Went to a ship in distress and had a ton of cargo on my platform. Forgot I had to take it off to get on the ship. Tried to go back and it crashed the game. Super fun game though. I love the concept ever since you showed it on your YouTube channel!. Thank you for the demo!!
I often get extra cargo that I can't get rid of. I also can't dump it on an uninhabited planet because of the cargo warning
I got a rumor of an upgrade unit for sale in a system with no inhabited planets.
I get the action number 1 Error when departing from a derelict ship, though I still keep anything I picked up from it upon reboot. Though I can repeat the process and get unlimited resources and upgrade units.
Love the game so far in spite of the glitches. Can't wait for more.
Recently watched your Extra Punctuation about the binary hippy v fascist choice mechanic in games.
Please spend 5 minutes making a Mother Theresa vs. Skeletor game for itch.io. I was thinking a Mike Tyson's Punch Out type game, but really any genre works. Double Dragon, Street Fighter 2, Donkey Kong, Wolfenstein, Cooking Mama... really anything would work.
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
He's a solo dev with a full time job and family, just because he goes a few months without updating doesn't mean development hell. Coding takes a hell of a long time.
I've tried a couple of versions of the demo now, including 0.1.9, and to be honest, I struggle to get into it. I think this is primarily because the planets feel same-y, barren and unpopulated whether they're inhabited or not; hopefully this is something that will change once the full build with the story is done, because some background NPCs would really make a difference. Obviously though, I understand why they wouldn't be in a preliminary story-less build.
Gameplay-wise, I didn't like the default keyboard/mouse controls very much, and having to remember to hold the space bar to leave the ship was frustrating. I also found setting destinations and switching to the banking controls annoying when mouse and keyboard controls seemed to trip over each other in the menus. I also never seemed to be able to reliably close the PDA without button mashing.
I think my main criticism however is movement speed of your character; walking around planets or trying to patch up 900 hull breaches around your ship is like pulling teeth. I don't think it would hurt the work-a-day vibe to just be able to get around quicker; it'd make me feel more inclined to actually explore.
The good news is that I haven't experienced any crash bugs or frame rate issues, and my laptop is extremely ancient so that's saying something. I do think the mechanics of the game work well, even if I'm not sure it'll ultimately be a game for me. I think, for me at least, I need the story in place before I can really settle into the primary loop as intended.
I've loved the Dev Diary series so far, and look forward to its continuation.
Similar problem not problem. Crashed, also while bringing back fuel but not an upgrade, and I can return to the derelict but I was able to keep the fuel I salvaged. Unlimited fuel seems like a win.
Bringing part of a shipment onboard after getting the stamper tells me the delivery was aborted due to lost cargo. The boxes aren't going away and I can't drop them off somewhere or intentionally abandon them.
- I'd sometimes get a crash when I returned to my ship from a derelict or distressed ship to my own
- When I had cargo jobs too big to load up in one go, the game would cancel them after my first trip due to "lost cargo", making jobs bigger than my cargo platform impossible. The now undeliverable cargo also remains permanently
- the warning not to actually abandon cargo seems to be impossible to ignore. Unlike the warning not to abandon a surveyor, it seems to just repeat if I keep trying to leave. This removes the only way to deal with the "zombie" cargo produced by the previous bug, which I suspect might eventually fill every space I could put it if I'm not careful.
- For some reason, the distressed ship with the blob monsters you have to squish absolutely tanks my framerate, which is a pity because otherwise it would be a really fun task.
- The game really needs more money sinks. Aside from a handful of cosmetics, the only thing I've paid anything for was a second air cycler after I got the warp drive, and even if I did a complete visual redesign after every job I still couldn't keep up with my profits. Probably not ongoing costs because those would be stressful if they're big enough to do the job and annoying if they're not, but maybe some small upgrades you can just buy with cash, like maybe a shelving unit that you can place two delivery crates on.
- I've got a couple of rumors about things at specific coordinates in specific systems, but how do you find specific coordinates?
- There should be some kind of opportunity cost to prevent taking every single sector sidequest the moment you pop in and getting to them eventually maybe, because it clogs the menu and makes the act of choosing sidequests kinda meaningless. Maybe have an upper limit on how many you can have active at once, and canceling them to make room for different ones costs a fee.
- Not a gripe, but on the subject of how to deal with health my suggestion is that if your health runs out completely you collapse, and wake up again in a medical facility. Either due to medical bills, a rescue fee, or whoever rescued you rifling through your pockets, you lose a hefty but not devastating percentage of your total money (25%, maybe?). Your current job might also be canceled due to the delays.
Noticed two bugs that might be related (and also may have already been reported.)
