I have the same issue. Since the last update, the game runs at 60fps for a little while, then suddenly drops down to 30fps and stays there. So I would be interested in a fix too.
Linux support is planned, but it is probably not going to be anytime soon. The game is still in its early alpha phase so unfortunately the only target platforms right now are Windows and Mac. When I release the full game, I will be looking into a linux port as well.
I found a bug ... accessories added to armor or shield generators do not survive a save. The addons do not get written to the save file at all and subsequently are lost forever. The addons do seem to stay there until you leave the game or go to the main screen.
EDIT: the mod parts are saved to the save file when exiting but they are not loaded back when reloading the game...
Sorry for the late reply and sorry about those bugs. I'm not sure what would have caused that.
Since the game is still in its earlier stages, I'm not going back to any legacy versions to fix previous bugs. This is because most of the time these bugs get fixed in a future version, so to go back and make sure every legacy version is 100% stable would be tedious.
Even though I have never played your game, I would love to. But there has been a problem after I downloaded the game. When I would open the .dmg file it would read the message "Unable to find game!!:". Just so you know this is on a macOS Sierra. There are two things I'm asking you to help me with if you do chose so. First if you are going to help me can you please tell me or give me a few tips on how to fix or hopefully get the game to be found. (Disclaimer, I hope I don't come off as a demanding person who wants you to solve all my problems and if I do seem to come off that way I'm very sorry) Second it would be good if we could figure this out because it could help some people. Also so you don't think I'm some sort of scam bot I learned about this game through this video
Also I really admire that you go out of your way to respond to so many comments.
Sincerely Galaxy,
PS: Please don't think I just said that last part so that you warm up to me because I did really mean it.
Sorry for getting back to you a little bit late. The notifications on itch.io don't always come through for posts. Also, I'm sorry that you ran into this problem where it is unable to find the game. I've had issues with it before and thought I previously fixed it.
Here are a few solutions I found (not sure if they work) for a variety of Mac related issues just in case (and also for other people to see).
No Mountable File Systems:
Try running the following command in terminal. It simply allows apps downloaded from everywhere. Please tell me if you still have needed to use this command, since I have attempted to code sign most of the versions.
sudo spctl --master-disable
Unable to find game:
This could be due to a few reasons. Firstly, if your MacOS is too old or outdated, consider updating your software. I am confident that it runs on High Sierra (10.14), but cannot yet confirm anything before this. I think there might have been a previous issue where the macOS was out of date and created this error.
Another reason might be your browser choice. Try downloading the file from a different browser.
If all else fails, then try using this mirror link from dropbox: Mirror Link Mac. This is the link to v3.02 and will most likely be removed once a new version comes out (at which point I hope this problem has been resolved).
On a smaller note I read somewhere that moving the file to your desktop might help, but I read it in an older thread, so it might not help anymore.
I would love to know the outcome of this issue, since this is not the first time I have encountered it and have tried to ix this before. You can always join the Discord server if you need more help. You can also DM me from discord at anytime and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
I've been playing this game for a while now, and I must say, it's probably one of the best games I have ever played!
That said, there are a few things that I'd really like to see - many of them are already on your "Skymap" (which has some really cool sounding stuff on it BTW) - but there's one thing I'd really like to be able to do; to be able to redo the previous battle after you've won. It would be exactly like a normal battle, but with the same enemy, and less rewards.
Finally, there's a few other things I'd like to mention:
There seems to be a bug with the shield tech, where sometimes removing a shield with tech on it, the tech doesn't get put back in the inventory, and gets lost forever.
What's up with the secret keyboard shortcut (I won't mention it here) that can completely destroy any enemy? It's really fun to use, but I shouldn't really be left in, just in case someone (like me) accidentally finds it.
It would be nice if the question marks didn't give you a shop or forge if you couldn't afford to buy/ forge anything.
Anyway, I still can't wait for the next update, and will be watching out for it!
I'm really glad you enjoyed the game and the next update is gonna really be awesome.
Backtracking is not something I had initially planned for (kind of like most rogue-likes where once you finish a level you just move on). I'm not to sure about implementing this, but I'm also not gonna dismiss it to soon. I will be having this in the back of my mind and thinking over it.
Thanks for this bug report about the shield tech. I have heard some reports similar to this however the cause was unknown. It seems that I must have not added the tech back into your inventory. I would say that this is gonna be fixed in the next update, but the entire old tech system was removed, so I guess the problem is gonna go away.
It was only a matter of time before someone found it. Yes, its a bug and I totally forgot about it (just recently rediscovered it while doing a close cleanup). It was just supposed to be a one off thing to make things easier to test.
That is an interesting idea. The question mark choice can certainly be improved as well to not give you 2 of the same things in a row (especially the shop and forge).
Seems like every single run ends in an infinite battle where I can't kill the enemy and the enemy can't kill me. Both ships lose their lateral thrusters and then the enemy cannons itself back and forth off the sides of the screen. But because the cannon range is so short, the shots can't actually hit you, so it just keeps recoiling back and forth off the side of the screen where you can't see it. You can't hit it, and it can't hit you. Infinite nothing gameplay.
NONE of the decisions I make while building my island prevents this outcome, and piloting the island is always a total crapshoot, so there's literally nothing I can do to prevent this. One time I stuck my core on a healing block just to see what it did-- not even altitude could kill me! It takes a game with potential and makes it unplayable, since I literally never know when the game's going to suddenly throw itself into an unwinnable state.
Why not do what all base-building games do and give the core a small ammount of basic gameplay juice? In some games this would be resource generation-- here, it should definitely be lateral movement. Not fast movement. Not good movement. Just enough that you can maybe try to pursue some sort of change to the game state when the enemy decides to troll you with an infinite cannon recoil loop.
Seriously, I can't even get through the first area without this happening.
Thank you so much for your feedback! Yeah, when both players lose their drifters it very easily ends in a stalemate.
There are a few solutions I have been considering. The first thing I want to get rid of is the enemy teleporting/map looping. Of course, there would need to be an out of bounds area on the sides as well but I would make the play area a whole lot larger so the size doesn't feel to small.
That doesn't exactly directly address this issue, but this next idea might. I have been thinking about a surrender system, not only for enemies but for the player as well. Enemies might surrender when you are completely annihilating them or when maybe they have lost all horizontal or vertical thrust. The player would also have the option to surrender, though it would be more likely a "tactical retreat". They wouldn't lose a life but maybe they would lose some money and the player wouldn't advance and have to retry the enemy again.
Another change that might help is with weapon range. I have been thinking of removing the range for a damage drop-off system instead. That way if it ever comes down to only vertical thrust, you can still poke each other.
I could also make the warp core start with some vertical and horizontal thrust. Another simple solution would be to make a small game rule where you lose if you no longer have drifters (like the floatron rule).
While not all of these solutions will be implemented immediately in the next upcoming update, I will make sure to do my best and fix this infinite nothing gameplay. Thanks once again for this feedback! It really helps during these early stages of development.
I've been playing the game some more and it's gotten to a point where I just can't anymore. RNG just plays such a huge role in whether or not you have the parts you need to make a viable island. Twice in the last day, I started a new game to find three forges. Every enemy ship always has better weapons, defenses, and movement than you, no matter what you build. If this only affected the enemy island design, I could sort of see it. Sure, it's weird that you can replace all your stone with dirt or un-equip most of your weapons to weaken a boss, but it also seems to scale with stage somewhat, and maybe the enemy needs an advantage in raw numbers to compensate for their lack of brains. But where I lost all hope was when I discovered that the quality of your island affects the loot that drops.
Having trouble finding horizontal movement items? Just get your lateral acceleration down to 20 or so, the game will start dropping them. Not finding any weapons? It's because you foolishly equipped the few weapons the game gave you, so it decided that you had enough weapons and stopped giving them to you. Just cut yourself down to a 2x2 brick with one cannon, two thrusters, and the warp drive. Of course, one false move and you're dead, but that's basically the way the start of the game plays anyway. Oh, you took a hit and died? Better esc to the title screen and start over. Otherwise you'll end up with no lives left in the late game when you need them.
What ever happened arbitrary challenges? Whatever happened to RNG actually being random?
The more I play this game and the more I start to understand how it works under the hood, the more angry and frustrated I get. I love the concept and the core mechanics seem fun. Building your base is fun. Getting loot is fun. The combat is fun when it actually works. But it feels like every time I'm just starting to enjoy myself, I get screwed by RNG or physics. Maybe if you could see the cooldowns on each block so you know when the enemy's about to fire, or maybe if you were allowed to buy as many of one item as the enemy can buy, it would be less infuriating. Or, hell. Unlocks. If I were getting pop-ups that say "You've unlocked <name of item,>" maybe I'd be able to tell myself that RNG in future games would be less shitty than RNG in the game I just played. Maybe that's why roguelites do it in the first place, I don't know.
What I do know is two of my favorite games are Shellcore Commander and Enter the Gungeon, so you'd think a game that combines them would be the best thing ever. But so far it's been pure torture. Looting mechanics are supposed to drip-feed the player dopamine, but all I'm getting on my end is pure cortisol.
