My only complaints with this are that the enemies are bullet spongy and the level seems to change a bit when you die and reload (Props and enemy placement). Not sure if the latter is intentional. The UI needs some work, I wasn't entirely sure what I was with the ally AI doing outside of the auto-command stuff.
Yes, the level changing every time you play is a feature, it's meant to keep players on their toes and make it harder to memorize levels. It simply picks between different variants of room layouts, although it can potentially add or remove rooms altogether. It should be all explained in the example level editor.
Yeah the UI needs a rework, I'll get on that eventually.
Went throug the new campaign, with the extra health, going for arrests is definitely more manageable, though playing by the books is still a challenge. Teammates were fairly competent even with just the space quick command. What jumped out to me is that aim spread seems to be completely random - even when standing still and aiming I might shoot to the side. Having more dynamic spread depending on circumstances might encourage more tactical plays instead of rushing in and spray 'n praying. Also, in the last mission, the objective timer doesn't show leading 0 for the seconds (like it says "1:8" instead of 1:08".
Yes the spread is a little too much in some guns, in general the higher the fire rate the more spread a gun has, it should show you in the stat section when you select a weapon, but I haven't gotten around properly balancing them all. I think I need some way to show spread but that's down the line when I finally add a crosshair, also the accuracy bonus when standing still is possible, but idk if I want to penalize moving and shooting too much, I don't want the game to get too slow. We'll see I guess.
And nice catch on the bomb timer, I wouldn't have noticed it for a long time.
I just noticed that there was a bug that overwrote forced equipment with last used loadouts, that's why you spawned without C2 in the second tutorial level, I just uploaded a fixed version so thanks for spotting that.
Third tutorial level probably had the same problem.
I suggested last time to use letters instead of numbers when giving orders, and after having to relearn how to do it for the third time, I'd say it's absolutely necessary. For example, ordering your squad to clear a room is on 5 when hovering over the center of the room, but when breaching a door it's on 4. Making it C for "clear" every time would make it a lot more intuitive and quicker to use.
I also still think the orders menu really needs to stop or at least heavily slow down time. Expecting the player to memorize the entire order tree and go through up to six sub-menus when an enemy can rush into the room and kill you in seconds is too much.
Warning a suspect from behind should make them much more likely to surrender and not instantly whip around and shoot you.
Told my squad to breach a door and clear a room, only for them to go through the room from the other side, gunning down all suspects, and then throwing a flashbang at me.
A door being opened should cancel a breach order.
Ran out of time several times in the bomb mission, mostly because giving orders takes so long even if you know what you want to do.
The clunkiness of giving orders makes it feel like I'm not working together with my squadmates. I'm alternating between clearing rooms on my own beause it's faster and letting them do it with their perfect aim and automatic warnings while I stay out of the way. It almost feels like you're playing two separate games at the same time. I've also never found any use for giving the red and blue teams separate orders, partly because the first team will be long finished with their task before I can finish telling the other team what to do.
Thanks for the feedback, sorry I haven't addressed the command menus being clunky, I plan to rework it entirely so hopefully it'll be more usable when I get around to it.
Gotta say I'm not fond of the "letter hotkeys" idea, I play a lot of RTS games and I can't stand the ones that do that instead of having grid hotkeys. I'll experiment with it once I replace the command menu but honestly something like a wheel menu should eliminate the need for hotkeys entirely, we'll see.
Can you screenshot which door caused the squad to go all the way around? It sounds unintended behavior but keep in mind that the squad AI consider the squad's position instead of the player position when deciding which door to use and the shorter path to take, this is so you can give them orders without having to move to their position. If it was unintended behavior I'll try to fix that.
Regarding the working together aspect, It's kind of the Achilles' heel of the genre: the friendly AI needs to handle itself and not be a nuisance to the player, this means that often it's viable to simply make them clear rooms on their own. In general these kind of games work best when played alongside other humans rather than AI, that's why I started working on multiplayer, although right now it's only LAN multiplayer. Currently the player is incentivized to clear rooms with the squad because suspects are more likely to surrender with every officers they see, I could increase this effect for the player character to make it more felt but tbh I'm still focused on adding mechanics so those parts of the gameplay aren't quite polished, I'll get around to it.
Thanks again for the feedback, I really appreciate you playing my game again.
>Can you screenshot which door caused the squad to go all the way around?
It was the door north of the bottom right bomb. I'd left my squad at the starting location. I think previews like in Republic Commando as well as a line showing what path they'd take to get there would make things a lot clearer. Having icons at the edges of the screen for off-screen squadmates would be nice, too.
First time playing. Here's my thoughts broken down by category:
GAMEPLAY
The game is fun. I can't believe I never bothered to try it before this. The way it flows is just really engaging.
