The Sauces of War... Salsa of World?

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

36 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

I would like to see a little bit more diversity in the items / objects that attack you. I recognize the name of the game is Saucers of War, but it would cool if there were some other items. Maybe a mini-lander, or some other kind of alien space craft thrown in. I did see the item in the second pane where it beams down... that's good.

There are some other craft that I haven't shown yet. Theres 2 bombers that fly by in the background that will basically do a drive by shooting on you and there are a few other craft that still havent been shown yet that will also attack in different ways.

 

One thing I am toying with but not sure how people will react is on the alien world having little aliens running around on the ground that you can pick off one by one in a sick sadistic manner.....

 

 

Would anyone be up for murdering little defenceless aliens on their home world?

[82-T/A]

1 minute ago, WAVE 1 GAMES said:

There are some other craft that I haven't shown yet. Theres 2 bombers that fly by in the background that will basically do a drive by shooting on you and there are a few other craft that still havent been shown yet that will also attack in different ways.

 

One thing I am toying with but not sure how people will react is on the alien world having little aliens running around on the ground that you can pick off one by one in a sick sadistic manner.....

 

 

Would anyone be up for murdering little defenceless aliens on their home world?

 

That would be a decent change from the normal levels. I'd want to do that.

[+Saturn]

2 minutes ago, WAVE 1 GAMES said:

Would anyone be up for murdering little defenceless aliens on their home world?

I'm in

[UHATEIT]

I'd be all about shooting aliens running around! I was thinking maybe even a bonus game or something that can be chosen in the menu select screen. Like a target practice section with alien heads popping up and then you can shoot them. Or alien bodies that pop up, similar to JagZombies but with aliens, or something similar to the target practice section of Area 51 the game or like the popup target practice section of Lethal Enforcers or Mad Dog McCree

[+Saturn]

Playing beta C this morning and glad there's a use for killing the abducter ufo now. Can't take my eyes off the screen long enough to watch any kind of replenish happen to the meter bc of all the chaos (which is good!), but before I'd just let him take the human.

Nit picking, but the human sure is big way back there.

Still hoping for a way to skip the intro text. Want to get straight to killin aliens but wait it out...

The new(er) gray ufo on Wave 2 is stealthier coming at you and a bit harder to target. Its collision seems to be different than the 'regulars' too. Targeting it takes more skill than just being 'close' like the rest. Also, if you pause with it onscreen it disappears while the others are still visible.

Just got a score of 3180, was on Wave 2. The ramped up difficulty shows. Can hear the music loud and clear now.

Entering Practice Mode (2) can still be exited easily by pressing Option.

Turning to move UFOs off the screen still works for the most part to avoid hits. Since they only fire at the closest point before leaving I was missed by 3 consecutive shots even though I heard them fired. I can pick and choose my targets and get away almost unscathed if I want.

Pause seems very finicky. Sometimes it unpauses as expected but usually, it repauses so quickly that I have to quick tap it to try to resume. Even that didn't work at one point and UFOs were 'sneaking' up on me as I attempted it. Took about 10x to get it unpaused and by then there were at least 4 saucers right up close so when I could play, they laid into me with shots one after the other. I didn't die but took a sh*tload of damage.

A shot was fired at me right before the timer ran out on Wave 1. The screen froze to transition to Wave 2 and once did, the shot still hit me and took a chunk out of my Shields:

 

Paused it before any enemies appeared.

 

The recharge on lasers seems fair. I held down the fire button at the beginning to overheat them and was able to continue in a second or two at least being able to fire a shot or two. Nice.

I'll play more tonight and post any findings. All around frantic fun and looking great.

 

Edit

the pause issue could be my controller. No idea. Can someone try it and let me know? Thanks

Edited July 24, 2019 by Saturn

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

The pause issue is NOT your controller. It is the game. I need to adjust the time/delay on the toggle function. I want it to have a small delay so people dont try and hold it down for cheap slow motion cheating, but where it is now is too long.

Edited July 24, 2019 by WAVE 1 GAMES

[+Saturn]

Good to know. I'd re-flashed the game incase but same thing and it worked fine on other games.

Hacked in some infinite health to reach the queen. (starts about the 1:50 mark) She just sat there so after watching her stay in the middle of the screen while moving to the extents, I put my crosshairs on her face to make it look like lasers were coming out of her eyes.

Geeze, if someone could make it to Waves 6 or 7, there'd be no hope of getting past them. Gets wild!

 

With the collision, it looks like it's set just as wide for when the ships are up close as it is when they first appear and are smaller. Maybe that's why it's so easy to take them out, in multiples even, without being centered. The new saucers on Wave 2 seem to differ a bit, though. Have to be right on target to take those out.

