[Micky C]

 Hendricks266, on 24 January 2019 - 08:14 AM, said:

Hold, aim to lock-on, release.

That mode is extremely fun to use!

Could you clarify what exactly the minigun's alt fire does?

[Hendricks266]

 Micky C, on 24 January 2019 - 02:16 PM, said:

Could you clarify what exactly the minigun's alt fire does?

It spins up the barrel, so you can press and unpress fire as you need without waiting for spinup and spindown each time.

[Micky C]

 Hendricks266, on 24 January 2019 - 02:17 PM, said:

It spins up the barrel, so you can press and unpress fire as you need without waiting for spinup and spindown each time.

Is there anything more to it? I mean doesn't that alt mode make the original mode completely redundant?

[Hendricks266]

Do you know what a truth table is? Here is one:

Fire Held, Alt-Fire Held, State
F, F, Idle
F, T, Spinning
T, F, Firing
T, T, Firing

Without the Fire button, the gun won't shoot bullets. Without the Alt-Fire, the gun will return to idle whenever Fire is not held. There is no redundancy.

[Forge]

 Hendricks266, on 24 January 2019 - 08:14 AM, said:

Hold, aim to lock-on, release.

the alt-weapon for the revolver threw me off - because I like to test the alternative weapons and fire modes before I actually try to use them in combat.
With no enemy present, it didn't do anything, other than the visual of the hand on the hammer.
I thought it was either an unfinished event, or it was meant for a possible second weapon/ammunition type for that slot that hadn't been added yet.

Thank you for clarifying. It's a nice feature.

[Hendricks266]

I had to be told what to do the first time too, and so have many others. We're looking into how to help the user understand better, because it's clearly confusing.

[Forge]

 Hendricks266, on 24 January 2019 - 02:39 PM, said:

I had to be told what to do the first time too, and so have many others. We're looking into how to help the user understand better, because it's clearly confusing.

when an enemy is "locked" on - it presents a yellow box with an X
if no enemy is "locked" on have it show a partially transparent red box with an X a bit off center of where the crosshair would be

[Hendricks266]

One idea I had was to make the crosshair rotate or change color while alt-fire is held. We're not sure yet.

[Zaxx]

I don't think it's that confusing, it's pretty much the "mark & execute" feature of one of the newer Splinter Cell games without the slow mo and I think RDR2 has something like this too. It's just a bit weird to see it in a classic shooter but people will get it without shoving tutorials in their faces I think.

[Forge]

 Zaxx, on 24 January 2019 - 02:46 PM, said:

I don't think it's that confusing, it's pretty much the "mark & execute" feature of one of the newer Splinter Cell games without the slow mo and I think RDR2 has something like this too. It's just a bit weird to see it in a classic shooter but people will get it without shoving tutorials in their faces I think.

.......aaaaaaaaaaaand I've never played either of those........

[Zaxx]

Hey, the guy who has the same stuttering problem that I have reported back on the Steam forums:
https://steamcommuni...01877493495283/
What he's saying is not right though: sure, since the problem usually appears at save points disabling auto saving will help but auto saves are not the cause, saving / map loading is.

[Forge]

 Zaxx, on 24 January 2019 - 03:27 PM, said:

....since the problem usually appears at save points disabling auto saving will help but auto saves are not the cause, saving / map loading is.

Are you implying that the program has a buffer problem and can't read from & write to the hard drive simultaneously?

[Zaxx]

I dunno what I'm implying, all I know is that it seems to do something with accessing the HDD.

[Micky C]

 Hendricks266, on 24 January 2019 - 02:23 PM, said:

Do you know what a truth table is? Here is one:

Fire Held, Alt-Fire Held, State
F, F, Idle
F, T, Spinning
T, F, Firing
T, T, Firing

Without the Fire button, the gun won't shoot bullets. Without the Alt-Fire, the gun will return to idle whenever Fire is not held. There is no redundancy.

But why not just hold alt fire with the mini gun all the time, or just have it spinning all the time without having to press alt fire? There seems to be an advantage to using it and no disadvantage. I’m sure there are practical reasons for it in real life, but this is a video game.

[Jblade]

 Micky C, on 24 January 2019 - 10:21 PM, said:

But why not just hold alt fire with the mini gun all the time, or just have it spinning all the time without having to press alt fire? There seems to be an advantage to using it and no disadvantage. I’m sure there are practical reasons for it in real life, but this is a video game.

I have no idea why you're making a thing out of this man because holding right-click constantly would be annoying. If it was a toggle I'd agree but it's not, so having to hold down a button to fire at will is a disadvantage.

[Echelon5]

New bowling bomb behavior makes them feel somewhat unreliable. Being able to toss them quickly and being confident they'd home in on an enemy was a treat. Now it feels like a wild card as to whether they'll just bounce around or actually seek out an enemy.

