Lunar Gravitar beta 1

[Shockman]

Lunar Gravitar beta 1

I need to fix something. I'll put it back up tomorrow by noon.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

had some time just now to test but i still don't see it posted yet. guess i'll look for the last posted version and try that...


EDIT: okay, i'm going to mostly hold off commenting since i reckon some obvious issues will have been fixed.

one thing i will say is that the new graphics are interesting. i see that now they look kind of like an amalgam of vector and pixel. i still think it would be great if you could let the user choose the 'beam strength' so you could please both the vector purists and all other types. maybe that would be a huge amount of work, however.

that's all for now. hopefully someone else can give it a try...

 

[Shockman]

Yes I took it down because one thing about it did not work. That thing was the game.

I was going to have it done today, but I fell asleep.

The actual problem was when the systems cycled through the planets that had completed missions did not show up. So many elements of the planets are persistent and the best way to fix that was to instead of checking so many variables and resetting them, was to create new controllers, for example planet 1 second time around is replaced with planet 1b. The nice thing about this is each level, the planet will be different (more guns and different fuel locations).

I don't know any real time ways of changing the line width. It would be slow and I try not to learn things I will not use.

Yeah, the black landscape on the subtly lit space is not a vector style but I like it and it is something I can let the user adjust real time. I did it with my Asteroids game. You will be able to change the lighting of the space background and if you make it darkest you will only see the lines (and star spots still). The frog planet is the only one that is not like that. I will probably put it inside like planet 4 is then it will be.

I was worried about reverse gravity on the orbital gravity planets (like the frog planet) but all I had to do was add 180 to what I had.

After all graphics are done (i have learned) I will add a glow. We will have to choose a level for that because it can't be adjusted real time. I will do a level though and show some pics at different levels. Sometimes I use two colors for that which is why I have to do all at the same time, otherwise I forget and loose consistency.

You will like the stand alone lander game more than before. You will play all the levels in the game (3) 15 pads, and each set of 5 has more gravity and harder landing areas.

So. All 4 levels of planet one is done Level one of each planet has arcade version placing of objects, but the remaining three I did myself. It will probably be tomorrow night that the remaining ones are.

 

[Shockman]

I got all the 4 levels each for each world 1/2 done, and got diverted to some things I wanted to learn, so I could put in the game.

Not only will you be able to set the transparency of the background which is always black space and colored stars, you will be able to choose the sub color to fade to. This is not intended to be used to select background colors, but to add a tinge of color to space/stars background texture.

I added a landscape to the options page so you can see the effect real time before you play the game. The default is a blue tinge to a fairly dark background.

It works nice and looks nice. Using this you can have only lines like a vector game by setting no alpha to the background regardless of the chosen sub color.

I think I might be able to do the same thing with the landscapes (letting the user choose a color for that).

So you will press C to choose a color to blend to and keypad + and minus to blend.
I have the alpha maxing out at 85%. This ensures that space is always dark. If it was unlimited, you could gain the ability to match the objects and not be able to see them. All these pics have the alpha bumped up a bit from default. The blue one shows the max value. The last one is the exception as it has the alpha transparency set to zero.

 

[Shockman]

What a leap in skill level going form level two to level 3. I thought at first that if you had the skill to get there, then you have the skill to play there. Though this is true that the skill to get there is needed, the margin for error is still overwhelmingly low there. Level 4, well Think of doing the most difficult task you ever did with everything backwards (raise your right arm and it's the left that comes up, turn right and you go left, for examples).

I think I need to make at least two skill levels, and i think I would enjoy the 'easy' level myself. Same levels, including backwards and invisible, but with a different shielding system.

- On easy you will bounce off walls, at least a few times, as this will drain your shields (though you will not have to manually activate them for the landscape collisions). It will not be pinball though. A very few bumps before you crash.

- On medium you will bounce off walls if you use your shield. Using them will drain on them, but the bump will drastically drain on them.

- Hard will be like the arcade version, and how I have mine now. In other words hard.

I think in the minds of most players these three levels could be re-named
- 'fun'
- 'very hard', and
- 'i reached for the esc. key to quit this friggin game, but it was already over before I pushed it'.

It's doable though. You have to keep total control, staying often at the apex or 'using the hang time', watch your shots in a sonar kind of way, and watch the enemy shots in a radar kind of way.