ClonesGame.com Forums

[rt]

Yeah, the games from two days ago were really fun; cooperative gameplay is a really nice aspect, especially when communicating over voice.

That was one of the first features added, since we began testing Clones a long time ago at LAN parties and we wanted everyone to be able to play

The multiverse match is pretty difficult to keep track of, especially the more players are participating. Frequently switching the view seems to be the key to this level, not merely being focused on saving your own group.

Yes it gets almost unmanageable with more than 2 players when trying to sabotage effectively. However, the use of sabotage clones is optional for this game mode (a server option) and if the sabotage clones are disabled then this level becomes purely a race to beam up your clones faster than all other opponents (just like a CloneMaster Battle). This option was broken in the current beta, but i've fixed it in the next version so we can test it out in the future.

but being able to remove blockers like that is really an improvement for the gameplay.

I've updated the default so that opponent doppels will shatter when you go nova. I think that is the most fair.

kinda learned how useful the atomizers actually are

Everyone that we show the game to seems to like the atomizers It's a very flexible morph.

I noticed a graphical bug when viewing replays, the background textures only get displayed onces they're fully (or mostly) on the screen

Noted. Will be fixed in next version.

A minor issue in the replay menu is also that the replay names tend to be pretty long, thus the short field cuts off the end of the name, making many replays indistinguishable merely from that. Same applies for special keys in the key setting menu.

We are redesigning the level-selection screen to be more friendly. The keybinding screen has been updated in the next version.

The death count display is not reset when you restart a level....Not sure whether it's intended, but when you return from the pilgrimage to the main menu, the music keeps playing until you press e.g. the options button, or enter and exit the networking menu.

Fixed in next version.

I attached my solution btw, just in case you're interested. Sure can still be improved upon

Good job. I increased the number of morphs available to allow players more options to find different paths to the exit.

I have fixed the problem with the crash for 3 players in the Multiverse Match mode in the next version also. Thanks for all the detailed feedback!

[rt]

The four included multiplayer maps are good fun. The 8 player map is probably a bit imbalanced when played with 3 players, but it hasn't hampered my enjoyment in any way yet. There is so much room for unique player interaction because of the different gravities.

This is good to hear. While i think the gravities are an important feature in Clones i was a bit concerned that this level might be too confusing for some players. It's nice to know that at least the players familiar with Lemmings should enjoy it

The cage match allows for several routes for the caged clones to the bottom, so you can make threads to your opponent in many different ways

There is a bug in the current demo that allows the caged clones to face a random direction when they are freed, but i've corrected it in the next build so that the 3 on the left will go right, and the 3 on the right will go left. This should provide more consistent gameplay and strategy.

I love the skill, and on the 8 player map, geoo and me ran out of atomizers several times.

It's one of my favorites too. If you Puff before atomizing a faller then there will be more body to convert into particles.

The lopped balls fly with a rather low framerate compared to anything else.

The lopped heads movement are tied to the logical update (~90ms), but perhaps we can interpolate it's position to make it appear to move more smoothly.

Directional selection will be a great addition.

I've added this. It's an extension to the queued morphs feature. Currently if you give a faller a Mold morph they will remember it and perform the mold as soon as they land on the ground. Now you can tell any clone to perform a new morph when they are facing a certain direction and they will remember it and perform the morph when they turn around. One question now is should there be a time limit on this directional morph queue? e.g. should the clone forget the queued morph if they do not turn around after 5 seconds? Currently the clone will remember the morph forever.

When right-clicking in order to scroll, the right-click was on a clone a few times. In that case, the decoration menu opens and prevents me from scrolling.

Yes i've found that too. I think decorations will be disabled from right-click.

Thanks for the feedback!

[tiffy8]

Hello! Myself and a friend played part of the demo yesterday. My friend is an avid gamer and made some great suggestions and observations. I thought it would be good to have a fresh set of eyes check it out. He said it looked very 'polished' and was impressed with the overall look. First impressions/suggestions:

Possible Bugs: When attempting to play the first level McAfee virus scanner popped up wanting to block access. The levels would not load until we confirmed not to block it. This seemed strange and confusing to us since it was just loading a level.

Frustrations:
On Tutorial Tower my friend became frustrated when the morphs disappeared when collecting new ones. Two groups of Clones formed, one of which got stuck because all the morphs disappeared. He felt that a long tutorial level like this one should help the player along, not allow them to get stuck by taking away their abilities.
Also, the text bubbles covered up large areas of the level. He would have liked to have them either outside of the building or have the ability to close them.
In the screen resolution options, we noticed that there was an 8:5 resolution. While 8:5 is technically correct, it's generally referred to as 16:10 (most PC widescreen monitors are 16:10, while most HDTV's are 16:9). This difference may cause confusion.

Suggestions: My friend wanted to press the Esc key and have the choice to close the level. He didn't know where to find the exit. Perhaps Esc could drop down the Options Menu.

[rt]

Hi Tiff! Thanks for the feedback!

Possible Bugs: When attempting to play the first level McAfee virus scanner popped up wanting to block access. The levels would not load until we confirmed not to block it. This seemed strange and confusing to us since it was just loading a level.

This is probably due to a firewall. Clones uses a network connection to iteself when playing a level so it could be that, or it could be the outgoing connection to our stats server. This cannot be avoided.

