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[princec]

Here's a clue as to the oddity:

You have played Droid Assault 0 times for 10 minutes

Strange hm? I'll PM you.

Cas

[Garthy]

Fun fun fun. Well worth the US$10 paid. Would have paid double that without hesitation, especially now that I know how good it is.

Wish I'd got in during the alpha, but I missed the announcement.

Some brief feedback:

- Are the "Q" and "E" keys mentioned anywhere? I stumbled onto them online, they aren't mentioned in the help.

- It doesn't seem to make sense that you can only line-of-sight transfer to your own droids, there is a delay to do so, yet you can swap instantly to any of them with the "Q" and "E" keys. Would you consider instant swap to your own droids with the right mouse?

- I don't enjoy the boss battles, especially level 30 and 40 (never reached 50, don't know what's there). Here's why: Boss appears, I desperately try to swap to a decent droid with enough health to have a hope, remaining droids charge in and get annihilated (sometimes all at once, sometimes over time), and then I need to fight the boss with one droid. After time I get reduced to zero health due to max health rotting, and then I have to take the boss down with zero hits, or it's game over. Having no room for error means you have to be so ultra-perfect that it actually isn't any fun. On the other hand, if my droids just backed away, I could attack the boss with one droid until it bit the dust, then the next one, then the next, so forth. The boss battles would change from an exercise in tedious perfection to a series of varying battles with changing parameters- I suspect this would be a lot more fun.

- Sometimes when I transfer away from a droid, I lose control of it (ie. it becomes hostile again). Is this a bug or a feature?

- Would you consider support for joystick control? WASD kills my fingers after a while.

- Orders for other droids would be great, but I can understand the desire to keep things simple. How about this then- a few simple order keys that modify the default behaviour of all droids that you are not directly controlling? Here's a few ideas:
    - Support: Head towards currently controlled droid, guns blazing. Would be nice when you want to call for assistance, rather than thinking "I could use some supporting fire right about now!" shortly before being blasted to pieces.
    - Flee: For when your droids are getting ripped apart by bosses and turrets you cannot take down. Gets them to run away from danger.
    - Stay: Tell your droids to remain fairly close to their current positions. Useful once you've secured an area, also would be nice if you want your droids to guard your back. You could effectively postion your droids with a combination of "Support" and "Stay".
    - Default (maybe "Patrol"?): Back to normal behaviour.
  Interface-wise, it's just a few keys like "Q" and "E" that you don't ever have to use if you don't want. Programmatically, we're talking one variable (the current global order), plus a stay position for "Stay". Coding the different behaviours would probably be the most time-consuming aspect. It would be fantastic to have even this basic level of extra control.

Some crazy ideas- if you're planning future updates, I hope they are of use, or lead to other good things.

Either way, thanks for the awesome game.

[princec]

I know what you're saying about the boss battles - and yes, it does generally seem as if your own droids don't stand a chance and just get killed. I should figure out some way of making them run away.

The maximum number of droids under your influence is 8 - if you attempt to transfer to another one, the droid you currently control simply reverts back to being an enemy!

I won't put instant transfer in on your own droids because there's potential for accidents - might shrink the time a bit more - but as it is it's less than half a second though.

Can't be putting droid orders in this game as it'd get too complicated... and besides I think I've got plans for another game with those sorts of things going on (A multiplayer squad based real time combat & RTS game)

Might put joystick control in too.

Cas

[Garthy]

> I know what you're saying about the boss battles - and yes, it does generally seem as if your own droids don't stand a chance and just get killed. I should figure out some way of making them run away.

I imagine if you drew a line from the droid to the boss, aligned that to the nearest X-Y axis angle-wise whilst holding the origin on the droid (drop the smallest absolute value of the vector's x and y to do this fast), tested the distance to the nearest wall along the three other axial directions (excluding the first one, which is eliminated), and chose the one with the longest distance until it hit a wall, and moved the droid in that direction until it either hit an object or a periodic check for that initial line matched the current direction (indicating we're heading towards the boss), plus an infrequent timeout that makes the droid re-eval anyway, then you'd have the basics for a possible tactic that might keep them alive longer.

I believe what I've described would favour the droid running away from the boss while there is space, and crossing across its path and/or strafing if they can't get far enough away. By keeping moving, there's less chance the boss shots will connect. Eliminating 180 degree turns (doubling back) in this algorithm might help too- that's generally a good way to catch unwanted bullets.

Just a random thought- you've probably got heaps of ideas already.

> The maximum number of droids under your influence is 8 - if you attempt to transfer to another one, the droid you currently control simply reverts back to being an enemy!

That's it! I couldn't think of a set of common circumstances. Not a pleasant surprise when you've got a good droid and you take over a weaker one for your reserves and try to swap back- nasty surprise! Anyway, I know what's happening now, I can keep an eye out for it. Note to self: Don't be greedy and collect too many droids.

> I won't put instant transfer in on your own droids because there's potential for accidents - might shrink the time a bit more - but as it is it's less than half a second though.

Ah I see, that makes sense. How about a double click? Middle click? Another keypress? Shift-right-click for transfer now?

