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[punking]

I might be a good idea for the defense section to be easier for now so that more feedback can be gotten on the interface.  I placed all barracks and missiles adequately but failed the second wave due to clicking too early.

Hm, all right. The options I have are basically "decrease number of meteoroids" or "decrease meteoroid speed"; I'll think about which is more effective. Probably the latter, or a combination.

This is the sort of thing I have trouble judging, just because I've had too much experience with the game to see what's easy or hard for a new player.

The real problem was probably that they were exploding halfway to the target, I didn't have enough experience to know what they were supposed to do.

Starhaven 0.909 crashed when I said it could send crash reports. Now it crashes every time I refresh the page.

[ortoslon]

Starhaven 0.909 crashed when I said it could send crash reports. Now it crashes every time I refresh the page.

same here

[PleasingFungus]

I broke it because I'm an idiot. Managed to upload a debug version that 'crashed' on startup.

Should be working now.

[blundis]

I loved it! Novel idea and well executed. Didn't quite understand how to tell how many units a barrack would produce though. Also didn't care for the barracks or the "rocket-for-sending-home-minerals" sprites, but overall i actually quite liked the aesthetic.

Are you planning different kinds of minerals?

[PleasingFungus]

I loved it! Novel idea and well executed. Didn't quite understand how to tell how many units a barrack would produce though. Also didn't care for the barracks or the "rocket-for-sending-home-minerals" sprites, but overall i actually quite liked the aesthetic.

Are you planning different kinds of minerals?

Barracks produce 1 crew per 'block'; a 2x2 barracks (the small one) holds 4 crew, and the 3x2 barracks holds 6. The number of unemployed crew they have is displayed once they're powered.

I'm not very fond of the rocket sprites either.

Right now there are a few different 'densities' of mineral, represented by different colors - you can see them all in the first tutorial, actually. There are also different ways to mine minerals - drills, accumulators (in the Nebula), scoops (in the Sea)... the 'different densities' are actually a remnant of an earlier design in which there were five (!) different colors of minerals, all of which would vary in value based on a metagame "stock market" sort of element, but that went by the wayside when I redesigned the metagame into the much simpler "full game" campaign currently in the game.

Not really sure how 'different kinds of minerals' would fit into the game right now (what would they do differently from the current types?), but if you have any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them.

[tdierks]

When playing Full Game / Normal, I can't launch missiles. (Thus, my game comes to an end at the first meteorite storm). Launching missiles generally works correctly in Easy or Beginner, although I had them stop working mid-game on a Single Level Easy Medium Moon game. (It's also possible I misunderstand the rules: are there circumstances when crewed and powered missile defense stations cannot launch missiles? Do they get used up?)

Thanks.

[Hplus]

Yay a new PleasingFungus game! Love where this is going.

Some of the mechanics could be a little less opaque. For instance, when the meteorites were falling and I didn't have a missile tower that had line-of-sight on them, it just felt frustrating and confusing for a while. In fact, I felt pretty sure that I did have line-of-sight, once I figured out that that is what was going wrong. I might suggest drawing out the line-of-sight for your missile towers and indicating graphically or aurally that your buildings are in the way and so you are unable to fire. This would make it a lot clearer to the player what's going wrong.

Also, when I finished the first tutorial, I thought I'd finished all of them, so I tried playing the full game. This game is impossible to figure out on the fly. That's fine, but you should make it clearer that the player has not finished all of the tutorials until they have, and then strongly recommend that they DO play through the tutorials. Make the default menu starting point be in the tutorial selector until they've finished all of them, perhaps?

[PleasingFungus]

When playing Full Game / Normal, I can't launch missiles. (Thus, my game comes to an end at the first meteorite storm). Launching missiles generally works correctly in Easy or Beginner, although I had them stop working mid-game on a Single Level Easy Medium Moon game. (It's also possible I misunderstand the rules: are there circumstances when crewed and powered missile defense stations cannot launch missiles? Do they get used up?)

Thanks.

Shouldn't be anything different between the difficulties. You do have a limited number of missiles per wave (4 per gun; they're displayed visibly and used up as you fire). The sprite's not very good, though; I may want to rework it to be more visible.

If that's not the problem, PM me and I can try to sort it out.

