Soft lock (tie with a boss?)

belkka commented 1 week ago

Expected Behavior

Either I win or I lose.

Actual Behavior

I cannot damage the boss. Neither the boss can damage me. We are stuck forever in the middle of empty space.

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

Start mission 11
Ship: Scorpion Mk1
Buy Plasma for power source and Deflector for advanced system.
Equip two Firebirds for weapons
Survive until the boss appears.
Try to damage the boss or give up and let it kill you (neither of you can)

Specifications

Operating System: GNU/Linux
Game Version: 1.4.2

Note

Is it intentional that some ship & weapon configuration cannot damage the boss?

viewizard commented 1 week ago

Is it intentional that some ship & weapon configuration cannot damage the boss?

As I see on last screenshot you provided, you can reduce boss shield, but your weapons fire power looks like too low compared to boss shield regeneration rate. Scorpion good for fast mission run/survive, but you probably will be not able to kill last levels bosses with this hull.

belkka commented 1 week ago

So, is it intended that a player may complete the level only to realize it's impossible to defeat the boss with their weapon and they have to restart the mission? Were there any in-game hints that I could have missed? Just to confirm.

In my case, I've invested too much money into Deflector, so couldn't buy expensive guns. IMO, it could be a UX improvement:

to have some kind of warning about weak anti-boss equipment at "preparation" stage (not necessarily mention the boss to avoid spoilers)
to have some equipment unavailable for purchase if mission was not designed for it (e.g. prevent player from using light ships in boss missions; or lock Deflector until player has enough extra cash to also afford powerful guns)
to get a warning during the boss fight like "weapon too weak... powerful armor shield is detected" for the sake of clarity; player still has to restart the mission, but at least they waste less time shooting an invincible enemy and know for sure what to do next time.
to have some generic hints about importance of powerful weapons for bosses at "help screens" or in relevant mission description

These are just some ideas. I see no evidence of bugs, so the issue could be closed if there are no plans to change the gameplay.

viewizard commented 1 week ago

At this moment I don't have plans for any gameplay changes, only provide tech support. But let this issue open, in future I may have time for some gameplay changes (at least I hope so).

viewizard / astromenace