Star Sentinel Tactics - New Screen And Alpha Demo
Community Forums/Showcase/Star Sentinel Tactics - New Screen And Alpha Demo
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Here's the latest screenshot from a near-finished level in Star Sentinel Tactics, showing off a couple of different enemies, and the new personal shields. They look better with laser beams ricochet'ing off of them, but I haven't captured a video just yet. There's also a playable alpha demo which is available to download. It's from the first level in the game, and rather a lot of things have been fixed/changed/improved since this demo was released to beta testers. Nevertheless, I'm sure it will be useful to get technical and gameplay feedback from you. http://www.starsentineltactics.com/downloads/sstdemo.zip Here's a screen from the alpha demo:  No installer or anything so just unpack it somewhere and go. You will need the latest DX9 runtimes, which are available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en Other than that, it should work on Windows 98 onward, although I've only personally tested on XP and Vista. It should play nice with UAC so please tell me if it doesn't. A shader model 2.0 videocard is highly recommended although it might just about run without one. The final game, however, won't. If you're going to test the demo, PLEASE consider posting your reply in my forum as the forum has been set up specifically to allow me to get feedback on public alpha/beta versions. It's so much easier to ensure I don't miss anyone when I don't have to check numerous different sites. Not to mention when I get around to fixing a bug in three weeks and I can't remember who reported it on which forum to ask them to check it's been solved. Thanks. http://starsentineltactics.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0 Also if you happen to crash it or get something odd to happen, please pack up the debug files and send them to me. They can be found in C:\Users\<username>\Appdata\Local\TheLateNightGameCompany\StarSentinelTactics\ on Vista or in C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\TheLateNightGameCompany\StarSentinelTactics\ on Windows XP. |
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| Looks pretty professional, man. Good luck with it. |
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| Looks good. After the zoom explanation it just quit to desktop without an error. ill give it another try in a bit. |
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| Oh, a demo! I must try! |
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| Looks well polished, I love the soft-shadows. Excellent work Gabriel. |
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| Is this TV3D and BlitzMax? [edit] I downloaded it and saw that it TV3D. Looks wonderful! I am going to give TV3D a try- is your wrapper (linked from your sig) up-to-date? |
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| Thanks for the encouraging comments. RifRaf: If you read this before trying again, can you send me the log files? They should be in C:\Users\<username>\Appdata\Local\TheLateNightGameCompany\StarSentinelTactics\ on Vista or in C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\TheLateNightGameCompany\StarSentinelTactics\ on Windows XP. I can't think of anything which would cause a crash at that point, but it's possible the logs will contain some useful information. Tachyon: Yes, this is TV3D and BlitzMax. I think the wrapper is up to date with the latest official TV3D update, but I'm currently using an unofficial version which patches some bugs with the physics. If you have any trouble getting the wrapper going, send me an email and I'll let you have the version I'm currently using. |
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| Looks really cool. However, that ground texture on the second screen looks too large I think. It makes the soldiers look like toy soldiers. |
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| So.. good work. As nawi began to say, there's a few "hoewevers". I spent the last 3 hours testing the demo, and came up with the following points: 1.) Polished work. - Graphics are cool. As Nawi said, the ground textures in the demo level are partly too large. Concering graphics i'd add, that the whole thing, imho, is a little too coloured. That sucks on "seriousity". Maybe just some ground-dust and post-color-correction could help ot there. - The tutorial was very helpful. - I like it how i could realy spent time on thinking about tactics how to tackle the enemy. The many options for char actions are well-suited. I also loved it to interact with the world.. especially opening that door with that computer in the tutorial was cool! more of that! (theres an animation missing when that guy operated at the computer, maybe the same anim could be used in the demo level when your unit restores the door control). That whole AP-points system is K.E.W.L.!! 2.) I experienced several more or less small "bugs": - Always when pressing Alt-Tab to switch apps, the console opens up. Thats annoying. Better use circumflex or one of the F-Keys for that. - "Sometimes" (unfortunately i cant get more precise) in the tut as well as in the demo level, The camera position didnt react anymore when touching the lower screen edge. No idea why. I had to turn the camera then, to operate on the area below the cam. I played fullscreen 1920*1080, if that plays a role. - just like RifRaf, I had two silent crashes to desktop. They both occured immidiately when i was pressing a button. first time when i hit "Game Options" in the Main Menu on first run. Second time when i hit "End Turn" on second run. The third and the following runs runned crash-free. 3.) Gameplay hints: - I experienced the game playing too slow. (no, not fps-wise.) I spent half the game watching my characters walking the screen! that should be abortable! - Hotkeys for the character actions! (Or did i miss them?) - (Only if that doesnt kill your overall motivation: Sounds for the cutscenes and character talking) - Why did i never see one of those nasty bugs attacking my units? they stood next to them and did _nothing_?! - My units are standing on a yard in front of the enemy, but shooting the wall 90 degrees left-hand. The action was called 'aimed shot' :( - Always when giving a command to or selecting a unit the camera re-centers (dunno if that word exists) on that unit. Why? - Why is it so necessary, to have the player de-selecting the current unit before he can select another one? - Why cant i select/give commands to multiple characters in one time as well? (Selecting multiple by drawing a mouse-rectangle or holding ctrl/shift would be cool!) - I dont wanna run into hyper-criticism. Just .. until i slowly got common to it, it was weird to have little half-second loading pauses always when reselecting another char. The weirdness was multiplied by the constant camera-recentering. After all criticism, dont understand me wrong. I am sure this is one of the best/professional Games ever "Blitz'ed". Just wanna help you making it even more professional. @Tachyon: So is there a chance the next eschalon is tv3d-powered :)? |
