2019-06-14 02:26:31

I've been messing around with a little game idea for the past handful of days, mostly as an exercise to get myself back coding again (it's been a while).  So far the game has been pretty fun for me to mess around with, but I've been using visuals to let me see where enemies were positioned and that sort of thing.  I converted things over to be in audio, but I'm not sure if the game mechanics will still be entertaining after the changes.  I'm hoping a few people can give the game a quick test to see if the mechanics make sense, and if the idea of the game appeals to them.

The readme.txt contains controls and general things to be aware of in the game, but I will paste a few overview bits here so people at least know what this is about.

The basic idea of the game is that you control 1 or more vigilantes who are fighting crime in the city.  The game is a turn based strategy game, taking place on a grid.  Multiple people can be on the same grid space at the same time, since the grids represent more general ideas such as being near someone or being far.  Normally, each person (good or bad) is able to perform a simple move, and then some extra action, such as a type of attack.
When you've done all you want to do on your turn, press Shift E to end your turn.  At this time the enemies will all move and do their actions, which are almost always warned about during your turn.  Your number 1 advantage as you play is that enemies announce what they intend to do on their next turn.  If a big casino bouncer picks up a chair, it will tell you he intends to hurl it west, giving you your turn to deal with that situation.  Perhaps you'll move or attack him so he drops the chair, but when enemies say their intentions it's to give you your current turn to avoid them.


Here's the download link:
www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/STL.zip

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2019-06-14 02:48:45

This sounds fun, downloading now.
What does stl stand for though?
Survive the lag, no, that'd be stw...

2019-06-14 03:05:31 (edited by Stormy 2019-06-14 03:07:17)

Sounds like the project will be a lot of fun. Sadly, I receive a run time error before I can actually check out the GamePlay itself.
Run-time error '91':
Object variable or With block variable not set
The menus work fine. I only receive the error when GamePlay is about to begin. (after character creation for example) As far as I could tell, I didn't have any other information in the debug log besides the missing sound errors. I ran the CheckUp program as well, but I likely shouldn't have had to since Swamp runs without issue. Anyways, thanks for showing off the concept.

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2019-06-14 03:24:48

I get the same error. If I try to tab to switch screen readers or start a mission I get the error.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

2019-06-14 03:30:44

Got the same error but no menu. Nor sound.

2019-06-14 05:01:49

I'm at work so I can't really look into it yet, but have any of you tried running checkup.exe to see if that would solve the error?  I haven't run into that error myself before I uploaded, so I'm not sure what the cause could be yet.  I'll look in to it when I get home.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2019-06-14 05:22:15

Thought about it and it’s because I forgot the sounds folder!  It should just need a folder called sounds with any sound file in there named arrow.wav.  Same as how Paw Prints is, so maybe if you have that game you can see how I named it.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2019-06-14 07:43:49

Does not work even with a folder named sounds inside it a file named arrow.wav

see ya later. Hope you don't fall off a roof.

2019-06-14 07:54:49

Oh god Aprone. Why! When I pressed escape after getting the briefing for the second mission.

Run-time error '91':
Object variable or With block variable not set

I hope I would never see that error again in my life. It haunts my dreams. I'm having Vietnam style flashbacks. Oh god. They're everywhere. I thought I could escape you. there's just too many! We'll never get away in time. how come company Bravo isn't answering our radio calls! We need chopper evac stat! aaaaaaaargh!

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2019-06-14 08:05:50

um. How did you play? I couldn't even swich with tab even after making that sounds folder lol

see ya later. Hope you don't fall off a roof.

2019-06-14 09:17:02

I've uploaded a fixed copy of the game, so if you guys download it again it should have the needed sounds folder now.  It turns out my memory was a bit off, and the sounds folder was supposed to have a sub folder called menu, so my attempt to tell you guys how to fix it while I was at work was doomed to fail.  tongue

I remain the king of uploading stuff with a missing file!  big_smile  Yay for traditions!

