Post by JustQuickly in Run For Cover comments

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On my notebook the game crashed at exactly the same spot. Got a message box that told me there was a problem and the window would close. Just an OK button, no Debug, no Ignore. I must say that before that I had the same result in two other runs at earlier positions. Actually I never "died" because of enemy action but always because of the game crashing after some time. Couldn't finish the first level because of that. The notebook is a current MSI gamer laptop with an i7 and Nv 1080 graphics running Win7 Pro SP1, not overclocked and usually totally stable.

The game itself is great fun. I would have a few suggestions if you don't mind:

* would be great to know weapons range and own exposure to threads before moving (or add move UNDO)

* I ignored the yellow boxes and even the green medkits for a while until recognizing them in all the clutter :-)

* the sound is repeating itself and over time it gets a bit hard to ignore, not teribble but still ...

But it's a great effort and has potential. I like it very much. Also great idea to hook people (not only) in Germany via your friends YouTube :-). Guessing from this thread more Germans use her as a mirror than Americans for finding out about us Krauts ;-).

Keep up the good work !!

Schifty5 years ago (1 edit)

Thank you very much for your kind words. I really appreciate your feedback. The range of the weapon is indicated by a red enemy highlight in the movement preview. It tells you what you can shoot at from that hovered position. I will update the tool tips to detail include more info about range and critical hit chances, since a lot of people were wondering about those hidden values.

I worked last week on the stability issues regarding this game. I was not able to reproduce a crash :-/ I uploaded a development version of the game called 'StrategyRunner_EXPERIMENTAL'. This version generates a crash log and tells me what I need to know to fix that crash. Would you mind checking that version out? It contains some updates and debug tools that are not available in the current version too. The logs can be then found in StrategyRunner_EXPERIMENTAL\StrategyRunner\Saved

Thanks again!

JustQuickly5 years ago

Played the debug version for an hour ... no crash. That usually happens when the debug gets compiled with a lower (speed) optimization level. I think we have a misunderstanding about the red squares on mouse-over ... I "want" to see those relative to the intended move position before I move. The idea is to be able to judge where to move to stay outside enemy range but inside own weapon range. The Battalion series of games on Kongregate is a good example, especially Battalion Ghosts. Really love the colors you choose ! But maybe that auto-centering can become optional ? Whenever I have positioned the view in such a way that I see the entire scene I get refocused on the 2nd figure ... And maybe you can allow movement of one figure through its partner ? That Sokoban style of thinking in a battle environment may not be 100% natural. Those guys would be jumping and squeezing to bypass each other, I think. But please forgive me the nagging. Just want to tell my POV in order to help. Maybe others have an entirely different opinion. I have fun trying to get past the opponents without the use of grenades and medipacks. Maxed out on the levels though :-) ... and still wonder how to get to the Easter Egg when the gate to that pool blows up (if that is a pool and if there is something hidden there :-) ) ... I'll probably try another run later today and see if it crashes but with the previous version the crashes came much earlier.

Schifty5 years ago (1 edit)

I am glad to hear that you checked out the version and you did not experience any crashes. I will update the official build with the fully optimization version and hope that some of my changes fixed the issue for good. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this!

Thank you also for your input regarding the game design. I will look into Battalion Ghosts to find out what I can do to improve my game. The passing of friendly units might be totally something I could check out in a later version. The exploding boat at the beach just marks the end of the prototype, it's not an easter egg or anything . That is what you are talking about right? I think I want to add at least one more level and maybe 2 or 3 more abilities to offer more variety between the units. Really appreciate your help!

Edit: Oh by the way - have you clicked on 'Story Mode' ... it shows a little preview of what I am currently working on ;-)

JustQuickly5 years ago

:-) Yes, I actually did have a look at the Story Mode. You have great graphics talent !! And you are quite fearless with that choice of the tyrants name. Make sure you don't go on holidays in South America ;-) ... Concerning the red drawings that show expected weapons effect ... Maybe you can keep your current mode of operation if the weapons choice is sticky. What I mean is that when I move the mouse testing the movement, I always get the 25%, 50%, ... 100% relative to the range of the current hand gun. If I click on the grenade I see the red tiles relative to the current position. If I could choose the grenade and then test movement and see which targets would be reachable by grenade from which location ... Ah, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You have done a lot for a great user interface and it will only get better. Another small thing I noticed ... The figures can pick up items when they run over them, but the path finding is automatic. If I want to make sure I run over an item I need to stop there, but I don't get to continue my move afterwards. And I cannot intentionally decline to take something when I want my partner to use it - another situation where it would be great if the guys could bypass each other. BTW: Do you have the option to get the eMail I used to register here ? Would be great if you could write me so that I'll know when to check back later. I like the game and would like to test new versions you publish. Could even write some code if you liked ;-) ...

Schifty5 years ago (1 edit)

Thanks again for your kind words! I hope to develop a good inventory system that makes exchanging items between units easy. I am also thinking about adding the possibility of using the mouse wheel to scroll through alternative paths to make sure that you will or will not pick up a certain item on your way. Itch.io has a build in functionality in the top right corner that enables you to follow my game in order to receive a notification when I publish an update for the game. You should also have an option to leave a rating for my game - this would greatly help me out!

JustQuickly5 years ago

Did what you suggested ... Rated the game and wrote some lines about it. Strangely I don't seem to be able to see any of it anywhere :-) ... Also played a really long session yesterday and didn't see any problems. The AI is much stronger with those grenades. Hell :-) ... And yes, it is an exploding boat halfway though the level. I like the water animation. Never seen that done in quite the same way. BTW, "Schifty" looks a bit German to me as in English I would guess it would have to be "Shifty". Wonder why that is :-) ... Wish you good progress and thanks again for making such a nice game !

Schifty5 years ago

Thank you for the review! A good rating really helps me with the visibility in the shop! The review itself is currently somewhat hidden, but I think that is supposed to change soon on Itch.io. I am indeed German! I was 14 when I created that nickname. I looked at the keyboard and like the simply combination of the Shift and Y key. I Germanized the word by adding a c :)

I'm currently in the process of adding armor and an enemy tank to the game. I hope that gives the game a little more variety :)

JustQuickly5 years ago

Great, but in that case we can switch to German if you like. A bit silly to use English when we're both Germans :-) ... On the other hand its more international that way and I certainly like both languages equally.

Great to hear that you have plans with the game. A lot to do to get it somehow complete in a minimal sense. On the other hand I also like it as it is. Funny to play around with the debug version as I can call all those functions in the console. Wonder what language and tools you use for programming this.

Schifty5 years ago

Than you for your kind words! The game is based on the Unreal Engine! The core of the game runs on C++ and the UI runs on Blueprints which is an engine specific, visual, node-based, scripting language.

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