Mx Vs. Atv Reflex Gameplay
Michael
I run Null Audit and Reflex Denial on my hound, and in theory they're very useful. However, as abilities they can be extremely intrusive into gameplay, and outright hinder you from killing enemies in certain circumstances.
For example with Reflex Denial, it creates a 12m radius Mesa Shatter Shield around the hound. Sounds useful. However very annoyingly, when the hound is standing next to an enemy attacking it, the bubble eats my bullets and glaive :/
And with Null Audit, if the hound eats a cold eximus, it becomes a mobile snow globe that eats every and all shots. Very annoying. These wouldn't be that big of an issue if your hound didn't insist on running directly in front of you at every given chance. The snowglobe is also full brightness, making it difficult to A) differentiate from other cold eximus', and B) difficult to see thru and see what on earth you're aiming at. (Granted there are accessibility settings to fix this, but that shouldn't be necessary imo)
They could also use a little bit more love in their mod department in general. Similar to Kubrows & Predasites, they are mostly just weaker/less useful versions of Vulpas and Kavats. I think there's great potential for making them anti-corpus specialists in particular. Maybe give them a mod to annihilate nullifier bubbles for example, or strip all shields from an enemy. You could in turn make Kubrows anti-grineer specialists and Predasites could be anti-infested/anti-corrupted specialists.
Curious to test Reflex in my preferred gaming genre, I switched to playing Dota 2, a MOBA where strategic play and timely reactions are key. Although MOBAs don't demand as much of the split-second reflexes characteristic of competitive shooters, they do benefit from crisp, responsive controls, particularly during complex team fights and high-pressure late-game situations. With Reflex enabled, Dota 2 gameplay was subtly yet noticeably smoother. Actions felt more connected and immediate, and this was particularly evident when Reflex was turned off, as the game then seemed a step slower, almost cumbersome by comparison.
The NVIDIA representative emphasized that while Reflex is currently most impactful in shooters, its potential across other genres, including MOBAs and real-time strategy games, is significant. As game developers continue to integrate Reflex into more titles, the technology's benefits are expected to permeate a broader spectrum of gaming experiences, potentially transforming player expectations about responsiveness and control in video games (please input for League of Legends).
After an extensive period of testing, it's clear that NVIDIA Reflex isn't just for professional gamers or those with cutting-edge setups; it offers tangible benefits to anyone looking for a smoother and more responsive gaming experience. This technology marks a significant step forward in reducing the frustration of latency, making gameplay feel more direct and controlled, which enhances overall engagement and enjoyment.
Don't get the wrong impression--the display doesn't go to "0" right after the "3" "2" "1" countdown--this only happens once in a while when all the random conditions are met. The game is completely random and shifts between different "game modes"--counting up and down (by 1 and 2) and random numbers.It can do all of these in a normal or fast speed. It can do these with a certain chance of randomly going to zero, or going to zero after the "game mode" is finished. A random number of game modes are chosen and initialized (randomly) before the game starts. The game modes each can be repeated a certain number of times. The game modes are then iterated over in a random order. Gamesusually run from 15 seconds to 5 minutes. Some people enjoy the short games lasting 15 second or less--especially me--while others enjoy the wrenching games up to 5 minute long.Entropy is introduced (and used in subsequent calculations) by the time difference between a player turning on the game and flipping a light switch. An example game:
- 3 2 1 go:
- Start from 7 and countdown slowly (a little less than a second)
- Hit 1 and start at 7 another time
- Random numbers! Display 7 of them in fast mode
- Do that 4 times
- Count down by twos slowly
- During the count-down, randomly change the number to 0
The above circuit diagram and ensuing custom parts library were made with Eagle CAD--the free version. It was made after I actually built, wired, and tested everything--which explains why I forgot the "on" switch. Many people--from hobbyists to industry professionals--make the mistake of designing and reviewing and testing their circuits before building them--well not me!
