A few suggestoins Thread - SONAR

1. I see what you did with the start screen, you have to play it by ear to see whether you are on New Game, Continue, Credits, or Quit, kind of neat but I still think you should have the selected option lit up so you know for sure which is selected.

2. Game Over screen, there should be one, rather than just taking you back to the starting screen.

3. Multiple save slots perhaps.

4. Controller support. Not completely necessary, but I do prefer using my 360 controller when I can.

5. More oxygen / oxygen refill areas. The game is a lot of exploring and hiding, which takes up a lot of oxygen, especially on your first play-through. My very first time playing I was at a point where I saw the exit to the 3rd level, but never did get there, I ran out of air. I was lost a lot, hiding and dying a lot, looking for the best routes.

That's all I got for now. Great game, like I said in other topics, enjoying it a lot

Thanks for your thoughts! I will try to answer/comment them:

solipants wrote: 1. I see what you did with the start screen, you have to play it by ear to see whether you are on New Game, Continue, Credits, or Quit, kind of neat but I still think you should have the selected option lit up so you know for sure which is selected.

This sounds strange to me, because there should be highlighting in the menu. I implemented it! Maybe there is an error in displaying... Does anyone else has this problem?

solipants wrote: 2. Game Over screen, there should be one, rather than just taking you back to the starting screen.

You may be right on this one. There could be a possibility to tell an additional sentence or two. Like "You died of suffaction".

solipants wrote: 3. Multiple save slots perhaps.

Well, you save every time you touch a questionmark, so it could be pretty irritating if there would be a save slot selection box or something popping up. There could be buttons attached to the text boxes shown giving you the option to save in a different slot. But I don't really know if I would like that to see... What do others think about this?

solipants wrote: 4. Controller support. Not completely necessary, but I do prefer using my 360 controller when I can.

Yeah. That's a good one. Only problem is: I am broke as hell and don't have one on my own to test.

solipants wrote: 5. More oxygen / oxygen refill areas. The game is a lot of exploring and hiding, which takes up a lot of oxygen, especially on your first play-through. My very first time playing I was at a point where I saw the exit to the 3rd level, but never did get there, I ran out of air. I was lost a lot, hiding and dying a lot, looking for the best routes.

Okay, here I disagree. But due to the fact several people came up with that issue (which I expected) I probably should comment on this. I am aware of the suffocation being somehow frustrating. I played Uplink by Introversion a lot and it was very frustrating every time the feds catched me and my account was closed. This always was the time when I put Uplink aside for some months thinking "Hell, this sucks!" On the other hand I think this is one of the best features of Uplink, because it does a lot to really give you the feeling of being this hacker and therefore increasing immersion. Sure, SONAR is a different game and dying here is another thing because you can't really avoid that with your actions. But that's a point: It's a game about dying slowly. Taking away the overall threat of the game by giving the chance of refill the oxygen or giving him too much of it would probably weaken the whole experience, I think.

Does anyone else has oppinions about these points?

P.S.: Thanks for your compliment and it's great that you like the game

Someone wrote: This sounds strange to me, because there should be highlighting in the menu. I implemented it! Maybe there is an error in displaying... Does anyone else has this problem?

Honest, it doesn't for me. You're post made me double check to make sure I'm not crazy, nothing highlights I pretty much have to guess what option I have selected.

Someone wrote: Well, you save every time you touch a questionmark, so it could be pretty irritating if there would be a save slot selection box or something popping up. There could be buttons attached to the text boxes shown giving you the option to save in a different slot. But I don't really know if I would like that to see... What do others think about this?

Perhaps this one isn't completely necessary, as you are right, I don't know how you would implement it now.

Someone wrote: Yeah. That's a good one. Only problem is: I am broke as hell and don't have one on my own to test.

Cyber Monday!!

As for the oxygen thing. I understand, it just seems as though it is impossible to beat the game on your first playthrough due to the lack of oxygen. Like I said I made it to stage 3, almost 4 before I ran out the first time, and how many stages are there? I'm thinking quite a few more. I'm in the same spot now actually, Sacrifice is the checkpoint in stage 3, pretty much surrounded by bad guys but the exit is right above me!

