Love it. Immediately compelling. Besides suggestions others have made, can we please have a way to speed up the character dialogue text? I want to see what they have to say, but I don't want to wait for it to type out character by character.
At its core, this game is p good. reminds me a lot of catastrophe x before that game died.
Anyway, as for input/suggestions:
-Currently the only real strategy is ship spam. Winning this way is just. so, so slow as spawn rate/damage/health is always the same for every ship, every engagement early usually ends in like a 1-2 HP advantage overall.
-More ship diversity or things to do with planets other than building ships would make the game more than just a spamfest, as currently if you have 3 planets, just make all 3 ships and you're winning pretty much guaranteed
-The turn timer should scale up slightly for each unit you control (like. two seconds per unit+planet) for when you get a ton of crap on the field
-make clicking on the cell a ship is on select it instead of having to click the ship itself. I found it mildly annoying to slightly miss the ship when I still clicked the correct cell
-highly recommend numbering units whose orders have been given so you can assess which one goes first. mostly applies if you have a lot of them
-Possibly highlight movement conflicts if your ships are going to path through an obstructed square. Its an interesting game mechanic but some notifications about when it is happening would help a lot
But hey, what you've got so far is definitely solid. Its hard to judge what the game will be once some actual content is added, but I'm sure if you keep at it you'll end up with something good in the end!
These are all excellent suggestions. I might disagree with the turn timer increase (it's an incentive against ship spam!) but otherwise I like all of these.
Love the game, the last two levels, though, basically do the format to death. The one ship starts make the beginning very slow and the need to slowly wittle down the enemy planets with you darkening the skies of you enemy (who uses the same lame lines twice!) at the end is dull (can I suggest that once you surround all six tiles of an enemy planet it surrenders to you with one bar of health left? That would speed things up in the end game but make little to no difference to any midgame tactics... as for the start, starting with a planet and fleet rather than just a fleet would go a long way...)
I feel like there is an even better game hiding inside the lacklustre level design. The last two levels are good for training the player to wait or pile in headlong so I'd say these levels may serve as a good tutorial (but that they are a little longwinded, as noted above). If the game wants to really shine it should make use of level design that is unbalanced but also favours neither side (check out all of the FPS games out there that achieve this, that leads to a much more interesting puzzle for the strategists to work out since you already have the tacticians covered with the rock, paper, scissors combat mechanic.)
There seems to be a bug in this version... I pressed pause and when I returned pressing "Resume" did not resume... the button "clicked" but I was not returned to the game and was left stuck on the Pause screen.
Brilliant game. I loved the graphics, and the gameplay concepts are interesting (although a bit difficult to master at first). I had a few suggestions as follows:
- Maybe a tutorial level where the enemy is more "docile"? This would help establish the concepts of the game
- A numbered counter which displays the order in which the ships would move
- Some sort of indication which tells us if a move would be possible on not
Note that for the last point, there were many situations where I would plan a move but it would not execute because another ship was blocking the path. This became even more frustrating when the move would get cancelled, but the ship would move later on. Most of these situations occurred in the sector "Crimson tide".
Another thing, Anhik (the red guy) repeats his dialogues sometimes. I noticed this once I'd captured Crimson tide.
Another note on crimson tide, the red ships have an advantage because their starting ships are closer to the planets that blue ships
This game has good potential. The music is great! The main issue right now is that the outcomes of fights aren't clear. E.g. I was surprised when my ships couldn't fly away and were instead attacked - and didn't even retaliate! The exact rules of the fight are never clear. I read that it's resolved in "alternating fashion" but what does that mean? At the very least you need to show numbers near arrows - to see in what order your units will execute them. Then resolve fights step by step (also the shots). Maybe even reveal the enemy orders (with their numbers). I gave up in mission 2 (where there are 3 planets at the top and 3 at the bottom) because I couldn't understand the rules how combat is resolved.
Ships move in the order that you order them but all attacks are carried out first but if you attack the same ship that attacks you in the same ordering then you both attack each other (potentially killing you both - this is the only exception to the "alternating fashion"). Base building and repair are all done after movement.
TLDR: Attacks carried out alternating, in order (except when attacking your attacker at the same time) then Movements are carried out alternating, in order then Base building, Ship and Base Repair are carried out alternating, in order.
