Phew so many questions so here come the answers :)
1) Energy Level Indicator.
The original never had an energy level indicator. We feel that it was one of the positive points from the original and kept that in. You got to admit you start to panic when your little droid starts to flash red.
2) Some decks don't darken once empty of droids, which is confusing when you're searching out the last few populated decks.
there are 4 levels that have 2 parts to them. By looking at the deck levels you see the adjacent level that has to be cleared to complete that deck.
3) Sometimes the droids don't bash, they go over one another, is this intentional?
yes, its when robots have no other place to go - rather than have them pause and wait for a route. This was prefered to them constantly bashing into you and quickly killing you.
4) sometimes the lasers (double esp.) seems to have dodgy collision detection.
Hot spots are about the middle of each droid.
5) Have you fixed the refresh rate to 60Hz or something because it is very smooth i.e. no delta timing or whatever? This may be why some people with VSync Off are getting too fast a game.
Yes its fixed at the monitor refresh rate (hence smooth scrolling). If people have turned their vsync off then yes the game will fly and become unplayable. - I suggest they turn it back on if they want to play.
6) What reduces your power, baning into droids doesn't seem to. Walking round? Firing? Getting hit. Never could figure this out
a) Power is drained over time. The higher your droid the faster the drain.
b) Bumping into other droids reduces your energy (but minimal)
c)Being shot.
7) If you overtake a droid you previously damaged will it be partially damaged once you win it?
yes
8) Escape doesn't bring up an in-game menu it quites without any warning OH MY GOD, this is a bummer as you can only "pause" on the computer consoles or lifts.
I can put it on the suggestion list (inclusion of a pause button)
9) Some weapons seem ineffectual against some droids so you have to change droid. Can you tell by looking at a droid or not?
It all depends on which class of robot you have and their class of lazer (single, double, red). The class of droid is the first digit of the robot ID.
A level 1 droid will do no damage to a 7 series, minimal damage to a 6. Its all based on an equation (ripped from the original)
10) An 800 series droid was moving right across a green light square that was solid and I couldn't pass through.
Sounds like a bug to me... or I could say a feature :)
11) Please add a save game in. If you don't want it too easy, add it in after every level, but this would be too hard!
Never gonna happen :) - technically very easy but makes the game far too easy.
12) How many ships (levels) are there?
20 levels, 1 ship with increasingly harder levels (the class of droids changes, rate of enemy first etc)
13) Done any other games? (Guess I should just look at your website)
Lots and all free. Check out
http://www.ovine.net 14) How long did it take? Any idea in manhours?
This was a quickie, including testing Id say about 40 hours. I coulnt say how long the GFX took.
15) Would it be possible to stick an option in there to merge the two buttons. If held down then xfer mode engaged, other wise shoot. If xfer mode engaged over lift or next to console then activate lift or console, etc.
We had got the original single button method. It was only a couple of days ago that it was changed to 2 button. I'll put it to the other guys to see what they think. The only reason Mr Braybrook originally did a single button is that the C64 joystick only had 1 button.
16) When you shoot the standard lazers, there is no animation on them which looks a little like they are stuck on to the rest of a very animated and fluid scene. Can you stick a second frame of anim on the lazers or make them flicker or something?
Im happy with how they are, but can see what the GFX guy thinks.
17) Xfer mode, when engaging, can you make it so that the fire key skips the "this is you", "this is them" screens quicker :).
You will find the action or fire button progresses past the screens.
18) Xfer game: Nearly died first time round because I thought I was yellow (which was on the left in the original) which is now on the right, not a problem now I got used ;)
:)
19) transfer mode takes too long to engage - often I was dodging shots like mad waiting for the mode to engage, then it suddenly did just as I bumped into a lower class robot. The original game let you hold down fire to go into transfer mode which was simpler and more intuitive. Perhaps a rapid double-press-and-hold on the fire button to activate transfer mode, then you could do it in a hurry if necessary?
This is part of the stratagey of the game.
20) I kept activating nearby consoles when in transfer mode by accident - needs a hold-down delay before activating the console. Same with lifts.
This is part of the stratagey of the game.
21) the side view is confusing - it's very hard to tell which lift shafts link to which floors - you have to go looking for a lift on the deck to see if it exists. I don't recall how the original worked but it was instantly obvious from the side-view which lifts link to which floors.
This is the same as the orignal game. Its easy to learn once you have played the game a few times.
We have had really positive feedback and some excellent scores uploaded already !
http://www.paradroid.ovine.net/paradroid-scores.php