Moneyhats2k5
Member
Any tips for the boss? He's really tough
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Assault Android Cactus - Steam Early Access |OT| Four-players. Twin-sticks. 60 frames
- Thread starter Shaneus
- Start date
Bosses in this game are super hard haha. I've died like 15 times to Vespula, while all the non-boss levels were too easy so far. Also I feel like some characters have no hope against some bosses. Having fun though.
Okay I beat her right after posting this. With Coral, too. It was actually easy once I landed on the right strategy.
Okay I beat her right after posting this. With Coral, too. It was actually easy once I landed on the right strategy.
Oh, don't tell me about Skitchin'... when I first saw that he did the music for it (and then the first FIFA game on MD, all started coming back to me!) I was stunned. Feel free to tell him that his compositions were in a small but memorable part of my early teensGood calls ShaneusI think you're bang on with the period/style but I don't know if there was a specific reference, Jeff is just an old school musician who loves that kind of music, he knows some crazy secrets about how to get the best possible music out of the Megadrive! Just listen to his tracks in Skitchin.
It has actually been thrilling to work with Jeff on this more game-y music after knowing him mainly as a soulful Total War composer, I think he's really enjoying the ability to cut lose with some over the top and retro synths.
(Perhaps also ask if he came up with the song names in Skitchin'. Spicy Placenta? WTF.)Also give him a nudge if you can about maybe doing a dev article on music for the game? I love the graphics stuff, but something to switch it up a little bit (like the hardware/software he uses, how he composes etc.) would be interesting, at least for sound nerds like myself.
To some degree the bosses are a puzzle, a puzzle that requires incredible control and finesse but still a puzzle
They are intentionally difficult but also a different kind of difficulty compared to the regular levels help keep things fresh, it's amazing to see players go from dying half way through to S+ ranking a boss just by realising a few of their weakness's. Although right now Vespula is a little bit OP for where she sits in the game, and in dire need of more animation tells that will let you see the projectiles before they appear.
This is the great thing about early access, at least from a developers point of view, I get access to SOOOOOOOO much information that would have otherwise been impossible for me to guess, sadly it means you get to play an unfinished game for a while but you also get it 3 months early so we're both kind of winning
I went back and beat her with all 4 of the main androids. Couldn't win with starch, but I could probably do it with luck.To some degree the bosses are a puzzle, a puzzle that requires incredible control and finesse but still a puzzle
They are intentionally difficult but also a different kind of difficulty compared to the regular levels help keep things fresh, it's amazing to see players go from dying half way through to S+ ranking a boss just by realising a few of their weakness's. Although right now Vespula is a little bit OP for where she sits in the game, and in dire need of more animation tells that will let you see the projectiles before they appear.
This is the great thing about early access, at least from a developers point of view, I get access to SOOOOOOOO much information that would have otherwise been impossible for me to guess, sadly it means you get to play an unfinished game for a while but you also get it 3 months early so we're both kind of winning
I think I understand this game now. Or at least better than I did at first. I declare it to be a shooter puzzle speedrun game.
castaction
Member
Sorry mate I didn't want to give the wrong impression about internet play so it's just single purchase for now, if we ever did online play I'd do a 4-pack for sure! But that's just not on the cards right now.
I love it when a plan comes together
Sycle just went to sleep but right before doing so he declared our next major content update would focus on Leaderboards so get ready for some intense competition!Cave Johnson
Member
Just want to ask: Would this be 60fps on the Vita? Because from what I've seen, I'd hate to have latency issues when dealing with that much coming at you.
Sorry mate I didn't want to give the wrong impression about internet play so it's just single purchase for now, if we ever did online play I'd do a 4-pack for sure! But that's just not on the cards right now.
I love it when a plan comes together
no worries. local co-op is awesome for now
It's an arcade game, do they even run at other framerates?
As many in this thread will attest the game runs smooth even on very modest PC hardware right now, I can't say if we'll have to make significant sacrifices in order to keep that playability on Vita but I can say I agree with Respawn's stance that framerate is king.
Liamario
Banned
I have to agree. They look like something you'd see in the PSone/N64 era.
Liamario
Banned
It's an arcade game, do they even run at other framerates?
As many in this thread will attest the game runs smooth even on very modest PC hardware right now, I can't say if we'll have to make significant sacrifices in order to keep that playability on Vita but I can say I agree with Respawn's stance that framerate is king.
