Seriously didn't expect this from you Mindfield - the fact that they released such a poorly implemented control scheme is indefensible. It's that simple - remember it's going to take WEEKS to fix this. This is on top of the failure they made with Prey's control scheme (did they not listen to any feedback whatsoever?). It's very easy to come on here with cap in hand and say "yup, we've made a mistake, we're going to fix this ASAP", but it simply shouldn't have happened in the first place. This isn't some 1 man team with a random app we're talking about, this is a supposedly professional development team with a major IP license making a port of a rather famous game. The fact they bungled the release is IMO more than enough justification for the "noob hate" going on in this thread.
The controls are preventing me from playing this game. Tapping the enemy to shoot? That blocks a large % of your view. Poor development choice.
My sincerest apologies for not dredging through a 24 page thread to find the posts where you or your representatives ran damage control for the app. This 'noob hate' is justified.
first, i HAVE read all 25 pages..or at least skimmed them. George: my requests for the update: 1. some visual representation (an actual numeric counter pls) of the ammo left for the current gun. sucks to be taking down baddies and all of a sudden you're tryin to give them the boot. doesn't work (might be better with the controls fix), and you die. 2. cheat codes! yeah, the hardcore gamers will whine incessantly about this, but some of us like the experience and have lost the skills, and it's not like you've got multiplayer in it yet. invalidate high scores or something if a cheat is used. at least the basics, but it'd be nifty to have all the ones from the original game. 3. confirmation on resetting the controls to the defaults. (if you hadn't gathered, i'm also a developer, tho of business apps for m$'s .net platform.) confirm dialogs are useful. that's all - i think everyone else mentioned the things i'd be interested in: button shoot instead of tap-to-shoot (or make it an option), the control issues, the music...the boobies? sadly, i can barely make it 2 minutes into the second level, so i haven't gotten far enough to see if the strippers do their thang. thanks George, and it's really awesome that developers of even these big games are climbing on these forums and actually interacting with the user base. shame you're getting some people bitching for bitching's sake and not with constructive criticism, but it's a free country/internet. edit: yes, this is my first post. joined just to post in this thread.
Unfortunately they hesitate to show the goods in fear of Apple's app rejection committee. I've played through the first 2 lvls and graphics/sound wise this game is spot on. The controls....yeah, they need a revision. But all in all the game is a blast from the past. Anyone figure out how to use the inventory items like Holo-Duke, Med packs, etc...? I can only see my weps on that selection screen.
first. YOU CAN TURN TOUCH TO SHOOT OFF! and use a button to shoot. ok saying that, I agree with everyone that the controls are still horrible. How about instead of everyone coming onto this forming and just yelling and saying how bad the game is, maybe we should give more feedback on how to at least salvage it. Yes, I too think that its wrong for devs to release games like this... but I don't know about you but I was really looking forward to this game and I want the devs to go back and change the controls and actually make it playable. My suggestions for what they are worth: I like to use the analog sticks, but these are unusable. You can only tap on them, you can't slide your finger around. They need to be like wolfensteins control pad (smooth). As they are right now sometimes I tap on the right side to move right and I end up running backwards. Impossible to use. The best control system I would see right now would be a system similar to iFps. make the left joystick all the moving around: up - move forward down - move backwards right - strafe right left - strafe left add a button to press to interact with doors and such. the left joystick up - look up down - look down right - look right left - look left also put a button in the middle to jump. add another button somewhere on the screen to TOGGLE crouching. You can keep the change weapons how it is right now, and the menus are ok too. for firing, either set an option to use touch to shoot, or have it so you can touch anywhere on the screen that there isn't a button and it will shoot at your crosshairs. These are the controls that I would say would work the best. Keep in mind that the analog sticks would have to be SMOOTH unlike how they are now.
You think?! That's not a +1 for them mate, that's them doing damage control because they epic failed. I like how you PUT IT ALL IN CAPS AND BOLD THOUGH, like as if to say look how good they are. Granted, this one isn't their fault alone (it's also part Apple and part user fault), but I can guarantee the majority of first gen owners won't have developed the habit of checking the requirements before purchase. I mean hell, it's not like it has EVER happened before, and certainly not with a major release. Not from this app, they ain't. You're kidding? You've got to go to the pause menu to turn the jetpack on and off?? This is getting better by the minute.