On Tutorial Tower my friend became frustrated when the morphs disappeared when collecting new ones. Two groups of Clones formed, one of which got stuck because all the morphs disappeared. He felt that a long tutorial level like this one should help the player along, not allow them to get stuck by taking away their abilities.

Yes it's a tricky situation here. We want to teach the player how to use each morph, but we don't want to add 10 levels to the demo so we're trying to do it all in one level. If we allow the morphs to stay then the player may not use the intended morph to get to the next level thus defeating the purpose and not learning about the new morph. Please tell me where in the level they got stuck (take a screenshot if possible) and how they got into that state. I should be able to tweak the level to prevent most of these cases.

Also, the text bubbles covered up large areas of the level. He would have liked to have them either outside of the building or have the ability to close them.

Again, tricky stuff. If the voice bubbles are outside of the tower then either a scroll is required to read them or the camera has to zoom out which makes it harder to read. We tried to setup this level so that the player never has to pan or zoom, it will all happen automatically. But perhaps we can move some of them, please specify the worst offenders and we'll see what we can do.
If we let the player click to close the voice bubbles there is the chance they will not read the message or close by accident. Nearly every message is important in this first level. All of the voice bubbles are set to close automatically. If any didn't close or somehow got in the way please let me know which ones (screenshot if possible). Thanks!

In the screen resolution options, we noticed that there was an 8:5 resolution. While 8:5 is technically correct, it's generally referred to as 16:10

Good point, fixed in the next version.

Suggestions: My friend wanted to press the Esc key and have the choice to close the level. He didn't know where to find the exit. Perhaps Esc could drop down the Options Menu.

Makes sense. I've enabled this in the next version. Thanks again! If you have a chance try out the multiplayer and let us know how it feels to you.

[tom]

Possible Bugs: When attempting to play the first level McAfee virus scanner popped up wanting to block access. The levels would not load until we confirmed not to block it. This seemed strange and confusing to us since it was just loading a level.

Seem like this is a known McAfee bug. Clones uses the loopback interface (127.0.0.1) for its functionality, and this network address should be trusted by all firewalls. The windows default firewall is configured to trust this address. We can't really do much about it other than perhaps include it in the troubleshooting section in the manual.

[tom]

Clones Demo - v 0.84 Beta - Mar 6, 2010
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This is our THIRD release of the demo version of Clones and we've fixed many issues since last week. Thanks everyone who has provided us with feedback to date. Here is a summary of what has changed:

- Directional force on clone selection and morphing
- Level editor video added
- Firewall check when hosting a multiplayer match
- Improved the level selection screen with filtering capabilities
- Many bug fixes, and tweaks to gameplay


Known Issues:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
- Auto installer will fail if you installed from version 0.83
- The stats pages on the website are not fully completed.
- Port forwarding is required to host a game
- Demo download size is large


Thanks,
- The Clones Development Team

[DjinnGuru]

Hi guys,

Just playing the latest release on a different pc and experienced
repeated crashes. I'm not able to find a cache folder in this
release to send the " Clones Demo\Cache\Log\Client.txt and Server.txt files"

What's the proper move? I'm on a new windows 7 install, but I play at home on XP.
I changed folder options to show all folders, but no go.

Just wondering what to do, as this crash is repeating. I got through the
opening cinematic on a fresh Clones install and played the Tutorial Tower no
problems. After linking to stats and coming back into game I tried returning
to the CM menu to switch to Gofo and had the first crash. Now I start the
game and crash right away each time.

EDIT: Okay it's not happening every time, but often, and it seems to be
triggered by clicking on CM buttons.

DG

[tom]

Just playing the latest release on a different pc and experienced
repeated crashes. I'm not able to find a cache folder in this
release to send the " Clones Demo\Cache\Log\Client.txt and Server.txt files"

Windows Vista and Windows 7 store the files in a virtual directory under the user's account. Look under: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Clones Demo for the log files. The fact that it is crashing so often is a bit of a concern, so any information that you can provide would be helpful. We haven't really done a lot of testing with Vista or Windows 7, so maybe there is some compatibility issue. Can you please provide the specs of the computer system that is experiencing these crashes (cpu, video, audio, ram, OS with service pack version,etc).

EDIT: Okay it's not happening every time, but often, and it seems to be
triggered by clicking on CM buttons.

Are you referring to the CM buttons at the bottom of the screen on the Clones planet interface?

[DjinnGuru]

Apologies, I should have known better than to post
about crashes without listing system specs.

Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit os
Intel pentium 4 cpu 3.00GHz
4.00 GB RAM (3.25 GB usable)

NVidia GeForce 6600gt

I got this info over the phone and wasn't able to
ascertain if the pc has a soundcard, sounded like
it might be using onboard sound.

I will try to get back there soon and grab log files.

I was referring to the square CM picture icons, I wasn't interacting
with the planet itself when it happened.
Although later it did happen once using the back button (top left)
to change menus.

This was not a game play issue, it only happened in the menus.
When I originally posted I had had a few crashes in a row.
Later I did manage to move around the menus quite a bit without crashing,
so this is something intermittent.

[tom]

Thanks for getting back to me on this. Those intermittent issues are the most difficult to find. Hopefully the log files will hope narrow down the problem some more. When it crashed was it always on the planet interface? If so, I can try an automated test case that navigates the planet interface repeatedly until it crashes on my workstation.