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[mokesmoe]

Really? You already need to use the arrow keys and X. Do you expect us to click with our third hand? Most people don't have three hands you know! If you already have a two handed control scheme that doesn't use the mouse, why would you expect us to try the mouse! It is fun to be angry about stuff that isn't important!

[Ashkin]

Well, it's a bit of a cop-out, but you could have the "restart" button simply be a page refresh command, or the dreaded "GOTO 0" (nobody uses GOTO any more!).

A page refresh would be pretty awful if it's embedded in a page, and it just would break up the flow.
The lovely expartend on irc suggested something: Have a 'registry' object full of variables that you instantiate in the main state, then pass that instance on to every other object you instantiate in the state, so that they can all access those variables.

Really? You already need to use the arrow keys and X. Do you expect us to click with our third hand? Most people don't have three hands you know! If you already have a two handed control scheme that doesn't use the mouse, why would you expect us to try the mouse! It is fun to be angry about stuff that isn't important!

Yeah, that's because it's a bit of a temporary test. I'll switch it to WASD + Space for mining soon, but Flixel seems to have some kind of input bug that I still need to investigate :/

[baconman]

Really? You already need to use the arrow keys and X. Do you expect us to click with our third hand? Most people don't have three hands you know! If you already have a two handed control scheme that doesn't use the mouse, why would you expect us to try the mouse! It is fun to be angry about stuff that isn't important!

Oh, and my post on page 4 has been edited for relevant feedback.

[Ashkin]

I like where the momentum thing is going, keep the top speed where it is, but reduce the acceleration rate by about half. It is a little unwieldly how it is now. It may be a possible bug source, but digging to the left builds momentum like that, but digging to the right or vertically does not.

I also like the effect the bazooka has on some objects in the game. It may give you some negatory feedback, but I think you should keep that it, it'll make players think before they tank.

Is it just me, or has battery time been extended? (It could've been a successful item pick-up, too. It's kinda hard to see.) Either way, it certainly fits the frame of gameplay time better. And oh yeah, nice page layout improvement.

Aaargh, some people say to keep the current movement and some dislike it. I'll probably end up tweaking it quite  bit by the end. The digging bug I am aware of and I will fix it.

What do you mean by the effect it had on some objects? Which objects, what effect?

Battery time has not been changed. Either you got a pickup or your finger slipped and you pressed Z, which is an instant battery refill (don't tell anyone!)

Thanks for the feedback

[Ashkin]

Code:

<starsrift> include basketball in your mining gam
<Ashkin> YES
<Ashkin> VERY MUCH YES
<Ashkin> ALL THE MINERALS TURN INTO BASKETBALLS WHEN YOU MINE THEM
<Ashkin> AND THEN YOU HAVE TO DRIBBLE THEM INTO SPACE
<Ashkin> AND SLAMDUNK THEM
<Ashkin> INTO THE SPACE HOOP
<CSR> i've heard worse ideas
<CSR> i think.

Eh? EHHHH?
Also I'm still working on migrating stuff to a registry, and also finishing off the bazooka code.

[Ashkin]

Welp
This happened in Flixel's FlxSprite.as class
I have no idea how to fix something I did not write myself, so I can only assume something external is causing it. I haven't the slightest idea what could break it so hard though.

[Ashkin]

Variable migration is complete, demo updated.
I reworked the movement system: I like how it is now, it's got a nice amount of freedom and zip, yet control on the ground, and the kick from the bazooka still feels good.
New things:
*Pretty (more like pretty awful) explosions
*Smoke trails
*Internal work that will make things work better in the future (really!)
*Remapped movement to WASD, drilling to SPACE (temporarily)
*CLOUDS

In the future, I'll probably have movement controlled by WASD and all digging tools controlled by the mouse.
I'd love some feedback on the new movement.
Edit: Looking back I think I made the midair control EVEN MORE SLIPPERY AAAAAAGH
It's difficult to strike a balance between freedom of movement, precise control, and nice recoil.

[mokesmoe]

You should let down accelerate you downwards.

[droqen]

Can you increase air friction

or decrease air acceleration

please D:



( bazookas leave a lot more tiny islands which I am having a hell of a time landing on ;~; )

[Ashkin]

You should let down accelerate you downwards.

Maybe double-tap down = slam downwards (destroys one block beneath you too)

Can you increase air friction

or decrease air acceleration

please D:



( bazookas leave a lot more tiny islands which I am having a hell of a time landing on ;~; )

Yeah it's kind of ridiculous the slipperiness I have right now. I'll fix that soon.

[baconman]

You should let down accelerate you downwards.

