The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged
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Thoughts on Sub Terra Draconis (0)
I figured out how to reset my progress on Steam (find the steam game ID and delete the data folder) and so I've got the game working. I like a lot of the graphical overhaul, though it takes a fair bit of getting used to. The slow speed is a little frustrating. I'd love a 'game speed' option, though I know that it would have to speed up the level timer as well. Currently my only choices are slow, or breakneck pace with F5 (and it's also a little frustrating that it auto switches off when you hit a wall). I find myself with one hand on the arrow keys and the other hand hovering over F5 every single map to speed things up. The camera auto-movement in particular is annoyingly slow - in levels where you teleport a large distance, it can take 4 or 5 seconds to re-centre on you unless you hold F5.
The menu that appears when you die seems buggy - if you press Z on the 'Quit to map' option it restarts the level instead, and if you press Z or spacebar on the 'Restart level' option it goes back to the last checkpoint instead.
Viewing the credits screen also seems to sometimes affect where your player currently is on the map, which is what bugged out my player progress the first time I tried this game. I can find myself in areas of the map that I haven't even explored yet, stuck on a level that I haven't unlocked yet, so I just have to go back to the credits screen and hope that my player location gets reset to a level that I have access to.
There's also a few small sound design niggles here and there, like how when you try to enter the exit without it being open, the sound that it plays is about twice as loud as everything else; similarly, the intro music when you start up the game is so loud that it causes clipping, although if that's the state the music was received in in the first place then I guess only the original composer can fix that. As a composer myself I have occasional specific problems with the ingame music tracks but that's not anything to do with the rest of the game, and I do like a fair amount of the music present.
I was surprised to find some of my levels in this game. I know it was a decade and a half ago that I made them (I was actually only 11 when I found Subterra and started making levels for it), but they were made for a game that was free at the time, and they're now in a game being sold for actual money. It's not a huge deal because I know Crystal Shard is a small company and this game is unlikely to sell a million copies, and it includes levels by lots of people, but I still would have appreciated at least a brief message giving me a heads up. (If someone did try to send me a message but I didn't get it, then ignore this.)
[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 07-05-2020 10:03 PM]
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and yes, you are listed in the credits as "Dan".