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Author Topic: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Release February 24th!  (Read 15240 times)

AdmiralGeezer

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Battlestation: Harbinger is #3 in USA in the strategy top paid category. If it holds up there we actually have a game dev company going on here, after 4 years of struggling. We have started working on the PC version of Harbinger now, we will completely redo the UI and push it towards the PC standards.

Sambojin stated the problems really well and it is something we will focus on when bringing the game to PC. Now go grab yourself Harbinger from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.bugbyte.harbinger or Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battlestation-harbinger/id1010582800?mt=8
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sambojin

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I actually haven't bought it yet, but I will this arvo. There's bugger all good games on Android anyway, so I'll throw $5 at this one.
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AdmiralGeezer

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So. We've been working for a longer time to bring Battlestation: Harbinger to PC. First we succeeded with our small Kickstarter, raising $18 000 of our $10 000 goal:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bugbyte-ludibooster/battlestation-harbinger-extended-edition

Then we rolled our sleeves and started working, we've updated the game with a lot of new content as promised in the Kickstarter. Now, the PC user interface is almost complete.
I decided to make my first let's play ever, it was quite fun actually! You can watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZbdRPOK7xk

The mobile version has been a nice little success for us, and it's still a top paid strategy game on Google Play. Won't be too long now before we release on Steam. Exciting times ahead!

Screenshot of the game on PC:



« Last Edit: January 26, 2016, 01:35:07 am by AdmiralGeezer »
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ragnar119

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Really like what I see. What are the system requirement for the game? I have a old toaster of  a comp from 2008... not sure will it work on it.

I see there is difficulty  options. What does it change in game, HP of ships, number of enemy ships or?
« Last Edit: January 26, 2016, 03:59:46 pm by ragnar119 »
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AdmiralGeezer

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Really like what I see. What are the system requirement for the game? I have a old toaster of  a comp from 2008... not sure will it work on it.

I see there is difficulty  options. What does it change in game, HP of ships, number of enemy ships or?

I'm glad to hear that. It should run on your computer! Actually, why don't you contact us at support@bugbyte.fi and we can invite you to test the game. If others are interested feel free to contact us! We could use some more testers, and you'll get the game practically for free :)
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Tiruin

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Really like what I see. What are the system requirement for the game? I have a old toaster of  a comp from 2008... not sure will it work on it.

I see there is difficulty  options. What does it change in game, HP of ships, number of enemy ships or?

I'm glad to hear that. It should run on your computer! Actually, why don't you contact us at support@bugbyte.fi and we can invite you to test the game. If others are interested feel free to contact us! We could use some more testers, and you'll get the game practically for free :)
Contact by...email? :O (First time for me ever doing this, so I'm totally new, also to testing, so that's 2x the newbieness!)
How do we give feedback by the way? I'm VERY glad this was bumped by post! :D
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AdmiralGeezer

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Really like what I see. What are the system requirement for the game? I have a old toaster of  a comp from 2008... not sure will it work on it.

I see there is difficulty  options. What does it change in game, HP of ships, number of enemy ships or?

I'm glad to hear that. It should run on your computer! Actually, why don't you contact us at support@bugbyte.fi and we can invite you to test the game. If others are interested feel free to contact us! We could use some more testers, and you'll get the game practically for free :)
Contact by...email? :O (First time for me ever doing this, so I'm totally new, also to testing, so that's 2x the newbieness!)
How do we give feedback by the way? I'm VERY glad this was bumped by post! :D

Yeah :) Don't want to make the download link and password too public, and keep some control on who gets to participate. But do send us a mail and you'll get the info! We have our own forums, but you can give the feedback here, at our forums or through e-mail back to us.

Already gave one guy here access ;)
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ragnar119

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #37 on: January 27, 2016, 11:22:09 am »

Really like what I see. What are the system requirement for the game? I have a old toaster of  a comp from 2008... not sure will it work on it.

I see there is difficulty  options. What does it change in game, HP of ships, number of enemy ships or?