The whole web of different mechanics is really fun to experiment with, but also kind of overwhelming initially because of how many options there are. I think it's a problem when the player is given so many options right from the get go and has nothing to go on regarding what most of them do, apart from stats and a text description.
The stun grenade's effect is too short imo. It might be for balancing reasons but it really disincentivizes using it when you can't rely on it to give you enough time to act.
The AI (for the squads at least) is really good. Was a pleasant surprise since games like these live or die by the quality of their AI. My squad members didn't do anything annoying or retarded even once. The enemy AI can be a bit spastic at times and often seems like their main strategy is swarming you in a mass suicide charge.
UI
The UI is functional, but often feels overly convoluted and unintuitive. Screens like the loadout select screen are arranged in such a way that you can't really read the information easily and don't immediately visually identify what you should be paying attention to. The whole loadout selection process is too tangled for something I would consider the best function of the game.
Also I understand it might be because this is a wip demo, but the UI lacks its own unique identity.
PRESENTATION
The music gives the game an exciting feeling. It might also be one of the aspects of the game with the most personality. The humour is a matter of taste. It got some chuckles from me.
I don't usually like kitchen sink fantasy settings at all, but it works well as the main gimmick of the game. I like that the weapons are inspired by fantasy tropes. You could expand on that design direction.
Probably the most disappointing part of the game would be the lack of visual variety in the maps. Maybe it's something that is planned for the future, but now all maps use the exact same visuals, and while the game insists that each raid takes place in a different location it would be cool to see that in the environments themselves.
BUGS AND PROBLEMS
Character controller broke one time because an enemy attacked me while arresting another enemy. Had to restart the level.
And I think there was something wrong with the third mission of the tutorial (the one that teaches squad controlls), since it doesn't give the option to select squad members in loadouts, so when the mission starts there is no one but the player character in the enclosed room.
Thanks for the thorough feedback and I'm glad you liked the game overall.
As you said the barren rooms don't look good, by next DD I want to have at least one "proper" looking level, the system for adding custom environmental sprites and wall/floor textures in the editor is already in place, I just need to sit down and make them. UI needs a rework too, I agree, and I'll look into those bugs as soon as I can, thanks again for reporting them.
Comments
- Add dampening / intertia to the camera (Too jerky)
- IMO, enemies should be visible even if they're not lit up
Keep it up!
Thanks a lot for the feedback and the video gameplay, I definitely noticed some things that need to be explained better.
np! Nothing like video playtest feedback 🤪.
I recorded myself play your game. The video is in folder with other DD52 recordings https://mega.nz/folder/WQ91HBxL#X4-j8Mj7H30Ai3aevWFEmA
based
*respectfully nods back*
My only complaints with this are that the enemies are bullet spongy and the level seems to change a bit when you die and reload (Props and enemy placement). Not sure if the latter is intentional. The UI needs some work, I wasn't entirely sure what I was with the ally AI doing outside of the auto-command stuff.
Hey, thanks for playing.
Yes, the level changing every time you play is a feature, it's meant to keep players on their toes and make it harder to memorize levels.
It simply picks between different variants of room layouts, although it can potentially add or remove rooms altogether.
It should be all explained in the example level editor.
Yeah the UI needs a rework, I'll get on that eventually.
Went throug the new campaign, with the extra health, going for arrests is definitely more manageable, though playing by the books is still a challenge. Teammates were fairly competent even with just the space quick command.
What jumped out to me is that aim spread seems to be completely random - even when standing still and aiming I might shoot to the side. Having more dynamic spread depending on circumstances might encourage more tactical plays instead of rushing in and spray 'n praying. Also, in the last mission, the objective timer doesn't show leading 0 for the seconds (like it says "1:8" instead of 1:08".
Hey, thanks for playing again.
Yes the spread is a little too much in some guns, in general the higher the fire rate the more spread a gun has, it should show you in the stat section when you select a weapon, but I haven't gotten around properly balancing them all.
I think I need some way to show spread but that's down the line when I finally add a crosshair, also the accuracy bonus when standing still is possible, but idk if I want to penalize moving and shooting too much, I don't want the game to get too slow. We'll see I guess.
And nice catch on the bomb timer, I wouldn't have noticed it for a long time.
* The menus kinda confused me, when I wanted to try the first level.
* The tutorial level looks cool but I struggled with arresting the guy at first. Turns out I have to put the mouse above him.
* Second level: Got stuff at the "Press and use C2 with 4" area. Turns out I had to check inventory before starting the level.
* Got stuck at the third level because I didn't know the controls.
Overall, the game has cool ideas even if I got filtered.
Maybe I overlooked some stuff.