You'll have my money whether on pc or sony consoles. Can you elaborate a bit on the retro character deigns? Is mid 90s retro now?
Schobeleth
Member
Cave Johnson
Member
It's an arcade game, do they even run at other framerates?
As many in this thread will attest the game runs smooth even on very modest PC hardware right now, I can't say if we'll have to make significant sacrifices in order to keep that playability on Vita but I can say I agree with Respawn's stance that framerate is king.
Excellent. I'm glad there are developers who can the see the value of framerate.
This game is fantastic. It gets pretty hard, too. I think my favorite character is Coral, but it's kind of situational. Sometimes I feel handicapped with her short range, other times I'm destroying everything. I actually love all the characters except Cactus
I didn't really like the game that much at first, since I was trying to play a runaway and survive strategy. That doesn't work here. You have to throw yourself into the fray and spam alt fire as much as possible. Dying doesn't matter as long as you're killing quickly. That's my take anyway.
Well, maybe runaway would work OK with some of the characters, but I find it hard to dodge bullets so I just say screw it.
I didn't really like the game that much at first, since I was trying to play a runaway and survive strategy. That doesn't work here. You have to throw yourself into the fray and spam alt fire as much as possible. Dying doesn't matter as long as you're killing quickly. That's my take anyway.
Well, maybe runaway would work OK with some of the characters, but I find it hard to dodge bullets so I just say screw it.
I absolutely LOVE the way this game looks. My wife really digs twin stick games (especially Renegade Ops and Dead Nation), she's at the last boss of Renegade Ops on the top difficulty and she's almost through Dead Nation on Undead or whatever, so she is definitely good at them, but I think the type of challenge here would probably turn her off. I'm not sure, we'll try out the demo.
HitokiriNate85
Member
Well, the site I work for was down this morning so I purchased Early Access and went to town. Just finished all the available stages. Holy shit! This is some of the most fun I've had playing a game all year. I love twin stick shooters but I'm not sure if I've really been addicted to one since GW2.
I played the demo stages yesterday and the first boss wasn't easy at the time(I was using mouse/keyboard) but you can tell once you've beaten it the first time it's going to be a cakewalk after. Vespula cranked up the difficulty big time in comparison and I immediately got that "Holy shit, yes!" feeling right after the first loop. That is some excellent boss design, guys.
Pillar was the one wall for me out of the available stages. I rotated characters the whole way through and I was trying to beat that stage as Coral, but I died 4-6 times in a row after nearly beating it on several attempts(which I realized when I did beat it). At that point I switched to Holly and got through in two tries.
Just based on playing most of the stages once, here are the ones that stuck out to me the most.
Oxygen - Flying around the ring was just plain fun. I'm not sure what else it was, but I know I had a blast on that one.
Vespula
Checkpoint - I like how the level design really switches up here.
Furnace - This seems like it'll be great for multiplayer. I really liked the inclusion of the path through the middle. I immediately thought of Ikaruga's 4th stage boss.
Convection - Intense, pure gaming bliss. Oh my god, yessssss.
I didn't realize there were unlockable characters until I got Starch(btw, I got the unlock msg. multiple times, even after trying her out), so that was a cool surprise. Starch seems slightly more difficult to use as well. Each of the characters feels pretty diverse. Lemon is the easiest to just spray and pray with. Holly(cannon!!!) and Coral were the most fun to play as, though.
Digging the music a lot as well. It's very fitting and really seals in the intensity. Performance was fine sans a small dip on one of the stages, though I remember thinking it almost felt like intentional slowdown. I just had settings on medium. I'm playing on an iMac with a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB ram and a Radeon HD 4670.
I only got one S rank so far. Will my scores roll over into the leaderboards when they go up? I want to try and S-rank(is there something above this?) everything, but I'll wait if need be.
So excited for the full campaign and endless mode. I need this in my veins. The mention of a possible SMB-style Dark World is the drool-worthy. Paz, Sycle, and anyone else involved, thanks for making this!
Also, hopefully it's okay to ask, but if anyone is feeling generous it'd be awesome to have an avatar of one of the girls wearing a TW101 mask.
I played the demo stages yesterday and the first boss wasn't easy at the time(I was using mouse/keyboard) but you can tell once you've beaten it the first time it's going to be a cakewalk after. Vespula cranked up the difficulty big time in comparison and I immediately got that "Holy shit, yes!" feeling right after the first loop. That is some excellent boss design, guys.
