Ideas + Questions

[Kamron3]

A few questions I would like answered. And since you are a smaller game dev, you would be able to provide great answers.

1) Why is the max depletion rate at 16? I understand that if you build Speed you can fuel your turrets better, however, it'd be nice if I could have a higher depletion rate.

2) How can you deplete at a rate of .5? Is there only half of a packet sent?

3) Have you thought about allowing bigger maps? I have a decent wide-screen computer and it'd be great if I could 'expand' the playing field by being able to have wide levels. And I'm not talking about full-screen mode, I am talking about being able to have a set sized map e.g. 800x600 and the sort.

4) Have you thought about adding more weapons and a new storyline? I finished the Story Mode in one day. :( I'm working on the Conquest and stuff right now. New Weapons could be like fractal emitter Creeper which would stop Creeper flow to a small area where the Turret is. This turret would 'Broadcast' waves with Fractal particles in them which would make Creeper move away.

5) Upgrading Turrets. Why isn't there any upgradability? It makes it more fun when you can upgrade turrets to make them have larger ranges/faster shooting/bigger splash damage/etc.

6) Adding more play modes such as Last Man Standing-type of play where you are placed in a position where the Creeper emitters gradually get stronger and stronger as they go and after X amount of time the Totems would appear(maybe even a new Story quest where you are moved to the coordinates of a planet but the Totem poles aren't there and the OPS will say that we will have to fight for as long as we can), which would be tons of fun. You would have to have a lot of strategy and skill to win.


Just a few ideas, I'm trying to learn how to use Flash to make games, I know how much work you have put in to this game and I would like to thank you for it.

-trollface-

_k

[Aurzel]

i can take a stab at a few of the Qs if you want, virgil can correct me if i'm wrong

1) speed doesnt affect how fast package are produced, only how fast they're delivered
2) it's not 1 unit per package, the .5 etc are units of energy and each packet uses a fraction of a unit
3) bigger maps are nice and possibly on the cards but virgil wanted an overall view which wouldnt have to be interupted by scrolling and zooming
4) i finished the story mode in a day too but that's the joys of the map editor and the custom maps people make with them, several of us are creating our own campaigns which you can download and play easily which i'm sure you'd enjoy, as for the intelligent creeper i would think it would kind of defeat the purpose of the creeper as well as make it annoying as you'd constantly have to micro your turrets around the map to give them targets
5) the idea is to rely on strategy, key placement of a few turrets rather than relying on a few super turrets and, i find, accentuates all the turrets strengths are weaknesses
6) there are many suggests for more game variants and i'm sure virgil has taken them under consideration, we'll see what he comes up with if he comes out with them in a new update or game 2

hope this helped while you wait for more definate answers

[knucracker]

Thanks to Aurzel for helping answer some of the questions.  It's great to have expert input from other players on questions.
I'll fill in a few more details below.

1) Why is the max depletion rate at 16? I understand that if you build Speed you can fuel your turrets better, however, it'd be nice if I could have a higher depletion rate.

Speed only affects how fast packets move on the network.  How long it takes a packet to get from the city to the structure basically.  The depletion rate is a measurement of how fast things are being requested.  Say you have 10 things all being built.  Give or take, you will have a depletion of around 10 per second while they are building.  Each structure will request one packet about once a second.  The maximum depletion rate is actually the maximum that the city can supply packets.  Think of the city like a little factory.  It can only produce packets at some maximum rate (regardless of the rate they are being requested).  Now why is the value 16?  It has to do with the game frame rate, the packet speed (the slowest speed), and my desire to have packets not physically overlap too much while on the network.  All that said, I have been thinking about increasing the value a little bit in the next patch.  It won't affect game play except at the extreme edges, but it would allow for a little more scale in terms of an assault force.

2) How can you deplete at a rate of .5? Is there only half of a packet sent?

The rate is actually an average calculated over a time greater than 1 second.  So you can get fractional values.  It is an average so that the values don't jump around like crazy (they already move around a good bit).

3) Have you thought about allowing bigger maps? I have a decent wide-screen computer and it'd be great if I could 'expand' the playing field by being able to have wide levels. And I'm not talking about full-screen mode, I am talking about being able to have a set sized map e.g. 800x600 and the sort.

4) Have you thought about adding more weapons and a new storyline? I finished the Story Mode in one day. :( I'm working on the Conquest and stuff right now. New Weapons could be like fractal emitter Creeper which would stop Creeper flow to a small area where the Turret is. This turret would 'Broadcast' waves with Fractal particles in them which would make Creeper move away.

