Desperate Space Experimental Version

[Nexic]

I've just released a new version of the Desperate Space that basically makes it much more user friendly. As well as a bunch of bug fixes and minor game balancing tweaks, this version has had the game's overall speed dramatically reduced, in the hope the slower speed with make it easier for people to play.

Obviously this version may run the risk of making the game too boring for more hardcore players, so until I've been selling the new version for a while it will be hard to tell what sort of impact it will have on CR.

Anyway, I would like it if some of you could play it (especially those who found controlling the original version hard) and let me know which version you liked best.

The link to the game and download is in my sig. If any of you need to reset your trial time to test this version PM me and I'll tell you how to reset it.

(oh and the new version also features a new logo done by Omega!)

[Leper]

I've just released a new version of the Desperate Space that basically makes it much more user friendly. As well as a bunch of bug fixes and minor game balancing tweaks, this version has had the game's overall speed dramatically reduced, in the hope the slower speed with make it easier for people to play.

Obviously this version may run the risk of making the game too boring for more hardcore players, so until I've been selling the new version for a while it will be hard to tell what sort of impact it will have on CR.

Anyway, I would like it if some of you could play it (especially those who found controlling the original version hard) and let me know which version you liked best.

The link to the game and download is in my sig. If any of you need to reset your trial time to test this version PM me and I'll tell you how to reset it.

(oh and the new version also features a new logo done by Omega!)

I found controlling it very easy.. Way easier than keyboard.. By FAR easier than keyboard. I havent read any negative reviews on its control?

PS: I plan on buying it

[Leper]

IDEA:

Have different ships players can use.. have them fly different and give them all a challenge rating like cars in racing games.

[revve]

I really enjoyed the original - was actually planning on buying it. I'm downloading the new version. I'll test it tonight and give you my opinion.

[Nexic]

Have different ships players can use.. have them fly different and give them all a challenge rating like cars in racing games.

Well there are other ships you can buy (5 in total).

[Leper]

Well there are other ships you can buy (5 in total).


Yeah but... but... what about adding just 2 more to the game (7 in total) and have the other 2 in the demo.. with different flying styles, um.. yeah..

[Emmanuel]

I haven't played the original controls, just these new ones. I'm not a shoot'em'up expert (the last one I really loved playing was Battle Squadron.. !) but I find it generally very responsive. The game reacted as I expected it would, which is great. Production values are a lot better than XA II, however overall I find it a lot less fun to play (than XA II) and, having played it for a few minutes and maybe not paying 100% attention, I have no real sense of how big the game is if I bought it (I understand there are many planets to explore, but not sure how many levels per planet I'm supposed to clear, etc).

Also the download was abysmally slow (~10 KB/sec) but that may be due to Rita, I don't know :) I just checked that I can hit sites on servermatrix (theplanet) at ~300 KB/sec though.

I also noticed an evil flicker as every fade in / fade out completes (when fading to black, the image shows in full color again for one frame before switching screens).

The text for the tutorial (green on black background) is positively unreadable, at least on my LCD screen. I believe this has been mentioned already.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Yarlen]

I like the new version a lot compared to the original. The controls are much tighter which makes the entire experience much more enjoyable. I also like how you lengthened out the levels more, so that you don't blast through the missions in no time. ;)

That said, I think that more levels would be a good thing. I can blast through the full game in a few hours and I think that worries potential customers since you get that feeling from the demo.

So, I would suggest adding a lot more levels (10 per planet; at least 5 planets w/storyline elements attached) and expanding the storyline to match. I feel that the base storyline is solid, it just needs to be beefed up some, have some dramatic twists added, etc. Personally, I think the number of ships and weapons is fine as-is, even if you expanded the storyline. What you could do, however, is unlock a new secret ship w/new weapons after someone has completed the game once at medium difficulty. Then do the same after they've won at the next higher level, etc. That will add a fair amount of replayability. :)

[revve]

Just played the new version on my PC at work (1.6ghz P4, 2GB RAM, 8MB TNT2). The game is very responsive, but the ship's movement was very slow. The game itself wasn't slow, nor did I have terrible framerates, it seemed just the ship. I love the way that the ship turns really fast, etc. I'll try it on my home PC (same one I played original verison on) and let you know - I actually have it here at work today - just have to connect it.

[revve]

Just tried it on my home pc. Not as INCREDIBLY slow as my work PC, but it is still extreamly slow. You should maybe give the user an option to increase/decrease the speed. I don't mean just your ship, the game in general. It seems almost as if you crippled the acceleration of the ships in this release. Bad move, IMHO.

[Pallav Nawani]

Hi,

I have played a demo version of Desperate Space, and there was a bug. You can get infinite money in DS by:

1. Exchange off your old ship for a newer one,
2. Exchange off the newer ship for the old one,
3. Goto step 1 (Repeat Until you have the $$ to buy the latest weaponry you get)

I don't know whether this bug exists in the latest version though. Haven't tried.

[Nexic]

Yeh I fixed that bug ages ago, thanks for letting me know though :)

[jankoM]

Hi, I just played it. Yes, it's much easyer to fly now (for me, I gues it could be too slow to someone because even I was happy when I picked speedups).

I noticed one thing, I don't know if this is the issue for anyone else. It was a little hard for me determening which ships are ours and who I should shoot, and I had something in my head that said that green and bright is us and anything red-ish is evil so enemy "so shoot them quick". But when our ships get hit they also become red, and in the moments of battle it is a little confusing.

[Sean Doherty]

I like this verions better; I found I didn't even really know what I was firing at a lot of the time in the previous release.

[revve]

It was a little hard for me determening which ships are ours and who I should shoot

Now that you mention it, this was a problem for me as well. I realized I was sometimes shooting my own ships (and not the enemy), but now that you put it in words, I have to agree that this is also an area that could use a bit of improvement.

[Nexic]

I've made yet another version which now makes it much easier to tell what is an enemy, and what isn't, plus I've speeded it up a little again. I'm hoping I've now got it just right, but as always feel free to give me improvement ideas.

[Evanstaul]

I tried a few times already it crashes on startup on my computer: AMD64, WinXP, 2Ghz. The screen goes black for a sec then it says "Error! Memory Access Violation".

[Nexic]

Did it do that with the latest version?

[Evanstaul]

Sorry, its probably some software problem in my computer, some other games stopped working too.

[chanon]

Hi, I just tried it this weekend and finished the demo. Here are my thoughts:

- I really wish I could use left/right keys to side-strafe :P I feel I can't dodge and shoot at the same time. (I'm probably not good at playing Asteroid type games.)
- I think the radar screen should have a dotted box inside the big box that indicates what portion is currently visible on screen
- There should be indicators on the edge of the screen pointing to where enemies etc. are.
- Gathering up ships while your teammates get to have all the fun shooting the enemies feels unfair!!
- The teammates and the mothership are always getting the kills. I feel that I hardly get to kill any. It is cool that I have teammates, but I feel pretty stupid when the teammates do all the killing and I can just follow along.
- After finishing a mission I would like to know how many enemies I actually killed, versus how many my teammates killed.
- The green on blue text is hard to read. Also while playing the demo I didn't bother reading any of the pre-mission briefing as I didn't want to waste my play-time.

[Nexic]

Thanks for those, though in my version your play time won't run down unless you are actually in game, so you could have watched the briefing!

A few things on that list actually got added in the last version, so I don't think you had the newest one when you tried it.