Firstly and fore mostly, I am so sorry that you feel this way. Games should feel fun and I apologise for any stress of frustration this game has caused.
I was quite surprised when I read your post when you mentioned how the game works. I think it is really interesting to see how sometimes RNG can mess with us. Truth is, there is really nothing under the hood. The value of your island displayed in the stats is simply for aesthetic purposes and it really does not affect the enemy generation. It is the same thing for item drops. Item drops don't have access to view your island and determine if you need a certain item or not.
The one thing that exists to try and minimise the RNG in the game are the forge and shop, though the forge does a poor job of it right now and feels very random. The shop will always contain certain types of items so that if you are lacking in a certain item like floatrons or shields, you can fully rely that the shop will have them.
That being said, I have future plans to make the player feel less frustrated, since I am certain you are not the only player who feels this way. One thing that significantly hurts the game in terms of replay-ability is the lack of persistence between runs. I have plans in the next few months to add this basic feature and was actually gonna have some sort of permanence in the next big update. However there were some core changes that needed to be made that will significantly affect the game in the long term, so I have delayed it until those changes are complete, but it is still scheduled for being up next.
Thank you so much for sharing your feedback again!
Wow. Seriously? The enemy island values are fixed based on the level and the generation is completely random? That's astonishing. It really goes to show how eagerly the human mind assigns value to random noise. I was so sure adding a shield caused the opponents to get shields early, for example. Now that I know that's not the case, let me play some more and see how I feel about the experience. I was second-guessing things that weren't an issue.
That said, RNG shouldn't make it impossible to win. (Yes, even in a roguelike, assuming progression or learning the game's systems aren't a deliberate part of the intended player experience.) Just about the only mechanic I didn't learn on my first run that reached stage 8 was that those energy weapons that bypass shields are probably what I need in order to stand a chance against the last boss. (Later on, I sort of guessed that you might be doing the FTL thing of a weapon type being impractical and under-powered most of the game but then pretty much necessary for the last boss, but I haven't made it to the end since then.)
All right, I just had a decent run, by which I mean my RNG was uncanny. 4 missile systems by area 2 and plenty of pulse launchers before the end boss. I couldn't get past the second to last boss, in part because I tried to practice aiming the energy weapons. I don't want to give you the impression that missiles are OP, because then you might nerf or remove them rather than fixing all the unusable weapons, but everything other than missiles is pretty much impossible to aim, especially against a fast moving enemy bobbing up and down, which is pretty much all of them by area 7 or 8.
What exactly is the intended gameplay experience, here? Right now it feels like you're bobbing around taking carefully timed shots with your cannons at the start of the game, which only works if you get right on top of the enemy and maybe nudge an expendable block into their core or only thruster if the opportunity presents itself. Then you get missiles if you're lucky, or a wall of random trash guns if you're not, bind them all to 1, and do drivebys on the enemy until you've worn them down enough that you can afford to slow down enough to actually aim at something important. All too often, though, you'll end up trading hits with the enemy, which is NEVER a good trade past area 2 or 3, because all the enemies have crazy amounts of armor and/or horizontal speed you could never in a million years find or buy by the endgame, let alone that area. They you get to the Island at the end, and obviously it's an OP crazy-pants over-the-top boss like in FTL, but it has so many layered shields that even missiles are useless, so you need to use the pulse weapon that passes through shields and hits blocks. But since that weapon functions like a cannon in terms of how well you need to aim and time it, you basically are a sitting duck for the boss, plus you're trying to use a skill you've long since stopped using for most of the game.
The real problem is the core combat loop. Assuming I don't have crazy good missiles, shields, and movement, to the point where I can kite the enemy along and pick off shields and weapons systems until it's safe to drift close enough to take out thrusters, there's just too much going on at once. In my head, I need to somehow keep track of my cooldowns, the enemy's cooldowns, the speed the enemy ship is currently going, the speed I'm currently going, whether or not my guns are aimed at the enemy yet, and in order to look at all that stuff at once on a big screen monitor, I'd need eight separate eyeballs that can swivel independently. And that's with me binding everything to 1 and just mashing right click whenever I think I have a clean shot. If you want me to somehow World of Warcraft hotbar individual weapon systems and use them strategically? Popping their shields with a bank of shotguns or machine guns and then firing a penetrating horizontal laser into their core? That's basically impossible. I know one dude I have ever met in my entire life who could keep track of that much complexity in realtime, and he solves mazes instantly by looking at them.
Each individual part of this game is great, but the sum of its parts is just a frustrating, borderline unplayable mess. It has amazingly deep systems, but you bought that depth with way too much moment-to-moment complexity for a realtime game. You get these split seconds in which you can fire, and you have to set those moments up, and if any one of like, five different dynamics isn't as well-aligned or timed as you thought it was, you miss. Meanwhile, the enemy basically never misses unless I'm out of range. It's like you picked a core mechanic that was easy for a computer to do but hard for a human.
Fortunately, there's an easy fix for all of this. A way to make all this agony go away, make the game more accessible, and you don't need to develop persistent systems or dumb the game down in order to streamline it. Are you ready for this? This is gonna blow your mind. All you have to do is change a single number.
now i only got the file for the game, and not the starter, i thought i was gonna get another one of them thats why i deleted all starters because i had like 7 or 8 of them.please help me,again,btw srry
Sorry, could you elaborate what you mean by "starter"?
When you download each update, it is NOT a patch that gets added on to your current game. The downloaded file is the new version of the game. Treat each update as if you were downloading the game for the first time, so you will still need to unzip the files.
I mean that when I downloaded the game the first time,I got the islands of war v3.02 windows.zip and not the islands of war.exe .I remembered the name exactly
im on an old version.im trying to update to the latest version but all i see is downloading the game. i read that if you are not on the latest version you can update here.ive looked everywhere in this site and i cant update the game.please help me
Hello! The game files have been updated here. In order to get the updated version, simply download the game update again(v3.02 is the latest as of writing this post). Then run the game like you normally would. You can also delete the old version at this point, since it is no longer going to be needed. Through most of the updates, I try not to change a lot with the save files so that you don't have to start the game all over again every update. I believe that all versions after 2.6 are compatible with the latest update (so you don't need to worry about starting over).
Alternatively, you can also use the itch.io app and it should keep the game automatically up to date.
TLDR; you need to re-download the full game every time there is an update.
I beat the final boss (first play though) and wow, he is much more difficult to defeat than any other island. I dislike the fact that you see some of the final bosses weapons the first time when facing the final boss itself as I don't know the attack patterns or how to take on the boss (the missiles for example). I enjoyed the game thoroughly. Some things that i would have liked to see more of: bosses that have a specialty. There were islands throughout the game that would ram you ,frigates i believe they were called and they were tough as every other island i floated to the top and broke the other islands shield and it was an easy win (as I was stacking shields), but the frigates would come straight for me and not even care about my shields. If a boss had this style but more health and speed i feel like that would become a huge challenge as you would have to prepare with spikes and more speed in your island.
Wow! Congratulations, the boss is supposed to be almost impossible to defeat. The reason he is so unbalanced is actually because I haven't developed anything for after the final boss.
That being said, you have raised some excellent points.
Firstly: attack patterns. Right now enemies might seem like they are firing all of their weapons simultaneously and it just gets chaotic. I could implement attack patterns so that similar weapon types fire around the same time, thus creating an "attack" that the player must learn to counter or avoid.
Secondly: specialty bosses. I am currently working on a series of updates that can greatly help with this so that enemies can take on a more niche role to test the players skill and ability.
Lastly: a ramming final boss. I have some plans to make the final boss more interesting and challenging without just stacking his health and damage. I'm thinking of a multi-staged boss whose behaviour changes as he loses health or even a few powerful but smaller bosses to fight simultaneously. If the player did have to fight multiple enemies then I could have three different classes (trireme-ramming, interceptor-fast, dreadnought-tank/damage).
Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm very glad you enjoyed the game.
I downloaded the game yesterday, and have already gotten to the boss twice, though he destroyed me both times. It seems like the hardest part of the game is the first two realms and the final boss, with the rest of the game being a breeze to get through. Is there any way you could even out the difficulty of the game a bit?
Since I haven't worked on anything after the final boss (no cutscenes and stuff), the final bosses have currently been almost impossible to defeat. In the current version, if you simply get to the final boss you are doing very well already.
In the next update, which is sadly a far ways off, I will be making major reworks. Hopefully in this process, it will smoothen out most of the enemies, even though I will be keeping a close eye out for enemy balance.
Just wondering, what do you think is the cause of the enemies being too easy? Is it their island design or their behaviour that is messing them up most of the time?
I thinks it's partially island design, with a big part of the issue coming from the way overkill is handled. Because each shot is blocked equally by a cloud absorbing it or molten rock absorbing it, I might as well surround myself with a layer of clouds, then sand, then dirt, and so on without ever upgrading any of my blocks. This makes enemy islands ineffective against mine when they attack as the first three or four volleys don't hit any of the important structures i have closer to the center. On the other hand, i have no reason to upgrade my weapons either, so I'll have like 10 cannons that hit an entire side of the enemy and after two volleys will have even the 9th realm boss's core exposed. I think if projectiles would continue after destroying a block, and maybe explosives doing splash damage, the non-dreadnought class enemies could do significant damage to island that would require more maneuvering than I tend to need, and there would be more incentive for the player to upgrade blocks and weapons.