When changing the control mapping, pressing the button you want to assign also registers as using that control; specifically, remapping the use button caused the remap option to be immediately reselected, then re-remapped, causing the button to briefly oscillate between the two states. This would sometimes end with the button being properly remapped, but not most of the time. (This most likely happens with all of the controls, but I only remapped use and back, with back predictably backing me out of the menu as I made the change.)
The other bug has to do with missions getting canceled. At the beginning of my second or third delivery mission, as I was moving the first half of the crates onto my ship, I was informed that the mission had been canceled due to missing cargo. I accepted another mission and began loading new crates and unloading old ones. This seemed to be going fine at first, but on one of my last two loads, the same missing cargo alert popped up. Both times this happened, I had picked up a crate immediately upon re-entering the ship due to either continuing to hold down the use key after activating the lift, or accidentally retapping it. Due to this, I think the game lost track of the crate because I was holding it when the ship loaded in, so it didn't detect it where it thought it should be.
These problems seem related to me, because I think that a touch of input delay on certain actions would at least partially solve both issues.
I should also note that I'm still able to take the same delivery twice and as of this version have seen deliveries canceled due to lost crates. I wouldn't be surprised if me doing the first exploit helps make the second bug happen.
First thing first, while I like the new piloting mechanics, making the minigame super rumbly to set yourself up for a vibrator joke when you review your own game later is totally cheating.
As for the bigger change with the delivery missions, I feel like it didn't work for me. On the one hand, I barely noticed that most of the systems were locked down, since I didn't really have any reason to be going anywhere unless there was delivery to do. I suppose this serves as a way to tell players who use survey devices a lot or just have a bunch of extra money and need upgrade units, "No, go do more delivering first!", but for normal gameplay it's kind of an oddity more than a mechanic.
Meanwhile, the lack of time limits made things feel both relaxed and rushed for me at the same time. The moment you finish a delivery, the guy gives you a new mission, and since it will always be on your planet and you don't have to worry about not being able to finish it on time, there's no reason to say no. But in that typical RPG way, the game expects you to just blow off that obligation at some point to experience the other stuff the game has to offer. Maybe the inclusion of story stuff will help with that, but obviously I can't speak to it.
I also feel like it takes some challenge and tension away. It's clear that I would like a tougher version of SV than what you're trying to make, but in this version there's so many decisions and calculations that don't matter now. Do I have enough warp fuel to get to the destination, or a good place to buy/collect it? Who cares? I'll get there when I get there. Should I put off repairs and gun ahead? Of course not, you'll have to do them eventually, so there's no reason to not 100% clean everything now.
So, I played the most recent alpha. This game is extremely slow. I get that it is somewhat the point. However when I was flying from point A to point B, there was simply nothing to do even in the piloting minigame. Unlike previous versions, there was no way to speed this up. So, it was a really dull experience.
accepted a delivery from the freight company number, backed out, was able to accept again to get the same job twice.
went to a derelict ship. did not take any items, or put any upon the platform, but when i attempted to leave, the game crashed and i was left with the following error message:
I got the same error, but I didn't have anything weird with deliveries first. Was looking for a derelict ship with an upgrade unit and found a different derelict instead. I ate some banana bread I found on board and loaded up some warp fuel. When I went back to the platform and activated the console the game crashed. Error message follows:
I have now 2-3 hours into 1.9 and I found two bugs:
first, if you go on a derelict ship and leave (just leave no matter what) the game crashes, and you get the items you that were on the lift. but you can revisit the same ship.
second, if you complete a delivery and you go to your ship while the animations and come back, your will get another delivery offered. if you accept it its cargo boxes will come to the platform, but some cargo boxes from the previous delivery will stay. and if you take all the boxes back to your ship, you will get a message saying the deliveries are canceled. and you cant get rid of the boxes on a uncivilized planet, because it says you cant leave boxes of an active delivery.
I sunk maybe 30 hours into 1.8. Awesome unwindy/podcasty game, enjoying the primary loop but in my 2nd playthrough I was able to get most upgrades doing sector jobs and only did 10~ deliveries.
On version 1.9 after clearing out a derelict ship and attempting to cargo bay back to my ship -
May have a bug. Did a distress beacon mission and the reward was a tip that an upgrade module was at the trading post in the Gemm sector. When I went to the Gemm sector, there were no civilized planets, so no trading post. The Upgrade icon appears on the sector in the warp map, but not in the system map.
I'm not normally that into life sims, but I enjoyed your dev diary series so I figured I'd give this a try.
I think my biggest issue so far is that you can't talk to any of the NPCs. I kept pressing the interact button on reflex to talk to shopkeepers and the like, and was disappointed when nothing happened. It makes the NPCs feel like cardboard cutouts rather than people. The dialogue in the story scenes was really great, so I'd love to see more of it.
