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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingCounter Spell - RPG Shooter
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Quicksand-S
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« Reply #20 on: September 14, 2014, 06:10:04 PM »

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Good find with the healing turret.  I don't think I've used it in co-op yet so I haven't seen that behavior.

Credit for that goes to fellow TIGSource forum-goer, Vallar.

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Press Z to open up your character sheet.  (Same place you spend your stat points)  This is where all your currently equipped items are shown.  You need the mail skill (it's a blue spell) to equip mail items.  I'll add a note to the tooltip that says "Mail Required."

Ah. That would be useful. I haven't even used any stat points yet and I'm on mission 6.



Edit: I played a bit more with my friend hosting instead. He had talked about getting error messages in the chat, but I hadn't seen any. With him hosting, I did. I saw a few about not being able to find item IDs, and one that was something like "locked unlocked" and a bunch of other words, I think, like it was listing potential statuses of something.

He also saw a spawn point error, where it couldn't find a place to spawn a player.

Survival mode was the least intense survival mode I've ever played. I didn't enjoy it much at all. I seemed to be able to die a ton, which meant there was no risk. I could respawn without needing my friend to help me up, which meant we didn't have to work together, and there was never any rush. There were a lot of lulls because sometimes there was just one enemy left to find somewhere. I feel like the portals should just open up on a timer so you have to be fast.

Rescue mode was pretty decent, but not particularly challenging. I still enjoy the campaign most, by far.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2014, 07:04:38 PM by Quicksand-S » Logged

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« Reply #21 on: September 14, 2014, 07:07:21 PM »

Alright so I tried the game again in co-op mode with Quicksand-S. I have to admit, while playing I had the intention of breaking the game -- wasn't successful much though Tongue.

A few things I noticed is that there are a few errors that seem to pop for me every now and then. For example sometimes when I spawn in the host's world I see "SpawnNPC() 366 = null" or something to that effect. The text scrolls fast that I can't see or keep a log of it.

Another time when trying to pickup an item it would say something like the game couldn't find the item to generate in my inventory or some sort.

When in survival mode and only 1 team is selected it seems the guest player can damage the host but vice versa won't work. Multiple times I see "Mage killed you with a head shot" and the guest is named Mage (although in chat he is named Player1).

You can't change the locations of items in the inventory. Drag and drop doesn't work at all.

The Survival mode is nice. But the waves you "survived" doesn't quite count when you can respawn? It felt like playing against endless waves and you can just respawn.

Oh and I was able to alt+tab out and back in game in both multiplayer and singleplayer with no lags/freezes or anything.

All in all though it was quite fun playing co-op as the single player and I can see the appeal that this game can have Smiley
Good luck and good work.
 

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« Reply #22 on: September 15, 2014, 12:41:24 PM »

I just put v0.6.7 up on the website:

www.abnormalsoftware.com/cs

Lots of updates in this version.  Going to start keeping better track of the changes I make so I can post them here.  Also should help with troubleshooting if I have any other serious issues pop up.

-Unified spell skill points into one type and implemented a very basic preliminary spell skill tree
-Fixed XNA MediaPlayer bug with Alt+Tab focus loss lockup
-Fixed bug with Rejuvenate showing particles remotely after casting was complete
-Fixed bug where Rejuvenate couldn't be cast on allies
-Increased Rescue game type default enemies to 20 and increased hostages to 3
-Made Survival game type co-op only with respawns disabled and ally Revive option
-Survival mode now spawns one portal every 60 seconds for 10 waves
-Fixed bug where items couldn't be moved around in inventory
-Made Healing Sentinel stop trying to heal ally that is out of sight
-Added item tooltip messages for Mail and Plate skill requirements
-Lowered the health of "Monoculus" and decreased the strength of resistances
-Improved tooltips for Fireball and Flame Strike
-Fixed bug where casting sound would continue after interrupting spell cast
-Added line of sight check to trap detonation by fire
-Auto save now overwrites your existing save instead of creating a new file
-Consolidated and improved match complete messages and functionality
-Added requirement to discover portal to quest "Disturbance" (#3)
-Cut, Copy, & Paste should now work in text boxes (Ctrl+X,C,V)

This should clear up many of the networking messages you see.  If you continue to see them pop up, please let me know.  Skill tree is still preliminary and probably not restrictive enough.

Once doors are open they no longer do any collision detection.  I'll probably look into having them affect line of sight for enemies when they're open.