5) Upgrading Turrets. Why isn't there any upgradability? It makes it more fun when you can upgrade turrets to make them have larger ranges/faster shooting/bigger splash damage/etc.

6) Adding more play modes such as Last Man Standing-type of play where you are placed in a position where the Creeper emitters gradually get stronger and stronger as they go and after X amount of time the Totems would appear(maybe even a new Story quest where you are moved to the coordinates of a planet but the Totem poles aren't there and the OPS will say that we will have to fight for as long as we can), which would be tons of fun. You would have to have a lot of strategy and skill to win.

Bigger maps would be cool.... Creeper World has worked out so well as a game concept that I get questions about how to scale it up into a bigger game a bunch.  I consider all of these compliments and a thumbs up on the game concept.  The reality for Creeper World is that I intentionally designed it to "fit in your pocket" so to speak.  A kind of statement on the power of a good idea to scale... without things like massive armies of units your never build and maps that take all day to scroll around on.

That said, the Creeper idea would work very well in a more traditional form factor, with scrolling and zooming around a large map that has numerous fronts.

This would be a very large undertaking and would essentially be a second game, though. 

Just a few ideas, I'm trying to learn how to use Flash to make games, I know how much work you have put in to this game and I would like to thank you for it.

Cool...  When you write your first game, don't think of it as a flash game.  Just think of it as a game or a dev project.  I've written major applications in C, C++, Java, C#, AS3 ,etc.  Gui code, server code, you name it.  Flash/AIR is just another platform that can help you express your ideas.  What matters is a combination of your skill (which you get with practice), your ideas (which is your creativity), and your determination and persistence (which derives from your character and how much you enjoy development).  With skill, creativity, and determination you can create some amazingly cool things.

[Kamron3]

If you don't mind, how old are you?

I knew a previous Game Dev that was 31 and lived with his mom.

I got banned from this said game because I mentioned it.

[knucracker]

Ha... that is pretty funny.
I'm 38....  And no I don't live with my mom :) 

I've been developing since I got an Atari 400 when I was in the 6th grade.  That is about 28 years (gulp).
Then it was on to a Coleco Adam (ha... bet nobody knows what that is), my beloved C64, an Amiga 500 (fan-friggen-tastic), my first PC (a 286 overclocked to 16Mhz), etc.

Back in the early PC days I did some assembly programming (wrote a puzzle game in assembly), then did some AI work in turbo pascal and turbo C++.  Mixed in a little Modula 2 on the Amiga (yes I'm going for the all time record in obscure references in one posting).

Along the way I've always loved gaming.  Not really because I like to compete with other players, and not really for the community experience or multi-player.   I've always loved looking at games and figuring out how they worked, and why the developers did what they did.  Some games  (say Dune 2, or StarControl 2) just blew me away with their innovation and awesomeness.

Anyway, I ramble.... see what kind of response you get when you ask such a simple and innocent question :)

[Aurzel]

i didnt hear mention of a sega mega drive in there, awesomest game console of its time :P

[Kamron3]

Also:

You could add some GUI to the Map Maker that tells you how big the object is that you are laying down:

Say you had a wall, that wall would show a square around the crosshair indicating its size.

Found a bug:

If you choose the first spore attack(with 3 already made) and you change its side and try to change another spore attack's side to the same side as the first, it won't let you. You have to select a different side and then select the side you want.

Also if you have more than one and you edit one and try to select another, the one you select will 'copy' the stats of the one you already have selected.

[Aurzel]

its not too hard to figure out how big something is after you tried it a few times

[Kamron3]

Yeah, but it would help.

[knucracker]

Fixed the bug...
I'll look at adding the size indicator to the map editor for the next update.

[Kamron3]

Awesome, been designing this really cool map.

It gets harder as you go allowing for more fun ;)

(which also brings back to the idea of more than 16 depletion) :)


I don't think you should just 'raise' it higher than 16. Set the max(without upgrades) to around 30.

For bigger levels, I think you should make an upgrade for it.

'Increase packet output by 10/20/30' or something to that effect.

[djcian]

or for increased packet output build more factories like in my suggestion

[Kamron3]

That works too! But I was trying to make it where he didn't have to add any more buildings to the game(until he did more things with bugs and stuff)

_k

[Aurzel]

i'm designing a map where i'm trying to make it impossible to win and getting progressively more difficult to simulate a 'survival' mission objective, you'll see it tomorrow along with a really fun map that i just HAD to do :P

[Kamron3]

Hey virgil; when can we expect a new version? And do you have a changelog for it?