The other thing is that the game kinda has the roguelike problem of every area feeling samey. Inhabited and uninhabited planets each look basically the same to one another. Since the main draw of the game is the environments and inhabitants, I'd like to see more variety there, get to see all the weird alien species and architecture in the galaxy and such.
Minor issues: It wasn't clear to me how the job time limits worked. What constitutes a "cycle"? I think the bars in the lower left correspond to job timers, but that could do with clearer indication. I also wasn't initially clear where the "shipyard" for upgrading the ship was, since that computer is towards the edge of the screen and usually covered up by GUI elements, plus there is another computer terminal at loading docks that I assumed covered everything. Maybe stick both the "expected deliveries" and the upgrade terminal together?
And while I know you want to lock off the story content for the demo, I think it might be nice to at least give us the initial hook. You said in your videos that the protagonist's actions in the tutorial have some relation to the appearance of the cosmic egg and that motivates them to investigate; it would be cool to see what that relation is, as a hook to get demo players interested in the main story. As it is there's not much indication that there is going to be a main story at all.
I liked the personality matrix idea. I agree with your assessment that forcing the player to make dialogue choices for every line is just tedious, and I think this is a great compromise. I think it also adds mystery to the game, in that unlike in a dialogue tree scenario you don't know what all the possible dialogue branches are.
I had no idea the biscuit dispensary wasn't a core feature (since 0.1.8 was my first version), but I think it works great.
Yahtzee is working on sound effects as they come. He only added them right before the public release, I believe. If there are missing sounds, he's probably working on them, but he also encourages players to point out specific things they think should have sound.
I'm not gonna lie, I thought the biscuits were a weird idea at first, but now I'm won over. It's a surprisingly strategic mechanic, forcing you to trade time in front of the vending machine for more stamina in a pinch or on an away mission. Note that while it doesn't cost stamina to take a biscuit from the machine, you can't still block it off with boxes and softlock yourself if you don't have enough health to make a path.
Making the junk give fuel (and thus less stopping time) was a cool intangible to distinguish it from the other missions. It, along with the captain's chair being the best food source, also encourages doing the flying minigame more, which I'm not sure is good. I don't know where the story is supposed to fit in to all this.
I turned the floaty notifications (thanks for that, and the shoutout), but if you still had them on I think the angry emotes with dirty components are kind of obsolete now.
Just a thought regarding the button prompt pop-ups when cleaning and repairing. What if the image of the button to be used was the graphic hovering over the spot that needs repair or fixing, and the grey button prompt pop-up was removed altogether? (ie removing the pop-up that appears after 1 second of looking at the thing to be interacted with, and replacing it with a single button hovering over the place of interaction)
Rather than having a unique image for the repair icon, a unique image for the button to use, and a unique piece of text describing it, you can succinctly put all of this information in one button icon that statically hovers over the object.
I only suggest this because the prompts repeatedly coming on and off screen looks a little fatiguing, like receiving notifications from a group chat while trying to type something to your friend.
If you’ve read this far, thanks Yahtz! Love your work!
The issue with that is that the button for "use tool" is the same regardless of what tool you're using. So all the welder, cleaner, and wrench jobs would look the same.
>I find myself often standing next to the snack dispenser, waiting for enough snacks to refill my stamina so i can go on to the next thing. If i have forethought, I'll scatter some snacks on the floor so i don't have to wait so long next time, like some hamster/squirrel hybrid. >Does something happen when I go to a ship in distress, kill the zoobs/preform repairs, remove their aircyclers from powered strips, and leave just before everyone suffocates? >No matter what I "roll" for clothing options, i always end up looking like a divorced high-school math teacher (or English teacher, if female).
Possible Bug:I had a sidequest, to deliver some boxes to a place, but then i got a warp drive and my sidequests cleared so i have the stuff but no idea where to deliver it.
Possible Bug: In release 0.1.8, i think the flying minigame was supposed to change direction based on which way the ship was flying. for me, it still goes "up" no matter where i'm headed.
I love the writing. It makes me look forward to Will Ignore the Galaxy for Privacy, or whatever JM3 turns out to be titled. I'm enjoying following this game's development
Enjoying the game so far. Granted, I haven’t gotten to the warping stage, yet.
There was a game I played on Big Fish’s site where you flew a cargo plane. All you really did was deliver cargo, give passengers rides or buy/sell goods. It was very chill, with no combat. I really liked it.
This game has a similar vibe, but with a Han Solo ‘keep the ship in working order’ feel to it.
I really like the aesthetics of the game. The computer screen with it’s old school display and beeps, the various tools and their uses.
I also like the cargo is handled and physically moved to and from the ship.
You’ve done a good job so far and I can’t wait to see what else you add to the game.
i found a really annoying bug that i got in two separate saves
if you accept a board job for getting a bag twice, and its on the same planet. it will generate only one and the other will never spawn, even if you complete one of the job and return.
