Hi everybody
I’ve been working on this game for a while and it’s almost done. It obviously needs some testing on different platforms/settings so if you’ve got some time to spare I’d apprecite your feedback … and you might enjoy it as well 
http://www.cifa.freesitespace.net/1945.html
Thanx
I didn’t really like it, sorry.
The time from starting the game to being able to click start was too long. Instead of loading art manually one image at a time, put it all in a single big jar file… that should reduce loading time as it’s just a single http call.
The long, slow animation before letting the player see the start menu was annoying. Hiding the mouse cursor is also annoying.
I didn’t like that the menus were mouse driven, but the game was keyboard driven. It’s a big no-no in my book.
The way the plane moved felt too slow, and it had too much and too strange inertia, making it really hard to avoid bullets. Enemy planes also seemed to fire totally at random, making much of the game about guessing and playing it safe instead of allowing the player to take risks.
I don’t know why the water moved at a different speed than the islands… possibly to simulate waves? It ended up feeling like the islands were floating above the water to me.
Also, after playing for a while, the game hung when I tried keeping space down for continuous fire. Or rather, the image froze. The sound kept going, making shoot sounds when I pressed space.
The graphics were mostly nice, with a distinct 1942 feeling. Are they original?
Loading time was so painful. Fix that asap.
Bombs don’t do anything or is it just me?
Yeap, loading takes a bit too long. How did you implement it? Are you using separate HTTP connection to download every single resource? If it’s so important for your game to keep resources away from game jar I would suggest putting them all in separate archive, download it with a single connection and then play with it on a client side.
i see where your aiming at, and i hope you give the game the polishing it deserves.
i agree with markus about his points. that’s good feedback.
about the load time: it’s probably not about the http calls, but using jars, you could compress the data. and you should use 2…3 jars: splash screen, menu, the rest. so you can start early on to show the user something interesting. the loading screen is not a highlight 
individual firing is too slow, compared to autofire, which gives you at least a chance to shoot down enemies. then, their shot-sounds should be less prominent and you need to give the player’s gun its own sound. i missed the distinction between my and their shots.
the explosion you use in the menu should have alpha transparency and you the hidden mouse is really annoying.
My gripes with it was mainly the loading, and the music.
A 1 bar drumloop isn’t that pleasing after a while. It’s actually somewhat ok in a menu context, but it quickly gets tiring.
Thankx a lot guys…
I’ll certaintly take your points on board. Even though it might take a while as there are so many :o
A common point which I do agree needs to be addressed. It’s not about http calls. I’ve got a few sprite sheets which download quite quickly. What takes time is cutting out separate sprite images, setting transparency and preparing them… probably stupid and wasteful. I’ll have to come up with a different solution
[quote]Enemy planes also seemed to fire totally at random…
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Not totally but I take your point. There’s a min delay between shots and after that the likelyhood of a shot being fired grows with every iteration… I’ll try to make it a bit more predictable. Btw, there’re different types of enemies later in the game - many with no random behaviour at all (not all is bad and horrible )
[quote]Bombs don’t do anything or is it just me?
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That’s just you not reading the instructions. Bombs are for destroying ships!! And they appear from level 2 on…
[quote]the hidden mouse is really annoying…
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Ok guys, that’s the easiest thing of all to fix… will be sorted soon…
[quote]you need to give the player’s gun its own sound. i missed the distinction between my and their shots.
the explosion you use in the menu should have alpha transparency
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You’re right. I will improve that… In fact, I could go for a major overhaul of the main menu including the animation. I’ve never been too sure about it and your comments confirm my doubts
[quote]drumloop isn’t that pleasing after a while. It’s actually somewhat ok in a menu context, but it quickly gets tiring
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Don’t know what to say… Well, just go to options and turn the music/sounds off. I like it and as I’m hardly going to please everyone I might as well leave it as it is
Thanx for your feedback. It’s been most useful and given me a lot to think about …
The most annoying problem sorted …check the download time now. You were right. It makes a a lot of difference.
Also the small planes don’t shoot so randomly any more. They shoot at regular intervals (randomly generated within certain brackets) after a random initial delay… Hopefully, this will make it more predictable without being overly repetitive… Other planes will use the same system soon if it proves to be a success with you
Hi! I appreciate your efforts to improve your game. The only problems I have with it are these furthers:
Please tell me if you agree with me in adding your game into the Java Game Tome. The GUI is fine and the game is really playable.
Yes, I agree. You can add it if you wish to do so but it’s not finished by any stretch of the imagination. A lot of work to be done yet.
Losing focus has never been a problem. You might have clicked outside the applet by mistake and as the cursor is hidden when the game is in play you might have got the wrong impression that you can’t use the mouse.
The same goes for the high scores connection - never an issue. It might have been a server lag or something else… I don’t know…
Would you care to try again and let me know if the problem(s) persist??? (with some more details, e.g. console details when switched to the trace all level … (option 5))
Thanks for your feedback.
I have followed your advice and the high scores appear after 3 minutes, the bug is reproducible only if you play some minutes, not if you go to high scores immediately.
There are some small slowdowns at the end of the first level especially when there are a lot of planes. I think that it comes from the sound.
That’s weird… The connection is established through the some class in both cases so there is no reason why it should work for one and not the other. Please try to open your Java console and set it to track all. It should show you the details of communication between the applet and the server. Try to identify what’s different between these two cases and let me know. Right now I can’t do anything about as I simply don’t have the same problem.
As for the slowdowns, yes, that might be the sounds. Try to turn them off in Options and see if it makes any difference. I have the same problem in my (badly tuned) Ubuntu where the game is virtually unplayable with the sound on. Don’t know why though… Any suggestions anybody???
I use JOGG and JORBIS in TUER, I don’t have this problem. I will look into the log file as soon as possible.
Thanks for the tip. I might give it a go and see if it works better.
Why doesn’t your website work anymore? I’m going to put your game back into the incubator if it doesn’t work tomorrow.
It works for me, though did take a while to load up at first. So maybe you didnt wait long enougth.
It’s the server guys >:( It’s a free account and it’s not always perfect. And if you’re talking about this morning don’t even mention it!!! I had a job interview and I wanted to present my work … effing disaster!!! It let me down big time… But got the job in the end
Grats on the job.
With respect to the game, as others have mentioned the load time was pretty long. The game itself is nicely polished but the gameplay left me wanting. The fact that the player’s plane is so much bigger than the opponent coupled with the slow movement makes it really hard from the get go.
Nice to see Flying Yogi’s sprites getting another outing tho
Kev
Thanx kevglass
And don’t worry the opponent planes get bigger as you progress. Anyway, I don’t think the movements are too slow. You should be just about quick enough to be able to shoot your opponents down. But don’t expect you will get it right the first time round - it takes a bit of practice.
With regards the load time it doesn’t normally take too long but it’s a free account and the server gets a bit busy sometimes. Patience is a virtue 
I think everyone has pretty much covered the loading time, so I won’t bother with that. There was another odd problem, though. When I was finished trying it, I decided to stop in the middle of a game. I clicked the window X to close out. The window closed, but the music continue. I finally had to kill the java vm to stop it. Hope this helps! Good job so far!