Post by yaktakalaky in Project Landsword comments

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Hey dude, this game is phenomenal in so many ways, the art direction in regards to vehicle and UI design is so well done. I think the game's in a good spot difficulty-wise, I was initially struggling especially with mission 3 but when I started to get a feel for the stealth mechanics it became really engaging, all I want now is more missions and customisation:))

Couple of points of feedback if you're up for reading them:

- It would be amazing if enemies telegraphed their attacks, when you're raining hell it's near impossible to see enemy projectiles incoming, best course of action is seemingly to strafe in and out of cover while firing. If that's intended that's totally cool, but some sort of flashing vision cone or a red eye-flash when they're about to fire could be awesome.

- (Maybe) Some sort of repair boxes on the map could be really useful and give more gameplay options. Very sparse though, as not to trivialise taking damage

- A faint laser for aiming in addition to the crosshair (toggleable in settings maybe?) would be so goddamn useful, it's easy to lose the crosshair when things get heated. Would make things more intuitive imo.

- Quality of life things like being able to skip menu animations by clicking/pressing keyboard keys would be really nice, I love the animations but sometimes I just want to rush through menus:) also I'd love for the settings to persist between game sessions, it's kind of a pain to have to wait for the startup animation, go into the settings and redo resolution and sound settings every time haha. Don't want to make it out as a bigger issue than it is tho, purely QoL if you have time

Overall though this game is sick, such a neat little package with a surprising amount of depth and emergent gameplay. All I can really say is good luck, I'm hyped to see where you take the project! Also I'd love to be able to acquire new mechs/maybe pick colours >:)

MezzSoft137 days ago

Thank you for the kind words! More missions and customization will come soon.

- It would be amazing if enemies telegraphed their attacks, when you're raining hell it's near impossible to see enemy projectiles incoming, best course of action is seemingly to strafe in and out of cover while firing. If that's intended that's totally cool, but some sort of flashing vision cone or a red eye-flash when they're about to fire could be awesome.

I've since slowed the enemy bullets down by about 15% so they're easier to dodge when it gets insane. I think I'll have their bullets be a slightly different hue so it's easier to tell who is firing at who. I'm not sure about flashing vision cones, but I'll try maybe having a faint beep/radio chirp when they see you.

- (Maybe) Some sort of repair boxes on the map could be really useful and give more gameplay options. Very sparse though, as not to trivialise taking damage

Will do. I had considered maybe repair shops on the map like gas stations that you could drive and park at, but I realize some crates would just fit better with the ammo ones.

- A faint laser for aiming in addition to the crosshair (toggleable in settings maybe?) would be so goddamn useful, it's easy to lose the crosshair when things get heated. Would make things more intuitive imo.

Can do! I'm seeing if I can modify the crosshair to be more visible as well.

- Quality of life things like being able to skip menu animations by clicking/pressing keyboard keys would be really nice, I love the animations but sometimes I just want to rush through menus:) also I'd love for the settings to persist between game sessions, it's kind of a pain to have to wait for the startup animation, go into the settings and redo resolution and sound settings every time haha. Don't want to make it out as a bigger issue than it is tho, purely QoL if you have time

Yeah, currently there is no .ini saving. A lot of people also want it to start in fullscreen, I really need to implement that soon. I'll be redoing all of the menus as well, probably need separate tabs for different settings and reconfiguring controls and such.

Overall though this game is sick, such a neat little package with a surprising amount of depth and emergent gameplay. All I can really say is good luck, I'm hyped to see where you take the project! Also I'd love to be able to acquire new mechs/maybe pick colours >:)

Thank you again for playing and the feedback! I'm still torn on whether or not I'll have different mechs you can play as as opposed to just swapping parts on the quadtank, but we'll see!

Tripsyy137 days ago(+1)

I realize I'm giving a lot of feedback but I think the only mech should be the quadtank. I have no clue who the pilot is but I envisioned her as maybe quite emotionally attached to this piece of hardware in particular.

MezzSoft137 days ago

I appreciate all your feedback! I didn't think too much about her feelings towards the mech, but I could definitely see her having an attachment to it as she's also part of one of the few squadrons that operates that type specifically.

Thinking a bit more about different playable mecs, I'm probably not going to do that since I think it'd be hard to get them all to feel unique and interesting, especially with having changeable weapons already. In the unlikely event that I do end up going that route though, there most likely won't be any unique parts to unlock for each one since doing it for all of them would be a ton of work and probably not worth it.

Tripsyy137 days ago(+1)

Thanks for replying! Soldiers I knew in real life who operated armored vehicles had a deep attachment to their respective weapon system. I think the quad-tank is very unique! I certainly can easily imagine it demolishing mecha from other fictional works.

MezzSoft136 days ago

For sure, I imagine it's hard not to get attached considering how much time they spend working with and maintaining them.

yaktakalaky137 days ago

This is a good point, I do really like the design of the main mech it's awesome. Maybe the option to add/remove hull armour in return for more/less speed/acceleration could be a nice way to change up playstyles without needing assets for different mechs, might be redundant though, the simplicity of just needing to choose the weapon is nice.

Colour customisation would definitely be very welcome though! :)

MezzSoft136 days ago

At the moment I'm thinking of having different engine types for better boost and acceleration, as well as armor/protection kits that have varying systems (i.e. APS that automatically tries to shoot down enemy missiles, mine protection, etc) in addition to the different primary and seconddary weapons + a third defensive/offensive weapon (smoke or EMP grenades for disabling enemies)

yaktakalaky137 days ago

Thanks for replying dude, keep up the awesome work! In regards to enemies telegraphing I like the chirp idea. As a better visual indicator, how about a laser that comes like a half second before an enemy's about to fire similar to the hypothetical player's laser? it would have the multi-use of 1) telegraphing an attack 2) giving a visual indicator of where the enemy's actually aiming 3) making it easier to get the hang of evading, as you'll be able to see the behaviour of the enemy's point of aim (it would also give an indicator for when off-screen enemies are about to fire, I got sniped by a tank from off-screen one time lol).

I like the idea of changing the projectile colour, maybe just change player autocannon tracers to be red like the rotary cannon though? that would kinda keep player and enemy tracers consistent colour-wise. I trust your judgement with it though, my bad for throwing walls of text at you :)

MezzSoft136 days ago

I like the laser idea. There's going to be automated turrets that are stationary which could use those, but I was also thinking of having semi-stealth enemies that are much harder to see with camouflage that try and ambush the player. Those would definitely need to have something like that to show the player they're about to get struck.

(it would also give an indicator for when off-screen enemies are about to fire, I got sniped by a tank from off-screen one time lol).

Haha, that's the trade off with the tank enemies - they're slow and easy to run away from unlike the mechs, but they have far better optics and can see you from afar.

I like the idea of changing the projectile colour, maybe just change player autocannon tracers to be red like the rotary cannon though? that would kinda keep player and enemy tracers consistent colour-wise.

Maybe, I'll experiment with it more once I have the bullet collision code rewritten (needs to be optimized). I'd like there to be a noticeable difference between weapon types and calibers as stated on the icons (the minigun is 20mm and the autocannon 25mm)

I trust your judgement with it though, my bad for throwing walls of text at you :)

Not at all! I appreciate your feedback as always, it's very important to me to hear what other people think about it and would like to see.

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