I found enemies tend not to understand how to flank and how to use weapon rotation to their advantage. they also do not know how to target weaker or more critical points. they really do not know hot to dodge either nor do they keep their flanks or critical systems away from fire. Last bit is their construction is a bit hodgepodge where shields are in the middle weapons and engines are near the edges and the core is dangling underneath or exposed on the top. I know making a dynamic engine take into where hard points should be and where critical systems should go is a bit tricky. They also do not know how to use guided missiles so you can trick them by blasting up or falling which will cause the AI to retarget to lead the player for a new shot which causes the missiles to veer off away from the player.
and I was able to beat it including the last boss! second life and a quarter island left but it worked barely. Use all your blocks and spykes land on the top of the final boss (keep crashing into it you should have tons of layers) and fire everything you got straight down. If you have the right loadout you should be able to drill through the top and get to its core before it does. The other way is have a very very fast ship and keep its targeting system going in circles. You will need some of the scatter shots for the shields and a decent main weapon.
to fight everything else out there just keep out of their range and take pot shots at them. also you can go from the very bottom to the very top which will usually make them overshoot and take out of bounds damage (you can help this out by firing ontop or below them)
Hey i found a gltch where u can force quit the game and cheat it.i suggest that u use a if case where the player wins and only then their life is refunded to them and else to do nothing
Thanks for reporting this. Someone has previously reported that leaving the game after the defeat screen does not refund your life. I have fixed this for the next update coming in the next 24 hours.
Just wanted to say that you can still escape losing a life with the exit-to-menu trick. All you have to do is press esc when the game puts up the "Defeat" and then click the menu button to leave. When you continue, you'll still have the same amount of lives as before you started the battle.
An endless mode is being planned and is the next big set of updates once I finish everything I need to do with movement (could be another month or two). It's gonna be massive and have a lot of cool things and will probably be coming in different parts like the movement updates have been.
I personally can't wait for it, but one thing at a time is what I keep having to tell myself to stay on track with what is best for the game.
An amazing game that's very similar to Cosmoteer (my favorite itch.io game)! Lots of fun, and randomized enemies mean you see different combinations. I just with there was a creative mode, or a way to set lives to max.
I gotta say, it is an incredible honour that someone would even compare my game to an awesome game such as Cosmoteer! Thanks for that.
Technically, there is a creative mode in the game. If you join the discord and ask around, I'm pretty sure someone will be more than happy to share all the little secrets about the game! I would put it here, but then everybody can see it and it wouldn't be so much of a secret anymore.
But an official creative mode is being dreamt up. Its not exactly creative mode, but if you play long enough you should have all the items to where is basically counts as creative. So something like a sandbox with progression.
Thanks for your feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I really like this game. I really hope that the author will get better and better. I have some ideas and suggestions. I don't know if the developer will accept it:
1. Cancel the upper and lower boundaries and the gravity system to change to the regional boundary. For example, a circular boundary allows the player to freely move up and down in the area.
2. Change the reward mechanism and construction mechanism, and change the collection of ore resources so that players can use their own ore and resources to build weapons and squares, such as destroying the enemy's squares or parts, dropping ore and resources, or in the map area. Set up mines to mine and collect through damage or certain specific equipment.
3. Change the mechanism of weapons, shields, and energy. The cooling time of the weapon is cancelled and replaced with the amount of ammunition, the speed of shooting, and the speed of changing the bomb. Ammunition can be built on its own using ore or some of the resources collected. Energy and shields can also be provided by consuming ore or resources.
4. Expand the degree of freedom of the map, the player can freely enter and exit the map, so that if the ammunition is finished, you can choose to retreat. This is more humane, and there is a reason to know that it is hard to beat the hard bar. If you don't want the player to retreat so easily, you can increase the mechanism of the enemy's pursuit or the withdrawal penalty mechanism.
The above four are my personal ignorance, I don't know if the developer can adopt it. My ability to express is a bit poor, and some places may not be clearly expressed. If I can, I will summarize it and send a document to the developer.
Finally, I wish the developer the better.
Hello!
It was really really interesting to read your post. I did get help from some friends who speak Chinese to clarify up some of the points where the translation seems sketchy. So heres my response to your four points.
1. This was a very interesting one to think about. While I don't exactly think a circular boundary is the solution, I do agree that there is a weird issue with how the map works right now, especially with the whole looping thing going on. MY plans in the future is to have players be able to explore a large area. If the area is a shop or loot then they cold go around looking for a friendly island or a loot box floating around to interact with.
2. From the sounds of this, it sounds like you want me to create crafting items that serve no purpose on the island, but can be forged and crafted into the blocks and items on your island. Then you would earn these items instead and probably have more control over your island design. That part could actually work in a much future update (you'll see what I mean when we get there). As for setting up mines, it takes away from the rogue like feel to the game and turns it more into a survival game.
3. Ammunition, my old friend... Early in the original prototype development a basic ammo system was actually in place for your floatrons. You would have a certain amount of fuel and when it ran out, your floatrons just stopped working and you died. It felt pretty terrible. A day before I would submit the prototype, I woke up with this crazy idea: what would happen if we removed fuel from the game? Turns out, the game became immensely more fun and infinitely less frustrating. With regards to weapon ammunition, I'm not exactly sure how that will impact the game, but I feel a player has enough to worry about already without having to think about stocking up on ammunition and fuel.
4. This one is interesting because of an update I have been planning basically since the start of the game. Firstly, a surrender option would be cool, or just some way to forfeit the rewards and move on but take a life of damage. Secondly, I feel that this kind goes back to point 1. If the map was made bigger, and you could explore it, I would most probably remove the looping feature so that if you wanted to retreat, you could just run away like a little coward.
Thank you so much for your feedback and suggestions! You have given me quite a lot to consider and I really like thought provoking comments like this!
Hello Author, let me reinterpret my second suggestion:
I mean destroying enemy islands will drop ores. Players can collect ores into warehouses. Then use the ore in the warehouse to make weapons and build islands.
For example, destroying an enemy gravel Island,it will drop 1 kg of gravel ore,players can collect 1 kg of gravel ore into the warehouse.Then the construction material of a piece of gravel is set to be 1 kg gravel,Gatling manufactures 1 kg of material,players can use 1 kg of gravel ore to build a gravel island or a Gatling.
Let me correct the translation,矿（mine）and 地雷（mine）english translation is same.I mean setting up a mining area on a map is not deploying mines.
The author must have played with the Slay the Spire. I don't think the card rewards for Slay the Spire are very suitable for this game,so I put forward the suggestion of using minerals to build islands and weapons.
I really like this game if you can have more languages, especially China.
Hi there!
Support for multiple languages will probably be in the game, but it will not be anytime soon due to the fact that the game is still very much in its alpha stage. The entire gameplay experience hasn't been fully developed yet.
I hope you are still able to mostly get the hang of the game and still enjoy it!
With regards for there being nothing to do, I have a solution in one of these next upcoming updates. Its gonna be a massive change that will make the game a whole lot more replayable. This game is currently in its alpha phase so there are a lot more cool changes to come!
Thanks for your support and patience through these updates!
The game seems to have problems running on the 2015 MacBook Pros. I'm not exactly sure what the cause is but you can try downloading it with another browser or updating your OS (but you are updated to Mojave so this is for all the other people with this problem).
If you haven't yet, you can also try typing this in your terminal:
sudo spctl --master-disable
What this does is allows apps downloaded from anywhere, as this option was removed from the security and privacy settings a while back.
I am changing the movement calculations for speed and acceleration so that you will not need so many floatrons as the game progresses. This will also make it so that your maximum speed can be increased simply by adding more thrust. These changes will be in the next update.
However, floatrons will always be sold in shops! This slightly reduces the RNG and of course, you can always try to forge them.
Thanks for the feedback! I will keep an eye on the floatron drop rate as more and more modules are added to the game.
There is a super secret sandbox in the game, and it doesn't require you to edit the save file or anything strange like that. Simply hold the space bar while creating a new game until the transition to the map is complete and voila, items for days. As the game developer though, I will warn you that playing the sandbox takes the fun out of discovering new items in the game and figuring out what they do. But, chances are you have probably already found all the new items since it looks like you've been playing for a while and gotten to the final boss.
Original Message translated with Google Translate and a couple edits:
The calculation of flight speed gives me a lot of headaches. I have a lot of floatrons but the maximum speed is difficult to increase. I suggest to change the flight speed calculation formula and to improve the drop probability of the floatrons.
Hello there,
I don't speak Chinese but I have Google translate and a friend helped me a bit. From what I am hearing, it seems like there are two issues here. Firstly, that acceleration is too slow and you have a hard time finding floatrons (ejectors). Secondly, that the drop rate for floatrons are too low and the drop chance should be increased.
I have made some changes to address the first issue coming in the next update. I am still playing around with the exact numbers but I have changed the way the calculations for speed and acceleration are handled. Firstly, the acceleration in now only based on mass and thrust. It used to also account in maximum speed but that has been removed. The second change is that maximum speed takes into shape as well as thrust. These changes have been good for both the players and the enemies you are fighting against.
