Tank Universal - new demo
Community Forums/Showcase/Tank Universal - new demo
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| Hi all Have updated the Tank Universal demo with new features and better gameplay (including a skirmish mode). download (86mb) from: http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU_DEMO_INSTALL.exe Here's some screenies ;-)    |
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| Nice, quite fun and looking good :) But I don't like the F Key bindings for the powerups ... distracting from the gameplay and focus ... |
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| You can use the numeric keys as well for powerups. Also, shift is turbo, F = lay mine (if you have that powerup and enough powershards). The other powerups are function keymapped, you'll just have to deal with it ;-) |
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| Hi MadJack. I've been playtesting the version you sent me last week, and I've got a number of observations for you. I'll send them soon once I've finished playtesting. My general feelings so far about this new version are VERY positive. Dreamora - you have a problem with the function key bindings? Really? Fair enough - it's just that it's pretty much the standard way of selecting different weapons in most first-person-shooters, and really seems like a logical choice for this game. Each to their own I guess. Everyone else - you have all got to try this game. It really is absolutely outstanding. The scale and ambition on display is remarkable. I can't believe it's the product of a one-man-show. |
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| Fantastic Demo, very captivating, when it said blue team had the enemy key, I held off the opposition to let my team mate retrieve the key. Brilliant fun..... I think the keys are fine. Have you any plans to incorporate analogue joystick input? I'd a little play with this myself in my 3d prototype end zone trucking... didn't retrieve much critical acclaim, and certainly isn't a patch on your great game madjack. |
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| I've been playtesting the version you sent me last week, and I've got a number of observations for you. I'll send them soon once I've finished playtesting. My general feelings so far about this new version are VERY positive. Thanks Ervin. I'm very close to releasing the BIG game update and your suggestions now would be excellent. My general feelings so far about this new version are VERY positive. Thanks again. I feel this version really straightens out a lot of the issues with the first version. There's still things that could be improved of course (character design and animation for one), but they'll suffice. Blitzplotter I held off the opposition to let my team mate retrieve the key. Heh - if you like, you can touch the key carrying teammate and transfer the key to your own tank - steal his glory so to speak. Have you any plans to incorporate analogue joystick input? Sorry - at this point, it's keyboard and mouse only. |
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| ..i like the game but i dont like turreet controls...its really hard to navigate and turning turret all time...for me, its better as first demo i try, where turret is locked to the tank so if i turn tank, turret follow, until I decide to turn turret additionally with mouse..other than that...nicee... |
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| ..ok ..my bad..I just missed that option on/off inside options menu...:) |
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| NA There is an option to have the turret turn with the tankbase - however the game's really designed for play with the turret independent of the tankbase. Just think of it as an fps where you define your direction with the standard WASD controls, but can flick your viewpoint around ;-) |
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| yup..i noticed that, so its fine..however, this level is significantly smaller than first demo you post some time ago...by the way, how many levels this game have? |
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| NA this level is significantly smaller than first demo you post some time ago Yes - the test level I released about a month ago is larger and this latest demo's battlefield would be one of the smallest - but this demo will be the final demo (cross fingers). I also added 3 three levels in the update - this brings the game up to about 20 playable levels + the skirmish level. Playtesters report about 6-8 hours play - so about average for an FPS I think. |
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| MJ - nice demo. I particually like the new power-ups and units (especially the roving 'bomb' thing. ) As a buyer of the orignal game I'm quite looking forward to the next installment :) All the best, Roy |
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| Roy especially the roving 'bomb' thing I've tweaked the mobilebomb AI since the initial release and they're definitely more interesting and dangerous now ;-) Barring the discovery of some major bug, the update should be available in the next week or so. I'm also very confident you'll find the game much improved! (Will send you an email when it's ready) |
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| Thanks MJ I'll keep an eye out for that email ;) |
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| Having helped playtest this new version, I can confirm that it is indeed excellent, and there are several improvements in there that really make a difference. The new levels and additional gameplay mechanics are just fantastic. |
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| Thanks MadJack, I downloaded it, will try ASAP |
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| I am looking forwards to getting this version, I really enjoyed the first version even if I did have to email you a few times for help :) My main PC is down at the moment and I am using my laptop, so its pointless me downloading it just yet as I doubt it has a snowball in hell's chance of running on my laptop, but hopefully I will be road testing it by the end of next week. |
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| DM I will be road testing it by the end of next week Sounds good. In terms of the update, just doing some final bug crushing now. _33 Did it run ok? |
