[Release] Mobile Assault update 1.02 (3D helicopter shooter)

[justinlatimer]

Hey everyone. Glenn and I (the codetactics team) have just released v 1.02 of Mobile Assault (formally known as Apollonia).

Improvements

* Improved radar with a north marker, new look and feel, and the helipad is now shown as an 'H'.
* The leaderboard now shows the current player and ranking as well as the top 10.

Bug Fixes

* On the iPhone, when the home button is pressed, the mission is ended as if it was aborted.
* When the iPhone is locked, the game now pauses.
* Fixed a bug where the menu music restarted after unlocking the phone ingame.
* Fixed a camera issue when a mission ended while the tactical support panel is open.
* Correctly take ammo capacity upgarde level into account when starting a mission.
* Fixed a bug where it was possible to upgrade and downgrade outside the maximum range.
* Fix a menu scrolling issue on PSP in the players selection menu.



The download link from our site is: here

As always, we'd really appreciate feedback, postive and negative. This release mostly contains minor improvements and bugfixes.

go to latest news - codetactics for more information, videos etc.

Thanks guys.

(note that this will be pasted word for word to the PSP-Hacks and consolespot forums too)

[DSPSP]

Nice!
Thanks for the update.

[cmbeke]

nice job, love the new HUD. any chance that you could chance the selctors color when you get a lock on a tank?

[GlennNZ]

...any chance that you could chance the selctors color when you get a lock on a tank?

Yes.

We had thought about different types of target reticules for different weapons, but not for target locks. Seems like a good idea although but I wouldn't want them too contrasting or else when a tank comes and goes out of 'lock', it might seem to flicker. Can only but give it a go I suppose.

[elite999]

Thanks for the update! I am definitely going to give feedback after I try it.

[cmbeke]

Yes.

We had thought about different types of target reticules for different weapons, but not for target locks. Seems like a good idea although but I wouldn't want them too contrasting or else when a tank comes and goes out of 'lock', it might seem to flicker. Can only but give it a go I suppose.

you could change the color of the tank to prevent that. also is there anyway to stay locked on one tank? i keep on getting locked onto one tank and then it unlocks and i miss

EDIT
i think some one hacked the game (crap load of points in 6 minutes and 4 missions only; not to mention they kicked me out of first )

[elite999]

Okay, my changing name/add player problem disappeared. That's because I had the same game in two separate folder.

Current bugs:

1 - I suspended my PSP while in-menu. After I powered up my PSP and entered "Player Profile", the tab titles disappear. I tried several times with the same result. Also in mission select.

2 - It takes much time to load. Around 7 seconds on start. I think that is normal though. The ms led is constantly glowing (referring to reading the files).

3 - There is two s on the leader board, "AIDS VIRUS" and "EPIC HACKER".

4 - The Helipad doesn't reload the Hydras. :S It sometimes doesn't even reload the Hellfire missiles nor the gun.

5 - Tanks can go over each other. Such that if you shoot on a tank and destroy it, you'd see that it is still moving(which is an another tank, while the first tank's structure is of course destroyed).

6 - Trees disappear and appear randomly.

[GlennNZ]

i keep on getting locked onto one tank and then it unlocks and i miss

The weapon only has a limited arc. Basically imagine a circle up in front of the helicopter; you have to keep the tank within that circle.

i think some one hacked the game (crap load of points in 6 minutes and 4 missions only; not to mention they kicked me out of first )

Cheeky buggers with a hex editor. It would be a shame to have to encrypt the .db just to force the PSP users to behave themselves. Justin mods the leaderboard, so he'll pull that score eventually.

[cmbeke]

The weapon only has a limited arc. Basically imagine a circle up in front of the helicopter; you have to keep the tank within that circle.

ok, makes sense. should be easier to do with the new HUD

[nickxab]

Thanks for the update

[elite999]

Any feedback GlennNZ on my previous reply? :/

[GlennNZ]

Okay, my changing name/add player problem disappeared. That's because I had the same game in two separate folder.

Good news

Current bugs:

1 - I suspended my PSP while in-menu. After I powered up my PSP and entered "Player Profile", the tab titles disappear. I tried several times with the same result. Also in mission select.

I don't think we have code that handles suspend.

2 - It takes much time to load. Around 7 seconds on start. I think that is normal though. The ms led is constantly glowing (referring to reading the files).

If you've got a clean install, it takes a while to create the database. Subsequent loads are a little slow because we setup a lot of things on startup, rather than create/delete things while the game is running. It's a tradeoff between loads while entering and leaving missions, or just having a long start time. We'll have to change this in the future though because the menu uses up a lot of memory.

3 - There is two s on the leader board, "AIDS VIRUS" and "EPIC HACKER".

Sorted.

4 - The Helipad doesn't reload the Hydras. :S It sometimes doesn't even reload the Hellfire missiles nor the gun.

Mmmm. I got this once, but couldn't reproduce it later. If you can find out a way of making the happen, let us know. It might be a combination of starting different missions, or upgrades, or something.

