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No inertia?
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Poll Result
  Would controls be better with or without inertia?  
 
Better Without inertia
45%
 45%  [ 5 ]
Better With (as before)
54%
 54%  [ 6 ]
 
  Total Votes : 11  

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Fost
Pod Team
Pod Team


Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 3734



PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:48 am    Post subject: No inertia? Reply with quote

I asked a few developers for feedback on how they thought the demo performed in helping new people get into the game. Developers are great because they have game dev insight, but also because they are pressed for time - so anything that requires too much thought will turn them off instantly. Smile

One of the things they mentioned was the controls being difficult to get used to and feeling 'muddy' or 'sloppy' at the start. I wondered if this was inertia, so I built a 'no-inertia' patch. Of course, then I realised that the best people to try this would be Mr. Robot players themselves!

If you'd like to try it, grab this file:

http://www.moonpod.com/board/images/misc/MrRobot.002

and put it in the root of your install dir.

I'd appreciate any thoughts from both new and expert Mr robot players alike.
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Agrajag



Joined: 04 Aug 2006
Posts: 342



PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think while inertia may make it a bit more difficult for new users to get into the game (and makes some sections of the game slightly more challenging), it makes the game seem more "real". And once you've played for a few minutes you get used to the inertia.

Although the inertia makes it very hard IMO to use the mouse controls. Maybe yes inertia for keyboard and no inertia for mouse? That would probably make things even more confusing though.
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Fost
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Agrajag wrote:
That would probably make things even more confusing though.


Yeah, you don't want to mix things, or have things as options. even if you did, the problem is what do you set the default to?

I must admit, I don't know what to think myself - the game was inertia free in development for a long time, and I remember it being weird when it went in, but now it's weird without it. I guess you just get used to it. Would be nice to hear from some newer users, but there probably aren't going to be any people on the forum who have never tried the demo and will read this and use the patch.

Obviously, we can set a bit of inertia, this is just the extreme case without any. another issue reported by new users is the fact that the sliding makes pushing blocks harder as you can tend to overpush them. Perhaps we could try some acceleration, but fast stopping?
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Weeble
Starscape Jedi
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Joined: 25 Apr 2003
Posts: 1143
Location: Glasgow, Scotland



PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After playing for a short while I think I prefer this no-inertia version. My only concern would be whether it makes it easier to accidentally push crates you didn't want to, but even if it does it probably balances out by making it easier to stop yourself too. This feels like it fits the game a bit better, anyway. Asimov feels much more agile with it, which fits my perception of Asimov as compact, mobile and versatile.
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Sergenth



Joined: 01 Jan 2006
Posts: 54



PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only thing I don't like about the no-inertia patch is that Asimov floasts very far over the edge of any surface. I kinda miss the stress of wondering if I was about to slip off, but the main reason I don't like it is because it looks funny. I am prepared to get over that since playability should as a last resort, trump believability.

However, I have no doubt that this patch makes the game more accessible, and does make the "long jump" over two squares and up one half square easier, so much easier that I went from a ~80% success rate to a clear 100% success rate.

One thing I know I want now... a rubber bouncing floor, to tilt the challenge scale back towards action. Yes... I was holding down Ctrl and was enjoying it. Smile
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Fost
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Weeble wrote:
My only concern would be whether it makes it easier to accidentally push crates you didn't want to

Ahh yes - the reverse of stopping too slowly and moving crates too far, is starting too fast and moving crates by accident. I'm going to have another mess tweaking it I think.

Sergenth wrote:
The only thing I don't like about the no-inertia patch is that Asimov floasts very far over the edge of any surface. I kinda miss the stress of wondering if I was about to slip off, but the main reason I don't like it is because it looks funny.

Yep, although that might also be tweakable. Oddly enough, you could always do that to some extent but not whilst skidding, so maybe adding in a tiny amount of inertia will bring it back.

