Shipnickers 0.4

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Shipnickers 0.4

by ironchestgames

Cart #shipnickers-3 | 2024-10-25 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

12

You are a ship collector with questionable methods of obtainment. Collect the 100 unique ships!

Player 1:
Move: arrows
Primary weapon: Hold C/Z, mash to repair
Secondary weapon: X

Player 2:
Move: ESDF
Primary weapon: Hold Tab, mash to repair
Secondary weapon: Q

Press X in hangar to see upcoming enemies.

• 100 unique ships
• 10 different weapon systems
• Sliding difficulty

Changelog:

love how many ships there are

love the repair and blink mechanic. so much fun!

Thanks for trying it out you guys!

repair is a bit tedious tho

Thanks @Sup3rAw3som3Gam3r I was thinking the same, I'll tweak it

what is the convoy defense for?

@Sup3rAw3som3Gam3r it's basically current difficulty, I'm not super happy with the name tho, got any ideas?

maybe bounty?

Star-Ship-Repo

I have some more ideas, but am not sure if I can really do it on the pico 8 forum tho

it's fine for me at least, as long as it's not nsfw :)

I am thinking that this could be cool if roguelike mechanics were added, maybe you can get upgrades partway through a level, such as hp, damage, followers, to add some more action

thanks for the input @Sup3rAw3som3Gam3r ! It's always fun to hear thoughts and ideas (I'm scrambling for tokens atm so can't promise anything)

I kinda just really like roguelikes lol

ooooh! idea for a slightly different game:
only a few ships, but they are just bases, and as the run goes, you attach stuff to them

Thanks for the update, LOVED this game in 0.2 and hyped to see how it plays now!
Edit: OMG it saved my progress! THanks for keeping that, I'm getting close to all ships!

@Br3akdown3390 hi, thanks for trying it out! If you have any ideas for tweaks my ears are wide open :)

Actually I wonder if you could maybe give temporary invincibility after getting hit by running into another ship just so hitting the target doesn't instakill you, it's just one of the things that tends to get me at certain points and has gotten kinda irritating

@Br3akdown3390 thanks for the suggestion, I'll consider it!

I like it, but it's really hard. I miss 9/10 of the ships I go for, and it's kinda discouraging. Plus the ones I end up getting are kinda crap. Like, double flac? Who needs that.
Over all, I think this is polished enough to be called a release, but I think the difficulty needs to be tweaked for mere mortals like me.

Okay, I enjoyed the game and see a lot of potential, but mechanics definitely need some tweaking, imo.

1. Repair is tedious and encourages button mashing. My fingers started hurting on mission 3. I propose making it automatic, taking 3-7 seconds where you focus entirely on dodging.
2. Enemy beams are instant death, since they come suddenly and give no opportunity to repair. Warning length is not nearly enough. Invulnerability frames would solve the problem.
3. The first weapon is finicky to make it work, since it only activates on button mashing and requires charging. Second weapon can be used only 3 times in a mission, making it mostly useless, as missions are very long. I'd change these systems to something as simple as "Z to fire primary, X to fire secondary" - purely because it's more intuitive. If it has to be limited amount of charges, then there should be a lot more than 3. Or maybe if prolonged primary fire could charge secondary charges?
4. Mission length is far too long. I like how it forces you to play the second part as different ship, but the first part really drags on. I'd reduce health on nick target, maybe to 50% of current.

@joealarson hello! Double flak - my favourite! :D
Thanks for trying it out, and I'll keep the difficulty tweaking in mind!

@PrinceD hi! thanks for taking the time to try this out!

1. I have gotten similar feedbacks and will think of some tweak, thanks!
2. (same as above)
   3.1 The first weapon shouldn't need button mashing, it should work by just holding the button down. Only time you need to mash it is when repairing. Might be a bug in the pico webplayer, does it only fire once when you hold it down?
   3.2 The freight ships carry cargo boxes that fill up the secondary weapon.
3. I'm super curious which 2 ships did you get unlocked when you first started? (it's completely random, but might affect your experience a lot)

Thanks again, and thanks for the write-up!

@ironchestgames
I tested primary weapon behavior in web browser (mines, slicer), and it works as follows: pressing Z when bar is empty doesn't activate it, un-pressing Z when the bar is full doesn't acivate it, only mashing Z when bar is not empty activates it. Could be a web browser bug indeed.

I played a lot with different ships past the starting ones, perhaps the trouble with primary weapon makes missions seem longer. My first ships were flak-flak and flak-shield.

Cargo boxes are useful, but easy to mistake for debris or projectile. I'd make the sprite a bit more pronounced.

@PrinceD thanks for the reply. I haven't seen that problem at all, and from what you write it feels really hard to fix since I can't reproduce it at all. Sorry about that.

I'll consider making that crate a bit bigger though, it's a good and easy fix. Thanks!

@PrinceD I added invulnerability frames and tweaked the cargo boxes sprite a little, very good suggestions that made the game better, thank you!

I have not been able to reproduce the issue with button mashing you described. If you're still experiencing this I'd love to know which OS and browser + version you're seeing this on.

Released, moved here https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=144943

Locking this thread.