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| Thanks guys, that's some very useful feedback. I'll take the points in order. 1) The ground texture scale has been fixed in the current version. It was actually a problem with several different levels and while I personally liked the scale for this level, plenty didn't, so it's been changed. 2) I hadn't thought of the clash between tab and alt-tab but it's a good point and because the app doesn't recognize input when it's not got the focus, it won't go away either. I switch to using the ~ (tilde) key instead. 3) The camera refusing to scroll is completely new to me, but I will have a go and see if I can find that. It could be a math problem. 4) No idea on the crashes. It seems rather odd, but one of my beta testers reported that the options button crashed on the very first run for him too. If anyone gets a crash of any kind I'd really appreciate it if they would send the debug files (mentioned in my first post) over to me. They get wiped with each run so it's vital to send them after the crash and before playing again. 5) It might be possible to skip walking, but I'll have to check. Because this kind of game has a complex line-of-sight system it's not always possible to know in advance where the actor will end up. For example, an expected line of sight change may cause an interruption and he will not finish the walk action. I could maybe boost the movement and animation speed for walking a little though. 6) Hotkeys seem like a good idea. I'll add those. 7) I considered voice acting, but I'd need at least seven or eight different actors, which would probably be extremely expensive. Plus I'm aware that bad voice acting is infinitely worse than none. 8) Because the bugs are very large creatures, there are places where they're unable to attack you despite you being close. Letting you make tactical advantage of the landscape is intentional. It sounds as though you just witnessed buggy AI though. I think the AI was completely rewritten since then as I've been testing that level recently and got seriously beaten up by them. (Although I did have the new difficulty levels cranked up.) 9) The UALW laser pistol was very inaccurate in the demo, I'm not sure why. It misses by such a large margin because the bugs are so huge, and it's hard to ensure the shot misses otherwise. I've recently redesigned the weapon accuracy system from scratch, according to feedback from beta testers and it's much, much rarer to miss at close range now. I'm also hoping to make the misses much narrower too. 10) So that you can see the action taking place. So that you're ready for the next action. It's occasionally irritating (eg: when shooting at a character long-range) but it's more irritating without it. Were there any particular actions you felt it inappropriate with? I could possibly disable it for some actions. 11) If it were possible to select actors when you were aiming/using/moving it would interfere with those actions. (EG: If you click on a location to walk to there could be another actor in front of it. I can't tell if you meant to switch control to that actor or walk to that path node.) It's very, very annoying when you click to walk somewhere and end up changing actor. 12) Control of multiple actors at once would lead to imprecision in the actions. For example, if you tried to move five actors at once, the game would have to arrange the actors final positions according to a formation or something, like an RTS does. But in an RTS this is acceptable because there are no AP limits and no line of sight interruptions. In a turn-based game, you would potentially spend one or two AP more than if you set your own positions for each character. You might even trigger an LOS interruption which got you attacked. (I realize these don't happen on the demo level, but they do in the game.) I don't think hardcore TBT players would forgive that. I hope that answers everything. I'll make all the changes I've noted above, and take a second (and possibly third) look at the points I have doubts about. I may yet find some kind of compromise or little bit of help in those areas too. |
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| but one of my beta testers reported that the options button crashed on the very first run for him too. i had that prob also ( as soon as i loaded the game i went right to options as i usually do on a first run), but it was fine the next run. i've only played the tutorial part so far ( which was good, although the walk back to locker to get this, walk back to firing range....rinse repeat thing was a little annoying but i understand it was to get the user used to doing certain things), but i'm liking what i see. to me it has a "UFO: Aftermath"'esq kinda feel to it. |
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| Ack, so quite a few people get this then. I've just tried doing it again myself and it doesn't happen for me no matter how quickly I open the options. I must be doing it wrong. Can any of you guys who got this crash try deleting the LateNightGameCompany folder ( which to repeat is found in C:\Users\<username>\Appdata\Local on Vista and in C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data on XP ) and starting the game again and see if it crashes again? If it does crash again, please send me all the log files which will have been recreated in that LateNightGameCompany folder (which will itself have been recreated. ) That's the only thing I can think of which would explain it happening only the first run. |
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| email sent. edit: i didn't see it quickly skimming through the logs so incase its important XP home, sp3 1gb ram amd athlon xp2200+ |
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| did you get the email? |
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| Sorry, yes, I did get the email. Thanks for that. I've been going over it with a fine-tooth comb, but I can't find any clues. It's unlikely that it's fixed in the current version because I've never noticed any problems with buttons. I may have to just write a lot more debugging code, especially around tabs and buttons, but specifically around game options and the green button and hope that the next version will show it. It may be an XP specific thing. Out of interest, do you generally use an Admin windows account or just a generic user account? I'm wondering if it's some kind of permissions thing writing the .ini files to local appdata. |
