The ship's speed

[Ganelon]

There is no autofire at all in Image Fight. Sounds like you have the shot button constantly held down though... so I guess we outed a turbo user, eh?

Nah, it's OK; I use turbo in shooters too.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

In Image Fight you can set the speed yourself at the start of the game.

The older 16-bit Sol Deace/Sol-Feace for the Sega Genesis/Sega CD had this. Pick the speed in the options menu before starting the game, but then also that speed was non-adjustable for the entire duration of the game.

[Ed Oscuro]

In Image Fight you can set the speed yourself at the start of the game.

The older 16-bit Sol Deace/Sol-Feace for the Sega Genesis/Sega CD had this. Pick the speed in the options menu before starting the game, but then also that speed was non-adjustable for the entire duration of the game.

Dangun Feveron has that. Soldier Blade (I think all of the PCE Soldier games actually), even Gallop: Armed Police (via moving left and right) have in-game speed selection. I think Winds of Thunder probably does too.

[Elaphe]

A friend of mine who already owns Raiden IV told me about how much the game has improved over Raiden III, and one of the things he mentioned was the ship speed.

As regards playability, I said 90% because there are other minor elements in the a game which also affect playability: difficulty, level design, weaponry... and even the color palette (the reason why the backgrounds in Cave games are slightly desaturated is that it let's you see the enemies and their bullets more easily. Otherwise, the game would be chaotic to play).

[RHE]

Personally I don't think there's a way to implement the ship speed right for everyone. Even with multiply custom ship speeds during the game, some poeple find this rather annoying or are just too lazy to use it - it makes gameplay more complicated, where it shouldn't. I find it a better solution using just one extra button for slowing down the ship, becasue it allows more precise gameplay w/o being too overcomplicated. However, with most games that use this function, I find they slow down way too much for my taste.

I currently know following solutions.

1.) Speed ups: Is fine for a instance but there's a problem, with too much speed ups, your ship may crash into walls or bullets where you don't wont it to crash. Let alone the Gradius syndrome.

2.) Speed ups and speed downs solves the previous issue, but is annoying becasue you have to concentrate more on what's going on the screen. Most players dislike all stuff that affects gameplay in a negative way, anyway.

3.) Mutilpy custom speed during gameplay: The good thing is, every player can take the ship speed where he wants it at the moment where he wants it. The bad thing, it makes gameplay more complicated, and sometimes even annyoing. Personally I don't want to keep an eye and ships speed. However, for people who like to control the speed during the game this feature it's pretty much perfect.

4.) Ship speed slowdown button: Holding down the button makes your ships slower to allow precision gameplay. The only bad thing on this is, it makes gameplay slightly more complicated. Some players like this, some simply don't.

5.) Different types of ships with different kind of fixed speed settings: The good thing, every player can choose the ship where he feels the speed is just right. The bad thing, the whole game has to be build around all the ships available, which means gameplay isn't perfect for all the ships, or just for one ship. Slightly optimizing the gameplay for every specific ship type can solve the issue though, but I don't know a game that does this. To do this also takes more budget, just too please hardcore players.

6.) Building the game around the ship speed: The good thing, independent from the actual speed of the ship, the game is always perfectly playable. The bad thing, it can make trouble for players who refuses to adapt the actual game speed. Some players find Raiden just boring, and prefer to play Cho Ren Sha 68K instead. And other players go with Raiden because they find Cho Ren Sha 68K to chaotic to play. Trying to make the speed of the ship faster than Raiden and slower than Cho Ren Sha 68K can solve the issue pretty much, but that's still depending on the expectations of the actual player.

I prefer 4 and 6. 3 is okay too, but I'm too lazy.

As regards playability, I said 90% because there are other minor elements in the a game which also affect playability: difficulty, level design, weaponry... and even the color palette (the reason why the backgrounds in Cave games are slightly desaturated is that it let's you see the enemies and their bullets more easily. Otherwise, the game would be chaotic to play).

And als these factors changes the way you intertact with the game. So in fact 100% of the playability in a game lies in how you interact with the game, for whatever reasons. I know what you mean though, it's just the way you're saying it, make it sound strange.

[worstplayer]

7.) Analog controls. As long as it's optional of course.

[Ixmucane2]

I have absolutely no problem with Raiden III's ship speed, and I was genuinely surprised when I found out that others did.

The Raiden III craft is fast enough for the movements it has to do: dodging rather slow bullets and nailing rather slow enemies.
It is not fast enough to recover and kill every enemy after a mistake, or to move left and right randomly without consequences, or to avoid planning for the appropriate vertical position at the right time; but for me it is a good thing.

[Elaphe]

Maybe the word playability and its translation into my native language hasn't got exactly the same meaning, and actually not everyone in my country understand the same thing when talking about it.

Raiden III, for me, is too slow, but that doesn't mean the game has bad playabillity. It's just that it makes a different playability, not so based in reflexes. You have to think like in a more tactical game.

[spadgy]

I have absolutely no problem with Raiden III's ship speed, and I was genuinely surprised when I found out that others did.

Me too. I seem to feel more comfortable with speeds others deem slow or sluggish. Meanwhile Raiden Fighter's various ships scare the crap out of me.