Universal Battlestation: Harbinger (by Bugbyte)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by Echoseven, Aug 12, 2015.

  1. Mythbuster

    Mythbuster Well-Known Member

    Nov 19, 2008
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    Simple Question: Is it always the same galaxy or is it a new random generated one?
     
  2. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    Greetings commanders!

    I'm one of the developers behind this game and I will be here to take on your suggestions and questions! :)

    First of all I have to start with a mention that the game play video posted here does not present the best qualities of this game. The music is muted and it looks like the player just wants to get from point A to B as quickly as possible, without even clicking all the possible buttons and see what is under there. You can click on the bigger ships, direct fire with turret categories, order your fighter squadrons to attack, the whole star map has a strategy built in itself, you can choose where to jump within a sector and this plays a big part in winning battles or not. You can click on your own ships as well, a set of buttons will pop-up and from here you can repair your ships.

    This is a bit frustrating since we have put 1 year of hard work into this game and this release is super important to us. Frankly the whole future of our company rides on this, this video should not be representing our game, because it is made very hastily and no time taken to study the game properly and look into all of what it has to offer. All the depth that we have implemented and spent a lot of time on in the game is overlooked completely.

    Please, do not base your judgement on this game from that video. No offense to the Youtuber here, we appreciate anyone looking into the game a lot! But this one is simply not doing our game justice.
     
  3. lilgac

    lilgac Well-Known Member

    Nov 17, 2013
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    I am sure no one will simply judge based on one video. It is also clear from video it is a brief quick play.
    The lasers etc do have sound effects right? I only hear the missile kaboom. The scene where lasers are firing and hitting the shield are quiet, hopefully this is not the case
     
  4. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    I almost never base my purchase on tutorial video impressions or hastily prepared videos :) I'm largely just interested in finding out the depth of strategy and tactics in the game and the variety in events/missions/ships/technologies etc.
     
  5. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    #25 AdmiralGeezer, Aug 12, 2015
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2015
    [​IMG]

    The strategy in combat comes from the turrets you have and how you use your fleet composition. If you have long-range turrets you can attack from a distance and try to keep it, enemies will try to do the same. You can also choose where to jump within a sector, so if you have good short-range turrets you can jump right on them and obliterate them quickly.

    [​IMG]

    Combat is semi-automatic: You can target bigger ships and order your fleet to concentrate fire of certain turret categories. You can also order your fighter squads to attack a certain ship or return to hangar. You can't target the small fighter ships, we did this because we did not want the finger to miss-click all the time amongst all the action.

    We left the small fighter ships out of the targeting system, so that your fingers wouldn't be miss-clicking them all the time. Your input on this one is going to be valuable, it is still something we can implement. But using point-defense cannons and steering your ship so that your cannons can shoot on them works quite well :)

    Oh yeah, the pint-defense cannons (Blue slots) have range of motions! Remember that, the big cannons (Red slots)can rotate 360 degrees though.

    [​IMG]

    You can also click on your own ships. From here you can steer every ship individually, by default all of your ships move as a unit and follow the leader (you). If you want to break formation and move a ship individually you have to click on that ship and click move. After this your formation is broken and you have to move that ship individually in the sector you are. When you move to the next sector your ships automatically go into formation again and move as a unit.

    [​IMG]

    You can repair your ship by clicking on it, there will be a brown repair icon on the ship if the hull is damaged. This is a bit poor implementation from us, this one is on us. Completely understand how it can be hard to find.

    Ads: No there are no ads. We have a special button in the game, where we show our own games or other own promotional material.
     
  6. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    All turrets have sound effects, if there isn't any sound it might be that in certain hectic situations there are so many sounds that some are left out. But this shouldn't be the case very often. All turrets and lasers definitely have sounds.
     
  7. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    [​IMG]

    Randomly generated galaxies! Every game will be new, and there is also the dice button above which you can use to generate a new one to your liking.

    By the way, every game has a total of 3 randomly generated galaxies. The game won't end when you finish the first one. You will also not be able to influence the following ones, they will be generated for you without an option to change them.
     
  8. Mythbuster

    Mythbuster Well-Known Member

    Nov 19, 2008
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    Thanks! Downloading now! :)
     
  9. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    It is just a notice for parents, wanted to have it there. We have no ads in the game and no in-apps. We want the game to be a premium game. We do have a button, where we can steer users to our own website: http://battlestation.fi or show promotional material for our upcoming games.

    Well that answers most of the questions so far, hope you enjoy the game! :)
     
  10. sapphire_neo

    sapphire_neo Well-Known Member

    Jan 20, 2011
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    I'm sold! Will post some impressions soon.
     
