Comments - Zarkonnen

I just haven't been posting to IDB a lot because it's tedious to format posts for it, and many posts end up being archived for not having enough pictures.

I think I remember your wolf avatar. :)

Thank you, that is actually super-useful to me. I struggle a lot with getting drawing performance on Airships: Conquer the Skies to acceptable levels, and I'm perversely glad that things wouldn't just be super-easy on Unity.

Plus I'm planning a Unity-based game where I was wavering between prerendered isometric and full 3D, and this has definitely helped me decide to just go for full 3D.

Yep, I indeed only remembered about scoring after those 3 prototypes.

Don't worry. At the moment, I am still experimenting with paper thickness and cutting some parts by eye. :)

Exactly, you can add however much stuff you want by just putting in new JSON files. I'm making as many values as possible non-hard-coded, but there'll be limits - you can't create whole new game mechanics or GUI elements.

Don't worry, that is still the centre of the game. What I am adding now is variations to make the game interesting for longer.

Yep, main changes are roads and city boundaries. The roads will be relevant for landships. Might also update the low-res city and landscape graphis soon after dev7.

In the sense that you can choose between guards, marines and air grenadiers. I haven't planned any in-depth customization features for soldiers. Once again one of those cool things I don't want to put into the dev plan because it will make the game take even longer to complete.

Looks very nice! How do you generate it? How much of it is fixed/hand-drawn, how much of it is variable?

Yep, it's under "Decals", along with the eyes, the roundels and the gold leaf. :D

Yeah, I think that needs some de-wrinkling, thank you. :D

The stats look quite scary, but in my playtesting so far, the fact that they're not very accurate and have a really awkward firing arc seems to offset this. But it's possible I'm wrong and they'll get totally nerfed in a patch. :D

I'm a... uh, thousandaire? Thanks for your support. :D

ACHIEVEMENT IDEAS WITHOUT SUITABLE PUNS WILL BE REJECTED

Er. I mean, those sound good. :) Once monsters are in, these should also generate a bunch of interesting achievements.

So performance should already be a fair amount better in 5.2, but it's an ongoing process. Best way to ensure performance works is to send me the details of a particular combat scenario (ships, etc.) that tends to stutter.

:D Dutch would be excellent!

Yep! If by "my own language" you mean "a language I just invented on the spot", that's fine by me. Just make sure it's consistent, interesting, and complete, and I'll be happy to add it in. :D

You'll have to apply to the original artist, I'm afraid. I can't draw that well myself! :D

Ah, so parts of that at least are deliberate. :) He's got a long rigid body because he needs a big, rigid matrix of Suspendium to provide most of his lift. And the wings look weird because they're heavily modified ribs rather than modified limbs. OTOH you're right: the claws look far too short and dull to be good for hunting, and a tailfin would make a lot of sense.

If by "pass" you mean "effortlessly crush", yes!

The game is definitely meant as a step on the path to being able to do gamedev full-time. I would love it to be the big breakthrough, and I think it has a shot at that. But if it isn't, I'd also be happy to just start building a reputation as someone who makes good and interesting games.

It's quite possible that Indie games will crash in the next two years or so. Certainly a bunch of people with a lot of experience like Jeff Vogel and Cliff Harris think it's likely. If that happens, I mean to be still around afterwards. Which means holding on to the day job (well, the steady freelance software dev gig) for a while yet.

Thank you for your Greenlight vote. :)

Thanks, that means a lot to me. :)

The issue with making a MP map is that combats and strategy work at different timescales, so you'd spend a lot of time waiting for other peoples' fights. Not sure how to fix that.

Re: PayPal - what kind of payment method would they like? I totally understand that it's not exactly everyone's first choice. Am up for anything, including stuffing money into an envelope. :P

For a game that combines so many things you shouldn't do when you're a sole developer (multiplayer, realtime), I am pretty pleased at how the development is going. :)

I studied computer science at uni, so not game development specifically. :) If you're interested, have a look at an early version of the game's code here: Github.com

Congratulations on the nomination. :)

Will do a video definitely. :D Just working on planning out the grappling hooks now.

This is basically stuff I'm going to have to figure out by experimentation. :) I think it should definitely be possible for badly timed jumps or grapples to result in the death of crossing air marines. This might lead to fun maneuvers where you bait the enemy to start boarding only to make a sudden move that causes the boarders to go splat. :D

Right now, the marines are also far too indiscriminate in their slaughter, with the result that the targeted ship generally plummets within seconds of boarding!

Thank you, it is highly appreciated! :D