Universal Phoenix HD - A Modern Arcade Shmup (by Firi Games)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by killercow, Aug 11, 2011.

  1. gunxsword

    gunxsword Well-Known Member

    Dec 24, 2010
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    Not paying for online pass :D (will eventually get it)

    I'm saving some credits for next week's releases (never know what goodies I will find) and there's no itune gift card discounts I can count on so I have to save where possible. Will buy more gift cards when the next sale comes.
     
  2. Serian

    Serian Well-Known Member

    Nov 26, 2010
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    Searched the thread but didn't see an answer to this question. What do the IAP ships offer over the standard ship?
     
  3. syntheticvoid

    syntheticvoid Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2010
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    Musician & factory worker.
    a[V-O-I-D]
    Different gameplay...


    The Corsair offers missile lock, and is primarily a missile firing ship. The Mirage offers a more laser oriented type of firing, and if you don't move the ship for a second, it starts to fire a massive laser that gets bigger and bigger until it needs to cool down, or until you move the ship again. =o)

    Both offer different types of tactical gameplay... like it's been said in the original Phoenix thread, it's like 2 more games with a Phoenix skin... =o)

    Both ships have the same amount of damage, so it's not like you can just buy one of them and shoot your way up the leaderboards... you'll still need to learn how to use that ship...
     
  4. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    Not to mention how cool the missile trails and gatling gun from the Corsair look. And how amazing the laser effects on the Mirage look. :D Totally worth 99c extra for each ship. It completely changes how you play the game and exponentially increases the game's replay value.
     
  5. weehomer

    weehomer Well-Known Member

    Nov 30, 2010
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    The Corsair is by far my favorite ship! After a few weapon updates, when there's a swarm of missiles going everywhere, it totally reminds me of the Robotech anime of the 80's!
     
  6. RCranium666

    RCranium666 Well-Known Member

    May 28, 2010
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    The corsair looks much better on the hd version of Phoenix. Btw, I tried buying a ship in lightning fighter, and encountered the same problem as in Phoenix HD. No problem purchasing on iphone4, only on iPad.:confused:
     
  7. FPE

    FPE Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2010
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    Something very weird I neve experienced with the old version ... The controls lag. Sometimes my ship just gets stuck or reacts very slow. At first I thought it was my imagination, but is has happened to often now.

    I never had this in the old version ....
     
  8. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    Haven't noticed anything of the sort here. One issue I did notice was that Mirage cancels out Alpha Strikes due to the Nightfury charging. Not sure if this was intended.
     
  9. Guise

    Guise Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2009
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    I also think a new, separate leaderboard for Phoenix HD is a must. I'm finding it much more difficult to rack up a high score (original version of Phoenix is over 4 mil, have only broken 1 mil once so far).

    I'm fine with this but think it necessitates a separate leaderboard for what is, after all, being billed as an entirely new game (experience). Just a suggestion, of course. But a good one. :]
     
  10. strivemind

    strivemind Well-Known Member

    Makes sense to me. Especially since I've already bought the original and the 2 ships in the original. Loving the new look, but I'm less inclined to pick up the same IAP a second time.
     
  11. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    This is by far my favorite iOS shmup yet. I absolutely adore it. Got to 1.8mil with the Phoenix, my highest score with it so far. Love how screen filling its weapons become later one. Looks like an epic one man army fighting the armada :D
     
  12. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
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    Nov 13, 2009
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    #112 Selachii, Aug 13, 2011
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2011
    Thanks for all your feedback and positive attitude! I will try to (always) answer everything, but forgive me if I miss a post here and there (trust me, it's not personal!) :)

    @Jaklar; thanks for your extensive post, I will break it down below.

    Thanks!
    Please, do continue ;)
    The leaderboards were in fact reset when this feature was implemented. However, they were not reset for this feature, but for the fact that the entire turret balancing was revised.

    We also wouldn't have reset it, if it was just for the sake of the storing-mechanic. Mechanics/Features that make the game easier to play will only increase the average score (or well, they should ;) ), existing 'high scores' will just be pushed down. If someone managed to get a higher score with the old version there is no point to delete it, rather, it should be commended.

    The opposite is true if you flip the situation. If it would become harder to get 'high scores' in a new version you have to reset the leaderboards, because the older existing results are now 'impossible'. Players with old scores would have some kind of unfair advantage.

    We keep this in the back of our minds during the development and entire roadmap of Phoenix (and Phoenix HD). It's also one of the reasons the big 1.1 update for Phoenix, back in the days, took so long. We knew we were going to have to reset the leaderboards that time, so we moved all changes that potentially lowered the scores to this update. We want to avoid resetting the Leaderboards as players would lose the scores in all the locations they played the game.