I'm glad to hear that. It should run on your computer! Actually, why don't you contact us at support@bugbyte.fi and we can invite you to test the game. If others are interested feel free to contact us! We could use some more testers, and you'll get the game practically for free :)
Ok thanks, got the game, played a little around, found, few bugs and some thing i think should be changed with the interface. Will need to read the forum so I dont report same bugs/problems or suggestions if it was already talked about it. When I play more today, will send you more detail with email so I dont bug you all the times when ever I find something new and when i have more time with the game. But in short the game is fun so far, and somewhat simple on beginning

And also the game works without problems. Will test it on win xp also, just to see will it work.
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Tiruin

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #38 on: January 31, 2016, 09:38:05 pm »

I hope you got my mails Admiral! The game has been one of the most enjoyable roguelikes I've played this far (with nice replayability given its current state, personally :3).

...Just hope that all 4 mails had clarity x_x The first 3 were done from...a total lack of time spent playing it. But the last one was after a nice playthrough on Hard mode.

I also just noticed that you can gain allied ships by missions, though these seem rare-r than meeting Merc Ships. I also had the silly idea of commanding a crew for tiny percentile boosts to your 4 mains stats, but that's on the long list of idealistic ideas. :P

Unsure what other feedback I can give though, other than spreading it to my friends. I really feel like there are stuffs I didn't mention but already experienced/was exposed to however (hooray personal memory). Keep up the great work is what I can end this with. :)) Great dev attitude + balanced work/communication makes a great game.
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AdmiralGeezer

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #39 on: February 01, 2016, 04:01:53 am »

I hope you got my mails Admiral! The game has been one of the most enjoyable roguelikes I've played this far (with nice replayability given its current state, personally :3).

...Just hope that all 4 mails had clarity x_x The first 3 were done from...a total lack of time spent playing it. But the last one was after a nice playthrough on Hard mode.

I also just noticed that you can gain allied ships by missions, though these seem rare-r than meeting Merc Ships. I also had the silly idea of commanding a crew for tiny percentile boosts to your 4 mains stats, but that's on the long list of idealistic ideas. :P

Unsure what other feedback I can give though, other than spreading it to my friends. I really feel like there are stuffs I didn't mention but already experienced/was exposed to however (hooray personal memory). Keep up the great work is what I can end this with. :)) Great dev attitude + balanced work/communication makes a great game.

Greetings! Yep, got all your mails, will go through them and look at what we should do next! Glad you like the game, that makes me happy. Go ahead and give it to a couple of friends but please don't put it on some torrent site  :D
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Tiruin

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #40 on: February 01, 2016, 08:54:51 am »

Greetings! Yep, got all your mails, will go through them and look at what we should do next! Glad you like the game, that makes me happy. Go ahead and give it to a couple of friends but please don't put it on some torrent site  :D
Wheeee \o/ Empathic happiness!

But I'm not that kind of personTM who does that kind of torrenting. xD

That said, the game...is a blast. Victory in the end, is very very sweet.
That victory boosted me from 2 nice levels of 14 >16 and now I've unlocked everything! \o/

I...think I've covered everything (and assumedly everything, as I assumed that some parts are mentioned by others too) in the mail. The good thing is, other than the stuff-which-may-make things go better, the game runs extremely smoothly and it hasn't crashed once. Even on old PCs like mine! (Though I'm unsure if its a bug or not, but I didn't report that "On windowed mode, sometimes the cursor disappears and I've no idea how to make it reappear" because of this randomness.)

Totally recommending this to people (and I think I have x3 But I think they're also shy to beta test?). I'm very happy that I'm able to play this in between breaks, along with the not-so-obvious autosave mechanism it has. Hooray no savescumming! :3

E: I wonder if this thread is a place where we can write reviews?

Also I just remembered: Black Holes...aren't supposed to have planet-like outlines, right? In one Black Hole area I visited, there was like a silhouette of a dark circle that I could visibly see moving, like a middle layer between me moving the screen and the background. I assumed that would be the core-texture of the Black Hole but I lack pictures for it. :-X
« Last Edit: February 01, 2016, 09:03:00 am by Tiruin »
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AdmiralGeezer

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #41 on: February 02, 2016, 03:48:49 am »

Greetings! Yep, got all your mails, will go through them and look at what we should do next! Glad you like the game, that makes me happy. Go ahead and give it to a couple of friends but please don't put it on some torrent site  :D
Wheeee \o/ Empathic happiness!

But I'm not that kind of personTM who does that kind of torrenting. xD

That said, the game...is a blast. Victory in the end, is very very sweet.
That victory boosted me from 2 nice levels of 14 >16 and now I've unlocked everything! \o/

I...think I've covered everything (and assumedly everything, as I assumed that some parts are mentioned by others too) in the mail. The good thing is, other than the stuff-which-may-make things go better, the game runs extremely smoothly and it hasn't crashed once. Even on old PCs like mine! (Though I'm unsure if its a bug or not, but I didn't report that "On windowed mode, sometimes the cursor disappears and I've no idea how to make it reappear" because of this randomness.)

