Tea For God
v 0.5.4 (scripting, haptics, savegames, map symbols)
The very first thing that I've done for this update was the music system. But there's no music in the game, right? Yes. But it will be easier for the composer to work with the game when it is possible to hear the music pieces in the game.
The next thing that I've done was the voiceover system. And again, there are no voiceovers. One reason is that I started with synthesised speech and it didn't sound well. The other, more important is that I kept on rewriting, modifying, altering, adding stuff. I actually started by cutting half of the dialogues, then decided to drop dialogues and stick to AI Companion speaking to the player.
Instead of just solely speaking, the AIC reacts to what the player does. I plan to keep all scenes like this, whenever it makes sense or is possible. I will be starting with tutorials, explanations of basic gameplay systems. The thing with the game reacting to the player's actions is that those tutorials are not mandatory and might be skipped. And not by a button press but by ignoring what AIC says.
There are right now just two scenes. One tells about upgrade machines, how it works (doesn't tell what happens if you try to install an upgrade to an already occupied slot, this will be a part of a different tutorial/scene) and the other about the map. The latter should help to navigate the world.
There's another big thing that hasn't been cut. Support for haptic vests. Currently, the game supports OWO vest and bhaptics (only on Quest, Windows support coming). If you're unfamiliar with those, check them out. Both work differently, provide sensations by other means and it might be up to each person to choose the haptic device on their own.
A minor system has been added while working on haptics. I added a system to tell whether you're outside or not, what sound should accompany you and if there should be a sensation triggered then. It's now quite windy at God Emperor's place.
And now even bigger change. Support for savegames/checkpoints. While the game is created as a roguelite, I still want to allow people to use more standard checkpoint system to play the game as a more traditional singleplayer experience. There is now no way to choose which one you prefer and to be honest, I still haven't decided when this should happen. Via profile? When a new profile/gameslot is created?
Currently, there are a few savegames created. Every few minutes or when you quit is "the last moment". When a safe place is reached there's another one. There's also an extra one "at least 50% of health" whenever something else is being saved and you've got enough health.
But even for the roguelite mode, this feature is going to be useful. If you want to call it a day, if your Quest has an almost flat battery, you'd like to take a break. Now if you exit the game, you will be prompted with information that you may continue later. The only downside is that you will always start in a safe place - upgrade machine room (blue) or workshop (orange). This, of course, might be used as a mean of fast travel to go back to your last location but I guess, that it's up to the people how they play and enjoy the game. I'm here to give tools.
One of the suggestions I've seen was that there should be tutorials explaining how devices work (these will be coming) and what the symbols mean. I am an explorer type of gamer. I do love exploring worlds and game mechanics. And I've thought that instead of explaining what symbols mean right upfront, maybe I should obfuscate the symbols, requiring players to explore them on their own. Right now, when you get the map, you have it filled with some weird signs (different every time you start a new game). You learn what symbol means what when using the associated device. Then, the symbol is changed to something easier to remember. With upcoming tutorials, this should be the best way to learn what symbols mean.
I also managed to fix lots of bugs. Some were making the game unplayable - crashes right after you start or blocked corridors. Some would be only happening when you moved far away from the start point. And there were some bugs that prevented the fault logs on Quest 2 to be sent to me.
In the next build, I plan to introduce objectives and more tutorials. This means that I should be getting closer to a proper demo.
Comments
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I just played the new update, just wanted to give some feedback.
The open-world and map features are amazing. It's really cool to explore the large world. The new graphics also look sweet (although it's sad to see that the cultists running around in circles are removed, I liked the mysteriousness).
Some improvements:
- It's not clear to me how to get energy (/bullets) for my weapons. There are some refill stations, but there are way too few of those to get enough energy for the onslaught of enemies. When you are out of energy, not being able to use any weapons is frustrating and I often die quickly after. Enemies always seem to come from both sides, even the side I just cleared, so backtracking to a room where I can replenish doesn't seem to be an option. As a solution, maybe think of adding a less powerful weapon that requires no energy (melee maybe?), or add a way to replenish at any point in time.
- In the beginning and at refill stations there are three power-ups to choose from. For me, the icons displayed are not enough to understand them. Except for the one that replenishes energy/bullets, I'm not 100% sure what I can get from them.
- There's no clear goal/objectives. I make my way across the map, but I'm not sure where I'll be going and what I will find there. Perhaps add some things we need to collect around the map or a door that requires a key. Add some kind of story, that tells us why it is important for us to make our way through the complex.
