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Hey everyone..I wanted to post v90 and it's devlog, but due to sickness and family issues I have to delay it past end of the jam. Sorry. Live sometimes gets in the way and I need to iron out those bugs I introduced when trying to optimize some unit behaviour before bothering you guys with a new version.

Thanks for your understanding 

Haha :D thanks.

The controls are a bit weird as I had to come up with something to make the player able to control an action character directly and a support character as well. Thanks for playing. I am working on improving the controls and everything bit by bit.

And the very last levels (the trench level with the bigger enemy armored boss and the British soldiers on your side, is just experimental. I am not happy yet with those supporting units behaviour. After that is a shooting range and a shotgun testing level. So definitely you centered into dev trash territory there :D

Hey mate, that is such an amazing thing from you to make. This was really enjoyable to watch and to listen to your input. it also showed quiet a few areas I need to invest some time to improve on.

There is an auto wave in the Basecamp and you can load from the first level top right (due to the lack of a proper menu for now).

If something crashes, please always submit the game_error.log so I can check why.

I am explaining a few things here because I would like to get your feedback on it fter maybe understandin it a bit better (as often it's about communicating it right to the player, which I seemed to have missed):

You mentioned the buddy not switching weapons automatically. I agree it would be cool, but also i am not sure in which situations you would want him to do it (any time that situation comes up),  like as a consistent rule.

When switching between characters, the (new role) companion will move into cover if he was exposed before switching, I think you got confused a few times why he moved without ordering him.

I will  doublecheck the code for the companion and see why right click sometimes doesnt send him. Might be due to the "improved" destination vs collision code. The red stars at the enemy feet is actually the buff from the Officer. But i either need to remove the indicator or make it more obvious /  visually appealing.

From min 45 on there is a visual glitch, as you should be able to scroll down, but it seems you can't. I was pretty sure I fixed this but it seems I didn't (it's related to the mouse coordinates in the room being different from in the view). Would have been great to see how you actually compete in those larger levels.

I will fix it in a different way.

Some of the things are more obvious when watching the video and being able to replay it (e.g. when your buddy killed the enemy around 18:30, you thought it was you and then metioned the "random" feel of shooting through cover. The enemy was actually only in cover for you, but not at all against your companion, so all your shots would miss him, but your companions did hit.

Also a bit later (around 20) where you shot the MG guy and said you should have been the one hit by his salvos, i think this is due to the generous difference in hitbox between player/buddy and enemy, the enemies hitbox is huge (almost the full sprite, while yours is less than the size of the shadow. 

I do agree, that suppression effect could be a bit longer lasting (what i did for the update was to make it a stable value ("3" instead of 1+iranodm(3)), so that it would be more consistent.

The suppression and AI behaviour is also influenced by whats going on around them (Number of friends, cover,  distance, etc.) - but i agree this could be improved

The Grey enemies are supposed to be Rookies, less health and also less radius to look for cover. The green and black ones will look for cover in a wider area and be less exposed.

MP enemies will actually try to rush you with blazing guns if you have the sniper, but maybe the gray ones are a bit too clumsy doing it ;)

Awesome

I went and fixed the major bugs, so with the companion now being able to use all weapons properly, the levels should be easier.

I will study the gdc talk you sent and rework some levels and add many more.

Thanks so much again!

Hey mate 

Thank you so much for the detailed post and the recording, this helps a lot.

I have a lot of things in my list and finally some time to fix a few things or try them differently.

For the maps: which one was "fun"/rewarding?

Maybe i can use that as an example to add more similar ones. Right now all are meant to have a tactical way of finishing them (there are usually combinations if environmental features and specific enemy placements that allow for a step by step approach. But maybe that's not clear enough.

The mg bug with he companion is really odd, j must have introduced this while fixing something else, as it worked before.

I will let you know once a new version is up and would love to get your input for that again and hopeful made the experience more fun.

Really cool concept. Will play more and give more detailed feedback soon, as I had only too little time due to a long business trip. Keep it up

Love it, need to play more when I have time.

Unfortunately it seems you need a 16:9 ratio like 1080p to enjoy it in the intended experience.

Hey, i played it again in the plane after i left my comment (loaded it up on my mobile and then played on mobile for at least 40 minutes in the plain). Couldnt leave feedback till now. I found out the packs change the recruitment options.

And i got a seed which made the game play out completely differently to the first run i was commenting from.
This time i got tons of mulitiplier cards and that made the game extremely easy until i got too greedy in the final round of the Hamlete della Carvigna. 

The seed was ebxpdvi7
and the best round was 41,410 approval.

That is extremely different to the first run where i was struggling to go above 200 approval per round, here 15k approval was a "normal" draw.

Also, i feel that buying vendors for example is an easy strategy to reduce chance of drawing Drunkards, as you dilute the deck without a real drawback. If you then have the guy that gives X1 by Vendor, this is a super legit strategy.
The game has a lot of potential and already feels great, but overall it also shows that its not "balanced" yet (which is the hardest part with a fully randomized poush your luck card game) You need to replace the placeholders for packs and backgrounds with maybe the same art but a different filter. It looks either too high res or too grainy. Try to use a filter that makes it less noisy/grainy to match your amazing pixelart. E.g. the title screen has a great feel to it, as it has less noise and fits the characters.