I use a 74LS47 display driver to convert the binary input from the MC9S08QG4 into the decimal output for the 7-segment display. The 74LS47 does have its own 100nF bypass capacitor not shown on the circuit diagram. I use an HDSP-5551 common anode 7-segment display. The choice for the HDSP-5551 in particular was heavily biased--I already had one. I use 390 ohm resistors between the display and the 74LS47 because I had a large amount of 390 ohm resistors lying around. Could I do better? I think the displays draw around 24mA of current (No I'm not going to check the real value). 5.5 volts / 24mA = 229.2 ohms--yes I could do better.
The switches are the standard cheap-o light switches (purchased at Home Depot). They are wired with a 10k pull-down resistor--the pins will float otherwise--to the inputs of the microchip. Debouncing enthusiasts seeking such will be displeased--there is no need to debounce these switches. They are fairly large swithes and not connected to an interrupt-enabled pin. Plus, I do not want to wait for any debouncing business (cap charging or SR-latch computing) to occur, as this is a reflex game.
I used the Device Initializer to generate most of the initialization code. I disabled the BKGND pin so that I could use it as an output-only pin. I only optimized the parts for which I deeply cared, such as the routine to select a winner.
I think there are a few existing bugs, like setting the TPM timer before setting the MOD count. I do some other bad things--like return a value that I never use. I'm not particularly proud of the prand_weighted function.
The actual gameplay code (Which happens after the "3" "2" "1" countdown) is the most interesting. The game is described by an array of structs which contain the "game modes" of the game, among other things. The array of structs is populated before gameplay begins with random data (I use the input from the switch as a source of entropy). The key element of the structures is a function pointer to a "game mode"--a function that is called every game loop. A good example of a "game mode" is countdown, which decrements the number on the display by 1 every game loop. The array of structs is processed in a random order.
The game is built around the 8-bit Freescale MC9S08QG4 microchip. I obtained both the microchip and programmer (USBSPYDER) through a conference-goer free of charge. The MC9S08QG4 came in the 8-pin DIP package, which was great for me.
I played with some family members and we found it to be somewhat addictive. In about two days over 50 rounds were played. I was very suprised--from the onset of the project I did not believe it would be enjoyable to play.
Much like Joystick Ventures earlier, Critical Reflex are a relatively new face in the indie game publishing scene, having just released the likes of Aeon Drive and Teleforum so far. And also like Joystick Ventures, they came to PAX East with eight games in tow, with some assistance from Ukiyo Studios. And while they did have impressive titles (even without other games to be published such as Flawless Abbey and Being and Becoming, the latter being one of my favorite games showcased last year), I confess that it wasn't exactly the greatest showing of them, for a few reasons. Still, there was incredibly fine stuff worth talking about, so let's dive right into it!
Let's just get straight into what didn't work so we could get it out of the way, though. First there was Complex Sky, a futuristic city-building game where the goal is to craft a solarpunk city both upwards and downwards, with the goal of creating something that's fully sustainable. It looks amazing, has a great concept and seems like it would be a ton of fun. The only issue, though, came from the fact developer Momosundeass intentionally designed Complex Sky to be...well, complex. The end result was that I tried to jump in and start playing, only for any efforts to build anything not working. To understand what was going on, there's a tutorial of twenty-some pages, and while this would be okay when playing a demo at home, it doesn't work as well when in an environment where the ideal demo should last about fifteen to thirty minutes. So I admit that I bounced off of it, though it has still interested me enough to keep an eye on it.
Then there was Wondernaut Studio's Ironhive, which is also a city-builder, although in this case it's taking the form of a deckbuilding survival strategy game. Ironically, it ended up suffering from the opposite problem of Complex Sky's demo, in that it didn't have any tutorial to be found. So I found myself being bombarded with terminology and mechanics that I didn't understand. What does this rat infestation that you're talking about do and when does it take effect? What exactly constitutes districts and civil buildings, and how do they play into things? What are the little countdown timers and what do they do? I was baffled, although I did love the city-building aspects, as you stacked various structures on top of one another, as well as the eye-catching style with an emphasis on dark colors and a post-apocalyptic vibe. Again, still promising enough, even with a general impression.
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