Is there some reason you can't install Java? Even if I were to make an executable, I would still need to package the JRE. There's no getting around using it.
packetpirate
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Real-life arrows don't pierce through enemies, though maybe I can add a perk / talent when I get around to add that that will allow you to hit two targets or something. And yeah, literally every review mentions how OP the AK-47 is.
I'm hoping to mitigate how OP the damage upgrade is once I replace those three skills with the talent trees. That way instead of adding 10% damage per tick, maybe I can have it tack on an extra 1-2 points of damage since the damage and health have been changed to use a d20-like system.
I'm planning to add blood pools (maybe even in the next release). Only thing I need to do is figure out how to make the blood splatter effect using the particle system I have.
And yes, I love the soundtrack, although it's unfortunate it has to be removed before the game is done because it's not licensed or anything. I'm planning to sample those songs though and apply them to a genetic algorithm which will generate original music that sounds similar to them.
Yeah, I'm aware of the balancing issues, and that's the primary goal of the next release, besides some juice here and there.
I haven't had anyone tell me the shooting sounds like farting, but that made me laugh way too hard. I thought the "Ding" would be funny, but I take it you didn't find the easter egg associated with it. As for alerting the player how to buy ammo, the next release will contain icons at the bottom-right showing the key to press to open those windows. I only hope the icons are obvious enough. I also have text now when you level up saying "Press T to Level Up!".
As for your notes...
1. Everything is a balancing game at the moment. But the feedback definitely helps. It's hard figuring out which weapons should be unlockable first. I figured having an automatic would be nice early on, so I think I'll make the Assault Rifle more expensive and add an SMG or something. I'm also planning to add level restrictions to certain weapons.
2. All the artwork is either from the original game or placeholder artwork until I get around to remaking everything. Girlfriend is working on the concept art so I have an actual art direction to work with this time around.
3. Unfortunately the music isn't there to stay since it's not mine and is just a placeholder. Eventually, I plan to write a genetic algorithm to sample the songs I like that follow the art direction and evolve new, original music.
4. They use to moan, but I couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it sounded because I recorded all their noises from my mouth.
5. Yes, it's intentional, but I'm thinking of making it brighter by default. You can adjust the darkness in the Settings -> Display menu.
6. Audio levels can be adjusted in Settings -> Audio. I need to add a way to access these settings from gameplay though.
9. The size of the flashlight has changed like 5 fucking times. It's likely going to change another 5 times before the game is done.
10. That I haven't heard before, but I'll look into making them more obvious. My particle system is very basic at the moment, so there's only so much I can do to make them interesting. Do you think making them thicker would help? Or is the long rectangle shape what's wrong with it?
11. Yeah, this and being able to access the shop and training screen at any time are being considered. I'm thinking of changing it so those menus and pause can only be used between waves, but I'll have to make ammo more common so the player doesn't run out. That or add melee weapons, which is planned.
13. Are the grunting noises not loud enough? I'm trying to think of a visual effect that could work.
14. There is no difficulty progression at the moment. I need to think of a good way to scale enemy stats and make it harder. I do have more enemies planned for future releases though.
15. I figured 3 was pretty standard, but maybe health should be lowered.
16. Is it mostly the AK-47? Or all of them? Because I'm aware that the AK-47's sound is obnoxious.
17. That will be changed.
18. What do you mean by this? That they can still damage you while YOU'RE off-screen, or while they're off-screen?
19. All the powerups have arbitrary drop rates. I'm just using user feedback to adjust accordingly.
22. I'm hoping the level restrictions and increased price will mitigate that somewhat. Not sure how else I could fix it.
23. That's expected with the amount of content it currently has.
Thanks for the feedback! Hopefully the next release will be less boring.
Hey, thanks for the feedback!
I definitely have a direction I'm taking it and I will probably change the title once it's no longer "generic". I'm planning to get rid of the "training" screen as it is right now and replace it with a perk / talent tree type system where you can upgrade effectiveness of specific weapons according to probably three different paths.