A great start! Both in terms of aesthetics and gameplay. So much potential, I hope you make a fully-fleged game out of this! I imagine being able to upgrade planet base, create planet defenses, ship specials and more. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that only one ship (or unit) is allowed to attack a planet at a given time. Why wouldn't it be possible to surround a planet and perform multiple attacks? Would also make defending a planet more interesting, I believe. Anyways, an awesome start!
Super cool game! Had a fun time in campaign! Loved the graphics, music, essentially the whole thing. I hope you keep working on it or make more games that are similar!
Heya! Nice game. Took me hours to get thru all five, but I had fun. Though, it'd be nice if the next turn after capturing your first planet, it'd be nice if both sides get their first ship instantly, or maybe at least 2 turns. That part is kind of a bit of padding, and would be great if you could minimize it.
Curious game that I'd like to experience more of, but when I build my first base my ships go invisible (can't select the fighters, perhaps they're used up building the base, and built ships have no graphic representation but might be movable) and the enemy ship doesn't move any more. Chrome Version 87.0.4280.141 (Official Build) (64-bit) on Win10 laptop.
Edit - I also lose the ability to move/drag around the map, and "Quit Match" doesn't do anything.
I have a bug where I can't select my fleet :(You can't see my cursor, but I am hovering over the fleet and it highlights a hex around the fleet. I also have this bug with the asteroids (although I don't think that you can actually select them)
I only had time to finish the first level, but I had an awesome impression! Definitely going to come back tonight and complete all 5 levels, but I would love to see the finished game.
Promising game! The tactics are interesting. I couldn't work out how to repair bases (using a fighter to do this seemed to have no effect), and I was surprised that the tutorial kept repeating. Looking forward to the next version!
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Love it. Immediately compelling. Besides suggestions others have made, can we please have a way to speed up the character dialogue text? I want to see what they have to say, but I don't want to wait for it to type out character by character.
At its core, this game is p good. reminds me a lot of catastrophe x before that game died.
Anyway, as for input/suggestions:
-Currently the only real strategy is ship spam. Winning this way is just. so, so slow as spawn rate/damage/health is always the same for every ship, every engagement early usually ends in like a 1-2 HP advantage overall.
-More ship diversity or things to do with planets other than building ships would make the game more than just a spamfest, as currently if you have 3 planets, just make all 3 ships and you're winning pretty much guaranteed
-The turn timer should scale up slightly for each unit you control (like. two seconds per unit+planet) for when you get a ton of crap on the field
-make clicking on the cell a ship is on select it instead of having to click the ship itself. I found it mildly annoying to slightly miss the ship when I still clicked the correct cell
-highly recommend numbering units whose orders have been given so you can assess which one goes first. mostly applies if you have a lot of them
-Possibly highlight movement conflicts if your ships are going to path through an obstructed square. Its an interesting game mechanic but some notifications about when it is happening would help a lot
But hey, what you've got so far is definitely solid. Its hard to judge what the game will be once some actual content is added, but I'm sure if you keep at it you'll end up with something good in the end!
These are all excellent suggestions. I might disagree with the turn timer increase (it's an incentive against ship spam!) but otherwise I like all of these.
Love the game, the last two levels, though, basically do the format to death. The one ship starts make the beginning very slow and the need to slowly wittle down the enemy planets with you darkening the skies of you enemy (who uses the same lame lines twice!) at the end is dull (can I suggest that once you surround all six tiles of an enemy planet it surrenders to you with one bar of health left? That would speed things up in the end game but make little to no difference to any midgame tactics... as for the start, starting with a planet and fleet rather than just a fleet would go a long way...)
I feel like there is an even better game hiding inside the lacklustre level design. The last two levels are good for training the player to wait or pile in headlong so I'd say these levels may serve as a good tutorial (but that they are a little longwinded, as noted above). If the game wants to really shine it should make use of level design that is unbalanced but also favours neither side (check out all of the FPS games out there that achieve this, that leads to a much more interesting puzzle for the strategists to work out since you already have the tacticians covered with the rock, paper, scissors combat mechanic.)
There seems to be a bug in this version... I pressed pause and when I returned pressing "Resume" did not resume... the button "clicked" but I was not returned to the game and was left stuck on the Pause screen.
Ouch! Sorry for that. Thank you for reporting this bug. I'm going to see if I can get it fixed soon.
