qubodup {l Wrote}:My first impression was "eeeew". But then I tried evil cult because it had colorful nodes in it, kind of like MoO2..
qubodup {l Wrote}:I'm impressed by Evil Cult. The music adds so much.. And it's... abstractly immersive. I had to figure out how to play by trial and error though, because the tutorial is scare-awayingly long and black-on-white
qubodup {l Wrote}:I don't like how the "could not persuade node" message are pop-ups. instead they should appear as messages below I think.. Of course people like my grandmother, who always double-click web links will retry sometimes, when they do not intend to do so, but that's a risk I'm willing you to take
I would like an indicator whether or not I'm in war with another cult.. I guess the bottom left could be used for "In war with: [colors]"
qubodup {l Wrote}:Bug?: If I eliminate all other cults, I can continue invading free nodes, every time getting the "gods are pleased" message.
qubodup {l Wrote}:I'll have to check out Black Obelisk..
PS: I now checked out BO too. I think it's pretty cool. And it reminds me of Be The Wumpus: http://bethewumpus.sourceforge.net/
By the way, you know of Endgame: Singularity? ( http://www.emhsoft.com/singularity/ )
starinfidel {l Wrote}:So, you're not a roguelike fan then?
starinfidel {l Wrote}:But seriously, I thought about it before and I don't think I can do anything about that except moving tutorial off from google code page. But that would make the editing harder - wiki and all that. Though it's probably not a tutorial anymore but more of a full manual.
qubodup {l Wrote}:I don't like how the "could not persuade node" message are pop-ups. instead they should appear as messages below I think..
qubodup {l Wrote}:starinfidel {l Wrote}:But seriously, I thought about it before and I don't think I can do anything about that except moving tutorial off from google code page. But that would make the editing harder - wiki and all that. Though it's probably not a tutorial anymore but more of a full manual.
Well, images could help. But that would only work with dark bg..
qubodup {l Wrote}:Is there maybe a way to have a page, which imports the content of the google code wiki page and draws it with its own style sheet? Something like http://code.google.com/p/arc90labs-readability/ ?
qubodup {l Wrote}:qubodup {l Wrote}:I don't like how the "could not persuade node" message are pop-ups. instead they should appear as messages below I think..
What do you think about this?
starinfidel {l Wrote}:Technically, yes. But it would take a fair amount of research/hacking and I'm trying to focus on the gameplay right now.
starinfidel {l Wrote}:You mean the "Not enough X" stuff? Well, I don't see that as a problem, except maybe the design is slightly out of tune. Is that annoying?
qubodup {l Wrote}:starinfidel {l Wrote}:Technically, yes. But it would take a fair amount of research/hacking and I'm trying to focus on the gameplay right now.
Very good!
qubodup {l Wrote}:starinfidel {l Wrote}:You mean the "Not enough X" stuff? Well, I don't see that as a problem, except maybe the design is slightly out of tune. Is that annoying?
No, I mean the %-based "Could not gain a follower." message, which requires yo to click "OK"
starinfidel {l Wrote}:The current development version (which is available at http://starinfidel.co.cc/cult-03pre1/) has one major addition - investigators. They're basically like a cult nemesis - once the investigator finds out about the cult, it better stop him or else. I'm currently working on a difficulty setting.
qubodup {l Wrote}:starinfidel {l Wrote}:The current development version (which is available at http://starinfidel.co.cc/cult-03pre1/) has one major addition - investigators. They're basically like a cult nemesis - once the investigator finds out about the cult, it better stop him or else. I'm currently working on a difficulty setting.
That's a very good idea, I think usually browser games don't have a live development version available for play, one has to check it out on his own. Very handy.
I don't know what I think about the investigators..
It seems I can only start hunting them when they revealed one of my guys, and I don't even know what that means gameplay-wise.
They have the same problem as enemies do, you can't say for sure what they made in their round, unless you track the nodes. This is easier for enemies, since they can only attack on borders of their area of influence, but I assume that investigators can attack anywhere?
qubodup {l Wrote}:Also, the 'ritual failed' messages might also be better without an "OK" button. Not too important.
starinfidel {l Wrote}:I released v3pre2 a couple of minutes ago
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qubodup {l Wrote}:Did you write about the development of the game somewhere? What your inspirations are/were and so on..?
qubodup {l Wrote}:About the latest pre-release: I dislike the menu, because it breaks the layout.. and would like to suggests replacing the menu button with something likein which clicking the arrows would change the difficulty.
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This might be a bad suggestion if you were thinking of putting more controls into the menu.
Perhaps it would be just as well to use a menu, but place it above the non-map area.
Taldor {l Wrote}:Those are two very nice games! I especially like Evil Cult.
Taldor {l Wrote}:I have some suggestions for the user interface of Evil Cult though:
- The end of the game is not clear enough. I'd blur the screen or the playing frame and gray out the conversion buttons when the game is over.