Pillar was the one wall for me out of the available stages. I rotated characters the whole way through and I was trying to beat that stage as Coral, but I died 4-6 times in a row after nearly beating it on several attempts(which I realized when I did beat it). At that point I switched to Holly and got through in two tries.
Just based on playing most of the stages once, here are the ones that stuck out to me the most.
Oxygen - Flying around the ring was just plain fun. I'm not sure what else it was, but I know I had a blast on that one.
Vespula
Checkpoint - I like how the level design really switches up here.
Furnace - This seems like it'll be great for multiplayer. I really liked the inclusion of the path through the middle. I immediately thought of Ikaruga's 4th stage boss.
Convection - Intense, pure gaming bliss. Oh my god, yessssss.
I didn't realize there were unlockable characters until I got Starch(btw, I got the unlock msg. multiple times, even after trying her out), so that was a cool surprise. Starch seems slightly more difficult to use as well. Each of the characters feels pretty diverse. Lemon is the easiest to just spray and pray with. Holly(cannon!!!) and Coral were the most fun to play as, though.
Digging the music a lot as well. It's very fitting and really seals in the intensity. Performance was fine sans a small dip on one of the stages, though I remember thinking it almost felt like intentional slowdown. I just had settings on medium. I'm playing on an iMac with a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB ram and a Radeon HD 4670.
I only got one S rank so far. Will my scores roll over into the leaderboards when they go up? I want to try and S-rank(is there something above this?) everything, but I'll wait if need be.
So excited for the full campaign and endless mode. I need this in my veins. The mention of a possible SMB-style Dark World is the drool-worthy. Paz, Sycle, and anyone else involved, thanks for making this!
Also, hopefully it's okay to ask, but if anyone is feeling generous it'd be awesome to have an avatar of one of the girls wearing a TW101 mask.
Yeah I was a bit disappointed with this as well. The kb/m controls were perfect for me, but I couldn't use my ps2 controller because it had an axis mapped incorrectly. I couldn't do anything about it.Tried to play the demo, but ...
any way to re-map keyboard keys in the game ? it's unplayable with an azerty keyboard as it is and I don't have a proper controller for my PC (WiiU pro controller bluetooth trick doesn't work)
Messofanego
Banned
Just played the demo, this just feels so good!
I love how each character has a dialogue with the Embryo boss. Starch is a fantastic character, and pretty funny.
Holly's shifty eyes on the character select menu is so cute:
I love how each character has a dialogue with the Embryo boss. Starch is a fantastic character, and pretty funny.
Holly's shifty eyes on the character select menu is so cute:
She's really cute. I like the way she falls down in relief after winning. She seems kind of weak when unpowered, but quickly becomes amazing once you power up. That's my impression anyway.Just played the demo, this just feels so good!
I love how each character has a dialogue with the Embryo boss. Starch is a fantastic character, and pretty funny.
Holly's shifty eyes on the character select menu is so cute:
holly and coral are my favorites.
Moneyhats2k5
Member
Finally beat the boss in the demo! Secret character too? nice. Didn't realize the points gave you a weapon boost. It helps a lot.
I'm not the best to answer character design questions but I like to think we're more late 90's/Dreamcast era in our aesthetics, sorry they put you off so much
Thank you
And thanks for all the feedback too! It's great to see some of our less flashy stages getting love, I was a little worried at how 'plain' Oxygen is as a concept compared to say Influx but I also agree that the ring is fun to move around.usea - It sounds like you've really gotten in to the swing of things
It's awesome to see people adopting the games more aggressive nature, we wanted to create something a little bit different from your typical circle strafe/retreat twin stick shooter.As for keyboard & controller issues - If it's not being recognised at all when you attempt all the inputs then it likely isn't showing up as a direct input or xinput device and I'm not sure what we can do to support it :/ But if it does show up and the mapping is wrong then check back later on in development as we're aiming to add full remapping for pads & keyboard before release.
reptilescorpio
Member
Yeah Paz said that is just placeholder for now, will get a fancy Level Select system on the way to launch.
glad you're on this game too
i love this so much <3 the lack of online play is a bummer but with such a small team, I understand.
the dialogue with the bosses get pretty quirky and i like that dose of personality on each of them.
this is shaping up to be quite awesome
Axispowers
Member
I've been playing this for a little bit. Holy crap I love it. I didn't know a Vita version is coming out as well!?! Can't wait for more updates!
