Sandfall - Tech Demo!!

[sixtyandaquarter]

That is exactly what I expected originally.
Like I said, I can see why you wouldn't reload so close, but even uber realistic games that pride on the fact that they are the most realistic of the time, allow you to reload, sure you can cancel it with a melee and such and get fired up to all hell but still.

Your going to have certain guns simply reload fully right?  I can see the six shooter reloading every bullet, but others if there was a clip would be quicker right?
Perhaps you can have, and I forgot what it's called... you know what the police use, it's a round piece with the bullets already in them, you put it to the chamer and push and it loads all six shots at once.  That could be like a little accessory you equip, or what not, but only if you find it first.  Maybe a reward for a side quest or plot point?

 

[Despain]

Sixty, all of those would come later on with different types of weapons. I had an idea for a revolver that came with a loader to load them all at once, and weapon with clips instead of individual bullets. Not to mention shotguns, gatling guns, possibly a tranquilizer, a hidden paintball gun and even one-bullet derringers.

Great minds, my friend.

 

[Reives]

It's quite a neat system with a clean and simplistic feel to it. Something that bothered me though, which is more of a personal preference I suppose, is that it seems to mash together a few different system setups. Shooting is active-timed, skill and loading is menu select, and melee is key match, etc. It somewhat came across as inconsistent; just getting you settled for one thing and then pulls over and hands you another. But then again, such inconsistency could also be a bonus in the eyes of some others, as it offers variety.

Oh, by the way, there's a little glitch where if you leave the map of the Northern mob while the battle cursor is still displaying, the battle cursor does not get erased and will remain on the screen. Doesn't really matter since it'll be refreshed again once you go back to that map, but just for your information.

 

[Despain]

The variety in the system is mostly intentional- it's intended to be an action-based ABS with rpg elements. I expect that the new reload feature will help draw away from any thoughts of "inconsistency" over "variety".

Thanks, Reives. That'll go into the script that I need to get made- one that resets all enemy HP and erases those sorts of pictures whenever a player leaves a map. It's one of those things that is certainly possible with events, but it would save a lot of time (and potentially some lag) this way. Nice find.

 

[Reives]

Ah yes, the reload revamp is probably going to be quite a nice edition. Just read about it being talked about for a while now, my apologies that I missed that.

The skills menu is actually also pretty nice for when the player wants to take a break or whatnot now that I try it again, and has time to think rather than button smash.

 

[iceplosion]

I'm downloading this just because there's a character called Ice.

EDIT: Lack of Ice but an awesome battle system, I'm not a huge fan of ABS systems but this one was pretty good, I like being able to stop for special techniques and I love the button entry thing (glad it didn't have a timer)

So overall...good, when can we expect to see a full demo?

 

[Spoo]

Okay, this is by far my favorite battle system. Period. I just played the demo, and the combination of melee and shooting at a distance was awesome.  Keep up the good work, Des!

 

[sharksweetheart]

This is fabulous, I can't wait!

 

[divine_engage]

Right, i had a little go of the 'Tech Demo' and so far i'm impressed at how good the battle system really is!
However i was'nt looking for many problems with the demo itself, so i'll have another blast at it again in a moment...

I hope to see this finished Despain, i'm really looking forward to play it in full :smile:. Good luck!

Oh, i was also looking at some of the screens and just had a few questions on the map 'An area in Caste city'.

On the slightly new version of the map, will there be shadows purtruding from the boxes at the bottom of the screen?
If so i think that'll help give the screen more life, sorry if i'm asking too much :lol:

Also where is the shadow at the very bottom coming from, is there maybe a roof above the city?

 

[Despain]

I'm not quite sure what shadows you're talking about in that screen, but that area isn't going to be in the final game. All of the cities are going to be remapped.

 

[___]

The only major complaints I have about the battle system are: the button layout feels awkward, which is mainly rmxp's fault anyway; and while I dig the skill system I would like to see some improvements on interface (ring menu for instance, I know, cliched because it works!). 