With regard to the drop rate of floatrons, I feel that they are in the right spot after making the changes. I'm not sure if you are aware, but every shop will always contain a floatron. That might help you for now.
Could you give more freedom with the keybinds? Being required to control movement and firing with your left feels clunky when you're aiming with your right. Or, instead of more keybind freedom, make the default key for firing left mouse button.
Hello! One of the improvements on my TODO list for the next update is to give the game a quick help menu that can be pulled up with the F1 key (from what I've heard, this the default help key). Reason for this, is that there is actually a system for firing with the mouse, its just a little wonky.
The current system I have in place is that the left mouse button fires only your selected groups. Groups can be selected by left clicking on the appropriate groups down at the bottom of the screen. Selected groups will show all of the weapons in that specific group. The fire all key used to be ~, but that has since been changed to the right mouse button. The reason for the weapon selection is that I wanted to give players the option to fire their core weapons (the ones that primarily deal damage) without having to fire everything. That way you can have all your core weapons in a single group, select it in battle, and only fire those without having to fire your flares or wind weapons at the same time.
I think the main problem with this system is that it takes a lot of work to go and select groups to fire since they are already fixable with the key binds.
That being said, if nobody knows about the controls, it probably means that the controls are not intuitive enough. I have plans to make a weapon group visualise tab in the editor(like the shop or forge tabs, but to toggle settings like autofire/selection before the battle). Eventually(not sure when, hopefully soon) I will get around to implementing editable hotkeys, which is great. but still won't solve all of these problems.
I would love to hear more of your feedback in the discord, especially on your suggestions for the firing system!
Thank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate comments like this.
Hi! Could you provide me with a few more details so that I can better assist you with this problem? For example which Windows/Mac version you are on and what tool you are trying to extract it with would be great. You can also join the Discord server where we have a great community of people who would be willing to help you more and probably have more experience with dealing with these types of issues.
could you pls decrease the difficulty of the final boss?????
i was burning through every enemy and boss but the final boss is just waaaaay too hard bro.by the time i got through the first 3 layers from any side the final boss would have literally cut my island in 2!!!!
Yes, the boss is difficult. In fact, you can even say it is impossible. Every time I design the final boss I make it really hard. In fact, there seem to be a small handful of people that find clever ways to beat the boss in almost every single update (I have yet to check for this one, but I am pretty sure someone is gonna do it without using the sandbox).
Even though it is probably a bad decision to make the final boss incredibly impossible, what comes after the final boss is so amazing that most people will agree that not many people should get to see it. I'm just kidding. There really is nothing after the final boss, thats why he's so difficult to beat. Or is there? I'm just trolling now, I shall stop.
But you never know when there will be something rewarding after it. Just saying.
Anyways, thanks for the info, I still want the final boss to be difficult and not just a walk in the park like you experienced with all the other enemies (i guess I made the game a little too easy?).
I felt the guns are turning very slowly, if you can only increase the speed a little bit (I do not want the guns to accompany the mouse) but they are more agile.
Hey there! The idea is that guns rotate at a speed where you will need to plan where you are moving and aim accordingly. While they might not be the fastest beasts, there is a new legendary tech called the servo motor which increases the weapon turning speed.
I do not know if it's just me but in the loot of battles the chance to come a float is very small, and this is annoying me please if this is a bug solve, now if it is bad luck my patience.
Another suggestion is when you win a battle there is a fixed amount of gold that comes from reward and you can choose to increase with the loot.
Hello! While the chances to get a floatron from battle are small, every shop will always contain a block, a weapon, a module, a tech, and a floatron. Sometimes it may have 2 or more floatrons if the module you get is a floatron as well.
Because of the sheer number of items in the game, the chances of getting floatrons are decreasing, and so I hope that balancing this out with some consistency in the shop helps a lot.
Also, the fixed amount of gold idea isn't a bad one and has been suggested before.
Hello! In terms of future ports, the linux is the next port I will be adding. It could still be a while though before I start working on the linux port though, so I wouldn't hold my breath. That being said, I will try to add it once the game is in a more stable position as well.
I really liked the game but now with the new update it is hard so navigate in battle , it is also wayy to zoomed out for me i cant tell where bullets are flying anf the islands look really small.
Hey there! You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. It shouldn't be inverted but it might be a possibility. Thanks for the info that the camera can sometimes ba too small. I will bear this in mind as I am working on quality of life improvements for the next update.
Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoy this new update!
Unfortunately, it is a bug in the game right now where certain items will freeze the game. I am working on a fix for the next update. Could you tell me the exact recipe so that I can double check to make sure it is fixed? Thanks for your help!
I am so sorry, a discord bot I was working on had it's token leaked and so someone exploited this and deleted the server. I am so sorry about the images. I will make sure that this never happens again.
Discord server was raided by a bot, I was dm'd nsfw by it and then it banned me from the server. Already took action and reported the bot to trust and safety team.
I am so sorry, a discord bot I was working on had it's token leaked and so someone exploited this and deleted the server. I am so sorry about the images. I will make sure that this never happens again.
I am so sorry, a discord bot I was working on had it's token leaked and so someone exploited this and deleted the server. I am so sorry about the images. I will make sure that this never happens again.
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Its really laggy for me even though i have a good computer, anyone know w fix? it should be running at 60fps but its running at 30-40fps
I have the same issue. Since the last update, the game runs at 60fps for a little while, then suddenly drops down to 30fps and stays there. So I would be interested in a fix too.
Hello,
Thanks for this awesome games, it's was difficult to end it, but it's so satisfying.
Now I have change my OS, I wonder if a linux support is planned ?
Good luck for developpement.
Hello,
Linux support is planned, but it is probably not going to be anytime soon. The game is still in its early alpha phase so unfortunately the only target platforms right now are Windows and Mac. When I release the full game, I will be looking into a linux port as well.
Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it!
I found a bug ... accessories added to armor or shield generators do not survive a save. The addons do not get written to the save file at all and subsequently are lost forever. The addons do seem to stay there until you leave the game or go to the main screen.
EDIT: the mod parts are saved to the save file when exiting but they are not loaded back when reloading the game...
That sounds like a similar bug to what I encountered...
The way I solve it is removing all the shield generators before exiting and then putting them all back after I come back.
Can u fix bugs on the legacy version?If so,my mouse dosen't show up when I'm playing.Also,I have to sign out on my PC to close the game.
Hey man!
Sorry for the late reply and sorry about those bugs. I'm not sure what would have caused that.
Since the game is still in its earlier stages, I'm not going back to any legacy versions to fix previous bugs. This is because most of the time these bugs get fixed in a future version, so to go back and make sure every legacy version is 100% stable would be tedious.
Thanks!
Hi jwiggs,
Even though I have never played your game, I would love to. But there has been a problem after I downloaded the game. When I would open the .dmg file it would read the message "Unable to find game!!:". Just so you know this is on a macOS Sierra. There are two things I'm asking you to help me with if you do chose so. First if you are going to help me can you please tell me or give me a few tips on how to fix or hopefully get the game to be found. (Disclaimer, I hope I don't come off as a demanding person who wants you to solve all my problems and if I do seem to come off that way I'm very sorry) Second it would be good if we could figure this out because it could help some people. Also so you don't think I'm some sort of scam bot I learned about this game through this video
Also I really admire that you go out of your way to respond to so many comments.
Sincerely Galaxy,
PS: Please don't think I just said that last part so that you warm up to me because I did really mean it.
PPS: Please respond as soon as possible. :)
Hello Galaxy,
Sorry for getting back to you a little bit late. The notifications on itch.io don't always come through for posts. Also, I'm sorry that you ran into this problem where it is unable to find the game. I've had issues with it before and thought I previously fixed it.
Here are a few solutions I found (not sure if they work) for a variety of Mac related issues just in case (and also for other people to see).
No Mountable File Systems:
Try running the following command in terminal. It simply allows apps downloaded from everywhere. Please tell me if you still have needed to use this command, since I have attempted to code sign most of the versions.
sudo spctl --master-disableUnable to find game:
This could be due to a few reasons. Firstly, if your MacOS is too old or outdated, consider updating your software. I am confident that it runs on High Sierra (10.14), but cannot yet confirm anything before this. I think there might have been a previous issue where the macOS was out of date and created this error.
Another reason might be your browser choice. Try downloading the file from a different browser.
If all else fails, then try using this mirror link from dropbox: Mirror Link Mac. This is the link to v3.02 and will most likely be removed once a new version comes out (at which point I hope this problem has been resolved).
On a smaller note I read somewhere that moving the file to your desktop might help, but I read it in an older thread, so it might not help anymore.
I would love to know the outcome of this issue, since this is not the first time I have encountered it and have tried to ix this before. You can always join the Discord server if you need more help. You can also DM me from discord at anytime and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Hope one of these solutions help!
I've been playing this game for a while now, and I must say, it's probably one of the best games I have ever played!
That said, there are a few things that I'd really like to see - many of them are already on your "Skymap" (which has some really cool sounding stuff on it BTW) - but there's one thing I'd really like to be able to do; to be able to redo the previous battle after you've won. It would be exactly like a normal battle, but with the same enemy, and less rewards.