I just noticed that there was a bug that overwrote forced equipment with last used loadouts, that's why you spawned without C2 in the second tutorial level, I just uploaded a fixed version so thanks for spotting that.
Third tutorial level probably had the same problem.
Thanks for the feedback, sorry I haven't addressed the command menus being clunky, I plan to rework it entirely so hopefully it'll be more usable when I get around to it.
Gotta say I'm not fond of the "letter hotkeys" idea, I play a lot of RTS games and I can't stand the ones that do that instead of having grid hotkeys.
I'll experiment with it once I replace the command menu but honestly something like a wheel menu should eliminate the need for hotkeys entirely, we'll see.
Can you screenshot which door caused the squad to go all the way around? It sounds unintended behavior but keep in mind that the squad AI consider the squad's position instead of the player position when deciding which door to use and the shorter path to take, this is so you can give them orders without having to move to their position.
If it was unintended behavior I'll try to fix that.
Regarding the working together aspect, It's kind of the Achilles' heel of the genre: the friendly AI needs to handle itself and not be a nuisance to the player, this means that often it's viable to simply make them clear rooms on their own.
In general these kind of games work best when played alongside other humans rather than AI, that's why I started working on multiplayer, although right now it's only LAN multiplayer.
Currently the player is incentivized to clear rooms with the squad because suspects are more likely to surrender with every officers they see, I could increase this effect for the player character to make it more felt but tbh I'm still focused on adding mechanics so those parts of the gameplay aren't quite polished, I'll get around to it.
Thanks again for the feedback, I really appreciate you playing my game again.
>Can you screenshot which door caused the squad to go all the way around?
It was the door north of the bottom right bomb. I'd left my squad at the starting location. I think previews like in Republic Commando as well as a line showing what path they'd take to get there would make things a lot clearer. Having icons at the edges of the screen for off-screen squadmates would be nice, too.
First time playing. Here's my thoughts broken down by category:
GAMEPLAY
The game is fun. I can't believe I never bothered to try it before this. The way it flows is just really engaging.
The whole web of different mechanics is really fun to experiment with, but also kind of overwhelming initially because of how many options there are. I think it's a problem when the player is given so many options right from the get go and has nothing to go on regarding what most of them do, apart from stats and a text description.
The stun grenade's effect is too short imo. It might be for balancing reasons but it really disincentivizes using it when you can't rely on it to give you enough time to act.
The AI (for the squads at least) is really good. Was a pleasant surprise since games like these live or die by the quality of their AI. My squad members didn't do anything annoying or retarded even once. The enemy AI can be a bit spastic at times and often seems like their main strategy is swarming you in a mass suicide charge.
UI
The UI is functional, but often feels overly convoluted and unintuitive. Screens like the loadout select screen are arranged in such a way that you can't really read the information easily and don't immediately visually identify what you should be paying attention to. The whole loadout selection process is too tangled for something I would consider the best function of the game.
Also I understand it might be because this is a wip demo, but the UI lacks its own unique identity.
PRESENTATION
The music gives the game an exciting feeling. It might also be one of the aspects of the game with the most personality. The humour is a matter of taste. It got some chuckles from me.
I don't usually like kitchen sink fantasy settings at all, but it works well as the main gimmick of the game. I like that the weapons are inspired by fantasy tropes. You could expand on that design direction.
Probably the most disappointing part of the game would be the lack of visual variety in the maps. Maybe it's something that is planned for the future, but now all maps use the exact same visuals, and while the game insists that each raid takes place in a different location it would be cool to see that in the environments themselves.
BUGS AND PROBLEMSCharacter controller broke one time because an enemy attacked me while arresting another enemy. Had to restart the level.
And I think there was something wrong with the third mission of the tutorial (the one that teaches squad controlls), since it doesn't give the option to select squad members in loadouts, so when the mission starts there is no one but the player character in the enclosed room.
Thanks for the thorough feedback and I'm glad you liked the game overall.
As you said the barren rooms don't look good, by next DD I want to have at least one "proper" looking level, the system for adding custom environmental sprites and wall/floor textures in the editor is already in place, I just need to sit down and make them.
UI needs a rework too, I agree, and I'll look into those bugs as soon as I can, thanks again for reporting them.
I really liked what was there, gave some short feedback on your page. I am going to continue testing this a lot I think because it was fun.
This is more or less the same game as it was in DD51, so feel free to skip it if you played it last time.
What's new:
>A 4 levels campaign (2 of levels were previously quick missions)
>Bombs objectives in the editor and the above mentioned campaign's fourth level.
>LAN multiplayer that only works as long as everyone has very low ping
>Very minor UI improvements
>Every Officer type got 5 extra HPs just to make testing easier and the game less punishing.
>Debug command: Press NumPad7 to set your HPs to 99.