Fractal Combat [Universal App]

[TheCrib]

Originally Posted by gunxsword

Hm... the radar cannot be fully relied upon to provide help in dodging the missiles though.

Too many missiles you say? Google some Macross Robotech VOXP PC (I recommend this) gameplay and allow me to welcome you to a heaven of missile hell (oxymoron?). The white circle things are enemy missiles (don't WTF me... there are that many missiles...). Green circles represent 'safe' missiles (one's that can't hit you), red are obviously one's that are about to hit you. The circles shrink or contract depending on their distance to your craft. Very convenient missile tracking system

Cool.. nice reference !

Personally I thought about FC game play more like: missiles are going to hit you anyway, so just get the energy.
But improving the element of evading enemy missiles could be interesting, too.
I just don't want the player to have to rely too much on that, because on the one hand there are those like you that know the ins and out of the flight combat games.. and on the other hand there are those that probably just want to jump in without trying to understand the HUD symbols too much.

But, I agree that generally there should be better hints on incoming missiles..

We'll see what we can do about that 8)

[TheCrib]

..again.. Thanks to everyone for getting the game d(^o^)b

[gunxsword]

More recommendations:
1. Explain the stats... seriously...
2. Total enemy count for stages. Won't mind if ya increase the kill requirement for 3 star though (if you comply to my demands )
3. Slow downs when I fly through debris? Why does most indie action games do this???
4. How is mission reward/credit awarded? Could increase the income though (or decrease item price).
5. Touch based thruster control, X-Plane style. Adjust thruster level on touch (I don't like dragging a slider around).
6. Turn the right/bottom side of the screen into 'fire' button.
7. More varied mission objectives eg. kill x enemies, destroy certain group of enemies (in special formations or special weaponry). This 'destroy these stuff' mission objectives got old before I started the 3rd mission (I liked the gameplay though...)
8. More missile types, for player and enemy. I want more types of missiles!!! Standard heatseeking is still fun to use, but you can't deny their aging status.

[TheCrib]

Originally Posted by gunxsword

More recommendations:
1. Explain the stats... seriously...
2. Total enemy count for stages. Won't mind if ya increase the kill requirement for 3 star though (if you comply to my demands )
3. Slow downs when I fly through debris? Why does most indie action games do this???
4. How is mission reward/credit awarded? Could increase the income though (or decrease item price).
5. Touch based thruster control, X-Plane style. Adjust thruster level on touch (I don't like dragging a slider around).
6. Turn the right/bottom side of the screen into 'fire' button.
7. More varied mission objectives eg. kill x enemies, destroy certain group of enemies (in special formations or special weaponry). This 'destroy these stuff' mission objectives got old before I started the 3rd mission (I liked the gameplay though...)
8. More missile types, for player and enemy. I want more types of missiles!!! Standard heatseeking is still fun to use, but you can't deny their aging status.

These are all valid requests.. some are more easy to implement than others.
Let me answer specifically to a couple:

2) Total enemies is just too much to kill in the allotted time. So, we decided not to put a total number because then one would feel like he couldn't get 100% of the enemies.. let's just say that it's an unknown number of enemies 8)
But it's certainly a point that other made during testing..

3) Slow downs are unfortunately a problem with the mobile devices' fill rate.
It was either have fake-looking explosions and little/no smoke, or have the explosions like we wanted but with some occasional slow down.

The slow down is more evident with the first iPad, but it's not there with iPad 2 and almost surely won't be there with the next gen of iPhone/iPod Touch.

That said.. I did personally spend quite a bit of time optimizing explosions.. but then there is a physical limit of how well can devices before iPad 2 handle translucency.
I don't personally own an iPad 2, because I didn't want to take it easy with optimization.. but I consider FC to be on the high end spectrum of hardware requirements.
Still, with all the devices that we tested, the one with more obvious slow downs was the iPad.

I may be able to find a work around to make slow downs less noticeable.. or degrade graphics for slower devices like Infinity Blade does.. but it's quite a bit of extra work 8)

7) More interesting mission objectives should come for the 1.1 or maybe the 1.2.. but are definitely already in the plans.

[syntheticvoid]

I'm LOVING this game!!! The explosion animations are FRIGGIN AWESOME!!! I really can't tell you how much I love em! =oD


I'm not getting any slowdown when going through the debris though... on a 4th gen touch... =o/

game runs so smooth... I LOVE IT!!!

**edit**


K i did just get my first slow-down, but it was when I blew up 4 ships at once right in front of my own ship... and it wasn't much of a slowdown... =oP

[TheCrib]

Originally Posted by syntheticvoid

I'm LOVING this game!!! The explosion animations are FRIGGIN AWESOME!!! I really can't tell you how much I love em! =oD

YEAHH !!! Go around and blow things up.. what else could one possibly want ?! 8)

Incidentally, we just temporarily dropped the price to $0.99 to celebrate for the introduction in the New & Noteworthy Games section.

In the meantime, we're working on a couple of updates that should bring new stuff.. new enemies to start and eventually different play modes.

Thank you for your support, especially the early adopters!
The game is still growing.. stay tuned 8)

Davide

[gunxsword]

Originally Posted by TheCrib

Incidentally, we just temporarily dropped the price to $0.99 to celebrate for the introduction in the New & Noteworthy Games section.

Thank you for your support, especially the early adopters!
The game is still growing.. stay tuned 8)

Seriously? Do I have to tell you how much forum members HATE this thing? Early adopters buy the game at full price (regardless of amount) and the dev drops the price SHORTLY afterwards for ANY reason, no matter how significant/insignificant it is. "Thank you for your support?" Yeah sure why not, I'll bite the bullet this time. Just wait because there probably won't be a second.

In the meantime, we're working on a couple of updates that should bring new stuff.. new enemies to start and eventually different play modes.

These better be good. Guess I'll stop playing this until some form of on screen missile indicator comes up.

[syntheticvoid]

really, as good as this game is... $1.99 is a friggin deal. not to mention 99 cents...

and all I can say is that at least they aren't doing what the devs of Fast Striker are doing... charging $5 for the first 3 days, getting bad reviews, dropping the price to $1, then raising it back up to $3... pretty much TOTALLY screwing the people that were following the game from development.

Also, it's not like he's making the game free... but I can understand the price drop, especially right after the first real review the game got... hopefully it helps with sales, and gets the game some more attention, because this is one game I feel truly deserves way more attention than it's getting.

I can understand getting upset about the price drop, but the game has been out for 2 weeks... so it's not like the price drop came a couple days after you bought it or something... treat it like a game that you bought then a couple weeks later it went free... you paid to play the game RIGHT THEN instead of waiting... and that extra buck you gave to the dev will go towards making this amazing game even better. Feel good about supporting the dev. =oD

Judging by this game, he totally deserves support, and you should feel great about being able to support him. =o)


If I got upset about every game I bought that had a price drop not 2 or 3 days later, I'd never buy another game again, because it's happened to me with almost every single dev company there... I've got to look at it like I'm paying to play the game right now, before everyone else... getting a head start on the leaderboards... and supporting the developers... =oD

[flameon]

Bought it cause reminds me of air combat. ill post impressions later.

[MicroByte]

Purchased as well. Missiles and explosions, what more could you ask for!