- When the game is over, I'd add a very clear "You won." or "You lost." after the current game end messages. The first time I played it, I wasn't sure that I had won or lost.
Taldor {l Wrote}:The game sometimes displays two pop up windows over each other, which I'd try to avoid, because it overwhelms the user to much.
Taldor {l Wrote}:I'd show the full map at the end of the game (both when won or lost). Most players will want and expect to see it eventually.
Taldor {l Wrote}:The messages about who started a war with who seem useless. Using a pop up is intrusive for the players, so pop ups should only be used when necessary.
Taldor {l Wrote}:I'd be nice to see which nodes have been converted since the previous turn by the opponents. (E.g. by using italics for the node number.)
Taldor {l Wrote}:In order to convert a virgin to lowered awareness, the player has to convert to another resource first. I'd add an additional button to do this directly.
Taldor {l Wrote}:Using blurred or grayed out disabled buttons with a tooltip explaining why the button is disabled, makes the game easier to learn.
Taldor {l Wrote}:The first time I played it, I wasn't sure that I had won or lost.
Taldor {l Wrote}:The messages about who started a war with who seem useless. Using a pop up is intrusive for the players, so pop ups should only be used when necessary.
Taldor {l Wrote}:[*]I'd be nice to see which nodes have been converted since the previous turn by the opponents. (E.g. by using italics for the node number.)
Yes, that was done just a few hours ago. Take a look at new v3pre3 version http://starinfidel.co.cc/cult-03pre3/
Taldor {l Wrote}:Using blurred or grayed out disabled buttons with a tooltip explaining why the button is disabled, makes the game easier to learn.
If you're talking about the status buttons, I chose the different approach - removing anything that cannot be used at this moment. I could potentially do that for when difficulty is set on easy but that would have to wait.
qubodup {l Wrote}:Taldor {l Wrote}:The first time I played it, I wasn't sure that I had won or lost.
I had the same experience. The next round I paid much more attention to log messages than I usually would.Taldor {l Wrote}:The messages about who started a war with who seem useless. Using a pop up is intrusive for the players, so pop ups should only be used when necessary.
I find these messages very useful, but all of the pop-ups disturb the flow of play. Some more, some less. I would definitely favor an area outside of the map for all messages or perhaps Icons. Things like
Hovering the icons would reveal the full text. The spaces between the 'blocks' of icons mean that there is at least one round of time between these messages. The oldest is at the top? Not sure, maybe it should be bottom-aligned. and the older the message, the less opacity it should have perhaps.
Taldor {l Wrote}:[*]I'd be nice to see which nodes have been converted since the previous turn by the opponents. (E.g. by using italics for the node number.)
Yes, that was done just a few hours ago. Take a look at new v3pre3 version http://starinfidel.co.cc/cult-03pre3/
I don't see it.
starinfidel {l Wrote}:Taldor {l Wrote}:[*]I'd be nice to see which nodes have been converted since the previous turn by the opponents. (E.g. by using italics for the node number.)
Yes, that was done just a few hours ago. Take a look at new v3pre3 version http://starinfidel.co.cc/cult-03pre3/
starinfidel {l Wrote}:Taldor {l Wrote}:[*]The game sometimes displays two pop up windows over each other, which I'd try to avoid, because it overwhelms the user to much.
UnfortunaeI can't think of anything
starinfidel {l Wrote}:Taldor {l Wrote}:[*]The messages about who started a war with who seem useless. Using a pop up is intrusive for the players, so pop ups should only be used when necessary.
They're not useless, information about a war is always useful.
starinfidel {l Wrote}:As I don't have the scrollable map (I might have at some point), I'm reluctant to add new blocks to UI. Hence all the popups.
starinfidel {l Wrote}:You mean you don't see these? What browser you're on?
Taldor {l Wrote}:These effects only appear for other players, which makes it difficult to understand what it means. I'd add the effect also for nodes that have been captured by the player, and for nodes that have been discovered by investigators. I think that would make the effect more clear.
Taldor {l Wrote}:starinfidel {l Wrote}:Taldor {l Wrote}:[*]The game sometimes displays two pop up windows over each other, which I'd try to avoid, because it overwhelms the user to much.
UnfortunaeI can't think of anything
It happens at the end of the game. I'd just show the log after the winning/losing pop up, but not at the same time.
KIAaze {l Wrote}:I have problems with the cursor in black obelisk. The highlighted cell is not always under my mouse cursor.
It seems that going in from the top syncs cursor and cell correctly, but if I scroll down with the mouse wheel (because my screen is too small), the selected cell ends up above the mouse cursor, which makes it hard to play and impossible to select the bottom cells.
Workaround: Zoom out with Firefox.
edit: Nice game. Simple, but challenging enough to be fun.
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