5 - Tanks can go over each other. Such that if you shoot on a tank and destroy it, you'd see that it is still moving(which is an another tank, while the first tank's structure is of course destroyed).

This is from a few OpenGL blending quirks we have to address eventually. We just need to make the non fading out tank get rendered first.

6 - Trees disappear and appear randomly.

This is something else I'm struggling to reproduce predictably. Let us know if you can find out a way of making it happen. This bug doesn't happen on any other platform.

Thanks for the feedback.

[slicer4ever]

6 - Trees disappear and appear randomly.

does this occur when the tree is close to the edge of the screen, or when in the middle, if it's near the edge i almost guarantee it's a clipping problem

[GlennNZ]

does this occur when the tree is close to the edge of the screen, or when in the middle, if it's near the edge i almost guarantee it's a clipping problem

No. It's every tree and not necessarily at the edge of the map. There are these moments when every tree just doesn't render. Someone reported that it's also the buildings as well, but I haven't seen that yet.

We render all objects with alpha (such as the trees) last. So there must be something wrong with that code. It's just weird that it only happens on PSP but until I can have it happen on queue, it's really hard to fix. I'm wondering if there is a particular mission that it happens more often on.

i.e. if someone said, play mission one, then fly West for a little bit and it happens, then that would help a bit.

[slicer4ever]

No. It's every tree and not necessarily at the edge of the map. There are these moments when every tree just doesn't render. Someone reported that it's also the buildings as well, but I haven't seen that yet.

We render all objects with alpha (such as the trees) last. So there must be something wrong with that code. It's just weird that it only happens on PSP but until I can have it happen on queue, it's really hard to fix. I'm wondering if there is a particular mission that it happens more often on.

i.e. if someone said, play mission one, then fly West for a little bit and it happens, then that would help a bit.

ah, i see, hmm, you said you use the openGL implementation for the psp, if it's happening on the psp, but not on the iphone it may be a bug in the implementation itself, not to say it could be your code, but that you may not find the answer to the problem in your code

[elite999]

Thanks GlennNZ. I will report soon.

[elite999]

Okay, I wasn't able to reproduce both events,but I have other bugs/suggestions:

1) When you connect to the leader board, everything goes fine. However, if you exit and switch off the wlan and turn it on again, you won't be able to reconnect to the leader board. Such that when you press the button, it doesn't give the APs you want to connect with.

2) Can you place up the statistics after the helicopter crashes? Atm, the statistics come up before it crashes.

3) Can you make different explosions for Hydra and Hellfire missiles? They are the same. The Hydras should have a bigger explosion though.

4) If I upgrade the Hellfire missile damage, it won't be noticeable. I am on 6/10 now and the tank still needs 3 missiles to get destroyed. :S

5) The helipad icon isn't displayed on the radio in mission #2.

Good luck.

What does the online score depend on mainly?

[mootjeuh]

This is by far the best Homebrew Game I have ever seen (except for Battlegrounds III which is also totally awesome)!! I totally love this, this should be in the miniS store or the regular Playstation Store.
I wonder why you and Glenn don't have the Developer Status, you should ask a moderator to fix that for you.
Anyway, continue with this awesome game. I think I'm gonna get it for my iPod Touch as well.

[elite999]

How to have Dev status. Yeah, pretty lame. :/

[GlennNZ]

1) When you connect to the leader board, everything goes fine. However, if you exit and switch off the wlan and turn it on again, you won't be able to reconnect to the leader board. Such that when you press the button, it doesn't give the APs you want to connect with.

We'll have to investigate this one some more but it's obviously a low priority bug. If it's an easy fix we'll do it though.

2) Can you place up the statistics after the helicopter crashes? Atm, the statistics come up before it crashes.

At the moment the player 'crashes', the psp freezes temporarily because it's writing to the database, then visually the helicopter resumes its crash. I suppose we could put in a little delay before that inevitable freeze happens.

3) Can you make different explosions for Hydra and Hellfire missiles? They are the same. The Hydras should have a bigger explosion though.

Could do. At one stage I made it so that every bullet resulted in an explosion when it hit the ground, which looked interesting. Hellfires should have the biggest explosion as hydras are just rockets.

4) If I upgrade the Hellfire missile damage, it won't be noticeable. I am on 6/10 now and the tank still needs 3 missiles to get destroyed. :S

That's odd. Did this work in 1.01? By the time you are on 10/10, it should only take one hydra to take out a tank.

5) The helipad icon isn't displayed on the radio in mission #2.

That's from me making the helipad untargetable by the enemy in that mission and the way the code is structured, the radar doesn't pick it up. The easiest solution is to just make it targetable.

What does the online score depend on mainly?

Justin will be able to answer this better but I do know we use libcurl, tinyxml and sqlite. There is also Justin's backend server side code too.

[elite999]

That's odd. Did this work in 1.01? By the time you are on 10/10, it should only take one hydra to take out a tank.

You mean the Hellfire missile? 0o The hydra already takes out them by one shot...