Axispowers
Member
Hey Paz I had a small suggestion for this game. A count down timer would be nice when you un-pause the game. Not sure if that's in the works.
We were actually just discussing this last night, I told Sycle it would be annoying and he really wanted it
You're the tie breaker, we're going to do it now.
splendid!
because I was going to raise that the click to "resume" game also counts as a shot.
and when i'm playing cactus (shotgun one) and have my special weapon selected.. and then unpause and waste it.
*shakes fist*
First time I saw this game was the gif in one of the PS4 threads, and I was interested immediately. Luckily this thread showed up yesterday and I got to try the demo. Knowing that it'd be coming to PS4 I feared the worst when it came to how it'd perform on my PC, but I was surprised to find it runs perfectly smooth at the highest settings, so major kudos for that.
The game is pretty damn fun! The mechanics and rules come together nicely to form a really solid experience. And for what it's worth, I like the mid-90s/Dreamcast era aesthetics. ;P
Awesome game you've got here so far, Paz! I look forward to what you, Sycle, and the rest of your team have in store.
The game is pretty damn fun! The mechanics and rules come together nicely to form a really solid experience. And for what it's worth, I like the mid-90s/Dreamcast era aesthetics. ;P
Awesome game you've got here so far, Paz! I look forward to what you, Sycle, and the rest of your team have in store.
here's my vote for this - this would be really nice (especially if it is done in the respective voices of the AI accompanying your Android)
are there going to be more gameplay add-ons? I really like how the game is basically just the two sticks plus two bumpers/triggers but I'm kinda itching for at least one more button like Quick-Evade/Dodge.
other thoughts
option for Custom Soundtracks? - I would love to play this on a custom rock/etc playlist
revamping the Pause Menu UI - I think more can be done with the Pause Menu. Now it's functional and really classic but can we change it to reflect like what the Android sees on it's visor. so rather than having a Black Overlay... let there be a blur effect and have like lines coming out of points of interest...
that's all from me for now
can't wait to get home and play more!
here's my vote for this - this would be really nice (especially if it is done in the respective voices of the AI accompanying your Android)
are there going to be more gameplay add-ons? I really like how the game is basically just the two sticks plus two bumpers/triggers but I'm kinda itching for at least one more button like Quick-Evade/Dodge.
other thoughts
option for Custom Soundtracks? - I would love to play this on a custom rock/etc playlist
revamping the Pause Menu UI - I think more can be done with the Pause Menu. Now it's functional and really classic but can we change it to reflect like what the Android sees on it's visor. so rather than having a Black Overlay... let there be a blur effect and have like lines coming out of points of interest...
that's all from me for now
can't wait to get home and play more!
Oh great suggestions, using the android voice for the countdown could be a nice touch and I think Tim already has some plans to pretty-ify the the pause screen so thanks for the ideas
We're trying to avoid adding any new button press mechanics as we want to keep the accessibility in mind, you can use the weapon swap mechanic as a sort of dodge roll right now as it is overloaded with a brief invulnerability period at the start. That being said we are planning to introduce new gameplay through even more unique styles of weapons for the next 3 androids, and a series of new red/blue/yellow powerups that will be a bit more abstract than firepower, shutdown, and accelerate.
And I think we'll properly support custom soundtracks on the console SKU's that have a built in method for it in their interface, but on PC you'll probably be limited to running your own music in the background and turning the in-game music volume to zero... I'll have a think about other ways we could do it, but it's not something I can prioritise atm.
Oh great suggestions, using the android voice for the countdown could be a nice touch and I think Tim already has some plans to pretty-ify the the pause screen so thanks for the ideas
We're trying to avoid adding any new button press mechanics as we want to keep the accessibility in mind, you can use the weapon swap mechanic as a sort of dodge roll right now as it is overloaded with a brief invulnerability period at the start. That being said we are planning to introduce new gameplay through even more unique styles of weapons for the next 3 androids, and a series of new red/blue/yellow powerups that will be a bit more abstract than firepower, shutdown, and accelerate.
And I think we'll properly support custom soundtracks on the console SKU's that have a built in method for it in their interface, but on PC you'll probably be limited to running your own music in the background and turning the in-game music volume to zero... I'll have a think about other ways we could do it, but it's not something I can prioritise atm.
