I made a game) Dreg Sector: The Tract

[Willy Elektrix]

I've recently created an expansive RPG using the OHRRPG creation engine. I haven't posted in a few years, but I received great feedback on this forum concerning some of my previous games (some of you might recall Rescue at Grisly Gulch and Castle on the Nightland). If any of you feel compelled, please try my new game and let me know what you think. It's been tested extensively, but bug reports, typos, and criticisms are very welcome! The game runs in Windows.

The game is called Dreg Sector: The Tract.

Welcome to The Tract, a lawless fringe sector populated by pirates, smugglers, scavengers, and merchants. Hostile worlds wait to be discovered and plundered by daring spacefarers. Delve for salvage in perilous acidic oceans and void rifts. Navigate a bureaucracy of greedy traders and petty officials. Outfit your fleet with advanced gear and ace crewmen and conquer the stars.

Features:

*A complete RPG with 4-6 hours of play time.
*Build a fleet from 10 different ships with 14 different special weapons.
*Earn your fortune trading, stealing, scavenging, discovering, battling, marrying, or bounty hunting.
*30 strange worlds to explore and exploit.
*Free roaming progression.
*Stylish vintage graphics.
*Unique original music.

For screenshots and a download link, go here: http://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewgame.php?t=5432

Thank you for playing.

[MeshGearFox]

Briefly played this, before screwing up horribly. This definitely looks REALLY promising. Two comments though:

"*Visit shops often. Prices and inventory may change between visits."

- Are prices for trade goods dynamic or is that talking about the weapons/usable items?

- Also, might be an engine issue, but I got into a battle with four enemy ships, and the selection cursor seemed to skip ships when moving it in certain directions.

Also the understated soundtrack you have REALLY works well.

[Willy Elektrix]

Briefly played this, before screwing up horribly. This definitely looks REALLY promising. Two comments though:

"*Visit shops often. Prices and inventory may change between visits."

- Are prices for trade goods dynamic or is that talking about the weapons/usable items?

- Also, might be an engine issue, but I got into a battle with four enemy ships, and the selection cursor seemed to skip ships when moving it in certain directions.

Also the understated soundtrack you have REALLY works well.

Thank you for playing. Here are some responses to your questions:

*The trade goods prices vary based on the planet from which you buy them. They do not not change otherwise. Equipment and usable item prices sometimes change, depending on which shop you are visiting.

*The cursor attempts to determine which target is nearest to the directional arrow that you push. Unfortunately, for some enemy formations this can result in the selection priority seeming kind of strange. However, you should be able to select every ship in every battle, although sometimes you have to press a different direction arrow than you might think.

I'm trying to figure out a more elegant solution for this. As it stands, it shouldn't hinder your ability to target whichever ship you want. If there is a specific formation where you can't target some ship, let me know. You can take a screenshot with F12. Thanks!

*I had a collaborator write the soundtrack. I agree. I think he did a stellar job.

[MeshGearFox]

Hm. Is it possible to randomize trade good values on a planet, or affect their value by the amount that are in stock, to simulate a loose sort of supply and demand?

[Willy Elektrix]

I considered a randomized appraoch, but I thought that it would be unnecessarily confusing for people. In my mind, the trading of goods was merely a means to gain money and outfit your fleet. The meat of the game is exploring rather than trading.

That being said, if you have an idea on a good system to randomize the trade goods and still keep the trading system elegant, I'd be curious to hear it.

[MeshGearFox]

The main goal of having the supply/demand thing is so you get diminishing returns on trade. LIke, Planet X might buy gems for 100 space$$ a piece, and Planet Y might sell them for really cheap. Without either scarcity or prices going down as you sell more gems to Planet X, it's way too easy to make an infinite amount of money really fast, throwing the balance of the game off.

You might have addressed this in some other way, though. The main thing is just avoiding a situation where the player can amass a ton of money without doing much. Supply/demand and randomization are just one way to address this.

[Willy Elektrix]

As it works currently, each planet has a limited number of goods. Once they have sold out, you can no longer purchase any more. This number remaining is actually listed in the trading shop, on the right side of the screen.

This system is well balanced, but not very realistic. I'm not opposed to changing it.