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Post by bigfoot on Mar 7, 2016 13:27:48 GMT -8
Well, honestly I think one of the things that did us in was a huge misunderstanding during our beta test process. I legitimately thought all this time that we were making an indie Japanese tactics RPG game with some VN elements. Basically, we spent the majority of our time analyzing the huge game play analysis write ups that our beta testers provided, and devising new units, strategies, items, and balance which will appeal to them. --snip-- I was actually concerned there was too much story, because all the tactics RPGs I've played never took the player away from the game play as much as Liberation Day and made sure to breeze through the plot so that you could get back to the gameplay soon. I was also not really concerned about Kayto temporarily getting hitched with Chigara, since most of the JRPGs I've played have had forced romance, and everyone on the dev team already know that this wasn't really a real romance route anyways, just some plot development. Likewise, I wasn't really concerned with the lack of choices, since most of the JRPGs I've played didn't have many meaningful choices and mostly had linear story lines. I was shocked to discover on release day that people actually skipped most of the gameplay by playing on waifu mode, and breezed through the story in just 3-4 hours. Well, yeah, it's to be expected that the game would be short then, because you essentially took a tactics RPG, skipped all the tactics RPG, and just read the story. --snip-- Early game spoilers ahead! I thought I should write this as hopefully a bit of optimism Whilst it might have flopped a bit, I think offering the V2 is a great step to regaining 'goodwill'. The thing I have always enjoyed about Sunrider is the blend of tactical and story, that's why I've been hanging around for a year modding, I have always found pure story games with little game-play quite flat and a lot of tactics games seem to exist in a vacuum with barely any relationship to the story whilst MoA was a good fusion of the two that is quite unique. Spoiler so as not to take up too much room I admit I'm not someone who watches anime or plays dating sims and I haven't had time to beat the game yet (but I wanted to chime in with some encouragement as it must be upsetting for this to happen) but it seems to me by chaining yourself to one archetype or another is limiting. I do think the complaints about choices are overblown, the first two games didn't have much in the way of choices and they were perfectly fine, that said the story also didn't force you in the same way as LD seems to, having tea is more building a friendship rather than being forced into having Chigara as a lover. Just because Japanese games may have only shallow choices doesn't mean yours need to although it is a significant plot point. In lieu of game sweeping choices, reactivity to the player would go a long way to easing the story. As it is, with no way to choose who you talk to next, you feel like a puppet whilst in MoA, at least you can choose who is more important for you to talk to first, and who you spend time with. Playing It sounds like the Beta testing problem was too small a sample size, for the next one perhaps you could pick some of the most vocal community people in steam and offer them access to a beta, if you get more of a wide selection then you can get a better feel for what people want. I can't help think people are expecting too much of LD, because First Arrival and Mask of Arcadius were combined into a single game and a lot of people might not realize that. If they think of MoA as the prologue it dose seem very strange to have the third game be shorter. When it comes to voices, I am sure you looked at the best way to do them (and whilst I would personally have wished the resources on more story, I know its not as simple as "money makes things immediately happen") and we can probably trust you didn't go out of your way to make the most expensive game possible . I haven't gotten too far in the story, so can't comment too much about that (although some of the writing reads awkwardly, this in particular stuck in my head: Unless Kayto listens with his eyes, it either sounds like he thinks Chigara's name is part numeric or his made up name for her is a tenuous link they might be related. In some places, the text seems quite 'blocky' where it describes what happens, and the prose can be slightly awkward and could be improved where characters feel like their archtypes rather than actual people. Not everyone will share my view but they can feel like cardboard cutouts rather than nuanced characters. On the gameplay, I do think the battles are smoother, and although I agree with Marx that there could be more progression, in FA and MoA, it is much more noticeable simply because it's the start of the game. I like the more reactive use of CMD, that you don't hoard it like in MoA and it's good finally having alliance carriers and Ryders (I might backport them into MoA if you have no objection) I really don't like the new UI much, when it comes to research in particular as it feels far too cluttered and I think the semi-wireframe is much more suited to it. It also feels daft to be able to look into research while talking to Ava in sickbay, without the ship map. It feels like you are jumping out of the story and conversations then popping back in at a whim. In short, Whilst it isn't as good to my mind as MoA I think it is suffering from perspective, being one game rather than two and it would benefit from even just 'seeming' less linear. One major problem with it for me is that there feels like there's a disconnect with Kayto that makes the story feel slightly off. (I generally dislike time travel as I feel it often invalidates all story growth, and I might have a problem with that later on in the story but otherwise I will wait to finish it before I comment). I think the complaints are exaggerated to an extent ( If it says To Be Continued, it probably isn't the last in the series!) I don't think the length is too short, I blew through both FA and MoA in a single evening, neither of them were overly long. Hopefully if you don't have to do much more work on the combat, and its stable then you will have more time that can be devoted to the story. However I do wish you had communicated with the community a bit better, letting people believe what they will about the game is only going to cause disappointment when it doesn't pan out. ("all your waifu's are here") Self Bias:This comes from a perspective of someone who cannot see Chigara as someone to have a relationship with and will doubtless resent it when the time comes and unlike most people playing it sees no inherent virtue of being similar to Japanese games, Sunrider can stand on its own strength. I hope this reads encouragingly rather than depressingly and I am looking forward to the next part of the game.