I'd love to see some kind of ikaruga style weapon.. where by the android reflects or absorbs the enemy bullets for their secondary fire.. but obviously there needs to be a downfall here.. like.. double damage if you physically run into the enemy in this state..
Mr Nash
square pies = communism
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
Crash lol
It runs fine but when I try to stream with OBS all hell breaks loose.
It runs fine but when I try to stream with OBS all hell breaks loose.
HitokiriNate85
Member
Agreed. Or make it a countdown for multi, but instant for single player.
Oh great suggestions, using the android voice for the countdown could be a nice touch and I think Tim already has some plans to pretty-ify the the pause screen so thanks for the ideas
We're trying to avoid adding any new button press mechanics as we want to keep the accessibility in mind, you can use the weapon swap mechanic as a sort of dodge roll right now as it is overloaded with a brief invulnerability period at the start. That being said we are planning to introduce new gameplay through even more unique styles of weapons for the next 3 androids, and a series of new red/blue/yellow powerups that will be a bit more abstract than firepower, shutdown, and accelerate.
And I think we'll properly support custom soundtracks on the console SKU's that have a built in method for it in their interface, but on PC you'll probably be limited to running your own music in the background and turning the in-game music volume to zero... I'll have a think about other ways we could do it, but it's not something I can prioritise atm.
awesome!
can't wait to see how the next menu looks like!hmm that brief vulnerability is good to know. hmm. I find it a little difficult to keep track how much more I can use my secondary weapon - I usually just keep pressing to see when I can change it...
could there be a mechanism where if I time the switch properly, the secondary weapon gets an instant reload or something like that?
On custom soundtrack, I was wondering whether the implementation could be something like that of Beat Hazard? (or think GTA radio) so I can tune to a random internet playlist (or you guys can choose it) for some random/fun Android Radio stream.. (this can be a new idea for a new Android... Radiohead?)
PS: I really enjoy this direct communication with the devs
Okok, it will be a toggle
The weapon mechanics are pretty tightly balanced right now for score attacking & difficulty purposes, keep an eye on your characters feet although we're thinking about what kind of effects could signify a full charge
I think maybe the soundtrack stuff is a bit out of our scope sorry There will be more music in the full game though, currently worlds 3/4/5 are lacking their own music and the bosses for these worlds will also have unique music.
We like direct communication too!
could there be a mechanism where if I time the switch properly, the secondary weapon gets an instant reload or something like that?
On custom soundtrack, I was wondering whether the implementation could be something like that of Beat Hazard? (or think GTA radio) so I can tune to a random internet playlist (or you guys can choose it) for some random/fun Android Radio stream.. (this can be a new idea for a new Android... Radiohead?)
PS: I really enjoy this direct communication with the devs
The weapon mechanics are pretty tightly balanced right now for score attacking & difficulty purposes, keep an eye on your characters feet although we're thinking about what kind of effects could signify a full charge
I think maybe the soundtrack stuff is a bit out of our scope sorry
There will be more music in the full game though, currently worlds 3/4/5 are lacking their own music and the bosses for these worlds will also have unique music.We like direct communication too!
JasonUresti
Member
Yeah, sorry cats, but the battery thing has killed the game for me. Just feels to disconnected from what's happening with the rest of the game, and seems artificially massaged in the drop rate. I'm sure it's not, but it feels arbitrary and capricious in function, if not design.
It's tough. So much of this game feels top shelf. Great control, weapon balance, I even dig the cutesy design of the androids. It all feels like this great open score attack shooter, but then the designers said "But we want you to play this way, sucka" and threw in the battery mechanic.
The battery mode really feels more like something that should be in an endless survival mode or alternate game mode.
Sorry for being so negative. I only say this because the game even at this stage is 95% exactly what I love and look for, but the last little bitter piece leaves me feeling irritated and not wanting to play again, not challenged and ready to give it another go.
It's tough. So much of this game feels top shelf. Great control, weapon balance, I even dig the cutesy design of the androids. It all feels like this great open score attack shooter, but then the designers said "But we want you to play this way, sucka" and threw in the battery mechanic.
The battery mode really feels more like something that should be in an endless survival mode or alternate game mode.
Sorry for being so negative. I only say this because the game even at this stage is 95% exactly what I love and look for, but the last little bitter piece leaves me feeling irritated and not wanting to play again, not challenged and ready to give it another go.