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| looking excellent :) |
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| run as admin, i'm the only 1 that uses this computer. i think i find it more puzzeling that it runs fine every time after the initial run then if it just wouldn't work at all. |
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| same for me. |
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| best blitz game ive seen |
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| will take a look later on :) - looks very cool m8y - love this kinda game. |
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I've just completed polishing, tweaking and playtesting the first ten missions. I decided to take a quick break to upload a few screenshots I've captured over the past couple of weeks. It's not necessarily 1 screen per level, but just a taste of the locations, enemies and missions in the final game.          |
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| That looks cool. |
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| Very polished coming along nice :) |
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| Wow! Looks like a game even I'd play! Well done! |
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Looks lovely -- I assume it has Space Crusade influences? Even if not, it brings back fond memories of my terrible game-playing abilities... and later Amiga incompatibilities. |
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| This looks like a third-person Mass Effect. Lately, it seems like there are a bunch of really fantastic-looking Blitz projects on the horizon but not not yet available for play. I'm starting to get bluekeyboard. SpaceAce |
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| Looking great, very professional appearance! |
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| I really like the looks of this Gabe. I think you have a hit on your hands. |
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| Thanks everyone. You're all very kind. @James: I don't think I ever played Space Crusade, but it looks like something I would have played if I'd known about it. My main inspiration for this would be Laser Squad (Spectrum) but it also has a dash of XCom and Jagged Alliance in there too. I don't know where I got the idea to make it story-driven though, since I can't think of any turn-based games which have done that. I guess I just prefer games that have some element of narrative holding the thing together. |
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| I will buy it asap. My Word on it. |
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| I don't think I ever played Space Crusade, but it looks like something I would have played if I'd known about it. My main inspiration for this would be Laser Squad (Spectrum) Laser Squad was great on the Speccy. I think I only played the demo of Space Crusade on the Amiga, but it's along the same lines as Laser Squad anyway. Good luck with this! It looks great. |
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| This is great, congratulation Gabriel! |
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| Looks cool! I play a lot of these types of games. My only issue is that the game play is way too slow, even for a turn based game. I would make the movement a lot faster, or have a player controlled variable speed. Also, I would assume that the player wants to select another unit when he clicks on it. I would also assume that by default he wants the unit to move to a location. I didn't like the idea that I had to click on the next unit icon to select a different unit, although I can see that being useful at times, and having to click a walk button to tell the unit to walk. In my mind, that should be the default action as in games like x-com. Game looks really cool though. I'll be keeping my eye on this. |
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| Movement speed is configurable, not by the user but it's just a data file I can edit at any time. Personally I find the movement much too slow at the moment, but I've played the game a lot more than everyone else. I didn't want to change it based on my preferences until I had others saying the same thing. You don't have to click the next unit button to select a new unit. You can just click on the unit. You just have to cancel the current action first (right-click). Initially I did assume that anyone clicking on an actor wanted to change unit selection but people were accidentally changing units all the time, and that includes me. I don't know how I can stop accidental unit changes from happening if I go back to that. The units do outline when the mouse hovers now, and the mousepicking is done with polygon collisions even on animated models so it's very accurate. Can't 100% remember if I was using poly collisions or bounding box back then. That would have made a difference. Anyone have any thoughts on how I can make accidental unit switching happen less if I allow this? Walk is the default action. I changed that a while ago. I agree that it was most annoying having to select move every time. |
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| ..This might sound retarded.. but cant you simply have a mouse-over menu allowing the user to "set control" or "set target" or something.. perhaps not the best solution... but quite natural all the same.. ;) |
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| I think if right-clicking was too inconvenient for people, then a mouse-over menu would be equally - or even more - inconvenient. In any case, I decided to add an option which speeds up walking, running, changing stance, etc and that does make a big difference. It's optional, so you don't have to have people running around like Benny Hill, but it really does help if you've been playing the game a lot, as I inevitably have. I've also enabled you to select units while move mode is enabled. This will not apply in use or attack modes, obviously, because that would be pure ambiguity, but movement is easily the most common mode and it's now the default, so it makes sense to allow you to switch units. It doesn't seem too confusing to me, so maybe the overlays, the outlines and the vertex-perfect picking was good enough. If not, I can remove it by changing a constant, so no biggie. I'm thinking I'll probably take another three weeks (although that could be longer since I'm getting a lot of interruptions since the press release went out this week) to tweak the AI and have a last rummage around for bugs. Then it'll probably be ready to go to betatesters around then. |
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