Finally, there's a few other things I'd like to mention:
Anyway, I still can't wait for the next update, and will be watching out for it!
Hello!
I'm really glad you enjoyed the game and the next update is gonna really be awesome.
Thanks for your feedback and support!
Seems like every single run ends in an infinite battle where I can't kill the enemy and the enemy can't kill me. Both ships lose their lateral thrusters and then the enemy cannons itself back and forth off the sides of the screen. But because the cannon range is so short, the shots can't actually hit you, so it just keeps recoiling back and forth off the side of the screen where you can't see it. You can't hit it, and it can't hit you. Infinite nothing gameplay.
NONE of the decisions I make while building my island prevents this outcome, and piloting the island is always a total crapshoot, so there's literally nothing I can do to prevent this. One time I stuck my core on a healing block just to see what it did-- not even altitude could kill me! It takes a game with potential and makes it unplayable, since I literally never know when the game's going to suddenly throw itself into an unwinnable state.
Why not do what all base-building games do and give the core a small ammount of basic gameplay juice? In some games this would be resource generation-- here, it should definitely be lateral movement. Not fast movement. Not good movement. Just enough that you can maybe try to pursue some sort of change to the game state when the enemy decides to troll you with an infinite cannon recoil loop.
Seriously, I can't even get through the first area without this happening.
Hello!
Thank you so much for your feedback! Yeah, when both players lose their drifters it very easily ends in a stalemate.
There are a few solutions I have been considering. The first thing I want to get rid of is the enemy teleporting/map looping. Of course, there would need to be an out of bounds area on the sides as well but I would make the play area a whole lot larger so the size doesn't feel to small.
That doesn't exactly directly address this issue, but this next idea might. I have been thinking about a surrender system, not only for enemies but for the player as well. Enemies might surrender when you are completely annihilating them or when maybe they have lost all horizontal or vertical thrust. The player would also have the option to surrender, though it would be more likely a "tactical retreat". They wouldn't lose a life but maybe they would lose some money and the player wouldn't advance and have to retry the enemy again.
Another change that might help is with weapon range. I have been thinking of removing the range for a damage drop-off system instead. That way if it ever comes down to only vertical thrust, you can still poke each other.
I could also make the warp core start with some vertical and horizontal thrust. Another simple solution would be to make a small game rule where you lose if you no longer have drifters (like the floatron rule).
While not all of these solutions will be implemented immediately in the next upcoming update, I will make sure to do my best and fix this infinite nothing gameplay. Thanks once again for this feedback! It really helps during these early stages of development.
I've been playing the game some more and it's gotten to a point where I just can't anymore. RNG just plays such a huge role in whether or not you have the parts you need to make a viable island. Twice in the last day, I started a new game to find three forges. Every enemy ship always has better weapons, defenses, and movement than you, no matter what you build. If this only affected the enemy island design, I could sort of see it. Sure, it's weird that you can replace all your stone with dirt or un-equip most of your weapons to weaken a boss, but it also seems to scale with stage somewhat, and maybe the enemy needs an advantage in raw numbers to compensate for their lack of brains. But where I lost all hope was when I discovered that the quality of your island affects the loot that drops.
Having trouble finding horizontal movement items? Just get your lateral acceleration down to 20 or so, the game will start dropping them. Not finding any weapons? It's because you foolishly equipped the few weapons the game gave you, so it decided that you had enough weapons and stopped giving them to you. Just cut yourself down to a 2x2 brick with one cannon, two thrusters, and the warp drive. Of course, one false move and you're dead, but that's basically the way the start of the game plays anyway. Oh, you took a hit and died? Better esc to the title screen and start over. Otherwise you'll end up with no lives left in the late game when you need them.
What ever happened arbitrary challenges? Whatever happened to RNG actually being random?
The more I play this game and the more I start to understand how it works under the hood, the more angry and frustrated I get. I love the concept and the core mechanics seem fun. Building your base is fun. Getting loot is fun. The combat is fun when it actually works. But it feels like every time I'm just starting to enjoy myself, I get screwed by RNG or physics. Maybe if you could see the cooldowns on each block so you know when the enemy's about to fire, or maybe if you were allowed to buy as many of one item as the enemy can buy, it would be less infuriating. Or, hell. Unlocks. If I were getting pop-ups that say "You've unlocked <name of item,>" maybe I'd be able to tell myself that RNG in future games would be less shitty than RNG in the game I just played. Maybe that's why roguelites do it in the first place, I don't know.
What I do know is two of my favorite games are Shellcore Commander and Enter the Gungeon, so you'd think a game that combines them would be the best thing ever. But so far it's been pure torture. Looting mechanics are supposed to drip-feed the player dopamine, but all I'm getting on my end is pure cortisol.
Hey man!
Firstly and fore mostly, I am so sorry that you feel this way. Games should feel fun and I apologise for any stress of frustration this game has caused.
I was quite surprised when I read your post when you mentioned how the game works. I think it is really interesting to see how sometimes RNG can mess with us. Truth is, there is really nothing under the hood. The value of your island displayed in the stats is simply for aesthetic purposes and it really does not affect the enemy generation. It is the same thing for item drops. Item drops don't have access to view your island and determine if you need a certain item or not.
The one thing that exists to try and minimise the RNG in the game are the forge and shop, though the forge does a poor job of it right now and feels very random. The shop will always contain certain types of items so that if you are lacking in a certain item like floatrons or shields, you can fully rely that the shop will have them.
That being said, I have future plans to make the player feel less frustrated, since I am certain you are not the only player who feels this way. One thing that significantly hurts the game in terms of replay-ability is the lack of persistence between runs. I have plans in the next few months to add this basic feature and was actually gonna have some sort of permanence in the next big update. However there were some core changes that needed to be made that will significantly affect the game in the long term, so I have delayed it until those changes are complete, but it is still scheduled for being up next.
Thank you so much for sharing your feedback again!
Wow. Seriously? The enemy island values are fixed based on the level and the generation is completely random? That's astonishing. It really goes to show how eagerly the human mind assigns value to random noise. I was so sure adding a shield caused the opponents to get shields early, for example. Now that I know that's not the case, let me play some more and see how I feel about the experience. I was second-guessing things that weren't an issue.
That said, RNG shouldn't make it impossible to win. (Yes, even in a roguelike, assuming progression or learning the game's systems aren't a deliberate part of the intended player experience.) Just about the only mechanic I didn't learn on my first run that reached stage 8 was that those energy weapons that bypass shields are probably what I need in order to stand a chance against the last boss. (Later on, I sort of guessed that you might be doing the FTL thing of a weapon type being impractical and under-powered most of the game but then pretty much necessary for the last boss, but I haven't made it to the end since then.)
All right, I just had a decent run, by which I mean my RNG was uncanny. 4 missile systems by area 2 and plenty of pulse launchers before the end boss. I couldn't get past the second to last boss, in part because I tried to practice aiming the energy weapons. I don't want to give you the impression that missiles are OP, because then you might nerf or remove them rather than fixing all the unusable weapons, but everything other than missiles is pretty much impossible to aim, especially against a fast moving enemy bobbing up and down, which is pretty much all of them by area 7 or 8.
What exactly is the intended gameplay experience, here? Right now it feels like you're bobbing around taking carefully timed shots with your cannons at the start of the game, which only works if you get right on top of the enemy and maybe nudge an expendable block into their core or only thruster if the opportunity presents itself. Then you get missiles if you're lucky, or a wall of random trash guns if you're not, bind them all to 1, and do drivebys on the enemy until you've worn them down enough that you can afford to slow down enough to actually aim at something important. All too often, though, you'll end up trading hits with the enemy, which is NEVER a good trade past area 2 or 3, because all the enemies have crazy amounts of armor and/or horizontal speed you could never in a million years find or buy by the endgame, let alone that area. They you get to the Island at the end, and obviously it's an OP crazy-pants over-the-top boss like in FTL, but it has so many layered shields that even missiles are useless, so you need to use the pulse weapon that passes through shields and hits blocks. But since that weapon functions like a cannon in terms of how well you need to aim and time it, you basically are a sitting duck for the boss, plus you're trying to use a skill you've long since stopped using for most of the game.
The real problem is the core combat loop. Assuming I don't have crazy good missiles, shields, and movement, to the point where I can kite the enemy along and pick off shields and weapons systems until it's safe to drift close enough to take out thrusters, there's just too much going on at once. In my head, I need to somehow keep track of my cooldowns, the enemy's cooldowns, the speed the enemy ship is currently going, the speed I'm currently going, whether or not my guns are aimed at the enemy yet, and in order to look at all that stuff at once on a big screen monitor, I'd need eight separate eyeballs that can swivel independently. And that's with me binding everything to 1 and just mashing right click whenever I think I have a clean shot. If you want me to somehow World of Warcraft hotbar individual weapon systems and use them strategically? Popping their shields with a bank of shotguns or machine guns and then firing a penetrating horizontal laser into their core? That's basically impossible. I know one dude I have ever met in my entire life who could keep track of that much complexity in realtime, and he solves mazes instantly by looking at them.