Totally recommending this to people (and I think I have x3 But I think they're also shy to beta test?). I'm very happy that I'm able to play this in between breaks, along with the not-so-obvious autosave mechanism it has. Hooray no savescumming! :3

E: I wonder if this thread is a place where we can write reviews?

Also I just remembered: Black Holes...aren't supposed to have planet-like outlines, right? In one Black Hole area I visited, there was like a silhouette of a dark circle that I could visibly see moving, like a middle layer between me moving the screen and the background. I assumed that would be the core-texture of the Black Hole but I lack pictures for it. :-X

I wouldn't mind a review :)
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ductape

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #42 on: February 08, 2016, 10:37:47 am »

I got this on iOS and tried playing it since it was on this forum, it must be good right?

The tutorial was short and didnt explain really how to play. Using what I learned in this tutorial, i jump in and play. It seems incredibly shallow. Jump around, easily kill everything until you jump into a system and everything kills you.

I must be missing something. But seriously, there seems to be no way to learn to enjoy this game from playing. You probably need to watch videos and use external wikis to  learn to play.
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ragnar119

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #43 on: February 08, 2016, 11:43:07 am »

I got this on iOS and tried playing it since it was on this forum, it must be good right?

The tutorial was short and didnt explain really how to play. Using what I learned in this tutorial, i jump in and play. It seems incredibly shallow. Jump around, easily kill everything until you jump into a system and everything kills you.

I must be missing something. But seriously, there seems to be no way to learn to enjoy this game from playing. You probably need to watch videos and use external wikis to  learn to play.

I didnt playe the iOS version, only the PC one. The tutorial will cover all the thing you need to know, but will not hold your hand and tell you exactly how  to play. I mean the game is not something extremely complex that it needs to process and explain it to you in details.

If you are losing look at what things you are doing wrong  and try to improve. You dont need to stay and fight every battle, but you can escape and retreat, and often some of the enemy forces will chase you, so you can split the big fleets in two. Or use station and distress beacons to bait  enemy to you in a trap. Experiment around.

Anyway I just finished the hard version of endless and died on sector 6 i think.

The late game has some problems, as there are two main overpower weapons that make the fighting extremely fast and non tactical. The death ray and that other like big plasma weapon with the slow moving projectile (dont know the name).

Death ray is the biggest problem, as it has huge range, does a ton of damage to both shield and hull and it automatically hits anything(so you cant dodge around it, or use things like fighters in its way). This literally makes the end game and who will win boiled down to who has more death rays so the other ship die as fast as possible. My suggestion is to nerf this weapon hard, cut the range in half (i mean it can go to up 1500 now) and also maybe at least lower the shield dmg for 90%.

The big plasma weapon is also OP, but it at least can be countered with putting fighters in its way. But even than I would suggest lowering the speed of projectile even more. Because of this two weapons the end game lack any tactic and battles finish in seconds. Is it you killing enemy fast, or if they blow you up with same tactics (or better said lack of it, and thats how i died anyway, jumped in the sector where the star base has 3 death rays, and they all shoot at me and die in a sec even that i was some distance from them).

This changes will make the speed of fighting back to normal where you can do more things. Also would like if the red mounts did not all have 360 degree arc so they can shoot at you from all positions. Would be nice if they had depending from ship to ship different arcs  from 90 to 120 and similar. It would make positioning your ship a lot more important (at the moment you only do it so your flak cannons can target incoming missiles), and in that case you could even dance around enemies so they dont shoot at you if you stay off their guns.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 11:45:00 am by ragnar119 »
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sambojin

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Re: Battlestation: Harbinger. Sci-fi space exploration game. Join beta test!
« Reply #44 on: February 09, 2016, 12:17:50 am »

Have you tried a mega-fighter run?

I know on their "engine test/game" Battlestation: Classic on Android, fighters were king, but that was probably due to the limited nature of weapons and battles (it was build-up tower defense style, every level).

In any case, I'll throw them an email and see if they want more beta-testers for the PC port. I've got uncanny abilities on finding broken stuff too :)
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 12:19:26 am by sambojin »
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