Hopefully I'll be able to focus on improving the quests more now.
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« Reply #23 on: September 16, 2014, 12:30:42 AM »

I haven't tried co-op with the new version yet, but alt-tab seems to work fine now, which I am very happy about.

Anyway, I've got some more thoughts (Hopefully I'm not getting annoying yet).

-I really, really want to get rid of that "Press P to select Spells" text. I know the keys by now.

-The game didn't seem to save my "Look Sensitivity" choice, but maybe I'm getting it mixed up with my settings from 0.6.6.

-Volume sliders would be great.

-I gave Defense a brief try and was surprised that the spawns were random. I got an elemental while the enemy got a skeleton. That seems pretty uneven and could completely change the course of a match. It might be a good idea to give each side the same "army" and have the winner be the one that works with their army the best.

-One thing I would love is a "destroy" option in my inventory. If I throw something away to clear out my inventory, I often end up automatically picking it up again shortly after that.

-I've played all this time and I still have no idea what the rounded rectangle at the bottom left of my HUD is.

As far as quests, I'd really like to see some really vertical ones and more roof jumping. Jumping in/out windows is fun too, and I loved that the balcony in level 5 (I think) was actually reachable from the nearby hill if you jumped perfectly.

...I enabled build/debug mode or something while I was typing here. Facepalm That's a bit weird. It was easy enough to get back to normal, but it's still strange that it happened.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2014, 12:45:34 AM by Quicksand-S » Logged

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« Reply #24 on: September 16, 2014, 06:43:52 AM »

Anyway, I've got some more thoughts (Hopefully I'm not getting annoying yet).

Nope, I really appreciate the feedback.  Keep it coming!  Smiley

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-I really, really want to get rid of that "Press P to select Spells" text. I know the keys by now.

I added an option to turn off the tutorial messages.

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-The game didn't seem to save my "Look Sensitivity" choice, but maybe I'm getting it mixed up with my settings from 0.6.6.

Seems to be working on my end.  I also added a Vertical Look Sensitivity option that overrides the Look Sensitivity option if it's greater than zero.  Currently it's only accessible in the XML settings file.

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-Volume sliders would be great.

I added volume controls to the option menu.

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-I gave Defense a brief try and was surprised that the spawns were random. I got an elemental while the enemy got a skeleton. That seems pretty uneven and could completely change the course of a match. It might be a good idea to give each side the same "army" and have the winner be the one that works with their army the best.

That's a good idea, I'll see if I can get the spawn lists to synchronize.  I'll probably make it so it's just not random.

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-One thing I would love is a "destroy" option in my inventory. If I throw something away to clear out my inventory, I often end up automatically picking it up again shortly after that.

I made it so if you hold down Alt and Shift and Right-click on an item in your inventory, it is destroyed.

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-I've played all this time and I still have no idea what the rounded rectangle at the bottom left of my HUD is.

Hehe, that's your light gem/meter.  The brighter it is, the more lit you are and the easier it is for enemies to detect you.  If it's black, they can't see you.  Yellow is pretty high detection, and white is sticking out like a sore thumb.

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As far as quests, I'd really like to see some really vertical ones and more roof jumping. Jumping in/out windows is fun too, and I loved that the balcony in level 5 (I think) was actually reachable from the nearby hill if you jumped perfectly.

The next level I have in mind will be a very vertical level with lots of platforms, balconies, and roof rafters.  I'm always tempted to make levels more single player focused, but I like how things are open and there are lots of different approaches to each level.  I really like making levels, but they probably take the most time of anything.  I have a lot of ideas for new enemies as well.
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« Reply #25 on: September 16, 2014, 08:55:48 AM »

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I made it so if you hold down Alt and Shift and Right-click on an item in your inventory, it is destroyed.

I'm personally not a fan of using Alt in non-DOS games, but it'll be very nice to have that feature. One other thing that might possibly be a good idea would be to not automatically pick up armor that's worse than what I'm wearing (unless you make things break really quickly in the future, I guess).

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Hehe, that's your light gem/meter.

Ah. It's so out of the way that I never looked at it while I was actually playing. I don't think I've seen an area that was really dark yet, so it's surprising that shadows actually do something. If stealth is a viable option in these levels that would be pretty cool. In that case, though, maybe enemies need more AI states (ex. suspicious or searching for you) and "barks" to let you know what state they're in. I think the main issue for stealth, though, is that the enemies and their silent movement will always be more stealthy than the player, so as you sneak around you're likely to be attacked from behind or above.