This. Also, upping air friction a bit AND slowing acceleration - or at least not starting it for a full second or two would fix both of these precision problems. As for the Bazooka thing, I was referring to the fact that it destroys chests and gold, and not just the tiles. Makes it fairly effective for tearing through patches of dirt, but you still want to DIG around the good stuff.

[Ashkin]

You should let down accelerate you downwards.

This. Also, upping air friction a bit AND slowing acceleration - or at least not starting it for a full second or two would fix both of these precision problems. As for the Bazooka thing, I was referring to the fact that it destroys chests and gold, and not just the tiles. Makes it fairly effective for tearing through patches of dirt, but you still want to DIG around the good stuff.

It doesn't destroy chests as far as I know, you may have simply destroyed the tile below it and it fell. And for the gold, I'm not sure I'll keep it so the gold won't be collected. We'll see.
I'm trying to think of how to balance the weapons correctly- I want the bazooka and bombs and orbital drill to be desirable and worth using, but I'm not sure how to do it. Special blocks you can only dig through with powerful weapons? Almost-useless drill? More plentiful rockets/bombs/driller ammo?
I can't really work on this much right now because I've got exams coming up. Expect work to continue soon.

[Ashkin]

Code:

Ashkin: Let's think about Metroid for a second here.
Ashkin: Normal energy beam- it's infinite, and effective.
Ashkin: Missiles- limited.
Ashkin: They open blast doors and are good against enemies and are often the only way to take advantage of a weak point.
Ashkin: Which means I need specific obstacles that only the heavy weaponry can target.
Ashkin: Such as denser rock.
Ashkin: Missiles wouldn't be used as much if they simply did a little bit more damage to the enemy.
Ashkin: Metroid creates strategies to use the missiles.
Ashkin: Freeze beam, missile. Kills a metroid easily.
Ashkin: As opposed to just shooting it normally.
Ashkin: While time is a factor, because time in metroid = damage if you're firing constantly, there are other things.
Ashkin: Weaknesses and niches only specific things can fill.
Ashkin: And that's the point of creating a bigger arsenal.
Ashkin: Even weaponry in the modern world is designed to fill niches.
Ashkin: Infantry targeting, tanks, buildings...
Ashkin: Different strokes for different types.
Ashkin: And that's the only reason to add a new limited resource.
Ashkin: It needs something worth using it on.
Ashkin: Otherwise it's just not very exciting.
Ashkin: Think of this scenario.
Ashkin: During your descent into the caves, you see a dense rock wall with gold hidden behind it. You move onwards, unable to destroy it.
Ashkin: Later, you find ammo.
Ashkin: Instantly, you get excited- you can now access that gold.

Design philosophy on making limited resources worthwhile.

[baconman]

1. You need a block/rock tile that falls without support, like the rocks in DigDug, or some kind of 2x2 equivalent thereof. Perhaps ones you can't drill through, even.

2. You can increase the bazooka's digging potential by creating the explosion one more tile "forward" in the direction it travels; making the digging effect more focused that way.

3. While you may want some exploration, and righteously so; bear in mind that your game has a very arcadey time frame, whereas Metroid does not. Metroid, you can afford to backtrack in. This game, usually you're in and you're out; especially if you're motivating the players to resurface at the end.

You can also consider placing drill/battery upgrades throughout your map, and have progressively deeper soil be harder to take out, and thus require the upgrades or additional time to bust through. You can also make the material down there more valuable to incentivise the players, too.

[Ashkin]

1. You need a block/rock tile that falls without support, like the rocks in DigDug, or some kind of 2x2 equivalent thereof. Perhaps ones you can't drill through, even.

2. You can increase the bazooka's digging potential by creating the explosion one more tile "forward" in the direction it travels; making the digging effect more focused that way.

3. While you may want some exploration, and righteously so; bear in mind that your game has a very arcadey time frame, whereas Metroid does not. Metroid, you can afford to backtrack in. This game, usually you're in and you're out; especially if you're motivating the players to resurface at the end.

You can also consider placing drill/battery upgrades throughout your map, and have progressively deeper soil be harder to take out, and thus require the upgrades or additional time to bust through. You can also make the material down there more valuable to incentivise the players, too.

1. That is a good idea. Obstacles that make mindlessly mining are good things, and this would make people think twice before blasting the bazooka everywhere.
2. I tested something where the rocket doesn't explode for a fraction of a second after it hits the rock so that it bores through a little bit, I might put that back in.
3. You're right, it is more about an in-and-out trip.
4. The drill/battery upgrades are an interesting idea. Just randomly place battery upgrades that give you one extra battery and refill your energy completely- you could start with only three batteries and the first thing would be to make a desperate dash to find more.
5. If things deeper down are harder to break apart, it would make a good reason for drill upgrades. Maybe have about four levels of drill- Level one is the most basic rock and dirt, level two is slightly harder, level three is really deep, and level four digs through anything.
6. I did a test where the amount of gold that spawned was dependant on the y coordinate, so maybe I should put that back in. It does add more of a risk/reward element.