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| Hey MadJack, The demo works fine, no bugs whatsoever, yet my score on the normal mode of the skirmisher was 3800. I got the mother ship shooting at me and a lot of other tanks and I just died miserably every 30 seconds or so at that point. But it was fun for the while before that as I was gladly destroying everything in my path. I didn't have the F4 key do anything even after picking up 3 gifts :( I could drop mines (F3 ?). The soundtrack is very good. |
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| _33 F4 will drop a turret behind you - you'll need to have enough powerhards though and you should hear the turret saying 'scanning'. They can also draw fire away from you. And on some keyboards, you need to make sure the F lock is on, else the function keys won't work. Failing that, you can use the numeric keys. The skirmish mode does ramp up in difficulty - I'd rather it give people a challenge they can come back to, rather than beat it first time. The trick is to never stop and towards the end, really make use of the powerups - particularly rockets to take out multiple tanks at once. The soundtrack's from arteria gaming - they've got some great tracks! |
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| Got around to playing with this last night after it was sitting around installed for a week. Wow. I played your last demo extensively and it was very nice, but this one's just a step up again. Really shows the value of taking the extra time to polish it up just that lil more. And even though my rig is at the bottom of the minimum requirements, TU runs flawlessly at 1024x768 (and higher, but I turned it down just in case), even at the peak of skirmish mode chaos. The last demo was a great technical achievement and a fun diversion. This demo makes the game an essential purchase for me. Much kudos, and more power to you. |
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| Lineof7s Glad you liked the demo! I'm a little worried by your specs though - the demo is one of the smallest battlefields in the game. On a couple of the big levels, things can chug a little when there's a lot of action going on (20 - 30 tanks + shells + particlefx). I do recommend a 128mb card. However, I'm releasing the updated version sometime in the next few days (barring any last minute delays) and it'll probably be priced at $15.95. |
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| Aaah... oops. Coulda sworn I'd updated that sig. Sorry. I've actually now got a 6600GT 128MB. Again, oops. ...still, it runs nicely with this processor and memory. And that's with the pretty glowy effects on. w00h00! |
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| Lineof7s I've actually now got a 6600GT 128MB. Again, oops. Cool - that should be fine then! I'm just making some final tweaks now and the updated version should be available shortly - keep an eye on the webpage for news. www.tankuniversal.com |
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| Ok - have uploaded V1.21 to Share-It. Purchase link re-activated on http://www.tankuniversal.com |
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| MadJack: I was trying to sell this game to a friend of mine (y'know, evangelist-style) and wanted to give him a rundown of the sort of stuff the complete game gives him (he enjoyed your last demo). I searched your site, read your forums, and even checked the IndieGamer forums (where I found this), but despite a list of new features in that last link, I couldn't find anywhere a list of *complete* features of the game. In fact, I couldn't find much at all about the game apart from the one(?) sentence description of it at the website that bears its name. Now if I didn't already know something about it before now, I'd be at a total loss - but even now, I was surprised to discover (from the Indiegamer post) that one could exit one's tank. And did that old grandfatherly dude you once showed us here actually make it into the game? etc etc |
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| Lo7 I couldn't find anywhere a list of *complete* features of the game. Yes - I kind of assumed that the short blurb (on the website) + demo + youtube links would give enough info about the overall character of the game. But as you say, perhaps an 'about' page is needed that does give a complete feature list for those who want to know a bit more before committing their hard earned dollars or euros ;-) but even now, I was surprised to discover ...that one could exit one's tank. There's a couple of sections where the player has to leave the tank to progress and there's a couple of levels entirely on-foot. They're usually quieter sections as they don't involve combat - however the bulk of the game is spent driving/fighting. And did that old grandfatherly dude you once showed us here actually make it into the game? You mean George? Yep, he's still there in a couple of cutscenes and he's pivotal to the story. |
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| Excellent. Good ole George. Well now that you've spent 2 years on throwing this together, I'll just push my luck and ask very nicely for that 'About' page you mentioned. Just something I can point people toward. Everything you have there very much tells people "Oh cool! It's a tank game like Tron!", but the rest of it's a bit of a mystery at the moment... (imho) |
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| LO7 My wife says that George looks a lot like me, ignoring the angular features of George's face of course. So you can imagine how thrilled I am with the description of 'old grandfatherly dude' ;) MadJack Excellent game again, I loved the first one and you have improved the game in the only weak areas that the game had. I think you deserve a lot of success with it. |
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| DM Are you sure it's not you? ;-) I bought the head as a model from Turbosquid, so I have no idea who 'George' actually is in real life. He looks a pleasant sort of chap however ;-) |
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| Lo7 I couldn't find anywhere a list of *complete* features of the game. Ok - have tweaked the website a bit - it's not a full list of features, but should give a clearer idea of what's involved. [p.s. - sorry for the thread resurrection] |