Thanks so much for playing!
I remember soldat as well, was hilariously fun when playing with friends.

I would really love to hear any thoughts that might help improving the game.
Especially regarding controls.
I played a lot of Counterstrike when i was younger, so holding Shift feels naturally for a sprint (i think CoD and other FPS also still do this).
Which other Button would you map it to, out of curiousity?

I think the graphical issues are a result of me still using Gamemaker 8.1 for this project :D (started it over 16 years ago and then abondened it for 12 years just to come back to it last year).

The "engine" (all the different mechanics and functions i have programmed in over the time) allows for much more stuff, like making it more RTS like (Dawn of War, CoH, Men at War like) where you could control a group of mercenaries, etc.
So this project is small scoped to get all the bugs and friction out. 

Thanks again for playing.

This is amazing. Some of the backgrounds are still placeholders i suppose as they dont match the style of the rest. But the rest is great. It kept me playing longer than i had allocated time for. I can see creating some nice builds. But here is where my problem is: in the baron level i was hoping for some cool troopers to hire, but it kept giving me the same boring choices every night even after rerolling. That sucked, as i couldnt improve the deck the way i wanted.

So finetuning the RNG here would be cool to at least give the chance to get cool combos for your deck.
Definitely following this and i would love to play this on mobile in the future.

Hey, sorry to say, but i think the zoom is messed up and several important elements are missin. I cant see a base, i can see during prestige that there are some buttons on the right, but not whats on it. I have a crosshair, but clicking doesnt do anyhing, sometimes a laser comes from center bottom out of nowhere and i cant kill any enemy or get resources.
I think you need to upload a fix before this can be rated/tested.

Hey, couldnt play it as i dont have a controler at hand, but would be interested as my game also has a Buddy concept. Maybe we can discuss at some point and exchange ideas on best practices.
Keep it up!

Hey, great game. Pretty addicting.
Tray to answer your questions:

- Which Flippers feel/work better? Top or Bottom?
I feel both have a lagging responsiveness. There were some moments where i was sure i pressed in the right moment, but the Flipper reacted too late. Not sure if i am just bad, but it felt unsatisfying (that was just a few times, most of the time the game feels super satisfying).

- Are there any elements you don't understand?
Yes, what do the enemies actually do? I asssume they just give you points, but is there something happening if i dont kill them? Is there any "goal" except a highscore? Do the upgrades lead to something or just making it easier to get more points by destroying more enemies? Can i "win" a level?

- Do you want to know more about certain elements?

see above

Also about the number keys. i had the impression it was always auto activating and not that i would need to press the key?

- What is your opinion on the weapon choice?

The feedback good be improved. I selected the laser at some point that rotates and it appeared it didnt do anything.

- What is the thing/aspect you like most?

The ASCII/Tile Art is amazing.  Maybe add a little bit of color/shades to the environment (maybe in a way that helps with clarity rather than distracting).

- What don't you like?

all good, only the confusion/uncertainty was mildly "unlikable". As i stated before, this is very addicting and i had to force myself to stop as i wanted to test more games :D

- How do you perceive the difficulty?

Its difficult, but i am not a flipper pro.

- Is the game fair?

I think so.

- Do you normally enjoy other Pinball or Survivorlike Games?

Yes, but i hardly play them.

Hey, great game. Pretty addicting.
Tray to answer your questions:

- Which Flippers feel/work better? Top or Bottom?
I feel both have a lagging responsiveness. There were some moments where i was sure i pressed in the right moment, but the Flipper reacted too late. Not sure if i am just bad, but it felt unsatisfying (that was just a few times, most of the time the game feels super satisfying).

- Are there any elements you don't understand?
Yes, what do the enemies actually do? I asssume they just give you points, but is there something happening if i dont kill them? Is there any "goal" except a highscore? Do the upgrades lead to something or just making it easier to get more points by destroying more enemies? Can i "win" a level?

- Do you want to know more about certain elements?

see above

Also about the number keys. i had the impression it was always auto activating and not that i would need to press the key?

- What is your opinion on the weapon choice?

The feedback good be improved. I selected the laser at some point that rotates and it appeared it didnt do anything.

- What is the thing/aspect you like most?

The ASCII/Tile Art is amazing.  Maybe add a little bit of color/shades to the environment (maybe in a way that helps with clarity rather than distracting).

- What don't you like?

all good, only the confusion/uncertainty was mildly "unlikable". As i stated before, this is very addicting and i had to force myself to stop as i wanted to test more games :D

- How do you perceive the difficulty?

Its difficult, but i am not a flipper pro.

- Is the game fair?

I think so.

- Do you normally enjoy other Pinball or Survivorlike Games?

Yes, but i hardly play them.