George explained himself pages ago. Communications got a bit screwy and he fumbled with the ball for a bit. He's got it back now, he's owned up to it and apologized and now he's taking care of it -- and he's stepping up quickly. As far as I'm concerned that's as far as that discussion needs to go. It's a game. I have patience. And the game isn't so totally broken that it's utterly unplayable. I can play it, albeit with some inconvenience. But I still enjoy playing Duke on my iPhone, and when the controls are fixed I'll just enjoy in a great deal more. There's seriously no point in getting all bent out of shape about it. Air your grievances, let George handle them, and see how it plays out. Whipping yourself into a lather over it after this has already been done is counterproductive and stressful to no good end. Chill. Wait and see how it's handled, and then make your judgments. The difference is nobody picked up that dropped ball. They did it, sent it into the wild, and then nobody bothered to check and see if there were any complaints. Nobody officially involved with the project bothered to follow up and address anyone's concerns, or even find out what they were. The ire leveled at them in this case is justified; they released a game that underwhelmed in both length and controls and left it there for people to stew over. Again, this is not Prey. George picked up the ball and he's throwing it back at MachineWorks so they can do it properly this time. Mistakes are, by definition, things that shouldn't have happened in the first place. This may come as a shock to you, but it turns out they end up happening anyway. A lot, in fact. Shameful, isn't it, this human condition? But the real measure of a person or entity is not in the mistakes they make, but in how they deal with them. Once again, wait and see how this mistake is dealt with before you build up a nice throat full of bile. Irrelevant. Mistakes happen to one people or entire groups of them, and funny enough, they tend to keep happening until someone tells them they've screwed up, and it seems like nobody managed to illuminate MachineWorks on the Prey debacle. That's changing now with Duke. If you're going to lay on the vitriol, at least wait until you see how the situation plays out. There's seriously no point in constantly jumping on the "Ooh, bad controls, BAD! Bad George Broussard! Bad MachineWorks! BAD!" horse; it's dead, we're past that and have moved on to what's being done to fix it. Let's see how well that horse does before we turn it into glue, shall we?
A) Accepted. B) I have no representatives (whatever the hell that means) and am not running damage control for anyone. I simply fail to understand the disproportionately large buckets of hate being thrown around. The controls are annoying, yes, everyone has said that four dozen times already, George said he's addressing that. Get over it already! I didn't claim it was a +1. I said it's pointless giving them a -ELEVENTYBILLION!!1!!EPIC FAIL LOL!!!11ONE. See above. I already mentioned that this one certainly wasn't ideal. But at least I made the effort to suggest alternatives that can satisfy an upgrade to both the weapons menu and this pause menu. I'm trying to contribute something useful. How 'bout you?
Random control musings I've thought for a while about FPS iPhone control schemes, so I figured I'd type some opinions here, even though I can't play Duke yet. Options that should be there: Basic - The Wolf3d default controls. For Duke, you also need jump and crouch, which I'd put on small buttons just above and just to the left of the fire button. Or, ditch the "crouch" button and make a swipe down the center of the screen toggle crouch mode (see below too). Activate (for doors and switches) I would make a double-tap on the center of the screen (better still, a double tap on the object to activate, although that might be hard to get into a port of an old engine). Oh, and crosshairs are a must. Advanced 1 - aka the Wolf3d dual stick aka "Halo controls". As a PC FPS gamer, I hate these controls, but other people like them. Because I hate these so much I also came up with these two ideas: Advanced 2 - aka the "Dodge" controls. Basic controls + the very left and right edges of the screen should work as strafing "paddle buttons". In my mind, you'd want these to be momentary (hence "dodge" buttons) as opposed to continuous, but either way. If you make the dodge length the "width" of one projectile, that would allow you to really zoom through the game with a lot of control. I play Wolf3d without any strafe whatsoever and just kinda tank through the levels getting shot in the face a lot, which is fine, but I would never play that way on a PC. Hence my concern with this issue. Okay, one more idea: Advanced 3 - aka "Swipe To Strafe". Think about it! Swiping your way through Cover Flow is just like strafing. There's even a little inertia there. Basically, make the area above the basic controls swipe-able from either direction, and give it a little give and acceleration, and there you go. FAST and precise strafing without all this imaginary XBox controller nonsense. Peter
I must say when I heard they were bringing the "full duke experience" to the Ipod/phone I really thought they meant it. Granted we all know how strict apples censorship is, but I just thought, if any game can do it, Duke can. However upon getting to LA and venturing into the strip club, I promptly offer a stripper a bill, only to be rewarded by her moving her hands up and then back down. Waa waa waaaaa.... was the feeling I got. Seriously how the hell do you censor the duke?? There's pictures of strippers and the "I don't have time to play with myself" one liners, all over the place. It's well within the realm of a mature video game in it's current form. I was really looking forward to seeing how the devs did on the strippers.....you know. I know I know there just pixilated video game ......... but it just doesn't feel like duke without em
In a game like this, controls are everything. I'm not touching this till they get the dual stick controls working; I don't care for any other control scheme. I'm disappointed! Duke was one of our favorite games when we were younger.
Also in addition to updating the controls, please make an option for a fire button. Not sure if this has been mentioned already, or if it's already in the options menu. I personally think the "tapping the enemies" option is more of a burden because your finger is in the way. Plus if that's the case, what's the point of the crosshairs? Other than that, the game is a classic! I'll be downloading this later.
booo [bies] anywho, to use your inventory, looks like you have to pause the game, then the items you've picked up will show on the left side of the screen. haven't used one yet, but i'd guess you just tap it to use it.