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2019-06-14 09:34:04

I hope for it to get a full game since it sounds amazing already.

2019-06-14 10:41:27

i beat both missions without much trouble, and didn't have to even heal up batman or ironman because as soon as they tried to engage me in a fight I just moved away from them. I only took damage when I tried to fight them myself, but long range blasts took them out from a safe distance, and the stunning is probably op also because they're totally out of actions for 1 to 3 turns which is a long time in this game. Interesting game though.

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2019-06-14 11:07:38

Haven't tried the first one, but I managed to beat the second one. I did take damage with the fights, and the ranged blast didn't do much damage so didn't really rely on it too much, but stunning them by all the different means available kept me mostly safe. The pinning any enemy at a border anywhere on the map might be a bit OP, maybe either reduce the range or the duration of the stun. Like keyisfull said, stuns might last a bit long in general. Of course if enemies are meant to become more powerful or numerous in future then it would be fine, but for now it is a bit too powerful. One bug I noticed is that when you move around in the map view, when you reach a border and arrow one more in that direction it moves one item in the menu of the character that was last selected. And winning doesn't actually take you out of the mission, don't know if it's supposed to be this way for now but you just stay in there with only the ability to move your characters around, and a victory message every time you end the turn. Over all it's a fun little game, hope you continue working on it.

2019-06-14 13:29:21

I came
I downloaded
I tested, sort of!

That is a great one, original in its way, gives that immersive sense of getting to beat up bad guys pretty badly! That could definitely become a great game...  Maybe, with a high number of enemies, taking into account what everyone does and wants to do and will do is not that easy, especially if someone hasn't a real spatial representation of the map in his/her head. But a turnbased fight that not only includes special abilities, but objects thrown around and/or used as cover? Brilliant.
I can see this expanded in various themes, launching from the superheroes one (even you might probably want to set iron man as a man, I bet Tony would get a bit upset as discovering HER pronouns were being used with her ahem, him), to a gladiator arena with a badass guy in the center dealing with all sorts of enemies romans want to throw at him, to a knight, a kung-fu master, groups of stealthy ninjas, and imagination is probably your limit.

Keep calm, and call the doctor.

2019-06-14 13:50:27

Absolutely can't wait to see where this goes, I've beaten both missions so far although I still think there should be a way to find out ranges and such.

2019-06-14 17:24:25

Excellent, I'm happy to read this morning that people have been able to run the game now.  When I first post stuff for people to try, I usually forget to write "see if the game even runs" at the top of my list of things I'm hoping to learn.  tongue  It's an important one though.

I'm also Very happy to hear that even the second mission was on the easy side, because it means I can make things significantly more brutal without ruining everyone's fun.  I had no idea how to judge the difficulty, and as far as I knew I may have been stuck having that second mission be the hardest type of battle in the whole game.  It would have seriously limited what I throw at the players across a series of levels.

I am considering lowering the stun and pinned duration, but I'll be testing a few other things before I do since I've had some practice missions I was testing on myself (during development) where the stuns were the only thing keeping me alive.  Three of the enemies in the harder mission do have some of the abilities your heroes have, like throw and such, but other than that they are pretty mindless.  If they were smarter it would help them, though the player will always have an advantage by seeing what the enemies plan to do next.

Hmm, maybe that could just be an attribute type to some of the harder enemies... an "unpredictable nature" label so it doesn't say what it's planning to do next.  I'd reserve that for only a few stronger guys though, because I think knowing what they'll do is what turns this into a strategy game.

I'm also not too happy with how the hand to hand combat is calculated.  I tried a few variations earlier in development, but even this one just sort of makes me unhappy.  It just not super intuitive.  If I never explained it in the readme, each guy has a fighting skill level.  When in a normal fight (no special skills used), the one with the higher level will deal damage, but also have their fighting skill lowered by 1.  Stuns and such lower the level until the stun wears off, and having allies in the same tile gives everyone a boost based on the stun-situation they each have.  As I'm typing this, I don't think I coded the spoken messages to include the bonus to attack skill when you view enemies.  Hmm, i'll check on that later.