Some of the mechanics could be a little less opaque. For instance, when the meteorites were falling and I didn't have a missile tower that had line-of-sight on them, it just felt frustrating and confusing for a while. In fact, I felt pretty sure that I did have line-of-sight, once I figured out that that is what was going wrong. I might suggest drawing out the line-of-sight for your missile towers and indicating graphically or aurally that your buildings are in the way and so you are unable to fire. This would make it a lot clearer to the player what's going wrong.

Sure. It did that in the past, but it seems to have gotten lost somewhere in recent changes. (Drawing out a truncated line-of-sight.) I'll have it in the next version.

Audio is slightly harder, but it's a reasonable idea. It was on my to-do list at some point, but was never a high priority and vanished at some point. I'll stick it back on and see where it goes.

Also, when I finished the first tutorial, I thought I'd finished all of them, so I tried playing the full game. This game is impossible to figure out on the fly. That's fine, but you should make it clearer that the player has not finished all of the tutorials until they have, and then strongly recommend that they DO play through the tutorials. Make the default menu starting point be in the tutorial selector until they've finished all of them, perhaps?

That's a bug. Sorry. It's been a nightmare weeding out all the tutorial-specific bugs... it's supposed to route you directly into the next tutorial after you finish the first one. That must have broken at some point. I'll have it fixed in the next version.

Very sorry for the confusion! I'm pretty embarrassed that one slipped through.

EDIT: found the bug, it's about a day old. You chose the exact wrong time to start playing!

EDIT 2: New version is up.

[Hplus]

The rotation in the space levels is hard to use. I wish pressing the rotation button just once would rotate 90 degrees, like with the rest of the pieces that you rotate. Losing just because you can't figure out how to rotate to the correct side before a meteor hits you is really frustrating.

[blundis]

Right now there are a few different 'densities' of mineral, represented by different colors - you can see them all in the first tutorial, actually. There are also different ways to mine minerals - drills, accumulators (in the Nebula), scoops (in the Sea)... the 'different densities' are actually a remnant of an earlier design in which there were five (!) different colors of minerals, all of which would vary in value based on a metagame "stock market" sort of element, but that went by the wayside when I redesigned the metagame into the much simpler "full game" campaign currently in the game.

Not really sure how 'different kinds of minerals' would fit into the game right now (what would they do differently from the current types?), but if you have any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them.

Ah, didn't realize there were different ways to mine. That's what i was looking for when i mentioned different minerals, more content. I'll have to play some more now!

[PleasingFungus]

The rotation in the space levels is hard to use. I wish pressing the rotation button just once would rotate 90 degrees, like with the rest of the pieces that you rotate. Losing just because you can't figure out how to rotate to the correct side before a meteor hits you is really frustrating.

It originally did that [instantly rotated 90 degrees], but there were issues with that approach, too - you can't rotate so that a piece you're dropping (or a meteor) is 'inside' the station, and it could be very hard to visualize why the station was refusing to rotate if all you had were 90 degree rotations. The point of the slow-rotation was to make it clear why the station couldn't rotate the way you wanted, in those cases, but you're not the only one it's confused... perhaps I could change it so that you tap to set a rotation direction, and the station continues in that direction until a 90-degree lock unless you reverse it? I'll have to experiment.


Quick poll of those who've played enough to beat one level outside the tutorial:

(1) Which control method are you using for controlling the targeting cursor?

(2) How many of you would miss the minimap if it was removed from the game?

[Hplus]

Quick poll of those who've played enough to beat one level outside the tutorial:

(1) Which control method are you using for controlling the targeting cursor?

(2) How many of you would miss the minimap if it was removed from the game?

1) Mouse.

2) Not I.


And I did eventually get more used to the way it rotates. I was originally expecting one button press to rotate 90 degrees, though, so it might be more intuitive to do it the way you are now describing.

[LiquidAsh]

Neat ideas, but I think the walls of text really need to be replaced with more interactive tutorials.

[PleasingFungus]

Neat ideas, but I think the walls of text really need to be replaced with more interactive tutorials.

More interactive than the tutorials that you play through in the current version?

EDIT: I realize that the walls of text are a problem, so I'm trying something new for the next version.

[PleasingFungus]

Updated with new tutorials and some other tweaks/fixes. (Rockets are a new color, and why didn't anyone tell me that music looping was broken?)

Let me know how they work for you.