Topics

1

Tidalis / Game balance

« on: July 10, 2010, 09:28:31 PM »

With the adventure mode now completed, I'd really love feedback on game balance. I'm interested in any comments about where the difficulty gets out of whack or if any levels just plain suck or anything like that. If anyone runs into anything they don't like, please post!

2

Tidalis / Can you solve this?

« on: May 06, 2010, 10:19:30 AM »

I just made this puzzle for the game (it'll be in the Levels For Tidalis Main Story folder in the next release) and am wondering if anyone can manage to solve it. It uses an interesting trick I figured out earlier that I intend to expand upon in more puzzles. You might be able to solve it some other way -- I'm really not sure. But, I think that would probably complicate things, if it's even possible.

Anyway, feedback is welcome, and I hope people can manage to figure it out! I'm interested in hearing about whatever solutions people come up with (a picture with a starting point and the arrows already set up would be really great, if you're up for that).

Good luck!

3

Tidalis / How scoring works

« on: April 16, 2010, 05:45:04 PM »

Before people ask, I figure I should give an explanation of how scoring works (though it appears to be a bit buggy at the time of writing this).

At this time, scoring is supposed to work by making each block worth some amount of points equal to the last block in the reaction + 10, and the score for the whole reaction is multiplied by the reaction's multiplier, which is equal to how deep in a combo the reaction is. The first block in a reaction is worth the multiplier *10.

So, if you cleared 4 reactions where the first is 3 blocks, the second and third were both spawned by the first reaction and are both 4 blocks, and the fourth is spawned from the third and is 3 blocks, the score would be:

1*(10+20+30) + 2*(20+30+40+50) + 2*(20+30+40+50) + 3*(30+40+50) = 980.

You also receive 1 point for every block that falls into the well. Special blocks are currently worth 100 points each.



The original intended scoring mechanic was similar to the above, but the first block in a reaction was actually worth 10 points more than the last block in the previous reaction! So, with that, the score would've been:

1*(10+20+30) + 2*(40+50+60+70) + 2*(40+50+60+70) + 3*(80+90+100) = 1750.

I'm happy to discuss scoring mechanics and possible changes to the mechanic to emphasize different aspects of the game as particularly important. Right now, combos are stressed because the multiplier can make later reactions worth so much. Large reactions are helpful and for small collections of blocks can be worth more than using combos (a 6 block reaction = 210 points, whereas two 3 block ones in combo are 180). Right now, a large reaction followed by combos isn't very helpful at all, whereas it matters more with the other scoring system, and now it's less helpful to do several reactions in a combo before a large reaction than it is with the other system. Do people like the greater isolation between reactions provided by the current system? Do they want more isolation? Less isolation? The more the score of reactions depends on previous reactions, the more combos will make the score skyrocket.


Also, there may be bugs in scoring at this time. If you find any (as I have while writing this post), please let us know in the bug reports forum. Feel free to post your thoughts on scoring in this thread! I'd like to get some feedback before asking Chris or Keith to look into what's up with the scoring system and fix it to be a certain way.

4

Custom Puzzles / Forum information - Please read

« on: April 15, 2010, 11:38:53 AM »

We're very excited about the community aspect of Tidalis and look forward to seeing lots of puzzles being shared here. Puzzles posted here may be used in the official game with credit given by real name or handle - just let us know what you'd like to go by. This is by no means a guarantee that your puzzle will make it in! Furthermore, users are welcome to opt-out; just make a note in your post.

For those downloading puzzles, we suggest you create a new folder for them called User Puzzles at \Tidalis\RuntimeData\Logic\LevelFolders\ and put the puzzles there. You'll then be able to easily access that in-game.

For those posting puzzles, simply upload the .dat as an attachment in a thread and that's that! Attaching a picture of the puzzle may be a good idea for giving people more information and getting people interested in the puzzle enough to download it. Feel free to discuss puzzles and voice your support for ones you enjoyed.

5

AI War / Rally post attributes (2.200)

« on: January 06, 2010, 10:06:19 AM »

In order to make rally posts useful on enemy worlds, it'd be ideal if they could be permacloaked, invincible, blind, and immune to tractor beams. This would make it so the enemy won't pay attention to them, they can't get stuck anywhere, and they can't be abused for gathering intel.

6

AI War Technical Support / [Solved] Crash on trying to join older version

« on: January 06, 2010, 07:11:41 AM »

A user, yllamana, tried to join a 1.006 game with his 2.0 game got a crash instead of a version mismatch message, apparently without leaving an unhandlederrors file.

