No one has rated this review as helpful yet
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 1.0 hrs on record
Posted: 6 Dec, 2017 @ 1:35am

The game feels unfinished.

1. It takes 15 seconds to load a battle. What is going on during that time? This is a simple game, and I have a powerful machine. I want to run many battles fast, I don't want to wait 15 seconds between them.

2. The programming part has very little documentation: only a couple of tutorials on the workshop. You have to guess what things like "the default trigger 'TRIGGER'" and "TestTargetAmountInRange" mean. (And how it's different from "Has Target Amount In Range")

3. The AI architecture is a little illogical: why do animations cause actions? Why not make events and actions the center of your program and attach animations later? Why do you need separate code blocks instead of making every action a code block by default?

4. The AI section is not very well organized. I want to look at a screen and understand how my AI works instantly. Instead I have to browse multiple lists and switch between them trying to put everything together in my mind. Animation X is started by condition Y, so I have to go to the list of conditions. Condition Y checks variable Z, so I have to open the list of variables. Then it executes this code block, and I have to switch back and forth all the time.

5. The AI capabilities are limited: the designer tried to predict every single feature that the player will need and make a separate option to provide that feature. Instead of providing elementary building block that can be combined into whatever the player wants. The only nontrivial condition that you can use is if you encounter a bunch of enemies. Is that all that can happen in an RTS? What about "half the pack is dead, so let's retreat"? Or "we have a reinforcement, so let's attack again"? Or a million other things that will likely come up if you play long enough? The designer added a note that you can email him and request a feature, but the system should have enough generality that you could implement everything yourself.
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Developer response:
Endless Loop Studios  [developer] Posted: 6 Dec, 2017 @ 3:46am
Howdy,

1. The loading time is something I'm working on and should be significantly decreased, probably in todays update.

The reason why it takes so much time even though it seems like a simple game is because in order to keep the framerate stabe during gameplay the game pre-calculates what quadrants are in range which involves going through the entire map and doing a lot of calculus.
But I'm currently working on a way to pre-calculate all that into a file and set it into memory on start.

2. I tried to explain as best as I can but since it is almost like a programming language there's a limit to how much I can simplify it. The trigger is explained in the guides, it is a text string that the Action will recognize.
"TestTargetAmountInRange" and "Has Target Amount In Range" are diferentiated by the parameters they have, the first one can be tested against any value whereas the second one simply tests > 0.

3. A Code Block essentially is a function and a Code Action is a statement within that function. If you want to execute a single Code Action you can do that. You can also execute an Action without an animation.

4. Well again this is the balance between simplicity and capability. What you're suggesting is a text base coding language which would indeed make it easier to jump back and forth but by making it more complicated thus making your 2nd point even worse.

5. I plan to keep adding more and more Code Actions based on new Units I try to create and based on feedback from players.
All of those actions you suggested will be doable as soon as I add the code Action "Friendlies in Range".

Thanks for the feedback!
1 Comments
Endless Loop Studios  [developer] 6 Dec, 2017 @ 12:14pm 
Just an update, v1.01 is now live and it reduces load times from 40s down to 2s. Cheers!