Played through the first few levels and it's so brilliant to get to come back into this world with such a fresh lick of paint (been dipping in and out since... well... 1994!). It all feels juicy and the enemy behaviors feel way more dynamic and dangerous than the original.
The only thing that doesn't feel quite as good to me is the per-polygon collision.
I'm noticing as I play that it makes things feel a bit slower and more "snipy" than the original. The laser cannon feels designed for a world with larger hitboxes and misses way more, as do any non-homing missiles. It does lead to some interesting strategy like using missiles in general more for the splash damage (higher risk and works only near walls), and I couldn't wait to get spreadfire and the vulcan (love the new way it feels!) but otherwise I have to get a lot closer to enemies, and each fight takes quite a bit longer. Old strategies like kiting the enemies into large groups and then blasting a concussion missile into the middle often miss, as it just flies through the mob and hits a distant wall.
(I'm playing on keyboard FWIW, which makes it a fair bit harder than joysticks or mouse to aim precisely)
This might totally be your intent and I respect the heck out of that (this whole engine is just amazing!) but just in case, I'm wondering if you're considering tweaking that behavior?
Some ideas you've probably already thought about:
- Maybe an option to toggle onto the original simplified collision meshes
- Tweak the collision meshes to be the enemy's actual mesh but "expanded" outwards like an invisible shell to catch strays (pic)
- ...or even easier, just have a larger hit box for weapons like missiles and lasers
Hope this is the kind of Beta feedback you're looking for—keep up the awesomeness!
Played through the first few levels and it's so brilliant to get to come back into this world with such a fresh lick of paint (been dipping in and out since... well... 1994!). It all feels juicy and the enemy behaviors feel way more dynamic and dangerous than the original.
The only thing that doesn't feel quite as good to me is the per-polygon collision.
I'm noticing as I play that it makes things feel a bit slower and more "snipy" than the original. The laser cannon feels designed for a world with larger hitboxes and misses way more, as do any non-homing missiles. It does lead to some interesting strategy like using missiles in general more for the splash damage (higher risk and works only near walls), and I couldn't wait to get spreadfire and the vulcan (love the new way it feels!) but otherwise I have to get a lot closer to enemies, and each fight takes quite a bit longer. Old strategies like kiting the enemies into large groups and then blasting a concussion missile into the middle often miss, as it just flies through the mob and hits a distant wall.
(I'm playing on keyboard FWIW, which makes it a fair bit harder than joysticks or mouse to aim precisely)
This might totally be your intent and I respect the heck out of that (this whole engine is just amazing!) but just in case, I'm wondering if you're considering tweaking that behavior?
Some ideas you've probably already thought about:
Hope this is the kind of Beta feedback you're looking for—keep up the awesomeness!