I'm still playing through all of the games in their entirety and writing up detailed notes while I do so. I want the contest to be completely fair and not give an advantage to games I had more time to play and appreciate their mechanics.
Unfortunately this means that I probably won't finish my final write up within the same time period as the official results.
Heart of the OHR Contest 2012
Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk
You could compile them into game reviews, those are always helpful. I know that I, at least, craved further critique on my game after the results of the first HotOHR contest, so I'm assuming that everyone else feels similarly.
Pepsi Ranger's post on the tail end of the last page looked important, so I'm reposting it here.
Pepsi Ranger's post on the tail end of the last page looked important, so I'm reposting it here.
Pepsi Ranger wrote:Scores are compiled and the official results feature will be released soon. I just have to add in the "Audience Consensus" segment to each game before I can call it a wrap.
If you've agreed to host a prize, please review the prize section on Page 1 of this thread to see what you're offering. A few prizes will either have to change or dissolve thanks to a few adjustments to the community, including the end of HamsterSpeak and the silence of Inferior Minion (who was going to give you all T-shirts originally), but there's no reason why we can't fill those voids with new prizes.
If you're covering one of the "side quest" prizes, aka Best Villain and Best Dungeon, you'll have to review the thread for those votes. To me it doesn't look like there's much of a consensus on that, but if you still want to give voters time to vote on that, that's your prerogative.
Mystic, I have no idea what you are looking for for your special conditional prize, but hopefully you'll let us in on your secret.
TheCube, I will send you the results for the Hamster Burrow in the next day or two. I just need to know whether I should send it with the screenshot .PNGs or if you can directly post on your blog what's in the document file. The Wobbler usually needed the files before he could post the screenshots on HamsterSpeak. Let me know.
If anyone wants to add to the prize pot, you still can. Call it a thank you to the winner(s) for making such excellent games.
Having said that, I'd like to thank my prize suppliers for their willingness to contribute: James, Mogri, Momoka, Fenrir-Lunaris, Mystic, and Inferior Minion. If I've left anyone out, please let me know so I can thank you, too.
Feel free to comment on the contest as a whole if you'd like. Is there anything you'd like to see done differently in 2014? Any particular type of games you hope will make an original appearance, or currently unfinished titles that you'd like to see enter the rereleased category? Which games should make the OHR Legends ranking next time? Sound off.
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Pepsi Ranger
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 1457
- Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:25 am
- Location: South Florida
Hope the wait wasn't too long! I've got the results posted on the Hamster Burrow, and I'm going to make a front page announcement as well. Thanks to Mogri for giving me the ability to do that 
The results that Pepsi has compiled are incredibly detailed and amazing, just like last time. Thanks, Pepsi, for hosting this awesome contest, and thanks for putting the results on The Hamster Burrow! I'm glad that the blog is becoming a resource for the community, and I'm super excited to host this.
Here's the link to the page: http://hamsterburrow.blogspot.com/2013/ ... -2012.html
The results that Pepsi has compiled are incredibly detailed and amazing, just like last time. Thanks, Pepsi, for hosting this awesome contest, and thanks for putting the results on The Hamster Burrow! I'm glad that the blog is becoming a resource for the community, and I'm super excited to host this.
Here's the link to the page: http://hamsterburrow.blogspot.com/2013/ ... -2012.html
"Best Use of Randomly Ripped NPC"
HUEHUEHUEHUE!
"English not the author’s first language and it shows at times."
I will improve my English as soon as possible.
"Best Map Transitions"
Could be better if I know more about Scripting.
"Effective Inability to Save"
The game was short, i thought that saves would be useless.
"...dethrone the wizard"
It's a demon, the wizard thing is a spoil.
And about the low percentages at the end, there is at least 1 potion chest on every map. I said EVERY MAP.
The Zombies would trigger a battle if you touch 'em but i didn't do it in time.
HUEHUEHUEHUE!
"English not the author’s first language and it shows at times."
I will improve my English as soon as possible.
"Best Map Transitions"
Could be better if I know more about Scripting.
"Effective Inability to Save"
The game was short, i thought that saves would be useless.
"...dethrone the wizard"
It's a demon, the wizard thing is a spoil.
And about the low percentages at the end, there is at least 1 potion chest on every map. I said EVERY MAP.
The Zombies would trigger a battle if you touch 'em but i didn't do it in time.
"I can't buy food with glory"
Dreg Sector: The Tract
I even put off writing up feedback after actually playing games! I've probably started to forget things about this game which I would have mentioned.
I quite liked this game; it has great atmosphere, especially writing and music (startled to discover Hawk has been an unexploited talent this whole time) which I loved. But I do have serious complaints with the gameplay.