The Shotgun and Flamethrower seem to be the two most disappointing weapons from the feedback I've gotten so far. The shotgun is meant to do lower damage in favor of high knockback, but I'm currently doing a rewrite of the entire damage / health system for weapons and enemies to make it d20-based, so hopefully that can balance things out.
Grenade launcher is not the best weapon to take on bosses. In fact, the AK-47 is the best weapon pretty much overall in terms of overall ammo to damage output. I made a stupid change to the grenade launcher not long ago so the damage done to the enemy was according to their proximity to the center of the blast, but I didn't increase the overall damage of the explosion, so it ended up nerfing the hell out of it. Now that I'm redoing the damage system, I'm going to remove that.
The powerups have been a consistent problem. The thing is, I drastically reduced the drop rate of powerups in this release, and yet it still seems to be a problem. But I think the problem is because each enemy has their own drop rates for specific items, and every single enemy has a chance to drop SOMETHING, so at wave 32, there would be 165 zombies. The average drop rate of medkits is around 20%, so you can expect that roughly 33 enemies will drop a medkit.
I've gotten the suggestion multiple times to make the shop inaccessible during waves, and I think that's a good idea, but I would have to either add melee weapons or drastically increase ammo crate drop rates or you would end up out of ammo with no way to get more if I left things the way they are.
Yeah, the AK is supposed to be one of the "main" weapons, because the others, while powerful, would be OP if they were much faster/stronger/etc. The shotgun is a bit disappointing, but it has the highest knockback other than grenades.
I'll take a look at the Flamethrower, because based on feedback, that's the weapon people have the most issues with. I recently doubled its range, so that should help.
All of the artwork is from the original game and will change before the final release. My girlfriend is working on the concept art so I actually have some art direction to work with on the pixel art as opposed to just randomly throwing shit together until it looks nice. As far as the "fire directly from your ammo stores" powerup goes... that's the unlimited ammo powerup. You don't actually consume any ammo while that's active. As far as stats go... you get 10% extra speed or damage from each pip in those stats, but 20 health from each pip in health.
The sound effects are terrible. I'm aware. I'm really just a software engineer. I don't really have much artistic or musical talent. The soundtrack is a placeholder. Since I don't have much musical talent myself, I was thinking of coming up with a genetic algorithm to "evolve" new music using other synthwave songs as samples (the end goal for the game's art direction is 80s style with synthwave music).
As for enemy damage variety, I'm currently upgrading enemy and weapon damage and player and enemy health to a d20-based system, so they will have a damage range as opposed to a flat amount. I'm also going to change their attacks so it's not just "oh, he's touching me, so I take constant damage", and it will use an animation to actually show them attacking, and you'll take damage when they hit you.
The spawn fountain idea is interesting... that's sort of the direction I went with to invent "Big Mama", the one that explodes into a cloud of smaller zombies. The idea is that if you don't kill her fast enough, you'll have to contend with a large swarm. In later waves, when there are more than one, it can get pretty crazy.
Thanks for the feedback!
Negative feedback is the best kind in development, though.
Damn, I've only ever bothered to go to wave 52. But yes, this is a development build and there is no end-game progression at all past the three bosses. One thing at a time.
The upgrade system is really just a placeholder until I make a final decision as to what stats should be upgradeable and how, but they likely won't stay percentage-based.
The turret AI is as it should be. I was planning on implementing a perk / talent system, and one perk could be to change the turret AI. They aren't meant to be perfectly efficient killing machines, or it would make things too easy on you.
I thought I had corrected the ammo buying issues, but I'll take a look at that.
The framerate issues should probably be expected after a certain point. The number of enemies in a wave grows on a logarithmic scale, and at wave 100, there would be about 670 enemies. I've only gotten to wave 52, but I think I'll have to modify my wave-generation method to spawn on-the-fly as opposed to all-at-once. Also, I would guess the CPU usage issue is because there's a pretty hefty amount of trig functions being used (I really need to convert to vector-based movement and only calculate new vectors when needed).
Thanks for the feedback!