Recent posts by neverbot on Kongregate

Topic: Vorp! / Dear VORP! fans...

ENDgames is not dead, they’ve just moved on to other projects to pay the bills.

VORP (imo) is an extremely well made game. However ENDgames had some challenges trying to figure out what to do with it. IIRC, they attempted a facebook launch that didn’t do so well. Eventually the game made its way to Kong where we are now.

In spite of how well made the Vorp is, ENDgames hasn’t made much money from it. (There was an older post on the forum estimating that at best, they were making a couple hundred a month from Vorp.) The issue is that ENDgames are not as good at marketing and promoting this game as they were a building it. They can’t have someone come on promote this game without money, it won’t generate more money if they don’t.

Topic: General Gaming / Come play VORP!

Vorp is a lot of fun. Come check it out.

Topic: Vorp! / Crashing and Lags

The last while I’ve been having more rotten luck getting and maintaining a decent connection to the server. A lot of this is probably due to my internet being filtered through the GFW <—-this article is actually blocked for me, so I hope it’s the right one! Sometimes I try to play with a VPN, but while the connection is sometimes more consistent, so can be the lag. Here’s some description of some of the bugs that I come across playing Vorp. For reference, I use OSX 10.8, either Chrome or Firefox. My Unity Web Player is up to date.

Still Loading…

Just jumped on, things load pretty quickly, you hit “play now” and are into a game lobby within a minute or two. Good timing, right? The game time counts down and you get ready to… wait? Loading: 65%? …66%? …67% …Meanwhile your team has begun the game, and they’re a man down. You hope no other crashes happen. (One of my pet peeves about this issue is that the [Loading] box covers over the [Options] button so I can’t double check my settings to make sure full screen is set to “off” in hopes of avoiding the full screen freeze unity crash.)
Remedy: start a single player practice game to let the game load before joining a team match.

Full screen unity crash

Sometime when the game goes full screen, it gets frozen white. Clicking the mouse can get a cursor, but no other controls seem to respond. Unity has taken control of the monitor, and it isn’t letting go. I have yet to be able to switch to other programs or successfully close the browser. You can hear sounds, and wiggle your mouse. You might even be able to hear your weapons firing when you push keys, but nothing is going to give you back your screen.Occasionally when this happens, the screen is black.
Remedy: The only solution I’ve found is to reboot my system.

Spawn Fail

Just when the game begins, you are pleased that no other crash has happened. The timer is counting seconds, you can hear missiles firing in a battle, but your view is frozen on the middle of the map and your ship still hasn’t appeared.
Remedy: Waiting. Possibly quit to menu and attempt to rejoin your match. Good luck catching up.

Zig Zag Lag

The map will scroll smoothly as you move about, but objects, projectiles, ships, drones etc. jitter or shake on the screen. Since basically everything that moves leaves a trail, the trail is shaken all over the screen.
Remedy: Sometimes this can be fixed by quitting to menu and refreshing the browser.

Surprise! Lost Connection

Latency is a little higher than ideal maybe around 300, but the game seems fine. You’re cruising around blasting drones and attacking turrets/ships and suddenly you’re back in the menu.
Remedy: wait for a connection to be reestablished with the server?

Combos

You just suffered a “Surprise Lost Connection” on the way back to depot. No biggie, it hasn’t even been 30 seconds before the connection seems to be back and the [Live Match] option comes back. Then your screen goes white and it’s time to reboot. Good luck catching up now.
Remedy: T_T

. . .

Have you seen any of these issues? Had a problem of your own? Have a solution?

(Edit: In spite of this trouble, I keep coming back. Must be an addiction or something.)

Topic: Kongregate Multiplayer Games / wat is the best game ever have u played?

On Kongregate, my favorite multiplayer game right now is Vorp!

Topic: Vorp! / [List of challenge] Vorp Cup II ended

SS Surprise! This was from a game on January 13th. (I’m slow to post.)

Topic: General Gaming / Come Play Vorp! With Us (it's a really fun MOBA)

Been playing this game for a little while. It rocks!