Personally I think duke nukem 3D is awesome yeah it has some control problems but once you see past them it's awesome!
Does anyone know how to reload your weapon?? Also after spending more time and getting to the execution chamber I'm actually enjoying the game quite a bit. Granted without Tata's, but it is duke and a damn fine duke too. I have noticed that some of the secrets are either gone or triggered in different ways. The chaingun that's usually hidden in the stripper room when you run on the couch, was not there, or I used the wrong trigger.
Jet-pack Once depleted is the Jet-pack gone for good? I wanted to get into Duke's apartment on the first level, but used up the Jet-pack apparently. The game is great, you sort of get used to the controls, hopefully an update will improve them. Lord know the developer must be seeing the feed back. But the rest of the game is amazing, let's give credit where credit is due. And a sale on day one is very nice, rewarding the early buyers unlike most Apps. Thanks!
George stated that there was a communications issue and that's really about all he said. That doesn't really change the fact that the release we have now is an unfinished, broken game and this won't change for at least 2 weeks. Good for you, you may have patience, but that's just yourself you're talking about. Myself and others aren't as patient as you, nor should we be. When you purchase a game as prominent as this you expect the game to at least function as expected. This isn't Minigore, where the developer promises from the start that it'll be a gradually evolving game - no, this app was obviously meant to be finished when it was released and that's the problem - it wasn't. I personally won't take the stance that it's acceptable for an app developer to release an unfinished product and shore it up with patches later, unless the developer states this from the get-go. As for "whipping" myself into a lather, as Carmack found out (and fully appreciated) when he released Wolf 3D and made (sublte) changes - when you're re-releasing a classic like Duke 3D fans expect it to play how they rememebered it. I'll be the first to confess I'm quite passionate about my old favourites and to see how poorly this port has turned out has irked me quite a bit. But the fact I've come on to the forums to opine on it is my perogative and mine alone. In fact what irks me the most in this situation is that people will quickly lose interest in the game and it will sink into oblivion a la Prey, which would be a bloody shame. Again, I'm sure we're all fully aware this isn't Prey, but this is the same development team and that's the crux of the issue, this team simply doesn't seem like it's able to roll out a professionally polished product. The fact they trashed the Prey IP is one thing, to do it twice with Duke Nukem is a crime. Based on past performance - which is all we can do with this team (look at Prey now even with the patches) - I'm not confident in the slightest that this team will be able to fully resolve these control issues. True, we're all human, we all make mistakes. But this is software development, an industry that long ago, established checks and balances to ensure these kinds of things don't happen. It's called TESTING. Sure, the occasional bug slips through because you didn't run that last regression test or a scenario occurs that you didn't account for. But this is the bloody interface for the game! How could the developers even begin to test anything else without getting past that first hurdle of using the controls?! Are we to believe that the QAs actually played through the entire game and didn't, not once, state that the controls were worse than water torture? I've worked in the software industry for nearly 10 years on a number of projects, all of which included even a bare minimum of testing and I'm absolutely incredulous that something this brazen managed to get through and be submitted to the app store. Maybe it's because it's that in-your-face bad that I'm so worked up about it, this is like releasing a desktop publishing application without a print or save button. And if the QAs didn't spot it, they should be fired on the spot. And bile? No, a passionate fan upset with a trashed port perhaps. But as cliched as it sounds, it's out of sheer love that I'm here and not just dumping on it. I would LOVE this to get fixed up and if it does get fixed I'll be the first to recommend this to my colleagues anf friends. As I said on page 6, I'd read the previous pages with all their warnings about the poor control schemes, but because I love the Duke Nukem brand I bought it and hoped it wasn't as bad as they said it was and I was tragically mistaken. It's hardly irrelevant, sure, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter if they had a team of 1000 developers, the fact is they messed up. But it could be forgiven if it was just 1 guy, I've worked on projects with just 1 developer and I know how tough it is to do all the project management, the bug testing, the reworks, the documentation, the packaging (and for the app store you'd have to be the sales person, the finance manager, etc, etc) - but this was a goddamn team of people, who apparently describe themselves as a professional development team. This is the same team who apparently have partnerships with Sega, Bandai, Mattel as well as 3D Realms. From that list you would've thought these people had some sort of good reputation, but from what I've seen they're amateurs. This is the app store, things move fast here, I would've loved to have seen Duke 3D at the top of those charts and staying there, who knows, with loads of support they could've added multiplayer etc. But as it stands people are going to start seeing those low scoring reviews, even if they pick it up they're going to be horrified by the controls. They're not going to want to stick around and wait 2-3 weeks while the app they've just paid for gets fixed. If Doom gets released before these controls are fixed, I'm quite sad to say as much, but I'm pretty sure Duke 3D will be dead. So I don't know if you're now a MachineWorks apologist Mindfield, but the fact is, this app should never have left the source control system before those controls were fixed. And I just wonder if anyone here in the TA community actually beta tested this, if you did, I hope you hang your head in shame.
