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TIGSource ForumsCommunityJams & EventsCompetitionsOld CompetitionsCockpit CompetitionvectorLocust :: FIN ! [ ver. 80 post-compo update ]
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Author Topic: vectorLocust :: FIN ! [ ver. 80 post-compo update ]  (Read 60404 times)
kattle87
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« Reply #60 on: March 31, 2009, 03:20:00 AM »

Now that the deadline was extended 1 week, will we get more videos/demos?  Well, hello there!
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jph wacheski
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« Reply #61 on: April 01, 2009, 12:58:20 PM »

probably have another demo soonish,. (gota go get some food)  I finnaly got the radar to work,. (well it just shows where the locusts land when they jump,. as it's technology is based on picking up the vibrations of them hiting the ground,. so not really a 'radar' just a cockpit visual aid.) thanks for the help with that kattle87, yes it is the small bugs that are the hardest to find,. esp. when they are that stupid!  I been working on some sounds and balancing,. and tweeking the graphics a bit,. 
 I think there will be just one sorta random level,. with a decent size fight to win,. the design is such that the game evolves quite differently each time you play,. so I think it will have some replay value,.  or perhaps I will have time to do a small set of levels with a bit of progression,. still just want to get it more finalised and then see what to do with it,. . with some new music samples added today the size in now up to 91KB I am aiming to keep in under 128KB for this compo.  oh, I also added a school(?) of flying jellyfish type creatures,. just as a background thing, well overhead background thing,. lol ( ode to cly5m! )  they where going to be birds of some type but somehow morphed into these jellyfish while i was creating them,. but that tyes in with the Locust things any how,.
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jph wacheski
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« Reply #62 on: April 05, 2009, 07:48:00 AM »

Ok this is the 'finnal' entry,. baring any bugs, or other issues I could fix before midnight!

   http://iterationgames.com/vectorLocust_079.zip

REMEMBER; the program needs to read the settings file so extract them both!  Other wise, you get crap values to start,. guess I could fix that,. but man there is always something eh,. .  never enouph time/energy.

 I was able to get a lot of what I had originally intended into this.  I think it got to the level of 'fairly awesome' although I could just keep working on it forever I suppose, and perhaps reach the 'super awesome' level. 
 The main thing missing in my opinion is a set of progressively larger levels,. there is currently one medium size battle,. and it is rather dependent on some randomly emergent behaviours as well as your actions as to just how complex and difficult (or dead easy) this skermish becomes,. so you ARE intended to play it a couple of times,. and try some different things, to see what situations you find emerging from the self replicating machine system,. .   there are no winning conditions just the end of the Orange Vector invasion,. (guess that is yet another thing to be added,. again perhaps at a later date) so if you find no more targets you win! 
 The controler default is set for my preferance; left-handed on a 360 controler,. if anyone has a widely used controler and could post there settings file for other to use./ feel free. the game needs 3 axis and at least four buttons, so any controler with those can be mapped.  The settings file is set to Keyboard/Mouse by defult as it seems that is what most people are using.
 oh,. the iteration GAMES logo will play that little random noise/visual endlessly if you don't press SPACE Wink
also if you are on a older machine, you can press the F key to get the FPS display,. not sure where it becomes unplayable,. but I would think you need to be getting >50 to have much fun with this,. 60 is the desired FPS rate.
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kattle87
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« Reply #63 on: April 06, 2009, 12:40:18 PM »

Hello guys! Here's a video for you!
Since I helped JPH a little during the production, now I feel like helping him with videos, too Tongue



Too bad it's a not-so-beautifull quality... Youtube does automatically resize it to 640x480 unless you upload them in Hi-Def. I suppose next time I will get a Hi-Def instead of a 800x600 gameplay... :/

BTW: if someone wants, I can get you a 720p video up in half a day (speed of my connection being the bottleneck here Wink)

Edit: For the ones who want, here's the original 250 MB video: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VUQSUWP9

Hope you will enjoy
« Last Edit: April 06, 2009, 12:43:44 PM by kattle87 » Logged
Dugan
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« Reply #64 on: April 06, 2009, 01:23:12 PM »

I tried the download - http://iterationgames.com/vectorLocust_079.zip

and my virus scanner thought `vectorlocust_79.exe` is `probably a variant of Win32/Statik application`. Sad

