First look ~Terra red~ (tenative)

A quick little look at my current project Terra red.

A top down shump, arrows to move, shift to shoot. This will be the first level, with level ups, and different maps. Then hopefully I'll add joypad later.

The story line is basically protect or take an area that is being terraformed on mars.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/666516/terrared.exe

Music is by Sum-1 album: Mechanical Monkeys, song: March of the sybots.

Not sure if I will keep it, but for ambiance its pretty darn good.

Im still getting one error I cant quite nail down. Im not sure if its a rotation thing, or custom movement behavior... probably a bit of both.

Suggestions, thoughts all welcome.

Thanks

newt

Looking good! Flying around feels pretty cool already, although it's a little hard (for me at least) to kill those enemies.

This could go very well with some bumpmaps and of course more variation to the terrain in general, not only texture-wise, but also regarding the z-distortion. There seem to be only flat ground and those steep hills that block you.

Good job on the collision detection too. You didn't tell me yet how you do it.

I'm planning some tryouts of my own on this subject soon.

Keep it up, I'm looking forward to some badass weapons. Sort of homing missiles, because my aim sucks!

Oh and I like the background story about terraforming....

Thanks!

I wanted to have the craters in it so I couldn't have negative z's, plus I was thinking of possibly adding ground units, and they would have to be on a flat surface. I have been toying with the possibility of having some negative z's along with some flat areas, and I could possible make some craters via heightmaps as you suggested, but getting the texture just right is a pain.

I like your ship designs. And the use of distort on the hills is pretty slick looking... but it's kind of hard to tell what you can and can't fly over untill you hit something. Perhaps some sort of visual marker on your hills, like a texture of a treeline, or snow, or something like that to indicate that that part of the hill is too high to fly over.

Also, I noticed in a couple spots that I hit the hill well before even reaching it:

<img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/11glnwy.png">

I run into it at the red line, like the collision is off or something.

I agree with PR that the enemies are too hard... I died on the first one the first time I played it because the combat was weird. I can't turn my craft fast unless I'm moving? It's not a car . So here I am, turning slowly in circles, and the enemy ship is quite literally flying rings around me blowing me to shreds because it's just out of reach of my bullets. And they have too much health, really... enemies in games are generally a lot weaker/slower/stupider than the player, so the player can slaughter dozens before being taken down, so it's kind of an odd sensation to die on the very first enemy you see.

I did manage to kill them all on my second try by flying away from them, turning around, and letting them run into my bullets as they chased after me, but it didn't feel all that satisfying, and it got kind of old after a bit because they had so much health that it felt more like a chore than a dogfight.

Also, the sound of the gun is really too harsh, especially when holding it down for rapid-fire. I found it to be a bit grating on my nerves.

The AI on the enemy ships isn't bad, but it is kind of odd to see them always pointing directly at the player, especially when the player crosses over them and they flip around suddenly.

I am interested in seeing more, though, so please don't take my criticism to hard! I only want to see you make the best game you can

super nice. keep it up.

Weird I only see gradient and hear some sounds nothing else! and well I can hear the music aswell

Weird I only see gradient and hear some sounds nothing else! and well I can hear the music aswell

I think the gradient is a intro sequence with the start up music.

After some time the gradient will fade away then you can see everthing.

Oh I try it again then

Works now

Sagal

Yeah thats just the intro, Ill put something there later, directions, etc.

deadeye

[quote:2oc3siub]but it's kind of hard to tell what you can and can't fly over untill you hit something. Perhaps some sort of visual marker on your hills, like a texture of a treeline, or snow, or something like that to indicate that that part of the hill is too high to fly over.

Its Mars... not much I can do texture wise, I might change the color filter a bit to compensate. The mini-map is there to help, kinda.

[quote:2oc3siub]I run into it at the red line, like the collision is off or something.

There's going to be a few places where its off, because of the way I'm generating the map. What I really need is something less than pixel perfect detection,..... some sort of semi transparent interpolation. I'll see if I cant adjust that a bit more for now.

[quote:2oc3siub]I agree with PR that the enemies are too hard

Yeah a little less hp, speed, fire rate, it's all adjustable. Those are basically set up like a mini boss tho.

[quote:2oc3siub]Also, the sound of the gun is really too harsh, especially when holding it down for rapid-fire. I found it to be a bit grating on my nerves.

Yeah, a little less volume then?

[quote:2oc3siub]The AI on the enemy ships isn't bad, but it is kind of odd to see them always pointing directly at the player, especially when the player crosses over them and they flip around suddenly.

It'll make more sense when I add some more particles for boosters on the sides. There's an issue with custom movement where you cant pick individual object multiples with the behavior expressions, IE get speed etc. Dunno I may have to loose the behavior and make my own events up.

Thanks for the input all, keep it coming.