How about this idea: different difficulties. Easy mode - oxygen refills after every exit, perhaps not completely, but a good chunk anyways. Also enemies are dumber. Normal - maybe you get a little more oxygen after each stage, enemies stay as are. Hard mode - oxygen depletes quicker, enemies smarter.

I know it's not really realistic, but if you think about it, it could be. The explanation could be, perhaps the character calms down after finding the exit and manages to conserve some oxygen, therefore it refills a bit. I don't know, just throwing it out there.

solipants wrote: Cyber Monday!!

solipants wrote: How about this idea: different difficulties. Easy mode - oxygen refills after every exit, perhaps not completely, but a good chunk anyways. Also enemies are dumber. Normal - maybe you get a little more oxygen after each stage, enemies stay as are. Hard mode - oxygen depletes quicker, enemies smarter.

Hmmm.... nice and simple. Good idea!

solipants wrote: I'm in the same spot now actually, Sacrifice is the checkpoint in stage 3, pretty much surrounded by bad guys but the exit is right above me!

Oh, yeah. There are three ways to beat that level. You took the fastest and hardest one

About the highlight in the menu: it's dependent on the monitor color representation. Depending on the hardware it might be more or less visible. On my current old CRT monitor it switches from cyan to a little lighter cyan. On many (low quality) LCD's (like the majority that have a cheap and popular TF matrix) it might not be a visible change. Maybe make the options a bit darker and make them highlight to white (#FFFFFF)? This would certainly be a lot more visible on a majority of displays.

For controller support you can easily use any app for binding keyboard to controllers. Since the game doesn't use a mouse it's simple to do this.

Also please don't make this game any easier - I don't know what everybody is whining about - I managed to get through the first level after 3 or 4 deaths quite easily. Yeah, I'm also a fan of Super Meat Boy ;-).

Edited by: cyberkiller40

Aw yeah, just got through stage 5 without any trouble. Either an easier stage or perhaps I'm getting a little better at the game.

Someone wrote: About the highlight in the menu: it's dependent on the monitor color representation.

My monitor is relatively new, nothing big or fancy but yeah. The option selected in the menu screen may actually change, but I don't see it because I am partially colorblind to be honest. It just needs to be a more drastic change, make the option selected glow more and brighter, cause as it is now, I still don't see a change.

Someone wrote: For controller support you can easily use any app for binding keyboard to controllers. Since the game doesn't use a mouse it's simple to do this.

You absolutely could, but it's always nice to have the option in the menu, saves you that couple minutes of setting it up and binding it yourself.

Someone wrote: Also please don't make this game any easier - I don't know what everybody is whining about - I managed to get through the first level after 3 or 4 deaths quite easily. Yeah, I'm also a fan of Super Meat Boy ;-).

I hope I'm not coming off as a whiner. I admit I had a rough start with this game, only making it to stage 3 before running out of oxygen. I'm already almost twice as far with a good chunk of oxygen left, so yeah, if I came across as whiny earlier I take some of it back. I still do think some some different difficulties would be nice though like I stated above.

Also, when you said you managed you make it through the first level in just 3 or 4 deaths, what do you mean by that exactly? I'm sure you're not talking the first stage/exit. Just curious, how many exits are in a level?

Lastly, yeah, pretty big Super Meat Boy fan myself.

solipants wrote: Also, when you said you managed you make it through the first level in just 3 or 4 deaths, what do you mean by that exactly? I'm sure you're not talking the first stage/exit. Just curious, how many exits are in a level?

I take it when I get to a place marked "exit" then I finish a level, there's no clear indication of a "level" in the game other than that. Anyway I feel the difficulty is just right, even more because it's nearly only dependant on the player skill level (no randomness).

Edited by: cyberkiller40

The oxygen setup also defies some of the in-game logic. Can't smell the outside world if you're living on tanked air.

aiyel wrote: The oxygen setup also defies some of the in-game logic. Can't smell the outside world if you're living on tanked air.

The mask you were has a scifi nano filter system which protects you from poisonous gases and other biohazards but also allows you to smell (via smell emulation). The oxygen value is the clean oxygen left, provided by the filter