Crouching doesn't seem to affect the light gem at all, even if I'm crouching in the shadow behind a crate.

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The next level I have in mind will be a very vertical level with lots of platforms, balconies, and roof rafters.  I'm always tempted to make levels more single player focused, but I like how things are open and there are lots of different approaches to each level.  I really like making levels, but they probably take the most time of anything.  I have a lot of ideas for new enemies as well.

Sounds great. You know what would really be nice for levels like that? The ability to mantel up ledges like in the old Thief games. For stealth, a lean option would probably be nice for looking around corners without being spotted so easily.


Edit:

I encountered a bug in "Free Shipping" where if you climb the first ladder up to the tower/crane thing, you start to clip through the ladder as if your character is trying to wrap around the pillar.

In addition, there was an item floating in mid-air just north of that tower/crane.

There was also a book at the top that I couldn't pick up even though I emptied my inventory. Would that be because I already know the spell associated with it? A message saying why I can't pick it up would be nice.

In the next level, I stood in the dark area on the right side of the beach and my light gem was yellow. It was much darker than most areas I've seen in previous levels, so it seemed strange that I wasn't hidden well at all.

When I opened the door to the shop in Storming the Beaches, both the guard and shopkeeper ran out of the building to fight goblins. I thought I'd help out but the guard got in the way of one shot. I think it would be nice if in a situation where he's already in combat, it was a little harder to aggro a friendly NPC.

If I press Z or I on the level-select screen, the window pops up for an instant.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2014, 12:33:37 PM by Quicksand-S » Logged

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« Reply #26 on: September 18, 2014, 07:13:12 AM »

I just updated the website with v0.6.8:

www.abnormalsoftware.com/cs

-Added music and sound effects volume sliders
-Added Tutorial Messages option
-Fixed bug where Respecing gave you too many skill points
-Fixed bug where opening a chest in a network game could cause a crash
-Added PreferMultiSampling option to settings XML file
-Added VerticalLookSensitivity option to settings XML file (overrides LookSensitivity of y-axis if greater than zero)
-Holding the Delete key and Right-Clicking on an item in your inventory will instantly destroy it
-Increased respawn time if items in multiplayer from 30 seconds to 45 seconds
-Disabled various character menus when in Lobby
-Made townsfolk friendly when all players are on the same team (or just one player)
-Guards will not chase hostile mobs past a certain distance
-Added Station map
-Added quests for Station and Temple maps
-Zooming in with the scope now increases your Arcane Bolt's velocity
-Running or jumping will now cancel the scope (You can still walk with it)
-Dying from an NPC in Deathmatch will now cause you to lose a point
-Upgraded the uncrouch collision detection algorithm

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I'm personally not a fan of using Alt in non-DOS games, but it'll be very nice to have that feature.

I went ahead and changed it to hold down Delete and Right-click, which I think serves the purpose pretty well.

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Crouching doesn't seem to affect the light gem at all, even if I'm crouching in the shadow behind a crate.

It doesn't make your light gem dim down, although I may change that in the future.  At the moment it only helps with line of sight.

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The ability to mantel up ledges like in the old Thief games. For stealth, a lean option would probably be nice for looking around corners without being spotted so easily.

Yeah, a grab the ledge option would be cool.  I'd also like to do a lean, but I would need to come up with a good keyboard shortcut since things are already pretty crowded.

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I encountered a bug in "Free Shipping" where if you climb the first ladder up to the tower/crane thing, you start to clip through the ladder as if your character is trying to wrap around the pillar.

Yeah that's a known issue with ladders as they don't do any collision detection, they just create a vertical volume where you are not affected by gravity.  I'll look into making them do collision as a plane.

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There was also a book at the top that I couldn't pick up even though I emptied my inventory. Would that be because I already know the spell associated with it? A message saying why I can't pick it up would be nice.

That's one of the relics, the Tome of Wisdom.  You can't pick it up if you already have one in your inventory.  I'll try to add some tutorial messages that let you know when you are already carrying too many of a given item.

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When I opened the door to the shop in Storming the Beaches, both the guard and shopkeeper ran out of the building to fight goblins. I thought I'd help out but the guard got in the way of one shot. I think it would be nice if in a situation where he's already in combat, it was a little harder to aggro a friendly NPC.

