Airship Dragoon Beta Demo

#21 I've uploaded a new version - so sorry if you've just downloaded it!

This ditches zips and has a new directory format with an encryption system which isn't laggy, and a few "general" changes and tweaks.

Same link, 20% smaller installer size, but uninstall the original version first.

And sorry, but any saved games aren't going to work with the new version.

#22 Just downloaded it and shall play it now... Muhahahahha! Thanks for letting us try this Steve :o)


Edit:
Great game Steve, like the many weapon options and that one get to equip the team.

Music:
The music could need to be not just one track continuously running in the background(one could of course argue that I could turn the music/sound of).

I like it and it is fun. I also like that one can click the target button and get target direction.

Thumbs up from here. Would love to see a video with a campaign and map in play.

#23 Steve,

DL'ed and played. Most of my gripes were addressed and I understand it's still early. The only thing I would really push... let me know when it's my turn and give me a solid direction in which to send my team. (keep in mind, you may have done this and I just got lost in the text some place :-)

On the plus side:

Great Graphic style (really nice work on that)
Animations and movement was really good.
IN DEPTH UI (though I could have used a bit more 'tutorial' concerning how things worked, this could just be me having never played anything similar or not making the logic leap of 'this is like....')
I did NOT run into one single game killing bug

HERE IS THE BIGGEST ONE....

I forgot for a bit that it was T3D. I enjoyed it as a game and found myself trying to kill the 'bad guys' and I did not care what engine it was on.... this is an important step that you managed to pull off. Lately the only other demo that has done that was BeamNG and the 'crash course :-)
Grats.

Ron

#24 Wanting something more than "New Player Phase Turn 2" in the small infobox at the top left and the HUD coming back on seems to be a recurring theme.

Okdeedokee, I'll give a nice big visualization/warning in the centre of the screen.

#25 Yeah the main thing is how smooth and bug free my experience was, like Ron said it just felt like a game and not that I am playing this because its the engine I use.

Though the top left message box reminded me, I played it at 1920x1680 and it's small text!

#26 Steve,

Hate to say it but, yeah.... a huge "hey dummy! it's your turn" message might work better. Sounds silly I know but, I spent most of my time watching the graphics and enjoying your visuals..... I more or less ignored the 'chat box'. Perhaps there is another way it can be done.... maybe gray out the screen when the 'computer' player is active and add the color back in when it's your turn.... I don't know.

What is really cool about all of this.... we are discussing something that is NOT engine related but, game design related. All said and done brother, you did an amazing job on this demo and I will fork over my very limited funds once you go gold on this project. I can not stress it enough, this is the start of something amazing and you should be very proud.

Ron

#27 @Ron, When you said the greyed screen, I thought maybe a black and white film reel look when its not your turn.

@Steve, I can't wait to see where you go next to start to market this baby! What are you thinking about at the moment, where is your energy going atm?

#28 Okeedokee, here's a new "Player Phase: Turn #" warning in the centre of the screen. It disappears after a few seconds, or can be dismissed immediately with a mouse click anywhere on the screen.

After my initial fears of having it all look too "consoley" - it actually looks okay and I've duplicated it with the Campaign mode turn system.





Slowly but surely we - that's the Royal "we" :P - are building to a release, I've finalized the game file system for the dreaded "updating" with as much ease as is possible once it's actually out and on peoples' hard drives.

I've got www.yorkshirerifles.com with a placeholder, and will have to try and remember how to use html ... it's been a while ... :S

I'm thinking FastSpring for e-commerce via my own site and then I guess mug every available portal and indie games news site.

Game 2 technical design is already swirling about in my head, just a question of which one to pick ...


------------------

Incidentally - how are people finding the combat difficulty? Win through with losing a few guys? A fair fight? Walk in the park? Repeatedly take a spanking?

[edit]
And I fixed that "Charge! overshoot and spin round" issue which annoyed everyone. Now they half their speed in C++ for the last step which reduces the runforce as they stop without slowing their actual move down at all.

Also checked that "enemy deploys opposite to the player's deployment" was repeated in the instructions in a few places (deployment, tactical battle).

#29

Quote:Incidentally - how are people finding the combat difficulty? Win through with losing a few guys? A fair fight? Walk in the park? Repeatedly take a spanking?

The first time I got wiped out, the second try I killed one of the enemies and got completely wiped out again. One of the reasons here is that I did not use heavy weapons and grenades for clearing out areas, another is that I did not notice that one could flank left and right too :o)

I like the resistance, perhaps new players might find it a little hard. I don't know, really, it all comes down to learn the game mechanic I guess.

It is really a nice game play you have done.