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Post by bigfoot on Mar 7, 2016 13:11:11 GMT -8
It is easy to mod out, just changing config.auto_voice to False will do it.
The auto-voicing works by tags so disrupting that just makes it skip the vocals and ignore it.
Putting this in any of the rpy files will stop it:
init python: config.auto_voice = False
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Post by bigfoot on Mar 7, 2016 11:17:56 GMT -8
Also, the cruiser sound file is 'Were Taking Fire' but the script looks for "We're Taking Fire"
Would it be possible to toggle the Japanese voices off entirely? I know its a strange request but having the Japanese dialog between ship voices sounds really odd.
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Post by bigfoot on Mar 7, 2016 10:51:44 GMT -8
Just starting LD, so will try it as I go along.
Voices are working for me, in M1 the cruiser and battleship voices work without get_voices() but the ryders throw an error:
File "game/script.rpy", line 319, in script $BM.battle() #continue the battle File "game/script.rpy", line 319, in <module> $BM.battle() #continue the battle File "game/classes.rpy", line 1224, in battle self.dispatch_handler(self.result)() File "game/classes.rpy", line 594, in battle_selection self.select_ship(self.target) File "game/classes.rpy", line 198, in select_ship ship.voice('Sel') File "game/classes.rpy", line 2561, in voice event_voices = self.evoice_files[event] KeyError: 'Sel'
With get_voices() called beforehand then it works as expected. before it is called then both the alliance and ryders have an empty dict in evoice_files, after get_voices() then the ryders dict is populated but the alliance ships are still empty.
Hope that helps
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Post by bigfoot on Mar 4, 2016 12:32:13 GMT -8
Mod List
As the majority of mods are on the old website, this will hopefully keep everything tidy on the new one. I will try to keep it updated as new mods appear, if I don't see one or you want to add a screenshot/description just let me know.