[Rolen47]

Just wanted to say: Keep it up, this is the most interesting homebrew I've seen in a while.

[GlennNZ]

You mean the Hellfire missile? 0o The hydra already takes out them by one shot...

I suppose there is no where that we've actually distinguished between a hydra and a hellfire, but basically if you go to Hydra 70 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia there is a picture that shows the two. The hellfire is the massive missile, and the hydras and the much smaller rockets.

On the hud, the icon for the hydras are the three little 'sticks'. The hellfire has an icon of a single missile.

The hellfire (in the game) is the slower rate of fire missile that only takes one of to blow up a tank from the beginning. Upgrading them to max is only any good for buildings. As for the hydras, by the time you upgrade to 10/10, it should only take one shot to take out a tank. If that's not happening, then there's a bug (for psp at least)

Just wanted to say: Keep it up, this is the most interesting homebrew I've seen in a while.

Cheers. We're trying to get some new missions under way soon. Ones that are harder and more varied.

[psp2468]

Game looks impressive! I'm gonna check it out right now

[cmbeke]

...Cheers. We're trying to get some new missions under way soon. Ones that are harder and more varied.

thats great any chance of new weapons or some sort of powerup?

[elite999]

I suppose there is no where that we've actually distinguished between a hydra and a hellfire, but basically if you go to Hydra 70 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia there is a picture that shows the two. The hellfire is the massive missile, and the hydras and the much smaller rockets.

On the hud, the icon for the hydras are the three little 'sticks'. The hellfire has an icon of a single missile.

The hellfire (in the game) is the slower rate of fire missile that only takes one of to blow up a tank from the beginning. Upgrading them to max is only any good for buildings. As for the hydras, by the time you upgrade to 10/10, it should only take one shot to take out a tank. If that's not happening, then there's a bug (for psp at least)

Lol, I though the hydras are the hell fire missiles. xD That's why the damage effect is not changing...

Okay then change what I said before about the explosions. The hellfire missiles should have a bigger explosion.

[GlennNZ]

Okay then change what I said before about the explosions. The hellfire missiles should have a bigger explosion.

Yeah, bigger explosions is a good idea.

thats great any chance of new weapons or some sort of powerup?

I'm not a fan of say, flying around and there's this floating icon that the player rams, and they get shields. It all seems a bit out of place.

In other words, if you can think of any good what to incorporate a 'power up' just let us know what 'power up' you'd like to use and how the player would acquire it.

The same thing goes for weapons. The Apache doesn't really deviate much from Hellfires, Hydras, M320 and Sidewinders, do if you have some ideas of what we could do, let us know. We're already pushing it by allowing the user to have such a ridiculous amount of hydras.

It would be cool to have Napalm launchers, flamethrowers and cluster missiles though.

[elite999]

How about these:

- Fuel!
- When you finish the mission, you have to return to the helipad to finish the mission.
- Implement the ability to play as tank. By then, you have to make an equilibrium between it and the helicopter.
- In addition to Fuel, you can somewhat let the player decide if he wants more fuel/less armor or less fuel/more armor. Like a bar that he can toggle between 1% till 100%.

[cmbeke]

you could have it so sometimes an enemy tank has a power up or extra prestige or fuel that you can get if you kill it. you could also add power ups after you kill 20 tanks in a row with out missing or something like that.

[GlennNZ]

- Fuel!

No way. If there is one thing that drove me nuts playing Desert Strike, is that I'd run out of fuel in a matter of seconds. I'm more in the mind set of blow stuff up, or get blown up; not "run out of fuel"

- When you finish the mission, you have to return to the helipad to finish the mission.

Not so good when the mission has no helipad.

- Implement the ability to play as tank. By then, you have to make an equilibrium between it and the helicopter.

It would be cool to be able to play as different vehicles, but it wouldn't happen for a long while. Maybe different helicopters though.

- In addition to Fuel, you can somewhat let the player decide if he wants more fuel/less armor or less fuel/more armor. Like a bar that he can toggle between 1% till 100%.

If anything, it will be an armour to weapon payload balance.
I don't know if any of you played Crimson Skies for PC, but basically the aircraft could take a certain weight and had a certain number of mount points on which to mount weapons. Some weapons would weigh more than others, and adding armour would add weight. I'd like to be able to do that. Having a different helicopter could have different flight characteristics such as be slower, but could pack more weapons and armour.
I would still ignore fuel.

you could have it so sometimes an enemy tank has a power up or extra prestige or fuel that you can get if you kill it. you could also add power ups after you kill 20 tanks in a row with out missing or something like that.

- "20 tanks in x seconds" is actually a great idea for an 'achievement/medal'. I'll add that to my list.
- We could "promote" a unit like in C&C which has traditional but invisible advantages like armour and firepower.
- Extra prestige is actually probably the best form of "power up" I think for our game. So yes, good idea, as the user can then select their own kind of "power up" when the upgrade or use Tactical Support.

That's some good feedback guys. Cheers.