More Taskforce tweaks and changes as I play. I've made a few small program changes; mainly adding the graphics of the new six team members to the opposition. This is useful for the training missions where the other side should really look a bit more generic. I've spent a lot of time playing a mission called Borovian Rhapsody, this is one where different difficulty levels radically change the tactics needed. Getting the difficulty levels right is very tricky and requires lots of playing, especially on the random and luck-based missions. Generally though, I suppose the most important thing is that the level is possible to complete, and that a higher difficulty level makes it more difficult. That is all.
A few of the missions with bigger maps now seem tedious and linear, and over-long for no good reason. Ideally a map should be very non-linear to permit a variety of tactics, and to at least allow multiple plays of the same mission, for every game to be different. I will need to radically redesign some missions and make them less linear and more interesting.
I was thinking the other day that my favourite all time games are Project Stealth Fighter and Airborne Ranger on the Commodore 64, UFO Enemy Unknown and Frontier on Amiga, and possibly Civilisation too. Apart from Frontier, all are Microprose games. All are categorised by being non-linear. On PC, perhaps my only favourites are Half-Life and Unreal, but both are very linear and really in a totally different, and inferior, category to the former games.
Of course, nobody can experience Project Stealth Fighter now how it was to play then. You need two cassettes and 45 minutes just to load and play each game, the game came with four (I think) printed N.A.T.O. maps of your mission area, a keyboard overlay and so many controls that you felt like a trainee pilot just reading the excellent manual. There are no games like it now, and there probably never will be again. The tape loading and sheer waiting time made each play a serious investment of time; that giving added something.
In other Taskforce news, the Steam store page went live last night.