Each individual part of this game is great, but the sum of its parts is just a frustrating, borderline unplayable mess. It has amazingly deep systems, but you bought that depth with way too much moment-to-moment complexity for a realtime game. You get these split seconds in which you can fire, and you have to set those moments up, and if any one of like, five different dynamics isn't as well-aligned or timed as you thought it was, you miss. Meanwhile, the enemy basically never misses unless I'm out of range. It's like you picked a core mechanic that was easy for a computer to do but hard for a human.
Fortunately, there's an easy fix for all of this. A way to make all this agony go away, make the game more accessible, and you don't need to develop persistent systems or dumb the game down in order to streamline it. Are you ready for this? This is gonna blow your mind. All you have to do is change a single number.
Double the turret rotation speed.
You're welcome.
now i only got the file for the game, and not the starter, i thought i was gonna get another one of them thats why i deleted all starters because i had like 7 or 8 of them.please help me,again,btw srry
Sorry, could you elaborate what you mean by "starter"?
When you download each update, it is NOT a patch that gets added on to your current game. The downloaded file is the new version of the game. Treat each update as if you were downloading the game for the first time, so you will still need to unzip the files.
Hope this helps!
I mean that when I downloaded the game the first time,I got the islands of war v3.02 windows.zip and not the islands of war.exe .I remembered the name exactly
im on an old version.im trying to update to the latest version but all i see is downloading the game. i read that if you are not on the latest version you can update here.ive looked everywhere in this site and i cant update the game.please help me
Hello! The game files have been updated here. In order to get the updated version, simply download the game update again(v3.02 is the latest as of writing this post). Then run the game like you normally would. You can also delete the old version at this point, since it is no longer going to be needed. Through most of the updates, I try not to change a lot with the save files so that you don't have to start the game all over again every update. I believe that all versions after 2.6 are compatible with the latest update (so you don't need to worry about starting over).
Alternatively, you can also use the itch.io app and it should keep the game automatically up to date.
TLDR; you need to re-download the full game every time there is an update.
Hope this helps!
thank you
I beat the final boss (first play though) and wow, he is much more difficult to defeat than any other island. I dislike the fact that you see some of the final bosses weapons the first time when facing the final boss itself as I don't know the attack patterns or how to take on the boss (the missiles for example). I enjoyed the game thoroughly. Some things that i would have liked to see more of: bosses that have a specialty. There were islands throughout the game that would ram you ,frigates i believe they were called and they were tough as every other island i floated to the top and broke the other islands shield and it was an easy win (as I was stacking shields), but the frigates would come straight for me and not even care about my shields. If a boss had this style but more health and speed i feel like that would become a huge challenge as you would have to prepare with spikes and more speed in your island.
Wow! Congratulations, the boss is supposed to be almost impossible to defeat. The reason he is so unbalanced is actually because I haven't developed anything for after the final boss.
That being said, you have raised some excellent points.
Firstly: attack patterns. Right now enemies might seem like they are firing all of their weapons simultaneously and it just gets chaotic. I could implement attack patterns so that similar weapon types fire around the same time, thus creating an "attack" that the player must learn to counter or avoid.
Secondly: specialty bosses. I am currently working on a series of updates that can greatly help with this so that enemies can take on a more niche role to test the players skill and ability.
Lastly: a ramming final boss. I have some plans to make the final boss more interesting and challenging without just stacking his health and damage. I'm thinking of a multi-staged boss whose behaviour changes as he loses health or even a few powerful but smaller bosses to fight simultaneously. If the player did have to fight multiple enemies then I could have three different classes (trireme-ramming, interceptor-fast, dreadnought-tank/damage).
Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm very glad you enjoyed the game.
非常好玩的游戏，作者加油!
I downloaded the game yesterday, and have already gotten to the boss twice, though he destroyed me both times. It seems like the hardest part of the game is the first two realms and the final boss, with the rest of the game being a breeze to get through. Is there any way you could even out the difficulty of the game a bit?
Hello!
Since I haven't worked on anything after the final boss (no cutscenes and stuff), the final bosses have currently been almost impossible to defeat. In the current version, if you simply get to the final boss you are doing very well already.
In the next update, which is sadly a far ways off, I will be making major reworks. Hopefully in this process, it will smoothen out most of the enemies, even though I will be keeping a close eye out for enemy balance.
Just wondering, what do you think is the cause of the enemies being too easy? Is it their island design or their behaviour that is messing them up most of the time?
Thanks for your feedback!
I thinks it's partially island design, with a big part of the issue coming from the way overkill is handled. Because each shot is blocked equally by a cloud absorbing it or molten rock absorbing it, I might as well surround myself with a layer of clouds, then sand, then dirt, and so on without ever upgrading any of my blocks. This makes enemy islands ineffective against mine when they attack as the first three or four volleys don't hit any of the important structures i have closer to the center. On the other hand, i have no reason to upgrade my weapons either, so I'll have like 10 cannons that hit an entire side of the enemy and after two volleys will have even the 9th realm boss's core exposed. I think if projectiles would continue after destroying a block, and maybe explosives doing splash damage, the non-dreadnought class enemies could do significant damage to island that would require more maneuvering than I tend to need, and there would be more incentive for the player to upgrade blocks and weapons.
I found enemies tend not to understand how to flank and how to use weapon rotation to their advantage. they also do not know how to target weaker or more critical points. they really do not know hot to dodge either nor do they keep their flanks or critical systems away from fire. Last bit is their construction is a bit hodgepodge where shields are in the middle weapons and engines are near the edges and the core is dangling underneath or exposed on the top. I know making a dynamic engine take into where hard points should be and where critical systems should go is a bit tricky. They also do not know how to use guided missiles so you can trick them by blasting up or falling which will cause the AI to retarget to lead the player for a new shot which causes the missiles to veer off away from the player.
and I was able to beat it including the last boss! second life and a quarter island left but it worked barely. Use all your blocks and spykes land on the top of the final boss (keep crashing into it you should have tons of layers) and fire everything you got straight down. If you have the right loadout you should be able to drill through the top and get to its core before it does. The other way is have a very very fast ship and keep its targeting system going in circles. You will need some of the scatter shots for the shields and a decent main weapon.
to fight everything else out there just keep out of their range and take pot shots at them. also you can go from the very bottom to the very top which will usually make them overshoot and take out of bounds damage (you can help this out by firing ontop or below them)
Hey i found a glitch where when you click like a level and click edit island it skips that level.
Hello,
I haven't heard of this before, but I shall take a look into it.
Thanks for the report!
Hey i found a gltch where u can force quit the game and cheat it.i suggest that u use a if case where the player wins and only then their life is refunded to them and else to do nothing
also when will the next update come?
Hello,
Thanks for reporting this. Someone has previously reported that leaving the game after the defeat screen does not refund your life. I have fixed this for the next update coming in the next 24 hours.
Thanks again for the report!
how do I get into creative mode?
hold space while making a new game
Just wanted to say that you can still escape losing a life with the exit-to-menu trick. All you have to do is press esc when the game puts up the "Defeat" and then click the menu button to leave. When you continue, you'll still have the same amount of lives as before you started the battle.
Hello! Thanks for the report! Yeah, that can be a problem now. I shall have that fixed for the next update.
Thanks again!
hey, i saw Scrapman's video on creative mode and im interested because there is no in the game nor a save file to download
Hey there!
Creative mode hasn't been publicly announced mainly due to the fact that creative mode takes away from the thrill of finding all the items yourself.
That being said, simply hold space while creating a new game to enable creative mode.
Have fun!
finnaly the update arrives!
also my pc crashed a few days ago so i cant play the game yet so just out of curiosity is there a survival or endless mode or something like that?
Hello!
An endless mode is being planned and is the next big set of updates once I finish everything I need to do with movement (could be another month or two). It's gonna be massive and have a lot of cool things and will probably be coming in different parts like the movement updates have been.
I personally can't wait for it, but one thing at a time is what I keep having to tell myself to stay on track with what is best for the game.
You know what would be cool an upgrade module to increase the turning speed of the weapons.
Hi there!
The servo motor is a legendary tech that increases the rotation speed of weapons.
An amazing game that's very similar to Cosmoteer (my favorite itch.io game)! Lots of fun, and randomized enemies mean you see different combinations. I just with there was a creative mode, or a way to set lives to max.
Hello!
I gotta say, it is an incredible honour that someone would even compare my game to an awesome game such as Cosmoteer! Thanks for that.
Technically, there is a creative mode in the game. If you join the discord and ask around, I'm pretty sure someone will be more than happy to share all the little secrets about the game! I would put it here, but then everybody can see it and it wouldn't be so much of a secret anymore.
But an official creative mode is being dreamt up. Its not exactly creative mode, but if you play long enough you should have all the items to where is basically counts as creative. So something like a sandbox with progression.
