Author Topic: Just tried Hard Mode...  (Read 75005 times)

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #15 on: March 31, 2016, 07:59:34 pm »
The moment you said "Let's hope it's an easy boss" I could tell that run was about to end.  That was indeed as entertaining as I expected.

Also I see you met the upgraded Blaze Cannons.  Arent they fun?

I also see a variety of enemies that I somehow missed in my campaign to upgrade the damn things for that mode.  I must rectify this unfortunate situation.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #16 on: March 31, 2016, 08:02:55 pm »
Glad you enjoyed! That was the whole purpose ^^
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #17 on: March 31, 2016, 08:56:28 pm »
I love it!  Man, we need to get you doing some voiceover work for us at some point, too...
I'd be honored! I didn't know you found my voice that pleasing on the ears. ^^

Indeed, you've got a great speaking voice.  It's also a tad more exotic (for lack of a better word, sorry) than the standard American or British accents, and I think that also can really add something.  You're Scandanavian, is that right?  I feel like that accent is about halfway between British and German, which is a really nice place to be.  You'd be awesome for dry humor in your regular voice as a computer character (isn't everybody a computer character in my games?).  Or maybe an actual human for once.  We've had a FEW human characters. ;)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #18 on: March 31, 2016, 09:13:45 pm »
I'd be happy to. If you get the need some time just shoot me an email and we can work out the details. I have pretty good equipment for recording and doing post. I'm just generally too lazy to do more than compression on my videos. I can spend hours on audio editing otherwise.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #19 on: March 31, 2016, 09:19:05 pm »
Also I see you met the upgraded Blaze Cannons.  Arent they fun?
In the most Dwarf Fortress of ways, yes.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #20 on: March 31, 2016, 09:38:01 pm »
Also I see you met the upgraded Blaze Cannons.  Arent they fun?
In the most Dwarf Fortress of ways, yes.


Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #21 on: March 31, 2016, 11:14:09 pm »
I'd be happy to. If you get the need some time just shoot me an email and we can work out the details. I have pretty good equipment for recording and doing post. I'm just generally too lazy to do more than compression on my videos. I can spend hours on audio editing otherwise.

Awesome!  If you can shoot me an email (chrispark7 at gmail), there might be some audio work on the raptor game for you.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #22 on: March 31, 2016, 11:46:39 pm »
How is that game coming, by the way?  Definitely interested to see previews of that whenever you've got them ready.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #23 on: April 01, 2016, 12:17:05 am »
How is that game coming, by the way?  Definitely interested to see previews of that whenever you've got them ready.

It's coming really, really well.  It's taking longer than expected in some ways, but partly that's because at each step of the process we're really going through and making sure that we nail each piece in terms of how it looks, plays, performs, etc.  Trying not to make a tower of things that are half-baked that then is impossible to optimize or refine later. 

Instead we're less far along than I'd expected, but the raptor is controlling great, animating great, looks great, etc.  The procgen level stuff is slower than expected, but a lot of that revolves around creating all the best components for it to work, and making sure that the game can actually make levels of any appropriate scale without absolutely eating the graphics card.

The net result right now looks ridiculously good, I think, for an indie game in particular.  I don't want to oversell it... but I'm doing lots of happy dances over here. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Pumpkin

  • Hero Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,201
  • Neinzul Gardener Enclave
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #24 on: April 01, 2016, 05:55:51 am »
I'm working on a fail video as we speak :P
I can't wait to see that!

Delivering as promised: Youtube linkage
Didactic and entertaining! I love it.

Also, as Chris said, your voice is very pleasant. You articulate and speak rather slowly, which is a relief for a foreign speaker (and listener, in that case) as me.
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #25 on: April 01, 2016, 06:17:48 am »
Didactic and entertaining! I love it.

Also, as Chris said, your voice is very pleasant. You articulate and speak rather slowly, which is a relief for a foreign speaker (and listener, in that case) as me.
And here I'm thinking I slurred and stumbled and coughed way too much. It really was a lazy video. I CAN do much better, I'm just too lazy to do that on a regular basis :P
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,332
  • A Paladin Without A Crusade...
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #26 on: April 01, 2016, 10:49:45 pm »
Didactic and entertaining! I love it.