In the current build (0.1.7), a sector can't have two of the same job, so there's no way that bug can happen. If you are playing the current build, you're probably playing a save game from a previous build, because the sector jobs are all generated and saved when you start a new game, so an old save will still have jobs that a previous build generated.
Start a new game in 0.1.7 and you shouldn't have this problem. Sorry about constantly having to start anew but that's alpha testing for you.
I thought the junk collecting mission was kind of interesting, and encouraged using the piloting minigame, but the other two types of flying missions I would just grab whenever I got to a new system, and take the free money as a part of my delivery missions.
Overall, I feel like there's been several attempts at distractions from lulls in the action that I end up pushing aside or ignoring altogether. I find myself getting the crate stamping done right after bringing crates on board, even though it might be better stamina economy to try and squeeze them in in flight, since it's not likely I'll have time to stamp them all during travel time. I'm happy to take free money for being in a dust storm, but the last thing I want to do is postpone the next delivery or Onaris dropoff to pick up 1000ish credits that I'll probably get anyway. And whatever maintenance needs to get done tends to be put off until I don't have a timer to move cargo, at which point I do all of it at once before focusing on the next thing. I dreaded getting a hydroponics bay, since I knew that it would be another thing to juggle while missions were going on.
In my experience, the rhythm of the game centers around the warp drive. As long as there's gas in the tank, you can and should always be flying somewhere, and any component fixing you have to do should be manageable while still keeping stamina near maximum. Once you reach the end of a freight trip or Onaris "survey" hot-and-cold game, you'll be near zero stamina, but if you've still got gas you can keep going and trust you'll rest up by the next planet. Once you need to refuel though, it's time to refuse the next mission, and take some "shore leave".
You can't order warp fuel online, which means you don't want to do it while there's a delivery timer going, and to me that completely changes gears. Now I want to order more fuel, pack it on, and now I've got plenty of stamina left to go over my ship and fix everything back up. This low pressure time tends to be when I go after upgrade units. If there were NPCs to talk to and story to advance, I imagine this is when I'd do it.
You've talked about players not having anything to do while enroute, but I feel like in the frantic full-gas-tank-times these lulls last a minute or two tops, and the longest gaps tend to come from low stamina more than nothing to do. Have you considered adding sleep back in to skip dull moments and low stamina? Maybe this would be a good time for NPCs to come bother you with dialog? What if the player took the tutorial computer's advice, and just zoned out for a moment while staring at some cool space sprite for a bit?
The prompts for broken components took away a lot of the fun for me. I always enjoyed figuring out what I needed to fix (and in a pinch, what I can get away with NOT fixing) to be far more engaging than pressing the button to actually make the sprite happy. Now that the game just says, "use the green tool here dummy!" it now feels like the game is just playing itself.
You know what? I take that back in the case of the hydroponics bay. There's no way I would have remembered to keep those plants alive (and made those sweet 40 credits) if the humidifier didn't remind me.
I found a soft lock to be fuel. I accidentally warped to a sector with the last of my fuel with little cash and the last of my fuel and because there wasn't any uncivilised planets I couldn't harvest fuel either.
I think a good answer to this would be allowing the player to send a distress call to a ship which could debt them some credits and having the credits be automatically deducted from their next delivery job.
Where the bloody hell is the scrapyard in the Teh system? I'm racing around like a lunatic trying to find it, but can't remember where Dripberg said to go after you pick up the upgrade unit -- can anyone help?
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Went to a ship in distress and had a ton of cargo on my platform. Forgot I had to take it off to get on the ship. Tried to go back and it crashed the game. Super fun game though. I love the concept ever since you showed it on your YouTube channel!. Thank you for the demo!!
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
I often get extra cargo that I can't get rid of. I also can't dump it on an uninhabited planet because of the cargo warning
I got a rumor of an upgrade unit for sale in a system with no inhabited planets.
I get the action number 1 Error when departing from a derelict ship, though I still keep anything I picked up from it upon reboot. Though I can repeat the process and get unlimited resources and upgrade units.
Love the game so far in spite of the glitches. Can't wait for more.
crash on v0.1.9
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
Recently watched your Extra Punctuation about the binary hippy v fascist choice mechanic in games.
Please spend 5 minutes making a Mother Theresa vs. Skeletor game for itch.io. I was thinking a Mike Tyson's Punch Out type game, but really any genre works. Double Dragon, Street Fighter 2, Donkey Kong, Wolfenstein, Cooking Mama... really anything would work.
Encountered a crash in v0.1.9
Not sure if development hell or development purgatory...
He's a solo dev with a full time job and family, just because he goes a few months without updating doesn't mean development hell. Coding takes a hell of a long time.
It was a pleasure to join you in the process of iterating on this game. Best of luck with the process of making it about something!