I put the guards on a leash when chasing enemy NPCs.  I also made it so they are friendly instead of neutral in single player and co-op matches.

Thanks again for all the good feedback!
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« Reply #27 on: September 27, 2014, 06:10:41 PM »

Fun stuff Toast Left! I like the smooth and responsive action and controls. The gameplay along with the visuals have a very retro feel to them (in a good way). The graphics have a simple and colorful charm to them, although I think the water's surface could be improved a bit (maybe a simple cubemap reflection?). I thought interiors looked the best. Opening doors and treasure chests felt satisfying and cool. Would like to ultimately see some improved character models and animations, but I kind of enjoy the primitive look of them at the same time. Particle effects are a mixed bag. The fire and most of the spell effects look great, but I think the water spraying out of the fountain needs work.

The sound effects definitely need work as a whole. Great music though.

I like what you got here. Looking forward to future iterations!
Have you thought about adding double-jump as a special ability/spell? Smiley
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« Reply #28 on: October 01, 2014, 06:22:45 AM »

Fun stuff Toast Left! I like the smooth and responsive action and controls. The gameplay along with the visuals have a very retro feel to them (in a good way). The graphics have a simple and colorful charm to them, although I think the water's surface could be improved a bit (maybe a simple cubemap reflection?). I thought interiors looked the best. Opening doors and treasure chests felt satisfying and cool. Would like to ultimately see some improved character models and animations, but I kind of enjoy the primitive look of them at the same time. Particle effects are a mixed bag. The fire and most of the spell effects look great, but I think the water spraying out of the fountain needs work.

The sound effects definitely need work as a whole. Great music though.

I like what you got here. Looking forward to future iterations!
Have you thought about adding double-jump as a special ability/spell? Smiley

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Sound effects do need a lot of work still.  That's one area that I've found particularly challenging--finding something that sounds good and doesn't quickly get annoying.

Good point about the fountain, that one hasn't been updated in a while.

I'm thinking about making it so you can climb up ledges that your hands can reach.  I'd also like to add a spell that has a similar effect of the "Rope Arrow" from the Thief games.  I just want to make sure I don't ruin the "flow" of the levels for multiplayer.
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« Reply #29 on: October 07, 2014, 06:42:07 AM »

Just updated the website with v0.6.10:

www.abnormalsoftware.com/cs

-Made it so you can cast spells and use items while the game is paused again
-Added ambient sounds to elementals
-Improved player running and crouch animations
-Added optional usable world item tooltips
-Various quest improvements including unique keys and portals on some quests
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« Reply #30 on: November 13, 2014, 06:31:06 AM »

Just updated the website with v0.6.11:

www.abnormalsoftware.com/cs

-Reintroduced the class system
-Added "Adventure" game type which is a co-op dungeon clearing match
-Added "Dungeon" procedurally generated map type
-Added Automap feature
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« Reply #31 on: February 12, 2015, 08:36:33 AM »

Counter Spell v0.7.5 is now available on the website:

www.abnormalsoftware.com/cs

-Open, streaming world
-Day/Night cycles
-Quests now started in game
-Many new items including Torches
-Improved spell targeting
-Revive bug fixes

Thanks for checking it out and any feedback you can provide!
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« Reply #32 on: February 12, 2015, 01:51:01 PM »

Wow. I really didn't expect that, but I guess open-world games are a big thing these days. To be honest, I liked the more focused, level-by-level approach. There was a nice sense of progression and having things be self-contained made it easier to look past things like strange map borders.

The sense of progression will, I think, be the big issue with this setup. What are your plans for that?

Anyway, I want to be clear that I think this is still pretty cool. It looks great. I really like how things fit together and look forward to seeing the ocean at some point. I think the only transition area that looks slightly weird is the very large ramp at the end of the Alley area. It may just be because you can't see anything at the top from down below. Maybe a less steep ramp? Taller walls at the sides? I don't know. Street lights or something could make it look less like the edge of the world.

Enemies seemed easier to fight than I remember, and with the option to respawn and go collect any experience that was dropped before I died, you may be able to bump up the difficulty a bit now.

One thing I'm surprised I never mentioned is that chests could really use some sound effects. If I pick up gold, for example, it should be apparent without me necessarily needing to look at the tiny text on the left.

Likely Bug: In the "Estate" area, I was near the back wall and started getting shot by someone I couldn't see. Then a goblin mage came out of the building, so it seems like I was shot through the wall (I was actually taken down to 4hp before he came out of the building).

