Ninja Release Mega Thread

Do you like the release overall?
Yeah, I think this release is good. Additional content helps add more diversity to the game. In respect to this update, PVP might become a little more interesting. It's certain that the theme of the update will help spark some creative ideas among players in the upcoming weeks.

What are some positive things about this release?
It's nice to see realistic projectile physics be introduced. While these physics probably won't be implemented for already existing weapons, it adds extra potential for shurikens. For one, it allows the concept of skill shots to be more viable, especially over long distances. Level concepts that come to mind are ones that resemble games like Pocket Tanks or ShellShock Live. Another potential is more diverse PVP combat, especially with the multi-shurikens. This weapon adds a new pattern spread to the game, which makes shooting it into groups of players (or NPCs) more lethal. However, the shurikens do seem to launch slightly off-center, similar to revolvers. Nonetheless, this shouldn't be much of a problem since players will become accustomed to it relatively quickly, as they did with the revolvers.

It is also nice to see a new effect pickup being introduced. There are plenty of other effects that could be added still, but one that speeds up movement is probably the most effectual one for Kogama. Most levels in Kogama are designed to rely heavily on movement, so this is a positive introduction to extending already existing level design for creators. The fact that NinjaRun can be combined with weapons and jetpacks is also pretty exciting. Although, it is misleading that if it is being used while entering a hovercraft, that its audio will still be played despite no actual movement bonus. This is probably for good reason, however, since it would be problematic to consider how much faster those blueprints could go if it were effected. Perhaps it could be beneficial to simply remove these effects if a player enters a vehicle blueprint, including mutant, to avoid potential confusion of their uses.

What are some negative things about this release?
The only thing I feel justified complaining about is the audio associated with the NinjaRun pickup. It's choppy and nonuniform, which causes it to be severely annoying to listen to (it's even worse when it's distorted while underwater). Unlike mutant's audio, it's not even a seamless loop from what I can tell. My guess is that the code for it is a small collection of several randomly chosen short audio clips. To show evidence of this claim, here's an image of three repeated tests of collecting NinjaRun and running in one direction:



You should be able to easily distinguish two things from these audio clips:

• You should visibly see gaps in between each section of audio clip played. These gaps of silence, on average about 20 ms in duration, are the cause of the choppiness that's heard from the pickup.
• You should also be able to distinguish different sized sections throughout the audio clips. While some sections of same length line up, you'll find that others do not. There's also no discernible pattern that these sections follow. This might indicate that a random generator function is being used, which is a potential cause for time delay between clips and thus its choppiness.

I love the fact that the devs decided to do something unexpected and creative. However, it just doesn't feel like it was executed correctly. The problem with randomly piecing small audio clips together causes the problems mentioned above. If anything else, it makes it feel more like noise than wind, which is certainly not the intended effect! In my opinion, use a longer but seamless loop of wind blowing. Choose an audio clip that is categorized as ambient. It could be possible to still add spontaneity in the audio, if it was wanted, by modifying the pitch or tempo of the seamless loop.

Which feature is your favorite - and why?
From this update, it would probably be the unannounced change to checkpoints. After the removal of text events when players reached a checkpoint, it became difficult for players to confirm when they came into contact. The new checkpoint's response to players reaching it, by shooting down, is a simple yet effective way to demonstrate contact with the player. It's less invasive to other players while still retaining all necessary information that a player needs. Overall, it is great that this change was made, because it implies the devs are willing to reevaluate older features and consider if they can be improved upon or expanded, which is something I'd love to see more of.