I've tried a couple of versions of the demo now, including 0.1.9, and to be honest, I struggle to get into it. I think this is primarily because the planets feel same-y, barren and unpopulated whether they're inhabited or not; hopefully this is something that will change once the full build with the story is done, because some background NPCs would really make a difference. Obviously though, I understand why they wouldn't be in a preliminary story-less build.
Gameplay-wise, I didn't like the default keyboard/mouse controls very much, and having to remember to hold the space bar to leave the ship was frustrating. I also found setting destinations and switching to the banking controls annoying when mouse and keyboard controls seemed to trip over each other in the menus. I also never seemed to be able to reliably close the PDA without button mashing.
I think my main criticism however is movement speed of your character; walking around planets or trying to patch up 900 hull breaches around your ship is like pulling teeth. I don't think it would hurt the work-a-day vibe to just be able to get around quicker; it'd make me feel more inclined to actually explore.
The good news is that I haven't experienced any crash bugs or frame rate issues, and my laptop is extremely ancient so that's saying something. I do think the mechanics of the game work well, even if I'm not sure it'll ultimately be a game for me. I think, for me at least, I need the story in place before I can really settle into the primary loop as intended.
I've loved the Dev Diary series so far, and look forward to its continuation.
This is small, but I just wanted to point out that it's possible to get a job wherein you have to go to another sector before you have a warp drive.
Game crashed after returning to ship after looting a derelict ship with fuel and an upgrade kit in tow, here is the crash log
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
Similar problem not problem. Crashed, also while bringing back fuel but not an upgrade, and I can return to the derelict but I was able to keep the fuel I salvaged. Unlimited fuel seems like a win.
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
Maybe unrelated,
Bringing part of a shipment onboard after getting the stamper tells me the delivery was aborted due to lost cargo. The boxes aren't going away and I can't drop them off somewhere or intentionally abandon them.
Had similar crash. Boarded an derelict ship, left some waste barrels and had a cake(?) on my platform:
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
a couple of gripes from my play of 1.9:
- I'd sometimes get a crash when I returned to my ship from a derelict or distressed ship to my own
- When I had cargo jobs too big to load up in one go, the game would cancel them after my first trip due to "lost cargo", making jobs bigger than my cargo platform impossible. The now undeliverable cargo also remains permanently
- the warning not to actually abandon cargo seems to be impossible to ignore. Unlike the warning not to abandon a surveyor, it seems to just repeat if I keep trying to leave. This removes the only way to deal with the "zombie" cargo produced by the previous bug, which I suspect might eventually fill every space I could put it if I'm not careful.
- For some reason, the distressed ship with the blob monsters you have to squish absolutely tanks my framerate, which is a pity because otherwise it would be a really fun task.
- The game really needs more money sinks. Aside from a handful of cosmetics, the only thing I've paid anything for was a second air cycler after I got the warp drive, and even if I did a complete visual redesign after every job I still couldn't keep up with my profits. Probably not ongoing costs because those would be stressful if they're big enough to do the job and annoying if they're not, but maybe some small upgrades you can just buy with cash, like maybe a shelving unit that you can place two delivery crates on.
- I've got a couple of rumors about things at specific coordinates in specific systems, but how do you find specific coordinates?
- There should be some kind of opportunity cost to prevent taking every single sector sidequest the moment you pop in and getting to them eventually maybe, because it clogs the menu and makes the act of choosing sidequests kinda meaningless. Maybe have an upper limit on how many you can have active at once, and canceling them to make room for different ones costs a fee.
- Not a gripe, but on the subject of how to deal with health my suggestion is that if your health runs out completely you collapse, and wake up again in a medical facility. Either due to medical bills, a rescue fee, or whoever rescued you rifling through your pockets, you lose a hefty but not devastating percentage of your total money (25%, maybe?). Your current job might also be canceled due to the delays.
I got stuck when i got 20 crates dropped on me in the loading dock.
Suggestions for upgrades
shelves in the storage wing (only holds delivery boxes)
bigger storage room
a fridge for the galley (only holds food items)
gameplay suggestions
let us walk thru boxes on the loading dock
make the star map a hex-grid (that way there can be a truer center of it)
also maybe a side quest to visit you're home system
Oh also, in the prologue, the planet's comms display already refers to "Mundaneium" when it ought to still be "Miraculum" or whatever.
Noticed two bugs that might be related (and also may have already been reported.)
When changing the control mapping, pressing the button you want to assign also registers as using that control; specifically, remapping the use button caused the remap option to be immediately reselected, then re-remapped, causing the button to briefly oscillate between the two states. This would sometimes end with the button being properly remapped, but not most of the time. (This most likely happens with all of the controls, but I only remapped use and back, with back predictably backing me out of the menu as I made the change.)