Sunrider: First Arrival/Mask of Arcadius
Extra StorylinesFor Queen and Country by Saibotlieh
After the fall of Ryuvia Prime, the crew of a small Ryuvian outpost wants to join the fight against PACT. Will Asaga be able to fulfill her royal duty? Link
Requires: Mod Framework
MIA by Saibotlieh
Ava found evidences that another Ceran battleship might have escaped the PACT forces. Could there be new allies to be found? LinkRequires: Mod Framework Quantum Jump by Saibotlieh
The Mining Union has a mysterious Ryuvian artifact for offer. Might Chigara be able to find out its secrets? LinkRequires: Mod Framework A Boost of the Morale by Saibotlieh
Claude proposes a mission to boost morale rather than funds. Will Ava approve? Of course not, but will Kayto? LinkRequires: Mod Framework Queen of Spades by Saibotlieh
Icari requests Shields to help in reacquiring a piece of equipment that she had to leave behind in past events. S-surely not because she l-likes him or anything, r-right? LinkRequires: Mod Framework Sword and Shield by Saibotlieh
Kryska conveys a request from the Alliance to hunt down a band of pirates. Will the Sunrider be up to this task? LinkRequires: Mod Framework Gemini by Saibotlieh
Sola reveals that her Ryder misses essential equipment. Can replacements be found in an ancient Ryuvian research station? LinkRequires: Mod Framework Treasure Here! by Saibotlieh
One day a mysterious entry appears on the star map. Is it really a good idea to jump to these coordinates? LinkRequires: Mod Framework Woolly Shambler Hunting/Moon Recon by The Bigfoot
This is primarily an in-joke but is fully enjoyable as a standard mod. It is an attempt to produce battles very different to standard fights and has unique rewards for each ship along with a unique weapon. LinkRequires: Mod Framework A Shard of Ancient Ryuvia by Drath
This mod follows up on the 'Mysterious Cargo' from the escort freighter mission, it is primarily a puzzle/story mod and is very nearly almost complete. Link A short side-mission branch by Rhi
This off-branch takes place between chapters 1 and 2, chronologically it's a week after you've destroyed the pirate base(so a week prior to Grey's message) Link New ShipsPhoenix Restoration Mod by The BigfootTalk to Chigara and Icari about rebuilding the Phoenix Booster, this destroyable booster may be attached and detached at will. It grants heavy armor, strong firepower and even a warp drive, but when destroyed it needs to be rebuilt. LinkRequires: Mod Framework Cera Battleship by Spart117MCThis mod adds the mighty Cera Battleship to the store with high-powered kinetics and hull so strong, kinetics just bounce off it. Link Gameplay Mods
Ship Directional Movement by The BigfootChanges the ship label when it changes direction, no more flying backwards. New animations included! LinkRequires: Mod Framework Ships leave wreckage by The BigfootThis mod causes destroyed ships to create cover on destruction (as long as they are larger than Ryders). The cover is colored according to ship and degrades over time LinkRequires: Mod Framework Ryuvian Missile mod by The BigfootThis mod changes the hit animations of the Ryuvian Cruiser's missiles to be blue and shiny. LinkRequires: Mod Framework Liberation Day voices in MoA by SaibotliehReplaces the English ship voices in MoA with Japanese ship voices on the battle map. Link Major Gameplay mods
Extensive Mod by Void (Astral)This is a huge re-balance of Sunrider, providing an entirely different feel where mighty battleships cruise space obliterating smaller ryders. Limited mod compatibility. Link Maray Shields conversion by Spart117MC (Incomplete)This mod lets you play as Maray Shields, with new battles and a new perspective on the game. Limited mod compatibility. (They will work but make no sense) Link Modding Tools/Infomation
Mod Making Tutorial by The BigfootThis is a tutorial for making mods and integrating them into the game. Link Mod Framework by The Bigfoot This allows mod makers to interact with the game in far greater detail and enables lots of things. Link Old Versions
Sunrider Multiplayer by The Bigfoot This is a proto-multiplayer using emails, it is playable without using the multiplayer and lets you use PACT ships against the Sunrider. It is for v7.1. Link Sunrider: Liberation Day
Extra ModesArcade Mod(e) by HistidineEnables a ladder-style game where increasingly difficult waves of enemies enter the battle in an attempt to destroy you. Latest version for 12.2 Link Modding ToolsMod Framework by The BigfootA group of mod tools designed to better enable mods and reduce conflict between them. Link
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Post by bigfoot on Mar 4, 2016 8:26:42 GMT -8
Hey ho Developers, after liberation day are you planning to continue on sunrider series? Or is it a secret? If yes then please add multiplayer. I know on renpy is not possible to make that, but what about others creation tools? xd Multiplayer not possible on renpy? Ahem, Drath points to a particular thread back on the old forums Time to hire you as a publicist I think! Given someone else was interested in the multiplayer I might do another version for 7.2 or LD, especially as that was the very first mod I actually made. The problem is unless you recompile renpy with extra files, it has difficulty with online stuff so real-time multiplayer is pretty much impossible with the default exe, to even send emails with it, I needed to make a python script and call that instead of doing it from Sunrider itself. The multiplayer mod is limited to hot-seat really (think postal chess).
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