RPGDX > Forums > Off Topic > Frenetic Plus is complete.

Sirocco · Mage Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 345

Frenetic Plus is a total remake and massive expansion of Frenetic, a shooter I released last December. This is a huuuuuuuuuuge improvement over the original in every way, and I'm quite happy to say I'm through with it.

Enjoy!

Frenetic Plus v1.0f

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js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

O_O
This is hands down THE best Indie-game I have EVER played.
I'm talking SNES quality.
You could sell this to nintendo for the GBA.
Seriously.
I want you on my team soo badly...
You are just purely leet.

Adam · Mage Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Posts: 416 Location: Australia

If i may ask for features :D

A seperate strafle left and right button would be real nice.

And support for joypads with higher button counts would also be nice. As i hacked a playsation controller over to my pc and the game only detects the 1st four buttons, which are the sholder buttons.
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BigManJones · Scholar Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 196

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

I can dream, can't I?
=P

BigManJones · Scholar Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 196

Well, I played it and it is ... amazing to say the least. Well done!

Ironshanks · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 1:39 am Post subject:

This game rules!
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Ninkazu · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 1:51 am Post subject:

Is it me, or does that game HAUL ASS!

Bjorn · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 11:57 pm Post subject:

A great game! I've played it now until I just finished the first boss figure, and it's starting to get a bit difficult (for me, at least). I see you released it as final, but still I'd like to point out 4 issues I had with the game, though they did not effect gameplay in any significant manner:

At missile select, information is shown even if the missile isn't available yet.
Drones in training shot at me while the introduction said they would not.
One press on down sometimes makes menu selection go down twice.
It was kinda annoying to get 'stuck' on the contour of the hand. A bit of sliding would be nice, or at least when walking NW, SW, SE or NE.

Now I'm off to play the game some more. :-)

Sirocco · Mage Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 345

Ick, been gone on a business trip for the past month :( Good to finally be home.

Any way, glad to see you guys enjoyed the game; it was a blast making it ^.^ Now I've gotta work up a patch to address some minor issues with the game. Gamepads don't seem to work well under the Win32 port. Ooooooops.

There are some GUI oopsies, like the down arrows being a little "sticky", and sometimes showing info that doesn't belong. And yes, after mission 9 (the first boss battle) the game's difficulty level begins to rise substantially, so start aggressively harvesting C.L.A.Y. so you can afford those oh-so-precious suit upgrades and weapons!

I've been working on FB: Cry Havoc this month, and things are shaping up nicely. It definitely don't be finished in time for Christmas (DaMn!), but the features have been improved substantially, so expect something nice when it's ready to go.

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BigManJones · Scholar Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 196

This guys perseverance is unreal. And we benefit from it.

WOOHOO!!!

XMark · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:08 am Post subject:

Excellent game, and very reflective of its name. I got past the first boss dude but now I keep getting scragged by those fast-moving bastards firing missiles at me. You know which ones I'm talking about, you sadistic developer you. :)

Anyway, Any game that gets my heart-rate rising like this one is in my good books :)

Now to the bugs/suggestions:

I agree, the game could do with two extra keys to strafe left and right, since I am strafing for >50% of the game to avoid enemy fire (not to mention fast-moving-bastard missile fire). Also, when I was re-assigning keys I noticed that the S key and the C key cause the game to pause while the key is held down, even when actions have been assigned to them. And when I first saved my game, when I loaded it the music and sound were set to zero and I had to go and raise them again.

EDIT:

Oh, by the way, when you got the bugs fixed up, port this sucker to GBA and get some CA$H! I command you :)
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Sirocco · Mage Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 345

Yep, it's hard. Just wait until you see the seven challenge missions!

I was worried I made it too hard, but I'm convinced it's just right. I haven't heard any reports of people throwing controllers or monitors, or going into convulsions from excessive frustration while playing, so I'm assuming things turned out fine.