I sunk many hours into the game and nearly finished it --- I achieved 15 out of 25 medals and could apparently win any battle --- but in the end I stopped playing because I couldn't stand to fight any more battles. There were lots of new planets within reach, but eventually I consider it not worth spending X minutes fighting battles per new textbox to read: when you've experienced most of the game but are having gradually less fun completing it, there are diminishing returns. I might go back to it later though.
Others have said that the slow pace of battles fit the game, but I found them extremely annoying because you can't run without a certain ship in your party (which only has 1/3 chance of success anyway) and even very easy battles take a long time. I also did not find the battles terribly strategic. In the early game your options are limited. I thought that the difficulty ramp was problematic: there are sudden jumps where battles in a zone go from mostly-impossible to mostly-easy. Before you find Dr. Search the red zone is impossible, as are any enemy formations which use regen-spamming plus attack debuff or stunning. After you find Dr. Search it's worse, you can just use regen and stun-spamming to apparently win any battle. (Didn't play much further.) My ships made it to Rank/Level 6. Never tried different parties or flagships.
I liked that the homogeneous pricing made it very easy to see whether I should buy or sell a good. But because the battles were so hard in the beginning, the first thing I did (after many failures at playing normally) was run back and forth between the starting planets repeatedly doubling my money until I had enough to last forever. It doesn't take that long, and probably saved me a lot of time. It made a lot of later events less interesting though. Maybe you need to limit the amount of trading you do. It's a significantly different game depending on how many Marks you have. I'm of the philosophy that allowing your players to veer off the course to the point where they're playing a radically different game to the one you intended is a design error (especially where they have circumvented game mechanics), unless you're making a sandbox game, or for things like speed runs. Certainly not to say that you shouldn't have different ways to play a game, but that they should be designed to be just as fun (I probably did not really have less fun because of my trading exploitation (but the exploitation itself was not fun), so I guess I'm on a tangent).
For a game with such great writing, there are a huge number of typos.
I couldn't access Tipper because of the same menu bug I encountered in Woryurs of Woberyun. I didn't realise it was an engine bug until long after I'd stopped playing. And that too bad, because Tipper is the planet where you get lots of tips about where to go. Surely detracted from my experience; maybe it would have been completely different.
That might sound highly negative, but I did like the game on the whole: it's directed mainly at Willy, so I did not go into detail about positives.
I even put off writing up feedback after actually playing games! I've probably started to forget things about this game which I would have mentioned.
I quite liked this game; it has great atmosphere, especially writing and music (startled to discover Hawk has been an unexploited talent this whole time) which I loved. But I do have serious complaints with the gameplay.
I sunk many hours into the game and nearly finished it --- I achieved 15 out of 25 medals and could apparently win any battle --- but in the end I stopped playing because I couldn't stand to fight any more battles. There were lots of new planets within reach, but eventually I consider it not worth spending X minutes fighting battles per new textbox to read: when you've experienced most of the game but are having gradually less fun completing it, there are diminishing returns. I might go back to it later though.
Others have said that the slow pace of battles fit the game, but I found them extremely annoying because you can't run without a certain ship in your party (which only has 1/3 chance of success anyway) and even very easy battles take a long time. I also did not find the battles terribly strategic. In the early game your options are limited. I thought that the difficulty ramp was problematic: there are sudden jumps where battles in a zone go from mostly-impossible to mostly-easy. Before you find Dr. Search the red zone is impossible, as are any enemy formations which use regen-spamming plus attack debuff or stunning. After you find Dr. Search it's worse, you can just use regen and stun-spamming to apparently win any battle. (Didn't play much further.) My ships made it to Rank/Level 6. Never tried different parties or flagships.
I liked that the homogeneous pricing made it very easy to see whether I should buy or sell a good. But because the battles were so hard in the beginning, the first thing I did (after many failures at playing normally) was run back and forth between the starting planets repeatedly doubling my money until I had enough to last forever. It doesn't take that long, and probably saved me a lot of time. It made a lot of later events less interesting though. Maybe you need to limit the amount of trading you do. It's a significantly different game depending on how many Marks you have. I'm of the philosophy that allowing your players to veer off the course to the point where they're playing a radically different game to the one you intended is a design error (especially where they have circumvented game mechanics), unless you're making a sandbox game, or for things like speed runs. Certainly not to say that you shouldn't have different ways to play a game, but that they should be designed to be just as fun (I probably did not really have less fun because of my trading exploitation (but the exploitation itself was not fun), so I guess I'm on a tangent).
For a game with such great writing, there are a huge number of typos.
I couldn't access Tipper because of the same menu bug I encountered in Woryurs of Woberyun. I didn't realise it was an engine bug until long after I'd stopped playing. And that too bad, because Tipper is the planet where you get lots of tips about where to go. Surely detracted from my experience; maybe it would have been completely different.
