Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "pal" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: 'Invs', new version (zip attached: 25K) [long] Date: 14 Aug 2001 11:09:33 GMT Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 68 Message-ID: <01c124b1$2909bd40$LocalHost@pal-s-omnibook> References: <01c121ee$dabf7cc0$ea1be4d5@pal-s-omnibook> NNTP-Posting-Host: nas-cbv-6-10-2.dial.proxad.net X-Newsreader: Microsoft Internet News 4.70.1155 Hi everybody, thank you for your encouragements, it's really good to know you like the game, and overall that you even bothered to play it! I will write my answers to all your comments together here so as not to clutter the thread. As you'll see, I'm looking forward for more advice! Everybody seems to prefer the previous graphics. I don't know how I'll sort that out! I assume you all meant the sprites, but if you meant the explosions please let me know (I think I'll put a mix of the old and new ones. The new ones are more "fry them", the old ones cluttered the screen too much). Peter, you mentionned the bullets, do you mean the Player's or the Invs', or both? I feel the Invs' were not good, and the Player's were too big, what do you think? The old sprites and expls looked zoomed-in, as Matt pointed out, and I cannot go hi-res because of the trail effect which needs a whole screensized vram buffer. The fountain shot effect has no particular purpose, it's just for fun (though it might reveal useful in some special levels). I understand it's a bit weird because at small angles it is definitely not smooth (but I wanted that small angle as a hint so that you can guess that you can fountain-shoot). Please tell me if this is too disturbing... The angle is determined as you guessed John, but I don't think it makes targeting harder, rather easier actually, what do you think? The idea originated from the "last invader frustration" where you have just one invader left and have trouble getting rid of it, but finally this is already solved by the no-fire-limit. I prefer the angle randomized, what do you others think? As John suggested I'm planning to make the invs a little darker depending on their state but I'm not sure about them being transparent... I might give it a try. Has anybody other than John experienced bombs low-visibility? I love the current dark blue bombs and on my tv they're just fine, and I would not be happy to change them but then, the game has to be playable ;)... Would it be unacceptable to warn the player on the title screen (eg "If you don't see the blue things here [...] please adjust your brightness/contrast settings")? (any Sony guys advice particularly welcome) Andy, I'm glad you noticed the trail messages! I was not sure as whether to leave them, but as you liked them, they will stay there. Were you able to actually read them? Slowdown: I hope nobody experienced slowdowns in the non-buggy release, as I can't get any myself. John, you mentionned slowdown, was it that you felt it or that you got a siocons message about it? Normally any slowdown is detected via a vsync callback function, so if there is no message I assume there is no real slowdown (note that wrong messages are issued when the game is paused and at the title screen). I did feel like there was slowdown in waves 2/3 when the small invs come in place, but actually that's just because they're slow. Nobody complained about the font size in the title and pause screen... is it really ok or were you all assuming that it will change? Didn't you feel the game is too easy (ignoring the player's current invicibility, of course)? The invs don't have a chance to even attack when you're shooting fast enough (and I know you are, Jon!). Of course this will change in later levels, but I'm already interested in your feelings, to help design the difficulty curve. Did anybody experience crashing, or error messages other than slowdown? pal