Thanks for the suggestions!
Also, I had some spare time last night so I worked on making explosions prettier. I also started making the tool swapping system. Q and E change your tool. I've got to add bombs and mouse-controlled drilling, as well as the orbital drill.
One thing I'm worried about, though, is the fact that there's not enough of a difference between the bomb and bazooka. I'm not sure how I can differentiate between them well- the only difference is that one is affected by gravity, so there's less freedom of where to blow up.

[baconman]

One thing I'm worried about, though, is the fact that there's not enough of a difference between the bomb and bazooka. I'm not sure how I can differentiate between them well- the only difference is that one is affected by gravity, so there's less freedom of where to blow up.

Don't even sweat that. It just means they're useful in different ways. For instance, when combating enemies, the bazooka is better against aerial foes and the bomb is better against ground-based ones; and they each help you dig different directions (like how the bomb can be thrown sideways and still help you dig down, around a corner).

And although I like the battery level-up idea, I do think it'd be best executed by starting the player with 4-5 still, and making them distinctively different than the treasure chests. The battery upgrades especially. Losing batteries is also a very simple punishment for taking damage from enemies, stray explosions, or environmental hazards.

You can also make the drill upgrades enable more momentum - for instance, grade 1's drill is manual tap-tap. The second adds autofire, the third lets you build momentum as you dig (until you change directions), and the fourth just stays active in whatever direction you're pressing in (full-on autofire); so even as a score-based game, you'd get the optimal results going for as many upgrades as you can, as quickly as you can.

[Ashkin]

One thing I'm worried about, though, is the fact that there's not enough of a difference between the bomb and bazooka. I'm not sure how I can differentiate between them well- the only difference is that one is affected by gravity, so there's less freedom of where to blow up.

Don't even sweat that. It just means they're useful in different ways. For instance, when combating enemies, the bazooka is better against aerial foes and the bomb is better against ground-based ones; and they each help you dig different directions (like how the bomb can be thrown sideways and still help you dig down, around a corner).

And although I like the battery level-up idea, I do think it'd be best executed by starting the player with 4-5 still, and making them distinctively different than the treasure chests. The battery upgrades especially. Losing batteries is also a very simple punishment for taking damage from enemies, stray explosions, or environmental hazards.

You can also make the drill upgrades enable more momentum - for instance, grade 1's drill is manual tap-tap. The second adds autofire, the third lets you build momentum as you dig (until you change directions), and the fourth just stays active in whatever direction you're pressing in (full-on autofire); so even as a score-based game, you'd get the optimal results going for as many upgrades as you can, as quickly as you can.

Yeah, you're right, the bomb/bazooka should be fine as is.
So, start with about five batteries, maximum 10 possible, then get batteries not out of chests but rarer things that also give you drill upgrades, etc.? Also, the 'batteries' would be max energy you could get while 'energy' would be the variable amount of power you have. Maybe with drill upgrades, more energy = faster drilling or something.
I'm still not entirely sure about how the drill will handle, but your suggestions are really great. Thanks for all your support baconman


I made a mockup of what the menu will probably be like. Basically the player is hurtling towards the planet and this debris is falling around them, spinning slowly in space as they go. Clicking on one takes you to a different menu- left to right is highscores/stats, play, options, and credits. It's not perfect (I'm not good at menu design), but I think it should suffice. I'll get started on actually programming it soon.

[BlueSweatshirt]

Why not make the bombs bounce off walls?

That'll make them distinctly different from the bazooka. If you've ever played TF2, think about the Demoman's grenade launcher, and how it compares to the Soldier's bazooka.

[Ashkin]

Why not make the bombs bounce off walls?

That'll make them distinctly different from the bazooka. If you've ever played TF2, think about the Demoman's grenade launcher, and how it compares to the Soldier's bazooka.

Hm, yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaking of bombs, they're working now. Recycled some bazooka code and they work fine. Gotta get this bouncing suggestion in and tweak them a little.

[Ashkin]

Throw some bombs around.
There's a bit of an annoying bug at the moment where sometimes when the bomb hits the floor it will bounce weirdly (i.e. the exact opposite direction you threw it) but I'll fix that later.
(Press Q & E to cycle through tools)
(First is drill, then bomb, then gun)
(Drill and bomb have no graphics for them right now)
Click to throw bomb, hold S and click to drop bomb.