you're exploring without a pair of running boots...

That item that gives you every map filled (looks like a red gameboy) seems super handy. Not sure what the point of the hunter locator is (I've never had one and had a hunter show up), they always show up as a red blip on the minimap even without one. Too bad you can only carry three items, and usually you want at least 2 pieces of armor, if not a full set of three!

[GaijinPunch]

Anyone else click in here and think it was the name of a new law in Florida?

[Skykid]

Anyone else click in here and think it was the name of a new law in Florida?

It's an old law in New York, just named Zero Tolerance instead.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

So, apparently I was wrong and the Burn Baron does actually do damage over time with the fire effect it has. It's just that it seems to be very weak - early on though, I've hit monsters, run away, and while they're burning they've died. They just don't flash while they're taking that indirect damage I guess.

So I'm kinda having a great run here. Fully levelled (4+) Sidewinder, two +3 armors and the boots of boulder running. Got my health up to full eventually, then I came to this level. Surrounded by enemies with a hunter duo coming for me. I found out that hunters can kill each other if one uses a ramming attack into the other it seems (I've killed them before the hard way by running circles around a ring, takes a long time). My health's sadly a bit messed up now. Can't save the game, so leaving it on all night on pause and hope it doesn't crash or something. :p

Okay, this is bullshit. Fuck these eyeballs, I'm just running to the stairs on these levels.

Sigh... got whittled down by spike traps on level 21. It's really hard to avoid running into them if they're positioned right outside a corridor as you have to tap just until you're on the floor beside them to get around. Your hitbox is so big that even barely touching spikes will damage you.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Found a new item playing co-op for the first time tonight. The Leech - when you get damaged while carrying it, your partner gains health equal to half the damage you take, great for mitigating the damage and reducing the number of health potions you both use up.