More Taskforce work today, but I feel the end is in sight. The manual is just about done, the graphics updates done and the promotional graphics.
Last night though I thought of something crucial, that the most important criticism of the game is that the first level is really difficult, as well as taking, potentially, an hour or more to complete. As it stood in 2004 Taskforce had very limited appeal to the most hard-core of nerd-like turn-based game-programmer player. It really needed to be sped up and simplified for a general audience, at least, make the early level and levels accessible.
The main reason the opening level is so hard is that it's a hostage situation, and the death of any of the hostages will make you fail the mission. There are also quite a lot of enemies in this, actually, come to think of it, the first mission, Who Cares Wins, though one of the best, is one of the hardest in the entire game!
I had the idea of revamping the level. Really there's no need for hostage deaths to fail this mission; but at the same time, it would be nice, I thought, if on a harder difficulty level that they would, so I've re-written a substantial part of the game to make the story path different for each difficulty level, creating a custom missions for each of the four difficulty levels at each step of the way. This makes the level design process really flexible.
So now, for that first mission, I've used a few different maps for different difficulty levels. On the first two (easiest) difficulty levels you don't have to protect the hostages, and for the very easiest level, I've removed some of the nasty gun turrets. The third, 'Professional', skill level is like the classic level, and the hardest 'Elite' level includes more troops and, for the first time, they may even have heavy weapons.
I've continued this with most of the missions. Although many merely have more enemy troops on the harder levels, some have more cunning changes. One mission which required infiltration by a single unit now permits three, then two, then one, but on the hardest level three again, but not permitting any enemy deaths at all (so, it must be played very stealthily, then). For some missions, the number of units on your side is restricted. Another map has a few structural changes for different levels of difficulty too. Generally the easiest level is really rather easy now, but the hardest is really difficult, which is now it should be. I must be sure that I can complete every level and every difficulty.
I've found a few little bugs; one where the lights for your units would switch off. This is because all units share lights, so when one unit dies with a light, it might go off and will turn off the partner's light too. I experimented with adding 12 lights (this game has 9 light sources, already a record for my 3D engine) but it appears that I've reached a limit, so I've merely fixed the bug.
Generally speaking, the game is inching towards completion.
Really importantly though, it feels a lot better than it ever did. Sometimes, the tactics on the harder levels feel incredibly realistic, actually ducking troops behind flimsy terrain to protect them; dropping an empty gun, running to a dead body to grab theirs before turning and firing off a volley. The fast movement really makes a huge difference to the game, and with the difficulty changes, the game is transformed.
For the first time, I feel that the gameplay parts are better than U.F.O. Enemy Unknown, a game which I loved. Of course, that game has a more immersive plot... I can imagine developing something deeper and wider myself. It's interesting that I was developing the old Taskforce and Hilt II before U.F.O. existed. I tried to buy Laser Squad back in the 90s but the shop didn't have it in. It's almost like a parallel development, although, of course, I've had to do all of this on my own and any publishers I found turned out to be sharks. Only now can I see the project with a new eye. I wonder what sort of game I could make now if I started afresh.
All this said, these manic 14-hour days are really taking their toll and reminding me that even a smaller (ie. not as expansive as U.F.O.) game can be a huge amount of work. This said, Arcangel was far bigger in many ways (eight different worlds of graphics, far more items of equipment, far more units), but at the end, that game lacked these essential gameplay refinements; it wa the nerdy 2004-style game. In gaming like art and music, simplicity, paring things down, is key.