#30 Cannot play the demo, it crashes when I launch it :(

#31 Is your AV blocking it?
Install it outside of program files and retest.

#32 It was outside of program files and nothing was blocking it, just a crash when launching the .exe

#33 I like the graphics and the overall look and atmosphere. Had difficulty with the deployment screen, I'm not really the type to go through and laboriously setup 10 characters especially when the first combat is just a getting to know the game, I would have no problem going through that routine later as I figured out through playing what effect a .303 has and a frag grenade, and I want to make the money spread and gte the best squad possibly, but I was already exasperated doing that, also at first I ended up with a squad with no weapons because it just wasn't clear what to do, don't much like reading instructions until the game grabs me and I get immersed and want to use skills etc. The control layout should be constant, if buttons are used for deployment and setting up characters to some extent then having to click a gun in a screen that looks like a show screen and not a button goes against what looks to be the GUI control system, I feel that needs clearing up. I only found that out reading the instructions and I only bothered doing that because it's from a developer on this forum Personally if I can't set everything up without reading instructions I'm already out the door, admitedly I'm out the door a lot because I have no patience initailly until I 'must' play a game. I'm the worst type of gamer, instant gratification, not interested in intricate detailed complicated setups I need to learn that prevents me playing a game within 30 seconds of switching it on, because the purpose is to shoot people in the head as quickly as possible, getting killed while doing it if must be. I've always had a forlorn hope mentality I'm sorry to say. Anyway, after the bad criticism the good. It's a great game, I really liked it and I will be playing it tonight when I get the time. Great job for a small team let alone one guy in a bedroom.

#34 Thanks, John.

Quote:
I'm the worst type of gamer, instant gratification, not interested in intricate detailed complicated setups

Honesty is always the best policy, mate. ;o)

I do understand that some people hate instructions, but they are necessary with the large amount of options available - especially the whole class based item modifier thing.

I think that I might do a series of instructional videos on the different aspects of the game ... though that does mean having to listen to my own voice ... :S

#35 @Steve - I'm not against instructions per se, a purely cosmetic change would solve the problem, the buttons are clear so if the gun blue screen looked like a button it would intuitively be pressed. Plus I would suggest you have the soldiers with a default configuration with the cost set, then a player can deploy immediately, those who want that (like me), or they can customise the squad. No extra buttons, not particlularly hard coding, in fact it's there already. You solve the problem. Then it is such a good game that someone like me buggering about with one battle wouldbe intrigued enough to go back and read the instructions - which are quite clear and not that complicated and pretty easy to follow. Really professional job though, I would buy it,and I don't play these type of games.

#36 SO, a "auto deploy button" ... taking a median of rank/items for cash ... for super quick single battle mode ...

I'll have a think about that and work out an algorithm for it.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

#37 @Steve, I'm running x2 Monitors at 1920 x 1080 so that may explain my dropping focus, plus think i was watching doctor who on the other monitor (my bad)

I think a quick equip button would be a good addition for quickly equipping a selected troop, not sure you would need to select troops automatically though, most people would want to get in game quick, but would want the best troops, just my 2p worth :-) as after a couple of games I'm equipping all my troops separately.

The only real thing I could suggest to improve the game is a compass as after moving troops and fighting a bit I find myself advancing in the wrong direction with some of my troops Lol :-)

#38 Found a way to make a short test and noticed some things that could be improved:

As already said, it is complicated to set all up and many people are not that patient, so maybe a default setup would be good, so people who just want to get into the game quick can use this and don't have to spend time on setting up their soldiers.
Then ingame I found some of the controls pretty annoying, each time you have to first click "move" then move the soldier and then if you want to shoot, you have to click shoot first. It is a question of ergonomics, means the actions you take most, should be activated by default, only for special actions that do not happen much, you have to switch manually.
An additional alternative would be hotkeys for every thing.
When you want to look around you have to right click, but you have to click again to stop the camera from moving, better would be only move the camera while holding the right mouse button, would feel much better to me, since I got angry when it moved the camera in the wrong direction again, because I forgot to right click at the right time.
And some other little things, like if you end turn, could be improved, I found it annoying moving the cursor to the center each time just to click "yes I want to end this turn" maybe move it more closer to the end turn button, think of saving time in each action.
You have to go to the workflow and ergonomics of playing the game and try to improve things, especially make it faster, people today want it easy to handle and quick to play and get frustrated pretty fast if they cannot handle the game immediately.

And then I noticed some alpha artifacts on the trees, had this problem also, a little more alpha treshhold may remove them, otherwise you can try removing clearing some pixel lines from the bottom of the branch texture to help removing the halo artifacts, at least this is what I did when I got this problem.

So these are my thoughts so far.