Slaryndar

[Pheonix Alugere]

Re: Slaryndar

Level 1:
Despite this being a warm up, the single way to be this level is not immediately apparent (Drop down a slime and then sit and rape anyone who comes close. Also, despite being the first level, It seems as though the there is no way to prevent all the slaryn (Or at least more than the minimum number needed to stop to win) from escaping. I would suggest that for the first 10 or so levels, make it to where it is possible to let far fewer than the limit of escaping slaryn through (As such, make it to where you only have to stop 4/8 of the slaryn in level one. I mean, come on, it's level on the first few levels are supposed to be easy so that the players can learn the game.)

Level 2:
I came across several things I would suggest you change because of this level. The first attempt I had at playing this had me moving around the level over to the Slaryn only to fail to jump across the first pit and thus become trapped.

The second time I tried level two, I was a few seconds slow. As a consequence, the Slaryn made a path up to the wall near the door and dug through, escaping. (This highlighted a second MAJOR problem: the slaryn can dig holes that the player can't fit through. This could easily hand the victory over to the enemy depending on the future levels.)

The third time I tried the level, I barely caught the slaryn before they dug the hole, and only then because I hastily jumped without checking to make sure I wouldn't fall which brings me to my last point for this level: the player is far too slow. While jumping is all fine and good for letting the player climb the cliff to the left of the door in level 1, the lack of horizontal movement with the jump means it isn't very useful for much else. I would suggest increasing the speed of the player (I mean really, the player should at least be able to out run the enemy.)

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Slaryndar

Hmmm... now that I've blitzed through all 20 levels... I'll start by giving bug reports.

• As reported, the game is not checking for zero availability of skills. I ended up getting through the last level by spamming tentacles, rather than using Freeze and Rape as intended. The image of a field of tentacles raping the Slaryndar trying to make their way through is enticing, though.
• You have a progressive memory leak bug which eventually results in unresponsive controls, 100% CPU usage, and a forced termination. It takes long enough that it's possible people won't play for that long (~50 tries at levels, or something like that?) Since you're using a gamemaker, I don't know if this is fixable.
• The HELP.RTF file appears while the game is running, then disappears when the game quits (not terminated). Why create and delete it? Create it once and leave it.
• Alt-Tabbing out of Slaryndar and moving other windows around makes the graphics "jiggly". Would it be possible to set Slaryndar to pause and minimize while not the foreground program?

More thoughts to follow after I take a break.

 

[Loli Defense Force]

Re: Slaryndar

If anyone needs the final level, just go to the game.ini (created when the game is first run) and replace where it says code= with this:
code=9nm3mgw

 

[Pheonix Alugere]

Re: Slaryndar

Level 3:
2 problems with this level.

1. The player is unable to get down to where the slaryn are until they build a bridge over to the wall of the last pillar making the ice ability useless (the slaryn will build a bridge before they reach the ice slick and by the time the slick forms anyway, the slaryn will have passed it. Essentially, the damn ability is so slow it's useless: it takes 10-15 seconds to get anywhere. My suggestion: increase the speed of the ice ability ten to twenty fold)
2. This level solves itself. The slayrn build a bridge over to the last pillar and then try and reach it to climb, but the bridge isn't long enough and they fall to their doom.

Level 4:
First question: why is there all the extra space? when I played this level, the slaryn went to the right in their small l shaped starting area, turned around, went left and climbed back up before drilling a hole down and landing five feet from the exit... something they then walked away from.
Second Question: Why can't the player climb walls?

Level 5:
First question: And this can be beat how? There are near 20 slaryn and you are supposed to be them with one set of tentacles, some rape, and two ice. If the fact that the ice is so slow that you can't knock them back into that pit isn't bad enough (They climb faster than it moves), you can only assault two at a time, so without any way of keeping them down there, the level is unbeatable.

 

[Loli Defense Force]

Re: Slaryndar

I beat lvl 5 legit by jumping down into the pit and throwing down the tentacles, then throw an ice ball at the ground closer to the wall going up to the exit as they come into view, then one on the wall itself and just spam rape, eventually you'll kill about 11 and the last 10 will walk back the way they came and jump off, committing suicide.

Or even better, don't bother raping and watch all 21 jump off the cliff at the same time, just remember to throw the freeze against the wall or else they can climb up towards the exit.

 

[Yagyu Munenori]

Re: Slaryndar

Okay, looks like everything's fixed now. (changed DL link for the second time today...)

@Phoenix: Every level is beatable, but the player is not supposed to beat them without any problems.
You'll have to throw the ice before they start climbing; if the player was faster than the Slaryndar, the game would be too easy; and the player is not supposed to fit through any holes made by the Slaryndar.
@DeMatt: Help has been completely removed
For both the memory leak and the graphics problem the causes are known to me, but I cannot fix them, sorry.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Slaryndar

I note that you've already issued some fixes. Please note that all these comments are based on the FIRST version you published; some things might've been fixed since then. Just as a note, using Task Manager to set the game's process priority down to "Below Normal" makes it MUCH easier to terminate it when it goes runaway.

Design Notes

• A complete listing of all the player's abilities (with a highlight or indicator to show which is selected) would be nice.
• If you'll recall the old Lemmings games, they had a hatch which opened to let them into the level, rather than merely dropping in from the sky. This would be nice to have.
• And it would also be nice to get a "level introduction" effect. Initially center the screen on the lemming, pan it to the upper-right corner, then to each corner in clockwise order, then to the slaryn spawn location, and THEN start spawning slaryndar.

