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Miscellaneous
Discussion With EnderX
As the fallout surrounding this canceled project continues to crackle, my discussion of the game's virtues and numerous flaws with EnderX might be something people want to read. The formatting of this is rather odd (answers, THEN questions) having been hacked wholesale from my outbox. (Posted with his permission, of course.)
(Max's Note: No idea what he's talking about here...those comments (what comments, again?) far predate the Blood Machine controversy.)
Thanks for the feedback.
Let's try and do this on a case-by-case basis.
1. You seem to have successfully understood the function of each class. Congratulations to us both!
2."The thing's many multi-millenia old. Exactly what marks 'reasonable time frame' to such a thing?"
This was a question I intended to raise with this line, so surely the fact you're asking is a good thing?
3. Pretty sure it was your keyboard, d00d. That kind of thing just doesn't happen with VX.
4. Try unequipping the shield to trade-off defense for offense once the first weapon drops. See how the customization begins immediately, balanced by the weight/power issue? Maybe I should have put a tutorial. I thought people didn't like tutorials though.
5. Cool idea, but A) Script I'm using doesn't allow for that; B) The minigun uses the battery to "spin up" the barrels whether one shot is fired or five.
6.I think people missing the Basic6 is the cause of many of my woes, review-wise. If you juggle equipped parts, you can equip it and a weapon (but probably not it and a weapon and a shield and a shoulder pack). Leveling up grants more weight/power.
7.Magetext (which incidentally is telepathy) is readable on my monitor. There is no accounting for other people's monitors. I'll see what I can do to make it more readable.
8. First duel with a repair mech, it is a miniboss. I never had serious trouble to it. I died a few times (distributed throughout several play throughs)...I thought dying the first time on the eighth or ninth fight into a game after ample save points was acceptable. It is not that tough but obviously was a sticking point for several people so- yeah. Sigma never needs to heal, ever, or have a pack equipped. Just drain enemies to death. Why would you ever heal with a powerful drain ability?
9. Random chance fail although the shotgun is somewhat inaccurate and the recon mechs do have high evasion. I would not suggest spamming the "Wide Spread" ability; it is not great for every situation; attacking just one target does more damage and has higher accuracy as a tradeoff for just attacking one target. I take it you stopped playing at this point?
(Max's Note: He did.)
attempted to play this after reading the Solitayre review and the nice fireflood that followed it, coupled with your own comments on Solitayre's old article about how he reviews things.
(Max's Note: No idea what he's talking about here...those comments (what comments, again?) far predate the Blood Machine controversy.)
I'm trying to determine whether or not this would qualify as legitimately accepted criticism, or if I should start running now and avoid the wait. I'm sorry, but you do seem to react badly to what I believe was intended as constructive criticism.
This isn't a review. It's my own beta notes, taken while I was attempting to play through your game. I freely admit that I only played as one genetic pattern (your suggested Sigma), and that I quit as soon as I died in combat.
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Intro - Patterns.
The girl's quite coherent for someone who's just seen her family raided and slaughtered, and who has spent days wandering in the darkness. I suspect she'd be bobbling much more than just stuttering a few words...and I'm not quite sure she'd understand even enough to say 'I don't have one' to the machine's asking about her genetic heritage.
Described as a 'Jackhammer Class Assault Mech' in the description. So yes, the term 'Jackhammer' was defined early on.
The thing's many multi-millenia old. Exactly what marks 'reasonable time frame' to such a thing?
Thoughts from description (albeit modified by having read the argument in the Solitayre review)
Alpha -> Heal. Delta -> Buff. Sigma -> Debuff||Drain. Omega -> Heavy MP (although I wouldn't have known if I hadn't read the Solitayre/Max McGee razorwind battle thread) + Fire attacks. Fence -> Ninja (Evasive, Cloaking, shatters like a toothpick.) Temple -> Battletank (Warrior + Tank), but either low MP or basic abilities are a constant MP drain. Aim poorly, but hurts if it hits. Mage -> Good MP and whatever 'Control' is (explanations for some terms would be recommended), but slow -glass- toothpicks. Thunder attack.
While attempting to record data on the types for my own use, Temple somehow autoselected while I was typing. If it happens again with another (set to Sigma, starting choice, just in case), then there's a time autofire here that needs to be removed. (Later note: Did not happen. Perhaps my keyboard stuttered, although since I was typing in notepad at the time, I wouldn't think the VX gameplayer would have registered it.)
Not seeing a true tutorial mode. Straight south is a three-weapon selection. Two weapons, one shield.
First battle drops a weapon - which is, at this point, nigh worthless; fully equipping on previous weaponry means that only eight power remain, while the new item has a ten-power requirement.
Multifire battery loss - looks to be coded. Possibly calibrate for non-used shot cost? (Ex: ROF5 starting weapon costs 5 BAT. Monster goes down in three hits because of good crits; only use 3 BAT up? Would not apply to missed/dodged shots, as those actually were fired, only to unfired shots when the attack ends.)
Battles not random; specific points in pathway mark. Nice touch.
After stepping out of the recharger, heading for the other machine, the 'this is a recharger' message triggered again.
I'm assuming the 'backpack' you were referring to in the arguments is the 'Basic6 module' - that little alcove isn't obvious as someplace where things are stored. (Didn't find it until after the Neverender battle.) Also, simply equipping the starting gear (unless you went for the rail gun) means you won't have enough power to equip it when you get there. I had three plus an equipped shoulder mount drop; taking the mount off would only allow for ten more; that's still not enough to equip the pack.
I don't care if it's an 'accent' thing or not, please brighten up that mage text so it's readable! You may have tested on an LCD monitor, but some people are still playing on CRTs and mine just got noseprints from how close I had to stick my face to read that mage text.
First battle against a repair mech. The thing should not have been able to both deal that much damage and heal that much HP unless it was a local boss machine, which I'm betting isn't the case. Otherwise, the player has to (with your suggested genetic configuration) burn too much energy healing. And someone who didn't have the healing pack would have been shrapnel long before the battle could end.
The first repair mech was a subboss-level fight at the least. To follow it up almost immediately with another one, which has backup, is an unwise idea. Also, either my accuracy was too low or their evasion was too high - I was attempting the multi-target shotgun blast skill, and had nothing hit until round four. By which time I no longer had enough HP to stand up to their attacks, and was killed by the medic mech.
Miscellaneous
Canceled is a continuum, not a binary state.
This time I mean canceled as in "This game is apparently far less good than I thought it was, and unless someone can convince me otherwise, I am very frustrated and besides, there are lots of other projects and even ideas that need some TLC."
Do not mistake that for canceled as in "MY WILL TO EVER WORK ON THIS GAME AGAIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES HAS BEEN UTTERLY AND PERMANENTLY SUNDERED", a rare circumstance that has only happened once before.
This is about seven orders of magnitude less FINAL a cancellation than that. I might even work on this again one day...just not any time soon and not if nothing happens to convince me.
Do not mistake that for canceled as in "MY WILL TO EVER WORK ON THIS GAME AGAIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES HAS BEEN UTTERLY AND PERMANENTLY SUNDERED", a rare circumstance that has only happened once before.
This is about seven orders of magnitude less FINAL a cancellation than that. I might even work on this again one day...just not any time soon and not if nothing happens to convince me.
Miscellaneous
IT IS A MACHINE THAT MAKES BLOOD
Same question as on other Starseed Blog. What are you curious about here? I'd like to flesh out this gamepage a bit.
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