Ion Bow is cool as shit though! Loved the new level. IM's gonna be one of the best games of the year if the preview campaign is any indication of overall quality.

[Zaxx]

Quote

IM's gonna be one of the best games of the year

2019 will be really-really good for people who prefer the more classic genres instead of the new shit: IM, Resident Evil 2, Doom Eternal, Mortal Kombat 11 are all coming out this year.

Honestly though I think there is a good chance that my GOTY for 2019 will be MK11 since my girl Skarlet is back:

Gotta collect all the blood!

[Micky C]

Echelon5, on 25 January 2019 - 03:02 AM, said:

New bowling bomb behavior makes them feel somewhat unreliable. Being able to toss them quickly and being confident they'd home in on an enemy was a treat. Now it feels like a wild card as to whether they'll just bounce around or actually seek out an enemy.

I did some testing and figured it out. Bowling bombs now seem to no longer home in automatically when you simply throw them. Now, it requires you to charge them up by holding down the fire button before releasing. When homing becomes active, you'll see a twinkle plus the power bar starts flashing. You need to charge it up half way to activate it, after which it follows the original behavior.

IMO this was a good decision. Bowling bombs used to be a virtually zero-skill, albeit incredibly fun weapon, which you could just mindlessly throw around and not worry about. At least now it requires some very slight attention, although not too much to ruin the fun.

[Zaxx]

Micky C, on 25 January 2019 - 05:04 AM, said:

IMO this was a good decision. Bowling bombs used to be a virtually zero-skill, albeit incredibly fun weapon, which you could just mindlessly throw around and not worry about.

That's the pistol's alt fire now though.

[Kathy]

Hendricks266, on 24 January 2019 - 02:39 PM, said:

I had to be told what to do the first time too, and so have many others. We're looking into how to help the user understand better, because it's clearly confusing.

I never had problem with it. Sure, at first I though it would be quick fire, but once enemy appeared, it was clear as day. And maybe I just don't want any "help" messages appear in-game. Although, I could understand it might frustrate others.

Btw, what weapon should I use to blow up walls? I tried to throw bombs, but it gets frustrating throwing them so that they could land where I want. Unless there's some method to just "put" them where I stand, which I couldn't figure out. Grenade thrower was also unreliable, and dangerous.

[Zaxx]

If you crouch while throwing bowling bombs they will move slower and in a very predictable fashion (Shelly will just use them as a regular bowling ball) so it's easy to just switch to the pistol and shoot them in the right place at the right time. The alt fire can also work like this, that way you don't even have to shoot them.

[MetHy]

With the bomb alt-fire it's much easier to aim at cracks, since the bombs are thrown and not lobbed.

The grenades not exploding on impact with the crack is a glitch that will be fixed.

[Hawke]

I have nothing to add really, but it continues to be excellent. Keep up the good work.

[Hendricks266]

Kathy, on 25 January 2019 - 07:11 AM, said:

And maybe I just don't want any "help" messages appear in-game.

Yeah, I would only use words as a last resort. I greatly prefer nonverbal explanations in game design.

Kathy, on 25 January 2019 - 07:11 AM, said:

Btw, what weapon should I use to blow up walls?

Use the bowling bomb alt fire and aim high so the bomb hits the crack.

[KareBear]

I really enjoyed my playthrough of the new level I even found half the secrets on my first attempt and for some reason I was expecting to see Voxels.

I'm guessing they're just not ready for prime time yet?

[Kathy]

Zaxx, on 25 January 2019 - 07:23 AM, said:

If you crouch while throwing bowling bombs they will move slower and in a very predictable fashion (Shelly will just use them as a regular bowling ball) so it's easy to just switch to the pistol and shoot them in the right place at the right time. The alt fire can also work like this, that way you don't even have to shoot them.

I tried it, but it was too tricky to line up. In Haskel's House there is a tight room with a crack, which I couldn't blow up with bombs that way.

Tried throwing them with alt-fire and it worked.

[NNC]

Hmm, why the full moon isn't part of the parallaxed sky? It's a sprite in the air or what?

[Kathy]

Maybe it's based on an actual moon cycle. It was full moon several days ago. I'm not serious, obviously, but it would have been cool.

[Micky C]

The map has a skybox so it’s easy to put spites off in the distance.

[NNC]

Kathy, on 25 January 2019 - 10:46 PM, said:

Maybe it's based on an actual moon cycle. It was full moon several days ago. I'm not serious, obviously, but it would have been cool.

It would be cool, but well, the shape of the moon is very different in every part of the world, for example waxing moon has a shape of D in the northern hemisphere, it looks like a boat around the equator, and looks like a C in the south.

It would be more fun if it can be shot with a well placed grenade launcher as an easter egg.