Thanks for your feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
很喜欢这款游戏，真心希望作者会越做越好，我有一些想法和建议不知作者会不会接受：
1.取消上下边界和重力系统改为区域边界比如一个圆形边界让玩家自由的在区域内上下左右活动。
2.改变一下奖励机制和建造机制，改成矿石资源收集让玩家自己利用矿石和资源建造武器和方块，比如在破坏敌人的方块或者某些部位会掉落矿石和资源，也可以在地图区域里设置矿区，通过破坏或者某些特定装置来开采和收集。
3.改变一下武器、护盾、能量的机制。将武器的冷却时间取消掉换成弹药数量，射击速度，换弹速度。弹药可以使用矿石或者某些收集到的资源自行建造。能量和护盾也可以是消耗矿石或者资源来提供。
4.将地图的自由度扩大一些，玩家可以自由进出地图，这样的话弹药打完了也可以选择撤退。这样更人性化一点哪有明知打不过硬杠的道理是吧。如果不想让玩家那么容易撤退可以增加敌人追击的机制或者撤退惩罚机制。
以上四条是我的个人愚见，不知作者可否采纳。我的表达能力有些差，有些地方可能没有表达清楚，如果可以的话我会在总结一下做一个文档发给作者。
最后祝福作者越做越好。
Google Translated Message:
I really like this game. I really hope that the author will get better and better. I have some ideas and suggestions. I don't know if the developer will accept it:
1. Cancel the upper and lower boundaries and the gravity system to change to the regional boundary. For example, a circular boundary allows the player to freely move up and down in the area.
2. Change the reward mechanism and construction mechanism, and change the collection of ore resources so that players can use their own ore and resources to build weapons and squares, such as destroying the enemy's squares or parts, dropping ore and resources, or in the map area. Set up mines to mine and collect through damage or certain specific equipment.
3. Change the mechanism of weapons, shields, and energy. The cooling time of the weapon is cancelled and replaced with the amount of ammunition, the speed of shooting, and the speed of changing the bomb. Ammunition can be built on its own using ore or some of the resources collected. Energy and shields can also be provided by consuming ore or resources.
4. Expand the degree of freedom of the map, the player can freely enter and exit the map, so that if the ammunition is finished, you can choose to retreat. This is more humane, and there is a reason to know that it is hard to beat the hard bar. If you don't want the player to retreat so easily, you can increase the mechanism of the enemy's pursuit or the withdrawal penalty mechanism.
The above four are my personal ignorance, I don't know if the developer can adopt it. My ability to express is a bit poor, and some places may not be clearly expressed. If I can, I will summarize it and send a document to the developer.
Finally, I wish the developer the better.
Hello!
It was really really interesting to read your post. I did get help from some friends who speak Chinese to clarify up some of the points where the translation seems sketchy. So heres my response to your four points.
1. This was a very interesting one to think about. While I don't exactly think a circular boundary is the solution, I do agree that there is a weird issue with how the map works right now, especially with the whole looping thing going on. MY plans in the future is to have players be able to explore a large area. If the area is a shop or loot then they cold go around looking for a friendly island or a loot box floating around to interact with.
2. From the sounds of this, it sounds like you want me to create crafting items that serve no purpose on the island, but can be forged and crafted into the blocks and items on your island. Then you would earn these items instead and probably have more control over your island design. That part could actually work in a much future update (you'll see what I mean when we get there). As for setting up mines, it takes away from the rogue like feel to the game and turns it more into a survival game.
3. Ammunition, my old friend... Early in the original prototype development a basic ammo system was actually in place for your floatrons. You would have a certain amount of fuel and when it ran out, your floatrons just stopped working and you died. It felt pretty terrible. A day before I would submit the prototype, I woke up with this crazy idea: what would happen if we removed fuel from the game? Turns out, the game became immensely more fun and infinitely less frustrating. With regards to weapon ammunition, I'm not exactly sure how that will impact the game, but I feel a player has enough to worry about already without having to think about stocking up on ammunition and fuel.
4. This one is interesting because of an update I have been planning basically since the start of the game. Firstly, a surrender option would be cool, or just some way to forfeit the rewards and move on but take a life of damage. Secondly, I feel that this kind goes back to point 1. If the map was made bigger, and you could explore it, I would most probably remove the looping feature so that if you wanted to retreat, you could just run away like a little coward.
Thank you so much for your feedback and suggestions! You have given me quite a lot to consider and I really like thought provoking comments like this!
(edited for chinese translation):
你好！
阅读你的帖子真的很有趣。我确实得到了一些说中文的朋友的帮助，以澄清翻译看似粗略的一些观点。因此，我对你的四点回应。
这是一个非常有趣的想法。虽然我并不认为圆形边界是解决方案，但我确实认为现在地图如何工作存在一个奇怪的问题，特别是在整个循环过程中。我未来的计划是让玩家能够探索大面积区域。如果该地区是商店或战利品，那么他们会冷静地寻找一个友好的岛屿或一个漂浮在周围的战利品盒来与之互动。
2.从这听起来，听起来你要我创造在岛上没有用处的制作物品，但可以锻造并制作成岛上的积木和物品。然后你会获得这些物品而且可能对你的岛屿设计有更多的控制权。那部分实际上可以在未来的更新中使用（当我们到达那里时你会看到我的意思）。至于设置地雷，它会像游戏中的流氓一样将其转化为生存游戏。
3.弹药，我的老朋友......在最初的原型开发早期，一个基本的弹药系统实际上适用于你的飞行员。你会有一定量的燃料，当它耗尽时，你的飞行员就停止了工作，你就死了。感觉非常可怕。在我提交原型的前一天，我醒来时有了这个疯狂的想法：如果我们从游戏中移除燃料会发生什么？事实证明，游戏变得非常有趣，并且无限挫折。关于武器弹药，我不确定这将如何影响游戏，但我觉得玩家已经足够担心已经没有考虑储备弹药和燃料了。
这个很有意思，因为自从游戏开始以来我一直在计划更新。首先，退保选项会很酷，或只是某种方式放弃奖励并继续前进，但却会造成损失。其次，我觉得这种情况可以追溯到第1点。如果地图变得更大，你可以探索它，我很可能会删除循环功能，这样如果你想撤退，你可能会像一点点逃跑懦夫。
非常感谢您的反馈和建议！你给了我很多考虑，我真的很喜欢这样的评论！
你好作者，我重新说明一下我的第二条建议：
我的意思是破坏敌人岛屿会掉落矿石，玩家可以将矿石收集到仓库。然后利用仓库中的矿石自己制造武器和建造岛屿。
比如破坏敌人一块砂砾岛屿，就会掉落1kg砂砾矿石，玩家可以将这1kg砂砾矿石收集到仓库。然后设定一块砂砾的建造材料是1kg砂砾，加特林制造材料为1kg，玩家就可以用这1kg砂砾矿石建造一块砂砾岛屿或者一把加特林。
然后我纠正一下翻译，矿（mine）和地雷（mine）的英文翻译居然是一样的。我的意思是在地图中增加矿区不是设置地雷。
作者一定是玩过杀戮尖塔吧，但我觉得杀戮尖塔的卡牌奖励方式不是很适合这款游戏，所以我才提出了利用矿石建造岛屿和武器的建议。
Hello Author, let me reinterpret my second suggestion:
I mean destroying enemy islands will drop ores. Players can collect ores into warehouses. Then use the ore in the warehouse to make weapons and build islands.
For example, destroying an enemy gravel Island,it will drop 1 kg of gravel ore,players can collect 1 kg of gravel ore into the warehouse.Then the construction material of a piece of gravel is set to be 1 kg gravel,Gatling manufactures 1 kg of material,players can use 1 kg of gravel ore to build a gravel island or a Gatling.
Let me correct the translation,矿（mine）and 地雷（mine）english translation is same.I mean setting up a mining area on a map is not deploying mines.
The author must have played with the Slay the Spire. I don't think the card rewards for Slay the Spire are very suitable for this game,so I put forward the suggestion of using minerals to build islands and weapons.
我真的很喜欢这个游戏，如果你能有更多的语言，特别是中国。
Translated message (with Google Translate):
Hi there!
Support for multiple languages will probably be in the game, but it will not be anytime soon due to the fact that the game is still very much in its alpha stage. The entire gameplay experience hasn't been fully developed yet.
I hope you are still able to mostly get the hang of the game and still enjoy it!
Translated message(with Google Translate):
嗨，您好！
游戏可能会支持多种语言，但由于游戏仍处于alpha阶段，因此不会很快。 整个游戏体验尚未完全开发。
我希望你仍然能够主要掌握游戏并仍然享受它！
好
when will the next update come?
i love this game as hell but once i complete it there is nothing to do.also add survival made and more realms
Hi there!
I'm working on these updates as fast as I can.
With regards for there being nothing to do, I have a solution in one of these next upcoming updates. Its gonna be a massive change that will make the game a whole lot more replayable. This game is currently in its alpha phase so there are a lot more cool changes to come!
Thanks for your support and patience through these updates!
sure thanks!!!!!
Hey!! I downloaded the mac version on my Early 2015 MacBook Pro with Mojave 10.14.1 It showed that the disk was damaged and did not open up....
And I cant seem to talk in the discord server.......
Hello!
The game seems to have problems running on the 2015 MacBook Pros. I'm not exactly sure what the cause is but you can try downloading it with another browser or updating your OS (but you are updated to Mojave so this is for all the other people with this problem).