Hopefully its my scanner being over cautious, but just thought you would want to know in case something nasty got into the zip.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2009, 02:52:44 PM by moogled » Logged

astrofra
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« Reply #65 on: April 06, 2009, 03:16:35 PM »

  • the app is very small but it's a complete game !
  • the audio is so strange and yet so good
  • the aliens are so scary with their retractable legs
  • the gameplay is really compeling
  • the icy reflexion on the ground make the world looks like a remotely robotic desolated planet
  • so many particles all arround, looks so cool

The only thing that bugs me is that I found the wireframes too thin, but it's a question of point of view.

Brilliant entry !  Tiger
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Loren Schmidt
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« Reply #66 on: April 06, 2009, 06:38:24 PM »

Firstly, I love how immersive this game is. I haven't been this sucked into a game for a long time. I like the esthetic. The game's got a solid atmosphere and feels self consistent. I really enjoy balancing the amount I'm shooting against the chance I'll get horribly mutilated because of my depleted energy. Trying to keep little colonies of turrets alive is very enjoyable too.

I have a few questions / suggestions. None of these are very urgent, the game feels pretty complete already.
  • Shooting enemies feels pretty satisfying. The sound + effects for getting hit, on the other hand, seem like they could use a bit more punch.
  • When I am killed, it is almost always by being repeatedly rammed by the gliding tanklike enemies. I don't mind being hit by them once, that's fair, but quite frequently what seems to happen is that I'll rebound slightly, then collide with them several times in rapid succession. Two possible solutions: a moment of player invulnerability after a collision, and a larger rebound distance.
  • Why does the player start with partial health? This isn't bad, I'm just curious.
  • Is there a third person view, and would you consider one?
  • The hardest objects to see are the homing projectiles.
  • I like that the most common enemies (the hoppers) are actually somewhat difficult to hit. I would have expected some kind of weak tank-like enemy to be the base type; this is a fun alternative.

Thanks for telling me about this entry, Astrofra. I'm having a lot of fun playing it.
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jph wacheski
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« Reply #67 on: April 06, 2009, 07:08:21 PM »

moogled- that is due to the virus scanner being over cautious as you say. This is a known concern with ZGE that we have been trying to address,. it is due to the exe-compressor we use and the sad fact that the virus checkers just lazily report compressed exe as suspicious.  Perhaps tomorow I will have time to rebuild it uncompressed and with the other compressor that ZGE uses Upx,. kkrunchy was used on this last build.

astrofra- thanks for the kind words,. if you want thicker lines you could run it at a lower res,. as they are always one pixel wide,. perhaps tomorrow I will add a line thickness setting,. . I just found it got too clutered looking with thicker lines,. . but someone said that befor was that you? and I had intended to add it,. time,. .

kattle87- thanks for that you roc!  you got a good system going for capin' videos now!

Sparky- thanks as well,. I do like to hear nice things about something when I put all this work into building it,. it does give me motivation to continue. I also do appretiate you comments and suggestions,. I will consider your input.  the partial health start was to make the player find a node to charge up on,. slow 'em down a bit. I had not really considered a 3rd person view as this is a cockpit theme,. I have considered an overhead map like view to give the player an over view of the playfeild,. ( see this other game; http://iterationgames.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Games.Gyro-phyterNeo ) perhaps making it a probe you would launch and it would hang in the air,. .

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Melly
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« Reply #68 on: April 06, 2009, 08:32:57 PM »

Tried it a couple of times, and I like it a lot. Smiley I had some issues with the enemy bullets being a bit hard to see in the middle of all the action, and not knowing what's the state of the field, which of your 'bases' are under attack, etc made me a bit disoriented.

