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Author Topic: Erebus : Shmup  (Read 21568 times)

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #15 on: November 09, 2017, 07:05:05 AM »
thanks for the feedback, all good suggestions, I'll get those features added for the next update.   :)

also I've got a bit of an issue with the audio, I'll quote mamboFoxtrot from the shmups.com forums as they explain it pretty well.

Quote

The Blue and Default weapons can cause a real ruckus when getting all the bullets on an enemy. It doesn't seem to be spiking the volume too bad, but it is causing a noticeable phasing effect. If you don't want to hassle with placing limits on how many of the same sound effect can be playing at once, you could also try randomizing the pitch some to reduce this effect.

any ideas on how I might limit the phasing effect as this one has me a bit stuck ?

djaydino

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #16 on: November 09, 2017, 09:57:26 AM »
hi,
You could try to use a 'audio stop' just before you use 'audio play' but maybe it does not sound right you will have to try it out t know if its good or not :)

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #17 on: November 09, 2017, 12:20:05 PM »
yup, that seems to be a lot better.  :)

I'll get some other people to test it just to make sure as my hearing isn't the greatest (I have tinitus) .

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #18 on: November 09, 2017, 03:17:48 PM »
ok so now I have another issue that's driving me nuts, I'm using the enemy spawn system detailed at the start of this video :


but it seems a bit erratic, sometimes it will spawn the full group of enemies and sometimes it will spawn one less and it seems to be totally random.

here's a screenshot that shows how I have it setup:



 The only addition I made is to add a bit at the end to delete the group spawner a few seconds after all enemies are launched, I had to include this as without it the spawners wouldn't disapear and this started to cause all sorts of weird issues. I don't think it's a problem with the stuff I've added though as the spawner still behaves erratically even with my additions disabled.


is there a way of fixing the current system or is there a better way of handling this and if so how ?

djaydino

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #19 on: November 09, 2017, 06:40:46 PM »
Hi,
Can you show the other states/actions (maybe a video or gif) ?

Is there some kind of delay between each activate?

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #20 on: November 09, 2017, 08:14:51 PM »
basically all the settings are pretty much identical to the video I linked to except that the wait time on the activate Child state is 0.4 seconds rather than 0.35, not that it seems to make much difference as I've had it as high as 2.0 seconds with similar results.

Here's a bunch of screenshots for reference :

wait for trigger:



Set parent :



Get child number :



Activate child :



Variables:



Events :





djaydino

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #21 on: November 10, 2017, 04:59:21 AM »
Hi,
The issue here is that when a enemy of that group gets hit, it gets disabled and tend to break the list of your child objects.

How is the enemy group made? is it made in editor or @ runtime?

I think an array would be better here. after start get all the child objects into the array, then use array get next to get each child, then active and wait, then loop back to the array get next and on finished event, wait and remove group.

if the group is build in the editor you can drop in the objects directly into the array so you don't need to use 'get child' actions

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #22 on: November 10, 2017, 06:03:19 AM »
yeah the group is made in the editor.

I'll give arrays a try, I haven't used them before so it will probably take some head scratching but at least this gives me an alternative solution.  :)

I should probably also point out that even if I don't shoot any enemies they don't always all spawn.

Another thing that might be worth me mentioning is that I did find a way to get all enemies in a group to spawn but it was very buggy. In the Increment Index state if I set the equal condition to CONTINUE rather than FINISHED and in the Activate Child state if I set the Activate Game Object to recursive, then all enemies would spawn but the last one would often spawn late at twice the normal delay ie 0.8 seconds instead of 0.4 and the game would start spewing out divide by zero errors. So definately not a workable solution but I thought that it may help with diagnosing the problem.


anyway thanks for your help so far.

-mark
« Last Edit: November 10, 2017, 06:06:30 AM by TheDogCatcher »

djaydino

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #23 on: November 10, 2017, 06:23:04 AM »
Hi,
There is also an action called 'iterate' on the Ecosystem which is very useful for looping.
you can find some tutorials on the User Tutorial Wiki Page
for arrays and iterate :)

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #24 on: November 10, 2017, 06:35:01 AM »
yay I got it working, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

I've only tried it on a single test group but it seemed to work ok, further testing will be required but it's looking good so far.   :D


thanks alot for your help.

-mark
 

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #25 on: November 10, 2017, 08:02:33 AM »
I've just finished doing some more testing and everything appears to be working flawlessly, thank you so much, this is a huge weight off my mind.   :D

djaydino

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #26 on: November 10, 2017, 08:09:25 AM »
Hi,
Arrays can be very useful :D
Its not hard to learn about them
and once you know how to use them its easy :)

TheDogCatcher

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #27 on: November 10, 2017, 08:42:10 AM »
yeah, I always imagine these things will be more difficult than they turn out to be ..... most of the time anyway.  :P

djaydino

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #28 on: November 10, 2017, 03:58:58 PM »
Hi
Yep i know what you are talking about :) I've been there :D

Fat Pug Studio

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Re: Erebus : Shmup
« Reply #29 on: November 11, 2017, 02:01:59 AM »
Ok, i played until the end of level, here's my notes :)

1. Ship movement is frustratingly slow. It takes a while for it to speed up, it kinda feels heavy. Compared to the enemy bullets, it's hard to avoid them even if you're skillful.

2. Needs "Restart Button", i don't want to go to main menu to start again.

3. Fonts in main menu are blurry, use textmesh pro

4. Enemy bullets are too small and don't have enough contrast compared to background

5. Pickups should be more distinct, i don't know what i'm picking up, and when i pick it up, if it's not a weapon i have to look at hud to see if it's speed or life.

That's it for now, more enemies and wave patterns are a must of course :)

My kid's still sleeping so i played without sound.
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