Ahhh... the S and C keys were used in the developer version of the game, but are disabled otherwise -- I'm assuming that's why they would behave that way when remapped. Thanks for letting me know. That problem probably plagues every game/demo I've made... whoops.

The sound/music volume stuff is indicative of how I load games, and should be addressed in the v1.1 patch, coming whenever the hell I find time to finish it. Wheeeeeeee......!

As for l/r strafe keys, they won't go in because it totally changes the flight model in a way I don't agree with. I've provided a proper explanation for all the design choices in the Post Production Notes, soon to be posted as quickly as I can redesign the site ^.^ I can see where you're coming from, but it's strictly a design choice.

I've found that having a fast firing weapon helps shoot down missiles before they get near me, so I normally play with a Condor, using a ripper, steel halo (or nullifier), and wasps. That way, I have heavy armor to staying power, a rapid-fire weapon for taking out incoming rockets/missiles, and a huge supply of missiles for softening up heavy suits.

Make sure you spend some C.L.A.Y. on suit upgrades. The armor upgrades are obviously a necessity, but pod actuators and vector thrust will also come in handy for the heavier suits.

Hey, glad you're enjoying the game. I had a blast making it :)

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UscGradEray · Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:34 am Post subject:

For the fast suits (Sharks, if I remember), I gave up on aiming at them. Instead, I watched the angle they were firing from to see when they were circling closely (when they're close, the angle changes rapidly). When they're close, I would release all my Steel Halos, instantly killing them.

Once I found that trick, the fast suits went from being major obstacles to being flies I could swat at will. And I don't think I was very good at the game.
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janus · Mage Joined: 29 Jun 2002 Posts: 464 Location: Issaquah, WA

I tried enabling the gamepad and binding a button but once I selected one the game was basically locked. Hitting my joystick buttons wouldn't do anything and I had to alt-f4 it.

Also, for some reason holding down Cancel while I'm fighting makes the game stop redrawing until I let go of it, and then it skips some frames.

I also experience extremely bad intermittent lag while playing, and when the lag occurs my secondary monitor usually flickers, so it seems like the game is doing something funky.

Edit: oops, heh, I bound Cancel to S, that probably explains that one.

I have a few complaints with this game - for one, holding down more than 3 or 4 keys at once makes no other keys work. This really, really sucks. That means you can't, say, fire while strafing. If I could use my joypad, that wouldn't be so bad, but it doesn't work in FP.

Missles don't show up on radar, which is totally dumb. It makes it extremely difficult to avoid them, which is annoying since they deal so much damage to you. The fact that you can't see behind you to check for missles or have any warning, and that you don't see them on radar makes it really hard to avoid them.

I would really find the game much easier to play if the perspective was a little lower. As it is, it's almost impossible to see my enemies unless they are right next to me.

The way new waves of enemies suddenly appear is not only jarring, but it's cheap. Why not have them fly in from the distance or just fade in? It ruins the immersion for me and also often puts me in a tight spot that I wasn't in 500 milliseconds ago.

FP also likes to randomly forget what keys I have chosen for input (mainly before I've loaded my game). It would be a lot easier to navigate the menus if you made it remember my controls as soon as it starts; that or only after I've loaded my game. As it stands, it loads them once I select a menu item, or something. It's kind of hard to tell.

Sound effects could definitely stand to drop in volume based on distance from the player. Definitely. As it is, I hear full-volume shots when enemies are a mile away. A bit distracting.

I really like what you've done here though; this is a fun little game, and if you solve some of the issues with the controls and perspective and such, I would consider it to be worth paying for (not a lot, though - I don't see this game as having much replay value, not unless you really polish it up and add a lot more interesting stuff to it.)

I would love to play this game using my Dual Shock. Left stick to strafe, right stick to rotate... top triggers for missle lock and boost... that would be a lot nicer than using the keyboard. Fix the joystick support, and maybe allow us to bind the x/y axes please please? :D