The other bug has to do with missions getting canceled. At the beginning of my second or third delivery mission, as I was moving the first half of the crates onto my ship, I was informed that the mission had been canceled due to missing cargo. I accepted another mission and began loading new crates and unloading old ones. This seemed to be going fine at first, but on one of my last two loads, the same missing cargo alert popped up. Both times this happened, I had picked up a crate immediately upon re-entering the ship due to either continuing to hold down the use key after activating the lift, or accidentally retapping it. Due to this, I think the game lost track of the crate because I was holding it when the ship loaded in, so it didn't detect it where it thought it should be.
These problems seem related to me, because I think that a touch of input delay on certain actions would at least partially solve both issues.
bug report
was looting a derelict ship of cabbage stew and (gold?) bars, when i returned to my ship i got this
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
another bug
more and different stuff, left some behind and got this
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ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
happens EVERYTIME on derelict ships
I should also note that I'm still able to take the same delivery twice and as of this version have seen deliveries canceled due to lost crates. I wouldn't be surprised if me doing the first exploit helps make the second bug happen.
First thing first, while I like the new piloting mechanics, making the minigame super rumbly to set yourself up for a vibrator joke when you review your own game later is totally cheating.
As for the bigger change with the delivery missions, I feel like it didn't work for me. On the one hand, I barely noticed that most of the systems were locked down, since I didn't really have any reason to be going anywhere unless there was delivery to do. I suppose this serves as a way to tell players who use survey devices a lot or just have a bunch of extra money and need upgrade units, "No, go do more delivering first!", but for normal gameplay it's kind of an oddity more than a mechanic.
Meanwhile, the lack of time limits made things feel both relaxed and rushed for me at the same time. The moment you finish a delivery, the guy gives you a new mission, and since it will always be on your planet and you don't have to worry about not being able to finish it on time, there's no reason to say no. But in that typical RPG way, the game expects you to just blow off that obligation at some point to experience the other stuff the game has to offer. Maybe the inclusion of story stuff will help with that, but obviously I can't speak to it.
I also feel like it takes some challenge and tension away. It's clear that I would like a tougher version of SV than what you're trying to make, but in this version there's so many decisions and calculations that don't matter now. Do I have enough warp fuel to get to the destination, or a good place to buy/collect it? Who cares? I'll get there when I get there. Should I put off repairs and gun ahead? Of course not, you'll have to do them eventually, so there's no reason to not 100% clean everything now.
So, I played the most recent alpha. This game is extremely slow. I get that it is somewhat the point. However when I was flying from point A to point B, there was simply nothing to do even in the piloting minigame. Unlike previous versions, there was no way to speed this up. So, it was a really dull experience.
bug report (version 1.9):
accepted a delivery from the freight company number, backed out, was able to accept again to get the same job twice.
went to a derelict ship. did not take any items, or put any upon the platform, but when i attempted to leave, the game crashed and i was left with the following error message:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
hope this helps you figure out what the issue is.
I got the same error, but I didn't have anything weird with deliveries first. Was looking for a derelict ship with an upgrade unit and found a different derelict instead. I ate some banana bread I found on board and loaded up some warp fuel. When I went back to the platform and activated the console the game crashed. Error message follows:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
I have now 2-3 hours into 1.9 and I found two bugs:
first, if you go on a derelict ship and leave (just leave no matter what) the game crashes, and you get the items you that were on the lift. but you can revisit the same ship.
second, if you complete a delivery and you go to your ship while the animations and come back, your will get another delivery offered. if you accept it its cargo boxes will come to the platform, but some cargo boxes from the previous delivery will stay. and if you take all the boxes back to your ship, you will get a message saying the deliveries are canceled. and you cant get rid of the boxes on a uncivilized planet, because it says you cant leave boxes of an active delivery.
I sunk maybe 30 hours into 1.8. Awesome unwindy/podcasty game, enjoying the primary loop but in my 2nd playthrough I was able to get most upgrades doing sector jobs and only did 10~ deliveries.
On version 1.9 after clearing out a derelict ship and attempting to cargo bay back to my ship -
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)
I was able to replicate this error by doing the same.
Hope this helps.
I got my very first errors in version 0.1.9
I tried to go on a derelict ship and well...
I hope the final version lets you buy dispensers with different foods, I don't care about biscuits.
May have a bug. Did a distress beacon mission and the reward was a tip that an upgrade module was at the trading post in the Gemm sector. When I went to the Gemm sector, there were no civilized planets, so no trading post. The Upgrade icon appears on the sector in the warp map, but not in the system map.
I have exactly that problem (except in my game it isn't called the Gemm sector.)
I'm not normally that into life sims, but I enjoyed your dev diary series so I figured I'd give this a try.