    Since Phoenix 1.1 we haven't had a situation where it became harder to get higher scores and we don't have one on the horizon (for now).

    Though it looks different, the gameplay is exactly the same. The auto-pickup changes the gameplay, making it more seamless, but patch 1.2.3 will bring this to Phoenix as well.

    We have a lot (_a lot_) of players trying to cheat, we remove 'all cheaters', but not instantly. If there is a high score you don't trust, check back later that day, it will be either gone or still there if it is a real one.

    Incorrect, lke I described above, the Leaderboards were reset once.
    (unless you mean the Game Center Leaderboards, but those are disabled, filled with cheaters and out of our control).

    It only became easier :)

    Do not shut up :)

    I think the bigger picture is that the Leaderboards should always feel fresh and moving. There is no point if the top 100 is completely stagnant and (thus) on some unreachable level.
    In the current situation we thought for a while that the 10mil marker would be tough to breach, alas nearly the entire top 20 passed it by now.
    Because we hope Phoenix HD will bring a lot of new players, we first want to see the impact on the Leaderboards. It is very sensitive data and players have built up their own list of regional scores for over half a year now, playing on their holidays to collect more locations etc.

    Suggestions like having a weekly/seasonal leaderboard are awesome and we will definitely work with those. We are careful not to fragment, hence each ship doesn't have its own Leaderboard, but maybe it is interesting to use those as a filter, or as a themed seasonal Leaderboard.
    I think having a separate "Seasonal Leaderboard" next to the current "Master Leaderboard" would be a cool direction. Let me know how you guys feel about the situation, if you don't really care about it, just game on! :)


    This is correct; The Sonic Canon was removed from Phoenix' arsenal. Its dps was rolled into the other weapons, so there is no difference in firepower. If there is a difference (hint:there really isn't one) it's an increase as the spread of the projectiles usually caused them to end up outside the screen.
    The reason it was actually removed is because we had _so many_ particles that the screen was just ending up entirely white. Especially on the enemies, due to the hit effects of all the projectiles and sparks flying off. We tried to reduce the particles, but that just made the weapons less awesome, so we decided to remove the Sonic Canon as it had the least character in our opinion.
     
  13. gunxsword

    gunxsword Well-Known Member

    Dec 24, 2010
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    I reported this during beta...

    Why is it not fixed???
     
  14. eev

    eev Well-Known Member

    Oct 26, 2009
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    any plans to make more enemies and maybe some variety in patterns and gameplay? because it looks nice but gameplay is pretty repetitive, looks like endless battles with bosses or something like that.
     
  15. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
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    Nov 13, 2009
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    Always, but we are a very small studio, so one step at a time :)

    @sapphire_neo & @gunxsword: The Nightfury currently sits on the same slot as an Alpha Strike, so they knock each-other off. It's always been like that and we will change it when we get to that point on the list :) For now, if you want to be sure your Alpha Strike comes through completely, make sure you're moving while it shoots.
     
  16. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    #116 sapphire_neo, Aug 14, 2011
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2011
    Selachii, since the leaderboards don't specifically tell us the build or device a score was made using, can you give us some stats on how the top 10 for HD look and how the iPad and iPhone/iPod breakdown looks?

    Also, is it just me or is it much tougher to set a score with the Phoenix in the HD build? IT seems to take forever compared to Mirage or Corsair! I still love it for the screen filling weaponry heh

    Also, any additions you want to make to the leaderboards would be very welcome! I don't know how much data is actually logged in the leaderboards (like hopefully version/build/device), but I think those should be revealed for at least the top 10 or 25.

    Final edit... has the drop rates of EMPs changed in Phoenix HD? They seems a LOT rarer.
     
  17. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    I would really appreciate a feature addition in the update where you can set the auto-use of all types of weapons (as Alpha Strikes/Health/Shield/EMP) to either "use on hit" or "use on killing blow". Right now when the Alpha Strikes get triggered on killing blow it's almost useless. And having the option to change the setting will make it better suited to different styles of play. For example, some people would rather have the shield trigger on first hit and some might want it only for the killing blow.
     
  18. FPE

    FPE Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2010
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    I would love that too.
     
  19. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
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    Nov 13, 2009
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    Nope :)
     
  20. bagofeyes

    bagofeyes Well-Known Member

    Jul 27, 2011
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    this game is pretty awesome
     

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