Level Notes

1. Too unforgiving for the first level. Bump up the number of permissible escapes.
2. This level needs the "level introduction" I suggested BADLY. The player has ~2 seconds' leeway in making his way around the level.
3. This level auto-wins. The last bridge the slaryndar build doesn't build correctly, so they fall off the end.
4. Why do the slaryndar dig down on the left side, instead of on the right? Just trying to fool the player?
5. Yeah, okay, you needed to put your use-name into a level at some point. But that tiny little crack you're supposed to trap and rape the slaryndar in is so narrow you can't see what you're doing. Maybe make it wider and give the player another Tentacle and Freeze?
6. The design recommendations I've given will make this one SO much more intuitive than it currently is.
7. Um... I'm not sure how you're intended to solve this level, but all you actually have to do is drop the tentacles you're given without moving. It finishes with one girl in time to catch the other. Kinda neat how the twosome split up, though.
8. Why's this one so wide? You do it right, you've got a good ten seconds between raping the first group and raping the second.
9. ...get the timing JUST right with your curse, and the slaryndar will build a bridge UNDER the exit platform before walking off to their deaths. Is that supposed to happen? Also there were times when a curse didn't kill the Slaryn nor affect the terrain - can't really say what was the trigger.
10. ...so you're supposed to use the curse to force them to build a second time and delay their advance? Kinda counterintuitive...
11. They DO build like mad ...and if they build a brick on top of you, you'll get stuck.
12. I think this would be more fun if the slaryndar didn't drop right on top of the gate. Put them a bit off to one side, so the player can see the tentacles and the lemming alternating rape duties.
13. I think a little wider interval between slaryn-spawning would make this more fun.
14. An easy one like this is a nice break.
15. Get the curse-timing right, and you can force the computer to build into a crater and lock the slaryndar in. Then you can let the tentacle do all the work.
16. Hah. Rape the first one, toss the freeze-ball up high enough, and you can rape all of them.
17. Um, so the two that go right are a red herring, and you only need to rape the two that go left? Maybe let them build a bridge over that gap... just add enough gap-space (either in one gap or multiple) so that the player can catch both of them.
18. Pssh... get the timing wrong with the curses, and the level never ends. Maybe give the player a couple more curses?
19. The pixels of terrain that you have to skip between don't show up well against the "pink-and-gray fuzz" background. The other backgrounds, I think, are okay.
20. Tricky, tricky. Lay a Freeze down so they can't build up to the gate, rape like crazy, then let one build SIX segments up before raping her, thereby locking most of them in the pit. Then use your remaining Freeze and good timing to rape the few that are still above (leave the leader of the group for the next pass, so the interval between her and her successor is larger). Then go down and have an orgy.

 

[Yagyu Munenori]

Re: Slaryndar

After the last fix had caused yet another bug (it made multiple curses impossible), I've now made a version with some corrected bugs, changes to several levels, and the stuff DeMatt proposed (well, slightly changed, actually, and I didn't include the hatch): A list of attacks where you can even see for which ones ammo is available, and which can now also be scrolled with the mouse wheel. And, as the levels are only 240 px high, which makes vertical scrolling impossible (perhaps that will be in Slaryndar 2, so there can be those awesome camera pans like in the Worms games), you can scroll around the level for 5 seconds before it starts.
The links above have been changed to direct to that version. Enjoy.

 

[Alias]

Re: Slaryndar

I like the direction you've taken this. It's very nostalgic and old-school and doesn't pansy-foot around; you need to actually be good to be able to beat the levels, unlike a lot of modern games where 'hard mode' is still pretty much 'disability accessible' mode.

That being said, some of them are just a tad on the ridiculous side. I like challenge. I don't like having to repeat a full level because of one challenging part. I don't remember which level it is, but one of them has you running from one end to the other - which takes a very llllllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggg time, after which you have to make a jump that's pretty challenging to make. The thing is, having to do boring running over and over for one little challenging jump is not fun. Some ideas of old-school games were phased out for a reason; this is one of them. Forcing a player to repeat lots of tedious actions for one tiny challenge isn't fun, it's tedious and frustrating.

Other than that, I didn't really have a problem with any of the other levels. I played until 11 or 12 and got bored. Keep up the good work =D

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Slaryndar

That was level three or four, I'm syuck on the one after that. Pretty sure I know what to do, I just ran out of time before work :/

 

[Alias]

Re: Slaryndar

yeah it was pretty early on. Interestingly I had the most trouble with the first level, it was like omgraperaperapegogogogoooooo!!!! haha. Other than that, most of it is just trial and error - doable, but not immediately so. He's got a really good eye for challenge level.

 

[SilentSilth]

Re: Slaryndar

Grrr... Level two just pisses me off more than anything else. I can't get past it, even on my tenth or so play through... The big thing I notice here, is the PC can get 'stuck' on a wall when he's falling... which really screws up my timing a lot.x.x;

Edit:
Screw it. Level 2 has killed my interest for this game.

 

[lurker]

Re: Slaryndar

Grrr... Level two just pisses me off more than anything else. I can't get past it, even on my tenth or so play through... The big thing I notice here, is the PC can get 'stuck' on a wall when he's falling... which really screws up my timing a lot.x.x;

Edit:
Screw it. Level 2 has killed my interest for this game.

at least you made it to 2