I think my biggest issue so far is that you can't talk to any of the NPCs. I kept pressing the interact button on reflex to talk to shopkeepers and the like, and was disappointed when nothing happened. It makes the NPCs feel like cardboard cutouts rather than people. The dialogue in the story scenes was really great, so I'd love to see more of it.
The other thing is that the game kinda has the roguelike problem of every area feeling samey. Inhabited and uninhabited planets each look basically the same to one another. Since the main draw of the game is the environments and inhabitants, I'd like to see more variety there, get to see all the weird alien species and architecture in the galaxy and such.
Minor issues: It wasn't clear to me how the job time limits worked. What constitutes a "cycle"? I think the bars in the lower left correspond to job timers, but that could do with clearer indication. I also wasn't initially clear where the "shipyard" for upgrading the ship was, since that computer is towards the edge of the screen and usually covered up by GUI elements, plus there is another computer terminal at loading docks that I assumed covered everything. Maybe stick both the "expected deliveries" and the upgrade terminal together?
And while I know you want to lock off the story content for the demo, I think it might be nice to at least give us the initial hook. You said in your videos that the protagonist's actions in the tutorial have some relation to the appearance of the cosmic egg and that motivates them to investigate; it would be cool to see what that relation is, as a hook to get demo players interested in the main story. As it is there's not much indication that there is going to be a main story at all.
I liked the personality matrix idea. I agree with your assessment that forcing the player to make dialogue choices for every line is just tedious, and I think this is a great compromise. I think it also adds mystery to the game, in that unlike in a dialogue tree scenario you don't know what all the possible dialogue branches are.
I had no idea the biscuit dispensary wasn't a core feature (since 0.1.8 was my first version), but I think it works great.
Is there a reason I wouldn't get getting any music or sound from starting the game forwards?
Really no replies?
There's no music at the moment. Yahtzee is planning to hire a composer in the future.
thanks one part answered and the sound is it also mia?
Yahtzee is working on sound effects as they come. He only added them right before the public release, I believe. If there are missing sounds, he's probably working on them, but he also encourages players to point out specific things they think should have sound.
I'm not gonna lie, I thought the biscuits were a weird idea at first, but now I'm won over. It's a surprisingly strategic mechanic, forcing you to trade time in front of the vending machine for more stamina in a pinch or on an away mission. Note that while it doesn't cost stamina to take a biscuit from the machine, you can't still block it off with boxes and softlock yourself if you don't have enough health to make a path.
Making the junk give fuel (and thus less stopping time) was a cool intangible to distinguish it from the other missions. It, along with the captain's chair being the best food source, also encourages doing the flying minigame more, which I'm not sure is good. I don't know where the story is supposed to fit in to all this.
I turned the floaty notifications (thanks for that, and the shoutout), but if you still had them on I think the angry emotes with dirty components are kind of obsolete now.
Occasionally, the arrow pointing you back to your ship's loading platform will obscure textboxes
Just a thought regarding the button prompt pop-ups when cleaning and repairing. What if the image of the button to be used was the graphic hovering over the spot that needs repair or fixing, and the grey button prompt pop-up was removed altogether? (ie removing the pop-up that appears after 1 second of looking at the thing to be interacted with, and replacing it with a single button hovering over the place of interaction)
Rather than having a unique image for the repair icon, a unique image for the button to use, and a unique piece of text describing it, you can succinctly put all of this information in one button icon that statically hovers over the object.
I only suggest this because the prompts repeatedly coming on and off screen looks a little fatiguing, like receiving notifications from a group chat while trying to type something to your friend.
If you’ve read this far, thanks Yahtz! Love your work!
The issue with that is that the button for "use tool" is the same regardless of what tool you're using. So all the welder, cleaner, and wrench jobs would look the same.
>I find myself often standing next to the snack dispenser, waiting for enough snacks to refill my stamina so i can go on to the next thing. If i have forethought, I'll scatter some snacks on the floor so i don't have to wait so long next time, like some hamster/squirrel hybrid.
>Does something happen when I go to a ship in distress, kill the zoobs/preform repairs, remove their aircyclers from powered strips, and leave just before everyone suffocates?
>No matter what I "roll" for clothing options, i always end up looking like a divorced high-school math teacher (or English teacher, if female).
Possible Bug:I had a sidequest, to deliver some boxes to a place, but then i got a warp drive and my sidequests cleared so i have the stuff but no idea where to deliver it.
Possible Bug: In release 0.1.8, i think the flying minigame was supposed to change direction based on which way the ship was flying. for me, it still goes "up" no matter where i'm headed.
I love the writing. It makes me look forward to Will Ignore the Galaxy for Privacy, or whatever JM3 turns out to be titled. I'm enjoying following this game's development
Enjoying the game so far. Granted, I haven’t gotten to the warping stage, yet.