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

Wow the quality of your video recording is very nice. May I ask how you capturr your video?

 

I use a little dinky USB composite thing connected to the Jag then hooked up to my PC and FRAPS to record. Whatever you're using looks much better.

[UHATEIT]

I agree with Saturn that when you get to wave 2, those gray and black ones are more stealth and harder to hit, they are the ones that cause a ton of damage for me. They are skinnier so you have to aim better and it takes more skill.

 

I too have had issues with the PAUSE function, sometimes it doesn't work or it blips on and off and I have to retry it again to get it to work. BUT I am very happy to have a pause option in this game whereas Jagzombies did not.

 

Also again props to Saturn for knowing how to hack infinite life into the game! Do you have the Hex editor codes/lines for what to put in? I'd like to try that as well if possible!

[+Saturn]

I use an El Gato HD something or other that I bought back in 2015, I believe. It rocks.

[UHATEIT]

40 minutes ago, Saturn said:

I use an El Gato HD something or other that I bought back in 2015, I believe. It rocks.

Ive followed your Sega CD hex editor codes to hack somne games. You didnt use a hex editor for this one?

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

Having real problems fixing the music for Wave 3. I may end up having to scrap that particular tune in favor of something else. I really don't want to do that, but I'm kind of at a brick wall here. It sucks because it's my favorite tune from the whole game and I really wanted it in.

 

[+Saturn]

That sucks, I wish I could help. I hate leaving the great stuff out of a doom mod or trimming it down to a paltry shadow of what it was. Kills all the motivation... temporarily, at least.

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

So, I figured out that the reason for the music distortion on Wave 3 is bus overload. The size of the .raw file for the song is just too darn big. Thats why the other songs sound ok during gameplay. They are about half the size.

 

So I thought how can I reduce the size without drastically effecting quality?

 

I remembered the 1UP sound on SMB for NES is the level 1 music played at super fast speed

 

So. I took the native American song and sped it up in Audacity X100 making it sound almost unrecognizable. This reduced the overall size of the .raw file dramatically. I then made it playback in game at what would be seriously slower playback. After a little tweaking, the results were a normal sounding song! It freakin works!

 

So what about the other songs that didnt have this issue?

 

I may end up doing the same trick with those just to free up even more space which I will use for more graphics and even more sounds! MORE MORE MORE

 

LOL

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

Quick update

 

I fixed the pause issue. It is 100% now

 

I fixed the desert music

 

I added a sound effect for when the abductor ray is beaming down

  

I added a sound effect of a robot voice saying "Well done kid!" When you complete a wave

 

I made each ship explosion sound slightly different so the sound of blasting ships is more random now and less repetitive

 

I should have a new beta upload soon, but I want to tweak a few more things 

 

 

Edit-->  I also made the shield replenishment much higher for saving a human

Edited July 27, 2019 by WAVE 1 GAMES

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

Sorry for the lack of updating in a while. The next beta (betaD) will not be released publicly. This will only go out to the designated play testers as this game is nearing completion. I will upload a video of the near ready beta in this thread for others who are curious and have been following the project so far.

 

I have been tweaking a good bit in the game during this time. Here's a recent update:

 

I noticed the dodging function in the last build was not working correctly. I have fixed this issue.

 

I have added a LOADING screen for when the game is unpacking graphics now. It says LOADING in the Saucer Wars style font

 

Balloon mode is now functional!

 

I added an energy replenishment ship to the background in the grid stages similar to how the abductors work on the terrestrial stages, however these guys are more difficult to hit. (Gotta keep it challenging!)

 

The alien queens energy bar is now intergrated into the hud as an extension of the existing design.

 

I noticed one of the things that makes the game so difficult is the speed of the crosshair and turret. I have increased the speed of the turret so maneuvering is more sensitive.

 

I have also changed a bunch of other small details that may or may not be noticeable to most people. All in all improvements.

 

Will upload video soon!

 

 

In the meantime here is a nice article I found on the internet about Saucy Roars

 

https://readretro.com/saucer-wars-for-atari-jaguar-public-beta-shown/

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by WAVE 1 GAMES
added Saucer Wars article link

[phoenixdownita]

Can't resist, must ask question.

 

Outside of the volunteers here testing it, do you have a "official test team" to make sure quality is where it needs be?

 

To be completely honest I am under the (likely very wrong) impression that you are "using" (maybe the word is too harsh here) volunteered time to get "free" testing.

I am not sure why I got that impression (I admit I may well just have a prejudice against your modus operandi at this time, and that reflects poorly on me not on you obviously) but I thought of asking.

I have NOT built homebrews myself so I don't really know how much the testing effort really is and how much can be outsourced to a few volunteers. Maybe it's just the way homebrews gets tested.