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| Much better. Thankyou. :o) |
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| Woohoo! TU is on the frontpage of Fileplanet http://www.fileplanet.com http://www.fileplanet.com/185642/180000/fileinfo/Tank-Universal-Demo |
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| Awesome. |
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| Is that a new version of the demo? I don't like the user ratings, but congratz on the publicity! |
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| Is that a new version of the demo? Yep - v1.2 As for the ratings, I think you've got to be a bit sanguine about these sorts of things - I reckon they're ok for a site that's primarily focused on commercial releases. |
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| I get an MAV on trying to run it in windowed mode, in fullscreen I get yet another MAV after clicking the demo level button at the main menu (at the screen that says "> Initializing Connection" or something similar). Also the background colour for each "working..." screen is dark green, and the corner black parts of the working image are visible. |
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| What's your specs? |
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| XP sp2, 1GB ram, Intel 2.20ghz processor, and ATI RADEON 7500 (laptop) |
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| Plash I suspect it'll be the vid card - really requires a 128mb card or it might not like some of the internal trickery the game uses when drawing the radar/glow fx. But if you could give this a go; right mouse click on the desktop icon and edit the target to include -safe e.g. "C:\Program Files\Tank Universal\TU_GAME.exe" -safe That'll force the game to start in a different way and it might solve the issue (be interested to know if this solves the crash) |
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| Plash, Radeon 7500 is a pre Direct X 8 card. Possible problem with the display drivers on the laptop (very hard to find decent drivers by the way for such old GPU). On my part, I found that the demo is very short! IT's basically just a practice course + a skirmish mode. Oh, when the game announced there were going to be turrets, I didn't have turrets to hunt down, but had to try something else with hunting down couple ennemies. |
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| Plash, Radeon 7500 is a pre Direct X 8 card Just searching on the web, the 7500 dates from about 2001? However, I'm keen to know if the safe mode has an effect. On my part, I found that the demo is very short! True - I was trying to keep file size below 100megs. Oh, when the game announced there were going to be turrets, I didn't have turrets to hunt down I think you're referring to dropturrets? They are in and they do definitely work! But you do need to grab the upgrade when it appears on the skirmish arena and you then need enough powershards to drop one. They're also quite small in relation to your tank. |
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| Front page of Fileplanet? Fantastic! TU might finally get something like the success it deserves! |
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| Ervin It's made me a few extra sales - not many, but it's all good publicity. The other thing is I've got a review due from Bytten on the 25th April, http://www.bytten.com, so hopefully they won't pan the game too much and I can link from my website without too much shame ;-) I've been working along the lines of getting one piece of publicity out per day. I've come to realise that the saying 'if you build it, they will come' is a load of bullsh*t. You have to market. I've also come to realise the indie scene is predisposed towards RPG's, anything involving zombies, and 2D graphics, particularly 2d, which I dislike - so I've got to work a little harder. Incidentally, I've also submitted TU to this; http://www.indiecade.com Who knows? Maybe it'll lead somewhere. (Also, I wonder if it worked for Plash in the end? He hasn't posted again) |
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| What I really don`t like thoe is the launcher and it's proposed graphics resolutions. It could of been more intelligent and make a choice up to 1600x1200. I did notice the graphics are much smoother than before in the gameplay, which is a big thumbs up to you MadJack because this will help the game play on more systems comfortably. Concerning the turrets, actually, in the demo, when you do the training, the system announces turrets (the ones that are stationed left and right of ennemy ground. I didn't have thoe immediately as a challenge, but had to fight a load of tanks. |
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| Have you had it reviewed in PC Format yet? I think it's up to the standard for that. Just go for it mate and send it to all the magazines you can find. |
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| -safe worked. |
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| -safe worked. Cool - basically safe mode means it uses blitz's standard copyrec command rather than Toms DX7test.dll and it doesn't load textures using the 256 flag - I suspect it was the 256 flag that was causing the issue. However, I think there'd still be issues with the full game in terms of vid mem used on some of the larger levels. Just go for it mate and send it to all the magazines you can find. Yep - next step on my way to world domination ;-) |
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| Hey Phil, I'm so sorry I never got back to you! I've practically been glued to the books all semester, even on my spring break! So sorry that I haven't given any feedback, I did play one full game of the skirmish, I really enjoyed it! But just as of yet have no free time. :/ I'll email you properly soon! |
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| Zenith No problem - your feedback has been really useful already and it sounds like you've got a full plate! (Also, I've released V1.2 and apart from minor updates, I really expect that'll be the final version.) |
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