So basically you can be the best fighter but you'll lower as you fight.  Not anything special, and I'm wondering if a different way would be better.

I'm going to try to sit down and work on this a bit more today, if I can find the time.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2019-06-14 17:48:29

Hello folks. Aprone, you have the natural talent of steping out of the shadows with something adictive, don't you? LOL Jokes aside, I can see this turning into a more complex game with items, pusles, skills and perhaps even a level editor. It would be cool to have a rpg game like Final Fantasy Tactics using this format.
Best regards, Haramir.

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2019-06-14 17:57:57

The game is very good. one thing you have to fix, is the victery alert. if you click on it the game will just keep returning to the herows menu, that is why I could not create a hero at all and had to go with the ironman and batman.
One suggestion, add a leap skill. you can leap on a target and punch them on the face a lot. You will be open to attacks from others, but the guy you lept on will have decreased hp and acurissy.

see ya later. Hope you don't fall off a roof.

2019-06-14 17:59:15

if your gonna make the skill, Also, make it so that the targets will be alert for any more leaps, so you have to wait very long to use it again.

see ya later. Hope you don't fall off a roof.

2019-06-14 18:42:29

cool game aprone
I beet all mitions
well; one problom remains
if I fale a mition; and I restart the mition with out exiting the game; it said b5; daysed batman and daysed iranman; please fix this
htis is going to be adicting!

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2019-06-14 19:04:10 (edited by stewie 2019-06-14 19:04:47)

Picking up furniture and attacking seems to be inconsistent. I was one square away from Punk Carlos at the end of the first mission, but I couldn't attack him for some reason. After attacking one of the other punks in the same square as a chair, I couldn't pick it up for some reason or throw it. Also I'm not quite sure how the combat options work. At one point I could use the combo ability, but I couldn't use it for any of the other fights I was in.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

2019-06-14 19:30:04

Thanks guys.

Yes Haramir, a feature I have actually wanted to be an important part of this game is a level/mission editor.

The prompts for ending missions is definitely buggy at the moment because each of the current test missions is really just a bit of a hack to let people try it.  They're supposed to be chained together into an actual story line but I didn't think that would be the best way to have people test.  I'll try to remember to fix it so that at least the game doesn't trap you after you win.

Throwing furniture or throwing enemies both fall under the throwing skill.  Your guys each start out with a set number of times you can use that ability, also the combo attack option.  Since there isn't currently a read-out of how many uses you have left on each skill, it can be confusing when you suddenly can't use it anymore.

Throwing people and tables only sends them 1 tile away, but will daze and harm every enemy on the tile where it lands.  Throwing a chair will hurl it as many tiles as it needs to travel until it hits an enemy or the wall.  Only a single enemy will be hit and dazed by a chair.  If you choose to pick up and throw things, they can't be used to hit enemies on the same tile as you.

Oh also, I forget the exact rules, but being engaged in a fight can stop you from using some of your turns.  When an enemy walks into your tile, assuming they're trying to fight it will "engage" your hero.  That prevents them from using Move to move away, and they're left needing to use something like Hook or Dive if they want to escape, or of course use like Headbutt to disable the bad guy engaging you and then just move away like normal.

I'm more and more tempted to lower the daze amounts just to see how that changes the game.  I think that will be my next change to make (since it's an easy one) and then I'll post for people to test the difference and see if that helps.  I should have free time to code in about an hour or so.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2019-06-14 19:58:22

Yeah, i finished both mitions now, and i can't wait to see what you do with this game.

2019-06-14 22:26:08

I'm really liking this demo and I hope you will continue to develop it. Actually, it kind of reminds me of Lord Of the rings tactics for the psp.

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