  11. Ghostdog1

    Ghostdog1 Well-Known Member

    Jan 30, 2015
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    The Redribbon Gameplay-Video is truely one of the worst, unmotivated and noobish stuff i have ever seen on here. Shame on you. Out of respect for the game dev you should delete this and give the dev a chance to post himself a video with gameplay footage.
     
  12. psychoaktiff

    psychoaktiff New Member

    Jul 22, 2014
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    Game is really great. It's like roguelike but in space. You can customize your ship with weapons, drones (also repair drones), utilities (ie. there is teleport which teleports you inside sector to give you more strategic options). You start game in one sector and your mission is to get to exit sector far, far away. You can choose fast route but in this case you won't get enough scraps to buy weapons, other ships etc. and yes, you can buy/hire another ships to make fleet, but they are not cheap so you have to consider much longer route to get scraps. I think there are encounters and side mission, but I didn't live long enough to see them. On normal game can be real challenge.

    Good job developers - game is really worth the money.
     
  13. Wilbair

    Wilbair Well-Known Member

    Aug 13, 2009
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    Its looking great! Downloading now..
     
  14. lilgac

    lilgac Well-Known Member

    Nov 17, 2013
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    Good clear explanation on many aspects, thanks dev!
     
  15. forsakenxe

    forsakenxe Well-Known Member

    Oct 23, 2014
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    Hey dev,

    How long will the sale last and what will be the full price afterwards?

    Do you plan on expand on the game with expansions? If so in which form (IAP, new game etc)?

    Thanks and Gl with the game.
     
  16. redribbon

    redribbon Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2010
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    #36 redribbon, Aug 12, 2015
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2015
    no problem dev. yes im still on the learning process when making the video. sorry for that. one thing here is this game is completely well made, every single area are random generated and needs a different strategy. love the graphics also. please mind that there is a music background in this game but i have to turned it off due to third party content. im still playing the game now and it easily recommend by me.
    questions: how to recover your health(repair hud) when in a battle? and how to gain more speed?

    please do send a complain to toucharcade and upon their request i will no longer post any gameplay video on this site. cheers.
     
  17. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Dont get the hate for it, watched the first 5 minutes, gave me a taste of what actual gameplay is like. I'm never a fan of trailers as it just shows the 'glossy' bits of it, prefer actual gameplay footage like that video.

    Must admit after i watched it i didnt come away angry or anything but i was fine with it, gave me a taste of what the proper game is like
     
  18. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    The sale lasts for the first week! We have currently thought of a price of $6.99 after.

    We absolutely plan on developing Harbinger further, but it all depends on how well the game performs. We are in dire times as a company, if the game doesn't sell then our resources will be very limited. If the game is a success well then we want to make it better! Bugfixes, balancing and such will be free of course. If we make a bigger expansion we might charge something for that, but then it will also be substantial and give you something truly worth playing.

    Battlestation is a game series, and as such we are of course planning to make more Battlestation games and improve with every one. You will definitely see new games, the Battlestation universe is huge so there is room for plenty of games there. We are old-school gamers and belong to the category of players that want prices and content to be fair. We always try to give value and price our games right.
     
  19. Dragan

    Dragan Well-Known Member

    Aug 21, 2014
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    What i would like to know before buying the game: how much room is there for strategy in the R.T. universe or is it, or does it become a hectic click fest?
     
  20. AdmiralGeezer

    AdmiralGeezer Well-Known Member

    Jul 23, 2015
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    Hey there. Ok, I appreciate you taking the time to make the video. I hope you understand I just got a little flustered when I saw that the best parts of the game got overlooked, did not mean to be aggressive. It's great that you like the game, that is always fantastic to hear! :)

    [​IMG]

    You can repair your ship by clicking on it, there will be a brown repair icon on the ship if the hull is damaged. This is a bit poor implementation from us, this one is on us. Completely understand how it can be hard to find.

    You cannot repair your ship in the midst of a battle (When enemy ships are present). You can only repair when the sector is clear.

    You can, however, buy repair drones and they will automatically repair you in the midst of battle! So if you want to be repaired during battle buy the repair drones. You can buy them from a hangar slot.

    Also remember! You can repair your fleet for free at a sector with a Battlestation. You do this by again clicking on your own ship and click the repair button. It will then say this repair is for free ("Repair ship at station?").

    More speed is currently not an option, different ships are either faster or slower based on their size. This is something we might want to change based on your feedback though! So let us know if this is something you want.
     

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