Also, as Chris said, your voice is very pleasant. You articulate and speak rather slowly, which is a relief for a foreign speaker (and listener, in that case) as me.
And here I'm thinking I slurred and stumbled and coughed way too much. It really was a lazy video. I CAN do much better, I'm just too lazy to do that on a regular basis :P

*whispers to everyone* He really is lazy. He's been working on a System Shock 1 series for like two years. Lazy person.
Casual reviewer with a sense of justice.
Visit the Arcen Mantis to help: https://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/
A Paladin's Blog. Long form videogame reviews focusing on mechanics and narrative analyzing. Plus other stuff. www.kingisaaclinksr.com

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #27 on: April 02, 2016, 04:23:46 am »
Okay, so, just so it's known, some things in Hard mode will get less frustrating soon; I'm going through and doing some "renovations", AKA, removing tons of problems I'm finding with a variety of rooms.  I think some of these were added while I've been trapped in the damn boss rooms as I've not run into them before.   But looking at them... I'm finding explanations for why certain enemies are seeming to be WAY too common right now, which I've noticed in videos and am seeing now.    Getting tired of boomerang things and bulldogs every 3 seconds, for instance...

I mean, yeah, Hard mode is supposed to be... well, hard... but messing with it, and watching videos, it's a little overboard.  Not by all that much, but enough to warrant alterations.

So there's going to be a whole pile of changes here as I'm going to stick to this for awhile.  I really meant to do this quite awhile ago, but, ah... that's just how it goes I guess.  I blame the weather.  And Microsoft. 

I mean, really, I'm finding ALOT of issues here.  Going to try to deal with a ton of these and see if I cant get both this and Normal mode to be more fun and have more variety than they do right now.

Seriously, I should have done this earlier.  Bah.

Will be tweaking some enemy patterns also.  But not that much, most of them are fine. 

EDIT: Agh there's way more issues than I thought.  Ugh, I let this issue sit muuuuuuch too long.  Not on the ball here, am I?  Argh.

EDIT 2: Okay, I've changed a huuuuuge number of rooms.   Some had really bad problems (for example, snipers with clear views of doors, cant allow that one) or other things... Enemy variety should also increase. That's the problem when you've got this many rooms, it's hard to really give them all a proper testing as they come in.  I can definitely understand why Isaac has as many broken rooms as it does despite the skill & talent of it's developers.

These changes will be ready to go soon.  I need some time to test though.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2016, 05:15:26 am by Misery »

Offline crazyroosterman

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,558
  • Cluck.
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #28 on: April 02, 2016, 02:00:59 pm »
How is that game coming, by the way?  Definitely interested to see previews of that whenever you've got them ready.

It's coming really, really well.  It's taking longer than expected in some ways, but partly that's because at each step of the process we're really going through and making sure that we nail each piece in terms of how it looks, plays, performs, etc.  Trying not to make a tower of things that are half-baked that then is impossible to optimize or refine later. 

Instead we're less far along than I'd expected, but the raptor is controlling great, animating great, looks great, etc.  The procgen level stuff is slower than expected, but a lot of that revolves around creating all the best components for it to work, and making sure that the game can actually make levels of any appropriate scale without absolutely eating the graphics card.

The net result right now looks ridiculously good, I think, for an indie game in particular.  I don't want to oversell it... but I'm doing lots of happy dances over here. :)
hey if you don't mind me asking is Keith any closer to deciding that stars is ready for testing? just asking because if that game gets back to being tested I won't have the time to test release raptor (provided you are going to be having testers of course I'm just assuming there really) I wouldn't even be asking really but it feels like that games never going to get finished especially with the financial issues.
c.r

Offline Logorouge

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 514
Re: Just tried Hard Mode...
« Reply #29 on: April 02, 2016, 02:34:27 pm »
These changes will be ready to go soon.  I need some time to test though.
Now that's some exciting news. The added variety by itself will already be a great improvement. (So many Bullrush!)