 

My apologies in advance if this post feels inflammatory, it's a real question and I am stating an opinion that can be completely wrong.

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

I'm not sure I entirely understand the question.  There are 3 testers that are members here on AA. Each one of them expressed interest in testing the game for me and helping me find bugs. Also me and my son have been playing the crap out of the game as well which is why I have discovered so many of the issues on my own.

 

As a thank you to the testers I am giving them a free cartridge copy of the game. I did not tell them this information until just recently, well after they began testing and helping me. It is a way of saying thanks for the help.

 

So no. Im not using people. If there was another point to your question I may have missed then please elaborate.

[+CyranoJ]

1 hour ago, phoenixdownita said:

I have NOT built homebrews myself so I don't really know how much the testing effort really is and how much can be outsourced to a few volunteers. Maybe it's just the way homebrews gets tested.

 

It is usually an ongoing process with several people towards the end of development. Once the version hits "RC1" - usually after a few months, a few physical carts are made and then testing begins again from the actual carts for a few more months.  Only when I can be sure that there are no game breaking bugs will the ROM go to manufacture.  Of course, other people might do it differently so I can't speak for everyone, but I have this hang-up about shipping things that work.....

[VintageGamer74]

Looks cool! 

 

Any idea on what kind of music you will use. 

 

Good luck ?? ?

[phoenixdownita]

I don't mean to sound too harsh when I say "free testers", I just don't know how else to call them when compared to "for hire".

 

As already declared I do not know how homebrews are tested, but given Wave1games sells those game for a profit and apparently has some manner of success/profitability, the "test and you get 1 copy for free" seems a cheap way to get what I would call "free testers" (apologies for the term once more), of course they would get a free copy in the end, that goes without saying (I think, once more NOT involved into playtesting homebrews or developing them).

 

By any means people can volunteer their time for free to help out, so that is perfectly fine, I was more thinking along the lines that 2 or 3 testers (however motivated to help out they may be, "for free") can't really beat some "for hire" (or maybe they can, I know very little of the matter)  ... don't know something like revenue-sharing .... 50c per copy sold or something (it's all honor based system anyway).

 

Just curious on how it works out, productions seems to be so limited that even revenue sharing at 50c per copy with a team of say 10 testers may have an impact on viability.

 

 

 

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

Honestly I don't think it matters if the testers are paid with cash or paid with the game as long as the end result is a quality product with no flaws. When it comes to Jaguar it's not a matter of dollars earned, it's a matter of passion. A matter of wanting to see something great done on the console. The opportunity to help create a homebrew masterpiece that will stand the test of time and be talked about for years to come. My playtesters are some of the most passionate Jaguar fans I have ever seen. They want to see great games for the console and they take pride in being a part of it's developing history. The communication has been great and everyone has found their share of flaws and problems and were able to bring each issue to my attention without being harsh about it and encouraging me. I have resolved every issue that has been spotted. Its kind of been a team effort all around, and for that I am grateful.

 

In the end, the product will speak for itself and serve as a testament to the passion of everyone involved.

 

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

I wasn't planning on posting the latest build publicly, however the project is now in serious trouble. Below is text I copied and pasted from an RB+ help thread I started regarding what has happened:

 

"I was working on balloon mode in Saucer Wars, specifically the rapinit file. The power went out then back on due to a storm. In an unlikely event my computer crashed and had to be rebooted. The rapinit file is now corrupted as it only 544k and now displays strange unrecognizable characters within the text file. I have not backed these files up since June 30. I have not tried to compile and run the game since the corruption. The rapinit file is the only one that was affected by the power surge event....

 

...If nothing else perhaps the latest ROM build can be de-compiled and the rapinit.s file be recovered from there?

 

I just checked the backup rapinit.s file from June 30 and it will be nearly impossible to re-create what I had today from that! I'm including the latest ROM file.

 

perhaps somebody knows how to de-compile it "

 

You can see that entire thread here:

 

 

I am going to go ahead and post the latest ROM build here as well. I figure if some people (Like Saturn) can hack my game to get infinite health, perhaps there is another person who would know how to decompile the .abs build file.

 

If I can't get that corrupted file back then I'm afraid the future of the Saucer Wars project may be in jeopardy.

newufo.abs

[+madman]

You know that you can't "decompile" binaries to their original BASIC (or any other high level language) source files, correct?

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

1 minute ago, madman said:

You know that you can't "decompile" binaries to their original BASIC (or any other high level language) source files, correct?

No I don't know. But theoretically the data IS still within the binary file. I don't really know what can be done. All I know is the only backup file I have is far too out of date to be used for a re-construction and I wouldn't even know where to begin in attempting that.

 

I want to try and recover the lost/corrupted data.