Topic: Vorp! / thruster tech vs max speed

Like a race mode?

Topic: Vorp! / thruster tech vs max speed

I couldn’t notice a difference when I tested them, so I stopped using them. Maybe if I had 10 of each of the speed techs I’d notice a difference?

Topic: Vorp! / Devs: If you have one thing to work on in the next 3 months for vorp, do this

Spower, I think this is actually a good idea, and could even be a reasonably simple solution to game matching. (I’m no programmer, so I can’t know if it is actually simple or not.)

.

Have you posted your suggestion over at their g/s forum? They might read that more than the forums here. I’m not sure.

https://getsatisfaction.com/end_games_entertainment

Topic: Vorp! / Cooldown Tech

I’m glad you’ve posted this, Master. This is very thorough. Far more thorough than my tests. Thank you.

I don’t know which forum the developers look at most, but it may be helpful to post on their G/S account:

https://getsatisfaction.com/end_games_entertainment/topics/tech_mod_bug_roundup?rfm=1

Also related:

http://www.kongregate.com/forums/187-vorp/topics/314637-tech-bug-roundup

Topic: Vorp! / Good article on VORP

I think there are some features (maps) that have not been released (yet?) to Kong.

http://www.kongregate.com/forums/187-vorp/topics/317349-survival-mode

AFAIK, This game was basically fully developed two years ago. So, EndGames has had to move on to other projects to pay the bills. I don’t expect them to produce updates every two weeks. I think they would need to be getting more revenue from this project to be able to devote more attention to it. Like many others, I would like to see the community/player base grow, which might enable them to put more time in.

For issues like bad matchmaking, my understanding is that their matchmaking math needs a lot more players to work properly. Something to the tune of a few hundred online at one time. The badge thing a few weeks back helped, but what they need is more players, and then some money coming in for them to pay their bills.

Topic: Vorp! / Good article on VORP

Someone posted this in chat while I was playing. Thought I’d leave it here:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/1/3750208/vorp-kongregate-end-games

Topic: Vorp! / Looks like sanyassasin is using alt account leavers too

Every match where this player, Machine111, left (with score of zero) Sany was on the other team :(

http://vorp.endgames.net/statsdialog/player/159689#/show=Match%2043130+/statsdialog/match/43130

Topic: Vorp! / Skin ship

Originally posted by gammaflux:

I wouldn’t say its that bad, besides the developers need to gain money somehow. skins are optional.

This. Let the devs get paid somehow. If they get some money from the game they’ll be more inclined to keep supporting it. If you love their work, show them some love.

Topic: Vorp! / [Ship Idea] Fleet Carrier

I really like the idea of a ship that can spawn drones, and possibly direct them in some way. Imagine how handy/annoying it could be to have drones going after the side bats. It could make for a very interesting new game dynamic.

Topic: Vorp! / Survival Mode

Offering a survival mode might be a good way to train new players. Like a single-player/story mode in FPS games (like Doom) gets players warmed up to the idea of team-games. It could help new players to stick around more.

Topic: Vorp! / Tech Bug Roundup

Thanks, Kiech. When I typed this out, I was too lazy to log in to the g/s forum. Plus I thought posting here might serve to bring up a bit more attention to an existing issue.

Topic: Vorp! / Survival Mode

Just found this video on IGN. I guess it’s from back when Vorp was still being developed.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/05/25/vorp-survival-mode

Topic: Vorp! / Tech Bug Roundup

Just tested cooldown with Circe. Had no effect on Circe’s secondary loadouts. Not sure if it makes a difference for circe’s primary, since the reload time and firing time seem to be different.

I tried testing speed tech as well, using Ant, and SS. I didn’t see a clear difference, but not sure if I have enough speed techs to see that change.

Topic: Vorp! / We don't need no stinking...oh wait.

Can there be a badge for a player getting to level 5?
Might encourage some of the new folks to stick around more than three games.

Oh, and I am loving having so many players around :)

Topic: Vorp! / Beta and Pre-Season coming to an End!

Thanks for producing a great game. I hope it gets the attention it deserves. You’ve done a wonderful job.