Rubber floor is a cool idea. Smile
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Zharmad



Joined: 25 Dec 2006
Posts: 95
Location: Sydney, Australia



PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm... I prefer inertia, or at least some sense of inertia. Even though I know the puzzles in my adventure is very difficult even for me with them on.
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Blizgerg



Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Posts: 155
Location: The Planet Stinky Socks



PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I haven't tried the no inertia patch yet but I want to say that I personally did not notice that there was inertia until someone mentioned it on the forum.

I haven't played a whole lot of games. In the past I have had enough money to get a game I wanted every other year or so. But one game that I played with my friends a lot, until we could beat every single level, was Super Mario Brothers for Super Nintendo. I think that game had a certain amount of inertia in it so I think that is why I did not notice.
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Cornhuskermac



Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Posts: 7



PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2007 2:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is no one else going to answer? This is a pretty important issue! I, personally, would not want to see future Mr. Robot incarnations (Mr. Robot 2?) lacking inertia, just because people who cared didn't care to answer this poll!
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punman



Joined: 25 Feb 2007
Posts: 54
Location: Chicago, USA



PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2007 10:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't like mr robot with no inertia. The inertia adds a lot of character to the game. It just seems wrong to be able to turn 90 degrees in mid-jump. Mabye it could be played around with - less inertia, stop-on-a-dime, no inertia while pushing blocks, but please don't take it out completely.

As mentioned above, Asimov bobbles around at the edges of ledges, which is awesome and somehow induced by inertia as he doesn't bobble in the no inertia patch. On moving walkways Asimov would kind of snap to the center of the walkway sometimes and sometimes he gets pushed off, which was annoying because it was inconsistent. This doesn't happen in the no-inertia game, which I found to be better.
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Fost
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PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2007 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

punman wrote:
As mentioned above, Asimov bobbles around at the edges of ledges, which is awesome and somehow induced by inertia as he doesn't bobble in the no inertia patch.

That's just a side effects and would obviously have to be fixed. I agree it's too snappy at the moment, and it needs some inertia, but I think perhaps there's a bit too much currently. I'm working on another patch for everyone to try out anyway.

punman wrote:
On moving walkways Asimov would kind of snap to the center of the walkway sometimes and sometimes he gets pushed off, which was annoying because it was inconsistent. This doesn't happen in the no-inertia game, which I found to be better.

Hadn't noticed that, I'll try that too, thanks.
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punman



Joined: 25 Feb 2007
Posts: 54
Location: Chicago, USA



PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2007 12:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fost wrote:

punman wrote:
On moving walkways Asimov would kind of snap to the center of the walkway sometimes and sometimes he gets pushed off, which was annoying because it was inconsistent. This doesn't happen in the no-inertia game, which I found to be better.

Hadn't noticed that, I'll try that too, thanks.


it's really noticeable when two platforms are moving together like that horrible room in Blizgerg's adventure (push push jump, room z1jump? maybe? The first room after the first save)
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Zharmad



Joined: 25 Dec 2006
Posts: 95
Location: Sydney, Australia



PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2007 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This snapping thing happens for crates too, and I have been using on that phenomenon to do some trickier things with crates.
About whether or not to fix this up, I don't quite know whether anyone required players to use this 'feature' for their user adventures.
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Fost
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PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2007 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Crate snapping is a completely separate feature that we put in so it was easier to line crates up - it's not affected by interia settings.
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Weeble
Starscape Jedi
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Joined: 25 Apr 2003
Posts: 1143
Location: Glasgow, Scotland



PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2007 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

On the topic of crate-snapping, somebody, ages ago, suggested that crates should not snap instantly, but rather slide into place, albeit quickly. Is that feasible? Crate-snapping is very important, but still looks quite ugly.

There's also a general problem of how supported objects move. If I find time I'll make a room to demonstrate. A crate can be resting 90% on a piece of floor and 10% on another crate/moving platform/conveyer belt, but will move along with that object rather than stay put. If it's partially on two different dynamic objects, I'm not sure how the game determines which one it moves with. Ideally, I think that a supported object should be moved only by the object directly underneath its center-point, except in cases where there is no object directly beneath its center-point, in which case you can pick an arbitrary supporting object or the closest one or something like that.
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