Brilliant game. I loved the graphics, and the gameplay concepts are interesting (although a bit difficult to master at first). I had a few suggestions as follows:
- Maybe a tutorial level where the enemy is more "docile"? This would help establish the concepts of the game
- A numbered counter which displays the order in which the ships would move
- Some sort of indication which tells us if a move would be possible on not
Note that for the last point, there were many situations where I would plan a move but it would not execute because another ship was blocking the path. This became even more frustrating when the move would get cancelled, but the ship would move later on. Most of these situations occurred in the sector "Crimson tide".
Another thing, Anhik (the red guy) repeats his dialogues sometimes. I noticed this once I'd captured Crimson tide.
Another note on crimson tide, the red ships have an advantage because their starting ships are closer to the planets that blue ships
Thank you for the suggestions! Thanks for playing.
Indeed, when the planning gets slightly disrupted during the execution phase, the ships get confused and just sit still. I have to fix that!
This game has good potential. The music is great! The main issue right now is that the outcomes of fights aren't clear. E.g. I was surprised when my ships couldn't fly away and were instead attacked - and didn't even retaliate! The exact rules of the fight are never clear. I read that it's resolved in "alternating fashion" but what does that mean? At the very least you need to show numbers near arrows - to see in what order your units will execute them. Then resolve fights step by step (also the shots). Maybe even reveal the enemy orders (with their numbers). I gave up in mission 2 (where there are 3 planets at the top and 3 at the bottom) because I couldn't understand the rules how combat is resolved.
Ships move in the order that you order them but all attacks are carried out first but if you attack the same ship that attacks you in the same ordering then you both attack each other (potentially killing you both - this is the only exception to the "alternating fashion"). Base building and repair are all done after movement.
TLDR: Attacks carried out alternating, in order (except when attacking your attacker at the same time) then Movements are carried out alternating, in order then Base building, Ship and Base Repair are carried out alternating, in order.
A great start! Both in terms of aesthetics and gameplay. So much potential, I hope you make a fully-fleged game out of this! I imagine being able to upgrade planet base, create planet defenses, ship specials and more. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that only one ship (or unit) is allowed to attack a planet at a given time. Why wouldn't it be possible to surround a planet and perform multiple attacks? Would also make defending a planet more interesting, I believe. Anyways, an awesome start!
This is a lovely game! You peaked my interest and kept it. Truly engaging and fun to play. Congratulations on stellar game.
Thank you NewKid. I'm glad you found it fun :)
Super cool game! Had a fun time in campaign! Loved the graphics, music, essentially the whole thing. I hope you keep working on it or make more games that are similar!
Heya! Nice game. Took me hours to get thru all five, but I had fun. Though, it'd be nice if the next turn after capturing your first planet, it'd be nice if both sides get their first ship instantly, or maybe at least 2 turns. That part is kind of a bit of padding, and would be great if you could minimize it.
That aside, gg!
Curious game that I'd like to experience more of, but when I build my first base my ships go invisible (can't select the fighters, perhaps they're used up building the base, and built ships have no graphic representation but might be movable) and the enemy ship doesn't move any more.
Chrome Version 87.0.4280.141 (Official Build) (64-bit)
on Win10 laptop.
Edit - I also lose the ability to move/drag around the map, and "Quit Match" doesn't do anything.
I have a bug where I can't select my fleet :(
You can't see my cursor, but I am hovering over the fleet and it highlights a hex around the fleet. I also have this bug with the asteroids (although I don't think that you can actually select them)
Thank you for the bug report Nick. Are you running the browser version or did you downloaded the game? In which platform?
Browser, as I am playing on a chomebook.
ur a great dev and i love ur tweets
I only had time to finish the first level, but I had an awesome impression! Definitely going to come back tonight and complete all 5 levels, but I would love to see the finished game.
The "real time strategy" TAG really not for a turn based games...
I really enjoyed playing this game. The graphics look nice, the music is fitting, and the gameplay is intriguing
This is really impressive. I have worked on a few phaserjs projects in the past I am very curious what the source code for this looks like.
Thanks Carl. I may make a video presenting the code structure soon
This game looks polished out of the box and has great mechanics. I would love to see more of this!
Thank you for the feedback! I'm working on some updates that will introduce new mechanics and more levels, so there will be more :)
Promising game! The tactics are interesting. I couldn't work out how to repair bases (using a fighter to do this seemed to have no effect), and I was surprised that the tutorial kept repeating. Looking forward to the next version!
Thanks Fribble
There was a bug in Base repair. It is fixed now. I've also updated the tutorial to appear during the first mission only.