Still, there's a lot of potential here, and what's already here is pretty awesome. Oh, and the presentation is great too.
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kattle87
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« Reply #69 on: April 06, 2009, 11:38:30 PM »

Ok I scanned the game @ novirusthanks.org
 
File Info

Report generated: 7.4.2009 at 9.22.00 (GMT 1)
Filename: vectorLocust_079.exe
File size: 96 KB
MD5 Hash: D1698CB19D947DCCD049101C06DA6DD8
SHA1 Hash: 1F1684EA1870243D814A803F7F2F0B3DABCE0863
Packer detected: Nothing found *
Self-Extract Archive: Nothing found
Binder Detector:  Nothing found
Detection rate: 6 on 24

Detections

a-squared - Packer.Krunchy.C!IK
Avira AntiVir - Nothing found!
Avast - Nothing found!
AVG - Nothing found!
BitDefender - Packer.Krunchy.C
ClamAV - Nothing found!
Comodo - Nothing found! 
Dr.Web - Nothing found!
Ewido - Nothing found!
F-PROT 6 - W32/Heuristic-210!Eldorado
G DATA - Nothing found!
IkarusT3 - Packer.Krunchy.C
Kaspersky - Nothing found!
McAfee - Nothing found! 
MHR (Malware Hash Registry) - Nothing found!
NOD32 v3 - Nothing found! 
Norman - Worm W32/Spybot.gen6
Panda - Nothing found!
Quick Heal - Suspicious
Solo Antivirus - Nothing found!
Sophos - Nothing found!
TrendMicro - Nothing found!
VBA32 - Nothing found!   
Virus Buster - Nothing found!

Scan report generated by 
NoVirusThanks.org


Some (can I dare to say stupid?) anti-viruses report it as infected since they recognize it being compressed with kkruncy. Others are just suspicious/whatever else.
Avira antivir usually is the only antivirus having concerns with ZGE (never figured out why), while those antiviruses are the ones with concerns about kkrunchy...
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jph wacheski
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« Reply #70 on: April 07, 2009, 07:21:08 AM »

Ok to address the virus detector anoiance,.

   http://iterationgames.com/vectorLocust_080.zip   [ 122KB updated ver.]

Updated ver: tweeked some sounds, removed the 'kkruncky' compression in favor of UPX (loose some compresion but less(/no?) virus false positives.) Doubled the line weight of the Spark Shots (due to popular request), added a Global Line Render thinkness setting, press Number Keys 1-5 to set at any time.

I have darkend the lines of the Spark Shots as a few ppl have commented at them being hard to see,. however I suspect what they actually mean are the ones that hit them from the sides and behind,. I am considering a sound cue for that and may try that later but I think the sounds are quite thick already,. most are cues to actual events however there are a couple sorta random 'music' elements,. besides in my opinion if you are getting shot for the sides or behind that is just poor stratagy,. like all FPS these are the week spots, and it is down to player stratagy to avoid letting themselves become flanked and thus volnerable,. as far as an overhead map view I had considered it but didn't want to break the cockpit-ness of the game,. I feel you can see all you need as everything is vectors and non obstuctive and the orange pops from anywhere if you just have a look around,. also that was the intent with the upward 'health' indicators on the nodes/turrets you can see at a glance if one is in need of attention /repair.  I guess the game is meant to be a tad overwealming and confusing to create that sence of hectic struggle,. you can't servive all situation,. but such is life eh,.
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Melly
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« Reply #71 on: April 07, 2009, 08:59:24 AM »

Why compress it in the first place? Doesn't seem like the game would be more than even 1 MB. I usually feel compressing already small programs for the sake of making them as tiny as possible is superfluous, and the kind of thing sceners do simply for bragging rights. Unless somehow the compression improves the performance.
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Fuzz
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« Reply #72 on: April 07, 2009, 09:11:51 AM »

Why compress it in the first place? Doesn't seem like the game would be more than even 1 MB. I usually feel compressing already small programs for the sake of making them as tiny as possible is superfluous, and the kind of thing sceners do simply for bragging rights. Unless somehow the compression improves the performance.
ZGE Smiley
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Melly
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« Reply #73 on: April 07, 2009, 09:55:10 PM »

ZGE compresses it automatically?
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Loren Schmidt
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« Reply #74 on: April 07, 2009, 11:17:47 PM »

I've been playing the game a bit more, and have a couple of observations.
  • The game looks a lot better on a CRT. If you have one around, I'd definitely recommend trying it. You can play at lower resolutions with no scaling artifacts- all the lines are very visible and completely smooth.
  • The endgame seems to be easier and a lot less varied than the beginning, because once the drop ship is destroyed there are fewer enemy varieties, and production declines as you reclaim nodes. This isn't necessarily bad on an ecosystem level, but it seems a bit awkward if you just look at the moment to moment action within the game.
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aeiowu
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« Reply #75 on: April 07, 2009, 11:47:19 PM »

I've played this about 5 times now, even got my 360 controller out (feels a lot better with it) and I still don't really understand the objective. I saw an option for "missiles" but I have yet to fire one. The best I've found it RB to lower a raised/raising spike in the middle of a purple node... I'm guessing missiles kill the enemy "turrets". I don't want any hand-holding, just a simple explanation of how to fire a missile would suffice I suppose.