And needing line-of-sight for own-droid transfers when using mouse, but not keyboard? Just feels a little wrong to me.

> Can't be putting droid orders in this game as it'd get too complicated... and besides I think I've got plans for another game with those sorts of things going on Smiley (A multiplayer squad based real time combat & RTS game)

Fair enough. Just wanted to share the idea, in case the suggestion I made simplified it enough to include.

> Might put joystick control in too.

That would be very groovy.

Thanks again for the fantastic game. I was playing it again this evening, and finally cracked level 40. I think it was more luck than skill.

[Lim-Dul]

> I won't put instant transfer in on your own droids because there's potential for accidents - might shrink the time a bit more - but as it is it's less than half a second though.

Ah I see, that makes sense. How about a double click? Middle click? Another keypress? Shift-right-click for transfer now?

And needing line-of-sight for own-droid transfers when using mouse, but not keyboard? Just feels a little wrong to me.

You can transfer with the scroll-wheel which works exactly like Q and E. :-D
Actually that's how I usually do it.

As to your suggestions with orders etc. - Cas already explained why he wouldn't put them in although I'm all for a droid AI that would run away from bosses. Anyway - I hope you realize that the "Brain" entry in the droid description isn't just flavor text? They really do behave differently with certain brain types.

Also, I'm currently working on a semi-official game guide with the help of Cas where I'll explain most gameplay-related mysteries - even the controls. =)

[Garthy]

> As to your suggestions with orders etc. - Cas already explained why he wouldn't put them in

Hence why I suggested a simple order system, rather than a complex one.

[princec]

It's probably not as simple as it sounds, commanding bots to do all sorts of things - especially when they've got different brains and they're offscreen most of the time minding their own business. And anyways... I want to save the mechanic for Multiple Injury.

Cas

[Lim-Dul]

Yeah well - and from certain *inside sources* (*wink* Cas ^^) I know that hacked droids get twice as much hitpoints as uncontrolled droids so they are at an advantage anyway - why would they have better "brains" that could follow precise orders as well? I think the only thing that might need implementing is the running away from bosses.

[Garthy]

> And anyways... I want to save the mechanic for Multiple Injury.

Ah, there we go then. I'll consider it a worthwhile mechanic, just one game too early.

I'm guessing "Multiple Injury" is the other game you were working for which Droid Assault was a brief diversion? Or am I possibly getting confused with something else?

[princec]

Nooo... Multiple Injury is our 3D multiplayer Soldat-meets-Starcraft-meets-Quakeworld online extravaganza. Sadly it's too big to write while we're totally broke so it remains perpetually on the backburner. Another 10 little games maybe and we'll have just enough income to do it. If I move to Thailand.

Cas

[Lim-Dul]

Another 10 little games maybe and we'll have just enough income to do it. If I move to Thailand.

Well - there are plenty of classic arcade games to remake and you know that you have at least ONE loyal customer. ;-)

Alternatively you may finally manage to get through to the Steam guys and e.g. a Ultratron/Titan Attacks/Droid Assault pack will sell like hot cakes and become the next Audiosurf - who knows.

I mean - look at the crap they're accepting now. OK, Virtual Villagers aren't bad but the fact that they don't jump all over your retro remakes just makes baby Jesus cry. ;-)

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=posts&id=1577

[princec]

I think Jesus must hate me.

Cas

[Garthy]

> Nooo... Multiple Injury is our 3D multiplayer Soldat-meets-Starcraft-meets-Quakeworld online extravaganza. Sadly it's too big to write while we're totally broke so it remains perpetually on the backburner. Another 10 little games maybe and we'll have just enough income to do it. If I move to Thailand.

Ah, I see. Sadly, money doesn't always chase merit, or you'd already have the funds. I hope your sales are strong enough so that you can get a crack at your dream game in the future.

Not sure what the Droid Assault sales are like, and probably too early to tell anyway, but if they're good enough, maybe you should be milking us for extra cash in the future with a Droid Assault addon pack? Personally, I'd drop another tenner even if the pack just had a bunch of extra droids, and I can't be the only one. It'd be a lot less work than a full new game too.

Best of luck with everything. If you've got an announcement list for your next game, please feel free to add me to it. My email is the one in your sales data that goes to entropicsoftware.com.

[princec]

Made about 100 sales so far, pretty mediocre I suppose, but currently not sure how many people are being affected by bugs. According to my logs we've had about 3000 downloads. Not enough money to live on let alone profit to make some super bad-ass game but it's as start.

You're already on the mailing list if you bought a game

Cas

[moi]

Well, apart from two indie game websites I didn't hear much about the game anywhere else . If you could make more promotion through other channels you could probably make much more sales.

[Lim-Dul]

If you could make more promotion through other channels you could probably make much more sales.

I think Cas IS trying to get all the promotion he can muster but that usually costs money, which, as he mentioned, Puppygames doesn't have and/or requires some goodwill on the promoting party's side, like some guys from Valve not ignoring your mails (unfunny insider joke).

E.g. all I could do on my part was submitting a post to the official blog of the magazines I'm writing for because my editors in chief are not too keen on indie games, which is understandable, since printed media have to cope with limited space...

[moi]

Yeah it's a shame.