Hey, i love the vibe of the game, but playing it on my touchpad made my fingers hurt and i had to stop.
 Also its not clear that you are a "cop". I agree the background layer should get some subtle animations, maybe subtle glow/color shifts depending on health, amount of signals, etc. 
I didnt understand what the symbols actually do. So if i dont click them, i dont seem to loose health.
Had to stop after a few runs because of the touch pad being too inaccurate for the game. I could also see this more as a mobile clicker game than a windows one.
Overall a very interesting prototype, so i would definitely follow the development of this one!

Hey everyone, thanks so much for playing.
I do have an important request to help fix the display:
IF YOU PLAY, please leave a comment of your Screen Resolution and tell me if the levels are "one screen" or if you can move around with the mouse and the level feels zoomed in (except the resistance camp, which is zoomed in intentionally).
It should also all look super crisp (on my laptop at 1920x1080 it looks pixel perfect, but i have seen in the video of someone playing that it looked a bit messed up). If not, please definitely leave you resolution here.

Add highscores, daily challenges with the same seed for everyone, to keep some long term motivation
Improve the color palette and up the highlighting of what does what. Sometimes it was hard to tell if a wall is active already and which enemy to dodge and which one is the one i used as a projectile.
Keep it up!

Love this concept.
I played in in the train on a laptop with touchpad, so i always had a mouse in mind and think with a mouse this rocks.
The core concept is ultra satisfying. I think you know what you need to do. Hire the most stylish artist you can think of, pump up the gamejuice, effects, sounds and tighten the controls a little more. Add some bosses and you got an amazing game for in between.
I could see this as a great mobile game.

Thanks Mate for playing.
Love the concept of STEEB as well :)

It woudl eb so good to see a recording to judge whether its buggy or my major lack of communicating mechanics  (Tutorial). I am saying this, as i can literally speed run the game without dying until level 10 or so. So for me i felt it was too easy. So any recommendations of better "teaching" would be great. 
I think the aiming sound/animation is a good idea, havent thought about that yet, but sounds like a good idea.

When you crouch behind a barrel and dont move/dont press the mouse to aim, you are actually invincible towards that direction. Similar to an enemy.
You can throw Grenades at any time and it actually doesnt even count as "standing up", so you will stay invincible behind cover when tossing a grenade out.
When you shoot or "aim/focus" (hold down the mouse to increase accuracy) you stand up behind cover and become vulnerable, but the cover still has a chance of blocking the incoming shots (or actually the enemy has a chance to hit the cover instead of you). So timing the enemy reload down time to stand up and focus is key.

Thanks for playing, and if you ever feel like recording a 10 minute session i am sure i can learn a lot more.
I am travelling for business currently, so can´t record playsessions, but will do the same for STEEB, when i get the occassion.

100/100 olives. 0 Euro, people come, people go. no explanation. no fun

visually good.

Haha, OK.

Do you use any other program that has auto-wall/auto-tiling setup for your files? Or do you place every tile by hand?

I also do have a question regarding rexpaint:
the auto-wall feature does not really work with the extended unfortunately. Is this intentional?

Thanks so much for playing and your comment.

Would love to have a recording of your playthrough to see the issues first hand.

If you still have 5 mins, check the gameplay video here:

And let me know if the combat "makes more sense" after watching it, or if situations you struggled in were solved differently.

I know the biggest problem is getting the tutorial and difficulty curve right, so any extra comment would be great.

mechanics remind me of Not a Hero.

Cool setting.

Sorry, there was a stupid bug when using follow mode. Its fixed now, redownload v86 please

Switched to a simple comment field. Leave any thought you have. Love any kind of feedback hat helps to improve the game.

Enjoy!

Hi, there is UVSU for example and I saw a few others in development lately (which looked nowhere as nicely executed as yours).

Thanks so much UsGrig,
I have now implemented all your feedback (except for the more varied missions, this is the next big step).
And uploaded a new version v85 (overwriting the old one)

I might have to make it an option in the  (soon to come menu)

Thanks a lot UsGrig.
I have taken your suggestions into consideration and improved clarity of the Tower message + made the bullet spread show only once.
Regarding the move/shoot, you never know when someone picks up which weapon, some simply stick with the sniper or mp i have found for example. So having a few more points where you remind them that you can only shoot OR move with MGs for example is good (i had someone vocally complain about the "bug" that he couldn't fire the MG from hip during a recorded playtestsession :D)

Hehe, the sound is actually coming from where it's emitted. So if you fire it at the left side of the room it will play only left. I kind of like it, as it gives a sense of place, but it might be weird for some?

The idea is not new, but the execution already looks absolutely fantastic.

Hey mate. You were completely right, there was a bug in the mouse control for triggering shots. It now works really well.

It also lead me to fix it for the enemies.

So they also now rapidly fire when running (I guess that makes it even harder :D).

Anyway I continue tweaking.

I would still love if you could revisit v85 for 10 minutes and give it another chance.

I also fixed some of your other complains (quotes, etc).

And in theory the graphics glitch should be fixed as well.

Let me know 

gorgeous graphics!

ok, thanks for clarification. I will double check the code and see if there is a bug, maybe due to animation or image_speed.