Playing LD with bots on a new map shows me how much this game is different than Soldat and how much I need to change. I think the most important thing is the characters are much larger. This brings a difficulty in aiming because you can’t get such a good feel for were the bullets are travelling from. The weapon changes positions all the time, the player is not a dot like in Soldat. The Soldat-style camera doesn’t help here either. Fixing the camera on the player gives nice results. It feels more as if I am the player, all the bumps and movements are seen with the camera shaking. The gostek is always on the center of the screen. These things give a much greater sense of how the bullet will travel once shot.
Also: hitscan bullets suck. I’m switching them to physics based projectiles.
Written by MM. Posted at 2:01 am on July 6th, 2010
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Wouldn’t this severely downsize the area of gameplay? It’s bad enough that we won’t be able to search and scan our surroundings (like in Soldat).
But before you answer that question, maybe we should have an idea of how drastically zooming in/out will change the game. If you zoom out more (to a degree that looks similar to Soldat), will the position change of your weapon really affect your shot?
it’s not a good idea to fix the camera on player cuz those with panoramic screens would see more.
yeah shooting in ld test sucks a lot, so as a shooter it screams for proper ballistics. make sure to have some varied weapons in the upcoming alpha.
Wouldn’t this severely downsize the area of gameplay?
Yes this is a big minus. I added temporarily a button that allows to move further across the screen to scan the surroundings. This works nice, but is not perfect because those that shoot like this will camp on those that don’t see so far at the moment.
use my scope idea lol
Soldat was pretty good game to be honest. There were no other games like that to prove otherwise because I think to date soldat is still the only 2D online platform shooter for PC out there. Seriously! you cant count pwngame because that game just sucks…
I hope the soldiers arn’t gigantic to where they fill the entire screen, that would make the game unplayable. Your last tech test for link dead had the perfect character size in my opinion. The physics-based bullets sound like a great idea. This game is our only hope that could spark a chain of 2D online platform shooters…
Woah, a lot has changed since I last visited this blog. I just tried the test thingy (the second one) and it pretty epic. For some reason it feels like super metriod. I think its the way the guy runs…
Physics based projectiles ftw!
Can hardly wait to get my hands on the next release. Soon?
AnonGamer001: I hope to fullfil that dream.
Tenshi: soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2rplW5VZ68&feature=related
LOL it does seem like super metroid. I never played that game
Seriously?! Its all nintendo goes on about these days. But anyways yeah, its kinda what I like about the running animation.
Michal, we need to talk.
Glad to see you realizing link-dead’s challenges. I hate to say that I knew this would come up the moment I saw link-dead. The game as it is now, looks unplayable. Characters too big, movement too slow, no jet pack and areas too tight.
A 2d shooter, is something that shouldnt work in the first place, but, implement a jet-pack and you partly make up for the loss of a dimension. That as well as adding a momentum based physics game (bunny hopping) with small characters and polygon areas allowed soldat to get by.
With link dead, your starting over and trying again to make something work that is flawed by design. But I am not criticizing this. I loved fpses, but after playing so many games I realized I really wanted to play a 2d shooter, so i googled it and i found your soldat. It is simply the best game genre in theory, but so hard to make work.
For example, a 1v1 deathmatch. How would this ever work in soldat? It doesnt work at all. Even if you limit character’s view, battles just lack in skill based decisions. Once you and an opponent are on screen together, it’s over in a second. This is not exactly fun or rewarding in a game.
So how does one fix this?
– TAKE OUT HITSCAN, or find a way to limit it. if you ask me all guns in soldat should just shoot round blobs. Realistic weapons does not work in a 2d game.
– Allow one to move faster, when you stop moving there should be no lag, when you press jump, no lag, and add a DOUBLE JUMP or jet pack. one of the worst parts of soldat is the fact that moving side to side is nearly meaningless. If you made it more responsive it would be harder to hit people.
– Make begining jump acceleration faster. Then it can actually be used as a dodge. just in general all needs to be more responsive.
– Add more air control.
– Weapons not realistic based. We need energy based guns, blobs, beams, spread shot stuff, anything to make 2d work. Slow moving projectiles that stay in front of you for example.
– Take out real physics on projectiles. If you run and shoot a slow moving shot, it should not shoot faster. Its funner if like in quake/UT, you can shoot rockets moving forward and it lags, moving with you. This gives more strategy, and, it makes the game less based on height and acceleration advantage.
Anyway, I have many many ideas and i know they do not all work, but what I truly want to know is why they don’t work, and what you have tried. I am truly interested in a 2d shooters meta-game and game play. You have real potential with your games. I want to thank you for what you have done, but I also want to just tell you that you can make something truly amazing if you really get into the theory here. There is so much to be said, I really wish I could speak to you about this because I find myself obsessing about it. Forgive my sloppiness, i just wanted to get this out.
-Wes
I hate to spam more stuff in here but I would like to add some things. Have you thought of these?
– Jumps should end immediately after one stops holding the button.
– Gravity lower, and air control higher. a 2d shooter needs to be played in the air, it just does.
– Please try a double jump, not because its fun or cool and im an idiot, but because its a major strategy starter.
– Players are sticky. This is like quake compared to UT. In UT the moment you land, u stick to the ground. There is no lag or drift in UT, and this adds to more strategy, and ofcourse more fun.
– A dodge that is not such a commitment. It should be low to the ground, not as long, and faster.
Eh, if you were talking about soldat I think you need to play the game more. The physics are very well adjusted, gun physics and player physics’s accelerations and speeds are very nicely done..