There was a game I played on Big Fish’s site where you flew a cargo plane. All you really did was deliver cargo, give passengers rides or buy/sell goods. It was very chill, with no combat. I really liked it.
This game has a similar vibe, but with a Han Solo ‘keep the ship in working order’ feel to it.
I really like the aesthetics of the game. The computer screen with it’s old school display and beeps, the various tools and their uses.
I also like the cargo is handled and physically moved to and from the ship.
You’ve done a good job so far and I can’t wait to see what else you add to the game.
The game ran into an error while warping, here's the message
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_console:
Variable obj_console.eggx(102463, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Script_redrawminimap
############################################################################################
gml_Script_redrawminimap (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_console_Draw_0
i found a really annoying bug that i got in two separate saves
if you accept a board job for getting a bag twice, and its on the same planet. it will generate only one and the other will never spawn, even if you complete one of the job and return.
In the current build (0.1.7), a sector can't have two of the same job, so there's no way that bug can happen. If you are playing the current build, you're probably playing a save game from a previous build, because the sector jobs are all generated and saved when you start a new game, so an old save will still have jobs that a previous build generated.
Start a new game in 0.1.7 and you shouldn't have this problem. Sorry about constantly having to start anew but that's alpha testing for you.
I thought the junk collecting mission was kind of interesting, and encouraged using the piloting minigame, but the other two types of flying missions I would just grab whenever I got to a new system, and take the free money as a part of my delivery missions.
Overall, I feel like there's been several attempts at distractions from lulls in the action that I end up pushing aside or ignoring altogether. I find myself getting the crate stamping done right after bringing crates on board, even though it might be better stamina economy to try and squeeze them in in flight, since it's not likely I'll have time to stamp them all during travel time. I'm happy to take free money for being in a dust storm, but the last thing I want to do is postpone the next delivery or Onaris dropoff to pick up 1000ish credits that I'll probably get anyway. And whatever maintenance needs to get done tends to be put off until I don't have a timer to move cargo, at which point I do all of it at once before focusing on the next thing. I dreaded getting a hydroponics bay, since I knew that it would be another thing to juggle while missions were going on.
In my experience, the rhythm of the game centers around the warp drive. As long as there's gas in the tank, you can and should always be flying somewhere, and any component fixing you have to do should be manageable while still keeping stamina near maximum. Once you reach the end of a freight trip or Onaris "survey" hot-and-cold game, you'll be near zero stamina, but if you've still got gas you can keep going and trust you'll rest up by the next planet. Once you need to refuel though, it's time to refuse the next mission, and take some "shore leave".
You can't order warp fuel online, which means you don't want to do it while there's a delivery timer going, and to me that completely changes gears. Now I want to order more fuel, pack it on, and now I've got plenty of stamina left to go over my ship and fix everything back up. This low pressure time tends to be when I go after upgrade units. If there were NPCs to talk to and story to advance, I imagine this is when I'd do it.
You've talked about players not having anything to do while enroute, but I feel like in the frantic full-gas-tank-times these lulls last a minute or two tops, and the longest gaps tend to come from low stamina more than nothing to do. Have you considered adding sleep back in to skip dull moments and low stamina? Maybe this would be a good time for NPCs to come bother you with dialog? What if the player took the tutorial computer's advice, and just zoned out for a moment while staring at some cool space sprite for a bit?
more plzzzzz
The prompts for broken components took away a lot of the fun for me. I always enjoyed figuring out what I needed to fix (and in a pinch, what I can get away with NOT fixing) to be far more engaging than pressing the button to actually make the sprite happy. Now that the game just says, "use the green tool here dummy!" it now feels like the game is just playing itself.
I'll have a system menu option to turn them off in the next update. I had a feeling some players would want that and you've confirmed it.
You know what? I take that back in the case of the hydroponics bay. There's no way I would have remembered to keep those plants alive (and made those sweet 40 credits) if the humidifier didn't remind me.
i have discovered the sound never wants to play though my headphones. also related maybe but my wired ps4 gamepad also does not work with the game.
I found a soft lock to be fuel. I accidentally warped to a sector with the last of my fuel with little cash and the last of my fuel and because there wasn't any uncivilised planets I couldn't harvest fuel either.
I think a good answer to this would be allowing the player to send a distress call to a ship which could debt them some credits and having the credits be automatically deducted from their next delivery job.
Otherwise great job.
Found an interesting infinite delivery / money bug in V0.1.6
Where the bloody hell is the scrapyard in the Teh system? I'm racing around like a lunatic trying to find it, but can't remember where Dripberg said to go after you pick up the upgrade unit -- can anyone help?
There's a lot of randomization. I'd recommend just starting a new game and hoping a shipyard spawns this time. Look for the crane icon.
ah thank you!