Probably you have already thought about these things, but some extra feedback shouldn't hurt ;). Anyway, I'm still in love with the game, and cannot wait for what the future will bring.
Thank you :)
I miss those guys running in circles too but they no longer if the story :(
There are going to be some explanations about getting energy/health. I also plan to add small robots that can be used to refill stuff. I need to find a good way to balance this as energy is a way to buy stuff. It is also possible to fight using your own fists but I made them weaker, mostly to not have melee weapons OP or useless.
Enemies always spawn. I keep just a few enemies around the player, if they wander too far away, they disappear. But there might be another solution. If a player enters a room, for a while nothing spawns there. This should prevent from getting enemies attacking you from behind all the time (although in some cases it would be still possible).
Do you have the info appear when you grab a handle? I didn't want the info to be too long so it might appear less descriptive. As I will be adding more unlocks, I may drop some that feel dull. There's a lot of room to improve here.
Yes, there is no objective. This should change soon as I will be adding bits of narrative and objective to this level. And most likely a short level before this one where you can familiarise yourself with the game systems - and if you're familiar it should be a quick walk-through and only once per game slot - unless you want to do it again.
It is also possible to fight using your own fists: Ah, I didn't know this. Good to know :)
Do you have the info appear when you grab a handle? : Not that I recall, but that would be a good option.
One more thing I wanted to mention: there is one large robot that has lightning in front and a handle on its back (that you have to pull to kill it). I think this robot is super cool, as you have to try to find a way to approach him from behind. However, once I had this robot become stuck in a narrow hallway, and he was blocking the path. I couldn't continue but by going through him, since that robot can't be damaged by weapons (I think).
There are other ways to kill it. You may use spider bots (that can be turned into grenades) or black wormy thingies (proximity mines). Corrosion weapons work too. Armour piercing modifications to weapons also allow to kill it.
But the problem with going through enemies remains. I have no good solution for that yet.
I installed the update yesterday and I have some suggestions and problems.
First, Please make the intro/tutorial things skippable, many have played more than enough Tea for God and know enough to not need those at all. Also when I accidentally went on "bhaptics" in the haptics menu and didn't want to give the game access location it permanently stuck to a loading screen and I couldn't play until I restarted my quest.
Second, I had a small problem with wall and door tile alignment (the door one happened twice in the first area) I have attached a video of that, after I died in that run, because of a robot placed that looked like it was placed in an upgrade room, I closed the game through the menu and it gave me a crash notification.
The tutorials are skippable. The thing is that there is no button to skip. Just ignore what AIC says, choose an upgrade and move. The game won't get stuck in the tutorial, will switch it off when it sees that you ignore it. If you open a map after you get an upgrade, there will be no map tutorial as well.
I'll modify bhaptics getting stuck in location access request.
Not sure about the misalignment issue. There are at least two things that have to be fixed when it comes to doors, that are visible in the video:
1. The door is off the wall.
2. Different corridors have holes where they join (this also happens at the starting door/corridor).
I suspect that I don't get many crash reports :( I haven't got anything for the 0.5.4 (#224). While it's impossible for a robot to be placed in an upgrade room, it could have been placed in a very very thin room between the upgrade room and the elevator. It's visible in the video (the lighter wall with a strip in the middle indicates that it is a separate room). Although this should not happen and it is a bug. The big robot is then pushed out of the room by the door and seems to teleport into the elevator.
Thank you for your quick reply!
That separate thin robot spawn thing is really interesting, I'm assuming it generates that little in-between room piece so it has something to connect the elevator to?
The door/corridor issue wasn't in the previous update from what I've played so I'm assuming it's a bug from this version, or I never previously encountered it.
Anyways, thank you for replying and for your continued development of the game.
Yes, that's a bit that connects a room and an elevator. Sometimes it's not required and sometimes it's much bigger. As there are two rooms that share an elevator, the doors may be not aligned (for many reasons), to align the elevator entrances, such rooms are added.
Such rooms are in the game for a while now. I guess that robots were being spawned there too. What has changed is that some robots do not get any hints where to go to meet player (so you should be able to surprise them) + when they are far away from the player, they are not advanced/processed. An additional thing was that the elevator was waiting for the player. So this particular robot was just standing there, waiting. A lot of coincidences :)