If you haven't yet, you can also try typing this in your terminal:
What this does is allows apps downloaded from anywhere, as this option was removed from the security and privacy settings a while back.
Hope this helps!
Hi! I downloaded windows 10 using bootcamp and now it works perfectly. THANX! :) ps. very cool profile pic
really need to increase floatron spawn rate. if you dont get lucky and find one there is no way to progress
Hi there!
I am changing the movement calculations for speed and acceleration so that you will not need so many floatrons as the game progresses. This will also make it so that your maximum speed can be increased simply by adding more thrust. These changes will be in the next update.
However, floatrons will always be sold in shops! This slightly reduces the RNG and of course, you can always try to forge them.
Thanks for the feedback! I will keep an eye on the floatron drop rate as more and more modules are added to the game.
wow, thanks for a quick and clear answer!
is there a sandbox mode? if so i haven't found it and if it is after the final boss then that sucks
Hello!
There is a super secret sandbox in the game, and it doesn't require you to edit the save file or anything strange like that. Simply hold the space bar while creating a new game until the transition to the map is complete and voila, items for days. As the game developer though, I will warn you that playing the sandbox takes the fun out of discovering new items in the game and figuring out what they do. But, chances are you have probably already found all the new items since it looks like you've been playing for a while and gotten to the final boss.
Hope this answered the question and enjoy!
Thanks *nose knock*
飞行速度的计算让我很头疼,拥有很多喷射器但是速度很难提上去,建议更改一下飞行速度计算公式,提高一下道具的掉落几率.
Original Message translated with Google Translate and a couple edits:
Hello there,I don't speak Chinese but I have Google translate and a friend helped me a bit. From what I am hearing, it seems like there are two issues here. Firstly, that acceleration is too slow and you have a hard time finding floatrons (ejectors). Secondly, that the drop rate for floatrons are too low and the drop chance should be increased.
I have made some changes to address the first issue coming in the next update. I am still playing around with the exact numbers but I have changed the way the calculations for speed and acceleration are handled. Firstly, the acceleration in now only based on mass and thrust. It used to also account in maximum speed but that has been removed. The second change is that maximum speed takes into shape as well as thrust. These changes have been good for both the players and the enemies you are fighting against.
With regard to the drop rate of floatrons, I feel that they are in the right spot after making the changes. I'm not sure if you are aware, but every shop will always contain a floatron. That might help you for now.
Thanks for your feedback!
Google Translate:
你好，
我不会说中文，但我有谷歌翻译，一位朋友帮了我一点。从我所听到的情况来看，这里似乎有两个问题。首先，加速度太慢，你很难找到floatrons（喷射器）。其次，浮子的下降率太低，应该增加掉落几率。
我已经做了一些更改来解决下一次更新中的第一个问题。我仍在使用确切的数字，但我已经改变了处理速度和加速度计算的方式。首先，现在的加速度仅基于质量和推力。它过去也考虑了最高速度，但已被删除。第二个变化是最大速度变形和推力。这些变化对玩家和你正在对抗的敌人都有好处。
关于浮子的掉落率，我觉得它们在做出改变之后就处于正确的位置。我不确定你是否知道，但每家商店都会包含一个floatron。这对你现在可能有所帮助。
感谢您的反馈意见！
Could you give more freedom with the keybinds? Being required to control movement and firing with your left feels clunky when you're aiming with your right. Or, instead of more keybind freedom, make the default key for firing left mouse button.
Hello! One of the improvements on my TODO list for the next update is to give the game a quick help menu that can be pulled up with the F1 key (from what I've heard, this the default help key). Reason for this, is that there is actually a system for firing with the mouse, its just a little wonky.
The current system I have in place is that the left mouse button fires only your selected groups. Groups can be selected by left clicking on the appropriate groups down at the bottom of the screen. Selected groups will show all of the weapons in that specific group. The fire all key used to be ~, but that has since been changed to the right mouse button. The reason for the weapon selection is that I wanted to give players the option to fire their core weapons (the ones that primarily deal damage) without having to fire everything. That way you can have all your core weapons in a single group, select it in battle, and only fire those without having to fire your flares or wind weapons at the same time.
I think the main problem with this system is that it takes a lot of work to go and select groups to fire since they are already fixable with the key binds.
That being said, if nobody knows about the controls, it probably means that the controls are not intuitive enough. I have plans to make a weapon group visualise tab in the editor(like the shop or forge tabs, but to toggle settings like autofire/selection before the battle). Eventually(not sure when, hopefully soon) I will get around to implementing editable hotkeys, which is great. but still won't solve all of these problems.
I would love to hear more of your feedback in the discord, especially on your suggestions for the firing system!
Thank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate comments like this.
Thank you for your quick and thorough reply!
When i wanth to extract or open the folder it said that it have nothing in, please help me
Hi! Could you provide me with a few more details so that I can better assist you with this problem? For example which Windows/Mac version you are on and what tool you are trying to extract it with would be great. You can also join the Discord server where we have a great community of people who would be willing to help you more and probably have more experience with dealing with these types of issues.
Hope to fix your problem!
could you pls decrease the difficulty of the final boss?????
i was burning through every enemy and boss but the final boss is just waaaaay too hard bro.by the time i got through the first 3 layers from any side the final boss would have literally cut my island in 2!!!!
Hello!
Yes, the boss is difficult. In fact, you can even say it is impossible. Every time I design the final boss I make it really hard. In fact, there seem to be a small handful of people that find clever ways to beat the boss in almost every single update (I have yet to check for this one, but I am pretty sure someone is gonna do it without using the sandbox).
Even though it is probably a bad decision to make the final boss incredibly impossible, what comes after the final boss is so amazing that most people will agree that not many people should get to see it. I'm just kidding. There really is nothing after the final boss, thats why he's so difficult to beat. Or is there? I'm just trolling now, I shall stop.
But you never know when there will be something rewarding after it. Just saying.
Anyways, thanks for the info, I still want the final boss to be difficult and not just a walk in the park like you experienced with all the other enemies (i guess I made the game a little too easy?).
Thanks for the feedback!
Hey there! The idea is that guns rotate at a speed where you will need to plan where you are moving and aim accordingly. While they might not be the fastest beasts, there is a new legendary tech called the servo motor which increases the weapon turning speed.
Thanks for the feedback!
I do not know if it's just me but in the loot of battles the chance to come a float is very small, and this is annoying me please if this is a bug solve, now if it is bad luck my patience. Another suggestion is when you win a battle there is a fixed amount of gold that comes from reward and you can choose to increase with the loot.
Hello! While the chances to get a floatron from battle are small, every shop will always contain a block, a weapon, a module, a tech, and a floatron. Sometimes it may have 2 or more floatrons if the module you get is a floatron as well.
Because of the sheer number of items in the game, the chances of getting floatrons are decreasing, and so I hope that balancing this out with some consistency in the shop helps a lot.
Also, the fixed amount of gold idea isn't a bad one and has been suggested before.
Thanks for the feedback!
plz make a version for linux
Hello! In terms of future ports, the linux is the next port I will be adding. It could still be a while though before I start working on the linux port though, so I wouldn't hold my breath. That being said, I will try to add it once the game is in a more stable position as well.
Thanks for the request!
tnx
OMG THANK FOR THE QUICK PATCH!!!!!
and i thought it was just me who sucked at this game lol
You are very welcome! I'm glad this makes the game a lot better. Sorry that the previous version was too difficult!
Cheers!
I really liked the game but now with the new update it is hard so navigate in battle , it is also wayy to zoomed out for me i cant tell where bullets are flying anf the islands look really small.
Hey there! You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. It shouldn't be inverted but it might be a possibility. Thanks for the info that the camera can sometimes ba too small. I will bear this in mind as I am working on quality of life improvements for the next update.
Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoy this new update!
Whenever I visit the forge and put in obsidian the game freezes and I cant close it, any suggestions
Unfortunately, it is a bug in the game right now where certain items will freeze the game. I am working on a fix for the next update. Could you tell me the exact recipe so that I can double check to make sure it is fixed? Thanks for your help!
I am so sorry, a discord bot I was working on had it's token leaked and so someone exploited this and deleted the server. I am so sorry about the images. I will make sure that this never happens again.
Once again, I am so sorry for this.
Join the new server here: https://discord.gg/g6359na.
ouch, well I ended up cancelling my report to trust and safety, but the bot was banned from a few servers I moderate.. well thanks for replying!
The application/bot has been deleted since it has been compromised.
Discord server was raided by a bot, I was dm'd nsfw by it and then it banned me from the server. Already took action and reported the bot to trust and safety team.
heres the bot's name:
I am so sorry, a discord bot I was working on had it's token leaked and so someone exploited this and deleted the server. I am so sorry about the images. I will make sure that this never happens again.
Once again, I am so sorry for this.
That was my bot unfortunately. It has been compromised and i will be deleting it.
i cant join the discord, can someone help
(fixed)
I am so sorry, a discord bot I was working on had it's token leaked and so someone exploited this and deleted the server. I am so sorry about the images. I will make sure that this never happens again.
Once again, I am so sorry for this.
When is the next update?
The next update is gonna be pretty massive and it is still a ways from being done. This is just an estimate but hopefully before the end of the month.