Help?  Durr...?
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jph wacheski
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« Reply #76 on: April 08, 2009, 07:47:10 AM »

aeiowu - tyr watching this video to learn some gameplay,. .





The basic idea is you must shoot some Locust to collect some Orange Matrial to Build with,. when mostly full with Orange Material press Q to build a Turret (shootes at nearest Locust automaticly, faster when its fully Repaired there are 5 levels.) or E to build a Cannon (shoots the drop ship when fully Repaired - requres 3x as much Repair to fire.) However you will also like to keep your Nodes from falling to the Orange Vectors so do Repair those as well (knocking down those Purpple carrot/crystal things)  Repair is the RightMouseButton,. and uses up the Red Material so collecting that is wise as well,. .
 
perhaps a bit conveluted gameplay to have no tutorial, but most ppl do eventualy figure it out,. the idea was indeed to have a few simple-er levels then something like this one then perhaps an endless or more likely a timed invasion say DropShips keep spawning every couple minuets for 10-20 minuets,. . but it took me the four weeks to get this much created, so if you want to see more you will have to wait for me to build it, lol.

Sparky - that is good news! I had hoped it would look good on a CRT but sadly I don't have one currently,. I have heard good reports on super high-res displays and I may have an oportunity to play in on a large projector soon, so looking forward to that,. . as far as the end game, yeah once you remove the DropShip you just have a cleanup mission, however depending on the distribution of the Orange Nodes at that point, it can go badly or well, the game is reather dependend on emergence and situationism. for more challange try hanging back for a few minuets befor defending/attaching!!

Melly- no compression is just an option, it just makes sense to me. Bandwidth cost money,. many dev.s dont seem to think about the ppl with very limited budgets,. have a look at the little map of visitors to my site [ http://iterationgames.com bottom of this page] and notice that it in not just people from the big developed nations., they are from all over this planet, some people are out on the fringes with limited resources and I would like to make it easy for more people to play,. also I have a philisophical anti-bloteware stance,. perhaps too extreme, but there it is. You do make a good point, at this size, it is all negligable, the new ver. 80 is done with UPX and should be much better, so I'll go with that method from now on. basicly in the rush to release something I forgot about the issues with kkrunky till ppl brought it up,. Doh!
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Alex May
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« Reply #77 on: April 08, 2009, 08:55:50 AM »

I couldn't work out how to build stuff Sad

Also, if you miss with the cannon blast, it seemed to disable the cannon for a pretty unfair amount of time.

Awesome atmosphere and old school flashing line bullets are great too. Love the reflections. The whole thing is really smooth. ZGE seems great!
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jph wacheski
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« Reply #78 on: April 09, 2009, 07:12:09 AM »

Alex- press "Q" to build a Turret or "E" to build a Cannnon,. ?

I am not sure what you are refering to here; "if you miss with the cannon blast, it seemed to disable the cannon for a pretty unfair amount of time." ? 

The 'main gun' of the player? or the built drop ship killing 'cannon'?  The 'main player gun' fires as long as you have the BLUE sheild/gun meter in the cockpit holding some 'ammo/energy',. you gain this by touching a node! and the build cannon no longer misses,. unless you are playing an old unfinnished build ??

There is actually an Instuction Screen (Main Menu) to read ,. . it is sparce, however  relatively clear.  I will eventually add some smaller/learning levels to help start the game,. time/energy required.

Thanks, and yes, the ZGE is great! IMHO Smiley
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« Reply #79 on: April 17, 2009, 10:15:33 PM »

Excellent game, deep and the graphics are awesome. Excellent work jph wacheski   Beer!
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