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[Scut Fabulous]

Very simple, easy to remember. 
Considering the number of people out there with colour blindness, try checking your screens in greyscale to see if the values of each colour are easy to tell apart.  You could also make the outlines of each colour textured with hash patterns or something so that they have a further visual distinction.

(I know that isn't the sort of thing you are primarily concerned with right now, it just springs to mind whenever I see 'traffic light' colour schemes used    )

[happymonster]

Yes, the brightness values will be different so the colours can be recognisable for people with colour blindness.

[happymonster]

I've been working on letting you pick the direction you want to turn in at the end of a movement path (or if you just want to turn without moving to a new location). I'm trying the approach of splitting the grid tiles up into a grid of 3 x 3 squares. This will not be shown visually, but think of the grid of tic-tac-toe squares.

The middle square will not lead to a change of direction, but all the other 8 will lead to that direction being selected to turn if you click in there. This is highlighted by the arrow for that direction brightening in colour.

A little hard to explain, but seems to work ok so far. If it works out ok it will make moving and turning a one-click / one-button process. The biggest problems is trying to make the highlighted direction for where your mouse is more obvious and the smaller area for clicking on can make things slightly fiddly, but I think it could work! Now to actually add in the turning though so I can test it out properly!

[happymonster]

I've now implemented turning at the end of a move path and added a directional arrow to make it easier to see. This works well, I just need to add in turning in the same square as well so that you can look in different directions without moving to a new map square.



 

[Manuel Magalhães]

This is looking pretty cute and interesting. I'm looking forward to play it. (and its eventual demo if any)

[eigenbom]

looking good dude

[happymonster]

Musings

I've now implemented the turning on the same square functionality. Also fixed a few bugs I found with other parts of the game..

Although it's tempting to rush into more exciting things like opportunity fire and other game related processes, in this case I am resisting this urge. The reasoning for this is that the more low level work I have done on the interface (with regards to making it easier to turn and adding visual indicators), is greatly improving the feel of the game.

I could leave some of this work till later, but if I played the game I would have a nagging sense of the clunkiness of the interface (and hence the gameplay). And I think this would negatively affect how I viewed the overall game - regardless of the quality of the game itself. There are always things we don't see when we are writing a game, that other people point out and that improves the game. But if we see something ourselves that would improve the higher levels of the game, then I'm keen on fixing them first to improve the feel and experience of the whole game.

[happymonster]

My poor devlog keeps sinking down the forum.

Well, not much time at the moment - I'm getting married in 4 weeks so pretty busy!

 

[Scut Fabulous]

We are all awaiting the playable demo of Spacehero Command... when it's ready.

Congrats on getting hitched!   

[AaronLee]

Indeed, cheers!

Loving the graphics, saw your screenshot in the Screenshot Saturday thread.

[eigenbom]

Getting married? Very big congrats dude. Speaking from my own experience, I hope their wasn't a Bridezilla involved... 

[Belimoth]

Just played Laser Squad out of curiosity.

It was hard and I killed my own dudes.

Now that I have context to understand the videos I believe this will be fun.

As an alternative suggestion, you could give radically different effects for different shot types.  For instance a snap shot could provide a free move, simulating a unit hustling from cover to cover.  An auto shot could have a low chance of actual damage, but suppresses a target making it easier for other units to outflank it or attack it.

I like this idea. Suppression could sap an opponent's AP?

I imagine a scenario where one human flanks and suppresses an alien that is covering a door. The doorway is now free to move through, as the alien does not have enough AP for an attack of opportunity.

Alternatively, some guns could just have a suppressive effect whenever they are shot. Robots could be immune to suppression.

I am new to these kind of games so do not value my opinion.

[Franklins Ghost]

Congrats on the marriage Hopefully it won't be a final crazy 4 weeks. Have my own in 6 months so understand the stress of planning a wedding.

Any plans on making a new video?

[happymonster]

Thanks guys!

My plan is for a technical preview (i.e. may not have much gameplay!) before the wedding. 

[Birdorf]

I've not logged in for a while, game's looking great, hope your big day goes well.