I think it would be nice if respawning wasn't tied to quests. When I see an open world, I find that I just want to explore, not work on it area-by-area. If you do keep it tied to quests, though, then I'd strongly recommend making the quest markers the spawn points. When I start a quest, I think of where I'm going to go from that point. If I die and respawn somewhere else, it throws off my sense of where I am and where I'm supposed to be. I imagine it'd be worse for people who haven't played before.

In quests where I'm supposed to clear enemies, it might make sense to have a "You're leaving the mission area" sort of message.

Any chance you'll have multiple quests in each area?

Day\Night cycles look good. It would be nice to be able to look up at night and see stars sometimes. Do you plan on putting dynamic weather into the open-world version? I enjoyed playing with weather in the old version.
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« Reply #33 on: February 12, 2015, 06:54:26 PM »

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The sense of progression will, I think, be the big issue with this setup. What are your plans for that?

I have to admit, I was hesitant to make the transition to open world at first, but I really like how it turned out.  The old levels feel kind of claustrophobic to me now.  It also helped solve the problem of the map borders just ending.

I plan on having "breadcrumb" quests that will help guide the player from zone to zone.  Also each zone has an enemy level range that will help buffer players from areas they aren't supposed to go to yet.  Finally, every game mode except Quest mode allows you to lock players to a specific zone, although this is intended to be used primarily for PvP.  Also, two of the zones still exist independently, Beach and Station.

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I think the only transition area that looks slightly weird is the very large ramp at the end of the Alley area.

Yeah, I'm not really happy with that area either.  I think I'll focus on smoothing out that transition.

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Enemies seemed easier to fight than I remember, and with the option to respawn and go collect any experience that was dropped before I died, you may be able to bump up the difficulty a bit now.

I did just recently reduce the damage of enemies.  I may look at bumping it up a little.

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One thing I'm surprised I never mentioned is that chests could really use some sound effects. If I pick up gold, for example, it should be apparent without me necessarily needing to look at the tiny text on the left.

There is a creak/click noise when you open a chest, and a change rattling noise when you pick up gold.  Are you not hearing these, or are you looking for something more?

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I think it would be nice if respawning wasn't tied to quests. When I see an open world, I find that I just want to explore, not work on it area-by-area.

You should respawn at or near the quest start when on a quest.  The only exception to this I can think of is the Shipyard zone where the quest gem is at a different location than the standard spawn location.  I'll work on the respawning to make it feel more natural.

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In quests where I'm supposed to clear enemies, it might make sense to have a "You're leaving the mission area" sort of message.

Good idea, I'll add a message if you leave the active quest zone.  I think I'll also highlight the quest zone on the minimap.

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Any chance you'll have multiple quests in each area?

Yes, that is planned.  There are already three quests in the Canals zone where you start.  They should all be started from the same quest gem, one after the other.  Maybe I'll make it automatically opens up the panel with next quest after you complete the previous one.

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Do you plan on putting dynamic weather into the open-world version?

Yes, I plan on reintroducing dynamic weather at some point.  I'd like to make it so storms move across the map.

Thanks again for checking the game out!
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« Reply #34 on: February 12, 2015, 08:30:39 PM »

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Also each zone has an enemy level range that will help buffer players from areas they aren't supposed to go to yet.

I spent most of my time just exploring, so when I got a message that the enemies I was fighting didn't count because they were the wrong level, I found that a bit weird. The main reason is that I have no way of knowing what level an enemy is, but also that no zone feels like it's clearly a "high level" zone or a "low level" zone (although, as a person who loved the early Gothic games, I'm a big fan of some areas being harder than others).

I think another thing that feels "off" about this structure right now is that you can only do one area's quests at any given time (or is there a quest log where I can switch between them?). When I play open-world games, I generally have a whole bunch of missions at once and complete them whenever I feel like it. I realize this world is a little more compact, but that play-style is what seems to come naturally to me when I'm given these sorts of options.

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There is a creak/click noise when you open a chest, and a change rattling noise when you pick up gold.  Are you not hearing these, or are you looking for something more?

I turned up the volume a bit to double-check. I hear the click clearly, but nothing else.
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« Reply #35 on: May 28, 2015, 07:02:08 AM »

If anyone is interested in playtesting the Steam Early Access version, please PM my TIGSource account and I should be able to get you a Steam key.  Smiley
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