That might sound highly negative, but I did like the game on the whole: it's directed mainly at Willy, so I did not go into detail about positives.
Last edited by TMC on Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
TMC: I read your criticisms. Thank you very much for taking the time. I am planning to make an updated version of the game soon. I agree with some of your comments. I intend to reduce the power of the special weapons purchased from Dr. Search as well as make a power to avoid random encounters. The speed of battles will also be (marginally) increased. I will also correct a lot of typos.
Some people aside from yourself have also claimed that the trading is too easy to earn money at. However, the encounters were balanced assuming that the players would trade all of the shops until they were empty. If you didn't do this, I suspect you would find that the green and red areas are incredibly frustrating.
Complaints have also been registered about the inability to flee battles. The likelihood to flee is only 33%. But you may have more than one of that type of ship in your fleet. If you had 3 of them, your likelihood to flee would be pretty good. You can also use this power to flee nearly every encounter in the game, including bosses. In this way, it is theoretically possible to beat the entire game (with a passable score) without finishing a single battle. That said, I've been thinking about raising the flee percentage to 40% or 45%.
Some people aside from yourself have also claimed that the trading is too easy to earn money at. However, the encounters were balanced assuming that the players would trade all of the shops until they were empty. If you didn't do this, I suspect you would find that the green and red areas are incredibly frustrating.
Complaints have also been registered about the inability to flee battles. The likelihood to flee is only 33%. But you may have more than one of that type of ship in your fleet. If you had 3 of them, your likelihood to flee would be pretty good. You can also use this power to flee nearly every encounter in the game, including bosses. In this way, it is theoretically possible to beat the entire game (with a passable score) without finishing a single battle. That said, I've been thinking about raising the flee percentage to 40% or 45%.
I don't know if I would be happy with being able to defeat bosses by running away. It will turn the story nonsensical, won't it? Well, it'll be equivalent to some kind of attack that has a 33% chance to suck the enemy fleet into a wormhole or something of the sort. Also, if used as a method of defeating formations, don't like the idea of the chance of it working being the same regardless of the strength of the enemies.
I did not any of that type of ship in my fleet: since the battles seemed initially very hard (I think... maybe I'm misremembering), I wanted to maximise the useful combat skills of my ships. On that note, I found the attack skill of the Fighter flagship quite underpowered due to its high miss rate; almost wasn't worth using.
One simple knob to adjust would be the random battle frequency. I would be complaining a lot less if it were lower.
Opps. The unlimited stock appears to be a bug in nightlies.
I did not any of that type of ship in my fleet: since the battles seemed initially very hard (I think... maybe I'm misremembering), I wanted to maximise the useful combat skills of my ships. On that note, I found the attack skill of the Fighter flagship quite underpowered due to its high miss rate; almost wasn't worth using.
One simple knob to adjust would be the random battle frequency. I would be complaining a lot less if it were lower.
Opps. The unlimited stock appears to be a bug in nightlies.
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
Mogri wrote:I'm fairly certain the version of the game I played gave the shops unlimited stock...
I wish you guys would've used the version of game.exe that came in the zip file. I think you would find the whole game to be much more balanced.TMC wrote:Opps. The unlimited stock appears to be a bug in nightlies.
Crap. That's so disappointing.
I used the copy of game.exe included in the download, and I was able to trade forever. I don't think there is anything wrong with allowing this. The player then decides when he feels strong enough to continue, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing where a player would be willing to spend an hour doing nothing but this just to get all the best equipment on the starting planet. But it DOES seem important that the player can make enough money to allow staying at the 'inn' as often as he pleases.
I am Srime
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
Hmm. I'm not sure how this is possible. There has got to be some sort of bug I am overlooking. The only unlimited items in the trading shops are the ones that are most expensive on that planet and you don't want to buy. I just tested this out a few moments ago, as well as numerous times while testing the game before the contest release.msw188 wrote:I used the copy of game.exe included in the download, and I was able to trade forever.
Do you mind opening up the game with the included game.exe and taking a screen shot of the trader on Heap. The first 3 goods listed should all show that there is only 10 in stock. I just want to make sure that you aren't making some mistake.
You should only be able to buy 10 of the planet's 3 most valuable resources and 5 of its 3 second most valuable resources. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this confusion?
Last edited by Willy Elektrix on Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:28 am, edited 2 times in total.
I may have spoken too quickly in saying that it was a bug in nightlies; that was just an assumption. But don't worry about investigating it, I'm doing so.
I always play games with nightlies even if someone specifies a versino to use with their game. Not doing so would be a wasted chance to test nightlies or back-compatibility. I think the majority of engine bugs are caught by James and I in regular use this way. Aside from that, I don't boot into Windows much.Willy Elektrix wrote:I wish you guys would've used the version of game.exe that came in the zip file. I think you would find the whole game to be much more balanced.