7

AI War / Splash screen progress frozen

« on: December 29, 2009, 11:53:13 PM »

So I discovered last night that the progress on the splash screen is supposed to do more than say "Initializing Menus". When I start up AI War, it has two entries in my Alt+Tab menu. If I do nothing, I see the splash screen and the Initializing Menus message, and it'll say that until the game starts. However, if I alt+tab to the other AI War 'window', then the splash screen will actually show progress as it's supposed to. Not sure if this is something that can be fixed, but what is that first window and why is it blocking the view of the active second window?

8

Ongoing Games / It Begins - Community Relay Game

« on: September 21, 2009, 01:32:27 AM »

So here's how it works: games are handled like a relay, with one or more people starting a game and posting it, followed by other players continuing the game and then posting their own saves from later on. Effectively, these are community games played by an abundance of people in a sort of pick-up-and-play fashion. Hopefully we won't get too many people posting saves that start from the same spot; it'd probably work best if people post to 'check out' a save, letting everyone know it's currently in use. That said, if you do this, please actually follow up with an updated save in a reasonable amount of time. Also, names can be changed via the Manage Players menu, if people feel the need.



The game as it stands: We're up against two 8.6 Mad Bomber AIs. They've been keeping the pressure on with raids that include large numbers of bombers and some bomber starships, but cruisers by the home command station and a few hundred fighters have kept the bombers and starships at bay, respectively. I've researched mark II and III fighters, in addition to raid starships and harvester exo-shields. Expansion is proving difficult as I attempt to keep up defense on the homeworld, which is costly. Afrvubo, to the east, is not very populated and would make a good first target, but it has 5 bomber starships guarding the wormhole, which is going to be difficult to overcome. Overwhelming them with fighters is probably the way to go when the attack is finally made.

Note that the exo-shields are all currently paused to minimize resource drain, and a mark III reactor would probably be a good investment soon. Regarding scouting, I've managed to find a data center 3 hops away, and the homeworld is bordered by a IV world to the west, unfortunately.

Have at it!


[game version 1.999A or better required for this save]

9

AI War / More ship cap inconsistencies

« on: September 13, 2009, 12:22:30 AM »

If I have 8 home command stations and lose 7 of them, I can, for example, build 100 sniper turrets. If I start a new game with 1 home command station, I can build 170 of them. Why?

Edit: Probably related to the number of 'players' in the game, and thinking about it, I guess this one isn't so much a bug (because unit caps going up if one player's home command station going up seems like a benefit to losing something important). I guess my confusion is stemming from the fact that after losing those stations (which I shouldn't be able to do without losing.. That really should be fixed! ), the game is treating me like one of 8 players. I suppose I admit defeat on this one, unless Chris winds up thinking something's awry.

10

AI War / Windowed mode snaps cursor to window when out of focus

« on: September 10, 2009, 09:20:38 PM »

If AI War is out of focus but not minimized, it continues snapping the cursor to the window boundary. I'm unsure if this can be countered, but if so, it might be a good thing to fix.

11

AI War / In-game unit info index

« on: August 21, 2009, 02:54:47 AM »

I'm about to be attacked by cutlasses, and I was wanting to take a look at their tooltip information, but since I don't have any and am not on any planets with any, I can't look at it. I was wondering if the game could contain some sort of ship index, showing the ship graphic, icon graphic, tooltip info, costs, and ship strength comparisons against all other ships for each ship. I realize a lot of this is in the Wiki, but it'd be fantastic if it was on-hand in the game and thus easier to access when playing a game. I figure that most of this would be rather automatic after being implemented, too, since the info is all in the game already at release time for every ship.

Definitely a nice-to-have, so if it's too much, no worries.

12

AI War / Poll: Renaming Ion Cannons

« on: August 05, 2009, 07:01:33 PM »

Some players may find the current Ion Cannon naming convention confusing (the cannon kills all ships of a lower mark, so not including ships of equal mark). The change would make the current Ion Cannon Mark II, which kills Mark I ships, be Mark I, and Ion Cannon Mark III, which kills Mark I and II ships, be Mark II.

Thoughts?



Personally, I'm for it. I find myself double checking the description for the cannon sometimes for peace of mind to make sure it's not killing my ships because it'll keep shooting even if I don't have any ships that can be insta-killed in the system. I think having a Mark I version of the cannon will make things more clear, too, since with the current convention, a Mark I version would be little more than a fancy sniper turret, which isn't all that special at all.