Moving on with Taskforce, I've worked all day but feel I've not made much progress. The game, however is largely complete now I think. I've spent most of today typing up the manual. I expect this would take an hour or two but it's taken all day. I had a manual written already, but a lot was missing, and there is a lot I could still add, if I wanted to fictionalise parts, add character details etc.
In a complex game like this, I think it's important that the full details are in there, covering every option, keyboard key and things like that. I rather enjoy writing manuals, and actually, I love reading them too. I used to love reading the manuals for those Microprose games that I loved; Airborne Ranger and Project Stealth Fighter, and (it's not Microprose) Elite. Those manuals were like novellas in themselves. I've tried to emulate that with the Flatspace manual. This one is a bit more tricky because Taskforce is a very technical game so there's not much room for fictionalisting.
I've also made two game changes. First I've added the option to remove all equipment on the equipment screen. It's odd that this was missing because it is a pain to delete each item by hand. This makes it much easier to design custom equipment sets, frankly it was so awkward before that I'd be surprised if anyone bothered. One feature I could add here is a way to save and recall specific equipment configurations, but that's tricky because I'm all out of icons... ease of use is important. Flatspace, for example, I think grew too complex by adding too many controls.
Feature two was adding a quick toggle for overhead/angled camera. This was mainly because the number keypad is used for camera angle and I thought it would be easy and logical to use the middle '5' key to toggle an overhead view.
I've also fixed and tested the Try Hard map. This still isn't as good as the first map, it's hard to design a map with many different options for success. The best maps in any game, I think, are non-linear and allow the player to find new ways to win without following a strict, fixed, path; but yes, very few games are like this. Every Mario game, just about every first person shooter, is a fixed-path variety. At least I have lots of randomness in this game. One idea for the future might be to show players a map before the game starts (Airborne Ranger sort of did this, as did the old Taskforce game) and perhaps have placement option for the start positions, like many tactical board games have; Battletech for example.
I noticed that characters hardly ever run out of energy. I toyed with the idea of making units regain less if their Health is below maximum, or considerably below maximum, but perhaps now is not the time to tweak game fundamentals.
I have to refine the manual more, and create the Steam Store next.