Also, it feels more natural to me to just have melee and reload bound to their own buttons than to have to be activated via the skill menu; it's not very action-y for an action battle system.  If there was a conscious design decision behind this (e.g. wanting it to feel like you're stepping out of the action or what have you) I can understand but still disagree with.   I do, however understand the desire for reload to be a user-conscious action, and that's cool.  I'd love to see it animated though to give it a better sense of feedback.

Other than that I won't drool over the graphics too much but they do look great, I'm looking forward to more Steampunk elements.

Oh yeah to correct the sticky keys problem:
Go to Start->Control Panel->Accessibility Options, uncheck sticky keys (and all the other options, they're really annoying unless you need them, in which case of course they're awesome).

 

[Yoshine]

... heh heh...
magical armor...
ahahahaha!!!
Hypocrit!

Don't you be coming in areas I mod and starting crap now.  ~ Atemu

 

[Despain]

All right, my initial post in this topic is too god damn pretty for me to make a new topic, and it's really not that old, so I'm going to give you all some updates on the state of things.

Serren Kraye's name is officially changed to Tate Nolan. The name is more reflective of Arizca's culture.

I'm also going commercial with this. More information here.

 

[Ellie]

Heya, I know this is off topic (sorry) but I'm just curious why your theme only works on page 1? (Is it because you have to have the CSS coding on every page or something?)

Edit: touche'.

Anyway.

It's great to see someone else making a commercial game, I was beginning to think it was a dying idea. I mean... there's Aveyond I/II, there's my game, and there's Dreams, but they are the only games I have heard of that are attempting it.

And Sandfall's definately different enough to make it.

 

[Anonymous]

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what's this about the theme not working? seems fine to me :3

 

[Zwark0]

Well, that sucks for all the money-less fanboy teenagers like me
oh well, good luck with it!

 

[Impreza]

Tate Nolan!? What the--? Serren Kraye sounds 1000x times better!

 

[Xathia Vastar]

That's interesting that Aveyond inspired you to go commercial with this. Good luck with your project.

 

[Despain]

Tate Nolan!? What the--? Serren Kraye sounds 1000x times better!

Maybe if he were an elf practicing the Dark Arts in the forest of Mel'borelia.

 

[Venetia]

The only major complaints I have about the battle system are: the button layout feels awkward, which is mainly rmxp's fault anyway; and while I dig the skill system I would like to see some improvements on interface (ring menu for instance, I know, cliched because it works!). 

Also, it feels more natural to me to just have melee and reload bound to their own buttons than to have to be activated via the skill menu; it's not very action-y for an action battle system.  If there was a conscious design decision behind this (e.g. wanting it to feel like you're stepping out of the action or what have you) I can understand but still disagree with.   I do, however understand the desire for reload to be a user-conscious action, and that's cool.  I'd love to see it animated though to give it a better sense of feedback.

Other than that I won't drool over the graphics too much but they do look great, I'm looking forward to more Steampunk elements.

Oh yeah to correct the sticky keys problem:
Go to Start->Control Panel->Accessibility Options, uncheck sticky keys (and all the other options, they're really annoying unless you need them, in which case of course they're awesome).

I just got around to dl'ing this and I have to say I agree with Nphyx 100% there. It's very different, very refreshing, but reloading is a chore. I'd much prefer hotkeys, WITH the system you have now, since it may serve as a nice breather if you're trying to figure out what to do.

Lastly, I'd like some sort of visual context that tells me I'm firing a bullet or being hit, more than a flash and a sound effect. I mean like a small poof of smoke from the gun, or something like that. The first time I died while trying to do a melee combo because I didn't even realize I was getting hit!

I'm sure you've touched on these areas before but I'm tired and reading everything else would be a chore so I'm just going to pretend I'm bringing up original material here :3.

Lastly, the name Tate Nolan kicks so much fucking ass it makes me wish I could make out with myself.

Well I always wish that, but I digress.